Although the subject of the Seven Kumaras is one which was subjected to quite serious distortions in some later versions of “Theosophy,” that does not alter the fact that it is one of the most important, pervasive, and fundamental aspects of the genuine Esoteric Philosophy or Sacred Science or Secret Doctrine or timeless Wisdom–Religion of the Brotherhood of Masters, Those who guide and watch over the spiritual evolution and advancement of humanity.

This article is almost entirely a compilation from the writings of H. P. Blavatsky, described by these Masters as Their “Direct Agent.” It by no means includes everything she wrote on this topic but, if read slowly, carefully, meditatively, and in order, it should help to gradually piece together in one’s understanding a much clearer and greater realisation, awareness, and appreciation of what is really meant by these Kumaras, which, as will be seen, is just one of numerous synonyms used in the original Theosophical literature.

Several of the quotes do not refer to the Kumaras by name but, if the compilation is taken as a whole, it will be seen that they are nonetheless referring to the Kumaras or at least shedding light on some of the other quotes that have been included.

Please do not expect to clearly understand everything here from just one reading, however. The understanding of Theosophy – literally “Divine Wisdom” – is something which grows and expands increasingly over the course of time that one devotes oneself to its study and meditation, both of these – theoretical, intellectual study and at least some form of meditative practice and cultivation of concentration in all things – being necessary for deep comprehension of spiritual truths.

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FROM THE WRITINGS OF H. P. BLAVATSKY

“If the Roman Catholics are right on this point, so are the Occultists when they claim that the angels worshipped in the Church of Rome are none else than their “Seven Planets,” the Dhyāni-Chohans of Buddhistic Esoteric Philosophy, or the Kumāras, “the mind-born sons of Brahmā,” known under the patronymic of Vaidhātra. The identity between the Kumāras, the Builders or cosmic Dhyāni-Chohans, and the Seven Angels of the Stars, will be found without one single flaw if their respective biographies are studied, and especially the characteristics of their chiefs, Sanat-Kumāra (Sanat-Sujāta), and Michael the Archangel. Together with the Kabirim (Planets), the name of the above in Chaldaea, they were all “divine Powers” (Forces).” (“Pagan Sidereal Worship, or Astrology”)

“In the Talmud, Mikael (Michael) is “Prince of Water” and the chief of the seven Spirits, for the same reason that his prototype (among many others) Sanat-Sujâta, – the chief of the Kumâras – is called Ambhamsi, “Waters,” – according to the commentary on Vishnu Purâna.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 459-460)

“It is on the Hierarchies and correct numbers of these Beings invisible (to us) except upon very rare occasions, that the mystery of the whole Universe is built.  The Kumaras, for instance, are called the “Four” though in reality seven in number, because Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana and Sanat-Kumara are the chief Vaidhâtra (their patronymic name), as they spring from the “four-fold mystery.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 89)

““The Kumâras,” explains an esoteric text, “are the Dhyanis, derived immediately from the supreme Principle, who reappear in the Vaivasvata Manu period, for the progress of mankind.” . . . 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. . . . the Kumâras are, exoterically, “the creation of Rudra or Nilalohita, a form of Siva, by Brahmâ, and of certain other mind-born sons of Brahmâ. But, in the esoteric teaching, they are the progenitors of the true spiritual SELF in the physical man – the higher Prajâpati, while the Pitris, or lower Prajâpati, are no more than the fathers of the model, or type of his physical form, made “in their image.” Four (and occasionally five) are mentioned freely in the exoteric texts, three Kumâras being secret. . . . The Exoteric four are: Sanât-Kumâra, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanatana; and the esoteric three are: Sana, Kapila, and Sanatsujâta. Special attention is once more drawn to this class of Dhyan Chohans, for herein lies the mystery of generation and heredity hinted at in Book I.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 456-457)

“There is not an Archangel that could not be traced back to its prototype in the sacred land of Aryavarta.  These “prototypes” are all connected with the Kumâras who appear on the scene of action by refusing – as Sanatkumâra and Sananda – to “create progeny.” Yet they are called the “creators” of (thinking) man.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 584)

“Sanat Kumâra (Sk.). The most prominent of the seven Kumâras, the Vaidhâtra, the first of which are called Sanaka, Sananda, Sanâtana, and Sanat Kumâra; which names are all significant qualifications of the degrees of human intellect.” (“The Theosophical Glossary” p. 289)

“There are seven Kumāras – four exoteric and three secret – the names of the former being found in the Sānkhya-Bhāshya, by Gaudapādāchārya [i.e. the Guru of the Guru of Adi Shankaracharya]. They are all “Virgin Gods,” who remain eternally pure and innocent and decline to create progeny. In their primitive aspect, these Āryan seven “mind-born sons” of God are not the regents of the planets, but dwell far beyond the planetary region. But the same mysterious transference from one character or dignity to another is found in the Christian Angel-scheme. The “Seven Spirits of the Presence” attend perpetually on God, and yet we find them under the same names of Mikael, Gabriel, Raphael, etc., as “Star-regents” or the informing deities of the seven planets. Suffice it to say that the Archangel Michael is called “the invincible virgin combatant” as he “refused to create,” which would connect him with both Sanat Sujāta and the Kumāra who is the God of War. . . . Another Kumāra, the “God of War,” is called in the Hindu system the “eternal celibate” – ”the virgin warrior.” He is the Āryan St. Michael. . . . The three secret names are “Sana, Sanat-Sujāta, and Kapila”; while the four exoteric Gods are called Sanat-Kumāra, Sanandana, Sanaka and Sanātana.” (“Pagan Sidereal Worship, or Astrology”)

“Out of the seven virgin-men (Kumara) [i.e. a reference to “the “Sons of Will and Yoga,” the immaculate progeny of the Androgynous Third Race,” according to the footnote] four sacrificed themselves for the sins of the world and the instruction of the ignorant, to remain [i.e. physically on Earth, at Shambhala but their influence extending far beyond] till the end of the present Manvantara. . . . Higher than the “Four” is only ONE on Earth as in Heavens – that still more mysterious and Solitary Being described in Book I [i.e. the One known as the Maha-Guru, the Great Sacrifice, the Initiator, the Solitary Watcher, the Nameless One, etc.].” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 282 – to explore this more deeply, please read carefully the article The Great Sacrifice & The Mystery-Land of Shambhala)

“Sana (Sk.). One of the three esoteric Kumâras, whose names are Sana, Kapila and Sanatsujâta, the mysterious triad which contains the mystery of generation and reincarnation.” (“The Theosophical Glossary” p. 289)

“Kapila, besides being the name of a personage, of the once living Sage and the author of Sankhya philosophy [i.e. the ancient and now largely defunct Sankhya school of Hindu philosophy, key aspects of which became part of the later Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the far more prominent Vedanta school(s) of Hindu philosophy], is also the generic name of the Kumâras, the celestial ascetics and virgins; therefore the very fact of Bhagavata Purâna calling that Kapila – which it showed just before as a portion of Vishnu – the author of Sankhya philosophy, ought to have warned the reader of a blind containing an esoteric meaning. . . . the author of Sankhya cannot be the same as the Sage of the Satya-Yuga – at the very beginning of the Manvantara, when Vishnu is shown in the form of  Kapila,“imparting to all creatures true Wisdom”; for this relates to that primordial period when “the Sons of God” taught to the just created men the arts and sciences, which have been cultivated and preserved since then in the sanctuaries by the Initiates. There are several well-known Kapilas in the Purânas. First the primeval sage, then Kapila, one of the three  “Secret” Kumâras . . . besides Kapila, the great sage and philosopher of the Kali Yuga [i.e. the Kapila of the Sankhya school]. Being an Initiate, “a Serpent of Wisdom,” a Nâga, the latter was purposely blended with the Kapilas of the former ages. . . . The Sankhya philosophy may have been brought down and taught by the first, and written out by the last Kapila. . . . the Kapila of the Satya, and the Kapila of the Kali-Yugas may be one and the same INDIVIDUALITY, without being the same PERSONALITY.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 572)

“When mortals shall have become sufficiently spiritualised, there will be no more need of forcing them into a correct comprehension of ancient Wisdom. Men will know then, that there never yet was a great World-reformer, whose name has passed into our generation, who (a) was not a direct emanation of the LOGOS (under whatever name known to us), i.e., an essential incarnation of one of “the seven,” of the “divine Spirit who is sevenfold”; and (b) who had not appeared before, during the past Cycles. . . . Zoroaster . . . the Rishis and Manus . . . Krishna and Buddha . . . Osiris . . . Thoth-Hermes . . . Jesus . . . The esoteric doctrine explains it by saying that each of these (as many others) had first appeared on earth as one of the seven powers of the LOGOS, individualized as a God or “Angel” (messenger); then, mixed with matter, they had re-appeared in turn as great sages and instructors who “taught the Fifth Race,” after having instructed the two preceding races, had ruled during the Divine Dynasties, and had finally sacrificed themselves, to be reborn under various circumstances for the good of mankind, and for its salvation at certain critical periods; until in their last incarnations they had become truly only “the parts of a part” on earth, though de facto the One Supreme in Nature. . . . every “Power” among the SEVEN has (once individualized) in his charge one of the elements of creation, and rules over it . . . These elements are: – The cosmic, the terrene, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, the aqueous, and finally the human – in their physical, spiritual, and psychic aspects.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 358-359)

“They are the logoi, the seven emanations or rays of the logos. . . . the five, or rather seven, Dhyani Buddhas, [are] also called “Elements” of Mankind . . . as primordial, intelligent “Elements,” [they] become the creators or the emanators of the monads destined to become human in that cycle; after which they evolve themselves, or, so to say, expand into their own selves as Bodhisattvas or Brahmanas, in heaven and earth, to become at last simple men – “the creators of the world are born here, on earth again and again” – truly. . . . Atma is not-Spirit in its final Parabrahmic state, Iswara or Logos is Spirit; or, as Occultism explains, it is a compound unity of manifested living Spirits, the parent-source and nursery of all the mundane and terrestrial monads, plus their divine reflection, which emanate from, and return into, the Logos, each in the culmination of its time. There are seven chief groups of such Dhyan Chohans, which groups will be found and recognised in every religion, for they are the primeval SEVEN Rays.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 572-573)

“The seven primeval gods had all a dual state, one essential, the other accidental. In their essential state they were all the “Builders” or Fashioners, the Preservers and the rulers of this world, and in the accidental state, clothing themselves in visible corporeality, they descended on the earth and reigned on it as Kings and Instructors of the lower Hosts, who had incarnated once more upon it as men.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 514)

“. . . not only a Buddha, a Shankaracharya, or a Jesus can be said to animate several persons at one and the same time, but even the principles of a high Adept may be animating the outward tabernacles of common mortals.

“A certain Ray (principle) from Sanat Kumara spiritualized (animated) Pradyumna, the son of Krishna during the great Mahābhārata period, while at the same time, he, Sanat Kumara, gave spiritual instruction to King Dhritarashtra. [Note: In the Mahabharata, it is actually Sanat Sujata who does this, but the wording of the first quote in this compilation suggests that sometimes when Sanat Kumara is referred to in Hinduism, it is really Sanat Sujata who is meant.] Moreover, it is to be remembered that Sanat Kumara is “an eternal youth of sixteen,” dwelling in Jana Loka, his own sphere or spiritual state.” (“The Doctrine of Avataras”)

“But if Western theology alone holds the patent for, and copyright of SATAN – in all the dogmatic horror of that fiction – other nationalities and religions have committed equal errors in their misinterpretation of this tenet, which is one of the most profoundly philosophical and ideal conceptions of ancient thought. For they have both disfigured and hinted at the correct meaning of it in their numerous allegories touching the subject. Nor have the semi-esoteric dogmas of Purânic Hinduism failed to evolve very suggestive symbols and allegories concerning the rebellious and fallen gods. The Purânas teem with them; and we find a direct hint at the truth in the frequent allusions of Parâsara (Vishnu Purâna), to all those Rudras, Rishis, Asuras, Kumâras and Munis, having to be born in every age, to re-incarnate in every Manvantara. This (esoterically) is equivalent to saying that the FLAMES born of the Universal Mind (Mahat), owing to the mysterious workings of Karmic Will and an impulse of Evolutionary Law, had, as in Pymander – without any gradual transition – landed on this Earth, having broken through the seven Circles of fire, or the seven intermediate Worlds, in short.

“There is an eternal cyclic law of re-births, and the series is headed at every new Manvantaric dawn by those who had enjoyed their rest from re-incarnations in previous Kalpas for incalculable Æons – by the highest and the earliest Nirvanees.  It was the turn of those “Gods” to incarnate in the present Manvantara; hence their presence on Earth, and the ensuing allegories; hence, also, the perversion of the original meaning. The Gods who had fallen into generation, whose mission it was to complete divine man, are found represented later on as Demons, evil Spirits, and fiends, at feud and war with Gods, or the irresponsible agents of the one Eternal law. But no conception of such creatures as the devils and Satan of the Christian, Jewish, and Mahomedan religions was ever intended under those thousand and one Aryan allegories.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 231-232)

“It is the Hierarchy of the Kumāras which incarnates in man as his Higher Ego or Manas.” (“Commentary on the Pistis Sophia”)

“. . . the descent or incarnation of the Kumāras or the Higher Egos of Humanity.” (“Commentary on the Pistis Sophia”)

“Every one knows that [Capricorn, called Makara in Sanskrit] is the tenth sign of the Zodiac into which the Sun enters at the winter solstice, about December 21st. But very few are those who know – even in India, unless they are initiated – the real mystic connection which seems to exist, as we are told, between the names Makara and Kumâra. . . . “Makara,” the constellation, is a seemingly meaningless and absurd name. Yet, even besides its anagrammatical significance in conjunction with the term “Kumâra,” the numerical value of its first syllable and its esoteric resolution into five has a very great and occult meaning in the mysteries of nature. Suffice it to say, that as the sign of Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual “microcosm,” and the death or dissolution of the physical Universe (its passage into the realm of the Spiritual); so the Dhyan Chohans, called in India Kumâra, are connected with both.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 576)

“The Fifth group [i.e. of the Seven Hierarchies of Dhyan Chohans or celestial beings] is a very mysterious one, as it is connected with the Microcosmic Pentagon, the five-pointed star representing man. In India and Egypt these Dhyanis were connected with the Crocodile, and their abode is in Capricornus. These are convertible terms in Indian astrology, as this (tenth) sign of the Zodiac is called Makara, loosely translated “crocodile.” . . . The fifth group of the celestial Beings is supposed to contain it itself the dual attributes of both the spiritual and physical aspects of the Universe; the two poles, so to say, of Mahat the Universal Intelligence, and the dual nature of man, the spiritual and the physical. . . . It becomes the task of the fifth Hierarchy – the mysterious beings that preside over the constellation Capricornus, Makara, or “Crocodile” in India as in Egypt – to inform the empty and ethereal animal form [i.e. in the Third Root Race period of humanity’s evolution on this globe in this Fourth Round] and make of it the Rational Man. This is one of those subjects upon which very little may be said to the general public. It is a MYSTERY, truly but only to him who is prepared to reject the existence of intellectual and conscious spiritual Beings in the Universe, limiting full Consciousness to man alone, and that only as a “function of the Brain.” Many are those among the Spiritual Entities, who have incarnated bodily in man, since the beginning of his appearance, and who, for all that, still exist as independently as they did before, in the infinitudes of Space. . . . To put it more clearly: the invisible Entity may be bodily present on earth without abandoning, however, its status and functions in the supersensuous regions.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 219, 221, 233)

“The “Kshatriya Kings” were in the olden times, like the King-Hierophants of Egypt, the receptacles of the highest divine knowledge and wisdom, the Elect and the incarnations of the primordial divine Instructors – the Dhyâni Buddhas or Kumâras.” (“The Theosophical Glossary” p. 354, Entry for “Upanishad”)

“In Esoteric philosophy, . . . only five out of the “Seven Dhyani-Buddhas” – or, rather, the Seven Hierarchies of these Dhyanis, who, in Buddhist mysticism, are identical with the higher incarnating Intelligences, or the Kumâras of the Hindus – five only have hitherto appeared on earth in regular succession of incarnations, the last two having to come during the sixth and seventh Root-Races.” (“Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” p. 51)

So are the Dhyani Buddhas and Kumaras/Manasaputras the same? Are they exactly synonymous terms? We just read that they are identical. But can we say that the Kumaras or Manasaputras who incarnated en masse in the humanity of the Third Root Race (the Lemurian Race) and became our Higher Egos or reincarnating souls or permanent spiritual individualities, are literally the same as the Seven Dhyani Buddhas? Is your or my Ego a Dhyani Buddha? Are the Seven Dhyani Buddhas and Seven Kumaras, the Seven Manasaputras (literally “Sons of (Universal) Mind”), not both synonyms for the primordial Seven Rays? In the highest and general sense – yes. In the more precise and technically metaphysical sense – not quite. The following statements may help to clarify and explain this answer a little, if we consider that “Ah-hi” is essentially another term for the Seven Dhyani Buddhas:

“The Ah-hi are the primordial seven rays, or Logoi, emanated from the first Logos, triple, yet one in its essence. . . . The Ah-hi are the highest Dhyanis, the Logoi as just said, those who begin the downward evolution, or emanation. . . . When the hour strikes, the law comes into action, and the Ah-hi appear on the first rung of the ladder of manifestation. . . . the Ah-hi . . . belong to the first, second, and third planes . . . Like the Pythagorean Monas, the first Logos, having emanated the first triad [i.e. the three highest planes of the Universe], disappears into silence and darkness. . . . The “Ah-hi” pass through all the planes, beginning to manifest on the third. . . . on the highest plane they are arupa, i.e., formless, bodiless, without any substance, mere breaths. On the second plane, they approach to Rupa, or form. On the third, they become Manasa-putras, those who become incarnated in man. With every plane they reach they are called by different names – there is a continual differentiation of their original homogeneous substance; . . . the Ah-hi [do] not become men in this Manvantara. . . . But they do as their own transformation. . . . The “Ah-hi” are Forces, not human Beings. . . . they act within the universal consciousness. But the consciousness of the Manasa-putra on the third plane is quite different. It is only then that they become Thinkers.”  (“Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” p. 19, 20, 21, 23-24)

What we also hope to have brought to light through this entire compilation is that some of the highest Beings in the Cosmos are also, at the same time, constantly present on Earth . . . in the true and hidden heart of Asia, the heart of the planet – Shambhala. And while that is true, in a very direct way, for some of the highest members of the great Brotherhood of Adepts or Masters of Wisdom, it is also true, in a less direct but still very real sense, for every human being everywhere in the world.

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