Theosophy and the Number
Seven
A selection of articles
relating to the esoteric
significance
of the Number 7 in Theosophy
The Septenary
Principle
in
Esotericism
By
H P Blavatsky
Since the exposition of the Arhat
esoteric doctrine was begun, many who
had not
acquainted themselves with the occult basis of Hindu philosophy
have imagined
that the two were in conflict. Some of the more bigoted
have openly
charged the Occultists of the Theosophical Society with
propagating rank Buddhistic heresy; and have even gone to the length of
affirming that the
whole Theosophic movement was but a masked Buddhistic
propaganda. We were taunted by ignorant Brahmins and
learned Europeans
that our septenary divisions of Nature and everything in it,
including
man, are
arbitrary and not endorsed by the oldest religious systems of
the East. It is now proposed to throw a cursory glance
at the Vedas,
the Upanishads,
the Law-Books of Manu, and especially the Vedanta, and
show that they
too support our position. Even in their
crude
exotericism their
affirmation of the sevenfold division is apparent.
Passage after passage may be cited in proof. And not only can the
mysterious number be
found traced on every page of the oldest Aryan
Sacred Scriptures, but in the oldest books of Zoroastrianism as
well;
in the rescued
cylindrical tile records of old
the "Book
of the Dead" and the Ritualism of ancient
the Mosaic books--without
mentioning the secret Jewish works, such as
the Kabala.
The limited space at command forces us to allow a few brief
quotations
to stand as
landmarks and not even attempt long explanations. It is no
exaggeration to say that
upon each of the few hints now given in the
cited Slokas a thick volume might be written.
From the well-known hymn To Time, in the Atharva-Veda
(xix. 53):
"Time, like a
brilliant steed with seven rays,
Full of fecundity, bears
all things onward.
"Time, like a seven-wheeled, seven-naved car moves on,
His rolling wheels are
all the worlds, his axle
Is immortality...."
--down to Manu, "the first and the seventh man," the
Vedas, the
Upanishads, and all the
later systems of philosophy teem with allusions
to this
number. Who was Manu, the son of Swayambhuva? The secret
doctrine tells us
that this Manu was no man, but the representation of
the first human
races evolved with the help of the Dhyan-Chohans (Devas)
at the
beginning of the first Round. But we are told in his Laws (Book
I. 80) that there are fourteen Manus for every Kalpa or
"interval from
creation to
creation" (read interval from one minor "Pralaya"
to
another) and that
"in the present divine age there have been as yet
seven Manus."
Those who know that there are seven Rounds, of which we
have passed
three, and are now in the fourth; and
who are taught that
there are seven
dawns and seven twilights, or fourteen Manvantaras;
that at the
beginning of every Round and at the end, and on and between
the planets,
there is "an awakening to illusive life," and "an awakening
to real
life," and that, moreover, there are "root-Manus," and what we
have to clumsily
translate as the "seed-Manus"--the seeds for the human
races of the
forthcoming Round (a mystery divulged but to those who have
passed the 3rd
degree in initiation); those who have
learned all that,
will be better
prepared to understand the meaning of the following. We
are told in the
Sacred Hindu Scriptures that "the first Manu produced
six other Manus
(seven primary Manus in all), and these produced in
their turn each
seven other Manus" (
the latter
standing in the occult treatises as 7 x 7.
Thus it becomes
clear that Manu--the
last one, the progenitor of our Fourth Round
Humanity--must be the seventh, since we are on our fourth Round,
and
that there is a
root-Manu on globe A and a seed-Manu on globe G. Just
as each
planetary Round commences with the appearance of a "Root-Manu"
(Dhyan-Chohan) and closes with a
"Seed-Manu," so a root-and a seed-Manu
appear respectively
at the beginning and the termination of the human
period on any
particular planet.
-------
* The fact that Manu himself is made to declare that he was created
by
Viraj and then
produced the ten Prajapatis, who again produced seven
Menus, who in their turn gave birth
to seven other Manus (Manu, I.
33-36), relates to other still earlier mysteries, and is at the
same
time a blind with
regard to the doctrine of the Septenary chain.
---------
It will be easily seen from the foregoing statement that a Manu-antaric
period means, as
the term implies, the time between the appearance of
two Manus or
Dhyan-Chohans: and hence a minor Manu-antara is the
duration of the seven
races on any particular planet, and a major
Manu-antara is the period of one human
round along the planetary chain.
Moreover, that, as it is said that each of the seven Manus creates
7 x 7
Manus, and that there are 49 root-races on the seven planets during
each
Round, then every root-race has its Manu. The present seventh Manu is
called "Vaivasvata," and stands in the exoteric texts for that
Manu who
represents in
in the esoteric
books we are told that Manu Vaivasvata, the
progenitor
of our fifth
race--who saved it from the flood that nearly exterminated
the fourth
(Atlantean)--is not the seventh Manu, mentioned in the
nomenclature of the Root,
or primitive Manus, but one of the 49
"emanated from this
'root'--Manu."
For clearer comprehension we here give the names of the 14 Manus in
their respective
order and relation to each Round:--
1st 1st (Root) Manu
on Planet A.-Swayambhuva
Round. 1st
(Seed) Manu on Planet G.-Swarochi
(or)Swarotisha
2nd 2nd (R.) M.
on Planet A.-Uttama
Round 2nd (S.)
M. " "
G.-Thamasa
3rd 3rd (R.) M.
" " A.-Raivata
Round 3rd (S.)
M. " "
G.-Chackchuska
4th 4th (R.) M. "
" A.-Vaivasvata
(our progenitor)
Round 4th (S.)
M. " "
G.-Savarni
5th 5th (R.) M. "
" A.-Daksha Savarni
Round 5th (S.)
M. " "
G.-Brahma Savarni
6th 6th (R.) M. on
Planet A.-Dharma Savarni
Round 6th (S.)
M. " " G.-Rudra
Savarni
7th 7th (R.) M. "
" A.-Rouchya
Round 7th (S.)
M. " " G.-Bhoutya
Vaivasvata thus, though
seventh in the order given, is the primitive
Root-Manu of our fourth Human Wave (the reader must always remember
that
Manu is not a man but collective humanity), while our Vaivasvata was but
one of the seven
Minor Manus who are made to preside over the seven
races of this our
planet. Each of these has to become the
witness of
one of the
periodical and ever-recurring cataclysms (by fire and water
in turn) that
close the cycle of every root-race. And
it is this
Vaivasvata--the Hindu
ideal embodiment called respectively Xisusthrus,
Deukalion, Noah, and
by other names--who is the allegorical man who
rescued our race
when nearly the whole population of one hemisphere
perished by water,
while the other hemisphere was awakening from its
temporary obscuration.
The number seven stands prominently conspicuous in even a cursory
comparison of the 11th
Tablet of the Izdhubar Legends of the Chaldean
account of the
Deluge and the so-called Mosaic books. In both the number
seven plays a most
prominent part. The clean beasts are
taken by
sevens, the fowls
by sevens also; in seven days, it is
promised Noah,
to rain upon
the earth; thus he stays "yet other
seven days," and again
seven days; while in the Chaldean.
account of the Deluge, on the
seventh day the rain
abated. On the seventh day the dove is
sent out;
by sevens, Xisusthrus takes "jugs of wine" for the altar,
&c. Why such
coincidence? And yet we are told by, and bound to believe
in, the
European Orientalists, when passing
judgment alike upon the Babylonian
and Aryan
chronology they call them "extravagant and fanciful!"
Nevertheless, while they give us no explanation of, nor have they
ever
noticed, as far as
we know, the strange identity in the totals of the
Semitic, Chaldean, and Aryan Hindu
chronology, the students of Occult
Philosophy find the
following fact extremely suggestive.
While the
period of the reign
of the 10 Babylonian antediluvian kings is given as
432,000 years,* the duration of the postdiluvian Kali-yug is also given
as 432,000,
while the four ages or the divine Maha-yug, yield in
their
totality 4,320,000
years. Why should they, if fanciful and
"extravagant," give the
identical figures, when neither the Aryans nor
the Babylonians
have surely borrowed anything from each other!
We
invite the
attention of our occultists to the three figures given--4
standing for the
perfect square, 3 for the triad (the seven universal
and the seven
individual principles), and 2 the symbol of our
illusionary world, a
figure ignored and rejected by Pythagoras.
--------
* See "
Manus and 10 Prajapatis and the 10 Sephiroths in the Book of Numbers--
they dwindle down
to seven!
--------
It is in the Upanishads and the Vedanta though, that we have to
look for
the best
corroborations of the occult teachings.
In the mystical
doctrine the Rahasya, or the Upanishads--"the only Veda of all
thoughtful Hindus in
the present day," as Monier Williams is made to
confess, every word,
as its very name implies,* has a secret meaning
underlying it. This meaning can be fully realized only by
him who has a
full knowledge of
Prana, the ONE LIFE, "the nave to which are attached
the seven spokes
of the Universal Wheel." (Hymn to Prana, Atharva-Veda,
XI. 4.)
Even European Orientalists agree that all
the systems in
the human
body:
(a) an exterior or gross body (sthula-sarira);
(b) aninner or shadowy body (sukshma), or linga-sarira (the
vehicle), the two cemented with—
(c), life (jiv or Karana sarira,
"causal body").**
Thesethe occult
system or esotericism divides into seven, farther adding to
these--
treating of Prameyas (by which the objects and subjects of Praman are to
be correctly
understood) includes among the 12 the seven "root
principles" (see IXth Sutra), which are 1, soul (atman), and 2 its
superior spirit Jivatman; 3, body (sarira); 4, senses (indriya); 5,
activity or will (pravritti); 6, mind
(manas); 7,
Intellection
(Buddhi). The seven Padarthas
(inquiries or predicates of existing
things) of Kanada in the Vaiseshikas, refer
in the occult doctrine to
the seven
qualities or attributes of the seven principles. Thus:
1,
substance (dravya) refers to body or sthula-sarira; 2, quality or
property (guna) to the life principle, jiv; 3, action or act (karman)
to the Linga, sarira; 4, Community or
commingling of properties
(Samanya) to Kamarupa; 5, personality or
conscious individuality
(Visesha) to Manas; 6, co-inherence or perpetual intimate
relation
(Samuvuya) to Buddhi, the inseparable
vehicle of Atman; 7,
non-existence or non-being
in the sense of, and as separate from,
objectivity or substance
(abhava)--to the highest monad or Atman.
-------
* Upa-ni-shad means, according to Brahminical authority, "to conquer
ignorance by revealing
the secret spiritual knowledge." According to
Monier Williams,
the title is derived from the root sad with the
prepositions upa and ni, and implies
"something mystical that underlies
or is beneath
the surface."
** This Karana-sarira is often mistaken
by the uninitiated for
Linga-sarira, and since
it is described as the inner rudimentary or
latent embryo of
the body, confounded with it. But the
Occultists
regard it as the
life (body) or Jiv, which disappears at death; is
withdrawn--leaving the
1st and 3rd principles to disintegrate and
return to their
elements.
----------
Thus, whether we view the ONE as the Vedic Purusha
or Brahman (neuter)
the
"all-expanding essence;" or as
the universal spirit, the "light of
lights" (jyotisham jyotih) the TOTAL
independent of all relation, of the
Upanishads;
or as the Paramatman of the Vedanta; or again as Kanada's
Adrishta, "the
unseen Force," or divine atom; or as Prakriti,
the
"eternally existing essence," of
Kapila--we find in all these impersonal
universal Principles
the latent capability of evolving out of themselves
"six rays" (the evolver being
the seventh). The third aphorism of the
Sankhya-Karika, which says
of Prakriti that it is the "root and
substance of all
things," and no production, but itself a producer of
"seven things, which produced by it,
become also producers," has a
purely occult
meaning.
What are the "producers" evoluted
from this universal root-principle,
Mula-prakriti or
undifferentiated primeval cosmic matter, which evolves
out of itself
consciousness and mind, and is generally called "Prakriti"
and amulam mulam, "the rootless
root," and Aryakta, the "unevolved
evolver,"
&c.? This primordial tattwa or "eternally existing 'that,'"
the unknown
essence, is said to produce as a first producer, 1, Buddhi--
"intellect"--whether we apply
the latter to the 6th macrocosmic or
microcosmic
principle. This first produced produces
in its turn (or is
the source of) Ahankara, "self-consciousness" and manas "mind."
The
reader will please
always remember that the Mahat or great source of
these two internal
faculties, "Buddhi" per se, can have neither
self-consciousness nor
mind; viz., the 6th principle in man can
preserve
an essence of
personal self-consciousness or "personal individuality" only
by absorbing
within itself its own waters, which have run through that
finite
faculty; for Ahankara,
that is the perception of "I," or the
sense of one's
personal individuality, justly represented by the term
"Ego-ism," belongs to the second, or rather the third,
production out of
the seven, viz.,
to the 5th principle, or Manas. It is
the latter which
draws "as the
web issues from the spider" along the thread of Prakriti,
the "root
principle," the four following subtle elementary principles or
particles--Tanmatras, out of which "third class," the Mahabhutas or the
gross elementary
principles, or rather sarira and rupas,
are evolved--
the kama, linga, Jiva
and sthula-sarira.
The three gunas of
"Prakriti"--the Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas (purity,
passionate activity,
and ignorance or
darkness)--spun into a triple-stranded cord or "rope,"
pass through the
seven, or rather six, human principles.
It depends on the 5th--Manas or Ahankara,
the "I"--to thin the guna,
"rope," into one thread--the sattwa; and thus by
becoming one with the
"unevolved
evolver," win immortality or eternal conscious existence.
Otherwise it will be again resolved into its Mahabhautic
essence; so
long as the
triple-stranded rope is left unstranded, the spirit
(the
divine monad) is
bound by the presence of the gunas in the principles
"like an animal" (purusha pasu). The spirit, atman or jivatman
(the 7th
and 6th
principles), whether of the macro-or microcosm, though bound by
these gunas during the objective manifestation of universe or
man, is
yet nirguna--i.e., entirely free from them. Out of the three producers
or evolvers, Prakriti, Buddhi and Ahankara, it
is but the latter that
can be caught
(when man is concerned) and destroyed when personal. The
"divine monad" is aguna (devoid of qualities), while Prakriti,
once that
from passive Mula-prakriti it has become avyakta
(an active evolver) is
gunavat--endowed
with qualities. With the latter, Purusha or Atman can
have nought to do (of course being unable to perceive it in its
gunuvatic state); with the former--or Mula-prakriti
or undifferentiated
cosmic essence--it
has, since it is one with it and identical.
The Atma Bodha, or "knowledge of
soul," a tract written by the great
Sankaracharya, speaks
distinctly of the seven principles in man (see
14th verse). They are called therein the five sheaths (panchakosa) in
which is enclosed
the divine monad--the Atman, and Buddhi, the 7th and
6th principles, or the individuated soul
when made distinct (through
avidya, maya and the gunas) from the
supreme soul--Parabrahm. The 1st
sheath, called Ananda-maya--the "illusion of supreme bliss"--is
the
manas or fifth
principle of the occultists, when united with Buddhi;
the 2nd sheath
is Vjnana-maya-kosa, the case or "envelope of
self-delusion," the manas when self-deluded into the belief of the
personal
"I," or ego, with its vehicle.
The 3rd, the Mano-maya sheath,
composed of
"illusionary mind" associated with the organs of action and
will, is the
Kamarupa and Linga-sarira combined, producing an
illusive
"I" or Mayavi-rupa. The 4th sheath is called Prana-maya, "illusionary
life," our
second life principle or jiv, wherein resides life,
the
"breathing" sheath. The 5th kosa is
called Anna-maya, or the sheath
supported by food--our
gross material body. All these sheaths
produce
other smaller
sheaths, or six attributes or qualities each, the seventh
being always the
root sheath; and the Atman or spirit
passing through
all these subtle
ethereal bodies like a thread, is called the
"thread-soul" or sutratman.
We may conclude with the above demonstration. Verily the Esoteric
doctrine may well be
called in its turn the "thread-doctrine," since,
like Sutratman or Pranatman, it passes
through and strings together all
the ancient
philosophical religious systems, and, what is more,
reconciles and explains
them. For though seeming so unlike
externally,
they have but one
foundation, and of that the extent, depth, breadth and
nature are known to
those who have become, like the "Wise Men of the
East," adepts in Occult Science.
--H.P.
Blavatsky
Theosophical Society, Cardiff Lodge,
Cardiff Lodge’s Instant Guide to Theosophy
Cardiff Lodge’s Gallery of Great Theosophists