The Secret Doctrine Volume 3.pdf

Shankarâchârya Still Living - (Page 385) Since then such as these have never forgiven
the prince-beggar, the son of a king, who, forgetting His rank and station, had flung widely
open the doors of the forbidden sanctuary to the pariah and the man of low estate, thus
giving precedence to personal merit over hereditary rank or fortune. The sin was theirs—the
cause nevertheless Himself: hence the “Merciful and the Blessed One” could not go out
entirely from this world of illusion and created causes without atoning for the sin of all—
therefore of these Brâhmans also. If “man afflicted by man” found safe refuge with the
Tathâgata, “man afflicting man” had also his share in His self-sacrificing, all embracing and
forgiving love. It is stated that He desired to atone for the sin of His enemies. Then only was
he willing to become a full Dharmakâya a Jîvanmukta “without remains.”
The close of Shankarâchârya’s life brings us face to face with a fresh mystery,
Shankarâchârya retires to a cave in the Himâlayas, permitting none of his disciples to follow
him, and disappears therein forever from the sight of the profane. Is he dead Tradition and
popular belief answer in the negative, and some of the local Gurus, if they do not
emphatically corroborate, do not deny the rumour. The truth with its mysterious details as
given in the Secret Doctrine is known but to them; it can be given out fully only to the direct
followers of the great Dravidian Guru, and it is for them alone to reveal of it as much as they
think fit. Still it is maintained that this Adept of Adepts lives to this day in his spiritual entity as
a mysterious, unseen, yet overpowering presence among the Brotherhood of Shamballa,
beyond, far beyond, the snowy-capped Himâlayas.
SECTION XLIV
“Reincarnations” of Buddha
(Page 386) EVERY section in the chapter on “Dezhin Shegpa” [ Literally, “he who walks [or
follows] in the way [or path] of his predecessors.”] (Tathâgata) in the Commentaries
represents one year of that great Philosopher’s life, in its dual aspect of public and private
teacher, the two being contrasted and commented upon. It shows the Sage reaching
Buddhahood through a long course of study, meditation, and Initiations, as any other Adept
would have to do, not one rung of the ladder up to the arduous “Path of Perfection” being
missed. The Bodhisattva became a Buddha and a Nirvânî through personal effort and merit
after having had to undergo all the hardships of every other neophyte—not by virtue of a
divine birth, as thought by some. It was only the reaching of Nirvâna while still living in the
body and on this earth that was due to His having been in previous births high on the “Path of
Dzyan” (knowledge, wisdom). Mental or intellectual gifts and abstract knowledge follow an
Initiate in his new birth, but he has to acquire phenomenal powers anew, passing through all
the successive stages. He has to acquire Rinchen-na-dun (“the seven precious gifts”) [
Schmidt, in Slanong Seetsen. p.471, and Schlagintweit, in Buddhism in Tibet, p. 53, accept
these precious things literally, enumurating them as “the wheel, the precious stone, the royal
consort, the best treasurer, the best horse, the elephant, the best leader.” After this one can
little wonder if “besides a Dhyâni-Buddhi and a Dhyâni-Bodhisattva” each human Buddha is
furnished with “a female companion, a Shakti”—when in truth “Shakti” is simply the Soulpower,
the psychic energy of the God as of the Adept. The “royal consort,” the third of the
“seven precious gifts,” very likely led the learned Orientalist into this ludicrous error.] one
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