Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00236)

July 18 2004

Re: "dark age" and religions

Dear Friend:

Kali Yuga or a "Dark Age" may be for the whole of humanity as it is now for
the period of years given for this Yuga is 432,000.

It may also be specially localized by Karma for a "sub-race," or even a
"family-race" we are told. [ approximately 62,000 and 25,800 years
respectively ]

Here are some notes:

"Taking now this globe-since we are concerned with no other —its government
and evolution proceed under Manu or man and from this is the term Manvantara
or "between two Manus." 

The course of evolution is divided into four Yugas for every race in its own
time and way. These Yugas do not affect all mankind at one and the same
time, as some races are in one of the Yugas while others are in a different
cycle. The Red Indian, for instance, is in the end of his stone age, while
the Aryans are in quite a different state. 

These four Yugas are: Krita, or Satya, the golden; Treta; Dvapara; and Kali
or the black. The present age for the West and India is Kali Yuga,
especially in respect to moral and spiritual development. The first of these
is slow in comparison with the rest, and the present— Kali —is very rapid,
its motion being accelerated precisely like certain astronomical periods
known today in regard to the Moon, but not fully worked out. 
		
The first 5000 years of Kali Yuga will end between the years 1897 and 1898.
This Yuga began about 3102 years before the Christian era, at the time of 
Krishna's death. 

As 1897-98 are not far off, the scientific men of today will have an
opportunity of seeing whether the close of the five thousand year cycle will
be preceded or followed by any convulsions or great changes political,
scientific, or physical, or all of these combined. 

Cyclic changes are now proceeding as year after year the souls from prior
civilizations are being incarnated in this period when liberty of thought
and action are not so restricted in the West as they have been in the past
by dogmatic religious prejudice and bigotry. And at the present time we are
in a cycle of transition, when, as a transition period should indicate,
everything in philosophy, religion, and society is changing. In a transition
period the full and complete figures and rules respecting cycles are not
given out to a generation which elevates money above all thoughts and scoffs
at the spiritual view of man and nature." Ocean pp, 125-6

Also: 


CYCLES AND LAWS IN TIME


The "2nd Fundamental" of the "Secret Doctrine" speaks of Cycles and Law.
The general definition of "cycles" is that the word was taken from the Greek
kuklos. { S D I p. 16-18 }	

The ancients divided time into endless cycles, wheels within wheels, all
such periods being of various durations, and each marking the beginning or
end of some event either cosmic, mundane, physical of metaphysical. There
were cycles of only a few years, and cycles of immense duration, the great
Orphic cycle, referring to the ethnological change of races, lasting 120,000
years, and the cycle of Cassandrus of 136,000, which brought about a
complete change in planetary influences and their correlations between 'men'
and "gods." This is what the "Theosophical Glossary" says.

The Mahatma writing to Mr. Sinnett observed: "...we recognize but one law in
the Universe, the law of harmony, of perfect equilibrium."	M L 141


Where do we begin to view the law of cycles ? Our knowledge begins with
differentiation, and all manifested objects, beings, or powers are only
differentiations of the ABSOLUTE, the Great Unknown.


THE CYCLE OF EVOLUTION

The first differentiation--speaking metaphysically as to time--is Spirit
(Purusha), with which appears Matter (Prakriti) and Mind (Mahat, Manas).  
Akasa [an occult term used in place of AEther, a tenuous state of matter] is
produced from Matter and Spirit, Will (Fohat) is the force of Spirit in
action, and Life is a resultant of the action of Akasa, moved by Spirit,
upon Matter.  
The real Matter is always invisible. It may be called "Primordial Matter"
or, Mulaprakriti (also Maha-Buddhi), What we see around us, or perceive, is
the phenomena of matter. Mind is the intelligent part of the Cosmos.
Universal Mind or the "Over-Soul" (Mahat) is that in which the plan of the
Cosmos is fixed or contained. This Plan is brought over from a prior period
of manifestation, and no limit can be set to its evolutionary possibilities
in perfectness. This is because there never was a beginning to the
periodical manifestations of the Absolute, and, there never will be any end.
It can not be defined in any way and it remains forever the philosophical
and logical necessity: an "eternal Background."

The ultimate origin or beginning of man is not to be discovered, although we
may know when and from where the men of this globe came from. Man (Mind,
Mahat) never was not. If not on this globe, then on some other, he ever
was, and will ever be in existence somewhere in the Cosmos. Ever perfecting
and reaching up to the image of the Heavenly Man, he is always becoming.


CYCLES ARE THE WORK OF KARMA


Let us consider what Theosophy teaches about cycles and their work on
universal Nature, and humanity. Taking this globe, its government and
evolution proceed under Manu or man. From this word is derived the term
Manvantara, or "between two Manus." This is a cycle of 308,448,000 years
say the ancient astronomers, those who measure cycles (a table of which is
provided in 
SD II pp 68-70). 

The course of evolution is divided into 4 Yugas. The present age for the
West and India is Kali Yuga (the black age), especially in respect to moral
and spiritual development. Kali--is very rapid. The first 5,000 years of
Kali Yuga ended on the 18th of February 1898 (SD I 662). This Yuga began
about 3,102 years before the Christian era, at the time of Krishna's death.
At the present time we are in a cycle of transition, when, as a transition
period, it indicates, everything in philosophy, religion and society is
changing. 	

Speaking of the history of the past of our Earth and of man's evolution on
it, one of the Mahatmas wrote: "Ancient andrologists divided the
interminable periods of human existence on this planet into cycles, during
each of which, human races gradually reached the culminating point of
spiritual evolution of that particular race and gradually relapsed into
abject barbarism."	M. L. p.21 


And HPB wrote:  

"...this philosophy of cycles...allegorized by the Egyptian Hierophants in
the "circle of necessity," explains at the same time the allegory of the
"Fall of man"...each of the 7 chambers of the Pyramids...was known by the
name of a planet. The peculiar architecture of the Pyramids shows in itself
the drift of the metaphysical thought of their builders. The apex is lost
in the clear blue sky...[this] typifies the primordial point lost in the
unseen universe from which started the first race of the spiritual
prototypes of man...Divine spirit being considered a unity, however numerous
the rays of the great spiritual sun, man has still had his origins like all
other forms, whether organic or otherwise, in this one Fount of Eternal
Light..."	ISIS I 296 - 297

Continuing further we find that HPB wrote about cycles:

"These cycles, according to the Chaldean philosophy, do not embrace
all mankind at one and the same time...the metaphysical views of Plato were
based upon the strictest mathematical principles...geometry, of all
sciences, the only one which proceeds from universals to particulars was
precisely the method employed by Plato in his philosophy..."

"...The sacred numbers of the universe in their esoteric combination
solve the great problem (the cosmological theory of numerals which
Pythagoras learned from the Egyptian hierophants, is alone able to reconcile
the two units, matter and spirit...) and explain the theory of radiation and
the cycle of the emanations. The lower orders before they develop into
higher ones must emanate from the higher spiritual ones, and when arrived at
the turning-point, be reabsorbed again into the infinite."	ISIS I 6 -
7


EGYPTIAN RECORDS

Ancient astronomy recorded observations of the movement of heavenly bodies
and we have accounts that speak of great periods of observed movements.
Diogenes Laertius stated that Egyptian records went back to 49,186 years in
his time. The three Zodiacs on the ceiling of the Dendera temple in Egypt
reveal an antiquity of about 78,000 years. An ancient Sumerian clay tablet
records 32,134 years of their ancient history. Astronomical observations
made by the Babylonians were given an antiquity of over 470,000 years and
others, in South India, according to the SECRET DOCTRINE, are said to be
over a million years old and relate back to the fabled Atlantean astronomer
Asura-maya.


SIDEREAL YEAR (25,000 years)


In ISIS UNVEILED, HPB speaks of the cycle of the Sidereal Year, also called
Heliacal Year which is around 25,000 years in length. [ see also S D II
443-6 ] She says : "...the ancients [divided] human history into cycles...
At the close of each "great year," [21,600 yrs = 6 x 3,600]...of six sars
our planet is subject to a thorough physical revolution. The polar and
equatorial climates gradually exchange places...This change of climate is
necessarily attended by cataclysms, earthquakes, and other cosmical throes.
As the beds of the ocean are displaced at the end of every decimillennium
and about one neros [ 600 years--totaling 22,200 years ], a semi-universal
deluge like the legendary Noachian flood is brought about. This year was
called the Heliacal by the Greeks...The winter of this year was called the
Cataclysm or Deluge,--the Summer, the Ecpyrosis [fire]. The popular
traditions taught that at these alternate seasons the world was in turn
burned and deluged." 	
ISIS I 30-31 [see Ocean p. 121--25,868 yrs., 
HPB Articles (ULT), Vol. III, p. 265 fn ]	


PAST CYCLES - ATLANTIS
	

Speaking of the cycle of Atlantis that progressively sank as our present
continental configurations rose from the ocean depths, the Mahatma wrote : 

"...while the new America was forming the ancient Atlantis was sinking, and
gradually wasting away;...the future fate of your British Islands, the first
on the list of victims that have to be destroyed by fire (submarine
volcanoes) and water, France and other lands will follow suit. When they
reappear again, the last seventh Sub-race of the 6th Root race of present
mankind will be flourishing on "Lemuria" and "Atlantis" both of which will
have reappeared also (their reappearance following immediately the
disappearance of the present isles and continents), and very few seas and
great waters will be found then on our globe, waters as well as land
appearing and disappearing and shifting periodically and each in turn...the
approach of every new "obscuration" is always signaled by cataclysms -- of
either fire or water. But apart from this, every "ring" or Root Race has to
be cut in two, so to say, by either one or the other. Thus, having reached
the apex of its development and glory, the 4th Race--the Atlanteans were
destroyed by water; you will find their degenerate, fallen remnants whose
sub-races, nevertheless...had [their] palmy days of glory and relative
greatness." M L p. 156 [also see S D II 147fn, 743 ]


OURS IS A TRANSITION AGE


Our present cycle is called a transitional one. When ISIS UNVEILED was
written in 1877, HPB wrote: "...those guardians of the primitive divine
revelation, who had solved every problem that is within the grasp of human
intellect were bound together by a universal freemasonry of science and
philosophy, which formed one unbroken chain around the globe. It is for
philology and psychology to find the end of the thread. That done, it will
then be ascertained that, by relaxing one single loop of the old religious
systems, the chain of mystery may be disentangled...only ancient religions
were in harmony with nature, and ancient science embraces all that can be
known. Secrets long kept may be revealed ...The cycle has almost run its
course; a new one is about to begin, and the future pages of history may
contain full evidence, and convey full proof... [1897-98]..."(ISIS I 38).
"The cycle is moving down, and, as it descends, the physical and bestial
nature of man develops more and more at the expense of the Spiritual Self."
(ISIS II 366). "Our cycle is preeminently one of.soul deaths. "We elbow
soulless men and women at every step in life." (ISIS II 369)

Writing to Mr. Sinnett, the Mahatma offered an explanation about the
reticence of the Adepts : 

"If, for generations we have "shut out the world from the Knowledge of our
Knowledge," it is on account of its absolute unfitness; and if,
notwithstanding proofs given, it still refuses yielding to evidence, then
will we at the end of this cycle retire into solitude and our kingdom of
silence once more...

We have offered to exhume the primeval strata of man's being, his basic
nature, and lay bare the wonderful complications or his inner Self...and
demonstrate it scientifically...It is our mission to plunge and bring the
pearls of Truth to the surface...For countless generations hath the adept
builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of Infinite Thought,
wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need be, dwell alone, emerging
from it but at the end of every cycle, to invite the elect of mankind to
co-operate with him and help in his turn enlighten superstitious man. And
we will go on in that periodical work of ours; we will not allow ourselves
to be baffled in our philanthropic attempts until that day when the
foundations of a new continent of thought are so firmly built that no amount
of opposition and ignorant malice guided by the Brethren of the Shadow will
be found to prevail." M L p. 50-1


HPB explained our present cycle, saying: "We are the bottom of a cycle and
evidently in a transitory state, Plato divides the intellectual progress of
the universe during every cycle into fertile and barren periods...We are in
a barren period the eighteenth century during which the malignant fever of
skepticism broke out so irrepressibly, has entailed unbelief as an
hereditary disease upon the nineteenth. The divine intellect is veiled in
man; his animal brain alone philosophizes." (ISIS I 247 -9) [see also S D
II 249, 261, 463, 74, 146, 301]

And the Mahatma wrote:  

"...I told you long ago to expect many and great disturbances of all kinds
as one cycle was closing and the other beginning its fateful activities.
You already see in the seismological phenomena of late occurrence some of
the proof; you will see a great many more and shortly..." M L 396


FUTURE ?

Let us now consider what Theosophy ha to offer concerning our future. Wrote
the Mahatma:

"Good resolutions are mind-painted pictures of good deeds: fancies,
day-dreams, whisperings of the Buddhi to the Manas. If we encourage them
they will not fade away like the dissolving mirage in the Shamo desert, but
grow stronger and stronger until one's whole life becomes the expression and
outward proof of the divine motive within...In the eyes of the "Masters" no
one is ever "utterly condemned." As the lost jewel may be recovered from
the very depths of the tank's mud, so can the abandoned snatch himself from
the mire of sin, if only the precious Gem of Gems, the sparkling germ of the
Atma, is developed. Each of us must do that for himself, each can if he but
will and persevere...Your acts in the past...cannot be obliterated, for they
are indelibly stamped upon the record of Karma, and neither tears nor
repentance can blot the page. But you have the power to more than redeem
and balance them by future acts. Around you are acquaintances, friends, and
associates...who have committed the same and even more grievous faults,
thro' the same ignorance...Show them the dreadful consequences of it, point
them to the Light, lead them to the Path, teach them, be a missionary of
love and charity, thus in helping others win your own salvation. There are
innumerable pages of your life record still to be written up, fair and blank
they are as yet...seize the diamond pen and inscribe them with the history
of noble deeds, days well-spent, years of holy striving, So will you win
your way ever upward to the higher planes of spiritual consciousness. Fear
not, faint not, be faithful to the ideal you can now dimly see...Learn to
look at men below the surface, and to neither condemn nor trust on
appearances." -- K.H. 
Letters From Masters of Wisdom, 1st Series, p. 60-2


"It is but matter (or material man) which is compelled by its own weight to
descend to the very bottom of the "circle of necessity" to there assume
animal form; as to the winner of that race throughout the worlds--the
Spiritual Ego, he will ascend from star to star, from one world to another,
circling onward to rebecome the once pure planetary Spirit, then higher
still, to finally reach its first starting point, and from thence--to merge
into mystery. No adept has ever penetrated beyond the veil of primitive
Kosmic matter, The highest, the most perfect vision is limited to the
universe of Form and Matter."	M L p. 47

"The progress of man throughout the whole--from its starting to its closing
points meeting on the highest point of its circumference--is what we call a
Maha Yug or Great Cycle, the Kuklos, whose head is lost in a crown of
Absolute Spirit, and its lowest point of circumference in absolute
matter--to viz. the point of cessation or action of the active
principle...The great is the Prototype of the smaller cycles: and as such
each star world has in its turn its own cycle of Evolution which starts with
a purer and ends with a grosser or more material nature...

Propelled by the irresistible cyclic impulse the Planetary Spirit has to
descend before he can reascend. On his way he has to pass through the whole
ladder of Evolution, missing no rung, to halt at every star world as he
would at a station...when the Spirit-man reaches our planet, which is one of
the lowest, having lost at every station some of the ethereal and acquired
an increase of material nature, both spirit and matter have become pretty
much equilibrized in him. But then he has Earth's cycle to perform..."
M L 46-7


FINAL ACHIEVEMENT


What then is the final period of our Earthly evolution" The Mahatma wrote:

"When the Spirit-man has reached the last bead of the chain and passed
into final Nirvana, the last world also disappears or passes into
subjectivity...When the last cycle of man-bearing has been completed by that
last fecund earth; and humanity has reached in a mass the stage of
Buddhahood and passed out of the objective existence in to the mystery of
Nirvana--then "strikes the hour;" the seen becomes the unseen, the concrete
resumes its pre-cyclic state of atomic distribution. [describes how after
rest and sleep the life functions reawaken and continue] ...planetary
development is as progressive as human or race evolution, the hour of
Pralaya's coming catches the series of worlds at successive stages of
evolution; (i.e.) each has attained to some one of the periods of
evolutionary progress--each stops there, until the outward impulse of the
next manvantara sets it going from that very point--like a stopped
time-piece rewound...all these planets will be physically disintegrated in
the pralaya, yet not destroyed; for they have their place in the sequence
of evolution and their "privations" coming again out of the subjective, they
will find the exact point from which they have to move on around the chain
of "manifested forms." This...is repeated endlessly throughout Eternity.
Each man of us has gone this ceaseless round, and will repeat it for ever
and ever. The deviation of each one's course, and his rate of progress from
Nirvana to Nirvana is governed by causes which he himself creates out of the
exigencies in which he finds himself entangled.

This picture of an eternity of action may appall the mind that has been
accustomed to look forward to an existence of ceaseless repose. But their
concept is not supported by the analogies of nature...We know that periods
of action and rest follow each other in everything in nature...and
that...all nature...has her times for recuperation. So with the spiritual
individuality, the Monad which starts on its downward and upward cyclic
rotation. The periods which intervene between each great manvantarian
"round" are proportionately long to reward the thousand of existences passed
on various globes; while the time given between each "race birth"--or rings
as you call them--is sufficiently lengthy to compensate for any life of
strife and misery during that lapse of time passed in conscious bliss after
the rebirth of the Ego..."	M L p. 67-8


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

Best wishes in your studies, 


Dallas
 
===============================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Gopi 
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 9:23 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: re "dark age" and religion


Is 'Dark Age' same all over the world? Is it possible that 'Dark Age' for
one group of people is 'Golden Age' for another?

By the way what is our present age? 'Dark'. 'Golden' or something
different?

Gopi

---
Distributed by Reed Carson P.O. Box 160 Windham NY 12496 USA
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