CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Avatars and Seed Men for a New Civilization - 3
To get a deeper, more "occult" grasp of what is involved at this present critical time of history, I shall once more refer to the dynamic relationship between the numbers involved in a septenary system of evolution. The fourth stage (Round or "world") constitutes the bottom section of the cycle. As we begin with number 1 on the top, we see the evolutionary process "descending" through stages 2 and 3, reaching bottom with 4, ascending through 5 and 6, and with number 7 reaching again the top — or rather reaching above the original starting point when we deal with a spiral and not merely an abstract circle. Number 7 symbolizes in this septenary formula the Seed which is both a cycle's culmination and the potential beginning of a new one.
There is, therefore, a definite vertical connection between the numbers 1 and 4. What was "the First" can reflect itself into the fourth stage of the cycle. It can, in a very real sense, do more than reflect itself; it can project its power (shakti, Holy Ghost) through a fourth stage person, who becomes not only illumined by it, but transfigured and even transsubstantiated — that is, who becomes an Avatar of-the Creative God, the Root of the entire cycle.(2)
What this means is that we may see in Baha'u'llah the Avatar for the new cycle in his manifestation in the very depth of Earth nature and as an embodiment of the Root-power of our present Fourth Round humanity — the power that was in the beginning of that particular phase of the evolution of the whole planet, Earth. We may give to that Root-power any name we wish; it represents the God of Nature in this particular aspect of the Earth's total evolution. And, significantly, the Bahai calendar begins with the spring equinox, the time of the rebirth of nature. This calendar divides the year into nineteen months of nineteen days, plus four days of festivities just before the spring equinox.(3)
On the other hand, Karl Marx and world communism represent the process of "chaotization" of the past, thus, a culture-destroying return to the state of non-differentiation in matter. And we must not forget that the humus of the soil represents "virgin potentiality" as it exists in the Earth's biosphere. Thus many men having given up hope of seeing their ideal vision triumph over the stubborn inertia and conservatism of an obsolete social system can conceive no other way but that of bringing about total chaos, in the hope that mankind may thus become revirginized and repotentialized, and a new world may emerge. However, this is not the way of seed men; for seed-men have faith in (and Avatars fully realize) their ability to serve as focusing agents for a new descent of the creative and transforming power of the spirit.
Allow me to repeat that this spiritual descent of power does not operate only at the level of Earth's nature, even if it may find there its most complete personal formulation and human incorporation. Because the vibration 5 of the mind has been strongly stressed, especially in the European races, a large number of human beings have succeeded in developing an at least minimal response to the opportunity to experience directly and manipulate creative forces at the level of archetypal principles. Our Western civilization as a whole since the sixth century B.C. is oriented toward mental activities beyond the realm of biopsychic urges and needs. Therefore the Avataric Descent of our seed-period of history had also to take form at that level of the transformative Mind.
It is at that level that the great Occult Brotherhoods make contact with humanity as a whole, because the "more-than-men" who form these Brotherhoods are "Fifth Rounders," though they are also illumined and empowered by the vibrations of a still higher level, the level at which vibration 6 operates. Their point of public contact with mankind last century was essentially the person whom we know as Helena Petrovna Blavatsky — a lens through which the Brotherhood poured some of its mind-transforming knowledge.
Baha'u'llah did not claim to be an "incarnation" of God whom his followers revere as El Abha. He said only that in one of his two "stations" — the station of divine unity — he was an Image of, and a mouthpiece for the Divine.(4) In a similar though probably different manner, H.P.B. also was a dual manifestation — the vehicle for the Brothers, and a human body. In that sense, she can also be considered an Avataric personage in terms of the level at which her mission was to operate. The heavy karma of the collective mentality of the Western civilization was also a part of her being, defining its limitations and special character. The Avataric descent and the circumstances surrounding the release of the Mind-power had to be conditioned by the at times unbearable pressure of the vibrations of the perverted and obtuse mentality of the West and by the satanic impact of institutions bent on preserving their privileges at all costs. The "revelation" expressed in The Mahatma Letters was not only the manifestation of the trans-Himalayan Brotherhood's mind and the formulation of its knowledge; it was rather the outcome of the relationship between the Mahatma K. H. and Mr. A. P. Sinnett. Always the Avatar is God-man; but actually he takes the form that the relationship between man and God makes possible at the time.
Tragic misunderstandings and often violent partisanship result from most people's inability to accept this as a fact. God speaks to every kind or group of human beings in the way this kind or group is able to understand the words spoken. Thus, I repeat that every divine revelation is partly divine and partly human; it is a "revelation" — the One cosmic Truth is "veiled again" so that it may not blind the consciousness receiving the message. It is only in the Seventh Race, "a race of Buddhas and Christs" (H.P.B. wrote in The Secret Doctrine) that men's minds, having become totally clear and pure, will be able to "see God face to face," to use a traditional expression. Yet the more the consciousness becomes open and clear, the more it may hold and understand the illumination, formulating it in the increasingly adequate words of a gradually more flexible, multidimensional and spirit-oriented language.
Every race or nation has its culture and language, and the language reveals the character of the culture. What we are witnessing in our Plutonian twentieth century — and to a lesser extent this occurred also toward the close of last century — is the coming of human beings who incorporate within themselves the seed harvest of the culture of the race or nation in which they have been born, and in some creative manner who release this harvest to those who, by dharmic connection, will become attracted to, or fascinated by it. They are seed men, and in nations like India where the identity of atman and brahman has been for so many centuries a powerful belief — and in a sense, an experience — these men are prone to say "I am God" and not only call themselves avatars, but claim to be the Avatar.
A number of men are living today who make or have recently made this claim — in India, in Korea, in France, and in other lands. Lesser claims of a similar nature are also heard; and they all may to some extent be based on real experience and on the existence of a more or less direct, pure, and effectual line of descent whose origin is in the realm of the transformative Mind of Man. In different ways, the individuals making such claims attempt to convey to others who are attuned to them at least the quality of their responses to the planetary Avataric descent which is still moving along its path of destiny marked by the combination of culminating or starting cycles.
The nineteenth century was, I believe, the century during which the spiritual (or shall we say "monadic"?) release of Avataric power occurred in terms of the planet as a whole. Power was released, the fundamental Tone of the future Age. But power is not consciousness, any more than spirit is the same as mind! It was only in the last quarter of the century that the seeds of a new Mind and a new civilization were released, and these seeds still pertained mostly to what had inevitably to assume an "occult" character because of the collective mentality of our leading and ruthlessly dominating Western world. The nineteenth century constituted a period during which the divine Fatherhood was at work; but the fecundative act does not mean birth. It even takes time for an awareness of pregnancy to rise in the mother-to-be. Because of this, the twentieth century spiritually is the era of divine Sonship — or at least that of the intimation and revelation of a new progeny, a New Age. There might also be a miscarriage; but in terms of planetary evolution, I do not believe that a total miscarriage of what the divine Power initiated can take place. What may happen is the birth of a deformed child, perhaps a spastic one — and certainly our Christian European Piscean Age culture had features and behavior suggesting spasticity!
It seems that we are approaching a moment of crisis; and perhaps the coming of Pluto closer to the Sun than Neptune may soon signal the beginning of the crisis. The last quarter of the century is now beginning. A century ago the Theosophical Movement was started in New York. Two centuries ago the Declaration of Independence proclaimed to the world of nations the birth of a collective person, the United States of America, whose destiny it was to demonstrate a new type of society and political operation. Did these two departures, so different in character and importance, yet based on similar principles, achieve what it was their archetypal destiny to achieve? Hardly so. From the very first, both have groaned under the burden of the heavy karma of Western society and of an early perversion and dogmatization of the great Christ-Impulse that was the source of the Avataric descent of nearly two thousand years ago.
Then, the Fathers of the Church persecuted the different groups of Gnostics who sought to fecundate with the Christ spirit the seed harvest of by then disintegrating societies and religions. Unfortunately the Gnostics were too pervaded with the intellectualism of the Greek tradition, and their integrative synthesizing endeavors were defeated by ambitious men who knew how to play with the emotions of the masses and were not averse to resorting to deceit and destruction. In our present time, Occultists, (or esotericists) are in a very real sense the Gnostics of this cycle. Will the Second Coming of the Christ that so many hope for or expect, illumine the spiritual and intellectual confusion of our humanity and stabilize the minds of so many seekers and devotees? Are we to expect, after 1975, only a century-cycle manifestation in and through a new agent and mouthpiece of Occult Brotherhoods, or can we hope for the culmination of the entire Piscean Age in a truly divine Personage? Has this culmination already occurred, as Bahais believe, in the person of Baha'u'llah — or did he, as some have said, belong to some still larger cycle, as probably Krishna did?
A number of esotericists seem to believe that the Christ is not to reappear in a physical body, but that of human beings who will channel forth his power as the new sixth subrace begins to manifest, so that the energy of the vibration 6 may be strengthened and brought to focus in and through a number of "germinal" personages. The development of a strong interest in Buddhism, especially since Tibetan monks fled from Tibet and found refuge mainly in America, may be a significant part of the strengthening of the vibration. Moreover, we must not forget that the spiritual power of evolutionary currents may also take seemingly destructive forms, and especially that whoever may now function as a public agent for the Brotherhood may be found in places where the typical student of esoteric knowledge does not expect him or her. He might operate in any country, even in or behind the political scene.
2. Most interestingly, Baha'u'llah came to realize fully his mission when chained with criminals on the floor of an empty cistern — this floor being reached by three steps downward (the "three days in hell" after the Christian Crucifixion?). This symbolizes a complete (number 3) descent into the underground, the realm of roots and of decaying humus (the criminals). It was while in this dreadful state that he became fully aware of his mission; the revelation of it coming to his consciousness in the form of a "heavenly maiden" who brought back to him the remembrance of his "true Name."
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3. The number nineteen was the sacred number of the movement started with the Bab in 1844, prelude to the Bahai Faith. It is a soli-lunar symbol, for the Moon's Nodes have a nearly nineteen year cycle, and the Nodes represent the potential integration of solar and lunar forces as their axis is the intersection of the planes of the ecliptic and of the Moon's revolution around the Earth.
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4 In a second station (or character) he was essentially human and limited by his "mission" which in turn was conditioned by the need of his time. Baha'u'llah writes in the
Kitab-i-Iqan (the Baba'i Book of the Law): "Each Manifestation of God hath a distinct individuality, a definitely prescribed mission, a predestined Revelation and specially designated limitation. Each one of them is known by a different name . . . Viewed from the standpoint of their oneness and sublime detachment, the attributes of Godhead, Divinity, Supreme Singleness and Inmost Essence have been and are applicable to those Essences of being, in as much as they are above on the throne of divine Revelation and are
established upon the seat of divine Concealment, Through their appearance, the Revelation of God is made manifest and by their countenance the Beauty of God is revealed. Thus it is that the accents of God Himself have been heard, uttered by these Manifestations of the divine Being."
"Viewed in the light of their second station — the station of distinction, differentiation, temporal limitations, characteristics and standards they manifest absolute servitude, utter destitution and complete self-effacement. Even as He said: 'I am the servant of God. I am but a man like you.'" (Quoted in S.E. Esslemont's book p. 51-52.) This is a very clear statement of the dual nature of the Avatar.
We may note in this connection the reversal of letters in the words Abha and Baha. In all alphabets the letter A (the First Point, in the Koran; the Greek alpha) represents the divine fecundating principle (the Greek
Logos Spermatikos); while the letter B refers to the receptive feminine principle. "Abha" is God in His unconditioned eternal realm; "Baha" means His Glory or the Holy Spirit. The basic question, of course, is always, what actually a person means by "God."
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