Nor can one accept the said "sevenfold classification" as having "a closer connection with the Brahminical Logos than with the Buddhist Logos," since both are identical, whether the one "Logos" is called Eswara or Avalokiteswara, Brahma or Padmapani.
These are, however, very small differences, more fanciful than real, in fact.
Brahmanism and Buddhism, both viewed from their orthodox aspects, are as inimical and as irreconcilable as water and oil.
Each of these great bodies, however, has a vulnerable place in its constitution.
While even in their esoteric interpretation both can agree but to disagree, once that their respective vulnerable points are confronted, every disagreement must fall, for the two will find themselves on common ground.
The "heel of Achilles" of orthodox Brahmanism is the Adwaita philosophy, whose followers are called by the pious "Buddhists in disguise"; as that of orthodox Buddhism is Northern mysticism, as represented by the disciples of the philosophies of Aryasanga (the Yogacharya School) and Mahayana, who are twitted in their turn by their correligionists as "Vedantins in disguise." The esoteric philosophy of both these can be but one if carefully analysed and compared, as Gautama Buddha and Sankaracharya are most closely connected, if one believes tradition and certain esoteric teachings.
Thus every difference between the two will be found one of form rather than of substance.
A most mystic discourse, full of septenary symbology, may be found in the Anugita.* There the Brahmana narrates the bliss of having crossed beyond the regions of illusion, "in which fancies are the gadflies and mosquitoes, in which grief and joy are cold and heat, in which delusion is the blinding darkness, avarice, the beasts of prey and reptiles, and desire and anger are the obstructors." .
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The sage describes the entrance into and exit from the forest (a symbol for man's life-time) and also that forest itself:** "In that forest are seven large trees (the Senses, Mind and Understanding, or Manas and Buddhi included), seven fruits and seven guests; seven hermitages, seven (forms of) concentration, and seven (forms of) initiation.
This is the description of the forest.
That forest is filled with trees producing splendid flowers and fruits of five colours." [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- *" The Sacred Books of the East," vol.
viii.
Anugita, p.
284, et seq.
** I propose to follow here the text and the editor's commentaries, who accepts Arjuna Misra and Nilakantha's dead-letter explanations.
Our Orientalists never trouble to think that if a native commentator is a non-initiate, he could not explain correctly, and if an Initiate, would not.
[[Vol.
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"The senses," says the commentator, "are called trees, as being producers of the fruits .
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pleasures and pains; the guests are the powers of each sense personified -- they receive the fruits above described; the hermitages are the trees, in which the guests take shelter.
The seven forms of concentration are the exclusion from the self of the seven functions of the seven senses, etc., already referred to; the seven forms of initiation refer to the initiation into the higher life .
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by repudiating as not one's own the actions of each member out of the group of seven." (See Khandagya, p.
219, and Com.) The explanation is harmless, if unsatisfactory.
Says the Brahmana continuing his description: -- "That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of four colours.
That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of three colours, and mixed.
That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of two colours, and of beautiful colours.
That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of one colour and fragrant.
That forest is filled (instead of seven) with two large trees producing numerous flowers and fruits of undistinguished colours ( mind and understanding -- the two higher senses, or theosophically, 'Manas-Buddhi').
Here is one Fire (Self) here connected with the Brahman* and having a good mind (or true knowledge, according to Arjuna Misra).
And there is fuel here, namely, the five senses (or human passions).
The Seven ( forms of ) emancipation from them are the Seven ( forms of ) initiation.
The qualities are the fruits.
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There, the great Sages receive hospitality.
And when they have been worshipped and have disappeared, another forest shines forth, in which intelligence is the tree, and emancipation the fruit, and which possesses shade ( in the form of ) tranquillity, which depends on Knowledge, which has contentment for its water, and the K SHETRAGNA (the " Supreme S ELF," says Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, p.
102 et seq.
) within for the Sun." Now, all the above is very plain, and no theosophist, even among the least learned, could fail to understand the allegory.
And yet, we see great Orientalists making a perfect mess of it in their explanations.
The "great sages" who "receive hospitality" are explained as meaning the senses, "which, having worked as unconnected with the self are finally absorbed into it." But one fails to understand, if the senses are "unconnected" with the "Higher Self," in what manner can they be [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The English editor explains here, saying, "I presume devoted to the Brahman." This would be a very poor devotion, indeed, in the accomplishment of the gradually emancipating process of Yoga.
We venture to say that the "Fire" or Self is the higher real S ELF "connected with," that is to say one with Brahma, the One Deity.
The "Self" separates itself no longer from the universal Spirit.
[[Vol.
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"absorbed into it." One would think, on the contrary, that just because the personal senses gravitate and strive to be connected with the impersonal Self, that the latter, which is F IRE, burns the lower five and purifies thereby the higher two, "mind and understanding" or the higher aspects of Manas* and Buddhi.
This is quite apparent from the text.
The "great sages" disappear after having "been worshipped." Worshipped by whom if they (the presumed senses) are "unconnected with the self"?
By M IND, of course; by Manas (in this case merged in the sixth sense ) which is not, and cannot be, the Brahman, the S ELF, or Kshetragna -- the soul's spiritual sun.
Into the latter, in time, Manas itself must be absorbed.
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 Anugita allegory maps the forest's seven trees, fruits, guests, and hermitages onto the human faculties (senses, mind, understanding), demonstrating a structural correspondence between the symbolic and the psychological.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage argues that esoteric interpretation reveals the true unity beneath apparent opposition between traditions, and that only initiates can correctly read the allegory, positioning direct experiential knowledge as superior to scholarly exegesis.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly states that a non-initiate commentator 'could not explain correctly' and an initiate 'would not,' establishing that the text's outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth accessible only to the prepared.
The deeper aspect of the individual's own consciousness aligned with divine or spiritual truth, distinct from the ego or everyday personality — a locus of guidance and identity that can speak with its own recognisable 'voice' in moments of crisis, carrying memory or knowledge the ordinary self lacks. Distinct from inner_light (a static luminous quality or spark, not an alternate seat of identity and agency) and kingdom_within (the claim that the divine realm generally is present inside the individual, not this specific personal higher consciousness).
The Kshetragna is explicitly called the 'Supreme Self' and the 'soul's spiritual sun,' distinct from the lower Manas and Buddhi, functioning as a deeper seat of identity aligned with divine truth.
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The allegory includes 'seven forms of initiation' defined as 'the initiation into the higher life by repudiating as not one's own the actions of each member out of the group of seven.'
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage explicitly uses 'Logos' to name the identical divine principle in both Brahmanism and Buddhism, stating 'both are identical, whether the one Logos is called Eswara or Avalokiteswara, Brahma or Padmapani.'
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
The central theme of the passage is the merging of the individual Self with the universal Brahman/Self, described through the allegory of the Fire (Self) connected with Brahman and the absorption of all lower faculties into the one Spirit.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage describes the Self as no longer separating itself from the universal Spirit, and the process of the lower senses being absorbed into the higher Self as a return to the divine origin.
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The entire allegory centers on the recognition of the true Self (Kshetragna, the Supreme Self) and the process by which the individual identifies with the higher Self rather than the lower senses.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage's core argument is that Brahmanism and Buddhism are 'one of form rather than of substance' at the esoteric level, and that the individual Self is ultimately one with the universal Spirit.