Bradford Theosophical Society

Bradford Theosophical Society (Promoting understanding and respect for spiritual lifestyles) (Founded Feb. 1891) President: Cynthia Trasi. Click here: Trasi's home page. or to contact us. A Branch of The Theosophical Society in England 50 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8EA, Tel: 020 7935 9261 www.theosophical-society.org.uk

Blavatsky's 1888 magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, propounds the principles and tenets of Theosophy. In it she has quoted profusely from ancient sages like Plato, Confucius, Jesus, Gautam Buddha, and has borrowed heavily from the Hindu Upanishads.

Relationship to Vedanta.

When a student of Vedanta like me reads the basic tenets of Theosophy as laid down by Mme. Blavatsky, I marvelled at its striking similarity. According to Theosophy, the root cause of the entire universe, inclusive of all its animate and inanimate creation, is an entity that is "omnipotent, boundless, and an immutable principle," which, says Blavatsky, is "the one absolute reality which antecedes all manifested, conditioned being." This entity existed prior to the beginning of all creation, and will be there after the dissolution of the universe. This knowledge Blavatsky was said to have arrived at by intuition.

She further describes the three aspects of this ultimate reality as Absolute Abstract Motion, Absolute Abstract Space and Duration. The Absolute Abstract Motion is pre-cosmic ideation. It is the root of that quality which makes creativity possible, and it is also the root cause of the individual consciousness. Through infinite graduations and "stepping down" (somewhat as a transformer steps down the mighty power of electricity so that it becomes useful rather than destructive) it manifests as our consciousness, our mind and our thoughts.

Absolute Abstract Space is that aspect which gives shapes or forms to the different things in the universe. Duration is the root of time, that from which the principle springs into manifestation. This aspect makes "action" possible. Thus, Theosophy states that from this ultimate reality, we derive our consciousness, our minds, our power of thought and our power to create. It is the one principle that is not only the cause but the unifying force and one common factor in the entire creation.

This Theosophical concept of the ultimate reality is akin to the Brahman principle propounded by the Advaita Vedanta, the only subtle difference being that while the Upanishadic sages and the commentators of Brahmasutras like Shankaracharya described the nature of Brahman as Sat, Chit and Ananda, or existence, consciousness and bliss, Theosophy delineates its aspects in a different way.

Universal Brotherhood.

After establishing the one common thread in the entire universe, the next logical outcome is the doctrine of One Life, universal brotherhood, not just as a beautiful ideal which we hope to achieve someday in the far distant future. Theosophy looks upon the brotherhood as an inescapable law, as inevitable as the law of gravity or any other natural law through which life manifests. It connotes an implied respect for all human beings as well as for the entire realm of living things. We cannot break this law, but we can break ourselves against it. The concept of one ultimate reality behind all is a benevolent declaration with applications in daily, practical life.

Life Cycles and Maya.

The second proposition of Theosophy states the absolute universality of the law of periodicity through which the One Life operates, the flux and reflux, the ebb and flow of activity. Blavatsky states that the alternations of day and night, life and death, sleeping and waking are so common that it is easy to realise that the rule of periodicity is one of the fundamental laws of nature. The sixth chapter of the Bhagvad Gita similarly talks about the pairs of opposites such as pleasure and pain, light and darkness, night and day that follow each other.

Blavatsky refers to the universe itself as the periodic manifestation of the ultimate reality. The universe is Maya, she tells us, in the sense that it is temporary. There will be many phases of creation through millennia upon millennia. Creations change, the only constant factor is the ultimate reality from which the creation springs forth. Maya, in her opinion, is not illusion, but it is a power, the power of creation. The root meaning of the word maya signifies "a magic creation or display."

Soul and Oversoul.

The third basic proposition of Theosophy affirms the fundamental identity of every soul with the universal Oversoul and the "obligatory pilgrimage of every soul through the cycle of incarnation or necessity," as Blavatsky comments on the cycle of births and deaths that each soul undergoes. Each soul is responsible for its own actions, but it should travel in the company of other pilgrims in mutual affection and helpfulness.

Because of our identity with the Oversoul, we are endowed with physical powers such as walking and talking and mental powers of thinking and feeling. We as human beings are part of the same great intelligence that designed and maintains the complex universe within its set of natural laws, that keeps it in perfect place.

Seven races of Man.

Theosophy believes in seven human races that were created on earth in sequence, with millennia when those races overlapped. The theory is in sharp divergence with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. While he postulates an unbroken sequence of linear development from simpler to more complex or higher forms of life, Theosophy sees evolution as the impulse of conscious life to take on forms which fulfil its inner needs.

Theosophy believes that the first Root Race appeared on earth at a time when the planet was still in a formative stage. Called Etheric race, it comprised beings with subtler, more fluid and less dense bodies. The second race called Hyperborean, had loose knit, half human, watery bodies.

The third root race, known as Lemurian, is said to have inhabited a continent in what are now the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. This race is ancestral to the people who later occupied the continent of Africa and parts of Australasia, areas where the earliest human or humanoid remains have been found.

Theosophy also believes that certain great beings descended on earth and gave a spiritual impetus to the deepening of human consciousness. The fourth race has been called the Atlantean, a name derived from the celebrated lost continent of Atlantis to which Plato referred. The fifth root race is the Aryan, and although it generally refers to the Indo-European tribes that invaded India, the term Aryan literally means noble, and in Theosophy, the word refers to all the diversified peoples of the fifth race.

The sixth and seventh races are yet to come, and their roles and cultures on this earth are still unknown. Each of the seven root races is said to have three representatives:

1. Manu, a Progenitor or Archetypal man;
2. a Bodhisattva - Buddha to be or future enlightened one, and
3. a Mahachohan, the title traditionally given to the head or apex of the inner cultural and spiritual development of a race.