The course of evolution developed the lower principles and produced
at last the form of man with a brain of better and deeper capacity
than that of any other animal. But this man in form was not man in
mind, and needed the fifth principle, the thinking, perceiving one, to
differentiate him from the animal kingdom and to confer the power of
becoming self-conscious. The monad was imprisoned in these forms, and
that monad is composed of _Atma_ and _Buddhi_; for without the presence
of the monad evolution could not go forward. Going back for a moment to
the time when the races were devoid of mind, the question arises, “who
gave the mind, where did it come from, and what is it?” It is the link
between the Spirit of God above and the personal below; it was given
to the mindless monads by others who had gone all through this process
ages upon ages before in other worlds and systems of worlds, and it
therefore came from other evolutionary periods which were carried out
and completed long before the solar system had begun. This is the
theory, strange and unacceptable to-day, but which must be stated if we
are to tell the truth about theosophy; and this is only handing on what
others have said before.
The manner in which this light of mind was given to the Mindless Men
can be understood from the illustration of one candle lighting many.
Given one lighted candle and numerous unlighted ones, it follows that
from one light the others may also be set aflame. So in the case of
_Manas_. It is the candle of flame. The mindless men having four
elementary principles of Body, Astral Body, Life and Desire, are the
unlighted candles that cannot light themselves. The Sons of Wisdom,
who are the Elder Brothers of every family of men on any globe, have
the light, derived by them from others who reach back, and yet farther
back, in endless procession with no beginning nor end. They set fire to
the combined lower principles and the Monad, thus lighting up _Manas_
in the new men and preparing another great race for final initiation.
This lighting up of the fire of _Manas_ is symbolized in all great
religions and Freemasonry. In the east one priest appears holding
a candle lighted at the altar, and thousands of others light their
candles from this one. The Parsees also have their sacred fire which is
lighted from some other sacred flame.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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