Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tt00022)

In reply to James S. Yungkans' ideas about a parallel sevenfold
classification:

I think it is excellent to look around the world and see what
might look similar to HPB's teachings, and see what might be
gained through comparison.  However, it is just as important to
be grounded in what is being borrowed (in this case, a Hindu
model) to what is being compared (HPB's Secret Doctrine).

Case in point: Parispanda can in no way be compared to
Paranishpanna (or as James has it, "PARanIShPANna").  The two
words are utterly different, though one unable to read Sanskrit
might mistake the prefix, "pari" which means "around, near,
beside, quasi-," etc.  with the prefix "para" meaning "beyond,
above, transcendent, superior, previous" etc.  Paranishpanna is
absolute calmness and absorption, while parispanda is "whirling
around." A problem.

"Avyakta" may be more compared with Paranishpanna, for avyakta
means "indistinct, unmanifest, invisible, imperceptible,
undeveloped, unknown" etc.  The correlation is not exact, in that
avyakta is more what is uncertain while parinishpanna is a kind
of cosmic nirvana -- certain at least to those experiencing it!
Nevertheless, some common ground.

Unfortunately, Yungkans' source, Mahalanopis (?), seems not much
better acquainted with the Sanskrit system he purports to teach,
since under the heading "Ap" he translates "Rasa" as "affinity,"
which it certainly is not.  Rather "rasa" is "sap, juice, flavor,
water, fluid, liquor, essence, semen, poison, a symbol for number
6, the tongue, taste, myrrh, gold," and any number of other
things.  But it has nothing to do with a cosmic law of affinity.

If one were to retranslate the Sanskrit words quoted by Yungkans,
we would have a sense corresponding with each cosmic principle:

(7) As-yet unmanifest sense
(6) As-yet unmanifest sense
(5) Shabda, "power of hearing"
(4) Sparsa, "power of touch"
(3) Rupa, "power of sight"
(2) Rasa, "power of taste"
(1) Gandha, "power of smell"

Much less esoteric than one might like at first glance, but when
compared with HPB's system not a bad match for the development of
human principles during each Root Race and Round.

Yungkans mentions Alice Bailey as a possible source for
comparison (her law of affinity/repulsion) but unfortunately what
she knows she learned from Annie Besant, Leadbeater and Blavatsky
combined, and so is not a very helpful source for esotericism.
HPB works better unmitigated.

Does Yungkans have access to Vedantin models of cosmology? They
might serve admirably in this connection.

Rich Taylor