When reading of the “last transformation,” which is said to have taken place 18,000,000 years ago, let the reader at this juncture, consider how many millions more it must have required to reach that final stage. And if Man, in his gradual consolidation, developed pari passu with the Earth, how many millions of years must have elapsed during the First, Second, and the first half of the Third Race. For the Earth was in a comparatively ethereal condition before it reached its last consolidated state. The Archaic Teachings, moreover, tell us that, during the middle period of the Lemuro-Atlantean Race, three and a half Races after the Genesis of Man, the Earth, Man, and everything on the Globe, were of a still grosser and more material nature, while such things as corals and some shells were still in a semi-gelatinous, astral state. The cycles that have intervened since then, have already carried us onward, on the opposite ascending arc, some steps toward our “dematerialization,” as the Spiritualists would say. The Earth, ourselves, and all things have softened since then—aye, even our brains. But it has been objected by some Theosophists that an ethereal Earth even some 15 or 20,000,000 years ago, “does not square with Geology,” which teaches us that winds blew, rains fell, waves broke on the shore, sands shifted and accumulated, etc.; that, in short, all natural causes now in operation were then in force, “in the very earliest ages of geological time, aye, that of the oldest palæozoic rocks.” To this the following answers are given. Firstly, what is the date assigned by Geology to these “oldest palæozoic rocks”? And secondly, why could not the winds blow, rain fall, and waves—of “carbonic acid” [pg 262] apparently, as Science seems to imply—break on the shore, on an Earth semi-astral, i.e., viscid? The word “astral” does not necessarily, in Occult phraseology, mean as thin as smoke, but rather “starry,” shining or pellucid, in various and numerous degrees, from a quite filmy to a viscid state, as just observed. But it is further objected: “How could an astral Earth have affected the other Planets in this System? Would not the whole process get out of gear now if the attraction of one Planet were suddenly removed?” The objection is evidently invalid, since our System is composed of older and younger Planets, some dead—like the Moon—others in process of formation, for all that Astronomy knows to the contrary. Nor has the latter ever affirmed, so far as we know, that all the bodies of our System have sprung into existence and developed simultaneously. The Cis-Himâlayan Secret Teachings differ from those of India in this respect. Hindû Occultism teaches that the Vaivasvata Manu Humanity is 18,000,000 and odd years old. We say, yes; but only so far as physical or approximately physical, Man is concerned, who dates from the close of the Third Root-Race. Beyond that period Man, or his filmy image, may have existed for 300,000,000 years, for all we know; since we are not taught figures which are and will remain secret with the Masters of Occult Science, as justly stated in Esoteric Buddhism. Moreover, whereas the Hindû Purânas speak of one Vaivasvata Manu, we affirm that there were several, the name being a generic one.
We must now say a few more words on the physical evolution of man.
Archaic Teachings In The “Purânas” And “Genesis.” Physical Evolution.
The writer cannot give too much proof that the system of Cosmogony and Anthropogony above described actually existed, that its records are preserved, and that it is found mirrored even in the modern versions of ancient Scriptures.
The Purânas on the one hand, and the Jewish Scriptures on the other, are based on the same scheme of evolution, which, if read Esoterically and expressed in modern language, would be found to be quite as scientific as much of what now passes current as the final word of recent discovery. The only difference between the two schemes is, that the Purânas, giving as much, and perhaps more, attention to causes than to effects, allude to the pre-cosmic and pre-genetic periods [pg 263] rather than to those of so-called “creation,” whereas the Bible, after saying only a few words on the former period, plunges forthwith into material genesis, and, while almost skipping the Pre-Adamic races, proceeds with its allegories concerning the Fifth Race.
Now, whatever the onslaught made on the “order of creation” in Genesis—and its dead-letter account certainly lends itself admirably to criticism[576]—the Hindû Purânas, notwithstanding their allegorical exaggerations will be found quite in accordance with Physical Science.
Even what, on the face of it, appears to be the perfectly nonsensical allegory of Brahmâ assuming the form of a Boar to rescue the Earth from under the waters, finds a perfectly scientific explanation in the Secret Commentaries, relating as it does to the many risings and sinkings, the constant alternation of water and land from the earliest to the latest geological periods of our Globe; for Science teaches us now that nine-tenths of the stratified formations of the Earth's crust have been gradually constructed beneath the water at the bottom of the seas. The ancient Âryans are credited with having known nothing whatever of Natural History, Geology, and so on. The Jewish race is, on the other hand, proclaimed even by its severest critic, an uncompromising opponent of the Bible, to have the merit of having conceived the idea of monotheism “earlier, and retained it more firmly, than any of the less philosophical and more immoral religions (!!) of the ancient world.”[577] Only, while in biblical Esotericism, we find physiological sexual mysteries symbolized, and very little more, something for which very little real Philosophy is requisite—in the Purânas one can find the most scientific and philosophical “dawn of creation,” which, if impartially analyzed and rendered into plain language from its fairy-tale-like allegories, would show that modern Zoology, Geology, Astronomy, and [pg 264] nearly all the branches of modern knowledge, have been anticipated in ancient Science, and were known to ancient Philosophers in their general features, if not in such detail as at present.
Paurânic Astronomy, with all its deliberate concealment and confusion for the purpose of leading the profane off the real track, has been shown even by Bentley to be a real science; and those who are versed in the mysteries of Hindû astronomical treatises, will prove that the modern theories of the progressive condensation of nebulæ, nebulous stars and suns, with the most minute details about the cyclic progress of asterisms for chronological and other purposes—far more correct than Europeans have even now—were known in India to perfection.
If we turn to Geology and Zoology we find the same. What are all the myths and endless genealogies of the seven Prajâpatis, of their sons, the seven Rishis or Manus, and of their wives, sons and progeny, but a vast detailed account of the progressive development and evolution of animal creation, one species after the other? Were the highly philosophical and metaphysical Âryans—the authors of the most perfect philosophical system of transcendental Psychology, of codes of Ethics, of such a grammar as Pânini's, of the Sânkhya and Vedânta systems, of a moral code (Buddhism), proclaimed by Max Müller the most perfect on earth—were the Âryans such fools, or children, as to lose their time in writing “fairy tales,” such as the Purânas now seem to be in the eyes of those who have not the remotest idea of their secret meaning? What is the “fable,” the genealogy and origin of Kashyapa, with his twelve wives by whom he had a numerous and diversified progeny of serpents (Nâgas), reptiles, birds, and all kinds of living things, who was thus the “father” of all kinds of animals, but a veiled record of the order of evolution in this Round? So far, we do not see that any Orientalist has ever had the remotest conception of the truths concealed under the allegories and personifications. The Shatapatha Brâhmana, says one, gives “a not very intelligible account” of Kashyapa's origin.