reign of the 10 Babylonian antediluvian kings is given as
432,000 years,* the duration of the postdiluvian Kali-yug is also given
as 432,000, while the four ages or the divine Maha-yug, yield in their
totality 4,320,000 years. Why should they, if fanciful and
"extravagant," give the identical figures, when neither the Aryans nor
the Babylonians have surely borrowed anything from each other! We
invite the attention of our occultists to the three figures given--4
standing for the perfect square, 3 for the triad (the seven universal
and the seven individual principles), and 2 the symbol of our
illusionary world, a figure ignored and rejected by Pythagoras.
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* See "Babylonia," by George Smith, p. 36. Here again, as with the
Manus and 10 Prajapatis and the 10 Sephiroths in the Book of Numbers--
they dwindle down to seven!
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It is in the Upanishads and the Vedanta though, that we have to look for
the best corroborations of the occult teachings. In the mystical
doctrine the Rahasya, or the Upanishads--"the only Veda of all
thoughtful Hindus in the present day," as Monier Williams is made to
confess, every word, as its very name implies,* has a secret meaning
underlying it. This meaning can be fully realized only by him who has a
full knowledge of Prana, the ONE LIFE, "the nave to which are attached
the seven spokes of the Universal Wheel." (Hymn to Prana, Atharva-Veda,
XI. 4.)
Even European Orientalists agree that all the systems in India assign to
the human body: (a) an exterior or gross body (sthula-sarira); (b) an
inner or shadowy body (sukshma), or linga-sarira (the vehicle), the two
cemented with--(c), life (jiv or Karana sarira, "causal body").** These
the occult system or esotericism divides into seven, farther adding to
these--kama, manas, buddhi and atman. The Nyaya philosophy when
treating of Prameyas (by which the objects and subjects of Praman are to
be correctly understood) includes among the 12 the seven "root
principles" (see IXth Sutra), which are 1, soul (atman), and 2 its
superior spirit Jivatman; 3, body (sarira); 4, senses (indriya); 5,
activity or will (pravritti); 6, mind (manas); 7, Intellection
(Buddhi). The seven Padarthas (inquiries or predicates of existing
things) of Kanada in the Vaiseshikas, refer in the occult doctrine to
the seven qualities or attributes of the seven principles. Thus: 1,
substance (dravya) refers to body or sthula-sarira; 2, quality or
pr
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