Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00006)

May 31 2005

Do prophecies work?


ANOTHER THEOSOPHICAL PROPHECY


IN the first number of THE PATH was inserted a prophecy made from certain
books in India called Nadigrandhams, respecting the Society.

This called forth from the N.Y. Sun, that model of journalism, a long tirade
about the superficial knowledge which it claims pervades the Society on the
subject of oriental philosophy. Unfortunately for the learned editorial
writer in that paper, he never before heard of Nadigrandhams, which are
almost as common in India as the Sun is here, nor does he appear to know
what a Nadi may be, nor a Grandham, either.

But without trying to drag the daily press of this country into the path of
oriental knowledge, we will proceed to record another prophecy or two.

The first will seem rather bold, but is placed far enough in the future to
give it some value as a test. It is this:--The Sanscrit language will one
day be again the language used by man upon this earth, first in science and
in metaphysics, and later on in common life. Even in the lifetime of the
Sun's witty writer, he will see the terms now preserved in that noblest of
languages creeping into the literature and the press of the day, cropping up
in reviews, appearing in various books and treatises, until even such men as
he will begin perhaps to feel that they all along had been ignorantly
talking of "thought" when they meant "cerebration," and of "philosophy" when
they meant "philology," and that they had been airing a superficial
knowledge gained from cyclopędias of the mere lower powers of intellect,
when in fact they were totally ignorant of what is really elementary
knowledge. 

So this new language cannot be English, not even the English acquired by the
reporter of daily papers who ascends fortuitously to the editorial
rooms--but will be one which is scientific in all that makes a language, and
has been enriched by ages of study of metaphysics and the true science.

The secondary prophecy is nearer our day, and may be interesting.--It is
based upon cyclic changes. This is a period of such a change, and we refer
to the columns of the N. Y. Sun of the time when the famous brilliant
sunsets were chronicled and discussed not long ago for the same
prognostication. No matter about dates; they are not to be given; but facts
may be. This glorious country, free as it is, will not long be calm:

Unrest is the word for this cycle. The people will rise. For what, who can
tell? The statesman who can see for what the uprising will be might take
measures to counteract. But all your measures can not turn back the iron
will of fate. And even the City of New York will not be able to point its
finger at Cincinnati and St. Louis. 

Let those whose ears can hear the whispers, and the noise of the gathering
clouds, of the future, take notice; let them read, if they know how, the
physiognomy of the United States, whereon the mighty hand of nature has
traced the furrows to indicate the character of the moral storms that will
pursue their course no matter what the legislation may be. But enough.
Theosophists can go on unmoved, for they know that as Krishna said to
Arjuna, these bodies are not the real man, and that "no one has ever been
non-existent nor shall any of us ever cease to exist."

Path, May, 1886
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ARCHAEOLOGY: Any more along these lines?


AN ANCIENT TELEPHONE


It has been the custom of many people to belittle the ancients by assuming
that they knew but little of mechanics, certainly not so much as we do. The
builders of the pyramids have been described by modern guessers as making
their calculations and carrying on the most wonderful engineering operations
with the aid of pools of water for obtaining levels and star angles: they
could not, it was assumed, have instruments except the most crude. 

So also the old Chinese were mere rude workmen, although it is well known
that they discovered the precession of the equinoxes over 2,000 years ago.
Of late, evidence has been slowly coming out that tends to show the ancients
as perhaps having as much, if not more, than we have. So the following from
the New York Evening Sun, an influential daily paper, will be of interest.
It says, on May 31, 1894:

An English officer by the name of Harrington has discovered in India a
working telephone between two native temples which stand over a mile apart.
The testimony of the Hindus, which, it is said, is backed up by documentary
proof, shows that the system has been in operation for over 2,000 years.
Scientists engaged in excavating the ruins of ancient Egyptian temples have
repeatedly found unmistakable evidence of wire communication between some of
the temples of the earlier Egyptian dynasties.

It will probably be found, in the course of time, that the oft-repeated
statements of H. P. Blavatsky that the ancients had all of our arts and
mechanical devices were true. She asserted that they had flying machines. 

In Buddhist books is a story of Buddha which refers to a flying machine or
mechanical bird used in a former life of the Lord, and Indian tradition
speaks also of air walking machines. Reading this item in the newspaper
reminds me too of a conversation I had with H. P. Blavatsky in New York
before the phonograph came out, in which she said that some Indian friends
of hers had a machine by which they spoke with each other over distances of
miles with great ease. 

Perhaps when the great West is convinced that the old Aryans had mechanical
contrivances equaling our own, it will be ready to lead a readier ear than
now to the philosophies the East has so long held in keeping.

Path, July, 1894
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I wonder?


Dallas