Isis Study – October-December 2013 - Part 5: Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 612 - 617

The previous blog no. 4 ended with a note :

It will be shown that fanaticism of Christian Church and of modern scientist are a formidable barrier to advancement of true knowledge and enlightenment. This will be followed by an exposition of some of the astounding occult phenomena which ancient Theurgists produced, which are denied by modern science and denounced by Christian Church as diabolical.

Conceit and hypocrisy bar the sceptical scientists from exploring the realms of the unseen universe.

Says the great Teacher, the author of Isis Unveiled :

“Spheres unknown below our feet; spheres still more unknown and still more unexplored above us; between the two a handful of moles, blind to God’s great light, and deaf to the whispers of the invisible world, boasting that they lead mankind. Where? Onward, they claim; but we have a right to doubt it. The greatest of our physiologists, when placed side by side with a Hindu Fakir, who knows neither how to read nor write, will very soon find himself feeling as foolish as a school-boy who has neglected to learn his lesson.”

It is in vain that scientists try to prove that there is no soul or spirit in man and nature. It is not by vivisection of living animals that the physiologist assure himself of the existence of man’s soul. Sergeant Cox, then President of the London Psychological Society, questioned : which sane man, who knows nothing of magnetism or physiology, who had never witnessed an experiment nor learned its principles, would proclaim himself a fool by denying its facts and denouncing its theories. Yet two-thirds of our modern day scientists do precisely that. Few indeed are there among the scientific fraternity who are brave and honest to utter wholesome truths, however disagreeable. It would be impertinence on the part of one who would venture to pronounce judgment on a discipline in which he has no proficiency. Physical scientists do exactly that on questions of psychology and all that pertains to it without having witnessed any of its phenomena, and in entire ignorance of its principles and practices.

Universal beliefs rise from foundation of truth and fact.

Ancient magic is occult psychology, and belief in magic is universal. For a belief to have become universal it must have been founded on an immense accumulation of facts. Porphyry and Proclus asserted that even inanimate objects, such as statues of gods, could be made to move and exhibit factitious life for a few moments. Can those who have testified that they have seen tables and chairs move and walk, and pencils write, without contact deny the claims of Porphry and Proclus ?

Yet, modern progress rests on great achievements of ancients, whose ideas, even the very names, such as, ‘senate,’ ‘consuls,’ ‘perfects,’ etc. have been borrowed by moderns. It is admitted that Napolean the Great conquered three-fourths of Europe by applying the principles of war taught by Caesars and Alexanders, and yet they assume they know better than his preceptor, and they would commit believers in animated tables to lunatic asylum.

“I will pout my spirit upon all flesh,” writes Prophet Joel; “Verily I say unto you......greater works than these shall you do,” promises Jesus. These are no idle words. They are prophetic—of the fact that the world will return to the grand religion of the past : knowledge of those majestic systems which preceded by far, Brahmanism, and even the primitive monotheism of the ancient Chaldeans.

The religion of the ancients is the religion of the future.

A few centuries more, and there will linger no sectarian beliefs in either of the great religions of humanity, Brahmanism and Buddhism, Christianity and Mahometanism will all disappear before the mighty rush of facts.

Animated statues

The means by which the wise priests of old could impress upon the grosser senses of the multitude the idea of Omnipotence of the Creative Will, or FIRST CAUSE, was to practically demonstrate to them, by exercise of their own sovereign irresistible Will, animation of inert matter by infusing soul into it, and transport ponderous objects through space and material objects without physical contact; and thus show that all this could be done because Man is the microcosmic image of the great Architect of the Universe.

Phenomenon of liquefaction of blood

The coagulated blood of the Catholic saint at San Gearro, in Naples, is made to boil and fume in its crystal bottle, and from its jewelled shrine the martyr’s idol beams radian smiles and blessings at the Christian congregations. The Hindu priest plunges an arrow into the god’s breast, and produces his ‘miracles,’ for the blood gushes forth in streams, and water in changed into blood.  Devotees of followers of both fall in raptures at the sight of the phenomena. Yet, Christian clergy denounce and dismiss the pagan phenomena the work of the devil.

Hermes on Theopoea : talking and walking statues of gods and saints

Hermes Trismegistus propounded a universal axiom when he said as the Highest One is the father of the celestial gods, so is man the artisan of the gods who reside in the temples, and who delight in the society of mortals. Man can imitate the divine powers of the Deity. Father Creator has made in His image the eternal gods ; so mankind in its turn makes its gods in its own image. Here Hermes spoke of the statues of gods mankind make, that these statues are endowed with reason, that they are animated with a soul, and that they can operate greatest prodigies, such as, predicting the future when forced to do so by magical spells. Thus man invented and created gods. Goes on Hermes :

“Powerless to create soul and spirit, they evoke the souls of angels and demons in order to introduce them into the consecrated statues; and so make them preside at their Mysteries, by communicating to idols their own faculty to do good as well as evil.”

A historical account of walking and talking statue at Lourdes and Rome

Exhibition of intelligence and locomotive powers of man made gods—idols—is not a part of prehistoric legends  but have their witnesses in modern  Christian  western world also. The statue of the Madonna of Lourdes runs away several times to the woods adjoining her usual residence, the parish church. The official in charge of the church had to hunt after the runaway and bring her home more than once. News papers of the place in the summer and autumn of 1876 reported the incidents. Then began a series of “miracles”—healing, prophesying, letter dropping from on high, and so on. These “miracles” are accepted by millions of Roman Catholics, a number of whom belonging to the intelligent and educated classes. Why then discredit and doubt historical accounts of the phenomena of the same character by accredited and esteemed historians, such as, Titus Livy ? He reports that upon a Roman soldier, after the conquest of that city,  requesting the statue of goddess of Rome, Juno, to leave the abode of Veii, and change this abode to for that of Rome, Juno nods her head in acquiescence, saying, “I will.” Upon receiving the consent of the goddess, when her statue of immense weight was lifted to transport it, it seemed to instantly lose its weight¸ and that the statue seemed to follow them than otherwise. (Tite.Livy, v. Dec, i—val. Max., cap. Vii)

De Mousseaux lists numerous instances of Christian and pagan phenomena

He recorded instances of walking statues of saints and Madonnas, who lose their weight and move about like living men and women. He also presents unimpeachable evidences of similar phenomena narrated by classical authors who describe their “miracles.” True to his Christian calling de Mousseaux, after giving facts, supporting the same with his arguments and reflections, makes bare his motive in his conclusions. According to him the Christian “miracle” is produced by God, and the pagan one by the Devil. Why did he do so, as Christian missionaries to this day ? He himself answers:

“The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolical Church declares the miracles wrought by her faithful sons produced by the will of God; and all others the work of the spirits of Hell.” He shows an endless list of holy writers :
“Your idols, your consecrated statues, are the abode of demons,” exclaims St. Cyprian. “Yes, it is these spirits who inspire your divines, who animate the bowels of your victims, who govern the flight of birds, and who, mixing incessantly falsehood with truth, render oracles, and ....operate prodigies, their object being to bring you invincibly to their worship.” (De Idol., lib. i. P. 452)

Animation of inert matter with life and intelligence by the potent Will of the Hierophant

From remotest ages there has existed an awful and mysterious science under the denomination, Theopoea. It is the art of endowing various symbols of gods with temporary life and intelligence under the potential Will of the Hierophant.  Left to itself, the life-principle will blindly follow the laws of nature, producing health or causing death and dissolution. But, guided by the Will of the Adept, its currents  obediently restores the equilibrium in organic bodies, fill waste, and produce physiological and psychological prodigies, miscalled miracles, well known to mesmerizers. Infused in inert matter they create an appearance of life and motion. The operator may even infuse his Astral Spirit into it and endow it with intelligence and a personality. Alternately, he may force one of the nature spirits by the power of his Will into the marble, wood or metal; he may even be helped by the human spirits. Of the class of human spirits, only the earth-bound vicious ones infuse their essence into the objects, not the higher, holy ones. The Holy human spirits will leave the lower class to infuse similitude of life and animation, and send a ray of the divine light from their supernal spheres through the intervening spheres, for the purposes of public good. Such phenomena of truly spiritual kind is possible under the condition of purity of motive,  purity of surrounding magnetic atmosphere, and personal purity of the operator. Thus the pagan “miracle” may be far holier than a Christian one, and this is Magic of the ancients.

Fanaticism in science and religion

Fanaticism blinds our senses. It is futile to argue with a fanatic. Sergeant Cox spoke words of wisdom on this question in a lecture. He said that it is a fatal policy to expect that the truth will prevail by its own force, that it has to be seen to be  embraced ; that desire for truth exists in very few minds; when men say they are seeking the truth, they actually mean that they are looking for evidence to support some prejudice or prepossession; that their beliefs are moulded to their wishes; that they are blind as bats to whatever tells against them; and that scientists are no more exempt from this common failing than others.

In the next blog, 6th, achievements of ancient India will be recounted and shown that every modern discovery is found anticipated in Indian history. All the world religions and philosophies are traceable to that Mother of civilizations.

----------------------------------

Isis Study – July-September 2013 – Part 4 : Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 606 – 611

The previous blog  no. 3 ended with a note :

In the next blog, number 4, the so-called superstitions of native peoples so unceremoniously dismissed by materialistic sceptics and agnostics will be discussed. It will be shown that open-minded and unbiased  investigation and understanding of these out-of-the-ordinary phenomena on the principles of ancient psychology will greatly extend the horizon of modern science.

Shark and wild beast charmers of India and Ceylon

Marcopolo has recorded in his travelogue the enterprise of pearl fishery of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He describes how pearl merchants engaged certain   communities living on the coast to bring up pearls by diving into the sea infested with sharks with the help of shark and wild beast charmers, who, by exercising their psychic powers, prevented the sharks from harming the divers. He called fish charmers Abraiman, probably meaning Brahmans.  He said that  the charmers exercised the power over the sharks to be effective only for the day, and that at the expiry of the period the sharks, freed from the spell, roamed freely in their habitat. These charmers, he said, had the powers to charm from a distance, beasts, birds and every living thing.

While sceptical readers of Marco Polo received his accounts with incredulity, charging him with concocting fictitious tales, Colonel Yule, in his work, Ser Marcopolo, reports that his investigations showed that narrations of Marco Polo were substantially correct. He reported that certain Brahmins were employed in the diamond mines of northern Circars to propitiate tutelary genii. Shark charmers were called Hai Bandi, or “shark binders.” The chief operator was paid by the government, besides receiving ten oysters from each boat during the fishery. The remarkable feature of the power of charms these natives exercised was that not more than one authenticated accident from sharks had taken place during the whole period of the British occupation. It is well known that that off the coast of Sri Lanka the sea is inhabited by sharks of the most voracious kind that it is dangerous to bathe in the sea, let alone to dive for oysters. Col. Yule was even prepared to give the names of the British Officers of highest rank in the Indian service, who resorted to native “magicians” and “sorcerers” to assist them in recovering things lost, or in unravelling vexatious mysteries of one kind or another, and after obtaining the object of their search, expressed privately to the native charmers their gratitude, but, out of fear of being ridiculed and laughed at by their peers, denied truth of magic and led the jest against Hindu “superstition.”

Image of the murdered man imprinted on the retina of the murderer

Scientists at one time believed that the retina of the murdered person retains the image of the murderer, and that the likeness could be made still more striking by subjecting the murdered man to certain fumigations, etc. An American News Paper of March 26, 1877 reported that the theory then held was that the last effort of vision materialized itself and remained as an object imprinted on the retina of the eye after death, and that this had been proved as a fact by an experiment tried in the presence of Dr. Gamgee, F.R.S., of Birmingham, England and Prof. Bunsen, the subject being a rabbit. The eyes, it was reported, were placed near an opening in a shutter, and retaining the shape of the same after the animal had been deprived of life.

An account of a semi-magical séance in Paris

India is tirelessly projected by the Christian missionaries in the West as a country inhabited   by people given to idolatry and superstition. In Paris, a centre of civilization, a semi-magical soiree was held. It had all the features of  occult practices which the civilized West would look upon as superstition.

A detail report of the phenomena was furnished to HPB by John L. Sullivan, Ex-Minister  Plenipotentiary  of the U.S.A. to Portugal, who attended the semi-magical séance.

It was in Paris, in the house of a highly respectable physician, whose name he did not divulge as he had no authority to do so. He is referred to in the narration as Dr. X. Mr. Sullivan  was introduced there by an English friend of his, a well known Spiritualist, by name Gledstanes. There were about ten observers who witnessed of the phenomenon.

Dr, X had investigated occult mysteries  for some twenty five years, which he exhibited to the assembled people. His object in exhibiting the phenomenon was to provoke scientific community to take up the investigation of the mysterious powers and faculties latent in man, which would extend the horizon of scientific knowledge into the domain of the hidden forces of Nature and of man. He intended to write a book on his discoveries and experiments.

The players in the exhibition of the phenomenon were two ladies, one was his wife, Madam X, and the other was whom O’ Sullivan called Madam Y. Madam Y was a sensitive, or, a Medium, who had worked closely with Dr. X in his experiments. The following performances were exhibited :

1. Both the ladies had their eyes closed, and apparently in trance. He had them stand at the opposite end of a grand piano, which was shut. He asked them to place their hands upon the piano. Sounds began to issue from its chords which were sounds of marching, galloping, drums, trumpets, rolling musketry, cannon, cries and groans. It lasted for five to ten minutes.

2. Before the two mediums were brought in, Mr. Sullivan had written in pencil on a small piece of paper the names of three objects—known only to himself : the name of the great composer, Beethoven (deceased), name of a flower, daisy, and a French cake, plombieres. He rolled the paper into a pellet and kept in his hand. None knew what he had written other than himself.

He was asked to hand in the rolled paper to madam Y. She held it unopened in between her fingers, placing her hand on her lap. The room was brilliantly lit from chandeliers from two sides of the room. After a while she dropped the paper on the floor, and Mr. Sullivan picked it up.

Dr. X directed her to make an “evocation of the dead.” He placed in her hand a steel rod of some four or five feet in length, the top of which was crowned with a short cross-piece—the Egyptian Tau. With it, the Tau at the free end, she drew a circle round her of about six feet in diameter and handed it back to Dr, X. She stood there for some time. Her lips began to move, muttered some sounds, which after a while became distinct in articulation, sounding like a litany. It sounded like some Oriental language, then loudly cried out “Beethoven !” and fell backwards, prostrate on the floor.

Dr. X leaned over her, made magnetic passes about her face and neck, propped her shoulders and neck with cushions. She laid there as a sick person for about half  an hour during which she seemed to pass through phases of gradual death. Her pulse ceased, heart beat stopped, her hands, arms and arms pit, feet and legs became cold. Dr. X invited the assembled to examine these details. Her gasping for breath came at longer intervals and grew more and more feeble. At last her end came, head falling sideways. She was dead.

Dr. X hastened to revive her. He produced two snakes (from where O Sullivan said he did not notice), huddled them about her neck and down to her bosom, and made eager transverse passes about her neck and head. She slowly revived, and servants carried her off into a private apartment. After a while she returned in good shape. The doctor said she was critical and that but for the exercise in reviving her she would not have survived. It was not any trickery as it was witnessed by eminent people, among whom were respectable physicians, and under the glaring light in a drawing room.

3. Madam Y returned. Mr. O sullivan still held the unopened pellet of paper containing the three words privately written by him. Name Beethovan was the first word. She sat for some time, began to move restlessly, and cried, “Ah, it burns, it burns,” her face showing signs of pain. She raised one of her hands, and it contained the daisy flower. Mr. O Sullivan received it from her. The assembled examined the flower. How the flower happened to come into her hands remained an unsolved puzzle for the observers—whether it was produced under her arms or was an apport, as happens in spiritualistic  phenomena.

4. The third word Mr. Sullivan had written was the name of the cake—plombieres. She went through the motion of eating though no cake was visible, and asked Mr. Sullivan whether he would go with her to Plombiere. Mr. Sullivan thought this could be a simple case of mind-reading.

5. This was followed by another scene in which Madam X seemed to be possessed by the spirit of Beethoven. Mr. Sullivan called out the name Beethoven but she did not hear him, until he called it out loudly in her ears. She responded with a slight bow. He remembered that Beethoven was deaf. He begged her to play on the piano. She sat at the piano and performed magnificently which was recognized by the company as in Beethoven’s style, though Madam Y was known to be only a very ordinary amateur performer.  She played and conversed for half an hour in the character of Beethoven. Her facial expression and tumbled hair strangely resembled Beethoven’s.

Mr. Sullivan placed in her hands a sheet of paper and a cryon and asked her to sketch the face of the person she saw before her. She rapidly sketched a head and face resembling Beethoven’s bust, as a young man, and dashed off a signature under it, which resembled the signature of the Composer.

The performance came to end. Mr. Sullivan conversed with his spiritualist friend, Mr Gledstanes about the phenomena they witnessed. Mr Gledstanes admitted action of spirits, as he was an experienced spiritualist, and besides, having studied occult mysteries of the Orient, was of the opinion  that it was something more than spiritualistic phenomena. He said that Madam Y was possessed by  priestess of one of the ancient Egyptian temples. The origin of  it was : Madam Y had received from a friend, who had come into possession of an Egyptian mummy, some of the linen swathing with which the muumified was enveloped. From the contact of this cloth of 2000 to 3000 years old, devotion of her whole existence to this occult relation, and twenty years of seclusion from the world, had developed mediumistic powers. The language she spoke was the sacred language of the temples in which she had been instructed. He said the French Orientalist, Jacolliot, had heard her in a similar scene and recognized the ancient language she spoke in temples of India. Mr. Gledstanes is reported by Mr. Sullivan to have remarked that the snake Dr. X had used in restoring Madam Y to life from near death condition had a strange relation to the phenomenon of life and death.

Mr. Sullivan learned from Mr. Gledstanes that Dr. X had given up further exhibitions of the  occult phenomena and powers  having been disgusted with the prejudice and scepticism of the scientific community and their refusal to impartially investigate the same.

This is an interesting case spiritualism transcending its limits and stepping into the domain of magic. In the phenomena features of mediumship are present, in the double life lived by Madam Y, in the subordination of her will to a foreign will, in the way priestess of Egyptian temples did, in the cataleptic condition into which she fell. Elements of magic is seen in the will-power exhibited by Dr. X upon his sensitive, in tracing the mystic circle, evocations, materialization of the flower, seclusion and education of Madam Y, use of wand, creation and use of serpents and evident control of Astral forces.

Such experiments are of value to science but liable to abuse in the hands of the less conscientious practitioners. A true Oriental Kabalists would not recommend their duplication.

What is it that bars scientific community to take up investigation of psychic phenomena ?

It is scepticism and agnostic denial of everything other than the material world and corporeal frame of man-animal. Yet science, in her explorations, meets at every step, with mysteries, which her methods are powerless to resolve. Science is honeycombed with metaphysics which stare her in the face at every turn as her investigations lead her on to the borders of the Occult World which she shrinks from daring to cross over into the vistas of the unknown. Scientists fool themselves in explaining away the occult mysteries by mechanical theories or denying them altogether.

In the next blog, number 5, this peculiar conceited and hypocritical traits of modern western scientists will be commented upon from theosophical perspective. This will be followed by an exposition of some of the astounding occult phenomena which ancient Theurgists produced, which are denied by modern science and denounced by Christian Church as diabolical. It will be shown that fanaticism of Christian Church and of modern scientist are a formidable barrier to advancement of true knowledge and enlightenment.

--------------------

Isis Study – July-September 2013 – Part 3 : Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 598- 606

The previous blog ended with a note :

In the part III of the blog, what the Teachers say about the  Gobi desert and the secrets it holds of pre-historic civilizations will be covered.

In addition to it, the universal belief that there are invisible worlds in another dimension of being which are full of invisible denizens will be discussed. A testimony of Marco Polo and other trustworthy witnesses in this regard will be brought forward.

Gobi desert and its secrets : A prophecy

According to the sacred annals the secrets that Gobi desert wilderness, Tartary and Tibet hold are jealously are guarded by unseen powers. HPB says that but for the restrictions she could have given more details of explorations, adventures and discoveries of travellers. She prophesies that a time will come, sooner or later, when the sands of the Gobi would yield up its long-buried secrets which would have an effect of mortifying modern pride and vanity.

An account of Marco Polo

According to the daring traveller of 15^th century, Marco Polo,  in a region called Pashai, somewhere about Udyan and Kashmere (as Col. Yule, translator of Marco Polo believes), are great adepts in sorcery and diabolic art; that Udyan was the native country of Padma Sambhava, one of the chief apostles of Tibetan Buddhism, and great master of enchantments. The doctrine of Sakhya tinged with Saivitic magic in olden times thrived there, and Tibetans know the locality to be one of sorcery and witchcraft. Nothing has changed from the old times except that their magical practices have become more secretive, which increase in proportion to travellers’ curiosity.

The ancient Chinese pilgrim,  Hiouen-Tshang, in his travelogues testifying  to it says that the practitioners had made of it a regular business. HPB joins a rejoinder to this that if that was the case with sorcerers then, as it is to this day among the modern practitioners, it was entirely different as regards true adepts. The Buddha never allowed his disciples and followers to make an exhibition of magical powers they had developed, and, instead, enjoined on them to hide their good works and show their sins.

Colonel Yule, the biographer of Marco Polo, speaks of the accounts of travellers who were struck by the wondrous magical powers exhibited by the natives of Tartary and Tibet. One of the magical feats exhibited by sorcerers was to make the form of Lao Tse appear by means of their incantations.

Adepts of the Good Law consider all these as abominations  and strongly discountenance them.

Hiouen-Thsang’s vision of the Buddha

Hiouen-Tshang was rewarded with a vision of the Buddha in a dark cavern not through any magical performance but entirely by the power prayer, faith and contemplation. He made 100 salutations but heard or saw nothing. Thinking himself sinful he cried bitterly and despaired, and just as he was about to give up all hope he perceived a feeble light on the wall and disappeared. Then he resumed his prayers, and the light flashed and disappeared. Then he took a firm vow that he would not leave the cave till he saw the face the venerable Buddha.  After 200 prayers the dark cave suddenly became bathed in light and the shade of the Buddha of brilliant white colour rose majestically on the wall, displaying the image of the “mountain of Light,” and a dazzling splendour lighted up the features of the divine countenance.  Hiouen-Tshang was lost in contemplation and wonder and would not turn his face away from the sublime and incomparable object.  He recorded in his diary :

It is only when man prays with sincere faith, and if he has received from above a hidde impression, that he sees the shadow clearly, but he cannot enjoy the sight for any length of time.

Belief in spiritual world full of invisible beings

The notion of Western students of Oriental religion and culture in the 19^th century that the people of China, upper and Central Asia were ignorant and irreligious was unfounded. The whole region abounds in mystics, religious philosophers, Buddhist saints and magicians. Belief in a spiritual world, full of invisible beings who, on occasions, appear to mortals objectively, is universal. I.J. Schmidt is quoted as saying that the interior and the encompassing atmosphere of the earth are filled with spiritual beings, which exercise an influence on organic and inorganic nature, and these influences are partly beneficent and partly malignant ; that in the deserts, especially, and other wild uninhabited tracts influences of nature are manifested on a gigantic scale, and that these places are the chief rendezvous of evil spirits. He says that from ancient times people held that the deserts of Gobi and steppes of Turan are dwelling place of malignant beings. Marcopolo speaks of these spirits in his book on Travels. He wrote that he witnessed time and again wonderful feats of magic performed by the subjects of Kublai Khan and adepts of other countries. His assertions were disbelieved in by his European countrymen. On his death bed he was urged to retract what he had said, but he refused to do so, but, on the contrary, swore to the truth of what he had said, and added that he had not told one-half of what he had really seen.

Col. Yule strongly defended Marcoplo in his writings and brought forward testimonies of many other authorities which corroborated the statements of Marco Polo.

Elemental spirits in deserts and wildernesses 

Marco Polo has recorded in his travelogue that travellers on the move by night in the desert hear spirits talking, that sometimes they call the travellers by name, sometimes even during day time; that sometimes one hears the  sound of a variety of musical instruments, sound of drums etc.

Chinese historian Matwanlin, corroborates the same – that one hears sometime singing, sometimes wailing, and that, sometimes, curious travellers have followed those sounds with a view out of curiosity, strayed from the course and been entirely lost. He says those are the voices of the goblins. He says that deserts are not the only haunts of the Gobi though it appears to be their favourite one. Col. Yule seemed to favour the theory that the awe and the vastness of the desert inspired such weird cries. If so, then Jesus is to be considered as deluded when he is supposed to have been tempted by spirits in the wilderness and that it must be a self-deception. Luke viii / 29 et.seq. speak of spirits of wildernesses. Pliny speaks of  phantoms which appear and disappear in the deserts of Africa. Aethicus, the early Christian cosmographer, narrates stories that were told of voices of singers and revellers in the desert. Apollonius of Tyana and his companions speak of spirits appearing in various forms in the moon light in desert near the Indus. Similar stories are told by travellers in the Sahara desert. 

Singing and musical sands of deserts

Strange phenomena often occur in nature which appear to be miraculous, but upon a closer examination are found to be but perfectly natural and accountable. For instance, in Southern California, sands of the sea shore, in certain places, when disturbed, produce a musical sound. It has come to be called the ‘musical sands,’ and is attributed to be an electrical phenomenon. The editor of Marco Polo speaking of it says that in certain sand hills the sand, when disturbed, produce sound of musical instruments, including sound of drums.  Friar Odoric is cited by the author that the flowing sand north of Kabul also produce phenomenon of this kind. Sand of the desert of Sinai produce sound of bell, and of drums. A Chinese account of 10^th century speaks of the ‘singing sands’ of the eastern border of Lop desert.

These are natural phenomena. Because they  are out of the ordinary, not accounted for, because they have not been investigated thoroughly, they cannot be called miracles;’ nor reports of such accounts to be dismiss as superstitions. Phenomena which have been witnessed and attested to be genuine by trustworthy witnesses, and been related by thousands of people in all lands, is worthy of careful study.

Invisible spirits of the deserts holding conversation with travelers 

Invisible beings many a time have appeared in tangible form to the passengers of the whole caravan traversing the deserts. It was suggested by some authorities that these voices are mere echoes. But such an explanation is unsatisfactory, because not only the “spirits” take on tangible form but even give intelligent answers to questions put to them.

If the phenomena of “Spiritualism” in which, through the agency of “mediums,” in séances, so-called spirits of the dead appear in tangible form to the assembled investigators and answers questions put to them, why similar occurrence in the deserts be denied ? The former occurrences have been investigated by eminent scientists (though main-stream orthodox body scientists have shied away from it, deeming it below their dignity to study which they regarded as a superstition and credulity of middle ages) and found to be genuine, the incredible theories advanced by them as explanation notwithstanding. Why not the latter phenomena of deserts witnessed by thousands of people be dismissed as superstitious? If “spirits” can do all that spiritualists claim for them, why can they not also equally to the  travelers on the wildernesses and solitudes ?

In the next blog, number 4,  the so-called superstitions of native peoples so unceremoniously dismissed by materialistic skeptics and agnostic science will be discussed; and it will be shown that proper investigation and understanding of these out-of-the-ordinary phenomena on the principles of ancient psychology will greatly extend the horizon of modern science.

--------------------

Isis unveiled, vol. I: August - September 2013 – Part 2

Summary and discussions

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages  595-598

The previous blog ended with a note :
The true religion and traditions of Incas are preserved to this day in all their original purity, in inviolable secrecy, despite the cultural and ethnic genocide perpetrated on them by the conquering Spaniards.

Hidden treasures of the Incas

H.P.B. mentions, as said in the previous blog, that the ruins which cover both the Americas and the West Indian Islands are all attributed to the people of the submerged continent of Atlantis, and that its Hierophants had built a network of subterranean passages linking Atlantis with the newly risen continent of Americas. Though Atlantis itself has disappeared under the water, the catacombs in South America still exist and are known to some Peruvians. H.P.B. gives an account of it which one such native, whom she encountered in her travels in the Americas, narrated to her. She says that his account was corroborated by an old Italian priest who had the secret divulged to him, at confession, by a Peruvian Indian.
 The last of the Inca chiefs was held a prisoner by Pizzaro, the Spanish conqueror, as a ransom for obtaining the hidden treasures of the Incas. The wife of the Inca chief offered a room full of treasure to Pizzaro in exchange for release of her husband. She kept her promise, but Pizzaro, according to the practice of Spaniards, broke his promise. Marvelling at the glittering  treasure Pizzaro declared that he would kill her husband unless she revealed to him the place from where the treasure came. He had heard that Incas had inexhaustible treasure in miles of subterranean crypts running. The queen begged for time, went to consult oracles. The priest showed her in the “Black Mirror” the unavoidable murder of her husband, whether or not she delivered the treasure demanded by Pizzaro. The queen gave orders to close the entrance, a door cut into the rocky wall of a chasm. It was closed with huge masses of rock. The Inca chief was murdered, and the unfortunate queen committed suicide.

Oracular Magic Mirrors

HPB says they are generally black, was used universally in ancient world. The secret of preparing black oracular mirrors are known in India, Tibet and China. Brasseur de Bourbourg quotes a native historian that the ancestors of Quiches brought them to Mexico from Egypt, and that Peruvian Sun-worshippers used it. When Spaniards had landed, according to the native historian, the king of the Quiches consulted the black mirror in order to learn the fate of his kingdom, and it reflected the present and the future as in a mirror.

A secret now first told

HPB’s said she learnt from her Peruvian informant that at various times different governments sent out exploratory teams to search for the hidden treasures of Incas under the pretext of scientific exploration, but failed to obtain any clue. She says this tradition is corroborated by reports of Dr. Tscuddi and other historians of Peru. In order to find further evidence of the veracity of the accounts given her, she personally visited Peru the second time. South of Lima, near Arica, she was struck by an enormous, nearly perpendicular, standing in solitude on the shore, apart from the mountain range of Andes, said to be the tomb of the Incas. Under the illumination of the last rays of the setting sun one could discern curious hieroglyphics inscribed on the surface of the volcanic rock.
 She speaks of once famous Temple of the Sun at Cusco, which was roofed with thick plates of gold, and walls and eave-troughs  covered with precious metal. The west wall was cut out an aperture in such a way that when the sun beams  reached it, it focused them inside the building, illuminating the idols and disclosing certain mystic signs, but at other times invisible. It was only by understanding those hieroglyphics that one could learn the secret of the tunnel and its approaches. It leads directly into an immense tunnel which runs from Cusco to Lima, then, turning southward, extends to Bolivia. At a certain point is is intersected by a royal tomb, inside of which are cunningly devised two doors or enormous slabs turning on pivots, and so tightly closed as to be indistinguishable from other portions of the sculptured walls, except by secret signs, whose key is in the faithful custodians. One of these turning slabs covers the southern mouth of the Lima tunnel, the other, the northern one of the Bolivian corridor, which turning southward, passes through Trapaca and Cobilo of Arica, not far away from the river Pay’quina—the boundary between Peru and Bolivia. River is called so, because its waves used to drift particles of gold from Brazil. Not far from this spot stand three separate peaks  which form a curious triangle, included in the chain of the Andes.
But without the secret of its land marks, an Army of Titans may rend the rocks in vain in the attempt to find it. Even if the entrance is found, says H.P.B., and gained entrance up to the turning slabs, and blast it out, the superincumbent rocks are so disposed as to bury the tomb, its treasures, and a thousand warriors in one common ruin. She says that along the length of the corridor from Bolivia to Lima and Cusco, there are smaller hiding places filled with treasures of gold and precious stones. They are accumulation of many generations of Incas, the aggregate values of which is incalculable.
 HPB was entrusted with accurate plan of the sepulchre. The treasures will remain hidden till the last vestige of Spanish conquerors leave north and south America
The old Peruvian who conducted her entrusted to her the accurate plan of the tunnel, the sepulchre, and the doors. She said if she had thought of profiting by the secret, it would have required the cooperation of the Peruvian and Bolivian governments on an extensive scale. Many a exploration have been undertaken by adventurers to exhume the hidden treasures but in vain.
In the part III of the blog, what the Teachers say about the  Gobi desert and the secrets it holds of pre-historic civilizations, and the least studied unexplained natural phenomena of deserts and wildernesses will be covered.

--------------------------

Isis Study – July-September 2013 Summary and discussions - Part 1

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 593 - 595

The previous blog ended with a note :

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.

Atlantis and its people

The great war between ‘Sons of God” and Atlantean giant sorcerers

 The class of Hierophants was divided into two categories :

1. those who were instructed by the “Sons of God” of the island, [see the previous blog] who were initiated in the divine doctrine of pure revelation ; and,


2. Others who, being of another race, were born of a sight which embraced all hidden things, and was independent of distance and material obstacles.

The second were the Fourth Race men. The sacred book of the Gutemalians, the Quiche MSS, the Popul Vuh, discovered by Brasseur de Bourbourg, speaks of them. In Theosophical Parlance, they were “natural born mediums,” who obtained their knowledge and powers without any struggle against, and conquest of, their lower human-animal nature. The latter condition is sine qua non for one who would become an Adept of the Good Law, and become  a “Son of God.” It is the “Sons of God” who walked in the path of their divine Instructors, acquired knowledge  by degrees, learned to discern the evil from the good. But the former, the born adepts of the Lost Continent (Atlantis) blindly followed the insinuations of the great invisible “Dragon,” the King Thevatat (the tempting serpent of Genesis ?). He was a sorcerer who knew without being initiated into the Sacred Mysteries, under whose insinuations the Atlanteans had become a nation of wicked magicians. In consequence of this a war was declared. (More detail account of it is given in H.P.B.’s The Secret Doctrine). The biblical story of Noah and his righteous family in struggle with the race of Cains, the giants, is a disfigured allegory of this pre-historical event. The conflict came to an end by the submersion of Atlantis—which finds its echo in the stories of Babylonian and Mosaic flood.

The giants and magicians “......and all the flesh died...and every man” (Popul Vuh), all except Xisuthrus  and Noah, who are identical with Thlinkithians of the Popul Vuh,the sacred book of the Gautemalians. It also tells of his escaping in a large boat, like the Hindu Noah—Vaivaswata.

Origin of Black Magic and irresponsible mediumship

Sacred tradition says : following inter-marriages between the descendants of the Hierophants of the fair Island and those of the Atlantean Noah sprang up a mixed race of righteous and wicked---Enochs, Buddhas, Christs and such saviours, on the one hand, and “natural magicians”, who, through lack of restraining power and proper spiritual enlightenment, because of weakness of mental and physical  organizations, unintentionally perverted their natural psychic and spiritual powers for evil purposes. Moses had severe rebuke to such who misused their powers for service of evil sprits to the hurt of humanity—the spirit of Ob.

Louis Jacolliot’s 21 volumes contain translations of Hindu philosophy and traditions, which mention matters relating to the submerged Atlantis

His copious translations in 21 volumes from ancient Hindu sacred books are invaluable. They corroborate the teachings given in Isis Unveiled [ and in The Secret Doctrine] In his work, Histoire des Vieges : Les Peuples et les Continent Disparus, he speaks of one of the most ancient legends of India, which he says  are preserved in the temples by oral and written traditions about historical events covering several hundreds of thousands of years. They speak of a mighty continent which existed where there is now the Pacific Ocean, which was destroyed by geological upheavals, fragments of which are to be sought in the now extant Madagascar, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java , Borneo and states of Polynesia. According to the ancient Indian sacred scrolls, that mighty continental country had attained a high civilization; that the  peninsula of Hindustan (India) was enlarged by the displacement of waters at the time of the grand geological cataclysms, and that the people of the ancient Indian sub-continent continued the traditions of the civilization born in that parent continent ; these traditions gave the name Ruta to the peoples which inhabited the immense equinoctial continent; and that from their speech was derived the Sanscrit. Jacolliot goes on the say that according to the temple literature of India  the most intelligent populations emigrated from India, from whom arose the Indo-Hellenic tradition, and that the latter also  preserved the memory of pre-historic events; that it too relates to the existence of a continent and a people to which it gives the name of Atlantis and Atlantides, and locates in the Atlantic in the northern portions of the tropics.

Stories preserved by Plato is nothing else but an echo of the Indian legend.

Jacolliot translated from Sanscrit MSS the account of the ancient continent of Atlantis, which  is corroborated in the religious beliefs and traditions preserved by the natives of the two extremes parts of the ocean, viz., Malacca and Polynesia. They speak of war between the “Sons of God” and the “Sons of giants,” the inhabitants of the Atlantis. Jacolliot personally visited all the islands of Polynesia, studied for years the religion, language, and traditions of nearly all these peoples.

Sandwich islands, New Zealand, Easter Island are separated from each other by such vast distances, and the inhabitants of these could never have crossed the vast ocean by primitive boats they used. Yet they preserved the same religious beliefs, spoke the same language, have the same usages, customs—which never could be but for the fact that they, at a distant epoch, formed an integral part of one mighty continent on which flourished a great civilization.

Ruins covering both the Americas and the West Indian Islands are attributed to the submerged Atlantis

 The new continent of Americas which arose from the ocean was communicable by land from the old continent, Atantis.  Hierophants and Magicians of the old world communicated with the new world by a network of subterranean passages running in all directions.  It is these itinerant magicians from the old world who wrought those magnificent stone structures in the Americas which baffle modern investigators. Mexican ancient myths and traditions preserve the memory of those events.

In the previous  blogs  Mexican myths and legends about the high civilization of pre-historic past which flourished in Americas, identity of the first historically known great navigators, Phonecians, the mysterious city of the Cordilleras etc. were discussed.

In the next blog some more corroborations from ancient traditions and witnesses will be brought up to show that  the ruins covering both the Americas  and west Indian islands own their origins to the Atlantean Magicians, and that the true religion and traditions of Incas are preserved to this day in all their original purity, in inviolable secrecy, despite the cultural and ethnic genocide perpetrated on them by the conquering Spaniards.

-----------------------------

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.

--------------------------------------------

Isis Study – April to June 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 584 – 590

 India, the cradle of civilization

 Louis Jacolliot was severely critical of present day India’s degradation, which, he rightly attributed to the perversion of ancient caste system over the last few centuries. His rebuke of modern India is proportionate to his admiration for the intensity of her past grandeur. He points the source of ancient creeds, including the Book of Moses, to be ancient India, the cradle of humanity and the hotbed of the lost arts and sciences of antiquity. “To study India,” said he, “is to trace humanity to its source.”
 Says Jacolliot : In the same way as the modern society jostles antiquity at each step, as our poets have copied Homer and Virgil. Sophocles and Euripides, Plautus and Terrene; as our philosophers have drawn inspiration from Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle; as our historians take Titus Livicus, Sallust, or Tacitus, as models; as our orators, Demosthenes or Cicero; our physicians study Hippocrates, and our codes transcribe Justinian—so had antiquity’s self also an antiquity to study, to imitate, and to copy, and that was ancient India. It is quite logical. Peoples precede and succeed each other, knowledge acquired by one nation overflows into other nations. India of 6000 years ago, brilliant, civilized, overflowing with population, impressed upon Egypt, Persia, Judea, Greece, and Rome, as these last have impressed upon us.

The Age of the Code of Manu

 The evidence of the past glories of ancient India lies buried in her literature. Christian missionaries anxiously summon every argument in support of their contention that the Ordinances of Manu were compiled at various times and the oldest cannot be earlier than the Christian era. But impartial Orientalists are of a different view. Sir William Jones is of the opinion that the laws of Manu, such as we possess them, do not comprise  fully the older text under the name Vriddha Manava or the Ancient Code of Manu which has not yet been entirely reconstructed, although many passages of the book have been preserved by tradition. Jacolloiot says that in the preface to a treatise on legislation by Narada, written by one of his adepts, it is said that Manu wrote laws of Brahma in 100,000 verses (slokas) which formed 24 books and a thousand chapters, and gave it to Narada, the sage of sages, who abridged it for the use of mankind to 12000 verses; that this was passed on to a son of Brighu, named Soumati, who, for the greater convenience of man, reduced them to 4000.
 Sir William Jones affirmed that the fragments which are the subjects of study of the scholars could not be the  The Ancient Code of Manu. Jacolliot, after consulting authorities and after his own research, wrote :
  “The Hindu laws were codified by Manu more than 1000 years before the Christian era, copied by the whole of antiquity, and notably by Rome, which alone has left us a written law—the Code of Justinian; which has been adopted as the basis of all modern legislation.”

Many Indologists, including Jacolliot, suspected that many of the Vedic texts and Laws of Manu sent by the Asiatic Society of Calcutta to Europe were not genuine texts at all, mostly due to cunning efforts of Jesuit missionaries to mislead science with a view to throw a cloud of uncertainty on the history of India.  (Jacolliot’s Christna et el Christ).
 The code of Manu commented upon by Brighon does not even form part of the ancient Manu called Vriddha Manava. What has been discovered is only a small part of it. The whole of it nevertheless exist in certain temples of India. Jacolliot proves that the texts sent to Europe disagree entirely with the same texts found in the Pagodas of Southern India.

The Age of the Vedas and Manu

 According to the Hindu tradition we are now Kali Yuga, the last of the four Yugas, of which Satya  or Krita Yuga is the first, during which the laws of Manu were established. Sir William Jones accepted the authenticity of the chronology, which, of course, contradicts the chronology of the Jewish scriptures, according to which just about 45000 years have elapsed since the “creation” of the world. The Hindu chronology agrees better with the geological chronology of modern science. Kali Yuga began about 4500 years ago.
 The contention of some scholars that the laws of Manu do not date farther back than three centuries B.C. is based on evidence of some ancient documents which were abridgment of those laws, compiled and arranged by later Brahmans to serve as an authority for their ambitious projects of creating for themselves a rule of dominion. There are however strongest possible arguments in favour of the great antiquity of the Books of Manu. Some of the arguments Louis Jacolliot brings forward in support of the same are worth considering :
 Jaccolliot proves that the Code of Justinian was copied from Laws of Manu. Then we have to ascertain the age of the former. According to Varro, Rome was built in 3961 of the Julian period (754 B.C.). The Roman Law, as compiled by the order of Justinian, called Corpus Juris Civilis, was not a code but a digest of the customs of legislation of many centuries. The chief source from which the jus scriptum, or written law, was derived, was jus non scriptum, or the law of custom, which in turn was derivation from still earlier sources. This alone carries it back to more than 1000 years B.C.

1. Manava Dharma Sastra, embodying the  Hindu system of cosmogony is recognized to be next to the Vedas in antiquity. Colebrook assigns to the latter 15^th century B.C.  Therefore, Laws of Manu cannot be assigned an age as recent as third century B.C.
2. While the Vedas are held to be divinely Revealed (Sriti), the  Code of Manu is considered to be a collection of oral traditions (Smriti), which are among the oldest and most revered in the land. Brahmans have undeniably remodelled these traditions at some distant period, and made many of the laws as they now exist to answer their ambitious views. Therefore, they must have been made at a time when Suttee (widow mounting the funeral pyre of her dead husband) had not become a social custom, which it had been for nearly 2500 years. There is no sanction in the Vedas for practice of Suttee nor is it sanctioned on the Code of Manu. If Brahmans had been the authors of the Code of Manu in recent times as some scholars believe, they would not have omitted to include the Suttee as a part of the code. This alone is a proof of the great antiquity of the Code of Manu

 It is on such circumstantial evidence, and by the strength of reason and logic, that it is affirmed that ; ig Egypt furnished Greece with her civilization, and the latter bequeathed hers to Rome, Egypt herself in those remote age when Menes reigned received her laws, social institutions, her arts and sciences, from Pre-Vedic India (Bunsen assigns the reign of Menes to be 3645 B.C.) It is to ancient India is the Initiatrix of the priests—Adepts of all other countries—that we must look for the key to the great mysteries of humanity.  By “India” is not meant the present day India but India of archaic period. India of those remote period was known by other names. There was an Upper, Lower and a Western India, the latter included Persia-Iran. What are now known as Thibet,  Mangolia and the great Tartary were considered by ancient writers as India.

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

--------------------------