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WHO THE KUMARAS ARE. 493
The Kianaras, arc the Dhyanis, derived immediately from the Supreme
Principle, 7vho reappear in the Vaivasvata Manu period, for the progress
of mankind.'^
The translator of the Vishmi Purana corroborates it, by remarking
that "these sages . . . live as long as Brahma; and they are only
created by him in the First Kalpa, although their generation is very
commonly, but inconsistently, introduced in the \^Secondary'\ Varaha,
or Padma Kalpa."
Thus, the Kumaras are, exoterically, "the creation
of Rudra or Nilalohita, a form of Shiva, by Brahma . . . and of
certain other mind-born sons of Brahma." But, in the Esoteric teaching,
they are the Progenitors of the true spiritual Self in the physical
man, the higher Prajapatis, while the Pitris, or lower Prajapatis, are no
more than the Fathers of the model, or type of his physical form, made
"in their image." Four (and occasion ally yzz-^-) are mentioned freely in
the exoteric texts, three of the Kumaras being secret.
"The four Kumaras [are] the mind-born Sons of Brahma. Some
specify sevenr\ All these seven Vaidhatra, the patronymic of the
Kumaras, the "Maker's Sons," are mentioned and described in
ishvara Krishna's Sdnkhya Kdrikd with the Commentary of Gaudapadacharya
(Shankaracharya's Paraguru) attached to it. It discusses
the nature of the Kumaras, though it refrains from mentioning by
name all the seven Kumaras, but calls them instead the "seven sons
of Brahma," which they are, as they are created by Brahma in Rudra.
The list of names it gives us is: Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, Kapila,
Ribhu, and Panchashikha. But these again are all aliases.
The exoteric four are Sanatkumara, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanatana;
and the esoteric three Sana, Kapila, and Sanatsujata. Special attention
is once more drawn to this class of Dhyan Chohans, for herein lies the
mystery of generation and heredity hinted at in the Commentary on
Stanza VII, in treating of the Four Orders of Angelic Beings. Volume
II explains their position in the Divine Hierarch}'. Meanwhile, let us
see what the exoteric texts say about them.
They say little; and to him who fails to read between the lines
nothing. "We must have recourse, here, to other Pu7-anas for the
elucidation of this term," remarks Wilson, who does not suspect for one
* They may indeed mark a "special" or extra "creation," since it is they who, by incarnating
themselves within the senseless human shells of the two first Root-Races, and a great portion of
the Third Root-Race, create, so to speak, a new race; that of thinking, self-conscious and divine
men.
t Hindu. Classical Dictionary.