Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tt00019)

The following is from "The Doctrine of the Sishtas," pages 119-25
of G. de Purucker's THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPHERES.
The following was scanned by a reader from "The Doctrine of the
Sishtas," pages 119-125 of G de Purucker's "The Doctrine of the
Spheres". It hasn't been proofread, so please excuse the typos.

The most developed Monads (the lunar) reach the human germ-stage
in the first Round; become terrestrial, though very ethereal
human beings towards the end of the Third Round, remaining on it
(the globe) through the "obscuration" period as the seed for
future mankind in the Fourth Round, and thus become the pioneers
of Humanity at the beginning of this, the Fourth Round. Others
reach the Human stage only during later Rounds, i.e., in the
second, third, or first half of the Fourth Round. And finally
the most retarded of all, i.e., those still occupying animal
forms after the middle turning-point of the Fourth Round -- will
not become men at all during this Manvantara. They will reach to
the verge of humanity only at the close of the Seventh Round to
be, in their turn, ushered into a new chain after pralaya by
older pioneers, the progenitors of humanity, or the Seed-Humanity
(Sishta), viz., the men who will be at the head of all at the end
of these Rounds. "The Secret Doctrine", I, 182

Comparatively little has been written in the entire extent of our
Theosophical literature, whether exoteric or esoteric, about the
sishtas, their nature, their characteristics, and the very
important function that they play in Nature. The word sishta (I)
is a past participle from the verbal root sishta, the latter
meaning 'to leave,, 'to remain behind,"to leave remaining,; so
that the past participle of this verbal root means 'remainder,,
'left behind,, etc. Now it is interesting that there is another
past participle written in an identical fashion sishta , but
coming from another verbal root, to wit, sas which root has the
general meaning of to discipline, 'to rule, 'to instruct,' so
that this past participle means 'disciplined, 'well regulated,
trained,' and hence learned, select, wise, excellent, etc., and
therefore likewise meaning superior or chief. It is rather
curious how the past participle from both these verbal roots
embodies, each one, meanings which the esoteric or Occult
doctrine concerning the sishtas shows us as being the
characteristic attributes or qualities of the sishtas themselves.

H.P.B. defines the sishtas as:

The great elect or Sages, left after every minor Pralaya (that
which is called "obscuration" in Mr. Sinnett's Esoteric
Buddhism), when the globe goes into its night or rest, to become,
on its re-awakening, the seed of the next humanity. Lit.
''remnant.''104

This gives a most excellent, albeit very succinct, and indeed
altogether too brief, outline of what the sishtas are. They are,
in fact, the highest representatives of a Life-Wave, otherwise of
a Monadic Class or Class of Monads, left behind on a globe of a
Planetary Chain, when that globe goes into its Obscuration.
Thus, when a Life-Wave finishes its seven races on a globe, the
bulk of the Life-Wave passes on to the next globe during the
Round, but leaves behind, on the planet which it has just
quitted, its highest representatives, who are the sishtas, and
who are thus the 'remainders' left there to provide the same
Life-Wave, when it returns again to the same globe, with the
'seeds of life' enabling it from these 'seeds' to manifold or
multiply itself again on the same globe.

Now the sishtas must not be confounded with the Manus, of whom H.
P. B. likewise writes, mainly in various passages of The Secret
Doctrine, in which great literary work she speaks of a Manu as
originating or beginning the evolution of a Life-Wave on any
globe and as then being a 'Root-Manu'; and also states that when
the Life-Wave leaves a globe, the Manu that remains behind is the
'Seed-Manu.

These facts show clearly that the Manus and the sishtas are very
intimately connected, so much so that in certain aspects they are
identical; yet they are not identical all along the line, and
therefore must not be confounded or confused. I shall have
somewhat more to say about the Manus in later paragraphs, but for
the time being let us concentrate our attention upon the sishtas.

In my Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy I spoke as openly
as I then dared about the occult and esoteric teaching concerning
the sishtas. The following was written therein in connection
with the planet Mars, but with the obvious adjustments it may
apply equally well to any planetary chain:

Now there are . . . on the planet Mars in its present state of
obscuration certain beings left there by the receding Life-Wave
of Mars when that planet went into obscuration; and these beings
are called in the Sanskrit language sishtas, meaning
"remainders," or "remains," i.e., those whose duty it is to keep
the Seeds of Life on that planet until the incoming flow of the
returning Life-Wave in the new Manvantara to come, shall find
these bodies ready for them and in all ways appropriate.

Now these sishtas are of seven kinds; three elemental; the
mineral; the "plant"; the "beast"-type there, which represented
the human on Mars; and one other. There are certain ones of
these sishtas which are not at all of the lower types; they must
have been higher than the average of its humanity when that
planet went into obscuration, in order to provide for the more
evolved humanity coming down on its succeeding Round, fit and
appropriate vehicles for the new Life-Cycle, or Manvantara,
there.

Generally, then, the sishtas are those superior classes — each of
its own kind and kingdom left behind on a planet when it goes
into obscuration, in order to serve as the seeds of life for the
inflow of the next incoming Life-Wave when the dawn of the new
Manvantara takes place on that planet.105

In this extract I call attention to the fact that the sishtas are
of several different kinds. I there mention seven: three
Elemental, the Mineral, the Plant, the Beast, and 'one other';
and this 'one other' was but a blind for covering an esoteric or
occult point of teaching, which is, that each class of sishtas
corresponds to the different Classes of Monads, in other words,
to the different Kingdoms, as Occidentals frequently say. Hence,
the phrase 'one other, really means that, in the foregoing
enumeration, and after the Beast-sishtas, there are the Human
sishtas, as well as the three groups of sishtas of the
Dhyani-Chohanic Classes, thus making ten classes of Monads
otherwise ten Life-Waves.

Now, as stated in a previous chapter of this Instruction, these
Life-Waves pass around the Globes of the Chain in regular serial
order, one after the other, so that the first Class which appears
on the evolutionary scene is the First Elemental Kingdom, and
when it has run through its seven 'rings, or Root-Races, then the
Second Elemental Kingdom does the same, followed in its turn by
the Third Elemental Kingdom; and when this last has completed its
'rings. And then come the Monads of the Mineral Kingdom, which
latter runs through its septenary gyrations, to be followed in
serial order by the Vegetable Kingdom, the Beast Kingdom, the
Human Kingdom, and, again in serial order, by the First, the
Second, and the Third, Dhyani-Chohanic Kingdoms.

When any one of these ten Kingdoms, or Life-Waves, leaves a globe
in order to pass to the next globe on the Round around the Chain,
it leaves with the globe that it quits its highest
representatives or most fully evolved individuals, and the globe
thus quitted has a brief period of rest or Obscuration, after
which it awakens to the flowing into it of the first
representatives of the succeeding Life-Wave or Kingdom.
Meanwhile the sishtas of the preceding Life-Wave or Kingdom
remain on the globe and continue so to remain until the great
bulk of their own Life-Wave, which is now passing along the other
globes on its Round, returns to the aforesaid globe, and then
these sishtas or remainders, left on this globe during the
preceding Round, feel the incoming, or influx, or influence, of
their own Life-Wave returning, and respond by proper increases in
numbers, thus providing the vehicles in which the bulk of the
Life-Wave will in time embody itself as the 'First Root-Race, of
the new Round on this particular globe.

Thus it is with all the ten Classes or Kingdoms above enumerated;
each one in turn, and in regular serial order, having its seven
'rings, or gyrations or Root-Races on a globe, and each one
thereafter leaving its sishtas behind to serve as the 'seeds of
life, for the return of the same Life-Wave during the next Round
to the same globe. 106

It would be a capital mistake to imagine these sishtas as either
evolving rapidly, or as having no evolutionary progress
whatsoever, for both these suppositions are incorrect. Although
the sishtas when left behind are always very much less numerous
than the bulk of the Life-Wave, being, as before said, the
highest representatives of their Life-Wave or Class, nevertheless
they do continue to evolve but at a much slower rate than takes
place when the bulk of the Life-Wave is on the globe; so that for
the millions of years, indeed hundreds of millions of years,
before their own Life-Wave comes again, they slowly evolve and
regularly reproduce themselves, albeit in a quasi-passive state
or condition.

It must be remembered that these sishtas are human individuals,
in the case of the Human Kingdom, and therefore are embodied
Reincarnating Egos; and of course the sishtas die and are reborn
again and die and are reborn again, and the individual egos of
the sishta-group have exactly the same post-mortem destiny that
they always had had, if my words are understood. Furthermore,
the sishta-group and I am now speaking of the Human Kingdom as an
illustration which will serve more or less accurately mutatis
mutandis for all other sishta-groups does not remain absolutely
numerically fixed as regards their number, for the simple reason
that, due to what elsewhere has been spoken of as the
'forerunners' of a Life-Wave, giving even at present what we term
Fifth Rounders, and very, very rarely Sixth Rounders, the
sishta-group is constantly receiving a slow increment in numbers
because of individuals of the bulk of the Life-Wave forerunning
or outrunning the said Life-Wave, and thus again reaching the
globe on which the sishta-group is, but more quickly than does
the bulk of the Life-Wave.107

Hence it is that the sishtas continuously, albeit slowly,
increase in number, and continue so to increase, somewhat more
rapidly with each passing million of years, until the Life-Wave
reaches their globe again. Do not forget the statement made
above that the individuals of the sishta-group are embodied
Reincarnating Egos, and therefore are periodically born, live,
and die, and reincarnate, exactly as they had been doing when
their own Life-Wave was on their globe.

I have been writing in the preceding paragraphs about the
sishta-groups left on the different Globes of our Planetary Chain
during any Round; but the student must remember that Nature,
because of her analogical structure and analogical operations,
has sishtas of other kinds than the Globe-sishtas which are the
'remainders, on the respective globes during any one Round; thus
she has sishtas, as an example, which are the 'seeds of life, from
one dying Chain passing over to the next embodiment of the
same Chain, and hence it is that these sishta-groups are called
the 'seeds of life, or the Root-sishtas, which open the
manvantaric drama in Round the First, on Globe A, of the new
embodiment..

Now it is this latter class of sishtas that I specifically
alluded to when I spoke of 'monadic eggs,' and 'sleeping
spheres,' as in the following extracts:

Reverting for a moment again to a Round in a Planetary Chain. On
our Globe, the indwelling egoic force in any one man, or in any
one life-entity, evolves for itself bodies correspondential to
its surroundings bodies outer, bodies inner. The higher ones of
these inner bodies we may call monadic eggs; and when the
Life-Wave leaves any one such globe of the seven of that
Planetary Chain in order to pass to the next globe, the vehicles
correspondential and belonging to that particular globe, its own
evolutions thereon, remain behind as the sishtas, . . . the
Monads of the returning Life-Wave find these 'sleeping spheres,'
or dormant 'life-atoms' or vehicles waiting for them. These
'sleeping spheres' or dormant 'life-atoms' are correspondential,
each one and all of them, to the particular globe of the
Planetary Chain which had evolved them. Thus the sishtas are the
already evolved or individualized vehicles or 'life-atoms' fit to
receive the returning monadic host. l08

. . . each globe of a chain, when the Life-Wave leaves it,
retains its hosts of monadic eggs as the sishtas. We used the
word 'monadic' . . . in a general sense; that is to say, it
applies in all cases to that particular part of the entire human
spiritual-psychological-physical economy which corresponds to
that particular globe which belongs to it, in short, and which is
left behind much as a traveler leaves behind a house or clothing
fit for certain climates and weathers when he goes elsewhere.
109

Being sishtas no longer of evolving Life-Waves from globe to
globe of a Chain, but sishta-groups from Chain-embodiment to
Chain-embodiment, these latter sishta-groups are not so much
individuals manifested in bodies as 'monadic spheres' or 'monadic
eggs,' which, perhaps somewhat poetically it may be, I have
likewise called 'sleeping spheres. Indeed, the devachani in his
Devachan, after passing from the physical body and after the
devachanic interlude returning to a physical body, may likewise
be called a 'monadic egg,, or 'monadic sphere, because the Human
Ego or devachani in its blissful dreaming in the bosom of the
Spiritual Monad clothed as the Devachan~ is in its Auric Egg or
auric efflux — is really in a true sense a sort of 'monadic egg
out of which 'egg,' after the proper gestation, will grow the
man-to-be in the next Earth-life.

Hence it is that I employed these terms 'monadic eggs and
'monadic spheres, in order to describe or designate the
sishta-groups which pass to the new Chain-embodiment when the old
Chain dies.

Of course what I have hereinbefore written about the 'monadic
eggs,, etc., of the Human Kingdom, applies equally well, mutatis
mutandis to the sishta-groups of all the other nine Kingdoms or
Monadic Classes, between Chain-embodiment and Chain-embodiment.

It is perhaps stretching the meaning of the term 'sishta', to
speak of these groups of Monads between Chain and Chain as really
'sishtas'; but the usage with the significance of 'remainders' is
permissible, and, indeed, the other significance as well, i.e.,
that the sishtas of whatever kind or class are always the highest
representatives each of its own Order or kind or division,
elsewhere called Kingdoms. It is a fact that when the new Chain
is forming it is always the highest representatives of all
Classes which, combining with the Elementals of their own class
or variety, become as it were the ideative 'architects,
impressing the architectural plan upon these Elementals so that
these last can do their properly respective labors in building
the globes of a Chain; and once this architectural scheme, with
the help of the Elementals, is ideated forth, then the lower
representatives of each different Kingdom begin to manifest and
in turn do : their respective labors, thus preparing the
differing ground-works into which the highest representatives
again and later in due course of time manifest themselves, each
group in its proper serial order.

End Notes:

104. See her posthumous work, Theosophical Glossary, p. 300.

105. Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, p. 174.

106. "For there [in the Vedas] it is said that at the end of
each Manvantara comes the Pralaya, or the destruction of the
world only one of which is known to, and expected by, the
Christians when there will be left the sishtas, or remnants,
seven Rishis and one warrior, and all the seeds, for the next
human 'tide-wave of the following Round."'* because they alone
remain after the destruction of all the others....'

"This is the orthodox version. The secret one speaks of seven
Initiates having attained Dhyani-chohanship toward the end of the
seventh Race on this earth, who are left on Earth during its
'obscuration' with the seed of every mineral, plant, and animal
that had not time to evolute into man for the next Round or
world-period."H. P. B. in The Theosophist, Vol. VII, p. 352,
March, 1886

107. These sishtas remain behind because they were forerunners
of the bulk of the human Life-Wave; they had already run through
their Fifth Round, and therefore do not need to repeat it; as a
matter of fact they cannot go on in their evolutionary
development until the Life-Wave catches up to them.

108. Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, p. 462.

109. Op. cit., p. 464.