Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tt00020)

Brenda,

I am confused by what you wrote about "sishtas" (I use
Blavatsky's spelling). Your message quoted partially below
implies sishtas are empty envelopes of animals, plants, or
minerals:

> What happens is this: There are seven life-waves going around the
> seven globes of the earth globe chain. Other planets have their
> own globe chains. The globe we are currently on is the fourth
> and is the most material of the seven, while the other globes are
> paired on three levels, both ahead and behind of the earth. The
> life-waves, one for each kingdom (seven here also) move in
> progression, so that at any one time there is one (and only one)
> major life-wave on a globe. Since the animal and plant
> life-waves are ahead of our own, they are on globes 5 and 6
> respectively. There is even a book written from the point of
> view of our seventh race of humanity (fictional, of course) where
> names have been found for some of the globes in the chain.
> Peculiarly, the fifth globe is called Andlang. (Switch a few
> letters and you're left with England (sort of).)
>
> What we have left on our globe that appear to be plants and
> animals are what this theory calls: shistas. Shista means
> remainder and is a confusing concept which many theosophical
> writers have attempted to explain. Generally, it is felt that
> the life is sleeping, and what we have is merely a form or empty
> shell, which for all practical purposes we can do with what we
> like. All of this was familiar to me, but without the next
> information, made little difference.

For comparative evaluation, let me briefly quote ALL passages from
The Secret Doctrine (Blavatsky Collected Writings edition)
related to sishstas:

> All Monads do not develop equally. "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."
>
> -- I, 182
>
>
> When the hour strikes for Purusha to mount on Prakriti's
> shoulders for the formation of the Perfect Man--rudimentary man
> of the first 2 1/2 Races being only the *first*, gradually
> evolving into *the most perfect of mammals*--the Celestial
> "Ancestors" (Entities from preceding worlds, called in India the
> Sishtas) step in on this our plane, as the Pitris had spetted in
> before them for the formation of the physical or animal-man, and
> incarnate in the latter."
>
> -- I, 248
>
> The Imperishable Sacred Land "is the cradle of the first man and
> the dwelling of the last *divine* mortal, chosen as a Sishta for
> the future seed of the humanity.
>
> -- II, 6
>
> Sishtas and Prajapatis have thrown the seed of life on the Earth.
>
> -- II, 150
>
> The Occult Commentary says this about the succession of Races:
> "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
> 'Sishta' [the seed-Manus, or the Prajapatis and the Pitris].
>
> -- II, 164
>
> Sishtas "are shown in the Puranas as preserved "with the seeds of
> all things, in the ark, from the waters of that inundation <...>
> which, in the season of a Pralaya, overspreads the world [the
> Earth]."
>
> -- II, 307 fn
>
> ...there are "root-Manus," and what we have to clumsily translate
> as the "seed-Manus"--*the seeds for the human races of the
> forthcoming Round" [or the Sishtas--the surviving fittest]."
>
> -- II, 308
>
> ...some of the great adepts will return in the Seventh Race,when
> all error will be made away with, and the advent of TRUTH will be
> heralded by those Sishtas, the holy "Sons of Light".
>
> -- II, 351
>
> Noah--identical with the Hindu Sishta, the human seed, left for
> the peopling of the Earth from a previous creation or Manvantara,
> as expressed in the Puranas,...
>
> -- II, 596

It seems to imply that Sishtas are Monads, Prajapatis, Sons of
Light, adepts--almost everything but empty shells, especially
those of animals, plants, and minerals. On the contrary, they
are chunks of the spirit that inform or inhabit forms or shells.

I believe you are confusing two different (converging)
streams--the evolution of the form and the involution of the
spirit.

Also, if sishtas are Monads, no wonder we do not see
them--obviously it requires a faculty of monadic vision.