Page 85 (part 3)

By "intelligence," the Occultist says, Narada means neither "discussion" nor "argumentation," as Aruna Misra believes, but "intelligence" truly, or the adaptation of the fire of Wisdom to Exoteric Ritualism for the profane. This is the chief concern of the Brahmans (who were the first to set the example to other nations who thus anthropomorphized and carnalized the grandest metaphysical truths). Narada makes it plain and is made to say: "The smoke of that fire, which is of excellent glory, appears in the shape of darkness" (verily so!); "its ashes (are) passion; and goodness is that in connection with it in which the offering is thrown": i.e. , that faculty in the disciple which apprehends the subtle truth (the flame) which escapes heavenward, while the objective sacrifice remains as a proof and evidence of piety only to the profane. For what can Narada mean in teaching that "those who understand the sacrifice understand the Samana and the Vyana as the principal (offering)"; and "the Prana and Apana, but portions of the offering . . . and between them is the fire . . . . that is the excellent seat of the Udana as understood by Brahmanas. As to that which is distinct from these pairs, hear me speak about that. Day and night are a pair, between them is the fire. . . That which exists and that which does not exist are a pair, between them is the fire, etc.," and after every such contrast Narada adds "That is the excellent seat of the Udana as understood by Brahmanas." Now many people do not know the full meaning of such terms as Samana and Vyana, Prana and Apana, explained as being "life-winds" (we say "principles and their respective faculties and senses"), being offered up to Udana, the soi-disant principal "life wind," (?) said to act at all the joints. Therefore the reader, who is ignorant that the word "fire" means in these allegories both the "Self" and the higher divine knowledge, will understand nothing in this; and will therefore entirely miss the point of our argument, as its translators and even its editor the great Oxford Sanskritist, Max Muller, has missed the true meaning of Narada's words. Exoterically, all this enumeration of "life winds" means, of course, approximately, that which is surmised in the foot-notes; namely, "The sense appears to be this . . . . worldly life is due to the operations of the life-winds which are attached to the S ELF, and lead to its manifestations as individual souls (?). Of these the Samana and Vyana are controlled and held under check by [[Vol. 2, Page]] 568 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. the Prana and Apana. . . . The latter two are held in check and controlled by the Udana, which thus controls all. And the control of this, which is the control of all five . . . . leads to the Supreme Self" (p. 259, Anugita, "Sacred Books of the East," Vol. VIII.) The above is given as an explanation of the text, which records the words of the Brahmana, who narrates how he reached the ultimate Wisdom of Yogism, and had reached all knowledge in this wise. Saying that he had "perceived by means of the S ELF the seat abiding in the S ELF," where dwells the Brahman free from all; and explaining that that indestructible principle was entirely beyond the perception of senses ( i.e., of the five "life-winds"), he adds that "in the midst of an these (life-winds) which move about in the body and swallow up one another, blazes the Vaisvanara fire sevenfold." This "Fire," according to Nilakantha's Commentary, is identical with the "I," the SELF, which is the goal of the ascetic (Vaisvanara being a word often used for the Self ) . Then the Brahmana goes on to enumerate that which is meant by the word "Sevenfold," and says, "The nose (or smell), the tongue (taste), the eye, and the skin, and the ear as the fifth, the mind, and the understanding, these are the seven tongues of the blaze of Vaisvanara,*. . . . . those are the seven (kinds of) fuel for me,**. . . . . these are the seven great officiating priests." These seven priests are accepted by Arjuna Misra in the sense of meaning "the soul distinguished as so many (souls, or principles) with reference to these several powers"; and, finally, the translator seems to accept the explanation, and reluctantly admits that "they may mean" this; though he himself takes the sense to mean "the powers of hearing, etc. (the physical senses, in short) which are presided over by the several deities." ( Vide loc. cit., p. 259, f.n. 6.) But whatever it may mean, whether in scientific or orthodox interpretations, this passage on page 259 explains Narada's statements on page 276, and shows them referring to exoteric and esoteric methods and contrasting them. Thus the Samana and the Vyana, though subject to the Prana and the Apana, and all the four to Udana in the matter of acquiring the Pranayama (of the Hatha-Yogi, chiefly, or the "lower" form of the Yoga) are yet referred to as the principal offering, for, as rightly argued by the commentator, their "operations are more practically important for vitality"; i.e., they are the grossest, and are offered in the sacrifice, to disappear, so to speak, in the quality of darkness of that fire or its SMOKE (mere exoteric ritualistic form). But [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- *In the astronomical and cosmical key, Vaisvanara is Agni, son of the Sun, or Viswanaras, but in the psycho-metaphysical symbolism it is the S ELF, in the sense of non-separateness, i.e. , both divine and human. **Here the speaker personifies the said divine S ELF. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 569 THE DIVINE SELF'S WISDOM. Prana and Apana, though shown as subordinate (because less gross or more purified), have the FIRE between them: the Self and the secret knowledge possessed by that Self. So for the good and evil, and for "that which exists and that which does not exist"; all these "pairs"* have fire between them, i.e. , esoteric knowledge, the Wisdom of the divine SELF. Let those who are satisfied with the Smoke of the F IRE remain wherein they are, that is to say within the Egyptian darkness of theological fictions and dead-letter interpretations. The above is written only for the Western students of Occultism and Theosophy.