Theos-Talk Archives (April 2006 Message tt00221)

My views are:


I just read the following info tells us about the leader of the Sringeri ma=
tha in the times of Blavatsky. http://www.ittc.ku.edu/~krsna/Sringeri/sacci=
d.html
His name was Sri Sacchidananda Sivabhinava Narasimha Bharati (1878-1912). B=
lavatsky praises the Sringeri teachers on Advaita Vedanta in her book The S=
ecret Doctrine. I have made an important quote from the book in the below o=
f the email. This quote makes me comment with the following words.


A few comments would be important to make about these words of Blavatsky's =
in the below.

1.  Blavatsky also says in the below, that
 "Sri Sankaracharya, the greatest Initiate living in the historical ages, w=
rote many a Bhashya on the Upanishads."

Now when we learn that Sankaracharya was the GREATEST inititate living in h=
istorical ages, we aught to give that some importance and value. Are the re=
aders agreeing with me or are the readers just being silent?

2. Blavatsky writes in the below:=20
"This sect, founded by Sankaracharya, (which is still very powerful in Sout=
hern India) is now almost the only one to produce students who have preserv=
ed sufficient knowledge to comprehend the dead letter of the Bhashyas. The =
reason of this is that they alone, I am informed, have occasionally real In=
itiates at their head in their mathams, as for instance, in the "Sringa-gir=
i," in the Western Ghats of Mysore"

This was written by Blavatsky near the years 1886-1888 and perhaps even bef=
ore. We know, that Blavatsky went to India in 1879. In the years from 1879-=
1912 Sri Sacchidananda Sivabhinava Narasimha Bharati was the so-called head=
 teacher of the Sringa-giri center of Sankaracharya's teachings.=20
And Sri Sacchidananda Sivabhinava Narasimha Bharati was visited by a "north=
ern Rajput prince"=20
as far as the first link in the above tells us.
( http://www.ittc.ku.edu/~krsna/Sringeri/saccid.html )

One could ask whether, this sect is still powerful today year 2006?

- - -

Here is the quote from The Secret Doctrine

"
There are over 150 Upanishads enumerated by, and known to, Orientalists, wh=
o credit the oldest with being written probably about 600 years B.C.; but o=
f genuine texts there does not exist a fifth of the number. The Upanishads =
are to the Vedas what the Kabala is to the Jewish Bible. They treat of and =
expound the secret and mystic meaning of the Vedic texts. They speak of the=
 origin of the Universe, the nature of Deity, and of Spirit and Soul, as al=
so of the metaphysical connection of mind and matter. In a few words: They =
CONTAIN the beginning and the end of all human knowledge, but they have now=
 ceased to REVEAL it, since the day of Buddha. If it were otherwise, the Up=
anishads could not be called esoteric, since they are now openly attached t=
o the Sacred Brahmanical books, which have, in our present age, become acce=
ssible even to the Mlechchhas (out-castes) and the European Orientalists. O=
ne thing in them-and this in all the Upanishads-invariably and constantly p=
oints to their ancient origin, and proves (a) that they were written, in so=
me of their portions, before the caste system became the tyrannical institu=
tion which it still is; and (b) that half of their contents have been elimi=
nated, while some of them were rewritten and abridged. "The great Teachers =
of the higher Knowledge and the Brahmans are continually represented as goi=
ng to Kshatriya (military caste) kings to become their pupils." As Cowell p=
ertinently remarks, the Upanishads "breathe an entirely different spirit" (=
from other Brahmanical writings), "a freedom of thought unknown in any earl=
ier work except in the Rig Veda hymns themselves." The second fact is expla=
ined by a tradition recorded in one of the MSS. on Buddha's life. It says t=
hat the Upanishads were originally attached to their Brahmanas after the be=
ginning of a reform, which led to the exclusiveness of the present caste sy=
stem among the Brahmins, a few centuries after the invasion of India by the=
 "twice-born." They were complete in those days, and were used for the inst=
ruction of the chelas who were preparing for their initiation.
------------------------------
* "The Vedas have a distinct dual meaning-one expressed by the literal sens=
e of the words, the other indicated by the metre and the swara-intonation-w=
hich are as the life of the Vedas. . . . Learned pundits and philologists o=
f course deny that swara has anything to do with philosophy or ancient esot=
eric doctrines; but the mysterious connection between swara and light is on=
e of its most profound secrets." (T. Subba Row, Five Years of Theosophy, p.=
 154.)
=20
271                                                                        =
                                      OCCULTISM IN THE UPANISHADS.

    This lasted so long as the Vedas and the Brahmanas remained in the sole=
 and exclusive keeping of the temple-Brahmins-while no one else had the rig=
ht to study or even read them outside of the sacred caste. Then came Gautam=
a, the Prince of Kapilavastu. After learning the whole of the Brahmanical w=
isdom in the Rahasya or the Upanishads, and finding that the teachings diff=
ered little, if at all, from those of the "Teachers of Life" inhabiting the=
 snowy ranges of the Himalaya,* the Disciple of the Brahmins, feeling indig=
nant because the sacred wisdom was thus withheld from all but the Brahmins,=
 determined to save the whole world by popularizing it. Then it was that th=
e Brahmins, seeing that their sacred knowledge and Occult wisdom was fallin=
g into the hands of the "Mlechchhas," abridged the texts of the Upanishads,=
 originally containing thrice the matter of the Vedas and the Brahmanas tog=
ether, without altering, however, one word of the texts. They simply detach=
ed from the MSS. the most important portions containing the last word of th=
e Mystery of Being. The key to the Brahmanical secret code remained hencefo=
rth with the initiates alone, and the Brahmins were thus in a position to p=
ublicly deny the correctness of Buddha's teaching by appealing to their Upa=
nishads, silenced for ever on the chief questions. Such is the esoteric tra=
dition beyond the Himalayas.

    Sri Sankaracharya, the greatest Initiate living in the historical ages,=
 wrote many a Bh=E2shya on the Upanishads. But his original treatises, as t=
here are reasons to suppose, have not yet fallen into the hands of the Phil=
istines, for they are too jealously preserved in his maths (monasteries, ma=
thams). And there are still weightier reasons to believe that the priceless=
 Bh=E2shyas (Commentaries) on the esoteric doctrine of the Brahmins, by the=
ir greatest expounder, will remain for ages yet a dead letter to most of th=
e Hindus, except the Sm=E2rtava Brahmins. This sect, founded by Sankarachar=
ya, (which is still very powerful in Southern India) is now almost the only=
 one to produce students who have preserved sufficient knowledge to compreh=
end the
------------------------------
* Also called "the Sons of Wisdom," and of the "Fire-Mist" and the "Brother=
s of the Sun" in the Chinese records. Si-dzang (Tibet) is mentioned in the =
MSS. of the sacred library of the province of Fo-Kien, as the great seat of=
 Occult learning from time immemorial, ages before Buddha. The Emperor Yu, =
the "great" (2,207 years B.C.), a pious mystic and great adept, is said to =
have obtained his knowledge from the "great teachers of the Snowy Range" in=
 Si-dzang.
=20
272                                                                        =
                                     THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

dead letter of the Bhashyas. The reason of this is that they alone, I am in=
formed, have occasionally real Initiates at their head in their mathams, as=
 for instance, in the "Sringa-giri," in the Western Ghats of Mysore. On the=
 other hand, there is no sect in that desperately exclusive caste of the Br=
ahmins, more exclusive than is the Sm=E2rtava; and the reticence of its fol=
lowers to say what they may know of the Occult sciences and the esoteric do=
ctrine, is only equalled by their pride and learning.
"

(Taken from the original manuscript of the Secret Doctrine: http://www.phx-=
ult-lodge.org/SDVolume_I.htm )

- - -





from
M. Sufilight with peace and love.












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