Origin of Mind

It is a fundamental principle of occultism that life and consciousness are present in all
beings and things. H.P. Blavatsky writes: 'Everything in the Universe, throughout all its
kingdoms, is CONSCIOUS: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its
own plane of perception. . . . There is no such thing as either "dead" or "blind" matter, as
there is no "Blind" or "Unconscious" Law.' (SD 1:274) However, consciousness may be
present in many different degrees of activity or latency.
The first three and a half root-races of humanity in the present, fourth round of the
earth's evolution are said to have been intellectually dormant. The fire of
selfconsciousness was kindled in nascent humanity by the incarnation of the
mnasaputras (or 'sons of mind'), advanced beings from past manvantaras, towards the
end of the third, Lemurian root-race.
To understand exactly what the mnasaputras are and do, it is useful to first consider
the various parts of the human constitution. A human being is essentially a stream of
consciousness and vitality pouring forth from the divine monadic essence. On each
plane, or subplane, there are knots or foci in this stream of consciousness, each such
knot being a monad, or consciousness-centre, acting though a suitable vehicle, or soul,
and possessing an ego, in which its evolutionary experiences are stored up. The
monads in man may be classified as follows:
divine or galactic monad
spiritual or solar monad
mnasic, higher human, or chain monad
psychic, lower human, or globe monad
beast monad
astral monad
physical monad

(tman)
(buddhi)
(buddhi-manas)
(kma-manas)
(kma-prna)
(prna-linga-sharra)
(sthla-sharra)

Man is therefore a composite entity, and 'has within him a divinity, a Buddha or Christos,
a Mnasaputra, a human being, an astral entity; and he is housed in an astral-vitalphysical body' (FSO 446).
Human beings are essentially human monads, and at this stage of our evolution, lower
human monads. Since each monad in our constitution is sevenfold, we can represent
the human constitution in the form of a cross. The upright represents the series of
ascending monads, while the horizontal represents the seven principles or qualities of
each monad, and in our particular case, the globe monad.
Divine monad
|
Spiritual monad
|
Mnasic monad
|

Lower human monad

tman---buddhi---manas---kma---prna---linga-sharra---sthla-sharra
|
Beast monad
|
Astral monad
|
Physical monad
The seven principles of each monad may also be pictured as seven rungs leading from
one monad to the next. At present our consciousness tends to be centred in the kmamnasic part of the lower human monad. When we have raised our consciousness to
the buddhic and then tmic part of the lower human monad, this monad will have
become a mnasic monad and will then embody in the next, higher kingdom.
Above the human kingdom there are three kingdoms of dhyni-chohans: the great ones,
the lower gods, and the gods. There is probably a close connection between these
three superhuman kingdoms and the mnasic, spiritual, and divine monads
respectively. G. de Purucker states that the mnasaputras are egos from the moonchain which attained mnasaputric dhyni-chohanship when the moon-chain went into
pralaya (Dia 3:30). Since all three dhyni-chohanic classes have developed their
mnasic faculties to the full, they may all be regarded, in one sense, as mnasaputras.
Where amidst the many monads in man is our own mnasaputra? G. de Purucker
points out that there are in fact two mnasaputras within us: our own individual
mnasaputra whose powers are not yet fully evolved, and the mnasaputra which
awakened us in the third root-race (Dia 3:35, 53). Our own individual mnasaputra is
the higher manas or buddhi-manas of the lower human monad (Dia 3:155), while the
mnasaputra which inflamed us is the mnasic or higher human monad (Dia 2:280;
3:210-11). The two mnasaputra are usually children of the same parent star.
The close karmic bond between the two mnasaputras becomes clear if we consider
what we, the animals, and the mnasaputras were on the moon-chain, the former
embodiment of the earth-chain. The average and higher humans of the present earthchain were the beast monads in the humans on the moon. At the end of the seventh
round on the moon-chain these human monads entered the lower dhyni-chohanic
kingdom and therefore became mnasic monads. These are the mnasaputras which
awakened our minds. In other words, when our mnasaputras were human monads on
the moon, we were their beast monads. The beast monads in the higher lunar animals
are now our own beast monads, and, if we make the grade, we shall act as their
inflaming mnasaputras on the next embodiment of the earth-chain, when they will have
become lower human monads (earth pitris), and we, higher human monads or mnasic
monads (Dia 3:358-9; SOP 190).
The 'inflaming' mnasaputra is sometimes referred to as our spiritual soul or highest
human soul, and our own human soul may be regarded as its ray or projection (Dia
1:198; SOP 468). Our human souls are 'the children of the Mnasaputras, whose
destiny it is to call them to selfconsciousness' (Dia 1:202). The mnasaputras are both
ourselves and not ourselves. Although they are part of our constitution, they are not we,
the lower human egos, but our higher natures which brought our egos forth; they are in
fact a separate monad (Dia 3:360). It was their karmic duty to sacrifice themselves by

overenlightening the lower human part of us and helping to raise it to their own high
level. The mnasaputras continue to overenlighten us, but are also evolving in their own
high sphere, presumably the janar-loka (BCW 12:Diagram V). In most cases they are
scarcely conscious at the present time that they are the directing geniuses of some
human being (Dia 3:39).
The 'inflaming' mnasaputra may be called our higher ego (Dia 2:296), though the
higher human ego may also be regarded as an essential part of ourselves (i.e. of the
lower human monad) which is not yet awakened (Dia 3:34). Strictly speaking, we should
draw a distinction between the reembodying ego (or chain ego) and the reincarnating
ego (or globe ego) (FSO 564-5; Dia 3:336-7). We could then call the 'inflaming'
mnasaputra the reembodying ego and our own inner mnasaputra the reincarnating
ego. However this distinction is not always made, and the two terms are often used
interchangeably. On one occasion, G. de Purucker says that the sleeping human soul
was awakened by the mnasaputras, enabling it to evolve the egoic reincarnating
faculty and become a reincarnating ego, and that the destiny of the reincarnating ego is
to become a mnasaputra itself (Dia 2:468-9). HPB simply says that 'our Egos, the
Principle which reincarnates, are called in The Secret Doctrine, the Mnasaputra' (BCW
12:607fn).
Likewise, the higher human monad, or spiritual-intellectual monad, and the lower human
monad, or human-animal monad, are sometimes referred to collectively as the human
monad. On one occasion, for instance, it is said that an animal monad develops into a
human monad, then into a mnasaputra or solar monad, and later into a divine monad
(Dia 1:324). This would imply that the human monad is the chain-monad and the
mnasaputra the solar monad, but elsewhere both these points are denied (Dia 2:461;
2:296). The varying meanings given to these terms are no doubt intended to prevent us
from allowing our ideas to crystallize!
Just as there are two mnasaputras in us, so there are two inner gods: the divine
monad (the god of the upright), and the as yet unevolved tmic part of the human
monad (the god of the horizontal). G. de Purucker explains that when the neophyte
undergoing initiation cries: 'O god of me, why hast thou forsaken me!' this refers to the
fact that the human ego must face the trials of initiation alone. But the second cry on the
cross: 'O my divinity, how dost thou glorify me!' is uttered when the human ego has
discovered the divinity at the heart of its own human monadic essence. Our task is
therefore to discover the divinity of the horizontal as well as of the vertical (Dia 3:261-7).
At the very beginning of the fourth round, the human kingdom on this globe was
represented by a relatively small number of shishtas. G. de Purucker writes: 'They
began to feel the impulse of the inflowing of egos from the Third Round, coming from
Globe C on to this Globe D. With each new impulse, the Shishtas in the bodies began to
prepare more freely to provide the bodies for the coming stream of reembodying egos
or mnasaputras. Hence, when the proper time came, the Shishtas had become
millions instead of being, let us say, a few thousands. Then, among these Shishtas, the
incoming Mnasaputras began to pick each one the body most closely allied to it by
karmic destiny, and began to overshadow it little by little, but progressively more as the
ages advanced; much as the incoming mind or Reincarnating Ego reincarnates little by
little in the growing child.' (Dia 3:188)
This means that the mnasaputras actually 'descended' before the third root-race.

However, it was only in the latter part of the third root-race (beginning in the fifth
subrace) that the psychophysical constitution of the bulk of humanity was sophisticated
enough to begin to manifest our latent mental faculties and the awakening of our minds
could truly begin. This process is continuing even today, at different rates according to
our karmic background. However, what happened in the third root-race was a
recapitulation of what took place in the third round (beginning, presumably, in the fifth
root-race). But even in the first and second rounds, there were selfconscious 'humans',
in whom the mnasaputras had incarnated. These must have been those who had
reached the very highest human stage by the close of the seventh round on the moon.
The mnasaputras which called our latent mental powers into selfconscious activity are
dhyni-chohans of the lowest class (SOP 176). However, the whole process was started
off by even higher mnasaputras, dhyni-chohans who were already mnasaputras on
the moon-chain (SOP 190, 468). 'They were the Mahtmans on the moon become gods
when the moon men became dhynized' (SOP 267). It was these beings which
incarnated among the men of the third root-race as the divine teachers and guides.
They taught the arts and sciences, founded the first mystery schools, and struck the
keynotes of spiritual wisdom. When their work was accomplished, they returned to their
own sublime spheres. These mnasaputras must have been dhyni-chohans of the
higher two classes (Dia 3:360). We know, at any rate, that the bulk of the lowest dhynichohanic life-wave is just opening its first root-race on globe C (SOP 196; Dia 2:358).
How do the mnasaputras accomplish their work? G. de Purucker says that the
mnasaputra does not literally 'come down' into the flesh. '"Incarnation" and "descent"
when so used are figures of speech. What actually happens is that the Mnasaputra
surrounds, incloses, with its own aura, with its vital atmosphere, the soul which it is its
karmic duty to "awaken".' (Dia 2:470) The mnasaputra infused a portion of its own
spiritual-intellectual fire, its own psycho-vital life into the as yet sleeping, undeveloped
human soul, just as the fire penetrates into the molecules of gold and makes it glow
molten (Dia 2:471). The process may also be likened to the kindling of an unlighted
candle by the flame of a burning candle.
De Purucker says that the mnasaputras 'quickened and enlightened in us the Manasmanas of our manas-septenary, because they themselves are typically mnasic in their
essential characteristic or svabhva. Their own essential or mnasic vibrations, so to
say, could cause that essence of Manas in ourselves to vibrate in sympathy, much as
the sounding of a musical note will cause sympathetic response in something like it, a
similar note in other things.' (OG 99) In other words, the life-atoms composing the soul
and aura of the mnasaputras evoked sympathetic (mnasic) vibrations in our own
human soul.
Something similar takes place in the relationship between parents and children, teacher
and pupil, master and chela. The child learns not only by instruction, example, and
imitation, but also by the interchange of life-atoms, especially on the unseen levels of
our constitution.
The human brain is a deposit of thought-fluid and therefore of the mnasic essence in
the individual; it is 'the focus of the Mnasaputric influence working through the human
Manas'. 'During the lifetime of the body, the life-atoms in the brain are continuously
bathed with ksha; and it is through the ksha in the human constitution that the
Mnasaputra works' (Dia 3:371). It is because of this connection with the Mnasaputric

fluid that the life-atoms of the brain are the most ethereal in the human body.
Every kingdom helps to advance the evolution of the kingdom below it. This, too, takes
place by an exchange of life-atoms (SOP 176; FSO 620). Without this inspiring
influence of the higher kingdoms, the pace of evolution would be desperately slow. But
in reality, nature is interlinked in all its parts: 'From Gods to men, from Worlds to atoms,
from a star to a rush-light, from the Sun to the vital heat of the meanest organic being
the world of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose links are all connected'
(SD 1:604).
Abbreviations:
BCW H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings
Dia
Dialogues of G. de Purucker
FSO Fountain-Source of Occultism
OG
Occult Glossary (2nd ed.)
SD
The Secret Doctrine
SOP Studies in Occult Philosophy

by David Pratt. November 1997. Last revised: May 2003.

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