Page 53 (part 4)

As Parasara explains it, when Brahma wants to create the world anew and construct progeny through his will , in the fourfold condition (or the four orders of beings) termed gods (Dhyan Chohans), Demons** ( i.e. , more material Devas), Progenitors (Pitris) and men, "he collects Yoga-like (Yuyuje) his mind." Strange to say, he begins by creating DEMONS, who thus take precedence over the angels or gods. This is no incongruity, nor is it due to inconsistency, but has, like all the rest, a profound esoteric meaning, quite clear to one free from Christian theological prejudice. He who bears in mind that the principle M AHAT, or Intellect, the "Universal Mind" (literally "the great"), which esoteric philosophy explains as the "manifested Omniscience" -- the "first product" of Pradhana (primordial matter) as Vishnu Purana says, but the first Cosmic aspect of Parabrahm or the esoteric SAT, the Universal Soul,*** as Occultism [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * This has in esotericism a direct bearing upon the seven principles of the manifested Brahma, or universe, in the same order as in man. Exoterically, it is only four principles. ** Demons is a very loose word to use, as it applies to a great number of inferior -- i.e., more material -- Spirits, or minor Gods, who are so termed because they "war" with the higher ones; but they are no devils. *** The same order of principles in man: -- Atma (Spirit) , Buddhi (Soul), its vehicle, as Matter is the Vahan of Spirit, and Manas (mind), the third, or the fifth microcosmically. On the plane of personality, Manas is the first. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 59 THE BODIES OF BRAHMA. teaches -- is at the root of S ELF-Consciousness, will understand the reason why. The so-called "Demons" -- who are (esoterically) the Self-asserting and (intellectually) active Principle -- are the positive poles of creation, so to say; hence, the first produced. This is in brief the process as narrated allegorically in the Puranas. "Having concentrated his mind into itself and the quality of darkness pervading Brahma's assumed body, the Asuras, issuing from his thigh, were first produced; after which, abandoning this body, it was transformed into NIGHT." (See Part II. , § " The Fallen Angels. ") Two important points are involved herein: -- ( a ) Primarily in the Rig-Veda, the "Asuras" are shown as spiritual divine beings; their etymology is derived from asu (breath), the "Breath of God," and they mean the same as the Supreme Spirit or the Zoroastrian Ahura. It is later on, for purposes of theology and dogma, that they are shown issuing from Brahma's thigh, and that their name began to be derived from a privative, and sura, god (solar deities), or not-a-god, and that they became the enemies of the gods. Every ancient theogony without exception -- from the Aryan and the Egyptian down to that of Hesiod -- places, in the order of Cosmogonical evolution, Night before the Day; even Genesis, where "darkness is upon the face of the deep" before "the first day. " The reason for this is that every Cosmogony -- except in the Secret Doctrine -- begins by the "Secondary Creation" so-called: to wit, the manifested Universe, the Genesis of which has to open by a marked differentiation between the eternal Light of Primary Creation, whose mystery must remain for ever "Darkness" to the prying finite conception and intellect of the profane, and the Secondary Evolution of manifested visible nature. The Veda contains the whole philosophy of that division without having ever been correctly explained by our Orientalists, because it has never been understood by them. Continuing to create, Brahma assumes another form, that of the Day, and creates from his breath the gods, who are endowed with the quality of goodness (passivity)*. In his next body the quality of great passivity prevailed, which is also (negative) goodness, and from the side of that personage issued the Pitris, the progenitors of men, because, as the text explains, "Brahma thought of himself (during the process) as the father of the world."** This is Kriya-sakti -- the mysterious Yoga power [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Thus, says the Commentary, the saying "by day the gods are most powerful, and by night the demons," is purely allegorical. ** This thinking of oneself as this, that, or the other, is the chief factor in the production of every kind of psychic or even physical phenomena. The words "whosoever shall say to this mountain be thou removed and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt . . . . that thing will come to pass," are no vain words. Only the word "faith" ought to be translated by WILL. Faith without Will is like a wind-mill without wind -- barren of results. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 60 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. explained elsewhere. This body of Brahma when cast off became the Sandhya (evening twilight), the interval between day and night. Finally Brahma assumed his last form pervaded by the quality of foulness, "and from this MEN, in whom foulness and passion predominate, were produced." This body when cast off became the dawn, or morning twilight -- the twilight of Humanity. Here Brahma stands esoterically for the Pitris. He is collectively the Pitar, "father." The true esoteric meaning of this allegory must now be explained. Brahma here symbolizes personally the collective creators of the World and Men -- the universe with all its numberless productions of things movable and (seemingly) immovable.* He is collectively the Prajapatis, the Lords of Being; and the four bodies typify the four classes of creative powers or Dhyan Chohans, described in the Commentary directly following Stanza VII . in Book I. The whole philosophy of the so-called "Creation" of the good and evil in this world and of the whole cycle of Manvantaric results therefrom, hangs on the correct comprehension of these Four bodies of Brahma. The reader will now be prepared to understand the real, the esoteric significance of what follows. Moreover there is an important point to be cleared up. Christian theology having arbitrarily settled and agreed that Satan with his Fallen Angels belonged to the earliest creation, Satan being the first-created, the wisest and most beautiful of God's Archangels, the word was given, the key-note struck.