Isis Study – April to June 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 590 - 592

The previous blog ended with a note :

In the next blog legends about the pre-Vedic cradle of Humanity will be discussed.

Traditions about the CRADLE OF HUMANITY

It was shown on the basis of evidence, reason and logic that Egypt furnished Greece with her civilization, and the latter bequeathed hers to Rome; that Egypt, in turn, had her laws, arts, sciences, and social institutions from Pre-Vedic India—not the India of the present time, but India of archaic times which extended to encompass what is now called Persia, Iran, Tibet, Mangolia and the great Tartary. Legends abound about this spring-board of later civilizations.

Legends about a mighty Trans-Himalayan Sea and an Island in it which was the abode of great Hierophants

Traditions speak of a vast inland sea, which extended over middle Asia, north of the Himalayan range and its western prolongation, where now are found but salt lakes and desolate barren deserts. An island of great natural beauty in the inland sea was the habitation of the remnants of a race which preceded ours—a race with extraordinary knowledge, wisdom and powers, which could live with equal ease in water, air or fire. In other words, the men of the island had mastery over the great elements.  Traditions speak of the “Sons of God,” who are not those, which the bible speak of, as those who saw the daughters of men and married them, but the real Elohim—a Jewish appellation for the race of advanced mankind who live in spirit in celestial spheres and on earth simultaneously. They are known by other names in Oriental Kabala. It was they who imparted Nature’s most weird secrets to men, and revealed to them the ineffable and the lost “Word”—the Word, which is no word, has travelled the whole globe, whose far-off dying echo still lingers in the hearts of some privileged men. The great Hierophants of the Sacerdotal Colleges were aware of it, but the Word was known only to the Chiefs of the Colleges of Initiated Adepts—the Java Aleim, who passed it on to his successor only at the moment of his death. There were many such colleges. Old classical literature speaks of them.

Universal traditions that many races preceded ours.

Manava Dharma Shastra of the Hindus speak of six primordial races which succeeded each other. Each of it was distinct from the one which preceded it, and each disappeared as the following appeared. Says Manu : From Manu Swayambhuva (Self-existing, self-born Manu), answering to the Adam-Kadmon of the Jewish Kabala, descended six other Manus. Manus typify progenitors. Each gave birth to race of men.

“These Manus, all powerful, of whom the Swayambhuva is the first, have each, in his period produced and directed  this world composed of movable and immovable beings.” (Manu, book i).

Ancient India sacred books called Puranas give an allegorical account of evolution of the human race from celestial beings—the progenitors of humanity, called Prajapati, Rishis, in India, collectively called Adam-Kadmon, Elohim, in Jewish traditions, and, again, collectively, as  Brahmaa in India. Purana means ancient and sacred history or tradition. Siva Purana says :

“O Siva, thou god of fire, mayest thou destroy my sins, as the bleaching grass of the jungle is destroyed by fire. It is through thy mighty Breath that Adhima (the first man) and Heva (completion of life, in Sanscrit), the ancestors of the race of men have received life and covered the world with their descendents.”

The sacred Island was communicable only by subterranean passages in all directions, but which was known to none but the to the Aleim.

There was no communication with the fair island by sea, but sub-terranean passage known only to the chiefs communicated with it in all directions. Tradition points to many prehistoric monuments of India, such as the Ellora, Elephanta, caverns of Ajunta (Chandor range) which once belonged to those colleges, and with which were connected such subterranean ways.

Legendary continent of Atlantis not a fiction. The word Atlantis has not etymological basis in any European and old world language.

Atlantis, the prehistoric mighty continent which existed where now is the Atlantic Ocean, is mentioned in the Secret Book bit under another name, pronounced in the sacred language. Who can deny it ?

It is a strange coincidence that when first discovered America was found to bear among the natives the name of Atlanta.

It could well have situated south of Asia, extending from India to Tasmania. Critics deny it, and ridicule Plato’s allusion to it as a joke. If many strands of evidences of its existence were gathered and compiled, then the scientists will believe that the description of the god-inhabited continent was not altogether fable. Plato was an Initiate and was bound by the oath of secrecy. Therefore, he spoke of it in veiled language, throwing a few guarded hints, and attributed the narrative to Solon and Egyptian Priests. It was a prudent way of imparting the fact to the world and cleverly combining truth and fiction, thus disconnecting himself from a story which the obligation imposed at initiation forbade him to divulge.

The true origin of the name America

Atlante is not a Greek name, and has no Grecian element in it. Brasseur  de Bourbourg tried to demonstrate it, and Baldwin in his Prehistoric Nations and Ancient America, cites him that the word Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in any known European language, and cannot be referred to any known language of the old world.

But in the Nauhtl (or Toltec) language is found the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head. From this comes a series of words such as altan, or the border of or amid the water. The adjective Atlantic arises from it. A city named Altan existed when the continent was discovered by Columbus, at the entrance of the Gulf of Uraha, in Darien, with a good harbour. It then was reduced to a Pueblo (village) named Aclo. It is indeed significant that Plato, should mention in 400 B.C. a name of a place, which is foreign to every other country, but having a purely a local element, should be found in America a city  called by that name.

Origin of the name America

The same may be said of the name America which one day be found more closely allied to Meru, the sacred mount in the centre of the seven continents, according too Hindu tradition, than to Americus Vespucius, whose name was never  Americus at all, but Albericus. Following evidences are advanced in support of the claim :

1. Americ or Amerrique or Amerique is a Nicarguan name for highland or mountain range that lies between Juigalpa and Libertad, in the province of Chontales, on the one side of which lie the country of Carcas Indians and on the other side that of Ramas Indians.


2. Ic or Ique as a terminal means great.


3. Columbus spoke of the village Cariai, probable, Caicai, which is the region of the American range 3000 feet high, though he omits to mention this word.


4. The name America Provincia first appeared on a map published  at Basle, in 1522. Till that time the region was believed to be part of India.


5. The Northmen who visited the continent in the 10^th century, a low level coast thickly covered with woods, called it Markland—from mark, a wood. The r had a rolling sound as in marrick. A similar word is found in the country of Himalayas, and the name of the World Mountain, Meru, is pronounced in some dialect as MERUAH, the letter h being strongly aspirated. It shows how two peoples could possibly accept a word of similar sound, each used in their own sense, and applying it to the same territory.


6.   Says Professor Alexander Wilder :
   

• It is plausible that the state of Central America, where we find the name Americ,  signifying (like the Hindu Meru we may add) great mountain, gave the continent its name.
  If Abbe de Bourbourg’s theory of Atlan as the source of Atlas and Atlantic is verified, the two hypotheses could agree most charmingly.


• Plato was not the only writer who treated of a world beyond the pillars of Hercule


• The ocean is still shallow and grows sea-weeds all through the tropical part of the Atlantic. Hence it is not wild to imagine that this continent projected, or there was an island-world on that coast.


• The Pacific also shows signs of having been a populous islend-empire of Malays or Javanese


• It is known that Lemuria in the Indian ocean is a dream scientists; and that Sahara and the middle belt of Asia were perhaps once sea-beds.

In the next blog ancient legend about the lost continent of Atlantis, the terrible strife between the Atlantean race, which towards its end had fallen into evil ways, on the one hand, and the Adepts of the Good Law, on the other, resulting in the destruction of the giant race of Atlantis and sinking of the continent, which was studied in the Isis Study class during July-September 2013, will be discussed.

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