References

1. Published in Voile d'Ises, October and November 1937. 2. The Serpent Power, third revised edition, Ganesh and Co., Madras. This volume includes the translation of two texts: Saṭcakra niräpana and Pādukāpencaka, preceded by a long and important introduction; our study relates to the contents of the latter. 3. On many points, we cannot do better than to refer back to our own work, Man and its Becoming According to the Vedanta. For it is not possible for us to reproduce any more ample explanations in the framework of an article. Consequently, we must assume this work already known. 4. It is regrettable that the author frequently uses, and in particular translates srṣti by the word 'creation', which, as we have often explained, is not suitable from the point of view of Hindu doctrine. We know only too well how many difficulties are raised by the necessity of using Western terminology, as inadequate as may be to express what is at hand. But we think, however, that this word is among those that one may easily enough avoid, and, in fact, we have never ourselves used it. While we are on the question of terminology let us point out also the impropriety of translating samādhi as 'ecstasy'. This last word is all the more irksome since it is normally used, in Western language, to designate mystical states, that is, something that is of a wholly different order and with which it is essentially important to avoid all confusion. Moreover, it etymologically means 'to depart from the self' which befits the case of mystical states, while what is designated by the term samādhi is, quite to the contrary, a 're-entry' of the being into his proper Self. 5. The word indriya at once designates a faculty and its corresponding organism but it is generally preferable to translate it as 'faculty', first because this conforms with its primitive sense, which is 'power', and also because consideration of faculty is here more essential than that of the corporeal organ, by reason of the pre-eminence of subtle manifestation in relation to gross manifestation. 6. We do not wholly understand the objection raised by the author against the use of the word 'elements', the traditional term, to designate bhätos in ancient physics. Here is not the place to be preoccupied with the oblivion into which this acceptation has fallen among the moderns, to whom, moreover, every properly 'cosmologic' conception has become equally alien. 7. It is surprising enough that the author has not pointed out the relation between this and the symbolism of the Brāhmanic baton (brahma-danḍa), even more so as he alludes on several occasions to the equivalent symbolism of the caduceus. 8. The author points out very rightly how erroneous are the interpretations ordinarily given by Westerners, who, confusing the two orders of manifestation, wish to reduce everything in question to a purely anatomical and physiological point of view. The Orientalists, ignorant of all traditional sciences, believe that it is only a question here of a more or less whimsical description of certain corporeal organs. The Occultists, for their part, if they admit the distinct existence of the subtle organism, imagine it as a sort of 'double' of the body, subject to the same conditions as the latter, which is hardly more correct and can only end in grossly materialised representations. And regarding this last subject, the author shows in some detail how distant are the Theosophists' conceptions, in particular, from true Hindu doctrine. 9. In the symbol of the caduceus, the central staff corresponds to suşumnā the two serpents to ida and pingalā. The latter are also sometimes represented, on the Brāhmanic baton, by the tracing of two helical lines coiling in an inverse direction to each other, so as to cross each other at the level of each of the knots that mark the different centres. In the cosmic correspondences, ida is related to the Moon, pingalā to the Sun, and suşumnā to the five principles. It is interesting to note the relation that this presents with the three 'Great Lights' of masonic symbolism. 10. It is still said that suşumnā corresponds by its nature to fire, vajrā to the Sun, and citrā to the Moon; the interior of the latter, forming the most central channel, is called brahma-nād̄̄. 11. The seven knots of the Brāhmanic baton symbolise the seven 'lotuses'. In the caduceus, conversely, it appears that the end bulb must be related only to ājñā, the two accompanying wings then identifying with the two petals of this 'lotus'. 12. The numbers of petals are: 4 for mūlādhāra, 6 for svādhiṣthāna, 10 for manipūra, 12 for anāhata, 16 for viśuddha, 2 for ājñā, that is a total of 50 , which is also the number of letters in the Sanskrit alphabet. All the latters are found in sahasrāra, each of them being repeated there 20 times (50 × 20=1000). 13. See what we have said about the spiral in The Symbolism of the Cross. Let us remember also the figure of the serpent coiled around the 'World Egg' (brahmānda), as also around the amphalos, whose equivalent we shall rediscover precisely a little further on. 14. On this point, we will only recall, by way of a particularly striking concordance, the identification established, at the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, between the terms verbum, lux, and vita, specifying that, to be fully understood, it must be related to the world hiranyagarbha. 15. The triangle, as yantra of the śakti, is always traced with the base on top and the apex at the bottom. It would be easy to show its similarity with a number of other symbols of the feminine principle. 16. We shall indicate in passing an analogy between these three and a half coils of the kundalint and the three and half days during which, according to various traditions, the spirit remains still attached to the body after death, and which represent the time necessary to the 'untying' of the vital force, remaining in the 'unawakened' state in the case of the ordinary man. A day is a cyclic revolution corresponding to a coil in the spiral. And, the process of reabsorption always being inverse to the one of manifestation, this uncoiling is considered as summing up in some way the whole life of the individual, which is repeated by retracing the course of events that constituted it. One need hardly add that these misunderstood data have too often produced all sorts of whimsical interpretations. 17. The mandala or yantra of the element, prthvi is a square, corresponding as a flat figure to the cube, whose form symbolises the ideas of 'base' and 'stability'. One could say, in the language of Islamic tradition, that one has here a correspondence in the 'black stone', equivalent to the Hindu linga, and also to the amphalos which is, as we have elsewhere shown, one of the symbols of the 'centre of the world'. 18. These three lingas relate also to the different situations, following the state of the development of being, the luz or 'core of immortality', that we spoke of in The King of the World. 19. It is important to note that andhata, related to the region of the heart, must be distinguished from the 'lotus of the heart', with eight petals, which is the abode of purusa: this last is 'situated' in the heart itself, considered as the 'vital centre' of individuality. 20. This command corresponds to the 'celestial mandate' of the Far-Eastern tradition. On the other hand, the denomination of ājñā-c a k r a could be rendered exactly in Arabic by maqām el-amr, indicating that here is the direct reflection, in the human being, of the 'world' called alam el-amr, just as, from the 'macrocosmic' point of view, this reflection is situated in our state of existence, in the central place of 'earthly paradise'. One could even deduce from this precise considerations on the modality of 'angelic' manifestations in relation to man, but this would be entirely outside of our subject-matter. 21. The vision of the 'third eye', through which the being is liberated from the temporal condition (and which has nothing in common with the 'clairvoyance' of Occultists and Theosophists), is intimately connected to the 'prophetic' function. It is to this that the Sanskrit word rsi alludes, which properly signifies 'seer', and which has its exact equivalent in the Hebrew roeh, the ancient designation of the prophets, replaced subsequently by the word nabī (that is to say 'he who speaks with inspiration'). Let us indicate also, without, however, insisting on it, that what we indicate in this note and the preceding one is in relation to the esoteric interpretation of 'Surat al-Qadr,' concerning the 'descent of the Qur'an'. 22. These two cakras are represented as 'lotuses' with six and sixteen petals respectively. 23. One of the reasons why the sakti is symbolised by a triangle is the triplicity of its manifestation as Wish (icchā), Action (kriyā), and Knowledge (jāāna). 24. One will note the similarity of symbolism of the 'sephirothic tree' and that of the caduceus, following what we have indicated previously. On the other hand, the different 'channels' that connect the Sephiroth together are not without analogy with the nädīs this, of course, in what concerns the particular application that may be made of it to the human being. 25. The duality of hokmak and hinah can, moreover, be placed in a symbolic relationship with the two eyes, right and left, 'microcosmic' correspondence of Sun and Moon. 26. See what we have said in The King of the World about the symbolism of the two hands, in relation precisely with the skekinah whose relation with the Hindu sakti we mention in passing and the 'sephirothic tree'. 27. It is also on the two shoulders that stand, following Islamic tradition, the two angels charged with respectively registering man's good and bad actions, and which represent equally the divine attributes of 'Mercy' and 'Justice'. Let us note also on this subject, that one could 'situate' also in an analogical fashion in the human being the symbolic figure of the 'scales' spoken of in the Siphra de-Tseniutha.