H. P.

BLAVATSKY ON THE BHAGAVAD GITA

“Bhagavad-gita (Sk.). Lit., “the Lord’s Song”. A portion of the Mahabharata, the great epic poem of India.
It contains a dialogue wherein Krishna – the “Charioteer” – and Arjuna, his Chela, have a discussion upon
the highest spiritual philosophy. The work is pre-eminently occult or esoteric.”
– The Theosophical Glossary, p. 56

“Like the Book of Job very wrongly incorporated into the Bible, since it is the allegorical and double
record of the Egyptian sacred mysteries in the temples and of the disembodied Soul appearing before
Osiris, and the Hall of Amenti, to be judged according to its Karma – the Gita is a record of the ancient
teachings during the Mystery of Initiation.”
– Footnote to an article titled “Bhagavad-Gita”

“We shall begin this work by expounding, so far as permitted, the esoteric meaning of the text of the
Bhagavad Gita. … Some of our readers, especially Hindus, will be doubtless astonished to discover the
almost perfect identity between the concealed sense of this immortal epic and the Arhat Tibetan
Doctrine, which has been in part expounded in the Fragments and other writings.”
– Our Fifth Year

“Since the birth of the Theosophical Society and the publication of “Isis”, it is being repeated daily that
all the Esoteric Wisdom of the ages lies concealed in the Vedas, the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. Yet,
unto the day of the first appearance of “Esoteric Buddhism” [i.e. the book of this title, in which A.P.
Sinnett presented teachings given to him in letters by the Master K.H. and the Master M.], and for long
centuries back, these doctrines remained a sealed letter to all but a few initiated Brahmins who had
always kept the spirit of it to themselves. The allegorical text was taken literally by the educated and the
uneducated, the first laughing secretly at the fables and the latter falling into superstitious worship, and
owing to the variety of the interpretations – splitting into numerous sects. … Most undeniably, not
“nearly all” – but positively all the doctrines given in “Esoteric Buddhism” and far more yet untouched,
are to be found in the Gita, and not only there but in a thousand more known or unknown MSS. of
Hindu sacred writings.”
– The Bhagavad-Gita and Esoteric Buddhism

“As regards the revival of Oriental literature, the whole press of India, Ceylon, and Japan unqualifiedly
gives us the credit of having done more in that direction than any other agency of modern times. We
have not only helped to revive in India the ancient Tols, or pandit-schools of Sanskrit literature and
philosophy, and to reawaken reverence for the class of real Yogis, or saintly devotees, but we have
created a demand for reprints and translations of ancient Sanskrit classics, which is being met by the
frequent issues of works of this class at Calcutta, Bombay, Benares, Lucknow, Lahore, Madras, and other
Indian literary centres. Among the most important are the Vedas, Bhagavad-Gita, the writings of
Shankara, Patanjali, and other renowned Aryan philosophers and mystics. The Asiatic people have
publicly testified most unqualifiedly their gratitude and respect to us for what we have done on the lines
of the second of our declared objects. Nor should it be overlooked that the prevalent interest in
Theosophy and mystical Oriental philosophy in general, which the most casual observer is forced to see
throughout Europe and America, is directly or indirectly the result of our society’s activity.”
– Recent Progress in Theosophy

OVERLEAF: HPB ON ADI SHANKARACHARYA

 H. P. BLAVATSKY ON ADI SHANKARACHARYA
“… Buddha’s grand successor, Shankaracharya.”
– “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. xliv
“Shankaracharya the greatest of the Esoteric masters of India …”
– “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 86
“Sri Shankaracharya, the greatest Initiate living in the historical ages, wrote many a Bhashya on
the Upanishads. But his original treatises, as there are reasons to suppose, have not yet fallen into the hands
of the Philistines, for they are too jealously preserved in his maths (monasteries, mathams). And there are
still weightier reasons to believe that the priceless Bhashyas (Commentaries) on the esoteric doctrine of the
Brahmins, by their greatest expounder, will remain for ages yet a dead letter to most of the Hindus, except
the Smartava Brahmins. This sect, founded by Shankaracharya, (which is still very powerful in Southern India)
is now almost the only one to produce students who have preserved sufficient knowledge to comprehend
the dead letter of the Bhashyas. The reason of this is that they alone, I am informed, have occasionally real
Initiates at their head in their mathams, as for instance, in the “Sringa-giri,” in the Western Ghauts of
Mysore. On the other hand, there is no sect in that desperately exclusive caste of the Brahmins, more
exclusive than is the Smartava; and the reticence of its followers to say what they may know of the Occult
sciences and the esoteric doctrine, is only equalled by their pride and learning.”
– “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 271-272
“The followers of one of the greatest minds that ever appeared on Earth, the Adwaita Vedantins are
called Atheists, because they regard all save Parabrahm, the secondless, or Absolute Reality – as an illusion.
Yet the wisest Initiates came from their ranks, as also the greatest Yogis.”
– “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 522
“But it is simply this: every “Round” brings about a new development and even an entire change in the
mental, psychic, spiritual and physical constitution of man, all these principles evoluting on an ever ascending
scale. Thence it follows that those persons who, like Confucius and Plato, belonged psychically, mentally and
spiritually to the higher planes of evolution, were in our Fourth Round as the average man will be in the Fifth
Round, whose mankind is destined to find itself, on this scale of Evolution, immensely higher than is our
present humanity. Similarly Gautama Buddha – Wisdom incarnate – was still higher and greater than all the
men we have mentioned, who are called Fifth Rounders, while Buddha and Shankaracharya are termed Sixth
Rounders, allegorically.”
– “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 162
“The “heel of Achilles” of orthodox Brahmanism is the Adwaita philosophy, whose followers are called by the
pious “Buddhists in disguise”; as that of orthodox Buddhism is Northern mysticism, as represented by the
disciples of the philosophies of Aryasanga (the Yogacharya School) and Mahayana, who are twitted in their
turn by their correligionists as “Vedantins in disguise.” The esoteric philosophy of both these can be but one
if carefully analysed and compared, as Gautama Buddha and Shankaracharya are most closely connected, if
one believes tradition and certain esoteric teachings. Thus every difference between the two will be found
one of form rather than of substance.”
– “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 637
“Thus, fifty odd years after his death “the great Teacher” [i.e. Gautama Buddha] having refused full
Dharmakaya and Nirvana, was pleased, for purposes of Karma and philanthropy, to be reborn. … He was
reborn as Shankara, the greatest Vedantic teacher of India, … Thus it is averred that Gautama Buddha was
reincarnated in Shankaracharya … According to Sayanacharya, the great commentator on the Vedas, he is to
be held as an Avatara, or direct incarnation of Shiva – the Logos, the Seventh Principle in Nature – Himself. In
the Secret Doctrine Shri Shankaracharya is regarded as the abode – for the thirty-two years of his mortal life
– of a Flame, the highest of the manifested Spiritual Beings, one of the Primordial Seven Rays.”
– “The Mystery of Buddha”
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