Chapter 357

[←346]

One has to remember that, in the Hindû Philosophy, every differentiated unit is such only through the Cycles of Mâyâ, being one in its essence with the Supreme or One Spirit. Hence arises the seeming confusion and contradiction in the various Purânas, and at times in the same Purâna, about the same individual. Vishnu—as the many-formed Brahmâ, and as Brahma (neuter)—is one, and yet he is said to be all the twenty-eight Vyâsas.

“In every Dvâpara (or third) age, Vishnu, in the person of Vyâsa, divides the Veda, which is (properly, but) one, into many portions.... Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, in the Dvâpara age; and, consequently, eight and twenty Vyâsas have passed away.” (Vishnu Purâna, iii. 3; Wilson’s Trans., iii. 33, 34.) “[They who were all] in the form of Veda-Vyâsa; who were the Vyâsas of their respective eras.” (Ibid., loc. cit., p. 33.) “This world is Brahmâ, in Brahmâ, from Brahmâ ... nothing further to be known.” Then, again, in the Harivamsha: “There were (in the first Manvantara) seven celebrated sons of Vasishtha, who (in the third Manvantara) were sons of Brahmâ (i.e., Rishis), the illustrious progeny of Ûrjâ.” (Ibid., iii. 6, note.) This is plain: the Humanity of the First Manvantara is that of the seventh and of all the intermediate ones. The Mankind of the First Root-Race is the mankind of the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, etc. To the last it forms a cyclic and constant reïncarnation of the Monads belonging to the Dhyân Chohans of our Planetary Chain.