The Stanzas of Dzyan

A “Critical Edition” of the English Translation by H. P. Blavatsky, based on Four Primary Sources,*

Combined with Quotations Attributed to Esoteric Sources
found within The Secret Doctrine.

© Copyright Jon W. Fergus
Last Updated: October 13, 2021 at 06:12 PM

* By “Primary Source” we mean original manuscripts or editions composed with direct access to H.P.B. and/or her handwritten manuscripts. In regards to the 1893 edition of The Secret Doctrine, it is assumed that the editor’s had access to at least some of those manuscripts as well as the previous published editions. All editions after 1893 are assumed to have been composed solely through access to the previous published editions.

Abbr.	Source
W	Würzburg MS. (1885-86 Version, as printed in 2014)
SD1	The Secret Doctrine (1888 1st edition)
SD1a	The Secret Doctrine (1888 1st edition), Stanza Summary (1:27-34)
SD1b	The Secret Doctrine (1888 1st edition), Stanza Commentaries (1:35-265)
SD1c	The Secret Doctrine (1888 1st edition), Stanza Summary (2:15-21)
SD1d	The Secret Doctrine (1888 1st edition), Stanza Commentaries (2:22-351)
Tr	Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge (1890-91 first editions)
SD3	The Secret Doctrine (1893 3rd revised edition)
SD3a	The Secret Doctrine (1893 3rd revised edition), Stanza Summary (1:55-66)
SD3b	The Secret Doctrine (1893 3rd revised edition), Stanza Commentaries (1:67-286)
SD3c	The Secret Doctrine (1893 3rd revised edition), Stanza Summary (2:15-24)
SD3d	The Secret Doctrine (1893 3rd revised edition), Stanza Commentaries (2:25-2:366)

A true “critical edition” of the Stanzas of Dzyan is impossible without access to some original source text. The claim made by H. P. Blavatsky (H.P.B.) is that the original Stanzas are written in a language unknown to modern linguistics (at least, as of 1888), and that translations of those Stanzas exist in several later languages, including Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan. Further to this, she claims that there exist various Commentaries on the Stanzas, some of which are very ancient, others more recent.

However, all that is available for our consideration is the English translation of selections of these Stanzas and Commentaries. The English translations of the Stanzas is extant today, in total or in part in the following publications:

a) an older MS. form referred to as the “Würzburg MS.” (W);
b) The Secret Doctrine as printed in 1888 (SD1);
c) the form printed in Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge in 1890-91 (T
d) the “third and revised edition” of The Secret Doctrine as printed in 1893 (SD3);

and in later editions published by various theosophical organizations (among the latter special mention ought to be given to the revised edition edited by Boris de Zirkoff).

The English translation of the Stanzas varies throughout these sources. Even within SD1, where the Stanzas were printed twice (once in summary form; once within the body of H.P.B.’s commentaries), there are often considerable differences in the text of the same Śloka. It is because of such differences that we felt the need to produce this “critical edition” of the English translation itself.

Considerable differences also exist between what was printed in SD1 and what is found in the Würzburg MS. That MS. is itself an early draft, and H.P.B. clearly updated the wording of her translation between it and SD1, but there are several important differences that shed light on certain word choices, omissions, etc., such that we thought it wise to include that MS. when developing this “critical edition.”

Our main goal is to produce a single version of the text of the Stanzas, while noting all deviations from that version which appear in the sources consulted. This allows us to correct some obvious typographical mistakes found in the sources consulted, and gives an opportunity for a more nuanced picture of the wording of the Stanzas as rendered by H.P.B. than what one may get from consulting but one printing of them.

In addition to her English translation, H.P.B. provided a glimpse of some Tibetan, Chinese and Sanskrit terms used within Stanza 1, Ślokas 1-6 (see SD 1:23). We have provided these in {} brackets.

Throughout SD1, H.P.B. also included numerous quotations from what she identified as “Commentaries” related to the Stanzas, or as “Catechisms” apparently drawn from the occult school to which she claimed membership. We have included all such quotations that we have been able to identify thus far. These appear, with some few exceptions, in the order in which they appeared in SD1 (page numbers from that 1888 edition are identified with each quotation).

Lastly, we have included some explanations and introductory statements by H.P.B., drawn from SD1, while our own editor’s notes are placed within [] brackets.

The following remains a “draft” edition, subject to corrections and additions are further research is done.

Notes on formatting:

Capitalizations and punctuation varied considerably between editions. We have chosen to use capital letters in the majority of cases where variance occurred between volumes. Where there was great variance in punctuation, we have chosen to use that which seems most fitting as per modern style manuals. See “The Stanzas of Dzyan: A Comparison of Four Primary Sources” for some details of these typographical variances between editions.

For the purposes of this “Critical Edition,” we have ignored small-caps formatting within the main Stanza text. The majority of “Commentaries” or “Catechisms” were given originally in italics to differentiate them from the main body of text in The Secret Doctrine, with small-caps to identity highlighted terms. The use of italics throughout, being unnecessary in our compilation, we have changed these quotations to regular text with italics to identify highlighted words.

Where possible all non-English terms have been updated to their modern accepted transliterations. Sanskrit terms are given in IAST transliteration. Tibetan terms are given in THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription with Wylie transliteration in square brackets. Chinese terms are given in Hanyu Pinyin transliteration.

Where page numbers are given in the format “SD 1:XXX,” these refer to the pagination of the 1888 1st Edition.

Introductory Notes from The Secret Doctrine

All the words and sentences placed in brackets in the Stanzas and Commentaries are the writer’s. In some places they may be incomplete and even inadequate from the Hindu standpoint; but in the meaning attached to them in Trans-Himalayan Esotericism they are correct. In every case the writer takes any blame upon herself. Having never claimed personal infallibility, that which is given on her own authority may leave much to be desired, in the very abstruse cases where too deep metaphysic is involved. The teaching is offered as it is understood; and as there are seven keys of interpretation to every symbol and allegory, that which may not fit a meaning, say from the psychological or astronomical aspect, will be found quite correct from the physical or metaphysical. [SD 2:22 fn]

In the apocalyptic Ślokas of the Archaic Records, the language is as symbolical, if less mythical, than in the Purāṇas. Without the help of the later commentaries, compiled by generations of adepts, it would be impossible to understand the meaning correctly. [SD 2:23]

The Stanzas of Dzyan: Cosmogenesisⁱ

Preliminary Notes from The Secret Doctrine

The reader has to bear in mind that the Stanzas given treat only of the Cosmogony of our own planetary System and what is visible around it, after a Solar Pralaya. The secret teachings with regard to the Evolution of the Universal Kosmos cannot be given, since they could not be understood by the highest minds in this age, and there seem to be very few Initiates, even among the greatest, who are allowed to speculate upon this subject. Moreover the Teachers say openly that not even the highest Dhyāni-Chohans have ever penetrated the mysteries beyond those boundaries that separate the milliards of Solar systems from the “Central Sun,” as it is called. Therefore, that which is given, relates only to our visible Kosmos, after a “Night of Brahmā.” [SD 1:13]

The Secret Doctrine, in the Stanzas given here, occupies itself chiefly, if not entirely, with our Solar System, and especially with our planetary chain. [SD 1:60]

The history of cosmic evolution, as traced in the Stanzas, is, so to say, the abstract algebraical formula of that Evolution. Hence the student must not expect to find there an account of all the stages and transformations which intervene between the first beginnings of “Universal” evolution and our present state. To give such an account would be as impossible as it would be incomprehensible to men who cannot even grasp the nature of the plane of existence next to that to which, for the moment, their consciousness is limited.

The Stanzas, therefore, give an abstract formula which can be applied, mūtātīs mūtandīs [i.e. “with the necessary changes”], to all evolution: to that of our tiny earth, to that of the chain of planets of which that earth forms one, to the solar Universe to which that chain belongs, and so on, in an ascending scale, till the mind reels and is exhausted in the effort.

The seven Stanzas given in this volume represent the seven terms of this abstract formula. They refer to, and describe the seven great stages of the evolutionary process, which are spoken of in the Purāṇas as the “Seven Creations,” and in the Bible as the “Days” of Creation. [SD 1:20-21]

Stanza 1

The First Stanza describes the state of the one all during Pralaya, before the first flutter of re-awakening manifestation.

A moment’s thought shows that such a state can only be symbolised; to describe it is impossible. Nor can it be symbolised except in negatives; for, since it is the state of Absoluteness per se, it can possess none of those specific attributes which serve us to describe objects in positive terms. Hence that state can only be suggested by the negatives of all those most abstract attributes which men feel rather than conceive, as the remotest limits attainable by their power of conception. [SD 1:21]

Stanza 1, Śloka 1:

{Tho-ag [thog? mtho ‘og?] in Zhi-gyu [gzhi gyu or gzhir gyur?] slept seven Khorlo [‘khor lo].}

The Eternal Parentⁱⁱ (Space), wrapped in her ever invisible robes (cosmic pre-nebular matter)ⁱⁱⁱ, had slumbered once again^iv for seven Eternities.

Stanza 1, Śloka 2:

{Zömané zhiwa [gzod ma nas zhi ba]. All Nyuk [snyugs] bosom.}

Time was not, for it lay asleep in the infinite bosom of Duration.

Stanza 1, Śloka 3:

{Kön-chok [dkon mchog] not; Thyan-Kam^v [??] not; Lha-Chohan [lha-??] not;}

. . .^vi Universal Mind was not, for there were no Ah-hi^vii (celestial beings)^viii to contain (hence to manifest) it.

Stanza 1, Śloka 4:

{Temdrel Chunyi [rten ‘brel bcu gnyis] not; Dharmakāya ceased; Tgenchang [??] not become;}

The Seven Ways to Bliss (Mokṣa or Nirvāṇa)^ix were not. The Great Causes of Misery (Nidāna^x and Māyā) were not, for there was no one to produce and get ensnared by them.

Stanza 1, Śloka 5:

{Barnang [bar snang] and Sa [sa] in Ngowonyi [ngo bo nyid]; alone Tho-og [thog? mtho ‘og?] Yīxīn [一心] in night of Sun-chan [Sien-tchan?,^xi tiānxià?]}

Darkness^xii alone filled the boundless All,^xiii for Father, Mother, and Son were once more one,^xiv and the Son had not awakened yet^xv for the new wheel,^xvi and his pilgrimage thereon.^xvii

Stanza 1, Śloka 6:

{[. . .]^xviii and Yong-drup [yongs grub] (Pariniṣpanna),^xix etc., etc.,}

The seven sublime Lords^xx and the seven Truths had ceased to be, and the Universe, the son of necessity, was immersed^xxi in Pariniṣpanna^xxii (absolute perfection, Paranirvāṇa, which is Yong-drup^xxiii [yongs grub]), to be outbreathed by that which is and yet is not. Naught was.

Stanza 1, Śloka 7:

The causes of existence had been^xxiv done away with; the visible that was,^xxv and the invisible that is,^xxvi rested in eternal Non-Being—the One Being.^xxvii

Stanza 1, Śloka 8:

Alone, the one Form of Existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless Sleep; and life pulsated unconscious in Universal Space, throughout that All-Presence^xxviii which is sense by the “Opened Eye”^xxix of the^xxx Dangma [dwangs ma].^xxxi,xxxii

Stanza 1, Śloka 9:

But where was the Dangma [dwangs ma] when the Ālaya of the Universe (Soul as the basis of all, Anima Mundi)^xxxiii was in Paramārtha (Absolute Being and Consciousness, which are Absolute Non-Being and Unconsciousness)^xxxiv and the Great Wheel was Anupādaka [Aupapāduka]?^xxxv,xxxvi

Stanza 2

The stage described in Stanza 2 is, to a western mind, so nearly identical with that mentioned in the first Stanza, that to express the idea of its difference would require a treatise in itself. Hence it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can, the meaning of the allegorical phrases used. Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain. [SD 1:21]

Stanza 2, Śloka 1:

. . .^xxxvii Where were the Builders,^xxxviii the luminous Sons of Manvantaric Dawn? . . .^xxxix In the Unknown Darkness,^xl in their Ah-hi (Chohanic, Dhyāni-Buddhic)^xli Pariniṣpanna.^xlii The producers of Form (rūpa) from No-Form (arūpa), the Root of the World—the Devamātṛ^xliii and Svabhāva,^xliv rested in the bliss of Non-Being.^xlv

Stanza 2, Śloka 2:

Where is Silence? Where were^xlvi the ears to sense it? No,^xlvii there was neither Silence, nor Sound. Nought, save ceaseless, eternal Breath (Motion), which knows itself not.^xlviii

Stanza 2, Śloka 3:

The hour had not yet struck;^xlix the Ray^l had not yet flashed into the Germ;^li the Mātṛpadma (Mother Lotus) had not yet swollen.^lii

Stanza 2, Śloka 4:

Her heart had not yet opened for the one^liii ray to enter, thence to fall, as three into four,^liv into^lv the lap of Māyā.

Stanza 2, Śloka 5:

The Seven (Sons)^lvi were not yet born from the Web of Light. Darkness alone was Father-Mother, Svabhāva,^lvii and Svabhāva was in Darkness.^lviii

Stanza 2, Śloka 6:

These two are the Germ, and the Germ is One.^lix The Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought and the Divine Bosom.^lx

Stanza 3

Stanza 3 describes the Re-awakening of the Universe to life after Pralaya. It depicts the emergence of the “Monads” from their state of absorption within the one; the earliest and highest stage in the formation of “Worlds,” the term Monad being one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar System or the tiniest atom. [SD 1:21]

Stanza 3, Śloka 1:

. . .^lxi The last vibration of the Seventh Eternity thrills^lxii through Infinitude. The Mother swells,^lxiii expanding from within without,^lxiv like the bud of the lotus.

Stanza 3, Śloka 2:

The vibration sweeps^lxv along, touching with its swift wing (simultaneously)^lxvi the whole Universe, and the Germ that dwelleth in Darkness,^lxvii the Darkness that breathes (moves) over the slumbering waters of life.^lxviii

Stanza 3, Śloka 3:

Darkness radiates^lxix Light, and Light drops^lxx one solitary Ray into the Waters, into the Mother-Deep.^lxxi The ray shoots through the Virgin Egg;^lxxii the ray causes the Eternal Egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal (periodical)^lxxiii germ, which condenses into the World Egg.^lxxiv

Stanza 3, Śloka 4:

(Then)^lxxv the three (triangle) fall into the four (quaternary).^lxxvi The radiant essence becomes seven inside, seven outside. The Luminous Egg (Hiraṇyagarbha),^lxxvii which is itself three^lxxviii (the triple hypostases of Brahmā, or Viṣṇu, the three Avasthās), curdles^lxxix and spreads^lxxx in milk-white curds^lxxxi throughout the depths of^lxxxii Mother,^lxxxiii the Root that^lxxxiv grows in the^lxxxv Ocean of Life.

Stanza 3, Śloka 5:

The root remains,^lxxxvi the light remains,^lxxxvii the curds remain,^lxxxviii and still Oeaohoo^lxxxix is^xc one.^xci

Stanza 3, Śloka 6:

The root of life was in every drop of the ocean of Immortality^xcii (Amṛta),^xciii and the ocean was radiant light,^xciv which was Fire and Heat and^xcv Motion. Darkness^xcvi vanished and was no more;^xcvii it disappeared^xcviii in its own Essence, the body^xcix of Fire and Water, of^c Father and Mother.^ci,cii

Stanza 3, Śloka 7:

Behold, O Lanoo,^ciii the radiant Child^civ of the two, the unparalleled refulgent Glory, Bright Space, Son of Dark Space,^cv who^cvi emerges^cvii from the depths of the great Dark^cviii Waters.^cix It is Oeaohoo, the Younger, the * * *^cx (whom thou knowest now as Guān-shì-yīn—Commentary).^cxi He^cxii shines forth as the Sun;^cxiii he is the blazing Divine Dragon of Wisdom.^cxiv The Eka^cxv (One) is Catur (Four), and Catur (Four) takes to itself Tri (Three),^cxvi and the Union produces the Sapta (Seven), in whom are the seven which become the Tridaśa^cxvii (the thrice ten), the Hosts and the Multitudes.^cxviii,cxix Behold him lifting the Veil, and unfurling it from East to West.^cxx He shuts out the above, and leaves the below to be seen as the Great Illusion. He marks the places for the shining ones (stars), and turns the Upper (Space)^cxxi into a shoreless Sea of Fire, and the One Manifested (Element) into the Great Waters.

“He who bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the veil of Māyā.” [SD 1:72]^cxxii

“Fohat hardens and scatters the seven brothers” (Book III, Dzyan) [SD 1:76]^cxxiii

Stanza 3, Śloka 8:^cxxiv

Where was the germ, and where was now Darkness?^cxxv Where is^cxxvi the Spirit of the flame that burns in thy lamp, O Lanoo? The germ is that, and that^cxxvii is Light, the white brilliant Son of the dark hidden Father.^cxxviii

Stanza 3, Śloka 9:^cxxix

Light is cold^cxxx flame, and flame is fire, and the^cxxxi fire produces heat, which yields water, the water of life in the great Mother (Chaos).

Stanza 3, Śloka 10:

Father-Mother spin a Web whose upper end is fastened to Spirit (Puruṣa), the light of the one^cxxxii Darkness, and the lower one to its (the Spirit’s)^cxxxiii shadowy end,^cxxxiv Matter (Prakṛti); and this web is the Universe, spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Svabhāva.

Stanza 3, Śloka 11:

It (the Web) expands when the breath of fire (the Father) is upon it; it contracts when the breath of the mother (the root of Matter) touches it.^cxxxv Then the^cxxxvi sons (the Elements with their respective Powers, or Intelligences) dissociate and^cxxxvii scatter, to^cxxxviii return into their mother’s bosom at the end of the “great day”^cxxxix,^cxl and^cxli rebecome one with her.^cxlii When it (the Web) is cooling it becomes radiant,^cxliii its^cxliv sons expand and contract through their own selves and hearts;^cxlv they embrace^cxlvi infinitude.^cxlvii

“There is heat internal and heat external in every atom,” say the manuscript Commentaries, to which the writer has had access; “the breath of the Father (or Spirit) and the breath (or heat) of the Mother (matter)”; and they give explanations which show that the modern theory of the extinction of the solar fires by loss of heat through radiation, is erroneous. [SD 1:84]^cxlviii

Stanza 3, Śloka 12:

Then Svabhāva sends^cxlix Fohat to^cl harden the atoms.^cli Each (of these)^clii is a part of the Web (Universe). Reflecting the “Self-Existent Lord” (Primeval Light) like a mirror, each becomes in turn a World.^cliii . . .^cliv

Stanza 4

Stanza 4 shows the differentiation of the “Germ” of the Universe into the septenary hierarchy of conscious Divine Powers, who are the active manifestations of the One Supreme Energy. They are the framers, shapers, and ultimately the creators of all the manifested Universe, in the only sense in which the name “Creator” is intelligible; they inform and guide it; they are the intelligent Beings who adjust and control evolution, embodying in themselves those manifestations of the one law, which we know as “The Laws of Nature.” Generically, they are known as the Dhyāni-Chohans, though each of the various groups has its own designation in the Secret Doctrine. This stage of evolution is spoken of in Hindu mythology as the “Creation” of the Gods. [SD 1:21-22]

Stanza 4, Śloka 1:

Listen, ye Sons of the Earth, to your instructors—the Sons of the Fire. Learn there is neither first nor last, for all is One^clv,clvi Number, issued from No Number.

Stanza 4, Śloka 2:

Learn what we, who descend from the Primordial Seven,^clvii we who^clviii are born from the Primordial Flame, have learned^clix from our Fathers. . . .^clx

Stanza 4, Śloka 3:

From the effulgency of Light—the Ray of Ever-Darkness^clxi—sprung^clxii in Space the reawakened Energies (Dhyāni-Chohans); the One^clxiii from the Egg, the six^clxiv and the five;^clxv then the Three,^clxvi the One,^clxvii the Four, the One, the Five^{clxviii,clxix}—the twice Seven,^clxx the sum Total. And these are: the Essences, the Flames, the Elements, the Builders, the Numbers, the Arūpa (formless), the Rūpa (with bodies), and the Force^clxxi or^clxxii Divine Man—the sum Total. And from the Divine Man emanated the Forms,^clxxiii the Sparks,^clxxiv the sacred Animals, and the messengers of the sacred Fathers^clxxv (Pitṛs) within the holy Four.^clxxvi,^clxxvii

Stanza 4, Śloka 4:

This was the Army of the Voice—the Divine Septenary.^clxxviii The Sparks of the Seven are subject to, and the servants of the First, the Second, the Third, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Sixth, and the Seventh of the Seven.^clxxix These (“sparks”)^clxxx are called Spheres, Triangles, Cubes, Lines, and Modellers; for thus stands the Eternal Nidāna—the Oi-Ha-Hou^{clxxxi,clxxxii} (the permutation of Oeaohoo), which is:^clxxxiii

Says the ancient Commentary^clxxxiv to Stanza IV:

“The Mother is the fiery Fish of Life. She scatters her spawn and the Breath (Motion) heats and quickens it. The grains (of spawn) are soon attracted to each other and form the curds in the Ocean (of Space). The larger lumps coalesce and receive new spawn—in fiery dots, triangles and cubes, which ripen, and at the appointed time some of the lumps detach themselves and assume spheroidal form, a process which they effect only when not interfered with by the others. After which, law No. * * * comes into operation. Motion (the Breath) becomes the whirlwind and sets them into rotation.” [SD 1:97]^clxxxv

“Motion is eternal in the unmanifested, and periodical in the manifest,” says an Occult teaching. It is “when heat caused by the descent of flame into primordial matter causes its particles to move, which motion becomes Whirlwind.” [SD 1:97 fn]^clxxxvi

Stanza 4, Śloka 5:

^clxxxvii“Darkness,”^clxxxviii the boundless, or the No-Number,^clxxxix Ādi-Nidāna Svabhāva, the ^cxc (for x, unknown quantity):^cxci

I. The Ādi-Sanat,^cxcii the Number, for he is One.^cxciii

II. The Voice^cxciv of the Word,^cxcv Svabhāva, the Numbers, for he is One^cxcvi and Nine.^{cxcvii,cxcviii}

III. The “Formless Square” (Arūpa)

And these three enclosed within the  (boundless circle) are the sacred Four,^cxcix and the Ten^cc are the Arūpa (subjective, formless) Universe. Then come the “Sons,”^cci the Seven Fighters, the One, the Eighth left out,^ccii and his Breath^cciii which is the Light-Maker (Bhāskara).

The ancient Commentary gives an allegory and explains it:

“Eight houses were built by Mother. Eight houses for her Eight Divine sons; four large and four small ones. Eight brilliant suns, according to their age and merits. Bal-ilu (Mārtāṇḍa) was not satisfied, though his house was the largest. He began (to work) as the huge elephants do. He breathed (drew in) into his stomach the vital airs of his brothers. He sought to devour them. The larger four were far away; far, on the margin of their kingdom {Planetary System}. They were not robbed (affected), and laughed. Do your worst, Sir, you cannot reach us, they said. But the smaller wept. They complained to the Mother. She exiled Bal-i-lu to the centre of her Kingdom, from whence he could not move. (Since then) he (only) watches and threatens. He pursues them, turning slowly around himself, they turning swiftly from him, and he following from afar the direction in which his brothers move on the path that encircles their houses. From that day he feeds on the sweat of the Mother’s body. He fills himself with her breath and refuse. Therefore, she rejected him.” [SD 1:100]^cciv

The “seven” . . . evolve into Manvantaric life from primæval Chaos (now the noumenon of irresolvable nebulæ) by aggregation and accumulation of the primary differentiations of the eternal matter, according to the beautiful expression in the Commentary, “Thus the Sons of Light clothed themselves in the fabric of Darkness.” They are called allegorically “the Heavenly Snails,”^ccv . . . [SD 1:103]^ccvi

Stanza 4, Śloka 6:

. . .^ccvii Then the Second^ccviii Seven, who are the Lipika,^ccix produced by the Three^ccx (Word, Voice, and Spirit). The Rejected Son^ccxi is One. The “Son-Suns”^ccxii are^ccxiii countless.^ccxiv

Stanza 5

In Stanza 5 the process of world-formation is described: First, diffused Cosmic Matter, then the fiery “whirlwind,” the first stage in the formation of a nebula. That nebula condenses, and after passing through various transformations, forms a Solar Universe, a planetary chain, or a single planet, as the case may be. [SD 1:22]

Stanza 5, Śloka 1:

The Primordial Seven, the First Seven Breaths of the Dragon of Wisdom, produce in their turn from their Holy Circumgyrating Breaths the Fiery Whirlwind.

Stanza 5, Śloka 2:

They make of him the messenger of their Will. The Dzyu^ccxv [rgyus?]^ccxvi becomes Fohat;^ccxvii the Swift Son of the Divine Sons, whose sons are the^ccxviii Lipika,^ccxix,ccxx runs circular errands. Fohat is the steed and the thought is the rider^ccxxi (i.e. he is under the influence of their guiding thought).^ccxxii He passes like lightning through the fiery clouds (cosmic mists); takes three, and five, and seven strides through the seven regions above and the seven below (the world^ccxxiii to be). He lifts his voice, and calls the innumerable sparks (atoms) and joins them together.^ccxxiv

Stanza 5, Śloka 3:

He is their guiding spirit and leader. When he commences work,^ccxxv he separates the sparks of the lower kingdom (mineral atoms) that float and thrill with joy in their radiant dwellings (gaseous clouds), and forms therewith the germs of wheels. He places them in the six directions of space and one in the middle—the central wheel.^ccxxvi

It is one of the fundamental dogmas of Esoteric Cosmogony, that during the Kalpas (or æons) of life, motion, which, during the periods of Rest “pulsates and thrills through every slumbering atom”^ccxxvii (Commentary on Dzyan), assumes an evergrowing tendency, from the first awakening of Kosmos to a new “Day,” to circular movement. The “Deity becomes a whirlwind.” [SD 1:116]^ccxxviii

Stanza 5, Śloka 4:

Fohat traces spiral lines to unite the sixth^ccxxix to the seventh—the Crown;^ccxxx an Army of the Sons of Light stands at each angle, and^ccxxxi the Lipika in the middle wheel. They (the Lipika) say:^ccxxxii “this is good.”^ccxxxiii The first Divine World is ready, the first (is now)^ccxxxiv the second (world). Then the “Divine Arūpa” (the Formless Universe of Thought) reflects itself in Chāyāloka^ccxxxv (the shadowy world of primal form, or the intellectual), the first garment of the^ccxxxvi Anupādaka [Aupapāduka].^{ccxxxvii,ccxxxviii}

The “Divine World”—the countless Lights lit at the primeval Light—the Buddhis, or formless divine Souls, of the last Arūpa (formless) world; the “Sum Total,” in the mysterious language of the old Stanza. In the Catechism,^ccxxxix the Master is made to ask the pupil:

“Lift thy head, oh Lanoo; dost thou see one, or countless lights above thee, burning in the dark midnight sky?”

“I sense one Flame, oh Gurudeva, I see countless undetached sparks shining in it.”

“Thou sayest well. And now look around and into thyself. That light which burns inside thee, dost thou feel it different in anywise from the light that shines in thy Brother-men?”

“It is in no way different, though the prisoner is held in bondage by Karma, and though its outer garments delude the ignorant into saying, ‘Thy Soul and My Soul.’” [SD 1:120]^ccxl

“The Deity is boundless and infinite expansion,” says an Occult axiom. [SD 1:120]^ccxli

Stanza 5, Śloka 5:

Fohat takes five strides (having already taken the first three^ccxlii), and builds a winged wheel^ccxliii at each corner of the square, for the four holy ones . . .^ccxliv and their armies (hosts).

Stanza 5, Śloka 6:

The Lipika^ccxlv circumscribe the Triangle, the first One^ccxlvi (the vertical line or the figure I), the Cube, the second One,^ccxlvii and the Pentacle within the Egg (circle). It is the ring called “Pass Not” for those who descend and ascend^ccxlviii (as also for those)^ccxlix who, during the Kalpa, are progressing towards^ccl the great day “Be with us.”^ccli . . .^cclii Thus were formed the Arūpa and the Rūpa^ccliii (the Formless World and the World of Forms): from One Light^ccliv seven lights; from each of the seven, seven times seven lights.^cclv The wheels watch the Ring.^cclvi,cclvii . . .^cclviii

Stanza 6

The subsequent stages in the formation of a “World” are indicated in Stanza 6, which brings the evolution of such a world down to its fourth great period, corresponding to the period in which we are now living. [SD 1:22]

Stanza 6, Śloka 1:^cclix

By the power of the Mother of Mercy and Knowledge, Guān-yīn,^cclx,cclxi the “Triple”^{cclxii,cclxiii} of Guān-shì-yīn, residing in Guān-yīn-tiān,^cclxiv Fohat, the Breath of their Progeny, the Son of the Sons,^cclxv having called forth^cclxvi from the lower^cclxvii abyss^cclxviii (chaos) the illusive form of Sien-tchan [tiānxià?]^cclxix (our Universe) and the Seven Elements.^cclxx

Stanza 6, Śloka 2:^cclxxi

The Swift and the^cclxxii Radiant One produces the Seven Laya^{cclxxiii,cclxxiv} Centres, against which none will prevail to the great day “Be with us,” and seats the Universe on these Eternal Foundations, surrounding Sien-tchan [tiānxià?]^cclxxv with the Elementary Germs.

Stanza 6, Śloka 3:

Of the Seven (Elements)^cclxxvi—first one^cclxxvii manifested, six concealed; two^{cclxxviii,cclxxix} manifested, five concealed; three^cclxxx manifested, four^cclxxxi concealed; four produced,^cclxxxii three hidden; four and one tsan^cclxxxiii [bàn?]^cclxxxiv (fraction) revealed,^cclxxxv two and one half^cclxxxvi concealed; six to be manifested, one laid aside. Lastly, seven small^cclxxxvii wheels revolving; one giving birth to the other.^{cclxxxviii,cclxxxix}

“Each world has its Fohat, who is omnipresent in his own sphere of action. But there are as many Fohats as there are worlds, each varying in power and degree of manifestations. The individual Fohats make one Universal, Collective Fohat—the aspect-Entity of the one absolute Non-Entity, which is absolute Be-Ness, ‘Sat’.”^ccxc “Millions and billions of worlds are produced at every Manvantara”—it is said. [SD 1:143 fn]^ccxci

“The Breath of the Father-Mother issues cold and radiant and gets hot and corrupt, to cool once more, and be purified in the eternal bosom of inner Space,” says the Commentary. [SD 1:144]^ccxcii

Stanza 6, Śloka 4:

He builds them in the likeness of older^ccxciii wheels (worlds), placing them on the Imperishable Centres.^ccxciv

How does Fohat^ccxcv build them? He^ccxcvi collects the fiery^ccxcvii dust. He makes balls of fire, runs through them and round them, infusing life thereinto, then sets them into motion^ccxcviii, some one way,^ccxcix some the other way.^ccc,ccci They are cold, he makes them hot. They are dry, he makes them moist. They shine, he fans and cools them.^cccii Thus acts Fohat from one Twilight^ccciii to the other^ccciv during^cccv Seven Eternities.^cccvi,cccvii

“The great Breath digs through Space seven holes into Laya to cause them to circumgyrate during Manvantara” (Occult Catechism). [SD 1:147]^cccviii

With these verses—the 4th Śloka of Stanza 6—ends that portion of the Stanzas which relates to the Universal Cosmogony after the last Mahāpralaya or Universal destruction, which, when it comes, sweeps out of Space every differentiated thing, Gods as atoms, like so many dry leaves. From this verse onwards, the Stanzas are concerned only with our Solar System in general, with the planetary chains therein, inferentially, and with the history of our globe (the 4th and its chain) especially. All the Stanzas and verses which follow in this Book 1 refer only to the evolution of, and on, our Earth. . . . between the Ślokas just explained and those which follow, . . . the Cosmic periods which separate them are of immense duration. . . .

Among the eleven Stanzas omitted^cccix there is one which gives a full description of the formation of the planetary chains one after another, after the first Cosmic and Atomic differentiation had commenced in the primitive Acosmism. [SD 1:151-152]

[In SD1b & SD3b H.P.B. inserts two sections here (“A Few Early Theosophical Misconceptions Concerning Planets, Rounds, and Man” and “Additional Facts and Explanations Concerning the Globes and the Monads”), wherein explanations are given which cover some of the subject matter we would expect the missing 11 Stanzas to cover. Within those expanations are given the following quotes from a Commentary:]

As the Commentary, broadly rendered, says:

1. “Every form on earth, and every speck (atom) in Space strives in its efforts towards self-formation to follow the model placed for it in the ‘heavenly man.’ . . . Its (the atom’s) involution and evolution, its external and internal growth and development, have all one and the same object—man; man, as the highest physical and ultimate form on this earth; the monad, in its absolute totality and awakened condition—as the culmination of the divine incarnations on Earth.”

2. “The Dhyānīs (Pitṛs) are those who have evolved their bhūta (doubles) from themselves, which rūpa (form) has become the vehicle of monads (seventh and sixth principles) that had completed their cycle of transmigration in the three preceding Kalpas (Rounds). Then, they (the astral doubles) became the men of the first Human Race of the Round. But they were not complete, and were senseless.”

3. “The inner, now concealed, man, was then (in the beginnings) the external man. The progeny of the Dhyānīs (Pitṛs), he was ‘the son like unto his father.’ Like the lotus, whose external shape assumes gradually the form of the model within itself, so did the form of man in the beginning evolve from within without. After the cycle in which man began to procreate his species after the fashion of the present animal kingdom, it became the reverse. The human fœtus follows now in its transformations all the forms that the physical frame of man had assumed throughout the three Kalpas (Rounds) during the tentative efforts at plastic formation around the monad by senseless, because imperfect, matter, in her blind wanderings. In the present age, the physical embryo is a plant, a reptile, an animal, before it finally becomes man, evolving within himself his own ethereal counterpart, in his turn. In the beginning it was that counterpart (astral man) which, being senseless, got entangled in the meshes of matter.” [SD 1:183-184]

The reader will have to bear in mind . . . that the Stanzas which follow in this Book and Book 2 speak of the evolution in our Fourth Round only. [SD 1:185]

Stanza 6, Śloka 5:

At the fourth^cccx (Round, or revolution of life and being around “the seven smaller wheels”), the Sons^cccxi are told to create their images. One third^cccxii refuses.^cccxiii Two^cccxiv (thirds) obey.

The curse is pronounced. They will be born in the fourth (Race),^cccxv suffer and cause suffering.^cccxvi This is the first war.^cccxvii

Between this Śloka and the last, Śloka 4 in this same Stanza, extend long ages; and there now gleams the dawn and sunrise of another æon. The drama enacted on our planet is at the beginning of its fourth act, but for a clearer comprehension of the whole play the reader will have to turn back before he can proceed onward. For this verse belongs to the general Cosmogony given in the archaic volumes, whereas Book 2 will give a detailed account of the “Creation” or rather the formation, of the first human beings, followed by the second humanity, and then by the third; or, as they are called, “the first, second, and the third Root-Races.” [SD 1:191]

That which is meant by the qualification the “Fourth” is explained as the “fourth Round” only on the authority of the Commentaries. [SD 1:192]

Says the Commentary explaining the verse:

“The holy youths (the gods) refused to multiply and create species after their likeness, after their kind. They are not fit forms (rūpas) for us. They have to grow. They refuse to enter the chāyas (shadows or images) of their inferiors.^cccxviii Thus had selfish feeling prevailed from the beginning, even among the gods, and they fell under the eye of the Karmic Lipikas.” [SD 1:192]^cccxix

“Thus were the germs of the White and the Black Magic sown in those days. The seeds lay latent for some time, to sprout only during the early period of the Fifth (our Race).” (Commentary.) [SD 1:192 fn]^cccxx

Stanza 6, Śloka 6:

The older wheels rotated^cccxxi downward and upward.^cccxxii . . .^cccxxiii The Mother’s spawn filled the whole (Kosmos).^cccxxiv There were^cccxxv battles fought between the Creators and the Destroyers,^cccxxvi and battles fought for Space, the seed appearing and reappearing continuously.^{cccxxvii,cccxxviii,cccxxix}

Here, having finished for the time being with our side-issues—which, however they may break the flow of the narrative, are necessary for the elucidation of the whole scheme—the reader must return once more to Cosmogony. [SD 1:199]^cccxxx

If, rejecting the poetical form and allegory, science chooses to see in this the primordial Fire-Mist, it is welcome to do so. Whether one way or the other, whether Fohat or the famous force of Science, nameless, and as difficult of definition as our Fohat himself, that Something “caused the Universe to move with circular motion,” as Plato has it; or, as the Occult teaching expresses it:

“The Central Sun causes Fohat to collect primordial dust in the form of balls, to impel them to move in converging lines and finally to approach each other and aggregate.” (Book of Dzyan) . . . . . “Being scattered in Space, without order or system, the world-germs come into frequent collision until their final aggregation, after which they become wanderers (Comets). Then the battles and struggles begin. The older (bodies) attract the younger, while others repel them. Many perish, devoured by their stronger companions. Those that escape become worlds.” [SD 1:201]^cccxxxi

“The abodes of Fohat are many,” it is said. “He places his four fiery (electro-positive) Sons in the ‘Four circles’”; these Circles are the Equator, the Ecliptic, and the two parallels of declination, or the tropics—to preside over the climates of which are placed the Four mystical Entities. Then again: “Other seven (sons) are commissioned to preside over the seven hot, and seven cold lokas (the hells of the orthodox Brāhmins) at the two ends of the Egg of Matter (our Earth and its poles).” [SD 1:204]^cccxxxii

The strange statement made in one of the Stanzas:^cccxxxiii “The Songs of Fohat and his Sons were radiant as the noon-tide Sun and the Moon combined”; and that the four Sons on the middle four-fold Circle “saw their father’s songs and heard his Solar-selenic radiance”; is explained in the Commentary^cccxxxiv in these words: “The agitation of the Fohatic Forces at the two cold ends (North and South Poles) of the Earth which resulted in a multicoloured radiance at night, have in them several of the properties of Ākāśa (Ether) colour and sound as well.” [SD 1:204-205]

Stanza 6, Śloka 7:

Make thy calculations, O^cccxxxv Lanoo,^cccxxxvi if thou wouldst^cccxxxvii learn the correct age of thy small wheel (chain). Its fourth spoke is our mother (Earth). Reach the fourth^cccxxxviii “fruit” of the Fourth Path of Knowledge that leads to Nirvāṇa, and thou shalt comprehend, for thou shalt see. . . .^cccxxxix

Stanza 7

Stanza 7 continues the history, tracing the descent of life down to the appearance of Man. [SD 1:22]

Stanza 7, Śloka 1:

Behold the beginning of sentient, formless Life.

First, the Divine^cccxl (vehicle), the one^cccxli from the Mother-Spirit (Ātman);^cccxlii then the Spiritual (Ātmā-Buddhi, Spirit-Soul);^{cccxliii,cccxliv} (again) the three from the one, the four from the one, and the five, from which the three, the five and the seven.^cccxlv These are^cccxlvi the three-fold, the four-fold downward;^cccxlvii the “mind-born”^cccxlviii Sons of the first Lord^cccxlix (Avalokiteśvara^cccl), the shining Seven (Builders^cccli).^ccclii It is they who are thou, me, him, O^cccliii Lanoo; they who watch over thee and thy mother, Bhūmi^cccliv (Earth^ccclv).

. . . the nucleole of the superior divine World (see Commentary in first pages of Addendum)^ccclvi

“The first after the ‘One’ is divine Fire; the second, Fire and Æther; the third is composed of Fire, Æther and Water; the fourth of Fire, Æther, Water, and Air.” The One is not concerned with Man-bearing globes, but with the inner invisible Spheres. “The ‘First-Born’ are the Life, the heart and pulse of the Universe; the Second are its Mind or Consciousness,” as said in the Commentary. [SD 1:216]^ccclvii

Stanza 7, Śloka 2:

The one Ray multiplies the smaller rays. Life precedes Form, and life survives the last atom of Form^ccclviii (Sthūla-Śarīra,^ccclix External Body). Through the countless rays proceeds^ccclx the life-ray, the One, like a thread through many beads (pearls).^ccclxi

Stanza 7, Śloka 3:

When the one becomes two, the “three-fold”^ccclxii appears. The^ccclxiii three are (linked into) one; and it is our thread, O^ccclxiv Lanoo, the heart of the Man-Plant called Saptaparṇa.

Stanza 7, Śloka 4:

It is the root that never dies, the three-tongued flame of the four wicks.^ccclxv . . .^ccclxvi The wicks are the sparks, that draw from^ccclxvii the three-tongued flame (their upper triad) shot out by the Seven, their^ccclxviii flame; the beams and sparks of one moon reflected in the running waves of all the rivers of^ccclxix Earth (Bhūmi or Pṛthivī).^{ccclxx,ccclxxi}

Stanza 7, Śloka 5:

The spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of Fohat. It journeys through the Seven Worlds^ccclxxii of Māyā.^ccclxxiii It stops in the first (Kingdom), and is a metal and a stone; it passes into the second (Kingdom) and behold^ccclxxiv—a plant;^ccclxxv the plant whirls through seven changes^ccclxxvi and becomes a sacred animal (the first shadow of the physical man).^ccclxxvii

From the combined attributes of these, Manu (Man), the thinker, is formed.

Who forms him? The seven lives.^ccclxxviii Who completes him? The five-fold Lha.^ccclxxix And who perfects the last body?^ccclxxx Fish, sin and soma (the moon).^ccclxxxi . . .^ccclxxxii

“The worlds, to the profane,” says a Commentary, “are built up of the known Elements. To the conception of an Arhat, these Elements are themselves collectively a divine Life; distributively, on the plane of manifestations, the numberless and countless crores of lives. Fire alone is One, on the plane of the One Reality: on that of manifested, hence illusive, being, its particles are fiery lives which live and have their being at the expense of every other life that they consume. Therefore they are named the ‘Devourers.’” . . . “Every visible thing in this Universe was built by such Lives, from conscious and divine primordial man down to the unconscious agents that construct matter.” . . . “From the One Life formless and Uncreate, proceeds the Universe of lives. First was manifested from the Deep (Chaos) cold luminous fire (gaseous light?) which formed the curds in Space.” (Irresolvable nebulæ, perhaps?). . . . . . . “. . . These fought, and a great heat was developed by the encountering and collision, which produced rotation. Then came the first manifested Material, Fire, the hot flames, the wanderers in heaven (comets); heat generates moist vapour; that forms solid water (?); then dry mist, then liquid mist, watery, that puts out the luminous brightness of the pilgrims (comets?) and forms solid watery wheels (Matter globes). Bhumi (the Earth) appears with six sisters. These produce by their continuous motion the inferior fire, heat, and an aqueous mist, which yields the third World-Element—Water; and from the breath of all (atmospheric) Air is born. These four are the four lives of the first four periods (Rounds) of Manvantara. The three last will follow.” [SD 1:249-250]^ccclxxxiii

The globe was “fiery, cool and radiant as its ethereal men and animals during the first Round,” says the Commentary, [. . .] “luminous and more dense and heavy—during the second Round; watery during the Third!” [SD 1:252 fn]^ccclxxxiv

“Whatsoever quits the Laya State, becomes active life; it is drawn into the vortex of Motion (the alchemical solvent of Life); Spirit and Matter are the two States of the One, which is neither Spirit nor Matter, both being the absolute life, latent.” (Book of Dzyan, Comm. III., par. 18). . . . “Spirit is the first differentiation of (and in) Space; and Matter the first differentiation of Spirit. That, which is neither Spirit nor matter—that is IT—the Causeless Cause of Spirit and Matter, which are the Cause of Kosmos. And THAT we call the One Life or the Intra-Cosmic Breath.” [SD 1:258]^ccclxxxv

“It is through and from the radiations of the seven bodies of the seven orders of Dhyānīs, that the seven discrete quantities (Elements), whose motion and harmonious Union produce the manifested Universe of Matter, are born.” (Commentary.) [SD 1:259]^ccclxxxvi

“From the second Round, Earth—hitherto a fœtus in the matrix of Space—began its real existence: it had developed individual sentient life, its second principle. The second corresponds to the sixth (principle); the second is life continuous, the other, temporary.” [SD 1:260]^ccclxxxvii

Stanza 7, Śloka 6:

From the first-born (primitive, or the^ccclxxxviii first man) the thread between the Silent Watcher and his Shadow becomes more strong and radiant with every change (reincarnation). The morning sunlight has changed into noon-day glory. . . .^ccclxxxix

Stanza 7, Śloka 7:

This is thy present wheel,^cccxc said the Flame to the Spark. ^cccxciThou art myself, my image, and my shadow. I have clothes myself in thee, and thou art my Vāhana (vehicle) to the day “Be with us,” when thou shalt rebecome myself and others, thyself and me.^{cccxcii,cccxciii} Then the Builders, having donned their first clothing, descend on radiant earth^cccxciv and reign over Men^cccxcv—who are themselves. . . .^cccxcvi

Summing Up^cccxcvii

Extracts from a private commentary,^{cccxcviii,cccxcix} hitherto secret:

(xvii.) “The Initial Existence in the first twilight of the Mahā–Manvantara (after the Mahā-Pralaya that follows every age of Brahmā) is a conscious spiritual quality. In the manifested worlds (solar systems) it is, in its objective subjectivity, like the film from a Divine Breath to the gaze of the entranced seer. It spreads as it issues from Laya throughout infinity as a colourless spiritual fluid. It is on the seventh plane, and in its seventh state in our planetary world.^cd

(xviii.) “It is Substance to our spiritual sight. It cannot be called so by men in their waking state; therefore they have named it in their ignorance ‘God-Spirit.’

(xix.) “It exists everywhere and forms the first Upadhi (foundation) on which our World (solar system) is built. Outside the latter it is to be found in its pristine purity only between (the solar systems or) the Stars of the Universe, the worlds already formed or forming; those in Laya resting meanwhile in its bosom. As its substance is of a different kind from that known on earth, the inhabitants of the latter, seeing through it, believe in their illusion and ignorance that it is empty space. There is not one finger’s breath (aṅgula) of void Space in the whole Boundless (Universe). . . . .

(xx.) “Matter or Substance is septenary within our World, as it is so beyond it. Moreover, each of its states or principles is graduated into seven degrees of density. Sūrya (the Sun), in its visible reflection, exhibits the first, or lowest state of the seventh, the highest state of the Universal Presence, the pure of the pure, the first manifested Breath of the ever Unmanifested Sat (Be-ness). All the Central physical or objective Suns are in their substance the lowest state of the first Principle of the Breath. Nor are any of these any more than the Reflections of their Primaries which are concealed from the gaze of all but the Dhyāni-Chohans, whose Corporeal substance belongs to the fifth division of the seventh Principle of the Mother substance, and is, therefore, four degrees higher than the solar reflected substance. As there are seven Dhātu (principal substances in the human body) so there are seven Forces in Man and in all Nature.

(xxi.) “The real substance of the concealed (Sun) is a nucleus of Mother substance. It is the heart and the matrix of all the living and existing Forces in our solar universe. It is the Kernel from which proceed to spread on their cyclic journeys all the Powers that set in action the atoms in their functional duties, and the focus within which they again meet in their Seventh Essence every eleventh year. He who tells thee he has seen the sun, laugh at him as if he had said that the sun moves really onward on his diurnal path. . . .

(xxiii.) “It is on account of his septenary nature that the Sun is spoken of by the ancients as one who is driven by seven horses equal to the metres of the Vedas; or, again, that, though he is identified with the seven “Gaṇas” (classes of being) in his orb, he is distinct from them, as he is, indeed; as also that he has Seven Rays, as indeed he has. . . .

(xxv.) “The Seven Beings in the Sun are the Seven Holy Ones, Self-born from the inherent power in the matrix of Mother substance. It is they who send the Seven Principal Forces, called rays, which at the beginning of Pralaya will centre into seven new Suns for the next Manvantara. The energy from which they spring into conscious existence in every Sun, is what some people call Vishnu, which is the Breath of the Absoluteness.

We call it the One manifested life—itself a reflection of the Absolute. . . . .

(xxvi.) “The latter must never be mentioned in words or speech lest it should take away some of our spiritual energies that aspire towards its state, gravitating ever onward unto it spiritually, as the whole physical universe gravitates towards its manifested centre—cosmically.

(xxvii.) “The former—the Initial existence—which may be called while in this state of being the One Life, is, as explained, a Film for creative or formative purposes. It manifests in seven states, which, with their septenary subdivisions, are the Forty-nine Fires mentioned in sacred books. . . . . .

(xxix.) “The first is the . . . . ‘Mother’ (prima materia). Separating itself into its primary seven states, it proceeds down cyclically; when having consolidated itself in its last principle as gross matter, it revolves around itself and informs, with the seventh emanation of the last, the first and the lowest element (the Serpent biting its own tail). In a hierarchy, or order of being, the seventh emanation of her last principle is:

(a) In the mineral, the spark that lies latent in it, and is called to its evanescent being by the Positive awakening the Negative (and so forth). . . .

(b) In the plant it is that vital and intelligent Force which informs the seed and develops it into the blade of grass, or the root and sapling. It is the germ which becomes the Upadhi of the seven principles of the thing it resides in, shooting them out as the latter grows and develops.

(c) In every animal it does the same. It is its life principle and vital power; its instinct and qualities; its characteristics and special idiosyncrasies. . . .

(d) To man, it gives all that it bestows on all the rest of the manifested units in nature; but develops, furthermore, the reflection of all its Forty-nine Fires in him. Each of his seven principles is an heir in full to, and a partaker of, the seven principles of the “great Mother.” The breath of her first principle is his spirit (Atma). Her second principle is Buddhi (soul). We call it, erroneously, the seventh. The third furnishes him with (a) the brain stuff on the physical plane, and (b) with the Mind that moves it—(which is the human soul.—H.P.B.)—according to his organic capacities.

(e) It is the guiding Force in the Cosmic and terrestrial elements. It resides in the Fire provoked out of its latent into active being; for the whole of the seven subdivisions of the * * * principle reside in the terrestrial Fire. It whirls in the breeze, blows with the hurricane, and sets the air in motion, which element participates in one of its principles also. Proceeding cyclically, it regulates the motion of the water, attracts and repels the waves according to fixed laws of which its seventh principle is the informing soul.

(f) Its four higher principles contain the germ that develops into the Cosmic Gods; its three lower ones breed the lives of the Elements (Elementals).

(g) In our Solar world, the One Existence is Heaven and the Earth, the Root and the flower, the Action and the Thought. It is in the Sun, and is as present in the glow-worm. Not an atom can escape it. Therefore, the ancient Sages have wisely called it the manifested God in Nature. . . .” [SD 1:289-292]^cdi

The Stanzas of Dzyan: Anthropogenesis^cdii,cdiii

Preliminary Notes from The Secret Doctrine

The Stanzas, with the Commentaries thereon, in this Book, the second, are drawn from the same Archaic Records as the Stanzas on Cosmogony in Book 1. As far as possible a verbatim translation is given; but some of the Stanzas were too obscure to be understood without explanation. Hence, as was done in Book 1, while they are first given in full as they stand, when taken verse by verse with their Commentaries an attempt is made to make them clearer, by words added in brackets, in anticipation of the fuller explanation of the Commentary. [SD 2:1]

Note: the reader is requested to bear in mind that the first and the following sections are not strictly consecutive in order of time. In the first Section the Stanzas which form the skeleton of the exposition are given, and certain important points commented upon and explained. In the subsequent sections various additional details are gathered, and a fuller explanation of the subject is attempted. [SD 2:12]

Only forty-nine Ślokas out of several hundred are here given. Not every verse is translated verbatim. A periphrasis is sometimes used for the sake of clearness and intelligibility, where a literal translation would be quite unintelligible. [SD 2:15 fn]

Stanza 1: Beginnings of Sentient Life^cdiv

Stanza 1, Śloka 1:

The Lha which turns the Fourth (Globe, or our Earth) is subservient^cdv to the Lha(s)^cdvi of the Seven (the planetary Spirits), they who revolve, driving their chariots around their Lord, the One Eye (Loka-Cakṣus) of our world. His breath gave^cdvii life to the Seven (gave^cdviii light to the planets). It gave life to the First.

“They are all dragons of Wisdom,” adds the Commentary. [SD 2:22]^cdix

“The seven higher make the Seven Lhas create the world,” states a Commentary. [SD 2:23]^cdx

Stanza 1, Śloka 2:

Said the Earth: “Lord of the Shining Face (the Sun); my house is empty. . . . Send thy Sons to people this Wheel (Earth). Thou hast sent thy Seven Sons to the Lord of Wisdom. Seven times doth he see thee nearer to himself; seven times more doth he feel thee. Thou hast forbidden thy servants, the small rings, to catch thy light and heat, thy great Bounty to intercept on its passage. Send now to thy servant the same!”

The modern Commentary explains the words^cdxi as a reference to a well-known astromical fact, “that Mercury receives seven times more light and heat from the Sun than Earth, or even the beautiful Venus, which receives but twice that amount more than our insignificant Globe.” [SD 2:27-28]^cdxii

In the clearer words of the Commentary:

“The Globe, propelled onward by the Spirit of the Earth and his six assistants, gets all its vital forces, life, and powers through the medium of the seven planetary Dhyānīs from the Spirit of the Sun. They are his messengers of Light and Life.”

“Like each of the seven regions of the Earth, each of the seven First-born (the primordial human groups) receives its light and life from its own especial Dhyānī—spiritually, and from the palace (house, the planet) of that Dhyānī physically; so with the seven great Races to be born on it. The first is born under the Sun; the second under Bṛhaspati (Jupiter); the third under Lohitāṅga^cdxiii (the “fiery-bodied,” Venus, or Śukra); the fourth, under Soma (the Moon, our Globe also, the Fourth Sphere being born under and from the Moon) and Śani, Saturn the Krūra–locana (evil-eyed) and the Asita (the dark); the fifth, under Budha (Mercury).”

“So also with man and every ‘man’ in man (every principle). Each gets its specific quality from its primary (the planetary spirit), therefore every man is a septenate (or a combination of principles, each having its origin in a quality of that special Dhyānī). Every active power or force of the earth comes to her from one of the seven Lords. Light comes through Śukra (Venus), who receives a triple supply, and gives one-third of it to the Earth. Therefore the two are called ‘Twin-sisters,’ but the Spirit of the Earth is subservient to the ‘Lord’ of Śukra. Our wise men represent the two Globes, one over, the other under the double Sign (the primeval Svastika bereft of its four arms, or the cross ).” [SD 2:28-29]^cdxiv

“It is through Śukra that the ‘double ones’ (the Hermaphrodites) of the Third (Root-Race) descended from the first ‘Sweat-born,’” says the Commentary. [SD 2:30]^cdxv

“Every sin committed on Earth is felt by Uśanas-Śukra. The Guru of the Daityas is the Guardian Spirit of the Earth and Men. Every change on Śukra is felt on, and reflected by, the Earth.” [SD 2:31]^cdxvi

As Venus has no satellites, it is stated allegorically, that “Āsphujit” (this “planet”) adopted the Earth, the progeny of the Moon, “who overgrew its parent and gave much trouble,” a reference to the occult connection between the two. [SD 2:32]^cdxvii

“Every world has its parent star and sister planet. Thus Earth is the adopted child and younger brother of Venus, but its inhabitants are of their own kind. . . . All sentient complete beings (full septenary men or higher beings) are furnished, in their beginnings, with forms and organisms in full harmony with the nature and state of the sphere they inhabit.”

“The Spheres of Being, or centres of life, which are isolated nuclei breeding their men and their animals, are numberless; not one has any resemblance to its sister-companion or to any other in its own special progeny.”^cdxviii

“All have a double physical and spiritual nature.”

“The nucleoles are eternal and everlasting; the nuclei periodical and finite. The nucleoles form part of the absolute. They are the embrasures of that black impenetrable fortress, which is for ever concealed from human or even Dhyānic sight. The nuclei are the light of eternity escaping therefrom.”

“It is that Light which condenses into the forms of the ‘Lords of Being’—the first and the highest of which are, collectively, Jivātma, or Pratyagātma (said figuratively to issue from Paramātma. It is the Logos of the Greek philosophers—appearing at the beginning of every new Manvantara). From these downwards—formed from the ever-consolidating waves of that light, which becomes on the objective plane gross matter—proceed the numerous hierarchies of the Creative Forces, some formless, others having their own distinctive form, others, again, the lowest (Elementals), having no form of their own, but assuming every form according to the surrounding conditions.”

“Thus there is but one Absolute Upādhi (basis) in the spiritual sense, from, on, and in which, are built for Manvantaric purposes the countless basic centres on which proceed the Universal, cyclic, and individual Evolutions during the active period.”

“The informing Intelligences, which animate these various centres of Being, are referred to indiscriminately by men beyond the Great Range^cdxix as the Manus, the Ṛṣis, the Pitṛs,^cdxx the Prajāpati, and so on; and as Dhyāni–Buddhas, the Chohans, Mélhas [མེ་ལྷ་, me lha] (fire-gods), Bodhisattvas, and others, on this side. The truly ignorant call them gods; the learned profane, the one God; and the wise, the Initiates, honour in them only the Manvantaric manifestations of That which neither our Creators (the Dhyāni-Chohans) nor their creatures can ever discuss or know anything about. The Absolute is not to be defined, and no mortal or immortal has ever seen or comprehended it during the periods of Existence. The mutable cannot know the Immutable, nor can that which lives perceive Absolute Life.”

“Therefore, man cannot know higher beings than his own ‘progenitors’.” “Nor shall he worship them,” but he ought to learn how he came into the world. [SD 2:33-34]^cdxxi

In the Universe with all its incalculable myriads of systems and worlds disappearing and re-appearing in eternity, the anthropomorphised powers, or gods, their Souls, had to disappear from view with their bodies: “The breath returning to the eternal bosom which exhales and inhales them,” says our Catechism. [SD 2:43]^cdxxii

Stanza 1, Śloka 3:

Said the Lord of the Shining Face^cdxxiii: “I shall send thee a fire when thy work is commenced. Raise thy voice to other Lokas; apply to thy Father, the Lord of the Lotus (Kumada-Pati), for his Sons. . . . Thy people shall be under the rule of the Fathers (Pitṛ-pati). Thy men shall be mortals. The men of the Lord of Wisdom (Budha, Mercury), not the Sons of Soma^cdxxiv (the Moon), are immortal. Cease thy complaints. Thy seven skins are yet on thee. . . . Thou art not ready. Thy men are not ready.”

Preliminary evolution is described in one of the Books of Dzyan and the Commentaries thereon in this wise:

Archaic Scripture teaches that at the commencement of every local Kalpa, or Round, the earth is reborn; “as the human Jīva (monad), when passing into a new womb, gets re-covered with a new body, so does the Jīva of the Earth; it gets a more perfect and solid covering with each Round after re-emerging once more from the matrix of space into objectivity” (Commentary). This process is attended, of course, by the throes of the new birth or geological convulsions.

Thus the only reference to it is contained in one verse of the volume of the Book of Dzyan before us, where it says: [SD 2:46]^cdxxv

Stanza 1, Śloka 4:

After great throes she (the Earth) cast off her old three and put on her new seven skins, and stood in her first one.

This refers to the growth of the Earth, whereas in the Stanza treating of the First Round^cdxxvi it is said (given in the Commentary):

“After the changeless (avikāra) immutable nature (Essence, sadaikarūpa) had awakened and changed (differentiated) into (a state of) causality (avyakta), and from cause (kāraṇa) had become its own discrete effect (vyakta), from invisible it became visible. The smallest of the small (the most atomic of atoms, or aṇīyāṃsam aṇīyasām) became one and the many (ekānekarūpa); and producing the Universe produced also the Fourth Loka (our Earth) in the garland of the seven lotuses. The Acyuta then became the Cyuta.” [SD 2:46-47]^cdxxvii

Stanza 2: Nature Unaided Fails

Stanza 2, which speaks of this Round, begins with a few words of information concerning the age of our Earth. The chronology will be given in its place. In the Commentary appended to the Stanza, two personages are mentioned: Nārada and Asuramaya [Mayāsura],^cdxxviii especially the latter. All the calculations are attributed to this archaic celebrity; and what follows will make the reader superficially acquainted with some of these figures. [SD 2:47]

[The above statement was followed by a section titled “Two Antediluvian Astronomers,” which preceded H.P.B.’s commentary on Stanza 2.]

Stanza 2, Śloka 5:

The Wheel whirled for thirty crores (of years, or 300,000,000) more. It constructed rūpas (forms); soft stones that hardened (minerals); hard plants that softened (vegetation). Visible from invisible, insects and small lives (sarīsṛpa-śvāpada). She (the Earth) shook them off her back whenever they overran the mother. . . .^cdxxix After thirty crores (of years),^cdxxx she turned round. She lay^cdxxxi on her back; on her side. . . . She would call no Sons of Heaven, she would ask no Sons of Wisdom. She created from her own bosom. She evolved water-men, terrible and bad.

From minerals or “soft stones that hardened” (Stanza) followed by the “hard plants that softened,” which are the product of the mineral, for “it is from the bosom of the stone that vegetation is born” (Commentary, Book IX., F. 19) [SD 2:594]^cdxxxii

Stanza 2, Śloka 6:

The water-men, terrible and bad,^cdxxxiii she herself created. From the remains of others (from the mineral, vegetable and animal remains), from the dross and slime of her first, second, and third (Rounds), she formed them.^cdxxxiv The Dhyāni came and looked. . . .^cdxxxv The Dhyāni from the bright Father-Mother, from the white (Solar-lunar) regions they came, from the abodes of the Immortal-Mortals.^cdxxxvi

Stanza 2, Śloka 7:

Displeased they were. “Our flesh is not there” (they said).^cdxxxvii “These are no fit rūpas^cdxxxviii for our brothers of the fifth,^cdxxxix no dwellings for the lives. Pure waters, not turbid, they must drink. Let us dry them (the waters).”

Says the Catechism (Commentaries):

“It is from the material Worlds that descend they, who fashion physical man at the new Manvantaras. They are inferior Lha (Spirits), possessed of a dual body (an astral within an ethereal form). They are the fashioners and creators of our body of illusion.” . . . .

“Into the forms projected by the Lha (Pitṛs) the two letters (the Monad, called also ‘the Double Dragon’) descend from the spheres of expectation. But they are like a roof with no walls, nor pillars to rest upon.” . . . .

“Man needs four flames and three fires to become one on Earth, and he requires the essence of the forty-nine fires to be perfect. It is those who have deserted the Superior Spheres, the Gods of Will, who complete the Manu of illusion. For the ‘Double Dragon’ has no hold upon the mere form. It is like the breeze where there is no tree or branch to receive and harbour it. It cannot affect the form where there is no agent of transmission (Manas, “Mind”) and the form knows it not.”

“In the highest worlds, the three are one, on Earth (at first) the one becomes two. They are like the two (side) lines of a triangle that has lost its bottom line—which is the third fire.” (Catechism, Book III., sec. 9.) [SD 2:57]^cdxl

Stanza 2, Śloka 8:

The flames came. The fires with the sparks; the night fires and the day fires.^cdxli They dried out the turbid dark waters. With their heat they quenched them. The Lhas (Spirits) of the high, the Lhamayin (those) of below, came. They slew the forms which were two- and four-faced. They fought the goat-men, and the dog-headed men, and the men with fishes’ bodies.

Stanza 2, Śloka 9:

Mother-water, the great sea, wept. She arose, she disappeared in the Moon, which had lifted her, which had given her birth.

Stanza 2, Śloka 10:

When they (the Rūpas) were destroyed, Mother-earth^cdxlii remained bare. She asked to be dried.

Stanza 3: Attempts to Create Man

Stanza 3, Śloka 11:

The Lord of the Lords came. From her body he separated the waters, and that was Heaven above, the first Heaven (the atmosphere, or the air, the firmament).

Stanza 3, Śloka 12:

The great Chohans (Lords), called the Lords of the Moon, of the airy bodies.^cdxliii “Bring forth men (they were told), men of your nature. Give them (i.e. the Jīvas or Monads) their forms within. She (Mother Earth or Nature) will build coverings without (external bodies). (For)^cdxliv males-females will they be. Lords of the Flame also. . . .^cdxlv”

Stanza 3, Śloka 13:

They (the Moon-gods) went, each on his allotted land: seven of them, each on his lot. The Lords of the Flame remained behind. They would not go, they would not create.

For it is said in the Sacred Ślokas:

“The thread of radiance which is imperishable and dissolves only in Nirvāṇa, re-emerges from it in its integrity on the day when the Great Law calls all things back into action. . . .” [SD 2:80]^cdxlvi

Stanza 4: Creation of the First Races

Stanza 4, Śloka 14:

The Seven Hosts, the “Will- (or Mind-) born^cdxlvii Lords,” propelled by the Spirit of Life-giving (Fohat), separate men from themselves, each on his own Zone.

They threw off their “shadows” or astral bodies—if such an ethereal being as a “lunar Spirit” may be supposed to rejoice in an astral, besides a hardly tangible body. In another Commentary it is said that the “Ancestors” breathed out the first man, as Brahmā is explained to have breathed out the Suras (Gods), when they became “Asuras” (from asu, breath). In a third it is said that they, the newly-created men, “were the shadows of the Shadows.” [SD 2:86]^cdxlviii

Stanza 4, Śloka 15:

Seven times Seven Shadows (chāyas) of Future Men (or Amānasas) were (thus) born, each of his own colour (complexion) and kind. Each (also) inferior to his Father (creator). The Fathers, the boneless, could give no Life to beings with bones. Their Progeny were Bhūta (phantoms), with neither Form nor Mind. Therefore they are^cdxlix called the Chāya (image or shadow) Race.^cdl,cdli

“Having projected their shadows and made men of one element (ether), the progenitors re-ascend to Mahāloka, whence they descend periodically, when the world is renewed, to give birth to new men.

“The subtle bodies remain without understanding (Manas) until the advent of the Suras (Gods) now called Asuras (not Gods),” says the Commentary. [SD 2:92]^cdlii

Stanza 4, Śloka 16:

How are the (real) Manuṣyas^cdliii born? The Manus with minds, how are they made? The Fathers (Barhiṣad?) called to their help their own Fire (the Kavyavāhana, electric fire); which is the Fire that^cdliv burns in Earth. The Spirit of the Earth called to his help the Solar Fire (Śuci, the spirit in the Sun). These three (the Pitṛs and the two Fires) produced in their joint efforts a good Rūpa. It (the form) could stand, walk, run, recline, and fly. Yet it was still but a Chāya, a shadow with no sense . . . . . .

It is the four orders or classes of Dhyāni-Chohans out of the seven, says the Commentary, “who were the progenitors of the concealed man,” i.e., the subtle inner man. [SD 2:102]^cdlv

“The Sons of Mahat are the quickeners of the human Plant. They are the Waters falling upon the arid soil of latent life, and the Spark that vivifies the human animal. They are the Lords of Spiritual Life eternal.” . . . . “In the beginning (in the Second Race) some (of the Lords) only breathed of their essence into Manuṣya (men); and some took in man their abode.” [SD 2:103]^cdlvi

Stanza 4, Śloka 17:

The breath (human Monad) needed a Form; the Fathers gave it. The breath needed a Gross Body; the Earth moulded it. The breath needed the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lhas breathed it into its Form. The breath needed a Mirror of its Body (astral shadow); “We gave it our own,” said the Dhyānīs. The breath needed a Vehicle of Desires (Kāma Rūpa); “It has it,” said the Drainer of Waters (Śuci, the fire of passion and animal instinct). But the^cdlvii breath needs a Mind to embrace the Universe; “We cannot give that,” said the Fathers. “I never had it,” said the Spirit of the Earth. “The Form would be consumed were I to give it mine,” said the Great Fire . . . (nascent) Man remained an empty, senseless Bhūta . . . Thus have the boneless given life to those who became (later) men with bones in the Third (Race).

Stanza 5: The Evolution of the Second Race

Stanza 5, Śloka 18:

The First (Race) were the Sons of Yoga. Their sons, the children of the Yellow Father and the White Mother.

In the later Commentary, the sentence is translated:

“The Sons of the Sun and of the Moon, the nursling of ether (or the wind) . . . . . . .

“They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords. They (the shadows) expanded. The Spirits of the Earth clothed them; the solar Lhas warmed them (i.e., preserved the vital fire in the nascent physical forms). The Breaths had life, but had no understanding. They had no fire nor water of their own. [SD 2:109]^cdlviii

“If thou would’st understand the Secondary (“Creation,” so-called), oh Lanoo, thou should’st first study its relation to the Primary.” (Commentary, Book of Dzyan, III. 19.) [SD 2:113]^cdlix

Stanza 5, Śloka 19:

The Second Race^cdlx was^cdlxi the product by budding and expansion, the A-Sexual (form) from the Sexless (shadow).^cdlxii Thus was, O Lanoo, the Second Race produced.

“The early Second (Root) Race were the Fathers of the ‘Sweat-born’; the later Second (Root) Race were ‘Sweat-born’ themselves.”

This passage from the Commentary refers to the work of evolution from the beginning of a Race to its close. [SD 2:117]^cdlxiii

Stanza 5, Śloka 20:

Their Fathers were the Self-born. The Self-born, the Chāya from the brilliant bodies of the Lords, the Fathers, the Sons of Twilight.

Stanza 5, Śloka 21:

When the Race became old, the old waters mixed with the fresher waters. When its^cdlxiv drops became turbid, they vanished and disappeared in the new stream, in the hot stream of life. The outer of the First became the inner of the Second. The old Wing became the new^cdlxv Shadow, and the Shadow of the Wing.

This is the mysterious process of transformation and evolution of mankind. The material of the first forms—shadowy, ethereal, and negative—was drawn or absorbed into, and thus became the complement of the forms of the Second Race. The Commentary explains this by saying that, as the First Race was simply composed of the astral shadows of the creative progenitors, having of course neither astral nor physical bodies of their own—this Race never died. Its “men” melted gradually away, becoming absorbed in the bodies of their own “sweat-born” progeny, more solid than their own. The old form vanished and was absorbed by, disappeared in, the new form, more human and physical. There was no death in those days of a period more blissful than the Golden Age; but the first, or parent material was used for the formation of the new being, to form the body and even the inner or lower principles or bodies of the progeny. [SD 2:121]^cdlxvi

Stanza 6: The Evolution of the Third Race^cdlxvii

Stanza 6, Śloka 22:

Then the Second evolved the Egg-born,^cdlxviii the Third (Race). The sweat grew, its drops grew, and the drops became hard and round. The Sun warmed it; the Moon cooled and shaped it; the Wind fed it until its ripeness. The white swan from the starry vault (the Moon) overshadowed the big drop. The egg of the future race, the Man-Swan (Haṃsa) of the later Third. First male-female, then man and woman.

This is a very curious statement as explained in the Commentaries. To make it clear: The First Race having created the Second by “budding,” as just explained, the Second Race gives birth to the Third—which itself is separated into three distinct divisions, consisting of men differently procreated. The first two of these are produced by an oviparous method, presumably unknown to modern Natural History. While the early sub-races of the Third Humanity procreated their species by a kind of exudation of moisture or vital fluid, the drops of which coalescing formed an oviform ball—or shall we say egg?—which served as an extraneous vehicle for the generation therein of a fœtus and child, the mode of procreation by the later races changed, in its results at all events. The little ones of the earlier races were entirely sexless—shapeless even for all one knows; but those of the later races were born androgynous. It is in the Third Race that the separation of sexes occurred. From being previously a-sexual, Humanity became distinctly hermaphrodite or bi-sexual; and finally the man-bearing eggs began to give birth, gradually and almost imperceptibly in their evolutionary development, first, to Beings in which one sex predominated over the other, and, finally, to distinct men and women. [SD 2:132]^cdlxix

Stanza 6, Śloka 23:

The Self-born were the Chāyas: the Shadows from the bodies of the Sons of Twilight.^cdlxx Neither water nor fire could destroy them. Their sons were (so destroyed).

This verse cannot be understood without the help of the Commentaries. It means that the First Root-Race, the “Shadows” of the Progenitors, could not be injured, or destroyed by death. Being so ethereal and so little human in constitution, they could not be affected by any element—flood or fire. But their “Sons,” the Second Root-Race, could be and were so destroyed. As the “progenitors” merged wholly in their own astral bodies, which were their progeny; so that progeny was absorbed in its descendants, the “Sweat-born.” These were the second Humanity—composed of the most heterogeneous gigantic semi-human monsters—the first attempts of material nature at building human bodies. The ever-blooming lands of the Second Continent (Greenland, among others) were transformed, in order, from Edens with their eternal spring, into hyperborean Hades. This transformation was due to the displacement of the great waters of the globe, to oceans changing their beds; and the bulk of the Second Race perished in this first great throe of the evolution and consolidation of the globe during the human period. Of such great cataclysms there have already been four. And we may expect a fifth for ourselves in due course of time. [SD 2:138]^cdlxxi

Stanza 7: From the Semi-Divine down to the First Human Races

Stanza 7, Śloka 24:

The Sons of Wisdom, the Sons of Night (issued from the body of Brahmā when it became Night), ready for re–birth, came down.^cdlxxii They saw the (intellectually) vile forms of the First Third (still senseless Race).^cdlxxiii “We can choose,” said the Lords, “we have wisdom.” Some entered the Chāyas.^cdlxxiv Some projected a^cdlxxv Spark. Some deferred till the Fourth (Race). From their own Rūpa (essence)^cdlxxvi they filled (intensified) the Kāma (the vehicle of desire). Those who entered became Arhats.^cdlxxvii Those who received but a spark remained destitute of (higher) knowledge; the^cdlxxviii spark burned^cdlxxix low. The Third remained mindless. Their Jīvas (Monads) were not ready. These were set apart among the Seven (primitive human species). They became^cdlxxx narrow-headed. The Third were ready. “In these shall we dwell,” said the Lords of the Flame^cdlxxxi and of the Dark Wisdom.

The Commentary that follows, and the next Stanzas may, no doubt, throw more light on this very difficult tenet, but the writer does not feel competent to give it out fully. Of the succession of Races, however, they say:

“First come the Self-existent on this Earth. They are the ‘Spiritual Lives’ projected by the absolute Will and Law, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These Lives are the divine ‘Śiṣṭa,’ (the seed-Manus, or the Prajāpati and the Pitṛs).”

From these proceed:

1. The First Race, the “Self-born,” which are the (astral) shadows of their Progenitors. The body was devoid of all understanding (mind, intelligence, and will). The inner being (the higher self or Monad), though within the earthly frame, was unconnected with it. The link, the Manas, was not there as yet.

2. From the First (race) emanated the second, called the “Sweat-born” and the “Boneless.” This is the Second Root-Race, endowed by the preservers (Rākṣasas) and the incarnating gods (Asuras and the Kumāras) with the first primitive and weak spark (the germ of intelligence) . . . And from these in turn proceeds:

3. The Third Root-Race, the “Two-fold” (Androgynes). The first Races hereof are shells, till the last is “inhabited” (i.e., informed) by the Dhyānīs.

The Second Race, as stated above, being also sexless, evolved out of itself, at its beginning, the Third Androgyne Race by an analogous, but already more complicated process. As described in the Commentary, the very earliest of that race were:

“The ‘Sons of Passive Yoga.’ They issued from the second Manuṣyas (human race), and became oviparous. The emanations that came out of their bodies during the seasons of procreation were ovulary; the small spheroidal nuclei developing into a large soft, egg-like vehicle, gradually hardened, when, after a period of gestation, it broke and the young human animal issued from it unaided, as the fowls do in our race.” [SD 2:164-166]^cdlxxxii

. . . from plants to the creatures which preceded the first mammalians, all have been consolidated in their physical structures by means of the “cast-off dust” of those minerals, and “the refuse of the human matter, whether from living or dead bodies, on which they fed and which gave them their outer bodies.” [SD 2:169-170]^cdlxxxiii

Stanza 7, Śloka 25:

How did the Mānasa, the Sons of Wisdom, act? They rejected the Self-born (the boneless). They are not ready. They spurned the (First) Sweat-born. They are not quite ready. They would not enter the (First)^cdlxxxiv Egg-born.

Stanza 7, Śloka 26:

When the Sweat-born produced the Egg-born, the twofold^cdlxxxv (androgyne Third Race), the mighty,^cdlxxxvi the powerful with bones, the Lords of Wisdom said: “Now shall we create.”

Stanza 7, Śloka 27:

(Then) The Third Race^cdlxxxvii became the Vāhana (vehicle) of the Lords of Wisdom. It created “Sons of Will and Yoga,”^cdlxxxviii by Kriyāśakti it created them, the Holy Fathers, Ancestors of the Arhats. . . .

The order of the evolution of the human Races stands thus in the Fifth Book of the Commentaries, and was already given:

The First men were Chāyas (1); the second, the “Sweat-born” (2); the Third, “Egg-born,” and the holy Fathers born by the power of Kriyāśakti (3); the Fourth were the children of the Padmapāṇi (Chenrézik [spyan ras gzigs]) (4). [SD 2:173]^cdlxxxix

Stanza 8: Evolution of the Animal Mammalians—The First Fall

Stanza 8, Śloka 28:

From the drops of sweat; from the residue of the substance; matter from dead bodies of men^cdxc and animals of the wheel before (previous, Third Round); and from cast-off dust; the first animals (of this Round) were produced.

Stanza 8, Śloka 29:

Animals with bones, dragons of the deep, and flying Sarpas (serpents) were added to the creeping things. They that creep on the ground got wings. They of the long necks in the water became the progenitors of the fowls of the air.

Stanza 8, Śloka 30:

During the Third (Race),^cdxci the boneless animals grew and changed; they became animals with bones, their Chāyas became solid (also).

Stanza 8, Śloka 31:

The animals separated the first (into male and female).^cdxcii They (the animals) began to breed. The two–fold man (then) separated also. He (man) said: “Let us as they; let us unite and make creatures.” They did. . . .^cdxciii

Stanza 8, Śloka 32:

And those which had no spark (the “narrow-brained”) took huge she-animals unto them. They begat upon them dumb races. Dumb they were (the “narrow-brained”) themselves. But their tongues untied. The tongues of their progeny remained still. Monsters they bred. A race of crooked, red-hair-covered monsters, going on all fours. A dumb race, to keep the shame untold.

Stanza 9: The Final Evolution of Man

Stanza 9, Śloka 33:

Seeing which (the sin committed with the animals), the Lhas (the spirits, the “Sons of Wisdom”) who had not built men (who had refused to create), wept, saying:

Stanza 9, Śloka 34:

“The Amānasa (the ‘mindless’) have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma. Let us dwell in the others. Let us teach them better, lest worse should happen.” They did. . . .

Stanza 9, Śloka 35:

Then all men^cdxciv became endowed with Manas (minds). They saw the sin of the mindless.

This is how the Commentary explains the details that preceded the “Fall”:

“In the initial period of man’s Fourth evolution, the human kingdom branched off in several and various directions. The outward shape of its first specimens was not uniform, for the vehicles (the egg-like, external shells, in which the future fully physical man gestated) were often tampered with, before they hardened, by huge animals, of species now unknown, and which belonged to the tentative efforts of Nature. The result was that intermediate races of monsters, half animals, half men, were produced. But as they were failures, they were not allowed to breathe long and live, though the intrinsically paramount power of psychic over physical nature being yet very weak, and hardly established, the ‘Egg-Born’ Sons had taken several of their females unto themselves as mates, and bred other human monsters. Later, animal species and human races becoming gradually equilibrized, they separated and mated no longer. Man created no more—he begot. But he also begot animals, as well as men in days of old. Therefore the Sages (or wise men), who speak of males who had no more will-begotten off, but begat various animals along with Dānavas (giants) on females of other species—animals being as (or in a manner of) Sons putative to them; and they (the human males) refusing in time to be regarded as (putative) fathers of dumb creatures—spoke truthfully and wisely. Upon seeing this (state of things), the kings and Lords of the Last Races (of the Third and the Fourth) placed the seal of prohibition upon the sinful intercourse. It interfered with Karma, it developed new (Karma).^cdxcv They (the divine Kings) struck the culprits with sterility. They destroyed the Red and Blue Races.

In another we find:

“There were blue and red-faced animal-men even in later times; not from actual intercourse (between the human and animal species), but by descent.”

And still another passage mentions:

“Red-haired, swarthy men going on all-fours, who bend and unbend (stand erect and fall on their hands again) who speak as their forefathers, and run on their hands as their giant fore-mothers.” [SD 2:192]^cdxcvi

Stanza 9, Śloka 36:

The Fourth Race developed Speech.

The Commentaries explain that the first Race—the ethereal or astral Sons of Yoga, also called “Self-born”—was, in our sense, speechless, as it was devoid of mind on our plane. The Second Race had a “Sound-language,” to wit, chant-like sounds composed of vowels alone. The Third Race developed in the beginning a kind of language which was only a slight improvement on the various sounds in Nature, on the cry of gigantic insects and of the first animals, which, however, were hardly nascent in the day of the “Sweat-born” (the early Third Race). In its second half, when the “Sweat-born” gave birth to the “Egg-born,” (the middle Third Race); and when these, instead of “hatching out” (may the reader pardon the rather ridiculous expression when applied to human beings in our age) as androgynous beings, began to evolve into separate males and females; and when the same law of evolution led them to reproduce their kind sexually, an act which forced the creative gods, compelled by Karmic law, to incarnate in mindless men; then only was speech developed. [SD 2:198]^cdxcvii

The Commentary explains that the apes are the only species, among the animals, which has gradually and with every generation and variety tended more and more to return to the original type of its male forefather—the dark gigantic Lemurian and Atlantean. [SD 2:201 fn]^cdxcviii

Stanza 9, Śloka 37:

The One (androgyne) became Two; also all the living and creeping things that were still one, giant fish, birds,^cdxcix and serpents with shell-heads.

. . . in Book VI of the Commentaries is found a passage which says, freely translated:

“When the Third separated and fell into sin by breeding men-animals, these (the animals) became ferocious, and men and they mutually destructive. Till then, there was no sin, no life taken. After (the separation) the Satya (Yuga) was at an end. The eternal spring became constant change and seasons succeeded. Cold forced men to build shelters and devise clothing. Then man appealed to the superior Fathers (the higher gods or angels). The Nirmāṇakāya of the Nāgas, the wise Serpents and Dragons of Light came, and the precursors of the Enlightened (Buddhas). Divine Kings descended and taught men sciences and arts, for man could live no longer in the first land (Ādi–Varṣa, the Eden of the first Races), which had turned into a white frozen corpse.” [SD 2:201]^d

Stanza 10: The History of the Fourth Race

Stanza 10, Śloka 38:

Thus two by two, on the seven zones, the Third (Race)^di gave birth to the Fourth (Race men);^dii the gods became no-gods (sura became a–sura).^diii

Says the Book of Dzyan with regard to primeval man when first projected by the “Boneless,” the incorporeal Creator: “First, the Breath, then Buddhi, and the Shadow-Son (the Body) were ‘created.’ But where was the pivot (the middle principle, Manas)? Man is doomed. When alone, the indiscrete (undifferentiated Element) and the Vāhana (Buddhi)—the cause of the causeless—break asunder from manifested life”—“unless cemented and held together by the middle principle, the vehicle of the personal consciousness of Jīva”; explains the Commentary. [SD 2:241]^div

As said in the text:

“Like produces like and no more at the genesis of being, and evolution with its limited conditioned laws comes later. The Self-Existent are called Creations, for they appear in the Spirit Ray, manifested through the potency inherent in its unborn Nature, which is beyond time and (limited or conditioned) Space. Terrene products, animate and inanimate, including mankind, are falsely called creation and creatures: they are the development (evolution) of the discrete elements.” (Com. xiv.) Again:

“The Heavenly rūpa (Dhyāni-Chohan) creates (man) in his own form; it is a spiritual ideation consequent on the first differentiation and awakening of the universal (manifested) Substance; that form is the ideal shadow of Itself: and this is the man of the first race.” [SD 2:242]^dv

“Our earth and man,” says the Commentary, “being the products of the three Fires” —whose three names answer, in Sanskrit, to “the electric fire, the Solar fire, and the fire produced by friction,”—these three fires, explained on the Cosmic and human planes, are Spirit, Soul, and Body, the three great Root groups, with their four additional divisions. [SD 2:247]^dvi

Men evolving pari passu with the globe, and the latter having “incrustated” more than a hundred million of years before—the first human sub-race had already begun to materialize or solidify, so to say. But, as the Stanza has it: “the inner man (the conscious Entity) was not.” [SD 2:248]^dvii

Stanza 10, Śloka 39:

The First (Race) on every zone was moon-coloured (yellow-white); the Second, yellow like gold; the Third, red; the Fourth, brown, which became black with sin. The first seven (human)^dviii shoots were all of one complexion in the beginning.^dix The next (seven, the sub-races) began mixing their colours.^dx

Stanza 10, Śloka 40:

Then the Third and^dxi Fourth (Races) became tall with pride. “We are the kings,” it was said, “we are the gods.”^dxii

Stanza 10, Śloka 41:

They took wives fair to look upon,^dxiii,dxiv wives from the mindless,^dxv the narrow-headed. They bred monsters,^dxvi wicked demons, male and female,^dxvii also Khandro (Ḍākinī), with little minds.

“The inner man of the first * * * only changes his body from time to time; he is ever the same, knowing neither rest nor Nirvāṇa, spurning Dewachen [bde ba can] and remaining constantly on Earth for the salvation of mankind. . . . .” “Out of the seven virgin-men (Kumāra) four sacrificed themselves for the sins of the world and the instruction of the ignorant, to remain till the end of the present Manvantara. Though unseen, they are ever present. When people say of one of them, “He is dead”; behold, he is alive and under another form. These are the Head, the Heart, the Soul, and the Seed of undying knowledge (Jñāna). Thou shalt never speak, O Lanoo, of these great ones (Mahā- . . .) before a multitude, mentioning them by their names. The wise alone will understand.” . . . (Catechism of the inner Schools.) [SD 2:281-282]^dxviii

A careful perusal of the Commentaries would make one think that the Being that the new “incarnate” bred with, was called an “animal,” not because he was no human being, but rather because he was so dissimilar physically and mentally to the more perfect races, which had developed physiologically at an earlier period. Remember Stanza 7 and what is said in its first verse (24th): that when the “Sons of Wisdom” came to incarnate the first time, some of them incarnated fully, others projected into the forms only a spark, while some of the shadows were left over from being filled and perfected, till the Fourth Race. Those races, then, which “remained destitute of knowledge,” or those again which were left “mindless,” remained as they were, even after the natural separation of the sexes. It is these who committed the first cross-breeding, so to speak, and bred monsters; and it is from the descendants of these that the Atlanteans chose their wives. . . .

The Commentary says, in describing that species (or race) of animals “fair to look at” as a biped: “Having human shape, but having the lower extremities, from the waist down, covered with hair.” [SD 2:286-287]^dxix

. . . the Occultist prefers to believe as he ever did that:

“Man was the first and highest (mammalian) animal that appeared in this (Fourth Round) creation. Then came still huger animals; and last of all the dumb man who walks on all fours.” For, “the Rākṣasas (giant-demons) and Daityas (Titans) of the “White Dvīpa” (continent) spoiled his (the dumb man’s) Sires.” (Commentary.) [SD 2:288]^dxx

Stanza 10, Śloka 42:

They built temples for the human body. Male and Female they worshipped. Then the Third Eye acted no longer.

Then, “the third eye acted no longer,” says the Stanza, because man had sunk too deep into the mire of matter.

What is the meaning of this strange and weird statement in Verse 42, concerning the “third eye of the Third Race which had died and acted no longer”? [SD 2:288]^dxxi

. . . Verse 41 [Vendidad] say[s] that “Every fortieth year, to every couple (hermaphrodite) two are born, a male and female,” the latter being a distinct echo of the Secret Doctrine, of a Stanza which says:

“At the expiration of every forty (annual) Suns, at the end of every fortieth Day, the double one becomes four; male and female in one, in the first and second and the third. . . . . .” [SD 2:291-292]^dxxii

. . . the Occultists . . . understand the meaning of this passage in the Commentaries which says:

“There were four-armed human creatures in those early days of the male-females (hermaphrodites); with one head, yet three eyes. They could see before them and behind them. A Kalpa later (after the separation of the sexes) men having fallen into matter, their spiritual vision became dim; and coördinately the third eye commenced to lose its power. . . . When the Fourth (Race) arrived at its middle age, the inner vision had to be awakened, and acquired by artificial stimuli, the process of which was known to the old sages. . . . The third eye, likewise, getting gradually petrified, soon disappeared. The double-faced became the one-faced, and the eye was drawn deep into the head and is now buried under the hair. During the activity of the inner man (during trances and spiritual visions) the eye swells and expands. The Arhat sees and feels it, and regulates his action accordingly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . The undefiled Lanoo (disciple, chela) need fear no danger; he who keeps himself not in purity (who is not chaste) will receive no help from the ‘deva eye.’”

. . .

Occultism with its teaching as to the gradual development of senses “from within without,” from astral prototypes, is far more satisfactory: The third eye retreated inwards when its course was run—another point in favour of Occultism.

. . .

The question is often asked, “Why should celibacy and chastity be a sine quâ non rule and condition of regular chelaship, or the development of psychic and occult powers? The answer is contained in the Commentary. When we learn that the “third eye” was once a physiological organ, and that later on, owing to the gradual disappearance of spirituality and increase of materiality (Spiritual nature being extinguished by the physical), it became an atrophied organ, as little understood now by physiologists as the spleen is—when we learn this, the connection will become clear. [SD 2:294-296]^dxxiii

. . . a few centuries before the Kali yuga—the black age which began nearly 5,000 years ago—it was said (paraphrased into comprehensible sentences):

“We (the Fifth Root-Race) in our first half (of duration) onward (on the now ascending arc of the cycle) are on the mid point of (or between) the First and the Second Races—falling downward (i.e., the races were then on the descending arc of the cycle). . . . . Calculate for thyself, Lanoo, and see.” (Commentary xx.). [SD 2:300]^dxxiv

. . . how many . . . cataclysms have changed the whole surface of the earth may be inferred from this Stanza:

“During the first seven crores of the Kalpa (70,000,000 years) the Earth and its two Kingdoms (mineral and vegetable), one already having achieved its seventh circle, the other, hardly nascent, are luminous and semi-ethereal, cold, lifeless, and translucid. In the eleventh crore the mother (Earth) grows opaque, and in the fourteenth the throes of adolescence take place. These convulsions of nature (geological changes) last till her twentieth crore of years, uninterruptedly, after which they become periodical, and at long intervals.”

The last change took place nearly twelve crores of years ago (120,000,000). But the Earth with everything on her face had become cool, hard and settled ages earlier. (Commentary, xxii.) [SD 2:312]^dxxv

Stanza 11: The Civilization and Destruction of the Third and Fourth Races^dxxvi

Stanza 11, Śloka 43:

They (the Lemurians) built huge cities. Of rare earths and metals they built.^dxxvii Out of the fires (lava) vomited.^dxxviii Out of the white stone of the mountains (marble) and of^dxxix the black stone (of the subterranean fires), they cut their own images, in their size and likeness, and worshipped them.

. . . as said in the Commentary:

The last survivors of the fair child of the White Island (the primitive Śveta-dvīpa) had perished ages before. Their (Lemuria’s) elect, had taken shelter on the sacred Island (now the “fabled” Śambhala, in the Gobi Desert), while some of their accursed races, separating from the main stock, now lived in the jungles and underground (“cave-men”), when the golden yellow race (the Fourth) became in its turn “black with sin.” From pole to pole the Earth had changed her face for the third time, and was no longer inhabited by the Sons of Śveta–dvīpa, the blessed, and Adbhitanya,^dxxx east and west, the first, the one and the pure, had become corrupted. . . . The demi-gods of the Third had made room for the semi-demons of the Fourth Race. Śveta–dvīpa (whose northern parts of the Toyābdhi^dxxxi the seven Kumāras—Sanaka, Sananda, Sanātana, Sanatkumāra, Jāta, Voḍhu, and Pañcaśikha—had visited, agreeably with exoteric tradition; see the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa; Asiatic Researches, Vol. 11, pp. 99–100), the White Island had veiled her face. Her children now lived on the Black land, wherein, later on, Daityas from the seventh Dvīpa (Puṣkara) and Rākṣasas from the seventh climate replaced the Sādhus and the ascetics of the Third age, who “had descended to them from other and higher regions.” . . . . [SD 2:319-320]^dxxxii

. . . the Occult teaching . . . shows . . . the gigantic continent of Lemuria . . . separating into smaller continents. This is due, according to the explanation in the Commentary, to a decrease of velocity in the earth’s rotation:

“When the Wheel runs at the usual rate, its extremities (the poles) agree with its middle circle (equator), when it runs slower and tilts in every direction, there is a great disturbance on the face of the Earth. The waters flow toward the two ends, and new lands arise in the middle belt (equatorial lands), while those at the ends are subject to pralayas by submersion. . . .”

And again:

. . . “Thus the wheel (the Earth) is subject to, and regulated by, the Spirit of the Moon, for the breath of its waters (tides). Toward the close of the age (Kalpa) of a great (root) race, the regents of the moon (the Pitars,^dxxxiii fathers, or Pitṛs) begin drawing harder, and thus flatten the wheel about its belt, when it goes down in some places and swells in others, and the swelling running toward the extremities (poles) new lands will arise and old ones be sucked in.” [SD 2:324-325]^dxxxiv

The commentary tells us that the Third Race was only about the middle point of its development when:

“The axle of the Wheel tilted. The Sun and Moon shone no longer over the heads of that portion of the Sweat Born; people knew snow, ice, and frost, and men, plants, and animals were dwarfed in their growth. Those that did not perish remained as half-grown babes in size and intellect. This was the third pralaya of the races. [SD 2:329]^dxxxv

After the Great Flood of the Third Race (the Lemurians):

“Men decreased considerably in stature, and the duration of their lives was diminished. Having fallen down in godliness they mixed with animal races, and intermarried among giants and Pigmies (the dwarfed races of the Poles). . . Many acquired divine, more—unlawful knowledge, and followed willingly the Left Path.” (Commentary xxxiii.) [SD 2:331]^dxxxvi

Stanza 11, Śloka 44:

They (the Atlanteans) built great images, nine yatis^dxxxvii high (27 feet), the size of their bodies. Inner^dxxxviii fires had destroyed the land of their fathers (the Lemurians). The water threatened the Fourth (Race).

Stanza 11, Śloka 45:

The first great waters came. They swallowed the seven great islands.

Stanza 11, Śloka 46:

All Holy saved, the Unholy destroyed. With them most of the huge animals, produced from the sweat of the earth.

Speaking of the subsequent race (our Fifth Humanity), the commentary says:

“Alone the handful of those Elect, whose divine instructors had gone to inhabit that Sacred Island—‘from whence the last Saviour will come’—now kept mankind from becoming one-half the exterminator of the other (as mankind does now—H.P.B.). It (mankind) became divided. Two-thirds of it were ruled by Dynasties of lower, material Spirits of the earth, who took possession of the easily accessible bodies; one-third remained faithful, and joined with the nascent Fifth Race—the divine Incarnates. When the Poles moved (for the fourth time) this did not affect those who were protected, and who had separated from the Fourth Race. Like the Lemurians—alone the ungodly Atlanteans perished, and ‘were seen no more.’ . . . .” [SD 2:350]^dxxxix

Stanza 12, Śloka 47:

Few (men)^dxl remained.^dxli Some yellow, some brown and black, and some red remained. The Moon-coloured (of the primitive Divine Stock) were gone forever.

. . . the Commentary . . . says:

“The Great Dragon has respect but for the ‘Serpents’ of Wisdom, the Serpents whose holes are now under the triangular stones,” i.e., “the Pyramids, at the four corners of the world.” [SD 2:351]^dxlii

Stanza 12, Śloka 48:

The Fifth (Race)^dxliii produced from the Holy Stock (remained). It was ruled over^dxliv by the^dxlv first Divine Kings.

Stanza 12, Śloka 49:

^dxlviThe “Serpents” who re-descended, who made peace with the Fifth (Race),^dxlvii who taught and instructed it. . . . .

“Fruits and grain, unknown to Earth to that day, were brought by the ‘Lords of Wisdom’ for the benefit of those they ruled—from other lokas (spheres). . . .” say the Commentaries. [SD 2:373]^dxlviii

Perhaps now the meaning of the following passage from one of the Commentaries may become clearer.

“In the first beginnings of (human) life, the only dry land was on the Right end of the sphere, where it (the globe) is motionless. The whole earth was one vast watery desert, and the waters were tepid . . . . There man was born on the seven zones of the immortal, the indestructible of the Manvantara. There was eternal spring in darkness. (But) that which is darkness to the man of today, was light to the man of his dawn. There, the gods rested, and Fohat reigns ever since . . . . Thus the wise fathers say that man is born in the head of his mother (earth), and that her feet at the left end generated (begot) the evil winds that blow from the mouth of the lower Dragon . . . . Between the first and second (races) the eternal central (land) was divided by the water of life.

“It flows around and animates her (mother earth’s) body. Its one end issues from her head; it becomes foul at her feet (the Southern Pole). It gets purified (on its return) to her heart—which beats under the foot of the sacred Śambhala, which then (in the beginnings) was not yet born. For it is in the belt of man’s dwelling (the earth) that lies concealed the life and health of all that lives and breathes. During the first and second (races) the belt was covered with the great waters. (But) the great mother travailed under the waves and a new land was joined to the first one which our wise men call the head-gear (the cap). She travailed harder for the third (race) and her waist and navel appeared above the water. It was the belt, the sacred Himavat, which stretches around the world. She broke toward the setting sun from her neck^dxlix downward (to the south west), into many lands and islands, but the eternal land (the cap) broke not asunder. Dry lands covered the face of the silent waters to the four sides of the world. All these perished (in their turn). Then appeared the abode of the wicked (the Atlantis). The eternal land was now hid, for the waters became solid (frozen) under the breath of her nostrils and the evil winds from the Dragon’s mouth,” etc., etc. [SD 2:400-401]^dl

[In a footnote to “Spitsbergen” H.P.B. adds the following:]

. . . the Stanzas call this locality [Spitsbergen] by a term translated in the commentary as a place of no latitude (nirakṣa) the abode of the gods. [SD 2:401 fn]^dli

“The sacred bull Nandi was brought from Bhārata to Śaṅkha to meet Vṛṣabha (Taurus) every Kalpa. But when those of the White Island (who descended originally from Śveta-dvīpa), who had mixed with the Daityas (giants) of the land of iniquity, had become black with Sin, then Nandi remained for ever in the “White Island” (or Śveta-dvīpa.) “Those of the Fourth World (race) lost AUM” —say the Commentaries. [SD 2:408]^dlii

Additional Fragments from a Commentary on the Verses of Stanza 12.^dliii

The MS. from which these additional explanations are taken belongs to the group called “Tungshakyi Sangyé Songa [ལྟུང་བཤགས་ཀྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་སོ་ལྔ་, ltung bshags kyi sangs rgyas so lnga],” or the Records of the “Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession,” as they are exoterically called. . . . These “baskets” of the oldest writings on “palm leaves” are kept very secret. Each MS. has appended to it a short synopsis of the history of that sub-race to which the particular “Buddha-Lha” belonged. The one special MS. from which the fragments which follow are extracted, and then rendered into a more comprehensible language, is said to have been copied from stone tablets which belonged to a Buddha of the earliest day of the Fifth Race, who had witnessed the Deluge and the submersion of the chief continents of the Atlantean race. [SD 2:423]^dliv

In the MS. under consideration many and frequent are the references to the great knowledge and civilization of the Atlantean nations, showing the polity of several of them and the nature of their arts and sciences. [SD 2:426]^dlv

This is what is written in one passage:

“The Kings of Light have departed in wrath. The sins of men have become so black that Earth quivers in her great agony. . . . The azure seats remain empty. Who of the Brown, who of the Red, or yet among the Black (races), can sit in the seats of the Blessed, the Seats of knowledge and mercy! Who can assume the flower of power, the plant of the golden stem and the azure blossom?” [SD 2:424]^dlvi

The writer proceeds . . . to bewail the fate of his people. They had become bereft of their “azure” (celestial) kings, and “they of the Deva hue,” the moon-like complexion, and “they of the refulgent (golden) face” have gone “to the land of bliss, the land of metal and fire”; or—agreeably with the rules of symbolism—to the lands lying North and East, from whence “the great waters have been swept away, sucked in by the earth and dissipated in the air.” The wise races had perceived “the black storm-dragons, called down by the dragons of wisdom”—and “had fled, led on by the shining Protectors of the most Excellent Land”—the great ancient adepts, presumably; those the Hindus refer to as their Manus and Rishis. One of them was Vaivasvata Manu. [SD 2:425]^dlvii

. . . here is a fragment of the earlier story [i.e. “Exodus”] from the Commentary:

. . . “And the ‘great King of the dazzling Face,’ the chief of all the Yellow-faced, was sad, seeing the sins of the Black-faced.

“He sent his air-vehicles (Vimānas) to all his brother-chiefs (chiefs of other nations and tribes) with pious men within, saying: ‘Prepare. Arise ye men of the good law, and cross the land while (yet) dry.’

“‘The Lords of the storm are approaching. Their chariots are nearing the land. One night and two days only shall the Lords of the Dark Face (the Sorcerers) live on this patient land. She is doomed, and they have to descend with her. The nether Lords of the Fires (the Gnomes and fire Elementals) are preparing their magic Āgneyāstra (fire-weapons worked by magic). But the Lords of the Dark Eye (“Evil Eye”) are stronger than they (the Elementals) and they are the slaves of the mighty ones. They are versed in Astra-vidyā (the highest magical knowledge). Come and use yours (i.e., your magic powers, in order to counteract those of the Sorcerers). Let every lord of the Dazzling Face (an adept of the White Magic) cause the Vimāna of every lord of the Dark Face to come into his hands (or possession), lest any (of the Sorcerers) should by its means escape from the waters, avoid the rod of the Four, (Karmic deities) and save his wicked’ (followers, or people).

“‘May every yellow face send sleep from himself (mesmerize?) to every black face. May even they (the Sorcerers) avoid pain and suffering. May every man true to the Solar Gods bind (paralyze) every man under the lunar gods, lest he should suffer or escape his destiny.

“‘And may every yellow face offer of his life-water (blood) to the speaking animal of a black face, lest he awaken his master.

“‘The hour has struck, the black night is ready, etc., etc.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“‘Let their destiny be accomplished. We are the servants of the great Four. May the Kings of light return.’”

“The great King fell upon his dazzling Face and wept. . . .

“When the Kings assembled the waters had already moved. . . .

“(But) the nations had now crossed the dry lands. They were beyond the water mark. Their Kings reached them in their Vimānas, and led them on to the lands of Fire and Metal (East and North).”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Still, in another passage, it is said:

“. . . . Stars (meteors) showered on the lands of the black Faces; but they slept.

“The speaking beasts (the magic watchers) kept quiet.

“The nether lords waited for orders, but they came not, for their masters slept.

“The waters arose, and covered the valleys from one end of the Earth to the other. High lands remained, the bottom of the Earth (the lands of the antipodes) remained dry. There dwelt those who escaped; the men of the yellow-faces and of the straight eye (the frank and sincere people).

“When the Lords of the Dark Faces awoke and bethought themselves of their Vimānas in order to escape from the rising waters, they found them gone.”

Then a passage shows some of the more powerful magicians of the “Dark Face”—who awoke earlier than the others—pursuing those who had “spoilt them” and who were in the rear-guard, for—“the nations that were led away, were as thick as the stars of the milky way,” says a more modern Commentary, written in Sanskrit only.

“Like as a dragon-snake uncoils slowly its body, so the Sons of men, led on by the Sons of Wisdom, opened their folds, and spreading out, expanded like a running stream of sweet waters. . . . . many of the faint-hearted among them perished on their way. But most were saved.”

Yet the pursuers, “whose heads and chests soared high above the water,” chased them “for three lunar terms” until finally reached by the rising waves, they perished to the last man, the soil sinking under their feet and the earth engulfing those who had desecrated her. [SD 2:426-428]^dlviii

Conclusion

Space forbids us to say anything more, and this part of the “Secret Doctrine” has to be closed. The forty-nine Stanzas and the few fragments from the Commentaries just given are all that can be published in these volumes. These, with some still older records—to which none but the highest Initiates have access—and a whole library of comments, glossaries, and explanations, form the synopsis of Man’s genesis.

It is from the Commentaries that we have hitherto quoted and tried to explain the hidden meaning of some of the allegories, thus showing the true views of esoteric antiquity upon geology, anthropology, and even ethnology. [SD 2:437]

Further Selections from Esoteric Sources, as quoted by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine.

“What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe or not; whether there be gods or none?” asks the esoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is—“Space.” [SD 1:9]

The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers:

“What is it that ever is?”

“Space, the eternal Anupādaka [Aupapāduka].”

“What is it that ever was?”

“The Germ in the Root.”

“What is it that is ever coming and going?”

“The Great Breath.”

“Then, there are three Eternals?”

“No, the three are one. That which ever is is one, that which ever was is one, that which is ever being and becoming is also one: and this is Space.”

“Explain, oh Lanoo (disciple).”

“The One is an unbroken Circle (ring) with no circumference, for it is nowhere and everywhere; the One is the boundless plane of the Circle, manifesting a diameter only during the manvantaric periods; the One is the indivisible point found nowhere, perceived everywhere during those periods; it is the Vertical and the Horizontal, the Father and the Mother, the summit and base of the Father, the two extremities of the Mother, reaching in reality nowhere, for the One is the Ring as also the rings that are within that Ring. Light in darkness and darkness in light: the ‘Breath which is eternal.’ It proceeds from without inwardly, when it is everywhere, and from within outwardly, when it is nowhere—(i.e., māyā, one of the centres). It expands and contracts (exhalation and inhalation). When it expands the mother diffuses and scatters; when it contracts, the mother draws back and ingathers. This produces the periods of Evolution and Dissolution, Manvantara and Pralaya. The Germ is invisible and fiery; the Root (the plane of the circle) is cool; but during Evolution and Manvantara her garment is cold and radiant. Hot Breath is the Father who devours the progeny of the many-faced Element (heterogeneous); and leaves the single-faced ones (homogeneous). Cool Breath is the Mother, who conceives, forms, brings forth, and receives them back into her bosom, to reform them at the Dawn (of the Day of Brahmā, or Manvantara). . . . .” [SD 1:11-12]

Says the Book of Dzyan (Knowledge through meditation):

“The great mother lay with △, and the , and the , the second  and the ⛤ in her bosom, ready to bring them forth, the valiant sons of the  △  (or 4,320,000, the Cycle) whose two elders are the  and the  (Point).” [SD 1:434]

[. . .] the Commentary says: “The first earth having been purified by the forty-nine fires, her people, born of Fire and Water, could not die . . . (etc.); the Second Earth (with its race) disappeared as vapour vanishes in the air . . . the Third Earth had everything consumed on it after the separation, and went down into the lower Deep (the Ocean). This was twice eighty-two cyclic years ago.” [SD 1:439 fn]^dlix

“The Sun is the heart of the Solar World (System) and its brain is hidden behind the (visible) Sun. From thence, sensation is radiated into every nerve-centre of the great body, and the waves of the life-essence flow into each artery and vein. . . . The planets are its limbs and pulses. . . .” (Commentary.) [SD 1:541]^dlx

Says a commentary in the esoteric doctrine:

. . . . The trunk of the Asvattha (the tree of Life and Being, the rod of the caduceus) grows from and descends at every Beginning (every new manvantara) from the two dark wings of the Swan (Haṃsa) of Life. The two Serpents, the ever-living and its illusion (Spirit and matter) whose two heads grow from the one head between the wings, descend along the trunk, interlaced in close embrace. The two tails join on earth (the manifested Universe) into one, and this is the great illusion, O Lanoo!” [SD 1:549]^dlxi

“Matter is eternal,” says the Esoteric Doctrine. [SD 1:545]

Occultism [. . .] repeats with as much assurance as ever: “matter is eternal, becoming atomic (its aspect) only periodically.” [SD 1:552]^dlxii

“The sons of Bhūmi (Earth) regard the Sons of Deva-lokas (angel-spheres) as their gods; and the Sons of lower kingdoms look up to the men of Bhūmi, as to their devas (gods); men remaining unaware of it in their blindness. . . . They (men) tremble before them while using them (for magical purposes). . . . The First Race of Men were the ‘Mind-born sons’ of the former. They (the Pitṛs and Devas) are our progenitors. . . .” (Book II of Commentary on the Book of Dzyan.) [SD 1:605-606]^dlxiii

. . . even the Stanza which says: “The mind-born, the boneless, gave being to the will-born with bones”; adding that this took place in the middle of the Third Race 18,000,000 years ago—has yet a chance of being accepted by future scientists. [SD 2:156]^dlxiv

“The Nest of the eternal Bird, the flutter of whose wings produces life, is boundless space,” says the Commentary, meaning Haṃsa, the bird of Wisdom. [SD 2:293]^dlxv

“Manas is dual—lunar in the lower, solar in its upper portion,” says a commentary. [SD 2:495]

One initiated into the mysteries of the meaning of the Svastika, say the Commentaries, “can trace on it, with mathematical precision, the evolution of Kosmos and the whole period of Sandhya.” Also “the relation of the Seen to the Unseen,” and “the first procreation of man and species.” [SD 2:587]

“When the first ‘Seven’ appeared on earth, they threw the seed of everything that grows on the land into the soil. First came three, and four were added to these as soon as stone was transformed into plant. Then came the second ‘Seven,’ who, guiding the Jīvas of the plants, produced the middle (intermediate) natures between plant and moving living animal. The third ‘Seven’ evolved their Chāyas. . . . The fifth ‘Seven’ imprisoned their Essence. . . . Thus man became a Saptaparṇa.” (Commentary.) [SD 2:590]

These numbers are explained in the “Commentaries” in these words.

“The Circle is not the ‘One’ but the ‘All.’

“In the higher (heaven) the impenetrable Rajas (“adbhuta”; see Ṛgveda 10:105:7), it (the Circle) becomes One, because (it is) the indivisible, and there can be no Tau in it.

“In the second (of the three ‘Rajāṃsi’ (tṛtīya), or the three ‘Worlds’) the one becomes two (male and female); and three (add the Son or Logos); and the Sacred Four (‘Tetractys,’ or the ‘Tetragrammaton.’)

“In the third (the lower world or our earth) the number becomes four, and three, and two. Take the first two, and thou wilt obtain Seven, the sacred number of life; blend (the latter) with the middle Rajas, and thou wilt have Nine, the sacred number of Being and Becoming.” [SD 2:621-622]^dlxvi

With regard to that other statement—namely, that they daily “cursed the Sun”—this again has nothing to do with the heat, but with the moral degeneration that grew with the race. It is explained in our Commentaries. “They (the sixth sub-race of the Atlanteans) used magic incantations even against the Sun”—failing in which, they cursed it. [SD 2:762]

The occult sciences show that the founders (the respective groups of the seven Prajāpatis) of the Root Races have all been connected with the Pole Star. In the Commentary we find:

“He who understands the age of Dhruva who measures 9090 mortal years, will understand the times of the pralayas, the final destiny of nations, O Lanoo.” [SD 2:768]

Notes