Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tt00021)

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

I do not profess to understand the doctrine of sishtas. (Thanks
for correcting my spelling.) I am only guessing what has happened
to me within the last year is like a complete rewrite of my view
of reality. In this case, I hope you will try to understand that
"if a and b are true, then does it follow that c is also true."
is my line of reasoning somewhat and while I am not trying to
convince anyone that what I am saying is true, I am wondering,
supposing, and thinking over all the different possibilities.
Proof is a limited resource after all.

> 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

In this case, I don't see a major conflict. Mankind is 7-fold
and it is difficult to know sometimes if the whole 7-fold nature
is being discussed or only one part is meant. What I understand
a sishta to be is the "remainder" or physical form that is stored
somehow on the globe even after the life-wave has left it. If
the souls of men are on Globe D, then aren't their sishtas or
previously occupied and developed forms left behind on each of
the other 6 globes, only to be reactivated when the life-wave
moves on to those globes.

> > 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

Does this say that the first 2 1/2 races are the first step on
our plane and that this precedes the enaction of the sishtas
which were left here in some sort of physical existence. The
Pitris had to do it in the first round and may also have a role
in man's creation in later rounds, because we don't just use the
sishtas as they are, but develop them to fit our incoming life.

> > 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

What I am suggesting happens, is that each kingdom which inhabits
a globe makes use of the sishtas that are there in some way. For
instance, if the state of the "true" animal is a dinosaur, then
when the human lifewave replaced the animal lifewave here, we
also effected the animal sishtas in such a way that they now
appear to in a much advanced state of existence then when they
were occupied by the dinosaur. Our lifewave may be able to have
a positive, advancing effect on an "empty form", as each
succeeding life wave also would effect or change any sishta until
it is again taken for use by the animal's true soul.

> > Sishtas and Prajapatis have thrown the seed of life on the Earth.
> >
> > -- I, 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].
> >
> > -- I, 164

It's very confusing to me how a sishta can be maintained. Is it
invisible? Is it buried deep in the earth only to be set free by
cataclysm? I don't know. Maybe it is held a quiet secret in the
elements of matter.

> > 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].
> >
> > -- I, 307 fn

They have to remain here an entire cycle of existence. If we are
permitted to use them and to shape them to our needs, they would
certainly change form many times within that cycle.

> > ...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].
> >
> > -- I, 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".
> >
> > -- I, 351

I wonder if in each round we aren't allowed the use of one more
kingdom of nature, so that in the fourth round, we only have four
kingdoms visible and readily available. In the seventh round,
all seven kingdoms could be at least approachable by man, if not
visible and free to interact with man.

> > 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,...
> >
> > -- I, 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.

Then how do you explain the way that the lifewaves follow each
other around the globes? A physical atom also has a monad.

> 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.

You say there are no shistas here because you don't see them, but
if we are able to effect the form of a shista for its betterment,
make it look and act quite more advanced then it is, perhaps what
we have is a bit of an illusion. They look like what we think
animals, plants, and minerals should be and we are aiding the
evolution of the form, but by the time the life returns to it,
other kingdoms will likewise have acted on these forms. How? I
don't know.

I was reading a book called MYSTERIES OF THE UNEXPLAINED,
published by The Reader's Diegest Association in 1982. In it,
there is a section called "Anomalies" on p. 34. Within this
section on p. 43 begins a section called "Living animals, locked
in stone." In these 11 or so accounts, ranging from late 16th
century to 1972, 6 toads, 2 lizards, newts, a pterodactyl, and
microorganisms, were liberated from rock enclosures in a living,
moving condition. The rock types were magnesian limestone 25
feet below ground, lump of ore 12 feet below ground, red
sandstone 4 and 1/2 feet deep, newts were found in a chalk quarry
at 270 feet, coal, a flint nodule, Jurassic limestone, and the
microorganisms were locked in potassium ore. The sources are:
Scientific American, The Zoologist, British Association for the
Advancement of Science, Illustrated London News, associated with
University of Cambridge doctor of geology, a King's surgeon,
found in laboratories and in mines by miners.

This could very well be the explanation for where the shistas
are!! I could imagine them buried in rock someplace on earth!!
What percentage of earth has been dug into? And doesn't this do
Adam justice at last?