Theosophy - The Stanzas of Dzyan by H.P.Blavatsky
THE
STANZAS OF DZYAN
reprinted from
THE
'SECRET DOCTRINE' OF H.P.Blavatsky
The stanzas of
The Book of Dzyan are not easy to understand, but they reveal, to the person
willing to study them, a sublime description of cosmic evolution: the reawakening
of the universe after a period of quiescence, the differentiation of forms,
the process of world formation, the appearance of humanity on earth, and the
early evolution of our species
FOREWORD
"WHO" asks
Madame Blavatsky, in the Preface to the first edition of the Secret Doctrine,
has ever even heard of the Book of Dzyan?" That was in 1888. Today
so many people have heard of it, so many students of the world-mystery have
felt some inner fiber of their nature thrill in response to the sonorous roll
of its archaic phrases, that, in obedience to a very real and persistent demand,
the Stanzas on which the first two volumes of the Secret Doctrine are
based are here reprinted in convenient form.
For the information
of readers into whose hands these Stanzas may now fall for the first time, it
is desirable to give some brief account of their source, on the authority of
the Occultist who translated and introduced them to the world of modern thought.
The following particulars are derived from the Introduction and Proem to the
Secret Doctrine and from the Preface to the Voice of the Silence,
which Madame Blavatsky tells us forms part of the same series of long-concealed
manuscript treasurers to which the Stanzas of Dzyan belong.
The Book of Dzyan
( or Dzan - a word which Madame Blavatsky connects with Dhyana) is not in
the possession of any European library, and was never head of by European scholarship;
nevertheless it exists, and lies hidden, even from the enterprising war-correspondent,
in one of the mysterious rock-libraries that the spurs of the Himalayas may
even yet contain.
Many rare and priceless
heirlooms of a long-lost science are, it is asserted, still in existence in
safe custody: works that were thought to have been lost to humanity since the
burning of the great library of Alexandria, and much more of original documentary
matter that has reached the modern world only in the form of thousands of scattered
fragments in the vast accumulation of Sanskrit MSS., remain for posterity to
unveil. The Stanzas of Dzyan are an earnest of what may follow when
the time is ripe, the present selection being, we are told, but a few fragments
of a great whole which would seem to be cosmic history upon the most grandiose
and stupendous scale. They are written in a language unknown to philology, if,
indeed, the term "written" is applicable to ideographs, of which it
would appear they largely consist, and this associated with the use of a color
system of symbology. [See Preface to the "Voice
of the Silence
]
"They are given
throughout", says H.P.Blavatsky, in their modern translated version , as
it would be worse than useless to make the subject still more difficult by introducing
the archaic phraseology of the original with its puzzling style and words".
The terms used, where
non-translatable into English, are Tibetan or Sanskrit, and for the general
reader they will be frequently a stumbling-block unless reference be made to
the Secret Doctrine itself, where the commentaries on the text will
be generally found to supply the meaning.
THE
SECRET BOOKS OF 'LAM-RIN' AND DZYAN
The Book of Dzyan
- from the Sanskrit word "Dhyan" (mystic meditation) - is the
first volume of the Commentaries upon the seven secret folios of Kiu-te, and
a Glossary of the public works of the same name. Thirty-five volumes of Kiu-te
for exoteric purposes and the use of the laymen may be found in the possession
of the Tibetan Gelugpa Lamas, in the library of any monastery; and also fourteen
books of Commentaries and Annotations on the same by the initiated Teachers.
Strictly speaking,
those thirty-five books, ought to be termed "The Popularized Version"
of the Secret Doctrine, full of myths, blinds, and errors; the fourteen volumes
of Commentaries, on the other hand - with their translations, annotations,
and an ample glossary of occult terms, worked out from one archaic, folio, the
Book of the Secret Wisdom of the World - contains a digest of all the
Occult Sciences. These, it appears, are kept secret and apart, in the charge
of the Teshu Lama of Tji-gad-je. The Books of Kiu-te are comparatively modern,
having been edited within the past millennium, whereas, the earliest volumes
of the Commentaries are of untold antiquity, some fragments of the original
cylinders having been preserved. With the exception that they explain and correct
some of the too fabulous, and to every appearance,grossly-exaggerated accounts
in the Books of Kiu-te - properly so-called - the Commentaries have little
to do with these. They stand in relation to them as the Chaldaeo - Jewish Kabalah
stands to the Mosaic Books. In the work known as the Avatumsaka Sutra,
in section: "The Supreme Atman [Soul] as manifested in the character of
the Arhats and the Pratyeka Buddhas", it is stated that:
Because from the
beginning all sentient creatures have confused the truth and embraced the
false, therefore there came into existence a hidden knowledge called Alaya
Vijnana.
" Who is in
possession of the true knowledge?" is asked. "The great Teachers of
the Snowy Mountain", is the response.
These 'great Teachers"
have been known to live in the "Snowy Range" of the Himalayas for
countless ages. To deny in the face of millions of Hindus the existence of their
great Gurus, living in the Ashrams scattered all over the Trans - or the Cis-Himalayan
slopes, is to make oneself ridiculous in their eyes. When the Buddhist Saviour
appeared in India, their Ashrams - for it is rarely that these great Men are
found in Lamaseries, unless on a short visit - where on the spots they now occupy,
and that even before the Brahmans themselves came from Central Asia to settle
on the Indus. And before that more than one Aryan Dvija of fame and historical
renown had sat at their feet, learning that which culminated later on in one
or another of the great philosophical schools. Most of these Himalayan Bhante
were Aryan Brahmans and ascetics.
No student,unless
very advanced, would be benefited by the perusal of those exoteric volumes.
They must be read with a key to their meaning, and that key can only be found
in the Commentaries. Moreover there are some comparatively modern works
that are positively so injurious as far as a fair comprehension of even exoteric
Buddhism is concerned. Such are the Buddhist Cosmos, by Bonze Jin-ch'on
of Pekin; the Shing-Tau-ki (or The Records of the Enlightenment of
Tathagata) by Wang Puk - seventh century; Hisai-Sutra (or Book
of Creation), and some others.
SYNOPSIS
OF THE FIRST SEVEN STANZAS
Reprinted from
the Proem to Vol.-1- of the "Secret Doctrine"
The history of Cosmic
Evolution, as traced in the Stanzas, is, so to say, the abstract algebraical
formula of that evolution. Hence the student must not expect to find there an
account of all the stages and transformations which intervene between the first
beginnings of Universal Evolution and our present state. To give such an account
would be as impossible as it would be incomprehensible to men who cannot grasp
the nature of even the plane of existence next to that to which, for the moment,
their consciousness is limited.
The Stanzas, therefore,
give an abstract formula which can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to
all evolution: to that of our tiny Earth, to that of the Chain of Planets of
which the Earth forms one, to the Solar Universe to which that Chain belongs,
and so on, in an ascending scale, till the mind reels and is exhausted in the
effort.
The Seven Stanzas
given in this (the first) volume represent the seven terms of this abstract
formula. They refer to, and describe, the seven great stages of the evolutionary
process, which are spoken of in the Puranas as the "Seven Creations",
and in the Bible as the "Days" of Creation.
Stanza -1-
describes
the state of the ONE ALL during Pralaya, before the first flutter of reawakening
Manifestation.
A moment's thought
shows that such a state can only be symbolized; to describe it, is impossible.
Nor can it be symbolized except in negatives; for, since it is the state of
Absoluteness per se, it can possess none of those specific attributes
which serve us to describe objects in positive terms. Hence that state can only
be suggested by the negatives of all those most abstract attributes which men
feel rather than conceive, as the remotest limits attainable by their power
of conception.
Stanza -2- describes
a stage which, to a Western mind, is so nearly identical with that mentioned
in Stanza I., that to express the idea of its difference would require a treatise
in itself Hence it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of
the reader to grasp, as far as he can,the meaning of the allegorical phrases
used. Indeed, it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner
faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain.
Stanza -3-
describes the Reawakening of the Universe to life after Pralaya. It depicts
the emergence of the Monads from their state of absorption within the One,the
earliest and highest stage in the formation of Worlds - the term Monad being
one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar System or the tiniest atom.
Stanza -4- shows
the differentiation of the "Germ" of the Universe into the Septenary
Hierarchy of conscious Divine Powers,which are the active manifestations of
the One Supreme Energy. They are the framers, shapers, and ultimately the creators
of all the manifested Universe, in the only sense in which the name "creator"
is intelligible; they inform and guide it; they are the intelligent Beings who
adjust and control evolution, embodying in themselves those manifestations of
the One Law, which we know as the "Laws of Nature".
Generally, they are
known as the Dhyan Chohans, through each of the various groups has its own designation
in the Secret Doctrine.
This stage of evolution
is spoken of in Hindu mythology as the "Creation of the Gods".
Stanza -5-
describes the process of world-formation. First,diffused Cosmic Matter, then
the "Fiery Whirlwind", the first stage in the formation of a nebula.
This nebula condenses, and after passing through various transformations, form
a Solar Universe, a Planetary Chain, or a single Planet, as the case may be.
Stanza -6- indicates
the subsequent stages in the formation of a "World", and brings the
evolution of such a World down to its fourth great period, corresponding to
the period in which we are now living.
Stanza -7-
continues the history, tracing the descent of life down to the appearance of
Man; and thus closes the First Book of the Secret Doctrine.
PART
ONE
STANZA
-1-
1. The Eternal Parent
wrapped in her Ever- Invisible Robes, had slumbered once again for Seven Eternities.
2. Time was not,
for it lay asleep in the Infinite Bosom of Duration
3. Universal Mind
was not, for there were no Ah-hi to contain it.
4. The Seven Ways
to Bliss were not The Great Causes of Misery were not, for there was no one
to produce and get ensnared by them..
5. Darkness alone
filled the Boundless All, for Father, Mother, and Son were once more one, and
the Son had not yet awakened for the new Wheel and his Pilgrimage thereon.
6. The Seven Sublime
Lords and the Seven Truths had ceased to be, and the Universe, the Son of Necessity,
was immersed in Paranishpanna, to be outbreathed by that which is, and yet is
not. Naught was.
7. The Causes of
Existence had been done away with; the Visible that was, and the Invisible that
is, rested in Eternal Non-Being - the One Being.
8. Alone, the One
Form of Existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in Dreamless Sleep;
and Life pulsated unconscious in Universal Space, throughout that All-Presence,
which is sensed by the Opened Eye of Dangma
9. But where was
Dangma when the Alaya of the Universe was in Paramârtha , and the Great
Wheel was Anupadaka?
STANZA
-2-
1. . . . Where were
the Builders, the Luminous Sons of Manvantaric Dawn? ... In the Unknown Darkness
in their Ah-hi Paranishpanna. The Producers of Form from No-Form -- the Root
of the World -- the Devamâtri and Svabhâvat, rested in the Bliss
of Non-Being.
2. . . . Where was
Silence? Where the ears to sense it? No,there was neither Silence nor Sound;
naught save Ceaseless Eternal Breath, which knows itself not.
3. The Hour had not
yet struck; the Ray had not yet flashed into the Germ; the Mâtripadma
had not yet swollen.
4. Her Heart had
not yet opened for the One Ray to enter,thence to fall, as Three into Four,into
the Lap of Maya.
5. The Seven were
not yet born from the Web of Light. Darkness alone was Father-Mother, Svabhâvat;
and Svabhâvat was in Darkness.
6. These Two are
the Germ, and the Germ is One. The Universe was still concealed in the Divine
Thought and the Divine Bosom. .
STANZA
-3-
1. . . . The last
Vibration of the Seventh Eternity thrills through Infinitude. The Mother swells,
expanding from within without, like the Bud of the Lotus.
2. The Vibration
sweeps along,touching with its swift Wing the whole Universe and the Germ that
dwelleth in Darkness, the Darkness that breathes over the slumbering Waters
of Life..
3. Darkness radiates
Light, and Light drops one solitary Ray into the Waters, into the Mother-Deep.
The Ray shoots through the Virgin Egg, the Ray causes the Eternal Egg to thrill,
and drop the non-eternal Germ, which condenses into the World-Egg.
4. The Three fall
into the Four. The Radiant Essence becomes Seven inside, Seven outside. The
Luminous Egg, which in itself is Three, curdles and spreads in milk-white Curds
throughout the Depths of Mother, the root that grows in the Depths of the Ocean
of Life.
5. The Root remains,
the Light remains, the Curds remain and Still Oeaohoo is One.
6. The Root of Life
was in every Drop of the Ocean of Immortality , and the Ocean was Radiant Light,
which was Fire, and Heat, and Motion. Darkness vanished and was no more; it
disappeared in its own Essence, the Body of Fire and Water, of Father and Mother.
7. Behold, O Lanoo,
the Radiant Child of the Two, the unparalleled refulgent Glory- Bright Space,
Son of Dark Space, who emerges from the Depths of the great Dark Waters. It
is Oeaohoo, the Younger, the ***.He shine forth as the Sun,he is the Blazing
Divine Dragon of Wisdom; the Eka is Chatur, and Chatur, takes to itself Tri,
and the Union produces the Sapta, in whom are the Seven, which become the Tridasha,
the Hosts and the Multitudes. Behold him lifting the Veil, and unfurling it
from East to West. He shuts out the Above, and leaves the Below to be seen as
the Great Illusion. He marks the places for the Shining Ones, and turns the
Upper into a shoreless Sea of Fire, and the One Manifested into the Great Waters.
8. Where was the
Germ, and where was now Darkness? Where is the Spirit of the Flame that burns
in thy Lamp, O Lanoo? The Germ is That, and That is Light, the White Brilliant
Son of the Dark Hidden Father.
9. Light is Cold
Flame, and Flame is Fire, and Fire produces Heat, which yields Water - The Water
of Life in the Great Mother.
10. Father-Mother
spin a Web, whose upper end is fastened to Spirit, the Light of the One Darkness,
and the lower one to its shadowy end, Matter; and this Web is the Universe,
spun out of the Two Substances made in One, which is Svabhâvat.
11. It expands when
the Breath of Fire is upon it; it contracts when the Breath of the Mother touches
it. Then the Sons dissociate and scatter, to return into their Mother's Bosom,
at the end of the Great Day, and re-become one with her. When it is cooling,
it becomes radiant. Its Sons expand and contract through their own Selves and
Hearts; they embrace Infinitude.
12. Then Svabhâvat
send Fohat to harden the Atoms. Each is a part of the Web. Reflecting the "Self-Existent
Lord", like a Mirror, each becomes in turn a World
STANZA
-4-
1. . . . Listen,
ye Sons of the Earth, to your Instructors - the Sons of the Fire. Learn,there
is neither first nor last; for all is One Number,issued from No-Number.
2. Learn what we,
who descend from the Primordial Seven, we, who are born from the Primordial
Flame, have learnt from our Fathers...
3. From the Effulgency
of Light - the Ray of the Ever-Darkness - sprang in Space the reawakened Energies;
the One from the Egg, the Six, and the Five. Then the Three, the One, the Four,
the One, the Five- the Twice Seven,the Sum Total. And these are the Essences,
the Flames, the Elements, the Builders, the Numbers, the Arûpa , the Rûpa
, and the Force or Divine Man,the Sum Total. And from the Divine Man emanated
the Forms, the Sparks, the Sacred Animals, and the Messengers of the Sacred
Fathers within the Holy Four.
4. This was the Army
of the Voice, the Divine Mother of the Seven. The Sparks of the Seven are subject
to,and the servants of, the First, the Second, the Third,the Fourth,the Fifth,
the Sixth, and the Seventh of the Seven. These are called Spheres, Triangles,
Cubes,Lines and Modellers; for thus stands the Eternal Nidâna - the Oi-Ha-Hou.
5. The Oi-Ha-Hou,
which is Darkness, the Boundless, or the No-Number, Adi-Nidâna Svabhâvat,the
O;
-1-The Adi-Sanat,
the Number, for he is One.
-2-The Voice of
the Word, Svabhâvat, the Numbers,for he is One and Nine.
-3- The "Formless
Square".
And these Three,
enclosed within the O, are the Sacred Four; and the Ten are the Arûpa
Universe. Then come the Sons, the Seven Fighters, the One, the Eight left out,
and his Breath which is the Light-Maker
6. ....Then the Second
Seven, who are the Lipika, produced by the Three. The Rejected Son is One. The
"Son-Suns" are countless.
STANZA
-5-
1. The Primordial
Seven ,the First Seven Breaths of the Dragon of Wisdom, produce in their turn
from their Holy Circumgyrating Breaths the Fiery Whirlwind.
2. They make of him
the Messenger of their Will. The Dzyu becomes Fohat: the swift Son of the Divine
Sons, whose Sons are the Lipika, runs circular errands. Fohat is the Steed,
and the Thought is the Rider. He passes like lightning through the fiery clouds;
takes Three, and Five, and Seven Strides through the Seven Regions above,and
Seven below. He lifts his Voice, and calls the innumerable Sparks, and joins
them together.
3. He is their guiding
spirit and leader. When he commences work,he separates the Sparks of the Lower
Kingdom, that float and thrill with joy in their radiant dwellings, and forms
therewith the Germs of Wheels. He places them in the Six Directions of Space,
and one in the Middle- the Central Wheel.
4. Fohat traces spiral
lines to unite the Sixth to the Seventh - the Crown. An Army of the Sons of
Light stands at each angle; the Lipika, in the Middle Wheel. They say: "This
is good". The first Divine World is ready; the First, the Second. Then
the "Divine Arûpa " reflects itself in Chhâyâ Loka,
the first Garment of Anupâdaka.
5. Fohat takes five
strides, and builds a winged wheel at each corner of the square for the Four
Holy Ones.... and their Armies..
6. The Lipika circumscribe
the Triangle,the First One , the Cube, the Second One , and the Pentacle within
the Egg. It is the Ring called "Pass not" for those who descend and
ascend; who during the Kalpa are progressing towards the Great Day "Be
With Us"..... Thus were formed the Arûpa and the Rûpa : from
One Light, Seven Lights; from each of the Seven, seven times Seven Lights. The
Wheels watch the Ring...
STANZA
-6-
1. By the power of
the Mother of Mercy and Knowledge, Kwan-Yin - the Triple of Kwan - Shai-Yin,
residing in Kwan -Yin -Tien -- Fohat, the Breath of their Progeny,the Son of
the Sons, having called forth,from the Lower Abyss, the Illusive Form of Sien
--Tchan and the Seven Elements.
2. The Swift and
the Radiant One produces the seven Laya Centres, against which none will prevail
to the Great Day "Be With Us"; and seats the Universe on these Eternal
Foundations, surrounding Sien-Tchan with the Elementary Germs.
3. Of the Seven -
first One manifested, Six concealed; Two manifested, Five concealed; Three manifested,
Four concealed; Four produced, Three hidden; Four and One Tsan revealed, Two
and One-Half concealed; Six to be manifested, One laid aside. Lastly, Seven
Small Wheels revolving; one giving birth to the other.
4. He builds them
in the likeness of older Wheels, placing them on the Imperishable Centres.
How does Fohat build
them? He collects the Fiery Dust. He makes Balls of Fire, runs through them,
and round them, infusing life thereinto , then sets them into motion; some one
way, some the other way. They are cold, he makes them hot. They are dry, he
makes them moist. They shine, he fans and cools them. Thus acts Fohat from one
Twilight to the other, during Seven Eternities.
5. At the Fourth,
the Sons are told to create their Images, One-Third refuses. Two obey.
The Curse is pronounced.
They will be born in the Fourth, suffer and cause suffering. This is the First
War.
6. The Older Wheels
rotated downward and upward .... The Mother's Spawn filled the whole. There
were Battles fought between the Creators and the Destroyers, and Battles fought
for Space; the Seed appearing and reappearing continuously.
7. Make thy calculations,
O Lanoo, if thou wouldst learn the correct age of thy Small Wheel. Its Fourth
Spoke is our Mother. Reach the Fourth Fruit of the Fourth Path of Knowledge
that leads to Nirvana, and thou shalt comprehend, for thou shalt see.......
.
STANZA
-7-
1. Behold the beginning
of sentient formless Life.
First, the Divine,
the One from the Mother Spirit; then, the Spiritual; the Three from the One,
the Four from the One, and the Five, from which the Three, the Five and the
Seven. These are the Threefold and the Fourfold downward; the Mind-born Sons
of the First Lord, the Shining Seven. It is they who are thou, I, he, O Lanoo;
they who watch over thee and thy mother, Bhûmi
2. The One Ray multiplies
the smaller Rays. Life precedes Form, and Life survives,the last atom. Through
the countless Rays the Life-Ray, the One, like a Thread through many Beads.
3. When the One becomes
Two, the Threefold appears, and the Three are One; and it is our Thread, O Lanoo,
the Heart of the Man-Plant called Saptaparna
4. It is the Root
that never dies; the Three-tongued Flame of the Four Wicks. The Wicks are the
Sparks, that draw from the Three-tongued Flame shot out by the Seven - their
Flame - the Beams and Sparks of one Moon reflected in the running Waves of all
the Rivers of Earth.
5. The Spark hangs
from the Flame by the finest thread of Fohat. It journeys through the Seven
Worlds of Maya. It stops in the First, and is a Metal and a Stone; it passes
into the Second, and behold - a Plant; the Plant whirls through seven changes
and becomes a Sacred Animal. From the combined attributes of these, Manu, the
Thinker, is formed. Who forms him? The Seven Lives and the One Life. Who completes
him? The Fivefold Lha. And who perfects the last Body? Fish, Sin, and Soma.....
6. From the First-born
the Thread between the Silent Watcher and his Shadow becomes more strong and
radiant with every Change. The morning Sunlight has changed into noonday glory....
7. "This thy
present Wheel", said the Flame to the Spark. "Thou art myself, my
image and my shadow. I have clothed myself in thee, and thou art my Vâhan
to the Day "Be With Us ", when thou shalt re-become myself and others,
thyself and me". Then the Builders, having donned their first Clothing,
descent on radiant Earth and reign over men -- who are themselves.... . .
PART
-2-
ANTHROPOGENESIS
(From the Second
Volume of the "Secret Doctrine")
ONLY forty-nine
Shlokas out of several hundred are here given, and not every verse is translated
verbatim, a periphrasis being sometimes used for the sake of clearness and intelligibility,
where a literal translation would be quite unintelligible.
The Stanzas, with
the Commentaries thereon, in this volume are drawn from the same Archaic Records
as the Stanzas on Cosmogony in Volume -1-. As far as possible a verbatim translation
is given; but some of the Stanzas are too obscure to be understood without explanation,
and therefore, as in Volume -1-, they are first given in full as they stand,
and then, when taken verse by verse with their Commentaries, an attempt is made
to make them clearer,by words added in footnotes,in anticipation of the fuller
explanation of the Commentary.
As regards the Evolution
of mankind, the Secret Doctrine postulates three new propositions, which
stand in direct antagonism to Modern Science as well as to current religious
dogmas. It teaches: (a) the simultaneous evolution of seven human Groups on
seven different portions of our globe; (b) the birth of the astral,
before the physical body, the former being a model for the latter; and
(c) that man, in this Round, preceded every mammalian - the anthropoids included
- in the animal kingdom - Secret Doctrine, Vol.-2-
STANZA
-1-
1. The Lha which
turns the Fourth is Servant to the Lha (s) of the Seven, they who revolve, driving
their Chariots around their Lord, the One Eye of our World. His Breath gave
Life to the Seven. It gave Life to the First.
2. Said the Earth:
"Lord of the Shining Face, my House is empty .... Send thy Sons to people
this Wheel. Thou has sent thy Seven Sons to the Lord of Wisdom. Seven times
doth he see thee nearer to himself , seven times more doth he feel thee. Thou
hast forbidden thy Servants , the small Rings, to catch thy Light and Heat,
thy great Bounty to intercept on its passage. Send now thy Servant the same".
3. Said the Lord
of the Shining Face: "I Shall send thee a Fire when thy work is commenced.
Raise thy voice to other Lokas; apply to thy Father, the Lord of the Lotus,
for his Sons ... Thy people shall be under the rule of the Fathers. Thy Men
shall be mortals. The Men of the Lord of Wisdom, not the Sons of Soma,are immortal.
Cease thy complaints. Thy Seven Skins are yet on thee... Thou art not ready.
Thy Men are not ready".
4. After great throes
she cast off her old Three and put on her new Seven Skins, and stood in her
first one.
STANZA
-2-
5. The Wheel whirled
for thirty crores more. It constructed Rûpas ; soft Stones that hardened,
hard Plants that softened. Visible from invisible Insects and small Lives. She
shook them off her back whenever they overran the Mother .... After thirty crores,
she turned round. She lay on her back; on her side .... She would call no Sons
of Heaven,she would ask no Sons of Wisdom. She created from her own Bosom. She
evolved Water-Men, terrible and bad.
6. The Water-Men,
terrible and bad, she herself created from the remains of others. From the dross
and slime of her First, Second, and Third,she formed them. The Dhyâni
came and looked ... The Dhyâni from the bright Father-Mother, from the
White Regions they came, from the Abodes of the Immortal Mortals.
7. Displeased they
were. "Our Flesh is not there. No fit Rûpas for our Brothers of the
Fifth. No dwellings for the Lives. Pure Waters, not turbid, they must drink.
Let us dry them".
8. The Flames came.
The Fires with the Sparks; the night-Fires and the Day-Fires. They dried out
the turbid dark Waters. With their heat they quenched them. The Lhas of the
High, the Lha-mayin of Below, came. They slew the Forms which were two-and four-faced.
They fought the Goat-Men, and the Dog-Headed Men, and the Men with fishes' bodies.
9. Mother-Water,
the Great Sea, wept. She arose, she disappeared in the Moon,which had lifted
her,which had given her birth.
10. When they were
destroyed, Mother Earth remained bare. She asked to be dried.
STANZA
-3-
11- The Lord of the
Lords came. From her Body he separated the Waters, and that was Heaven above,
the First Heaven.
12- The great Chohans
called the Lords of the Moon, of the Airy Bodies: "Bring forth Men, Men
of your nature. Give them their Forms within. She will build Coverings without.
Males-Females will they be. Lords of the Flame also...."
13- They went each
on his allotted Land; Seven of them, each on his Lot. The Lords of the Flame
remain behind. They would not go, they would not create.
STANZA
-4-
14- The Seven Hosts,
the Will-Born Lords, propelled by the Spirit of Life-giving, separate Men from
themselves,each on his own Zone.
15- Seven times seven
Shadows of Future Men were born, each of his own Color and Kind. Each inferior
to his Father. The Fathers, the Boneless, could give no Life to Beings with
Bones. Their progeny were Bhuta, with neither Form nor Mind. Therefore they
are called the Chhâyâ Race.
16- How are the Manushya
born? The Manus with minds, how are they made? The Fathers called to their help
their own Fire, which is the Fire that burns in Earth. The Spirit of the Earth
called to his help the Solar Fire. These Three produced in their joint efforts,
a good Rûpa It could stand,walk, run, recline, or fly. Yet it was still
but a Chhâyâ, a Shadow with no Sense...
17- The Breath needed
a Form; the Fathers gave it. The Breath needed a Gross Body; the Earth molded
it. The Breath needed the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lhas breathed it into its
Form. The Breath needed a Mirror of its Body: "We give it our own!"
- said the Dhyanis. The Breath needed a Vehicle of Desires: "It has it!"-
said the Drainer of Waters. But Breath needs a mind to embrace the Universe:
"We cannot give that!"- said the Fathers. "I never had it!"
said the Spirit of the Earth. "The Form would be consumed were I to give
it mine!" -said the Great Fire .... Man remained an empty senseless Bhûta
.... Thus have the Boneless given Life to those who became Men with Bones in
the Third.
STANZA
-5-
18- The First were
the Sons of Yoga. Their sons, the children of the Yellow Father and the White
Mother.
19- The Second Race
was the product by budding and expansion,the Asexual from the Sexless (*).
Thus was , O Lanoo, the Second Race produced.
20- Their Fathers
were the Self-born. The Self-born, the Chhâyâ from the brilliant
bodies of the Lords, the Fathers, the Sons of Twilight.
21- When the Race
became old, the old Waters mixed with the fresher Waters. When its Drop became
turbid,they vanished and disappeared in the new Stream,in the hot Stream of
Life. The Outer of the First became the Inner of the Second. The Old wing became
the new Shadow, and the Shadow of the Wing.
STANZA
-6-
22- Then the Second
evolved the Egg-born, the Third. The Sweat grew, its Drops grew, and the Drops
became hard and round. The Sun warmed it; the Moon cooled and shaped it; the
Wind fed it until its ripeness. The White Swan from the Starry Vault overshadowed
the big Drop. The Egg of the Future Race,the Man-swan of the later Third. First
male-female, then man and woman.
23- The Self-born
were the Chhâyâs, the Shadows from the bodies of the Sons of Twilight.
Neither water nor fire could destroy them. Their sons were.
STANZA
-7-
24- The Sons of Wisdom,
the Sons of Night, ready for rebirth, came down. They saw the vile forms of
the First Third. "We can choose", said the Lords; "we have wisdom".
some entered the Chhâyâs. Some projected a Spark. Some deferred
till the Fourth. From their own Rûpa they filled the Kâma. Those
who entered became Arhats. Those who received but a Spark, remained destitute
of knowledge; the Spark burned low. The Third remained mindless. Their Jivas
were not ready. These were set apart among the Seven. They became narrow-headed.
The Third were ready. "In these shall we dwell", said the Lords of
the Flame and of the Dark Wisdom.
25- How did the Manas,
the Sons of Wisdom, act? They rejected the Self-born. They are not ready. They
spurned the Sweat-born. They are not quite ready. They would not enter the first
Egg-born.
26- When the Sweat-born
produced the Egg-born, the twofold, the mighty,the powerful with bones, the
Lords of Wisdom said: "Now shall we create".
27- The Third Race
became the Vâhan of the Lords of Wisdom. It created Sons of Will and Yoga,
by Kriyashakti it created them, the Holy Fathers, Ancestors of the Arhats......
STANZA
-8-
28- From the drops
of sweat, from the residue of the substance, matter from dead bodies of men
and animals of the Wheel before, and from cast-off dust, the first animals were
produced.
29- Animals with
bones,dragons of the deep, and flying Sarpas were added to the creeping things.
They that creep on the ground got wings. They of the long necks in the water
became the progenitors of the fowls of the air.
30- During the Third,
the boneless animals grew and changed; they became animals with bones, their
Chhâyâs became solid.
31- The animals separated
the first. They began to breed. The twofold man separated also. He said: "Let
us as they; let us unite and make creatures". They did ....
32- And those which
had Spark took huge she-animals unto them. They begat upon them dumb races.
Dumb they were themselves. But their tongue untied. The tongues of their progeny
remained still. Monsters they bred. A race of crooked red-hair covered monsters
going on all fours. A dumb race to keep the shame untold.
STANZA
-9-
33- Seeing which,
the Lhas who had not built men, wept, saying:
34."The Amânasa
have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma. Let us dwell in the others. Let
us teach them better,lest worse should happen". They did .....
35-Then all men became
endowed with Manas. They saw the sin of the mindless.
36- The Fourth Race
developed speech.
37- The one became
two; also all the living and creeping things that were still one, giant fish,
birds and serpents with shell-heads.
STANZA
-10-
38- Thus, two by
two,on the seven Zones, the Third Race gave birth to the Fourth; the Sura became
A-sura.
39- The First, one
every Zone, was moon-colored; the Second yellow like gold; the Third Red; the
Fourth brown, which became black with sin. The first seven human shoots were
all of one complexion. The next seven began mixing.
40- Then the Third
and Fourth became tall with pride. "We are the kings; we are the gods".
41- They took wives
fair to look upon. Wives from the mindless, the narrow-headed. They bred monsters,
wicked demons, male and female, also Khado,with little minds.
42- They built temples
for the human body. Male and female they worshipped. Then the Third Eye acted
no longer.
STANZA
-11-
43- They build huge
cities. Of rare earths and metals they built. Out of the fires vomited, out
of the white stone of the mountains and of the black stone, they cut their own
images, in their size and likeness, and worshipped them.
44- They built great
images nine yatis high,the size of their bodies. Inner fires had destroyed the
land of their fathers. The water threatened the Fourth.
45- The first great
waters came. They swallowed the seven great islands.
46- All holy saved,
the unholy destroyed. With them most of the huge animals, produced from the
seat of the earth.
STANZA
-12-
47- Few remained.
Some yellow, some brown and black, and some red remained. The moon-colored were
gone for ever.
48- The Fifth produced
from the holy stock remained; it was ruled over by the first Divine-Kings.
49- ..... The Serpents
who re-descended, who made peace with the Fifth,who taught and instructed it.......
*-
The idea and the spirit of the sentence only is here given, as a verbal translation
would convey very little to the reader.
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