Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00069)

Here is something I found in SD pp. 168-9 on Tantrika Worship. ...mkr
=======================================================

the most sacred figures of the cycles.  Now, as stated in one of the
Theosophical journals,* the revelation of the whole system of Cosmogony had
not been contemplated, nor even thought for one moment possible, at a time
when a few bits of information were sparingly given out in answer to
letters written by the author of “Esoteric Buddhism,” in which he put
forward a multiplicity of questions.  Among these were questions on such
problems as no MASTER, however high and independent he might be, would have
the right to answer, thus divulging to the world the most time-honoured and
archaic of the mysteries of the ancient college-temples.  Hence only a few
of the doctrines were revealed in their broad outlines, while details were
constantly withheld, and all the efforts made to elicit more information
about them were systematically eluded from the beginning.  This is
perfectly natural.  Of the four Vidyas—out of the seven branches of
Knowledge mentioned in the Purânas—namely, “Yajna-Vidya” (the performance
of religious rites in order to produce certain results); “Maha-Vidya,” the
great (Magic) knowledge, now degenerated into Tantrika worship;
“Guhya-Vidya,” the science of Mantras and their true rhythm or chanting, of
mystical incantations, etc.—it is only the last one, “Atma-Vidya,” or the
true Spiritual and Divine wisdom, which can throw absolute and final light
upon the teachings of the three first named.  Without the help of
Atma-Vidya, the other three remain no better than surface sciences,
geometrical magnitudes having length and breadth, but no thickness.  They
are like the soul, limbs, and mind of a sleeping man: capable of mechanical
motions, of chaotic dreams and even sleep-walking, of producing visible
effects, but stimulated by instinctual not intellectual causes, least of
all by fully conscious spiritual impulses.  A good deal can be given out
and explained from the three first-named sciences.  But unless the key to
their teachings is furnished by Atma-Vidya, they will remain for ever like
the fragments of a mangled text-book, like the adumbrations of great
truths, dimly perceived by the most spiritual, but distorted out of all
proportion by those who would nail every shadow to the wall.

—————
* "Lucifer," May, 1888.
—————