René Guénon
Chapter 6

THE THREE SUPREME FUNCTIONS

ACCORDING TO SAINT-YVES, the supreme head of Agarttha bears the title of Brahātmā (it would be more correct to say Brahmātmā) or 'support of souls in the Spirit of God'; his two adjuncts are the Mahātmā, 'representative of the universal Soul', and the Mahānga, 'symbol of the entire material organization of the Cosmos'.[1] These comprise the hierarchic division represented in Western doctrines by the ternary of 'spirit', 'soul', and 'body', applied here according to the analogy of the macrocosm and the microcosm. It is important to note that these terms, in Sanskrit, properly denote principles, and that they cannot be applied to human beings except insofar as they represent these principles, so that, even in such cases, they are attached essentially to functions and not to individualities. According to Ossendowski, the Mahātmā 'knows the events of the future' and the Mahānga 'directs the course of those events'; as for the Brahātmā, he is able to 'speak to God face to face,[2] and it is easy to understand what this means if one remembers that he occupies the central point from which direct communication is established between the terrestrial world and the superior states, and, through these latter, with the supreme Principle.[3] Besides, if the term 'King of the World' were interpreted in a restricted sense and solely in relation to the terrestrial world, it would prove inadequate; it would be more accurate, in certain respects, to designate Brahātmā as 'Lord of the three worlds',[4] for in every true hierarchy he who possesses the superior degree thereby also possesses at the same time all the subordinate degrees, and as we shall explain further on, these 'three worlds' (which constitute the Tribhuvana of Hindu tradition) are the domains corresponding respectively to the three functions we are about to specify.

'As he comes forth from the temple,' writes Ossendowski, 'the King of the World radiates Divine Light.'[5] The Hebrew Bible reports exactly the same of Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai,[6] and in this connection it is worth noting that the Islamic tradition regards Moses as the 'Pole' (al-Qutb) of his age; besides, was it not for this reason that, according to the Kabbalah, he was instructed by Metatron himself? It is important here again to distinguish between the principal spiritual center of our world and the secondary centers subordinate to it that represent it only in relation to particular traditions, adapted more particularly to specific peoples. Without wishing to belabor the point, we should nonetheless note that the function of 'legislator' (in Arabic, rasul) belonging to Moses necessarily supposes a delegation of the power designated by the name Manu; moreover, one of the meanings implicit in this name indicates precisely the reflection of Divine Light.The King of the World [said a Lama to Ossendowski] is in contact with the thoughts of all the men who influence the lot and life of all humankind.... He realizes all their thoughts and plans. If these be pleasing before God, the King of the World will invisibly help them; if they are unpleasant in the sight of God, the King will bring them to destruction. This power is given to Agharti by the mysterious science of Om, with which we begin all our prayers.[7]There immediately follows a sentence that will greatly astonish those who have only a vague idea of the significance of this sacred monosyllable: Om is the name of an ancient Holyman, the first Goro [Ossendowski writes goro for guru], who lived three hundred thousand years ago.[8] This sentence would be completely unintelligible were it not borne in mind that the age in question, which moreover seems indicated rather vaguely, is very much anterior to the era of the present Manu; furthermore, the Adi-Manu, or first Manu, of our present Kalpa (Vaivasvata being the seventh) is called Svāyambhuva, that is to say, issue of Svayambhū, 'he who subsists of himself', or the 'eternal Logos'; but the Logos, or he who represents it directly, can truly be designated the first Guru or 'Spiritual Master', which in effect means that Om is another of the names of the Logos.[9]Moreover, the word Om immediately provides a key to the hierarchical distribution of functions between Brahātmā and his two adjuncts, as we have already indicated. According to Hindu tradition, the three elements of this sacred monosyllable symbolize, respectively, the ‘three worlds' just alluded to, the three parts of the Tribhuvana: Earth (Bhū), Atmosphere (Bhuvas), and the Heavens (Swar), which, to use a different terminology, correspond to the world of corporeal manifestation, the world of subtle or psychic manifestation, and the non-manifested principial world.[10] In ascending order, these are the domains of the Mahānga, the Mahātmā, and the Brahātmā, as can easily be seen by referring to the interpretation of their titles above; and it is the relationships of sub-ordination among these different domains that justifies the previous interpretation of Brahātmā as 'Lord of the three worlds'.[11] 'This one is the Lord of all; this one is the Omniscient [who sees at once all effects in their cause]; this one is the inner Director of all [who resides at the center of the world and governs it from within, directing its movement without participating in it]; this one is the Source of all [legitimate power]; this one is verily the place of origin and dissolution of all beings [of the cyclical manifestation whose Law he represents].'[12] To use still another symbolism that is no less exact, we can say that the Mahānga represents the base of the initiatic triangle and the Brahātmā its summit; between these two the Mahātmā embodies in a certain way a mediating principle (the cosmic vitality, the Anima Mundi of the Hermeticists), whose action is deployed in the 'intermediate realm'. All of this is represented very clearly by the corresponding letters of the sacred alphabet that Saint-Yves calls vattan and that Ossendowski calls vattanan, or, which amounts to the same thing, by the geometric forms (straight line, spiral, and point) to which the three mātrās, or elements constituting the monosyllable Om, can be reduced.Let us make this even clearer: to the Brahātmā belongs the fullness of both the sacerdotal and the royal power, envisaged principially in a kind of undifferentiated state; the two powers are subsequently differentiated in order to be manifested, the Mahātmā representing more particularly the sacerdotal power, and the Mahānga the royal power. The distinction corresponds to that between Brahmins and Kshatriyas, although in other respects the Mahātmā and the Mahānga, being 'beyond caste', have in themselves, as does the Brahātmā, a character at once sacerdotal and royal. This raises a most important point that seems never to have been explained satisfactorily: it has already been mentioned that the two powers were united in the 'Magi-Kings' of the Gospels; we can now say that in reality these mysterious personages represent nothing other than the three heads of Agarttha. [13] The Mahānga offers gold to Christ and hails him as 'King'; the Mahātmā offers incense and hails him as 'Priest'; and finally the Brahātmā, hailing him as 'Prophet', or Spiritual Master par excellence, offers myrrh (the balm of incorruptibility, symbol of Amrita).[14] The homage rendered in this way to the new-born Christ by the authentic representatives of the primordial tradition in the three worlds which are their respective domains, is at the same time, we should clearly note, the assurance of the perfect orthodoxy of Christianity in this respect. Ossendowski naturally was not in a position to consider things of this order, but had he penetrated more deeply into certain matters he would at least have noticed the strict analogy obtaining between the supreme ternary of Agarttha and that of Lamaism, such as he describes it: the Dalai Lama, 'realizing the saintliness [or pure spirituality] of Buddha'; the Tashi-Lama, 'realizing his science' [not 'magic' as he appears to think but, rather, 'theurgy']; and the Bogdo-Khan, ‘representing his material and warlike strength' exactly the same distribution according to the 'three worlds'. He could even have drawn these parallels all the more readily since he had been informed that 'the capital of Agharti reminds one of Lhasa where the palace of the Dalai Lama, the Potala, is the top [sic] of a mountain covered with monasteries and temples.'[15] This way of expressing things is faulty besides, for in reality it is the image that recalls its prototype, and not the converse. Now the center of Lamaism can only be an image of the true 'Center of the World'; but when the various sites of such centers are considered, it turns out that they all present certain topographical peculiarities that, far from being unimportant, have an incontestable symbolic value that must, in addition, correspond to those laws through which the 'spiritual influences' operate, which is a topic that properly belongs to the traditional science that one could call 'sacred geography'.But there is yet another parallel that is no less remarkable. Saint-Yves, describing the different degrees or circles of the initiatic hierarchy, which are related to certain symbolic numerals referring particularly to the divisions of time, ends by saying that 'the highest circle, and the one nearest to the mysterious center, is composed of twelve parts, which represent the supreme initiation and correspond to the zodiac, among other things.' Now this composition is also found in what is known as the 'circular council' of the Dalai Lama, made up of twelve great Namshans (or Nomekhans), and moreover is also found even in certain Western traditions, notably those concerning the 'Knights of the Round Table'. We should further add that from the point of view of the cosmic order, the twelve members of the inner circle of Agarttha represent not only the twelve signs of the zodiac, but also (we are tempted to say 'rather', though the two interpretations are not mutually exclusive) the twelve Adityas, which represent as many forms of the sun in relation to these same zodiacal signs, [16] and naturally, since Manu Vaivasvata is called 'son of the Sun', the 'King of the World' also counts the sun among his various emblems.[17]The principal conclusion to be drawn from what has been said is that all the world over descriptions of spiritual centers that are more or less hidden (or at least accessible only with great difficulty) bear a close resemblance to each other. The only plausible explanation for this similarity is that, if the accounts refer to different centers, as seems to be true in some cases, then they must all be emanations, so to speak, from one supreme center, just as all particular traditions are finally only adaptations of the great, primordial tradition.

Footnotes

[1]Ossendowski writes Brahytma, Mahytma, and Mahynga.
[2]We have seen above that Metatron is ‘the Angel of the Face'.
[3]According to Far-Eastern tradition, the 'Invariable Middle' is the point at which the 'Activity of Heaven' is manifested.
[4]We would ask those who might be surprised at such an expression whether they have ever reflected upon the significance of the triregnum, the three-crowned tiara, which is, together with the keys, one of the principal insignia of the papacy.
[5]Ferdinand Ossendowski, Beasts, Men and Gods (New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1923), p309.6. It is also said that at that time Moses had to cover his face with a veil to speak to the people, who could not bear the brilliance (Exodus 24:29–35), which indicates symbolically the necessity of an exoteric adaptation for the multitude. Let us recall in this connection the double significance of the word ‘reveal', which can mean ‘draw aside the veil', but also ‘cover again with a veil'; it is thus that the word manifests and veils, at one and the same time, the thought that it expresses.7. Ossendowski, Beasts, Men and Gods, p309.8. Ibid.9. Somewhat surprisingly, this name is also found in ancient Christian symbolism, where, among the signs that served to represent Christ, we encounter one that was later considered an abbreviation of Ave Maria, but which was originally an equivalent of the sign that unites the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and omega, to signify that the Word is the beginning and the end of all things; it is in reality even more complete, for it signifies the beginning, the middle, and the end. This sign, ☑, breaks down in fact into AVM, that is, the three Latin letters that correspond exactly to the three constituent elements of the monosyllable om (the vowel o in Sanskrit being formed by the union of a and u). The association of this sign Aum and the swastika, both taken as symbols of Christ, seems to us particularly significant when seen from this point of view. It should further be noted that the form of this same sign presents two ternaries set inversely to each other, making them in certain respects an equivalent to the 'seal of Solomon'; if the latter is considered under the form , where the horizontal median line specifies the general significance of the symbol by marking the plane of reflection or ‘surface of the Waters', it is evident that both figures have the same number of lines, differing only in the placement of two of them, which, horizontal in the one, becomes vertical in the other.10. For a fuller treatment of the conception of the 'three worlds', the reader is referred to The Esoterism of Dante and Man and His Becoming according to the Vedānta. In the first we insisted above all on the correspondence of these worlds, which are properly speaking states of the being, with the degrees of initiation; in the second we gave in particular a complete explanation, from the purely meta-physical point of view, of the text of the Mandukya Upanishad, in which the symbolism here in question is set out in full, the present discussion covering only one particular application of it.11. In the order of universal principles, the function of Brahātmā refers to Īshvara, that of Mahātmā to Hiranyagarbha, and that of Mahānga to Virāj, from which correspondence their respective attributes may easily be deduced.12. Māndūkya Upanishad, shruti 6 [in the translation of Swami Gambhirananda, Eight Principal Upaniṣads (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1973). Bracketed insertions are Guénon's. ED.].13. Saint-Yves does indeed say that the 'Magi-Kings' came from Agarttha, but without being any more precise on this point. The names usually attributed to them are doubtless imaginary, except perhaps that of Melki-Or, in Hebrew ‘King of the Light', which is rather significant. [^14] [^15] [^16] [^17]
[14]The Amrita of the Hindus or the Ambrosia of the Greeks (two words etymologically identical), draught or food of immortality, is represented notably also by the Vedic Soma and the Mazdean Haoma. Trees producing incorruptible gums or resins play an important role in symbolism, having in particular sometimes been taken as emblems of Christ.
[15]Ossendowski, Beasts, Men and Gods, p303.
[16]It is said that the Adityas (issue of Aditi, or the ‘Indivisible') were first seven before being twelve, and that their head was then Varuna. The twelve Ādityas are Dhātri, Mitra, Aryaman, Rudra, Varuna, Sūrya, Bhaga, Vivasvat, Pūshan, Savitri, Tvashtri, and Vishnu. They are so many manifestations of a unique and indivisible essence; and it is also said that these twelve suns will appear simultaneously at the end of the cycle, returning then into the essential and primordial unity of their common nature. Among the Greeks the twelve great gods of Olympus also correspond to the twelve signs of the zodiac.
[17]The symbol to which we allude is precisely the one that Catholic liturgy attributes to Christ in applying to him the title of Sol Justitiae; the Word is effectively the 'spiritual Sun', that is, the true ‘Center of the World'; furthermore, this expression Sol Justitiae refers directly to the attributes of Melki-Tsedeq. It should also be noted that both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages the lion, a solar animal, was an emblem of justice as well as of power; and the sign of the Lion in the zodiac is the ‘house' of the sun. The sun with twelve rays may be considered to represent the twelve Adityas; and from another point of view, if the sun represents Christ, the twelve rays are the twelve apostles (the word apostolos signifying 'sent', as the rays are also ‘sent' by the sun). Moreover, in the number of the twelve apostles one can see a sign, among many others, of the perfect conformity of Christianity with the primordial tradition.
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