Theos-Talk Archives (April 2003 Message tt00137)

Friday, April 25, 2003


Dear Friends:

H P B offered this allegory and explanation for us to consider
the universal application of a spiritual purpose to life -- and
the part we play in it.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

HPB - Allegory

HPB - An Allegory of Manifestation


>From an old Sanskrit Manuscript:


"Toward the close of Pralaya (the intermediate period between two
"creations" or evolutions of our phenomenal universe), the great
IT, the One that rests in infinity and ever is, dropped its
reflection, which expanded in limitless Space, and felt a desire
to make itself cognizable by the creatures evolved from its
shadow.

The reflection assumed the shape of a Maharaja (great King).
Devising means for mankind to learn of his existence, the
Maharaja built of the qualities inherent in him a place, in which
he concealed himself, satisfied that people should perceive the
outward form of his dwelling. But when they looked up to the
place where stood the palace, whose one corner stretched into the
right infinitude, and the other into the left infinitude--the
little men saw nothing; the palace was mistaken by them for
empty space, and being so vast remained invisible to their eyes.

Then the Maharaja resorted to another expedient. He determined
to manifest himself to the little creatures whom he pitied -- not
as a whole but only in his parts. He destroyed the palace built
by him from his manifesting qualities, brick by brick, and began
throwing the bricks down upon the earth one after the other.
Each brick was transformed into an idol, the red ones becoming
Gods and the grey ones Goddesses; into these the Devatas and
Devatis--the qualities and the attributes of the Unseen--entered
and animated them.

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


HPB commented:


The outward form of idolatry is but a veil, concealing the one
Truth like the veil of the Saitic Goddess. [Isis I vi]


Only that truth, being for the few, escapes the majority... Yet,
while for the great majority the space behind the veil is really
impenetrable...those endowed with the "third eye" (the eye of
Siva), discern in the Cimmerian darkness and chaos a light in
whose intense radiance all shape born of human conception
disappears, leaving the all-informing divine Principle, to be
felt--not seen; sensed--never expressed.

This allegory shows polytheism in its true light and that it
rests of the One unity, as does all the rest...The direct [ and
the ] refracted rays of one and the same Luminary. What are
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, but the triple Ray that emanates
directly form the Light of the World ?

The three Gods with their Goddesses are the three dual
representations of Purusha the Spirit, and Prakriti--matter; the
six are symbolized by Svayambhuva the self-existence,
unmanifested Deity. They are only the symbols personifying the
Unseen Presence in every phenomenon of nature."
CWB 7- 272-4

Source: Note of HPB on Idolatry, Collected Works HPB, Vol. 7,
p. 272-4


"...founded his dwelling" shows clearly that in Kabala, as in
India, the Deity was considered as the Universe, and was not, in
his origin, the extra-cosmic God he is now."	SD I 92 fn


Vishnu (Sk.). The second person of the Hindu Trimûrti (trinity),
composed of Brahmâ, Vishnu and Siva. From the root vish, "to
pervade". in the Rig -Veda, Vishnu is no high god, but simply a
manifestation of the solar energy, described as "striding through
the seven regions of the Universe in three steps and enveloping
all things with the dust (of his beams ".) Whatever may be the
six other occult significances of the statement, this is related
to the same class of types as the seven and ten Sephiroth, as the
seven and three orifices of the perfect Adam Kadmon, as the seven
"principles" and the higher triad in man, etc., etc. Later on
this mystic type becomes a great god, the preserver and the
renovator, he "of a thousand names-Sahasranâma ". Glos. pp.
365-6

Krishna (Sk.).. The most celebrated avatar of Vishnu, the
"Saviour" of the Hindus and their most popular god. He is the
eighth Avatar, the son of Devaki, and the nephew of Kansa, the
Indian King Herod, who while seeking for him among the shepherds
and cow-herds who concealed him, slew thousands of their
newly-born babes. The story of Krishna's conception, birth, and
childhood are the exact prototype of the New Testament story. The
missionaries, of course, try to show that the Hindus stole the
story of the Nativity from the early Christians who came to
India.	Glos. pp 180-1

Bhagavad-gita (Sk.). Lit., "the Lord's Song". A portion of the
Mahabharata, the great epic poem of India. It contains a dialogue
wherein Krishna-the "Charioteer"-and Arjuna, his Chela, have a
discussion upon the highest spiritual philosophy. The work is
pre-eminently occult or esoteric.	Glos. p. 56

Arjuna (Sk.) Lit., the "white". The third of the five Brothers
Pandu or the reputed Sons of Indra (esoterically the same as
Orpheus). A disciple of Krishna, who visited him and married
Subhadrâ, his sister, besides many other wives, according to the
allegory. During the fratricidal war between the Kauravas and the
Pândavas, Krishna instructed him in the highest philosophy, while
serving as his charioteer. (See Bhagavad Gîtâ.)	Glos. pp.
29-30

As is the Inner, so is the Outer;
as is the Great so is the Small;
as it is above, so it is below;
there is but One Life and Law;
and he that worketh it is ONE.
Nothing is Inner, nothing is Outer;
nothing is Great, nothing is Small;
nothing is High, nothing is Low, in the Divine Economy.
--Hermes