Confluence of opposites

Front matter

$ ♦Permit me to show you the things of tcauty and $ vaitK in voiir own faith/— Author's r<qtust. | iCM

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Confluence - - - '&>

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Masonic Pavment — The light and shadows of life that go to make up what is termed chequered existence.

Tracing Board — The tabula rasa of a pure and virgin heart upon which are drawn lines and designs for the raising of the Spiritual Edifice.

Blazing Star — The emblem of Pure Spirit and Divinity.

Geometry — The science of all sciences which a sees God behind the Circle and Triangle. Those who can penetrate its intellectual mysteries will understand the geometrical point as representing a given disposition in the state of inaction. A symbolic right line is duty persisted in, uninterrupted pleasure, happiness and so forth. As regards the sym* bolic right angle, the perfect sincerity of one right line to another is as the line of that angle, the line of duty being radius. An acute angle is injustice. A perfect junction between sincerity and duty forms justice, and is equal to an angle of ninety degrees. A symbolic perpendicular signifies fortitude, prudence, temperance, while a symbolic solid 'is the whole system of Divine Laws as existing in practice' " (The New Encyclo. of Freemasonry Vol. i. pp. 453 — 454). A triangle, of course, is the emblem of Trinity or of the Triple Jewels of Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct.

I think I must now turn to that branch of the secret doctrine which hides itself under the garb of alchemy.

Here also we find the adaptation of the expressionto a special terminology appertaining to a human science concerned with turning baser metals into silver and gold. The interchangeability of terms is pivoted on the common aspiration to turn worthless stuff into the one that is the most precious. As the alchemy of the worldly-minded seeks to transmute the brass in the crucible into the royal gold, so does the Alchemy of Life aspire to transform the base born sinner into a pure Divinity, and as gold is free from liability to corrosion and deterioration, so is Divinity eternally above misadventure, misfortune and mishap. In the rite of the Black Eagle these considerations have been elaborated into a catechism, and it is explained that gold is not a metal, physically speaking, seeing that it is all spirit and is an emblem of Divinity because it is incapable of corruption (The New Encyclo. of Freemasonry, Vol. ii, page 350). The " universal dissolvent" which alchemists sought every where is the Divine Love, the unwavering impassioned attachment to the great Ideal of Perfection and Bliss which every soul itself becomes on regeneration by Faith. A. F. Waite has the following interesting note on the subject : —

" The old Alchemists used to seek what they termed paradoxically the Universal Dissolvent. By some who understood them literally they have been held up to ridicule for supposing that such a substance could be contained in a vial. There is, however, a gift in man which in its way is a universal dissolvent, by the operation of which all the externals are transmuted and — to prolong the alchemical illustration — the matter of hie work is found every where in the condition that he requires for the attainment of his mystical end. It is the gift of Divine Love He who is possessed of this faculty can and does act as his own initiator until God becomes the bierophant, and he finds within the compass of bis own being a hidden sanctuary, in which the great and last secrets are imparted" (The New Encyclo. of Freemasonry Vol. ii. page 204).

PRINTED BY K. P. DAR AT THE ALLAHABAD l,AW JOURNAL PRESS, AM.AHABAD.

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ABBREVIATIONS USED.

ERE.=The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.

PHB.=The Permanent History of Bharatavarsha.

SBE.=The Sacred Books of the East.

SBH.=The Sacred Books of the Hindus.

SBJ.=The Sacred Books of the Jainas.

SSP.=The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy by Max Muller.

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Foreword

The series of lectures now in the reader's hand is the outcome of many years* patieut and persistent study of the causes of diversity and difference among the prevailing religions of the world. In presenting them to the enquiring public I have to announce the momentous discovery of a secret language or script that will revolutionize religious belief and change the very complexion of thought. It has, indeed, been long surmised that the Bibles of the world contain pure personifications of diverse phywical forces and phenomena, e. clouds, rain, spirit of vegetation, fire and the like, but the supposition does not satisfy tflhe prying intellect and has failed to command general acquiescence which it should have done if true. Yet it is obvious from the number aud nature of the discrepancies alone that are to be found in them that the scriptures of the world could uot and were not inteuded to be read historically. The discovery that has now been made will show that the Vedas, the Qur*ao, the Zend A vesta and, indeed, all other ancient mythological scriptures are composed in one single language notwithstanding the oatward diversity of the alphabets and tongues iu which thejr are couched. We may call this secret language Pictokrit to distinguish it from t'rakrit, the people's tongae, and from Sanskrit, the language of the learned The significance of the term Pictokrit lies in the fact that it gives expression to the most sublime of human thought in piotorial form, its special merit beiug its capacity to embody whole philosophies in a single picture or panel of paintings. Some of the matter dealt with here has already appeared in my earlier work, the Key of Knowledge, and a small portion of it was incorporated in the Appendix to

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the Practical Path published by me in the y^ar 1916. The present work, composed So the form of lectures, mm* op the resnlt of the whole investigation, in small compass, and is sent oat in the hope that it will at least stimulate scientific research. It is a matter of no small satisfaction to me that I am able to offer the work at a price which should be within the reach of one and all.

It only remaius to be added that these lectures are connected with one another after a plan, and should be read in the order in which they are arranged*

Habdoi : 8 1st March, 1921.