Page 58 (part 2)

) Since, in the exoteric accounts, the Asuras are the first beings created from the "body of night," while the Pitris issue from that of Twilight ; the "gods" being placed by Parasara ( Vishnu Purana ) between the two, and shown to evolve from the "body of the day," it is easy to discover a determined purpose to veil the order of creation. Man is the Arvaksrota coming from the "Body of the Dawn"; and elsewhere, man is again referred to, when the creator of the world, Brahma, is shown "creating fierce beings, denominated Bhutas and eaters of flesh," or as the text has it, "fiends frightful from being monkey-coloured and carnivorous."** Whereas the Rakshasas are generally translated by "Evil Spirits" and "the enemies of the gods," which identifies them with the Asuras. In the Ramayana, when Hanuman is reconnoitering the enemy in Lanka, he finds there Rakshasas, some hideous, "while some were beautiful to look upon," and, in Vishnu Purana, there is a direct reference to their becoming the Saviours of "Humanity," or of Brahma. The allegory is very ingenious. Great intellect and too much knowledge are a two-edged weapon in life, and instruments for evil as well as for good. When combined with Selfishness, they will make of the whole of Humanity a footstool for the elevation of him who possesses them, and a means for the attainment of his objects; while, applied to altruistic humanitarian purposes, they may become the means of the salvation of many. At all events, the absence of self-consciousness and intellect will make of man an idiot, a brute in human form. Brahma is Mahat -- the universal Mind -- hence the too-selfish among the Rakshasas showing the desire to become possessed of it all -- to "devour" Mahat. The allegory is transparent. At any rate, esoteric philosophy identifies the pre-Brahmanical [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * " Vishnu Purana, " Book I., chap. xv. of vol. 2. ** Ibid., Book I., chap. v. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 164 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Asuras, Rudras,* Rakshasas and all the "Adversaries" of the Gods in the allegories, with the Egos, which, by incarnating in the still witless man of the Third Race, made him consciously immortal. They are, then, during the cycle of Incarnations, the true dual Logos -- the conflicting and two-faced divine Principle in Man. The Commentary that follows, and the next Stanzas may, no doubt, throw more light on this very difficult tenet, but the writer does not feel competent to give it out fully. Of the succession of Races, however, they say: -- " First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are the ' Spiritual Lives ' projected by the absolute WILL and LAW, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These LIVES are the divine ' Sishta, ' (the seed-Manus, or the Prajapati and the Pitris)." From these proceed -- 1. The First Race, the " Self-born, " which are the (astral) shadows of their Progenitors. ** The body was devoid of all understanding (mind, intelligence, and will). The inner being (the higher self or Monad), though within the earthly frame, was unconnected with it. The link, the Manas, was not there as yet. 2. From the First (race) emanated the second, called the " Sweat-born "*** and [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Whom Manu calls "our paternal grandfathers" ( III. , 284). The Rudras are the seven manifestations of Rudra-Siva, "the destroying god," and also the grand Yogi and ascetic. ** See § II, §§ 1, Commentary. *** To speak of life as having arisen, and of the human race as having originated, in this absurdly unscientific way, in the face of the modern Pedigrees of Man, is to court instantaneous annihilation. The esoteric doctrine risks the danger, nevertheless, and even goes so far as to ask the impartial reader to compare the above hypothesis (if it is one) with Haeckel's theory -- now fast becoming an axiom with science -- which is quoted verbatim: -- ". . . How did life, the living world of organisms, arise? And, secondly, the special question: How did the human race originate? The first of these two inquiries, that as to the first appearance of living beings, can only be decided empirically (! !) by proof of the so-called Archebiosis, or equivocal generation, or the spontaneous production of organisms of the simplest conceivable kind. Such are the Monera (Protogenes, Protamoeba, etc), exceedingly simple microscopic masses of protoplasm without structure or organisation, which take in nutriment and reproduce themselves by division. Such a Moneron as that primordial organism discovered by the renowned English zoologist Huxley, and named Bathybius Haeckelii, appears as a continuous thick protoplasmic covering at the greatest depths of the ocean, between 3,000 and 30,000 feet. It is true that the first appearance of such Monera has not up to the present moment been actually observed ; but there is nothing intrinsically improbable in such an evolution." ( The " Pedigree of Man, " Aveling ' s translation, p 33.) The Bathybius protoplasm having recently turned out to be no organic substance at all, there remains little to be said. Nor, after reading this, does one need to consume further time in refuting the further assertion that . . . . "in that case man also [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol. 2, Page]] 165 TO THE MONERON THE CREATOR. the " Boneless. " This is the Second Root-Race, endowed by the preservers (Rakshasas)* and the incarnating gods (Asuras and the Kumaras) with the first primitive and weak spark (the germ of intelligence) . . And from these in turn proceeds: - - 3. The Third Root-Race, the " Two-fold " (Androgynes). The first Races hereof are shells, till the last is " inhabited " (i.e., informed) by the Dhyanis. The Second Race, as stated above, being also sexless, evolved out of itself, at its beginning, the Third Androgyne Race by an analogous, but already more complicated process.