Theos-Talk Archives (April 2003 Message tt00088)

Friday, April 18, 2003

Re: Arian, Aryan, Irian, Iran, Irani, Noble, Wise,

Dear Friend:

The word Aryan was employed by Mme. Blavatsky to indicate in The
SECRET DOCTRINE the 5th Race of the entirety of Humanity that is
currently passing through the process of evolution. The period in
years involved is several million.
[see S D Vol. I pp. 200-2, S D Vol. II pp. 68-70]

It is important to know this is only a designation. It means "noble."

The word "Race" as technically used in The SECRET DOCTRINE is a period
of evolutionary time. [ Seven "Races" proceed in their sequential
evolution through one "Globe. Seven "Globes" constitute a "Round."
Seven "Rounds" are one "Manvantara."]

It is important to realize that in Theosophy it is taught that each
human being is only the physical encasement (a physical body being
presently used) for an Immortal Spirit/Soul. This Immortal
Spirit/Soul reincarnates. Therefore the time designations of
"Races,' "Globes," and "Rounds" indicate periods of time during which
the whole of humanity, consisting of a great number of immortal
spirit/souls, reincarnates frequently.

Consider, if you will, the analogy of this series of incarnations as
one might the daily attendance at School of a number of pupils. Each
incarnation on Earth in whatever location or whatever "race" is a
learning experience. Next. The lessons learned in the past are
retained by each, and carried forward into each new "life." They
constitute the character, capacity, egoism (selfishness and personal
isolation), genius, talent (or their lack) as well as egoity
(knowledge, virtue and acquired wisdom) of each Individual.

The designation Spirit/soul implies in every human, a resident "Ray"
of the ONE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT, and of WISDOM (or a Knowledge of
Universal Law), and of the MIND -- or the capacity to reason, reflect,
think, be logical, and also be aware of the sensory input received
through the instrumentality of the physical body (called the
"Personality" -- or mask) in which this Spirit/soul lives during a
period of incarnation on Earth.

The word Individuality covers the Divine and Immortal aspect of every
human being. The word "Personality" covers the transitory (subject to
death) vehicle we all use: 1. physical body, 20 its
electro-magnetic model: Astral Body, 3. Life Force and currents:
Prana, and finally, 4. Desires, emotions, passions: Kama.

Therefore the word: "ARYA, or ARYAN" has nothing to do with heredity,
ethnology, or the history and ancestry of a tribe, or "race" -- such
as that latter term might be used today in the history of mankind, and
which is usually further described by a color of the skin.

>From the THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY we have the following definitions:


"ARIAN. A follower of Arius, a presbyter of the Church in
Alexandria in the fourth century. One who holds that Christ is a
created and human being, inferior to God the Father, though a grand
and noble man, a true adept versed in all the divine mysteries."
Glos p. 29


"ÂRYA (Sk.) Lit., "the holy"; originally the title of Rishis, those
who had mastered the and entered the Âryanimârga path to Nirvâna or
Moksha, the great "four-fold" path. But now the name has become the
epithet of a race, and our Orientalists, depriving the Hindu Brahmans
of their birth-right, have made Aryans of all Europeans. In
esotericism, as the four paths, or stages, can be entered only owing
to great spiritual development and "growth in holiness ", they are
called the "four fruits". The degrees of Arhatship, called
respectively Srotâpatti, Sakridâgamin, Anâgâmin, and Arhat, or the
four classes of Âryas, correspond to these four paths and truths."
Glos p. 32
[These last terms refer to names given to degrees of Initiation in
ancient Hindu Esotericism. They correspond to terms used in the Greek
Mysteries, and in the School of Pythagoras.
-- DTB]

"ARYAHATA (Sk.) The "Path of Arhatship", or of holiness."

"ÂRYASANGHA (Sk.) The Founder of the first Yogâchârya School. This
Arhat, a direct disciple of Gautama, the Buddha, is most unaccountably
mixed up and confounded with a personage of the same name, who is said
to have lived in Ayôdhya (Oude) about the fifth or sixth century of
our era, and taught Tântrika worship in addition to the Yogâchârya
system. Those who sought to make it popular, claimed that he was the
same Âryasangha, that had been a follower of Sâkyamuni, and that he
was 1,000 years old. Internal evidence alone is sufficient to show
that the works written by him and translated about the year 600 of our
era, works full of Tantra worship, ritualism, and tenets followed now
considerably by the "red-cap" sects in Sikhim, Bhutan, and Little
Tibet, cannot be the same as the lofty system of the early Yogâcharya
school of pure Buddhism, which is neither northern nor southern, but
absolutely esoteric. Though none of the genuine Yogâchârya books (the
Narjol chodpa) have ever been made public or marketable, yet one finds
in the Yogâchârya Bhûmi Shâstra of the pseudo-Âryasangha a great deal
from the older system, into the tenets of which he may have been
initiated. It is, however, so mixed up with Sivaism and Tantrika magic
and superstitions, that the work defeats its own end, notwithstanding
its remarkable dialectical subtlety. How unreliable are the
conclusions at which our Orientalists arrive, and how contradictory
the dates assigned by them, may be seen in the case in hand. While
Csoma de Körös (who, by-the-bye, never became acquainted with the
Gelukpa (yellow-caps), but got all his information from "red-cap"
lamas of the Borderland), places the pseudo-Âryasangha in the seventh
century of our era; Wassiljew, who passed most of his life in China,
proves him to have lived much earlier; and Wilson (see Roy. As. Soc.,
Vol. VI., p. 240), speaking of the period when Âryasangha's works,
which are still extant in Sanskrit, were written, believes it now
"established, that they have been written at the latest, from a
century and a half before, to as much after, the era of Christianity".
At all events since it is beyond dispute that the Mahâyana religious
works were all written far before Âryasangha's time-whether he lived
in the "second century B.C.", or the "seventh A.D."-and that these
contain all and far more of the fundamental tenets of the Yogâchârya
system, so disfigured by the Ayôdhyan imitator-the inference is that
there must exist somewhere a genuine rendering free from popular
Sivaism and left-hand magic.

ARYASATYÂNI (Sk.). The four truths or the four dogmas, which are (1)
Dukha, or that misery and pain are the unavoidable concomitants of
sentient (esoterically, physical) existence; (2) Samudaya, the truism
that suffering is intensified by human passions; (3) Nirôdha, that the
crushing out and extinction of all such feelings are possible for a
man "on the path"; (4) Mârga, the narrow way, or that path which leads
to such a blessed result.

ARYAVARTA (Sk.). The "land of the Aryas", or India. The ancient name
for Northern India. The Brahmanical invaders (" from the Oxus" say the
Orientalists) first settled. It is erroneous to give this name to the
whole, of India, since Manu gives the name of "the land of the Aryas"
only to "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from
the eastern to the western sea".	Glos pp. 32 - 33

----------------------

You will notice that the prefix ARYA is employed in the original texts
as a designation meaning "Noble." or "Wise".

Hitler adopted the word and abused and debased it in the popular
concept.


Best wishes,

Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: Simon
Sent:	Wednesday, April 16, 2003 8:55 PM
Subject:	Blavatsky and Aryanism

Hello, I'm new at this group. I was wondering if anyone had any
thoughts about Blavatsky's teachings on Aryanism. I have been having
some debates with a Christian at another forum and he is convinced
HPB's writings on the Aryan were a direct influence on Hitler and the
Nazi movement. How would a Theosophist reply to such a charge? Also,
can you direct me to where I can read more about HPB's Aryan ideas?

Simon

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