Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00275)

Dec 17 2003

Dear Reed:


Re: Your observation

"In the Sankhya philosophy, Purusha (spirit) is spoken of as
something 
impotent unless he mounts on the shoulders of Prakriti (matter), which, 
left alone, is - senseless. But in the secret philosophy they are viewed
as 
graduated."	(Secret Doctrine Vol I page 247.)

=================================

Krishna in the BHAGAVAD GITA devotes the 2nd chapter to a review of the
"speculative" method of thought.

However, I find an explanation to your query in Mr. Judge's NOTES ON THE
BHAGAVAD GITA that might help.



The illustration used in the Sankhya philosophy (one of the 6 views that
can be adopted in Indian considerations as of old) is that "SPIRIT" is a
man who has eyes but is lame and cannot walk.  

The "SPIRIT" forms a partnership with a man who is blind ( "Matter") but
can walk.. Mounted on the shoulders of the blind man, the SPIRIT guides
the pair.

Together they form a working brotherhood.

In effect this is the situation of humanity today.

We find on p. 132, Chapter VII [ BHAGAVAD GITA Notes - W Q J ]


"On SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT"


"This chapter is devoted to the question of that spiritual discernment
by means of which the Supreme Spirit can be discerned in all things, and
the absence of which causes a delusion constantly recurring, the
producer of sorrow. 

Krishna says that this sort of knowledge leaves nothing else to be
known, but that to attain it the heart —that is, every part of the
nature —must be fixed on the Spirit, meditation has to be constant, and
the Spirit made the refuge or abiding-place. 

He then goes on to show that to have attained to such a height is to be
a Mahatma. 

"Among thousands of mortals a single one perhaps strives for
perfection, and among those so striving perhaps a single one knows me as
I am." 

This points out the difficulty to be met in any one life, but is not
cause for discouragement. It simply makes clear the fact, and thus also
punctures the boastful claims of those who would pretend to have reached
perfection but do not show it in their acts. 

He then gives an eightfold division of his inferior nature, or that part
of the Universal (133) One which can be known. 

This is not the nature of man, and does not oppose the theosophical
sevenfold system of human principles....
 
This "inferior nature" is only so relatively. It is the phenomenal and
transient which disappears into the superior at the end of a kalpa. 

It is that part of "God," or of the Self, which chose to assume the
phenomenal and transient position, but is, in essence, as great as the
superior nature. 

The inferiority is only relative. As soon as objective material, and
subjective spiritual, worlds appear, the first-named has to be
denominated inferior to the other, because the spiritual, being the
permanent base, is in that sense superior; but as an absolute whole all
is equal. 

Included in the inferior nature are all the visible, tangible, invisible
and intangible worlds; it is what we call nature. The invisible and
intangible are nonetheless actual; we know that poisonous gas, though
invisible and intangible, is fatally actual and potential. [134]

Experiment and induction will confer a great deal of knowledge about the
inferior nature of "God" and along that path the science of the modern
West is treading, but before knowing the occult, hidden, intangible
realms and forces -- often called spiritual, but not so in fact —the
inner astral senses and powers have to be developed and used. 

This development is not to be forced, as one would construct a machine
for performing some operation, but will come in its own time as all our
senses and powers have come. It is true that a good many are trying to
force the process, but at last they will discover that human evolution
is universal and not particular; one man cannot go very far beyond his
race before the time. 

Krishna points out to Arjuna a gulf between the inferior and the
superior. This latter is the Knower and that which sustains the whole
universe, and from it the inferior nature springs. 

So the materialistic and scientific investigator, the mere alchemist,
the man who dives into the occult moved by the desire for gain to
himself, will none of them be able to cross the gulf at all, because
they do not admit the indwelling Spirit, the Knower. 

The superior nature can be known because it is in fact the Knower who
resides in every human being who has not degraded himself utterly. But
this must be admitted before any approach to the light can be made. And
but few are really willing, and many are unable, to admit the universal
character of the Self. They sometimes think they do so by admitting the
Self as present, as contiguous, as perhaps part tenant. This is not the
admission, it leaves them still separate from the Self. All the
phenomenal appearances, all the different names, and lives, and
innumerable beings, are hung suspended, so to say, on the Self. Thus: 

"And all things hang on me [the SPIRIT] as precious gems upon a
string. "

A number of pre-eminently great and precious things and powers are here
enumerated and declared to be the Self; while next the very delusions
and imperfections of life and man are included. Nothing is left out.
This is certainly better than an illogical religion which separates God
from the delusions and cruelties of nature, and then invents a third
thing, in the person of a devil, who is the source of human wickedness. 

All this further accentuates the difficulties in the way. Krishna says
the illusion is difficult to surmount, [136 ] but that success can be
attained by taking refuge in the Self —for he is the Self. 

The entire congregation of worshipers who are righteous find favor with
the Self, but those who are spiritually wise are on the path that leads
to the highest, which is the Self. 

This means, as Krishna says, that those who with the eye of spiritual
wisdom see that the Self is all, begin to reincarnate with that belief
ingrained in them.

Hitherto they had come back to earth without that single idea, but
possessed of many desires and of ideas which separated them from the
Self. Now they begin to return fully at rest in the Self and working out
their long-accumulated karma. And at last they become what was mentioned
in the opening verses, a mahatma or great soul. 

There is, however, a large number of persons who are in the class which
has been deprived of spiritual discernment "through diversity of
desires" or who have not yet had discernment for the same reason. The
verse reads as follows: 

"Those who through diversity of desires are deprived of
spiritual wisdom adopt particular rites subordinated to their own
natures, and worship other Gods."


Further on, Krishna says: (pp. 156-9)


Take the opening sentence of the second paragraph of this chapter [Ninth
-- On: The KINGLY KNOWLEDGE AND The KINGLY MYSTERY ].

"All this universe is pervaded by me in my invisible form; all things
exist in me, but I do not exist in them"; [157] here Krishna speaks as
the Omnipresent Spirit which is in all beings, but which is fully
realized in such beings as Krishna, Christ, and others [Mahatmas] who
have appeared in the world of men.

When Krishna uses the personal pronoun throughout the Gita, he is not
referring to his own personality, but to the Self of All. 

So the above sentence may be read 

"All this universe is pervaded and sustained by the One Self-the
Omnipresent Spirit; as it is the Self and Perceiver in all forms, it
cannot be seen externally. Because of It, all forms exist; but It is not
dependent upon form or forms; these are dependent upon It." 

In this sentence is contained an expression of the basic Universal
Principle, the cause and sustainer of all that was, is, or ever shall
be, and without which nothing exists. Being Universal or Omnipresent,
and Infinite, no form of thought can define It; yet mankind has ever
attempted to define the Infinite by their finite conceptions of Deity.
Hence the many gods of different times and peoples; man-made idols every
one of them, whether they be mental or physical. It is these man-made
conceptions of Deity that have ever tended to erect and sustain
divisions between peoples; tribal .and national [158] gods deny and
frustrate a realization of Universal Brotherhood.

The ancient teaching which Krishna once more enunciates is that all
forms of every kind proceed from One Universal Source; the life of each
is hidden in and sustained by that Source-the One Life. 

The power to perceive and expand its range of perception and expression
is the same in all beings and forms; the degrees of perception and
expression are shown in the innumerable classes of beings it is this
power that is behind all evolution- the unfolding from within outwards.

Krishna goes on to present the Law under which all beings evolve, in the
words, 

"0 son of Kunti, at the end of a kalpa all things return unto my
nature, and then again at the beginning of another kalpa, I cause them
to evolve again". 

A kalpa means a great age or period, and the law referred to is what is
spoken of in the Secret Doctrine as the Law of Periodicity, or the law
of cycles. 

Everywhere in nature we find this law in operation, as in day and night,
summer and winter, life and, death, in-breathing and out-breathing, the
systole and diastole of the heart, sowing and reaping. The general name
for this universal Law is Karma, which means Action and [159] Reaction,
Cause and Effect; it applies to all beings and all planes. An ancient
aphorism says, "There is no Karma unless there is a being to make it or
feel its effect." Hence all manifestation is the result of karmic action
by beings of every grade in their inter-action and inter-relation.

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

This, to me is an explanation of the simile taken from the Sankhya
doctrines.

[see also S D II 176 ]

Best wishes,

Dallas



=================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Reed Carson [mailto:reed3@blavatsky.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 6:19 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] SD QOD December 17, 2003

In the Sankhya philosophy, Purusha (spirit) is spoken of as something 
impotent unless he mounts on the shoulders of Prakriti (matter), which, 
left alone, is - senseless. But in the secret philosophy they are viewed
as 
graduated. (Secret Doctrine Vol I page 247.)