The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2 of 4: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and PhilosophyBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2 of 4: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
2. Kandu is a sage and a Yogî, eminent in holy wisdom and pious
austerities, which, finally, awaken the jealousy of the Gods, who are
represented in the Hindû Scriptures as being in never‐ending strife with
the Ascetics. Indra, the “King of the Gods,”(400) finally sends one of his
female Apsarases to tempt the sage. This is no worse than Jehovah sending
Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to tempt Pharaoh; but in truth it is these Gods
(and God), who are ever trying to disturb Ascetics and thus make them lose
the fruit of their austerities, who ought to be regarded as “tempting
demons,” instead of applying the term to the Rudras, Kumâras, and Asuras,
whose great sanctity and chastity seem a standing reproach to the Don
Juanic Gods of the Pantheon. But it is the reverse that we find in all the
Paurânic allegories, and not without good esoteric reason.
The King of the Gods, or Indra, sends a beautiful Apsaras (nymph) named
Pramlochâ to seduce Kandu and disturb his penance. She succeeds in her
unholy purpose and “nine hundred and seven years six months and three
days”(401) spent in her company seem to the Sage as one day. When this
psychological or hypnotic state ends, the Muni bitterly curses the
creature who has seduced him, thus disturbing his devotions. “Depart,
begone!” he cries, “vile bundle of delusions!” And Pramlochâ, terrified,
flies away, _wiping the perspiration __ from her body_ with the leaves of
the trees as she passes through the air.
The nymph went from tree to tree, and, as, with the dusky shoots
that crowned their summits, she dried her limbs, the child she had
conceived by the Rishi came forth from the pores of her skin in
drops of perspiration. The trees received the living dews; and the
winds collected them into one mass. “This,” said Soma [the Moon],
“I matured by my rays; and gradually it increased in size, till
the exhalation that had rested on the tree tops became the lovely
girl named Mârishâ.”(402)
Now Kandu stands for the First Race. He is a son of the Pitris, hence one
“devoid of mind,” a fact hinted at by his being unable to discern a period
of nearly one thousand years from one day; therefore he is shown to be so
easily deluded and blinded. Here is a variant of the allegory in
_Genesis_, of Adam, born an image of clay, into which the “Lord God”
breathes the “breath of life” but not of intellect and discrimination,
which are developed only after he had tasted of the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge; in other words when he has acquired the first development of
Mind, and had implanted in him Manas, whose terrestrial aspect is of the
earth earthy, though its highest faculties connect it with Spirit and the
Divine Soul. Pramlochâ is the Hindû Lilith of the Âryan Adam; and Mârishâ,
the daughter born of the perspiration from her pores, is the “Sweat‐born,”
and stands as a symbol for the Second Race of mankind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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