Origin of Mind

It is a fundamental principle of occultism that life and consciousness are present inall beings and things. H.P. Blavatsky writes: 'Everything in the Universe, throughoutall its kingdoms, is CONSCIOUS: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind andon its own plane of perception. . . . There is no such thing as either "dead" or "blind"matter, as there is no "Blind" or "Unconscious" Law.' (SD 1:274) However,consciousness may be present in many different degrees of activity or latency.

The first three and a half root-races of humanity in the present, fourth round of theearth's evolution are said to have been intellectually dormant. The fire ofselfconsciousness was kindled in nascent humanity by the incarnation of themânasaputras (or 'sons of mind'), advanced beings from past manvantaras, towardsthe end of the third, Lemurian root-race.

To understand exactly what the mânasaputras are and do, it is useful to first considerthe various parts of the human constitution. A human being is essentially a stream ofconsciousness and vitality pouring forth from the divine monadic essence. On eachplane, or subplane, there are knots or foci in this stream of consciousness, eachsuch knot being a monad, or consciousness-centre, acting though a suitable vehicle,or soul, and possessing an ego, in which its evolutionary experiences are stored up.The monads in man may be classified as follows:

divine or galactic monad (âtman)spiritual or solar monad (buddhi)mânasic, higher human, or chain monad (buddhi-manas)psychic, lower human, or globe monad (kâma-manas)beast monad (kâma-prâna)astral monad (prâna-linga-sharîra)physical monad (sthûla-sharîra)

Man is therefore a composite entity, and 'has within him a divinity, a Buddha orChristos, a Mânasaputra, a human being, an astral entity; and he is housed in anastral-vital-physical body' (FSO 446).

Human beings are essentially human monads, and at this stage of our evolution,lower human monads. Since each monad in our constitution is sevenfold, we canrepresent the human constitution in the form of a cross. The upright represents theseries of ascending monads, while the horizontal represents the seven principles orqualities of each monad, and in our particular case, the globe monad.

Divine monad|

Spiritual monad|

Mânasic monad|

Lower human monadâtman---buddhi---manas---kâma---prâna---linga-sharîra---sthûla-sharîra

|Beast monad

|Astral monad

|Physical monad

The seven principles of each monad may also be pictured as seven rungs leadingfrom one monad to the next. At present our consciousness tends to be centred in thekâma-mânasic part of the lower human monad. When we have raised ourconsciousness to the buddhic and then âtmic part of the lower human monad, thismonad will have become a mânasic monad and will then embody in the next, higherkingdom.

Above the human kingdom there are three kingdoms of dhyâni-chohans: the greatones, the lower gods, and the gods. There is probably a close connection betweenthese three superhuman kingdoms and the mânasic, spiritual, and divine monadsrespectively. G. de Purucker states that the mânasaputras are egos from the moon-chain which attained mânasaputric dhyâni-chohanship when the moon-chain wentinto pralaya (Dia 3:30). Since all three dhyâni-chohanic classes have developed theirmânasic faculties to the full, they may all be regarded, in one sense, asmânasaputras.

Where amidst the many monads in man is our own mânasaputra? G. de Puruckerpoints out that there are in fact two mânasaputras within us: our own individualmânasaputra whose powers are not yet fully evolved, and the mânasaputra whichawakened us in the third root-race (Dia 3:35, 53). Our own individual mânasaputra isthe higher manas or buddhi-manas of the lower human monad (Dia 3:155), while themânasaputra which inflamed us is the mânasic or higher human monad (Dia 2:280;3:210-11). The two mânasaputra are usually children of the same parent star.

The close karmic bond between the two mânasaputras becomes clear if we considerwhat we, the animals, and the mânasaputras were on the moon-chain, the formerembodiment of the earth-chain. The average and higher humans of the presentearth-chain were the beast monads in the humans on the moon. At the end of theseventh round on the moon-chain these human monads entered the lower dhyâni-chohanic kingdom and therefore became mânasic monads. These are themânasaputras which awakened our minds. In other words, when our mânasaputraswere human monads on the moon, we were their beast monads. The beast monadsin the higher lunar animals are now our own beast monads, and, if we make thegrade, we shall act as their inflaming mânasaputras on the next embodiment of theearth-chain, when they will have become lower human monads (earth pitris), and we,higher human monads or mânasic monads (Dia 3:358-9; SOP 190).

The 'inflaming' mânasaputra is sometimes referred to as our spiritual soul or highesthuman soul, and our own human soul may be regarded as its ray or projection (Dia1:198; SOP 468). Our human souls are 'the children of the Mânasaputras, whosedestiny it is to call them to selfconsciousness' (Dia 1:202). The mânasaputras areboth ourselves and not ourselves. Although they are part of our constitution, they arenot we, the lower human egos, but our higher natures which brought our egos forth;they are in fact a separate monad (Dia 3:360). It was their karmic duty to sacrificethemselves by overenlightening the lower human part of us and helping to raise it totheir own high level. The mânasaputras continue to overenlighten us, but are alsoevolving in their own high sphere, presumably the janar-loka (BCW 12:Diagram V).In most cases they are scarcely conscious at the present time that they are thedirecting geniuses of some human being (Dia 3:39).

The 'inflaming' mânasaputra may be called our higher ego (Dia 2:296), though thehigher human ego may also be regarded as an essential part of ourselves (i.e. of thelower human monad) which is not yet awakened (Dia 3:34). Strictly speaking, weshould draw a distinction between the reembodying ego (or chain ego) and thereincarnating ego (or globe ego) (FSO 564-5; Dia 3:336-7). We could then call the'inflaming' mânasaputra the reembodying ego and our own inner mânasaputra thereincarnating ego. However this distinction is not always made, and the two termsare often used interchangeably. On one occasion, G. de Purucker says that thesleeping human soul was awakened by the mânasaputras, enabling it to evolve theegoic reincarnating faculty and become a reincarnating ego, and that the destiny ofthe reincarnating ego is to become a mânasaputra itself (Dia 2:468-9). HPB simplysays that 'our Egos, the Principle which reincarnates, are called in The SecretDoctrine, the Mânasaputra' (BCW 12:607fn).

Likewise, the higher human monad, or spiritual-intellectual monad, and the lowerhuman monad, or human-animal monad, are sometimes referred to collectively asthe human monad. On one occasion, for instance, it is said that an animal monaddevelops into a human monad, then into a mânasaputra or solar monad, and laterinto a divine monad (Dia 1:324). This would imply that the human monad is thechain-monad and the mânasaputra the solar monad, but elsewhere both thesepoints are denied (Dia 2:461; 2:296). The varying meanings given to these terms areno doubt intended to prevent us from allowing our ideas to crystallize!

Just as there are two mânasaputras in us, so there are two inner gods: the divinemonad (the god of the upright), and the as yet unevolved âtmic part of the humanmonad (the god of the horizontal). G. de Purucker explains that when the neophyteundergoing initiation cries: 'O god of me, why hast thou forsaken me!' this refers tothe fact that the human ego must face the trials of initiation alone. But the second cryon the cross: 'O my divinity, how dost thou glorify me!' is uttered when the humanego has discovered the divinity at the heart of its own human monadic essence. Ourtask is therefore to discover the divinity of the horizontal as well as of the vertical(Dia 3:261-7).

At the very beginning of the fourth round, the human kingdom on this globe wasrepresented by a relatively small number of shishtas. G. de Purucker writes: 'Theybegan to feel the impulse of the inflowing of egos from the Third Round, coming fromGlobe C on to this Globe D. With each new impulse, the Shishtas in the bodiesbegan to prepare more freely to provide the bodies for the coming stream ofreembodying egos or mânasaputras. Hence, when the proper time came, theShishtas had become millions instead of being, let us say, a few thousands. Then,among these Shishtas, the incoming Mânasaputras began to pick each one the bodymost closely allied to it by karmic destiny, and began to overshadow it little by little,but progressively more as the ages advanced; much as the incoming mind orReincarnating Ego reincarnates little by little in the growing child.' (Dia 3:188)

This means that the mânasaputras actually 'descended' before the third root-race.However, it was only in the latter part of the third root-race (beginning in the fifthsubrace) that the psychophysical constitution of the bulk of humanity wassophisticated enough to begin to manifest our latent mental faculties and theawakening of our minds could truly begin. This process is continuing even today, atdifferent rates according to our karmic background. However, what happened in thethird root-race was a recapitulation of what took place in the third round (beginning,presumably, in the fifth root-race). But even in the first and second rounds, therewere selfconscious 'humans', in whom the mânasaputras had incarnated. These

must have been those who had reached the very highest human stage by the closeof the seventh round on the moon.

The mânasaputras which called our latent mental powers into selfconscious activityare dhyâni-chohans of the lowest class (SOP 176). However, the whole process wasstarted off by even higher mânasaputras, dhyâni-chohans who were alreadymânasaputras on the moon-chain (SOP 190, 468). 'They were the Mahâtmans onthe moon become gods when the moon men became dhyânized' (SOP 267). It wasthese beings which incarnated among the men of the third root-race as the divineteachers and guides. They taught the arts and sciences, founded the first mysteryschools, and struck the keynotes of spiritual wisdom. When their work wasaccomplished, they returned to their own sublime spheres. These mânasaputrasmust have been dhyâni-chohans of the higher two classes (Dia 3:360). We know, atany rate, that the bulk of the lowest dhyâni-chohanic life-wave is just opening its firstroot-race on globe C (SOP 196; Dia 2:358).

How do the mânasaputras accomplish their work? G. de Purucker says that themânasaputra does not literally 'come down' into the flesh. '"Incarnation" and"descent" when so used are figures of speech. What actually happens is that theMânasaputra surrounds, incloses, with its own aura, with its vital atmosphere, thesoul which it is its karmic duty to "awaken".' (Dia 2:470) The mânasaputra infused aportion of its own spiritual-intellectual fire, its own psycho-vital life into the as yetsleeping, undeveloped human soul, just as the fire penetrates into the molecules ofgold and makes it glow molten (Dia 2:471). The process may also be likened to thekindling of an unlighted candle by the flame of a burning candle.

De Purucker says that the mânasaputras 'quickened and enlightened in us theManas-manas of our manas-septenary, because they themselves are typicallymânasic in their essential characteristic or svabhâva. Their own essential or mânasicvibrations, so to say, could cause that essence of Manas in ourselves to vibrate insympathy, much as the sounding of a musical note will cause sympathetic responsein something like it, a similar note in other things.' (OG 99) In other words, the life-atoms composing the soul and aura of the mânasaputras evoked sympathetic(mânasic) vibrations in our own human soul.

Something similar takes place in the relationship between parents and children,teacher and pupil, master and chela. The child learns not only by instruction,example, and imitation, but also by the interchange of life-atoms, especially on theunseen levels of our constitution.

The human brain is a deposit of thought-fluid and therefore of the mânasic essencein the individual; it is 'the focus of the Mânasaputric influence working through thehuman Manas'. 'During the lifetime of the body, the life-atoms in the brain arecontinuously bathed with âkâsha; and it is through the âkâsha in the humanconstitution that the Mânasaputra works' (Dia 3:371). It is because of this connectionwith the Mânasaputric fluid that the life-atoms of the brain are the most ethereal inthe human body.

Every kingdom helps to advance the evolution of the kingdom below it. This, too,takes place by an exchange of life-atoms (SOP 176; FSO 620). Without this inspiringinfluence of the higher kingdoms, the pace of evolution would be desperately slow.But in reality, nature is interlinked in all its parts: 'From Gods to men, from Worlds toatoms, from a star to a rush-light, from the Sun to the vital heat of the meanestorganic being – the world of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose links

are all connected' (SD 1:604).

Abbreviations:BCW H.P. Blavatsky Collected WritingsDia Dialogues of G. de PuruckerFSO Fountain-Source of OccultismOG Occult Glossary (2nd ed.)SD The Secret DoctrineSOP Studies in Occult Philosophy

by David Pratt. November 1997. Last revised: May 2003.

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