The Mahatmas

Abbreviations:
BCW
H.P. Blavatsky: Collected Writings, TPH, 1950-91
CC
Combined Chronology, M. Conger, TUP, 1973
Dia
Dialogues of G. de Purucker, TUP, 1948
EST
Esoteric Teachings, G. de Purucker, PLP, 1987
ET
The Esoteric Tradition, G. de Purucker, TUP, 2nd ed., 1940
Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, G. de Purucker, TUP, 2nd ed.,
FEP
1979
FSO
Fountain-Source of Occultism, G. de Purucker, TUP, 1974
Key
The Key to Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky, TUP, 1972 (1889)
Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, C. Jinarajadasa (comp.), TPH,
LMW
1973/77
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, A. Trevor Barker (comp.), TUP, 2nd ed.,
ML2
1926
MLC
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, TPH, chron. ed., 1993
Ocean The Ocean of Theosophy, W.Q. Judge, TUP, 1973 (1893)
OG
Occult Glossary, G. de Purucker, TUP, 2nd ed., 1996
SD
The Secret Doctrine, H.P. Blavatsky, TUP, 1977 (1888)
SOP
Studies in Occult Philosophy, G. de Purucker, TUP, 1945
WoS
Wind of the Spirit, G. de Purucker, TUP, 2nd ed., 1984
Mahatma (Mahatman, Sanskrit) Great soul or great self is the meaning of this
compound word (maha, great; atman, self). The mahatmas are perfected men,
relatively speaking, known in theosophical literature as teachers, elder brothers,
masters, sages, seers, and by other names. ... They are men, not spirits men who
have evolved through self-devised efforts in individual evolution, always advancing
forwards and upwards until they have now attained the lofty spiritual and intellectual
human supremacy that now they hold. ... They possess knowledge of natures secret
processes, and of hid mysteries, which to the average man may seem to be little short
of the marvelous ...
Especially are they called teachers because they are occupied in the noble duty of
instructing mankind, in inspiring elevating thoughts, and in instilling impulses of
forgetfulness of self into the hearts of men. Also are they sometimes called the
guardians, because they are, in very truth, the guardians of the race and of the records
natural, racial, national of past ages, portions of which they give out from time to
time as fragments of a now long-forgotten wisdom, when the world is ready to listen to
them; and they do this in order to advance the cause of truth and of genuine civilization
founded on wisdom and brotherhood.
Never such is the teaching since the human race first attained selfconsciousness has this ... brotherhood of exalted men been without its representatives

on our earth. It was the mahatmas who founded the modern Theosophical Society
through their envoy or messenger, H.P. Blavatsky, in New York, in 1875. (OG 94-5)
Mans ordinary consciousness in life in his present stage of evolution is almost wholly
in the lower or intermediate duad (manas-kama) of his constitution; when he raises his
consciousness through personal effort to become permanently one with the higher duad
(atma-buddhi), he becomes a mahatma, a master. (OG 25)
A MAHATMA is a personage, who, by special training and education, has evolved
those higher faculties and has attained that spiritual knowledge, which ordinary
humanity will acquire after passing through numberless series of re-incarnations during
the process of cosmic evolution ... [A]n entity, that is passing through the occult training
in its successive births, gradually has less and less (in each incarnation) of [the] lower
manas until there arrives a time when its whole manas, being of an entirely elevated
character, is centred in the higher individuality, when such a person may be said to have
become a MAHATMA. ... The real MAHATMA is then not his physical body but that higher
manas which is inseparably linked to the atma and its vehicle [buddhi] a union
effected by him in a comparatively very short period by passing through the process of
self-evolution laid down by the occult philosophy. ... [A]lthough the whole of humanity is
within the mental vision of the MAHATMA, they cannot be expected to take special note
of every human being, unless that being by his special acts draws their particular
attention to himself. The highest interest of humanity, as a whole, is their special
concern, for they have identified themselves with that Universal Soul which runs through
humanity ... (BCW 6:239-40)
Our MASTERS ... are simply holy mortals, ... higher than any in this world, morally,
intellectually and spiritually. (BCW 7:242) [A]deptship is a logical necessity in the
natural order of human development. (BCW 11:399)
Great are the desecrations to which the names of two of the masters have been
subjected. There is hardly a medium who has not claimed to have seen them. Every
bogus swindling Society, for commercial purposes, now claims to be guided and
directed by masters, often supposed to be far higher than ours! ...
We theosophists were, unfortunately, the first to talk of these things, to make the fact
of the existence in the East of adepts and masters and occult knowledge known ...
[W]e can only suffer in the hope that our indiscretions may have made it a little easier
for others to find the way to these masters ... (Key 301-3)
Mahatma KH: [W]e (or most of us) are far from being the heartless, morally dried up
mummies some would fancy us to be. ... [F]ew of us (except such as have attained the
final negation of moksha) can so far enfranchise ourselves from the influence of our
earthly connection as to be insusceptible in various degrees to the higher pleasures,
emotions, and interests of the common run of humanity. Until final emancipation
reabsorbs the Ego, it must be conscious of the purest sympathies called out by the
esthetic effects of high art, its tenderest cords respond to the call of the holier and
nobler human attachments. Of course, the greater the progress towards deliverance,
the less this will be the case, until, to crown all, human and purely individual personal
feelings blood-ties and friendship, patriotism and race predilection all will give away,
to become blended into one universal feeling, ... an immense love for humanity as a
whole! (ML2 32 / MLC 48-9)

The term universal brotherhood is no idle phrase. Humanity in the mass has a
paramount claim upon us ... It is the only secure foundation for universal morality. If it be
a dream, it is at least a noble one for mankind: and it is the aspiration of the true adept.
(ML2 17 / MLC 20)
[Do you think that] we have broken the silence of centuries for the profit of a handful
of dreamers only? (LMW 1:20) [Our cause] is the cause of humanity, of true religion, of
education, of enlightenment and spiritual elevation ... (LMW 2:97-8)
It is he alone who has the love of humanity at heart, who is capable of grasping
thoroughly the idea of a regenerating practical brotherhood who is entitled to the
possession of our secrets. He alone ... will never misuse his powers, as there will be no
fear that he should turn them to selfish ends. A man who places not the good of
mankind above his own good is not worthy of becoming our chela he is not worthy of
becoming higher in knowledge than his neighbour. (ML2 252 / MLC 100-1)
The relationship of teacher and disciple is infinitely more sacred even than that of
parent and child; because, while the parents give the body to the incoming soul, the
teacher brings forth that soul itself ... The chela life or chela path is a beautiful one, full
of joy to its very end, but also it calls forth and needs everything noble and high in the
learner or disciple; for the powers or faculties of the higher self must be brought into
activity in order to attain and to hold those summits of intellectual and spiritual grandeur
where the masters themselves live. (OG 28)
Brothers of the shadow: A term given in occultism ... to individuals, whether men or
women, who follow ... the path of matter or of the shadows. ... They are the so-called
black magicians of the Occident, and stand in sharp and notable contrast with the white
magicians or the sons of light who follow the pathway of self-renunciation, self-sacrifice,
self-conquest, perfect self-control, and ... service for all that lives.
The existence and aims of the brothers of the shadow are essentially selfish. ...
Multitudes of human beings are unconsciously treading the path of the shadows and, in
comparison with these multitudes, it is relatively only a few who self-consciously lead
and guide with subtle and nefast intelligence this army of unsuspecting victims of maya.
The brothers of the shadow are often highly intellectual men and women, frequently
individuals with apparent great personal charm ... (OG 21-3)
[They] work by temptation, by mental pictures, by suggestion, by quoting scripture,
by appealing to their victims vanity as if their plea were made to the high virtues, by
playing upon their egoism, and by arousing ignoble passions. (FSO 456)
There is a law that if a white magician uses his occult power an equal amount of
power may be used by the black one. (BCW 10:270)
For countless generations hath the adept builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a
giants Tower of INFINITE THOUGHT, wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need be,
dwell alone, emerging from it but at the end of every cycle, to invite the elect of mankind
to co-operate with him and help in his turn enlighten superstitious man. And we will go
on in that periodical work of ours; we will not allow ourselves to be baffled in our
philanthropic attempts until that day when the foundations of a new continent of thought
are so firmly built that no amount of opposition and ignorant malice guided by the
Brethren of the Shadow will be found to prevail. (ML2 51 / MLC 68)
***

In reply to A.O. Humes question about the mahatmas alleged failure to leave any
mark on world history, KH writes:
How do you know they have made no such mark? Are you acquainted with their
efforts, successes, and failures? ... How could your world collect proofs of the doings of
men who have sedulously kept closed every possible door of approach by which the
inquisitive could spy upon them? The prime condition of their success was, that they
should never be surprised or obstructed. What they have done they know; all those
outside their circle could perceive was the results, the causes of which were masked
from view. To account for these results, many have in different ages invented theories of
the interposition of Gods, special providences, fates, and the benign or hostile
influences of the stars.
There never was a time within or before the so-called historical period when our
predecessors were not moulding events and making history, the facts of which were
subsequently and invariably distorted by historians to suit contemporary prejudices.
Are you quite sure that the visible heroic figures in the successive dramas were not
often but their puppets? We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the mass to
this or that crisis in spite of the general drift of the worlds cosmic relations. The cycles
must run their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness succeed each
other, as day does night. The major and minor yugas must be accomplished according
to the established order of things. And we, borne along on the mighty tide, can only
modify and direct some of its minor currents. ...
There have been times when a considerable portion of enlightened minds were
taught in our schools. Such times there were in India, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome.
But ... the adept is the efflorescence of his age, and comparatively few ever appear in a
single century. Earth is the battle ground of moral no less than of physical forces; and
the boisterousness of animal passions under the stimulus of the rude energies of the
lower group of etheric agents, always tends to quench spirituality. ...
True also, our numbers are just now diminishing but this is because, as I have said,
we are of the human race, subject to its cyclic impulses and powerless to turn that back
upon itself. Can you turn the Gunga or the Brahmapura back to its sources; can you
even dam it so that its piled up waters will not overflow the banks? No, but you may
draw the stream partly into canals and utilize its hydraulic powers for the good of
mankind. So we, who can not stop the world from going in its destined direction, are yet
able to divert some part of its energy into useful channels. (CC 34-6 / MLC 473-4)
[T]he members of the Great Brotherhood ... are continuously acting as a Guardian
Wall ... around mankind, shielding and protecting it against dangers both of a cosmic
and terrestrial character, of which the multitudes know less than nothing. (ET 1058-9)
What are these evils? They are simply entities and powers and influences and forces
which, were they to enter our human sphere, would wreak evil upon us because they
are not ... in sympathy with us, though in ... their own spheres, in their own lands, they
are no more evil than we are. (Dia 3:293)
[If the mahatmas] exerted their spiritual and intellectual and psychical powers ...
merely in order to force men and women to follow paths which mankind have not
themselves chosen by deliberate choice, [they] would be enacting the part of drivers of
dumbly driven human cattle, with consequent spiritual-intellectual good and benefit
neither to the drivers nor to the driven. ... They guide humanity spiritually and
intellectually; they instil lessons of mercy and of pity... It is their sublime duty always to
work to restore and preserve peace and harmony and brotherly love among men.
Should such exalted individuals ever concern themselves with the political turmoils of

any age, ... they do so only as peace-makers. (ET 1068-9)

[The elder brothers] have always existed as a body, all knowing each other, no
matter in what part of the world they may be, and all working for the race in many
different ways. In some periods they are well known to the people and move among
ordinary men whenever the social organization, the virtue, and the development of the
nations permit it. For if they were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere, they
would be worshipped as gods by some and hunted as devils by others. In those periods
when they do come out some of their number are rulers of men, some teachers, a few
great philosophers, while others remain still unknown except to the most advanced of
the body. (Ocean 3-4)
The exact extent, depth, breadth, and length of the mysteries of nature are to be
found only in Eastern esoteric sciences. So vast and so profound are these that hardly a
few, a very few of the highest initiates those whose very existence is known but to a
small number of adepts are capable of assimilating the knowledge. Yet it is all there,
and one by one facts and processes in natures workshops are permitted to find their
way into the exact sciences, while mysterious help is given to rare individuals in
unravelling its arcana. (SD 1:611-12)
Master M to A.P. Sinnett: There is more of this movement than you have yet had an
inkling of, and the work of the T.S. is linked in with similar work that is secretly going on
in all parts of the world. (ML2 271 / MLC 133)
The esoteric groups of Mystery-Schools are perhaps more numerous today than they
have been for thousands of years, but they are more secretly conducted and more
carefully hid. ... [E]very single national unit of the globe, has its own secret spiritual
protectors, who as a body form a true esoteric center. ... These national guardians
never interfere in politics. ... Their work is purely spiritual, moral, intellectual, and wholly
benevolent ...
There are actually groups whose sole business is forming occult centers of initiation,
preparation of students for esoteric work in the world, and for the safeguarding of
priceless treasures, the heirlooms of the human race, treasures both intellectual and
material. The chief of such groups lives in what theosophists call Shambhala. ... There
is another branch brotherhood, affiliated with the Chief Brotherhood of Tibet in Syria, still
another one in Egypt, still another one in South America. There is one in Mexico and
there is one in the United States. There is likewise one in Europe. All these smaller
groups are affiliates or subordinate to the mother-group of the Occult Hierarchy in
Shambhala. (SOP 637-8)
Shambhala is the secret home of the great Brotherhood of mahatmas and their
chiefs, from which center at certain times in the history of our fifth root-race come forth
mandates for spiritual and intellectual work among men. It is an actual district ...
surrounded by a range of the majestic Himalaya mountains. No force engendered by
human genius can penetrate into this spiritual center, for it is protected by akashic
barriers. From the end of the fourth root-race of mankind it has been held inviolate
against aggression of any kind. (FSO 529) There, surrounded by the greatest and most
evolved human beings, the silent watcher of the earth has his invisible abode. (Dia
1:146-7)
[D]uring the last quarter of every hundred years an attempt is made by [the masters]

to help on the spiritual progress of humanity in a marked and definite way. Towards the
close of each century you will invariably find that an outpouring or upheaval of
spirituality or call it mysticism if you prefer has taken place. Some one or more
persons have appeared in the world as their agents, and a greater or less amount of
occult knowledge and teaching has been given out. (Key 306)
It is not infrequently stated that the stream of inspiration from the Lodge of the Great
Teachers ceased with the passing of H.P. Blavatsky, and that there will be no recurrence
of the flow of that stream of inspiration and light until the teacher comes whom she
spoke of as coming about the beginning of the last quarter of the [20th] century. That
idea is entirely erroneous. ...
The masters of wisdom and compassion are always ready and always waiting and
always working. The door is never shut against those whose feet are on the pathway.
The Great Ones work among men continuously, uninterruptedly; and have done so for
ages. Anyone whose feet are on the path, who shows even the smallest glimmer of the
buddhic splendor, is watched, guided, helped; and if he succeeds, he finally is openly
received into the Brotherhood. (FSO 682/4)
The masters of wisdom and compassion and peace send their envoys continuously
into the world of men, one after the other ... The messengers do not always do public
work before the world, but frequently work in the silences and unknown of men, or
relatively unknown. At certain times, however, they are commissioned and empowered
and directed to do their work publicly and to make public announcement of their
mission. Such, for instance, was the case of H.P. Blavatsky. (OG 107)
She came ... at the beginning of one messianic cycle of 2,160 years ... She was the
messenger for her age, that is, for the age to come the one who was to sound a new
keynote, which yet, mystically speaking, is as old as the ages ... Just as Jesus called
the Christ was an avatara of one kind for his age, so was H.P. Blavatsky an avatara of
another kind for her age. ...
[I]t is the duty of theosophists ... to see to it that the message which she brought and
gave into our hands as a holy charge shall be kept pure and unadulterated, and shall be
passed on to our descendants of succeeding generations just as we have received it.
(WoS 140-1)
***
The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated wisdom of the ages, ... the uninterrupted
record covering thousands of generations of seers ... [F]or long ages, the wise men of
the fifth race ... passed their lives in learning, not teaching ... by checking, testing, and
verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions
of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental,
psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree. (SD 1:272)
For thousands of years, one initiate after another, one great hierophant succeeded
by other hierophants, has explored and re-explored the invisible universe, the worlds of
the interplanetary regions, during long periods when his conscious soul, united to the
spiritual soul and to the ALL, free and almost omnipotent, left his body. ...
The mysteries of life as well as of death, of the visible and invisible worlds, have
been fathomed and observed by initiated adepts in all epochs and in all nations. They
have studied these during the solemn moments of union of their divine monad with the
universal Spirit, and they have recorded their experiences. ... A definite science, based

on personal observation and experience, corroborated by continuous demonstrations,

containing irrefutable proofs, for those who study it, has thus been established. (BCW
5:50-1)
[T]he range of consciousness of the human ego is over this globe D. The range of
consciousness of the bodhisattva, and most of the mahatmas, is over the planetary
chain. The range of consciousness of the highest bodhisattvas and of the buddhas is in
the spiritual monad whose consciousness-sweep covers the solar system, whereas he
who has raised himself into the divine consciousness of the divine monad within him,
his highest self, has a consciousness-reach ... which covers the galaxy. (Dia 3:433)
[Through] study and training ... neophytes become finally able to remain fully selfconscious while the body is in sleep; and the adept or high chela, through the same
training pushed to a still greater length, is able to remain fully aware and active on inner
planes after the body dies. The man who has thus made himself more or less fully
acquainted with the functions and characteristics of his own nature can, during his
lifetime, travel self-consciously out of his body to other parts of the earth and, with
increased power, even to other planets. But greater than this is the power to visit selfconsciously the inner worlds which environ us, and to bring back a relatively complete
recollection of the experiences and knowledge so gained. (FSO 536)
[T]here comes a moment in the life of an adept, when the hardships he has passed
through are a thousandfold rewarded. In order to acquire further knowledge, he has no
more to go through a minute and slow process of investigation and comparison of
various objects, but is accorded an instantaneous, implicit insight into every first truth.
(ML2 241 / MLC 55)
Eastern initiates maintain that they have preserved records of the racial development
and of events of universal import ever since the beginning of the fourth race that
which preceded being traditional. (SD 1:646)
[T]he teachers have access to the lost treasures of the immemorial ages of the past.
Only they know how many countless millions they can use at will. [T]hese treasures are
held for their work in the future. [This] applies equally to invaluable historical records.
The Great Ones know of the existence, and are protectors, of vast underground
libraries, depositories, existing from very ancient times, and containing still, in
catalogued form, all literary records of value dating doubtless from the beginning of the
present great fifth root-race of mankind.
It is also quite true that everything which has ever had existence is indelibly recorded
in the astral records, in the astral light. But while this is so, the records in the astral light
would not be especially useful to human beings unless those human beings had been
trained to read these records ... There do however exist physical depositories, not
merely of all literary works but also of all inventions tending to ennoble and benefit
mankind.
To disciples, to chelas, to students, of a thoughtful bent of mind, I know no more
fascinating and delightfully interesting hours than those passed in wandering under
competent guidance through some of these underground corridors, many of them
connecting with deep caves in the profound recesses of which there remain even today
gathered together and carefully watched over and preserved, among many other things,
even the bones of inhabitants of the earth and of animals of the earth of long past ages.
There you will find skeletons of the giants of Atlantean days. There you will find some

of their handiwork preserved for the instruction, and it may be for the edification, of
future generations of men when the proper time comes to bring these to public
knowledge.
The scientists of the future, if they are as dogmatic as some of the scientists of today
are, are going to receive some very unpleasant surprises, for one day these records of
the past will be brought forth, and positive proof given of the teachings of the wisdomreligion regarding the nature, characteristics, and handiwork of the ancient mankinds.
(EST 2:113-4)
***
The advanced fifth rounders are the mahatmas; the less advanced fifth rounders are
their chelas; the least advanced fifth rounders are the unusually evolved people
amongst us today. [R]eal theosophists are fifth rounders [though perhaps] only
beginning the fifth round ... (Dia 3:285) Even among the mahatmas, seventh-degree
sixth rounders are rare. There are some who are in the earlier stages of the sixth-round
period; but the Lord Buddha was one who might be called a sixth rounder in the seventh
or last stage of the sixth round, therefore almost a god incarnate in flesh. (Dia 2:204)
Gautama the Buddha was a man. He is at present a nirmanakaya. The higher ego of
the entity which last manifested itself as Gautama the Buddha works through this
nirmanakaya; and this higher ego is the Buddha, the transmitter of the spiritual
intelligence of the Great Initiator.
It is to Gautama the Buddha, thus considered, and the power working through him,
that the teachers of H.P.B. referred when they used phrases such as He to whom we
owe allegiance, He whose word is our Law. As one of the two racial buddhas of our
fifth root-race the second buddha being Maitreya, still to come millions of years hence
he will continue to watch over and protect this root-race. He is the origin, the founder,
of every great spiritual religious or philosophical movement begun at any time during
our root-race. ...
[H]e remains in mysterious seclusion in Shambhala, yet, as the chief of the
Brotherhood of adepts, in constant spiritual and intellectual and psychical touch with
mankind. (FSO 521/9)
A nirmanakaya is a complete man possessing all the principles of his constitution
except the linga-sharira and its accompanying physical body. He is one who lives on the
plane of being next superior to the physical plane, and his purpose in so doing is to
save men from themselves by ... continuously instilling thoughts of self-sacrifice, of selfforgetfulness, of spiritual and moral beauty, of mutual help, of compassion, and of pity.
Nirmanakaya is the third or lowest, exoterically speaking, of what is called in Sanskrit
trikaya or three bodies. The highest is the dharmakaya, in which state are the nirvanis
and full pratyeka buddhas, etc.; the second state is the sambhogakaya, intermediate
between the former and, thirdly, the nirmanakaya. The nirmanakaya vesture or condition
enables one entering it to live in touch and sympathy with the world of men. The
sambhogakaya enables one in that state to be conscious indeed to a certain extent of
the world of men and its griefs and sorrows, but with little power or impulse to render
aid. The dharmakaya vesture is so pure and holy, and indeed so high, that the one
possessing the dharmakaya or who is in it, is virtually out of all touch with anything
inferior to himself. It is, therefore, in the nirmanakaya vesture if not in physical form that
live and work the buddhas of compassion, the greatest sages and seers, and all the
superholy men who through striving through ages of evolution bring forth into

manifestation and power and function the divinity within. (OG 117-8)
[In the fifth initiation] the man becomes a master of wisdom and compassion. In this
degree there comes the final choice: whether, like the great buddhas of compassion,
one will return to help the world, to live for it and not for self; or whether, like the
pratyeka-buddhas, one will go forwards on the pathway of self merely selfdevelopment. (FSO 59)
Bodhisattva: A compound word: literally he whose essence (sattva) has become
intelligence (bodhi). ... When a man, a human being, has reached the state where his
ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its inner divinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic
ray ... that man is a bodhisattva. His higher principles have nearly reached nirvana.
When they do so finally, such a man is a buddha, a human buddha, a manushyabuddha. ... A buddha, in the esoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn
nothing more. They have reached nirvana and remain there; but the spiritually
awakened personal man, the bodhisattva, ... instead of choosing his reward in the
nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth out of pity and compassion for inferior
beings, and becomes what is called a nirmanakaya. (OG 19-20)
It is the glorious line of bodhisattvas appearing frequently through the ages who
largely form the noble Brotherhood of nirmanakayas of which the Brotherhood of adepts
is partly composed, and of which the Buddha Gautama in his more human or
bodhisattva aspect is a member. (FSO 509)
***
It was [the] Great Ones and their followers, many in the aggregate, but singularly few
when compared with the Atlantean masses, who for the salvation of the many, and for
the initiation of the chosen worthy few, finally during a period of culmination in evil-doing
and spiritual wickedness, established the first genuine spiritual Mystery-Schools of the
globe. This happened ... many hundreds of thousands of years before the great
Atlantean Race sank into unregenerate weakness leading to its final disappearance;
and these Mystery-Schools have thus existed for some four or five million years ...
[T]his refers to the actual establishment of the ancient mysteries as schools or
esoteric colleges, each one presided over by a hierarchy of initiates, in regular serial
line of succession, this being the first instance of such serial successorship in the
history of the globe during this fourth round. The foregoing must not be misunderstood
to mean that it was only during the before-mentioned period of Atlantean degeneracy
that the spiritual teachers and leaders of mankind first began their sublime work of
assembling and instructing the multitudes of men, for this last work had actually been
going on for millions of years, but dealing rather with individuals, numerous enough in
the aggregate, than with actual established schools of secret and formal instruction. ...
[T]he silent watcher of the globe, through the spiritual-magnetic attraction of like to
like, was enabled to attract to the path of light, even from the earliest times of the third
root-race, certain unusual human individuals, early forerunners of the general
manasaputric descent, and thus to form with these individuals a focus of spiritual and
intellectual light on this earth ... Thus it is that the Great Brotherhood traces an
unbroken and uninterrupted ancestry back to the original focus of light of the third rootrace. (ET 1046-9)
The arhats of the fire-mist of the 7th rung are but one remove from the root-base of

their hierarchy the highest on earth, and our terrestrial chain. This root-base has a
name which can only be translated by several compound words into English the everliving-human-banyan. This wondrous being descended from a high region, they say,
in the early part of the third age, before the separation of the sexes of the third race. ...
In the first or earlier portion of the existence of this third race, while it was yet in its
state of purity, the sons of wisdom, who ... incarnated in this third race, produced by
kriyasakti a progeny called the sons of Ad or of the fire-mist, the sons of will and
yoga, etc. They were a conscious production, as a portion of the race was already
animated with the divine spark of spiritual, superior intelligence. It was not a race, this
progeny. It was at first a wondrous being, called the initiator, and after him a group of
semi-divine and semi-human beings. Set apart in archaic genesis for certain purposes,
they are those in whom are said to have incarnated the highest dhyanis ... to form the
nursery for future human adepts, on this earth and during the present cycle. ...
[This being] is the tree from which, in subsequent ages, all the great historically
known sages and hierophants ... have branched off. As objective man, he is the
mysterious (to the profane the ever invisible) yet ever present personage about whom
legends are rife in the East ... It is he who changes form, yet remains ever the same.
And it is he again who holds spiritual sway over the initiated adepts throughout the
whole world. He is ... the nameless one who has so many names, and yet whose
names and whose very nature are unknown. He is the initiator, called the GREAT
SACRIFICE. For, sitting at the threshold of LIGHT, he looks into it from within the circle of
darkness, which he will not cross; nor will he quit his post till the last day of this lifecycle. ...
It is under the direct, silent guidance of this MAHA (great) GURU that all the other
less divine teachers and instructors of mankind became, from the first awakening of
human consciousness, the guides of early humanity. (SD 1:207-8)
At the summit of the hierarchy of compassion is the silent watcher. ... He is the chief
of the spiritual-psychological hierarchy of which the masters form a part. He is the everliving human banyan from which they and we too hang as leaves and fruit. From this
wondrous being originally come our noblest impulses through our own higher selves ...
[F]rom boundless compassion for those lower in the scale of evolution he has
renounced all hope and opportunity of going higher in this manvantara. He can learn
nothing more of this hierarchy, ... but he remains behind for aeons as the great inspirer
and teacher. ...
The ever-living human banyan alluded to by H.P.B. is ... the mahachohan of this
earth, an entity who was a man in far past ages, in former manvantaras in fact. He is the
loftiest of the buddhas of compassion, the supreme guide and teacher of the hierarchy
of the Great Ones at the present time ... [He is] a man and yet a demigod, because a
god imbodied in a highly advanced mans soul. He is an actual imbodied being,
although not necessarily possessing a body of flesh. It may well be that he is imbodied
as a nirmanakaya, ... a complete man minus the lower gross triad. This entity, the silent
watcher of our globe and its humanity, is on earth.
This wondrous being is the hierarchical Brotherhood of adepts of our planetary chain,
begun in the fourth round on our globe at about the middle period of the third root-race
which was the period when humanity was beginning to be self-conscious and ready for
the receiving of light. The descent of this being from a high plane, from globe A by way
of globes B and C, was rather a projection of energy than a descent of an imbodied
entity downwards. It was a visitation in our underworld, undertaken for the sake of
helping those beings living in its shadows.
Now this wondrous being is a dhyani-buddha. Interlocked in his vital essence,

streaming forth from him as from a sun, are innumerable rays, and these various
children rays are human egos. Like the banyan tree, this wondrous being sends forth
tendrils of the spirit which reach down into the substantial fabric of the universe in which
he lives, and there take root; and because of receiving from him the life essence, they
themselves become banyan trees, growing up in their turn. ...
One of the most beautiful teachings of theosophy is that this wondrous being came
from a high region as a visitor to us, living in what was to him the underworld, and
dwelling for a time among us as the primal master-spirit of the human race a being at
once one and many a mystery. (FSO 468-73)
The wondrous being or silent watcher who is the head of the spiritual-psychological
hierarchy of our globe is a dhyani-bodhisattva an emanation, in one sense, from the
dhyani-buddha of our fourth round, and yet an entity in his own right. Higher still stands
adi-buddha, the wondrous being who is the logos of our planetary chain. (see FEP 2746, 283)
Just as the hierarchies in the universe are virtually infinite in number, so are the
wondrous beings or silent watchers ... There is ... one for our planetary chain, and one
for each of its globes; there is likewise one for our solar system, whose habitat is the
sun, and one for our own home-universe, and so forth forever. (FSO 469)
[T]he upper triad of mans constitution, atma-buddhi-manas call it the christ-monad
or inner buddha, if you will is his own individual silent watcher. (FSO 472)
Ages ago when the human race on this planet during this fourth round was still
young, mind had not yet imbodied in the then intellectually senseless early third rootrace ... There were nevertheless a few in whom the lamps of mind burned bright, the
most advanced of the human race who had been intellectually enlightened by
manasaputric descents before the vast majority of the new race. They were even in the
early part of the third root-race fully self-conscious, intellectual and spiritual human
beings ... [They] formed a group, a band, a brotherhood, of human guides. But yet
something more was needed, something from a still higher sphere was required for the
utter safety of all mankind ... [T]hese ethereal beings, through kriyashakti, through
spiritual will-power and imagination, established contact with the waiting divinity,
karmically waiting, ... and provided the physical vehicle for the imbodiment of this ...
dhyani-chohan ...
At first it was a marvel-being, a very god who became their chief and leader, their
inspirer and guide; and he by teaching and inspiration ... prepared the way for the
general manasaputric descent ... And after him, a relatively short while after, this
wondrous being ..., aided by those others in whom the flame of mind burned so bright,
brought other similar descents into being, and they with their great spiritual powers were
called the sons of will and yoga. ... This group became the first mystery-school. It still
exists, ... and this being, the initiator, is the supreme head of all true occultists in all
ages. (SOP 250-2; see also FEP 217-19)
[The teaching about the silent watcher involves] one of the most subtil of occult
conceptions: unity in multiplicity. ... A single semi-divine human being at the head, the
hierarch; and those beneath him being so close to him, karmically, spiritually, etc., that
they are to him like his alter egos, as are the organs or limbs of a man to himself. Hence
it is at times spoken of as the silent watcher, or again as the supreme school or occult
body, the highest human stage on the planet ...
This wondrous being ... actually came into being as a divine body-corporate or
multifold unit in the very first race of this round on our globe; and its seed was ... the

shishtas of the highest humanized elements in our life-wave left on this globe when that
life-wave during the third round passed onwards. When these shishtas felt the new
incoming of the life-wave approaching globe D during this fourth round, ... they collected
... themselves into a unity, and formed the hierarchy preparatory for new increments to
themselves coming with the human life-wave. ... From this original wondrous hierarchhierarchy later on, in a later age during the third root-race, sprang forth or were born the
first regularly formed occult schools for teaching and training ...
[T]his hierarch-hierarchy is formed of all the very highest, most evolved, most
spiritual human beings belonging to our life-wave ... [They] refuse to pass on until those
trailing behind them ... have had every help that can be given ... (SOP 247-8; see also
FEP 585-6)

Compiled by David Pratt.

The theosophical mahatmas
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