In closing the Sixth Stanza, H.P. Blavatsky introduced the subject of the "Wondrous Being." This Wondrous Being is the "Root-Base" for the Fourth-Round cycle throughout the entire Earth-chain of globes. In the life cycle of a planetary chain there are twelve Rounds. In each Round the evolving entities belonging to a planetary chain transition through these twelve globes: D', C', B', A, B, C, D, E, F, G, F', and E', per G. de Purucker's diagram in Fountain-Source on page 259. When considering only seven of these Rounds, the human life wave is currently in its Fourth Round. Streams of consciousness from this Wondrous Being flow through the human identity on every globe in the Fourth Round. This is the Dhyani-Buddha of the Fourth Round for the Earth-chain. In The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett on page 243, this Wondrous Being corresponds to Amitabha. Though he came over from the Third Round in the First Root-Race of the Fourth Round, he more fully incarnated in the Third Root-Race of the Fourth Round.
In addition, there is another Wondrous Being for globe D (our current globe) of the Earth-chain. This second Wondrous Being corresponds to Avalokitesvara in The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky on page 243. This Dhyani-Bodhisattva more particularly assists the evolving entities of our globe.
There is also a Wondrous Being for the Fifth Root-Race of the Fourth Round. Each Round consists of twelve Root-Races. When considering only seven of these Root-Races, the human life wave is currently in the Fifth Root-Race. This third Wondrous Being corresponds to Gautama in The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky on page 243. Gautama is the Manushya Buddha of the Fifth Root-Race who incarnated in human form around 563 BC. This statement that he is the Manushya Buddha of the Fifth Root-Race may seem to contradict H.P. Blavatsky's placement of him as fourth in her outline on page 243. But notice that she sub-labelled Avalokitesvara as "end" of the "4th Race." In a general way, a Root-Race meets its end near the mid-point of the subsequent Root-Race. Since the human life wave is currently nearing its mid-point in the Fourth Sub-Race of the Fifth Root-Race, this means that Gautama Buddha can be spoken of either as the "4th" or "5th."
Therefore, the first Wondrous Being is the Maha-Chohan of the Fourth Round, the second Wondrous Being is the Maha-Chohan of Earth globe D (the fourth), and the third Wondrous Being is the Maha-Chohan of the Fifth Root-Race. In some way, each one of these Wondrous Beings can be referred to as the Maha-Chohan of the Theosophical Society. The term "Maha-Chohan" simply means "The Great Lord." For example, G. de Purucker, in The Dialogues of G. de Purucker 1:147, referred to the "Buddha within Gautama" as the "spiritual Maha-Chohan" of the Fifth Root-Race of "our own Order." But in the December 1947 "Roundtable Talk" in The Theosophical Forum Colonel Arthur L. Conger noted that, in a particular reference to the "Khubilgan" by Mahatma K.H., the term "Maha-Chohan" did not pertain to Gautama Buddha but to an entirely different individual. The subject is complicated. As G. de Purucker remarked in Fundamentals on page 306 there is a fourth Wondrous Being as a "superterrestrial bodhisattva" whose force flows through a Manushya Buddha such as Gautama. Therefore, G. de Purucker checked himself in The Dialogues 3:447 by referring to the "Bodhisattvas of Compassion" (as opposed to the "Buddhas of Compassion") as the true "Teachers."
If one transposes these four Wondrous Beings that are enumerated in The Secret Doctrine 1:571-572 onto G. de Purucker's ordering of Earth's spiritual hierarchy as presented in Fundamentals on page 386, the subject becomes clearer. He enumerated the ranks of "glorious entities" marching upwards: Chelas, Masters, Masters of the Masters, Chohans, Maha-Chohans, Dhyani-Chohans, and Dhyani-Buddhas. The Wondrous Being of the Fourth Round is a Dhyani-Buddha, the Wondrous Being of the Earth globe is a Dhyani-Chohan, the Wondrous Being who is a superterrestrial Bodhisattva is a Maha-Chohan, and the Wondrous Being who is Gautama is a Chohan. Therefore, this superterrestrial Bodhisattva who lives at Sambhala is technically the Maha-Chohan of the Theosophical Society. G. de Purucker hinted at this when he emphasized the "spiritual Maha-Chohan of our Fifth Race" as the "inspiriting power of the Buddha Gautama" in The Dialogues 1:147; however, there is also a Maha-Chohan belonging to the Masters of the Masters. With this insight, the apparent contradiction between G. de Purucker and Colonel Arthur L. Conger is resolved.
Suffice to say, Gautama Buddha, to the extent that he mirrors these higher forces, is the "spiritual head of the Great White Lodge" and "in constant conference with the Mahatmas and Chohans," per The Dialogues 2:207. G.de Purucker explained Gautama Buddha's relation to the first Wondrous Being in Fundamentals on page 309, "His roots are the dhyani-buddha of this round, and the ray reaches him as a man through the celestial bodhisattva emanated by the dhyani-buddha, and also through the super terrestrial or superhuman bodhisattva in ultimate charge of our root-race. The Wondrous Being is here considered in his (or its) racial aspect." When Gautama Buddha was alive, it was the Dhyani-Buddha of Amitabha that suffused his interior; this infilling made a human buddha. When the buddhic part of him departed for nirvana, a human bodhisattva was left behind; this bodhisattvic part was suffused with the presence of the Dhyani-Bodhisattva of our Earth globe, per G. de Purucker's comments in Fundamentals on page 278. Therefore, Gautama partakes of the qualities of a Round Buddha, a Globe Bodhisattva, and a Manushya Buddha, and yet each one of these three evolving entities is a distinct individual.
The Dhyani-Buddha of the Fourth Round suffused Gautama Buddha's interior life with his own essence; he also infused his essence with the other Manushya Buddhas of the Root-Races. When these Manushya Buddhas attained Nirvana, the Dhyani-Bodhisattva of our Earth globe stepped in and suffused the human bodhisattva with his lifeblood. Thus, H.P. Blavatsky wrote that "after him" (meaning the disappearance of the Dhyani-Buddha of the Fourth Round, Third Root-Race) a "group of semi-divine and semi-human beings" emerged as the vehicle's for the "highest Dhyanis." All these "semi-divine and semi-human beings" are byproducts of the Dhyani-Buddha through the Dhyani-Bodhisattva. When the human life wave leaves Earth globe D for Earth globe E in millions upon millions of years (as G. de Purucker suggested in Studies on page 247), the Dhyani-Buddha of the Fourth Round will work through the Dhyani-Bodhisattva of globe E. This means that the Wondrous Being will have to be viewed slightly differently. That is, what makes the head of the Occult spiritual hierarchy (and therefore the head of the Theosophical Society) distinctive for any human life wave is determined by the Globe Bodhisattva. This is the reason why G. de Purucker talked about the "Dhyani-Chohan," as opposed to the Dhyani-Buddha, projecting its spiritual energies to form a link with the Arhats in Studies on page 251. He had distinguished the two categories earlier in Fundamentals on page 386. The Mahatmas and their Masters, as we think of them in the Theosophical Society, are offshoots of this combination of entities: the Dhyani-Buddha of the Round and the Dhyani-Bodhisattva of a globe.
H.P. Blavatsky discussed the "Arhats of the 'fire-mist' of the 7th rung" who are "but one remove from the Root-Base of their Hierarchy--the highest on Earth, and our Terrestrial chain" in relation to the Wondrous Being. These seven rungs refer to the seven-fold initiation process. In the Third Root-Race of the Fourth Round, these high-level initiates called down into manifestation the Wondrous Being as an Avatar who was waiting to be reborn. Once embodied, he surpassed them all, as the "Nameless One," the "Initiator," and the "GREAT SACRIFICE." He is called the "GREAT SACRIFICE" because he observes "the threshold of LIGHT" from "within the circle of Darkness" but will not cross since he has surpassed the initiation of the Autumnal Equinox. G. de Purucker explained in The Four Sacred Seasons on page 76 that he has renounced the "unspeakable glories that the Great Passing confers, and become vibrant spiritual energies in the world's life and all the the world's life contains." From one perspective, the Arhats had passed through the 4th initiation of the Winter Solstice when the candidate in flight with the genius of the Moon touches the portals of the Solar Sun, the 5th initiation when the candidate feels the Avalokitesvaric influence, the 6th initiation when the candidate implements the renunciatory influence of Avalokitesvara flowing through him, and the 7th initiation (usually at the Winter Solstice) when the candidate greets the Amitabha (the Paramatman) at the heart of a Solar Sun. But the Wondrous Being as the "GREAT SACRIFICE" underwent another initiation at the Autumnal Equinox to become the life-giving energies of the Fourth Round on the Earth-chain. So, he is mentioned as sitting on the "eighth plane of the ten" composing our hierarchy in Fundamentals on page 259. For our solar system, this means he ascended to the central point in the great primary darkness but refused to return on its light ray to the immaculate white disk. G. de Purucker wrote on page 231 that all these celestial planes experienced in the initiation process are a "correspondence in small of the kosmical One of the universal kosmical hierarchy of the solar system."
Sources:
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2019).
H.P. Blavatsky, The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1973).
A.L. Conger, "Roundtable Talk," The Theosophical Forum (December 1947).
G. de Purucker, The Dialogues of G. de Purucker (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1948).
G. de Purucker, The Four Sacred Seasons (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1979).
G. de Purucker, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1979).
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