Theos-Talk Archives (February 1999 Message tt00052)

In a message dated 2/5/99 1:15:44 AM, Tony wrote:

<<> In the "Occult Catechism" (pp. 11-12 Proem) MANVANTARA is spelt in 2

> different ways.  These are standardised to the one spelling in

> the BdeZ SD.

> As it was put to me, are they spelled differently, because one is

> referring

> to the ROOT MANU, the other to the SEED MANU?>>

You could assume this, but I think it is a mistake to do so.  The "v" and the
"w" are not two different letters in Sanskrit.  Sanskrit *has* no letter w.
However, in parts of Bengal and other places, the letter v is given a w
pronunciation.  

If Sanskrit wants to be more specific about what *kind* of manvantara, it adds
a prefix or a suffix to modify the root noun.  A Root Manu would be
"Mulamanvantara" and a Seed Manu would be a "Shishtamanvantara."  In the
absence of such spellings, I think you are reading in to the passage here in a
manner likely to produce even more confusion.

There *are* however two different kinds of Manvantaras described here.  One,
in a footnote on page 11, is a MAHAmanvantara, but in the catechism they are
manvataras.  Here HPB means to be specific, and she is.

In the case of disk and disc, I fail to see the importance of the distinction.
However, I will concede that in Kosmic and Cosmic I do see a significance.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that HPB herself did not arrange the
sections of the SD, or type them up.  Here Mr. Judge and a host of lesser
minds had a hand, and often their typing, arrangements and other "corrections"
are what cause the spelling and other errors in the first place.  HPB states
she corrected some of them, but often the Masters (and presumably HPB) chose
to leave people to their own devices.

Rich

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