It teaches that before evolution began, Prakriti (Nature) was in a condition of laya or absolute homogeneity, as "matter exists in two conditions, the sukshma , or latent and undifferentiated, and the sthula or differentiated condition." Then it became anu , atomic.
It teaches of Sudda - satwa -- "a substance not subject to the qualities of matter, from which it is quite different," and adds that out of that substance the bodies of the inhabitants of Vaikuntaloka (the heaven of Vishnu), the gods, are formed.
That every particle or atom of Prakriti contains Jiva (divine life), and is the sarira (body) of that Jiva which it contains, while every Jiva is in its turn the sarira of the supreme spirit, as "Parabrahm pervades every Jiva, as well as every particle of matter." Dualistic and anthropomorphic as may be the philosophy of the Visishtadwaita, when compared with that of the Adwaita -- the non-dualists, -- it is yet supremely higher in logic and philosophy than the cosmogony accepted by either Christianity, or its great opponent, modern Science.
The followers of one of the greatest minds that ever appeared on Earth, the Adwaita Vedantins are called Atheists , because they regard all save Parabrahm, the secondless , or Absolute Reality -- as an illusion.
Yet the wisest Initiates came from their ranks, as also the greatest Yogis.
The Upanishads show that they most assuredly knew not only what is the causal substance in the effects of friction , and that their forefathers were acquainted with the conversion of heat into mechanical force , but that they were acquainted with the noumena of every spiritual as well as of every cosmic phenomenon.
Truly the young Brahmin who graduates in the universities and colleges of India with the highest honours; who starts in life as an M.A .
and an LL.B.
, with a tail initialed from Alpha to Omega after his name, and a contempt for his national gods proportioned to the honours received in his education in physical sciences; truly he has but to read in the light of the latter, and with an eye to the correlation of [[Vol.
1, Page]] 523 SUGGESTIVE ALLEGORIES.
physical Forces, certain passages in his Puranas, if he would learn how much more his ancestors knew than he will ever know -- unless he becomes an occultist.
Let him turn to the allegory of Pururavas and the celestial Gandharva , * who furnished the former with a vessel full of heavenly fire.
The primeval mode of obtaining fire by friction has its scientific explanation in the Vedas, and is pregnant with meaning for him who reads between the lines.
The Tretagni (sacred triad of fires) obtained by the attrition of sticks made of the wood of the Aswattha tree (the Bo-tree, of Wisdom and Knowledge) -- sticks "as many finger-breaths long as there are syllables in the gayatri" must have a secret meaning, or else the writers of the Vedas and Puranas were no sacred writers but mystificators.
That it has such a meaning, the Hindu Occultists are a proof, and they alone are able to enlighten Science, as to why and how, "the fire, that was primevally one , was made threefold ( treta ) in our present Manvantara, by the Son of Ila (Vach), the primeval woman after the Deluge, the wife and daughter of Vaivasvata Manu.
The allegory is suggestive, in whatever Purana it may be read and studied.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The Gandharva of the Veda is the deity who knows and reveals the secrets of heaven and divine truths to mortals.
Cosmically -- the Gandharvas are the aggregate powers of the solar-fire, and constitute its Forces; psychically -- the intelligence residing in the Sushumna , Solar ray, the highest of the seven rays; mystically -- the occult force in the Soma (the moon, or lunar plant) and the drink made of it; physically -- the phenomenal, and spiritually -- the noumenal causes of Sound and the "Voice of Nature." Hence, they are called the 6,333 "heavenly Singers" and musicians of Indra's loka who personify (even in number) the various and manifold sounds in Nature, both above and below.
In the latter allegories they are said to have mystic power over women, and to be fond of them.
The esoteric meaning is plain.
They are one of the forms, if not the prototypes, of Enoch's angels, the Sons of God, who saw that the daughters of men were fair (Gen.
vi.) who married them, and taught the daughters of the Earth the secrets of Heaven.
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The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The Gandharva footnote maps the same entity across five levels (cosmic, psychic, mystical, physical, spiritual), and the fire allegory is read 'between the lines' at multiple scales, embodying the as-above-so-below principle.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the origin of matter: 'before evolution began, Prakriti was in a condition of laya or absolute homogeneity... Then it became anu, atomic' — a temporally-narrative account of cosmic beginning.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
'Parabrahm pervades every Jiva, as well as every particle of matter' is a direct statement of divine immanence — the divine present within all things, not merely transcendent above them.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
'Every particle or atom of Prakriti contains Jiva (divine life)' is a direct statement of divine sparks embedded in material substance, with each Jiva being the body of the supreme spirit.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes a cascade from Parabrahm (supreme spirit) through Jiva (divine life in each particle) to Prakriti (matter), with each level being the 'sarira' (body) of the one above.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage references 'the Hindu Occultists' as a tradition that 'alone are able to enlighten Science' and implies a chain of transmission from the Vedic sages through initiates to present-day occultists.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The entire passage is devoted to revealing the esoteric meaning behind Vedic and Puranic allegories — 'must have a secret meaning, or else the writers of the Vedas and Puranas were no sacred writers but mystificators' — making the concealment and revelation of inner truth the central theme.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The staged descent from 'sukshma, or latent and undifferentiated' to 'sthula or differentiated' to 'anu, atomic' describes a directional process of spirit unfolding into matter, the core of the involution doctrine.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The passage states that every atom is the body of its Jiva, and every Jiva is the body of Parabrahm, making each level a mirror of the whole — the microcosm contains the macrocosm at every scale.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The Adwaita (non-dualist) position is central: Parabrahm pervades every Jiva and every particle of matter, and all is one substance — 'the secondless, or Absolute Reality.'
The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.
The passage explicitly identifies the Gandharvas as 'one of the forms, if not the prototypes, of Enoch's angels, the Sons of God, who saw that the daughters of men were fair (Gen. vi.) who married them, and taught the daughters of the Earth the secrets of Heaven.'