Sacred Texts Study Group

70-Kill thy desires, Lanoo, make thy vices impotent, ere the first step is taken on the solemn journey.

For he has conquered once for all that shifting serpent in himself which turns from side to side in its constant desire of contact, in its perpetual search after pleasure and pain. (Gates of Gold 5, 2)

15. Dispassion is the having overcome…[Read more]

69-There is but one road to the Path; at its very end alone the “Voice of the Silence” can be heard. The ladder by which the candidate ascends is formed of rungs of suffering and pain; these can be silenced only by the voice of virtue. Woe, then, to thee, Disciple, if there is one single vice thou hast not left behind. For then the ladder will…[Read more]

Section 6 – Gates and Ladders (Stanzas 66-78)

66-Help Nature and work on with her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance.

Cultivate, I say, and neglect nothing. Only remember, all the while you tend and water, that you are impudently usurping the tasks of Nature herself. Having usurped her work, you must carry it…[Read more]

We’ve finished the 5th section (Stanzas 56-65) which essentially deals with the heady business of the Higher Self conquering the lower self, which in Christian mysticism is called the path of purification.
Ere thy Soul’s mind can understand, the bud of personality must be crushed out, the worm of sense destroyed past resurrection. (57)

There w…[Read more]

63-Kill out desire; but if thou killest it take heed lest from the dead it should again arise.

Kill out desire of life. (Light on the Path 1, 2)

In fact, to have lost the power to wound, implies that the snake is not only scotched, but killed. When it is merely stupefied or lulled to sleep it awakes again and the disciple uses his knowledge and…[Read more]

59-Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.
60-Let not the fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer’s eye.
61-But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is…[Read more]

I went into a bit of a digression on the Dweller on the Threshold, however I do not foresee introducing any lengthy texts for the remainder of this 5th section.

56-The Self of matter and the SELF of Spirit can never meet. One of the twain must disappear; there is no place for both.

That (higher being) which is to all creatures a night, is to…[Read more]

T. Subba Row described the image of the Dweller as being similar to that of the battle described in the Bhagavad Gita. He wrote:
Philosophically it is the great battle in which the human Spirit has to fight against the lower passions in the physical body. Many of our readers have probably heard about the so-called ‘Dweller on the Threshold,’ so…[Read more]

“From the remotest antiquity mankind as a whole have always been convinced of the existence of a personal spiritual entity within the personal physical man. This inner entity was more or less divine, according to its proximity to the crown. The closer the union the more serene man’s destiny, the less dangerous the external conditions. This belief…[Read more]

We’ve made it through the first half of Fragment I. Hosannah! I think it’s been an interesting trajectory thus far, with many texts giving insight into this work coming to light. We began almost three months ago, so perhaps we can quicken the pace a bit, I will try to aim at posting 10 stanzas a week, although if the discussion should lead to lim…[Read more]

50- When the six (27) are slain and at the Master’s feet are laid, then is the pupil merged into the ONE (28), becomes that ONE and lives therein.
(27). The six principles; meaning when the lower personality is destroyed and the inner individuality is merged into and lost in the Seventh or Spirit.
(28). The disciple is one with Brahmâ or the…[Read more]

Below are some similar passages from some Yoga Upanishads:
It (Nada, sound) is (begun to be heard as) of ten kinds. The first is Chini (like the sound of that word); the second is Chini-Chini; the third is the sound of bell; the fourth is that of conch; the fifth is that of Tantiri (lute); the sixth is that sound of Tala (cymbals); the seventh is…[Read more]

41-Before thou set’st thy foot upon the ladder’s upper rung, the ladder of the mystic sounds, thou hast to hear the voice of thy inner GOD* in seven manners.
[*The Higher SELF.]
42-The first is like the nightingale’s sweet voice chanting a song of parting to its mate.
43-The second comes as the sound of a silver cymbal of the Dhyânis, awakening…[Read more]

And so we come to the end of another stanza (Slokas 22-40), which saw us enter the three halls, the hall of ignorance (physical plane), the hall of learning (astral plane), and the hall of wisdom (spiritual plane) and their relation to the four avasthas , the seven lokas and the Vale of Bliss. We learn that: ‘’The WISE ONES tarry not in ple…[Read more]

38- Then from the heart that Power shall rise into the sixth, the middle region, the place between thine eyes, when it becomes the breath of the ONE-SOUL, the voice which filleth all, thy Master’s voice.

A very mystical sloka – referring apparently to the the sixth chakra, the Ajna or to the third eye or eye of Shiva, called the eye of Dangma i…[Read more]

On breaking the silver thread:
“From the First-Born ( primitive, or the first man) the Thread between the Silent Watcher and his Shadow becomes more strong and radiant with every change (re-incarnation) (a)”. …. the “Watcher” and his “Shadows”-the latter numbering as many as there are re-incarnations for the monad-are one. The Watcher, or the d…[Read more]

Is the ‘death of the soul’ something that concerns/affects the only the individual? Might it be something that could take place in a group, an organisation, a religion, a nation, or even a Race? Are there wider implications for this doctrine that we don’t normally consider?

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‘’but the Raj Yogi, without using either of these methods, has a way of rousing the Kundalini, The means the Raj Yogi employs belong to the mysteries of initiation’’ (T. Subba Row – Notes on Hatha Yoga – Theosophist 1886 v8 December p.138).

Perhaps what Subba Row was referring to can be glimpsed in the following by Bhavani Shankar:

The Doct…[Read more]