In “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 81, H. P. Blavatsky writes:

“What is human mind in its higher aspect, whence comes it, if it is not a portion of the essence – and, in some rare cases of incarnation, the very essence – of a higher Being: one from a higher and divine plane? Can man – a god in the animal form – be the product of Material Nature by evolution alone, even as is the animal, which differs from man in external shape, but by no means in the materials of its physical fabric, and is informed by the same, though undeveloped, Monad – seeing that the intellectual potentialities of the two differ as the Sun does from the Glow-worm? And what is it that creates such difference, unless man is an animal plus a living god within his physical shell? . . .

“To some extent, it is admitted that even the esoteric teaching is allegorical. To make the latter comprehensible to the average intelligence, requires the use of symbols cast in an intelligible form.  Hence the allegorical and semi-mythical narratives in the exoteric, and the (only) semi-metaphysical and objective representations in the esoteric teachings. . . . The too puritan idealist is at liberty to spiritualise the tenet, whereas the modern psychologist would simply try to spirit away our “fallen,” yet still divine, human Soul in its connection with Buddhi.”

Since she does not really elaborate or expand any further on what she actually means by this, it would perhaps be presumptuous to claim to fully or accurately understand it.

But she does repeat this same point several times and, interestingly, always in connection with one of the most fundamental and frequently encountered teachings of Theosophy: the descent or mass incarnation during the Lemurian Root Race – and to a lesser degree the Atlantean Root Race that succeeded it – of the Manasaputras, also called Kumaras, Agnishvattas, Solar Pitris, Solar Angels, and many other names, who are described as gods, divine entities, Beings of Light, who gained a high degree of spiritual perfection in far distant cycles of evolution but were compelled to incarnate in the mindless Lemurians, so as to essentially become the Higher Egos or immortal souls or permanent spiritual individualities – the Higher Manas – of the human beings of this Earth, bringing, through their own essence, the light of mind, self-consciousness, and true intelligence.

That is the doctrine in miniature; one can find it explained in more detail in other articles on this site, including Manas – The Mystery of Mind, Ego Is Not A Bad Word, The Lunar Pitris and Solar Pitris, Antahkarana – The Path, Human Evolution in The Secret Doctrine, and The Monad and The Ego are an Eternal Triad.

The basic fact of our having an inner, higher, divine nature is not in question, but is HPB trying to indicate that “to some extent” what we have just described – and further details and complexities of it, which we have not attempted to summarise here – is only the rendering into “an intelligible form” and “objective representation” of a symbol, something which in actuality is to be taken symbolically rather than literally? She seems to imply that the student of Theosophy who “spiritualises this tenet” – whatever that might mean in this context – is a “too puritan idealist.”

A few pages later, in Vol. 2, p. 94, we find her – and her Adept-Teachers, the Masters K.H. and M., who asserted that “The Secret Doctrine” was the “triple production” of Themselves with “Our Direct Agent” HPB – saying:

“The supposed “rebels,” then, were simply those who, compelled by Karmic law to drink the cup of gall to its last bitter drop, had to incarnate anew, and thus make responsible thinking entities of the astral statues projected by their inferior brethren. Some are said to have refused, because they had not in them the requisite materials – i.e., an astral body – since they were arupa. The refusal of others had reference to their having been Adepts and Yogis of long past preceding Manvantaras; another mystery. But, later on, as Nirmânakâyas, they sacrificed themselves for the good and salvation of the Monads which were waiting for their turn, and which otherwise would have had to linger for countless ages in irresponsible, animal-like, though in appearance human, forms. It may be a parable and an allegory within an allegory. Its solution is left to the intuition of the student, if he only reads that which follows with his spiritual eye.”

HPB rarely suggests that something “may be” something, unless her intention is to strongly indicate that it actually is that thing. Otherwise, why would she make such a statement? Thus it seems fairly safe to assume that the teaching about the Manasaputras incarnating in and as us is in fact “a parable” and not only an allegory but “an allegory within an allegory.”

She does not offer up the solution or unriddling of it but leaves that to each student of Theosophy. She makes such a point numerous times in “The Secret Doctrine” and in Vol. 1, p. 278, says, “Since, however, as confessed before, this work withholds far more than it gives out, the student is invited to use his own intuitions.”

Despite those statements of hers, virtually every serious HPB student we have ever encountered believes firmly that the Manasaputra teaching, in the way usually understood, is to be taken as literal metaphysical fact. Those who have read such passages as those we have quoted tend to just pass over them and ignore them or assume that they cannot really mean what they seem to be saying.

And this is very understandable because if it is not supposed to be taken literally, why is it worded, presented, and explained, in such a literal way by HPB 99.9% of the time? A bigger question naturally follows on from this: How does or how can one know when allegory is being used in seemingly non-allegorical statements and teachings?

One more statement in this regard, also relating to that same specific teaching, and occurring just a few pages away from the two shared above, reads:

“The Endowers of man with his conscious, immortal EGO, are the “Solar Angels” – whether so regarded metaphorically or literally. The mysteries of the Conscious EGO or human Soul are great.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 88)

Many readers would assume the “whether so regarded metaphorically or literally” to be referring to the name “Solar Angels,” i.e. whether they literally or only figuratively are connected with or somehow dwell in the sun. But in light of the two preceding passages we have quoted, it is perhaps more likely to be one more suggestion that these “Solar Angels” endowing us with our “conscious, immortal EGO” or immortal spiritual individuality may well be a metaphor, a symbol, an allegory.

Elsewhere in “The Secret Doctrine” HPB explains regarding allegories in general that “None are meaningless and baseless stories, invented to entrap the unwary profane: all are allegories intended to convey, under a more or less fantastic veil, the great truths gathered in the same field of pre-historic tradition.” (Vol. 2, p. 410)

So if the Manasaputra doctrine is really “only” “a parable and an allegory within an allegory,” it has not been presented as if literal by HPB and the Masters with some intention of deceiving, tricking, or misleading people, but rather with a much greater and deeper purpose, and perhaps because the reality of the matter could not be – or was not permitted to be – expressed in words. But what that reality of the matter actually is is anyone’s guess.

Perhaps the bigger point in all of this is that the way we have customarily been reading and approaching the Theosophical teachings – particularly some of the more esoteric topics – may not be the right way. One can read about and study and understand esoteric teachings in an exoteric way and can turn concepts, statements, and details that were only intended to be symbolic pointers or allegorical signposts into literalistic, unquestionable dogmas, thus inadvertently and unwittingly making a type of creed or religion out of something which was absolutely never intended to become such.

In this writer’s view, one of the most prominent ways in which this has been done is, as said in our article The Avatar, in “not having noticed that the figures and durations given to the Yuga, Root Race, and other cycles in the original Theosophical literature are repeatedly stated by H. P. Blavatsky, as well as William Q. Judge, to not be the real, actual, literal figures.” In that article we demonstrate some of the most major contradictions and incompatibilities between various durations of cycles given in “The Secret Doctrine” and elsewhere and show how there is clearly no way of making them add up or fit together with one another. But we added:

“We completely understand why many Theosophists will not like or appreciate having the above pointed out but we also know that no-one who is familiar with “The Secret Doctrine” and the rest of HPB’s teachings can deny or refute what we have just demonstrated. We have not done this with the intent of in any way demeaning, depreciating, or criticising H. P. Blavatsky and her work, but merely to show and verify the point which she herself repeatedly made, i.e. that the real figures and durations of the cycles cannot be publicly revealed, or at least could not be done so during her era.”

However, it seems important that one does not assume that everything taught in Theosophy is merely allegorical and symbolical, for that is not the case. HPB herself discountenanced such a notion or approach when saying, with regard to Anna Kingsford:

“She has divined she says, the allegory. Everything including Atlantis (!) is an allegory. I am too sick to bother myself with her flapdoodle interpretations.” (“The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett” p. 63)

The quote with which we began this article said that it is only “to some extent” that “the esoteric teaching is allegorical.”

In “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 335, HPB refers to the Stanzas from the Secret Book of Dzyan, on which “The Secret Doctrine” is based, as “the allegorical Stanzas.” What might she mean by this?

Just before giving a translation of the first Stanzas on Cosmogenesis or cosmic evolution she commented that “it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can, the meaning of the allegorical phrases used.” (Vol. 1, p. 21) It should hopefully be obvious that when the Stanzas speak of the Logos as “THE BLAZING DIVINE DRAGON OF WISDOM,” for example, an actual heavenly dragon is not meant. But maybe she is also suggesting that even some of the processes and occurrences described in the Stanzas – and in ways that seem to be matter-of-fact descriptions, albeit worded in mystical and obscure language – are allegorical and not intended to be taken as literal historical or cosmogonical fact. We say “some” rather than “all.”

“The Secret Doctrine,” like A. P. Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism,” and “The Mahatma Letters” on which most of “Esoteric Buddhism” was based, all make repeated mention of the Earth as a sevenfold “planetary chain” which undergoes “seven rounds” or major cycles of evolution, the “fourth round” being the present one, which is said to be currently taking place on the “fourth globe” of our Earth Chain, i.e. this physical globe on which we currently live.

In a letter to Sinnett after the publication of “Esoteric Buddhism,” HPB seems to indicate that this teaching regarding the Rounds is also allegorical:

“In short that you gave the truth, but by far not the whole truth especially about rounds and rings which was only at best allegorical.” (HPB, Appendix to “The Mahatma Letters” p. 464)

It appears this can only mean that either (a) the particular version of this doctrine as taught by Sinnett – and taught to him by the Master K.H. and Master M. – and later repeated in “The Secret Doctrine” is only an allegorical representation of the Masters’ real (and secret) teaching on this subject, or (b) the whole subject regarding Rounds etc. is a complete (as in total) allegory and in reality there is no such thing.

We do not feel qualified to speculate as to which of these it might be. But either way, it ought to provide us with food for thought. Earlier we quoted HPB’s words regarding allegories in general: “None are meaningless and baseless stories, invented to entrap the unwary profane: all are allegories intended to convey, under a more or less fantastic veil, the great truths gathered in the same field of pre-historic tradition.”

Many Theosophists tend to think that all of HPB’s teachings constitute an unveiling of esoteric reality and do not consider that some of them may instead be a careful and deliberate veiling or semi-veiling of certain esoteric truths, or in occult terminology, “blinds.” Yet she shows repeatedly how all great Teachers made use of “blinds” or deliberate concealments; would it not thus be odd if she herself never did so?

The teachings contained in the volumes of “The Secret Doctrine” are not THE Secret Doctrine itself but “though giving out many fundamental tenets from the SECRET DOCTRINE of the East, raise but a small corner of the dark veil.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, Introductory, p. xvii)

We sincerely hope that no-one will feel too disheartened or shocked on reading these quoted passages and realising that some of the things they have long taken as literal Theosophical fact may not actually be so after all and were never intended as such. If anything, this awareness of the semi-allegorical nature of the Theosophical teachings or Esoteric Philosophy ought to fill us with an even greater sense and appreciation of its grandeur, depth, and majesty, and a stronger awareness of why dogmatism and orthodoxy cannot have a home in the Theosophical Movement.

“For the teachings of the “Order” are like precious stones – whatever way turned, light and truth and beauty flash forth, and will guide the weary traveller in search of them, if he but stops not on his way to follow the will-o’-wisps of the illusive world, and remains deaf to public rumour.” (H. P. Blavatsky, Appendix to “The Mahatma Letters” p. 486)

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