Then the Third Race becomes:
4. The Androgyne, or Hermaphrodite. This process of men-bearing explains, perhaps, why Aristophanes, in Plato's Banquet, describes the nature of the old race as “androgynous,” the form of every individual being rounded, “having the back and sides as in a circle,” whose “manner of running was circular ... terrible in force and strength and with prodigious ambition.” Therefore, to make them weaker, “Zeus divided them [in the Third Root-Race] into two, and Apollo [the Sun], under his direction, closed up the skin.”
The Madagascans—the island belonged to Lemuria—have a tradition about the first man. He lived at first without eating, and, having indulged in food, a swelling appeared in his leg; this bursting, there emerged from it a female, who became the mother of their race. Truly, “we have our sciences of Heterogenesis and Parthenogenesis, showing that the field is yet open.... The polyps ... produce their offspring from themselves, like the buds and ramifications of a tree....” Why not the primitive human polyp? The very interesting polyp Stauridium passes alternately from gemmation into the sex method of reproduction. Curiously enough, though it grows merely as a polyp on a stalk, it produces gemmules, which ultimately develop into a sea-nettle or Medusa. The Medusa is utterly dissimilar to its parent-organism, the Stauridium. It also reproduces itself differently, by sexual method, and from the resulting eggs Stauridia once more put in an appearance. This striking fact may assist many to understand that a form may be evolved—as in the sexual Lemurians from hermaphrodite parentage—quite unlike its immediate [pg 188] progenitors. It is, moreover, unquestionable that in the case of human incarnations the law of Karma, racial or individual, overrides the subordinate tendencies of Heredity, its servant.
The meaning of the last sentence in the above-quoted Commentary on Shloka 27, namely, that the Fourth Race were the children of Padmapâni, may find its explanation in a certain letter from the Inspirer of Esoteric Buddhism:
The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh sub-race of the Fourth Root-Race—the above-mentioned Chinamen and their off-shoots and branchlets (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans, Hungarians, Finns, and even the Esquimaux are all remnants of this last offshoot).
Padmapâni or Avalokiteshvara, in Sanskrit, is, in Tibetan, Chenresi. Now, Avalokiteshvara is the great Logos in its higher aspect and in the divine regions. But in the manifested planes, he is, like Daksha, the Progenitor (in a spiritual sense) of men. Padmapâni-Avalokiteshvara is called esoterically Bodhisattva (or Dhyân Chohan) Chenresi Vanchug, “the powerful and all-seeing.” He is considered now as the greatest protector of Asia in general, and of Tibet in particular. In order to guide the Tibetans and Lamas in holiness, and preserve the great Arhats in the world, this heavenly Being is credited with manifesting himself from age to age in human form. A popular legend has it that whenever faith begins to die out in the world, Padmapâni Chenresi, the “Lotus-bearer,” emits a brilliant ray of light, and forthwith incarnates himself in one of the two great Lamas—the Dalai and Teschu Lamas; finally, it is believed that he will incarnate as the “most perfect Buddha” in Tibet, instead of in India, where his predecessors, the great Rishis and Manus had appeared in the beginning of our Race, but now appear no longer. Even the exoteric appearance of Dhyâni Chenresi is suggestive of the Esoteric Teaching. He is evidently, like Daksha, the synthesis of all the preceding Races and the progenitor of all the human Races after the Third—the first complete one—and thus is represented as the culmination of the four Primeval Races in his eleven-faced form. This is a column built in four rows, each series having three faces or heads of different complexions; the three faces for each Race being typical of its three fundamental physiological transformations. The first is white (moon-coloured); the second is yellow; the third, red-brown; the fourth, in which are only two faces—the third face being left a blank; a reference to the untimely end of the Atlanteans—is brown-black. Padmapâni (Daksha) [pg 189] is seated on the column, and forms the apex. In this reference compare Shloka 39. The Dhyân Chohan is represented with four arms, another allusion to the four Races. For while two are folded, the third hand holds a lotus—Padmapâni, the “Lotus-bearer”; the flower symbolizing generation—and the fourth holds a serpent, emblem of the Wisdom in his power. On his neck is a rosary, and on his head the sign of water [Symbol: two horizontal rows of wave-like symbols]—matter, deluge—while on his brow rests the third eye, Shiva's eye, that of spiritual insight. His name is “Protector” (of Tibet), “Saviour of Humanity.” On other occasions when he has only two arms, he is Chenresi the Dhyânî, and Bodhisattva, Chakna Padma Karpo, “he who holds a white lotus.” His other name is Chantong, “he of the thousand eyes,” when he is endowed with a thousand arms and hands, on the palm of each of which is represented an eye of Wisdom, these arms radiating from his body like a forest of rays. Another of his names in Sanskrit is Lokapati or Lokanâtha, “Lord of the World”; and in Tibetan Jigten Gonpo, “Protector and Saviour” against evil of any kind.[405]
Padmapâni, however, is the “Lotus-bearer” symbolically only for the profane; esoterically, it means the supporter of the Kalpas, the last of which is called Pâdma, and represents one half of the life of Brahmâ. Though really a minor Kalpa, it is called Mahâ, “great,” because it comprises the age in which Brahmâ sprang from a lotus. Theoretically, the Kalpas are infinite, but practically they are divided and subdivided in Space and Time, each division—down to the smallest—having its own Dhyânî as patron or regent. Padmapâni (Avalokiteshvara) becomes, in China, in his female aspect, Kwan-yin, “who assumes any form, at pleasure, in order to save mankind.” The knowledge of the astrological aspect of the constellations on the respective “birthdays” of these Dhyânîs—Amitabha (the A-mi-to Fo, of China), included: e.g., on the 19th day of the second month, on the 17th day of the eleventh month, and on the 7th day of the third month,[406] etc.—gives the Occultist the greatest facilities for performing what are called “magic” feats. The future of an individual is seen, with all its coming events marshalled in order, in a magic mirror placed under the ray of certain constellations. But—beware of the reverse of the medal, Sorcery.
Stanza VIII. Evolution Of The Animal Mammalians: The First Fall.
28. How the first mammals were produced. 29. A quasi-Darwinian evolution. 30. The animals get solid bodies. 31. Their separation into sexes. 32. The first sin of the mindless men.