What we desire to prove is, that underlying every ancient popular religion was the same ancient wisdom-doctrine, one and identical, professed and practised by the initiates of every country, who alone were aware of its existence and importance....The proofs of this identity of fundamental doctrine in the old religions are found in the prevalence of a system of initiation; in the secret sacerdotal castes who had the guardianship of mystical words of power, and a public display of a phenomenal control over natural forces, indicating association with preterhuman beings.

Isis Unveiled, II, 99

Several are the ways in which this subject can be approached: (1) a tracing of the chronological sequence of prehistoric and historically identified spiritual teachers; (2) a comparison of the philosophies, religions, myths, traditions and symbology of the ancient, mediaeval and modern worlds; (3) an investigation of the records of ancient civilizations, and their modern heirs; (4) an examination of modern scientific findings in the light of occult science; (5) a detailed analysis of findings of an architectural or archaeological nature—all these means and many more are employed by Madame H. P. Blavatsky in her great books and her many articles to reiterate to the world the unified system of the Wisdom-Religion of the Ancients.

We cannot understand the scope of the teachings in The Secret Doctrine and the antiquity of the Wisdom-Religion unless we keep in mind that records exist which tell us of the origins of our earth and the changes it has gone through. These records are in the safe custody of the Lodge of Adepts. Earthquakes and subsidences have shown us how even now the earth is changing. Many of the lands that were once thought to be legendary are now being found to have had an actual, historical existence.

In this changing world, there is, however, a land which H.P.B. calls the First Continent, the "Imperishable, Sacred Land" that capped over the whole North Pole like one unbroken crust, and remains so to this day. This land will remain, we are told, until the earth has passed away, regardless of the shifts in the axis of the earth. The second Continent, the "Hyperborean," peopled by the Second Race, stretched out its promontories southward and westward from the North Pole and comprised the whole of what is now known as Northern Asia. The Third Continent, which we now call "Lemuria," was the home of the Third-Race men. It stretched south from the foot of the Himalayas across what is now India, Ceylon and Sumatra; then going further south and embracing on its way Madagascar and portions of Africa on its right, and Australia, Tasmania and the Pacific Ocean on its left, it ran down to within a few degrees of the Antarctic Circle.

Next in order arose the Continent of Atlantis, while parts of Lemuria were falling to pieces and sinking. It covered the whole of the North and South Atlantic regions and had islands even in the Indian Ocean. Tradition indicates that the Atlanteans, the Fourth-Race men, had an alphabet, a language and books ages before the Phoenicians. They knew the arts and the sciences, had better technological knowledge, and far wiser physicians than we have. This Continent of Atlantis began to break up several million years ago. The island of Poseidonis, the last remnant of Atlantis, sank some 11,000 years ago. Long before that, about one million years ago, began the formation of the Aryan, the Fifth Race, on the fifth great Continent. If we follow the appearance of the Continents in their geological and geographical order, then America is the Fifth Continent; but as the sequence of the Continents is made to follow the order of evolution of the Races, from the first to the fifth, our Aryan Root-Race, Europe and Asia Minor must be looked upon as the Fifth Continent. We are now said to be in the fifth sub-race of the Fifth Root-Race, and two more sub-races are to come before the Sixth Root-Race will have appeared on new lands that will appear in consequence of cataclysms.

Ancient records, which have most faithfully preserved the Ancient Wisdom, show that the one centre recognized as the cradle of our present Aryan race was ancient India—not the India we know today. There was a time when under the generic name of India many of the countries of Asia now classified under other names were included. In those ancient times an unbroken continent included not only the present India but also Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and the Malay Peninsula, and extended from Iran on the one hand to Tibet, Mongolia and Great Tartary on the other, making up what was designated as Upper, Lower and Western India.

Many ancient nations guard to this day the secret records of the Ancient Wisdom, and it is said that a few Elect are the custodians of these records. They form a Great Body of Living Initiates, all knowing one another and participating in the task of guarding the Wisdom-Religion for the future. In the Bhagavad-Gita, for instance, we find the Teacher, Krishna, declaring:

This exhaustless doctrine of Yoga I formerly taught unto Vivaswat; Vivaswat communicated it to Manu and Manu made it known unto Ikshwaku; and being thus transmitted from one unto another it was studied by the Rajarshees, until at length in the course of time the mighty art was lost....It is even the same exhaustless, secret, eternal doctrine I have this day communicated unto thee....

These records describe the origin of the world, the history of former Continents, of the Races of men that lived on them, and the great floods and cataclysms that destroyed them. They deal with the beginnings of Knowledge and the line of succession of the teachings—the Great Chain of Teachers who are the Knowers of Celestial Wisdom, and who train their disciples to become like unto them. They tell of the Nameless, the ONE, the Deific Essence, without attributes, from which all beings emanate and into which they are ultimately reabsorbed. They tell, further, of the eternal "pairs of opposites"—Father-Mother—spirit-matter; of the manifold forces of Nature; of the light and the dark sides; of the Path that leads to Perfect Knowledge. All this is told in symbols and allegories, the true meaning of which is known to but a few. It was obviously well known to the Teachers of H.P.B., and through her conveyed to us in her books. Many modern scholars see in the myths and allegories of the ancients only foolish tales and dispute over their interpretations. Occasionally, however, we see a trace of understanding. Some of the discoveries of the day, in the geological and archaeological spheres, for instance, reveal to the discerning that the teachings and records left by H.P.B. and her Teachers are fact and not fiction.

The ancient traditions of all lands speak of seven Great Teachers who were present as instructors and guides at the beginning of man's life on earth; and, further, tradition supports what the secret teachings affirm, that these Elect were the germ of a Hierarchy which never died since that period. Their prime duty was to teach, help and guide infant humanity in the arts and sciences, in mathematics and astronomy, in architecture and in agriculture, in the art of writing and of speaking, and they finally took human form to reign as Sage-Kings. This was long before the historical record of kings in any land.

Every Race had its Great Teachers, and from the close similarity of their teachings it is evident that their Wisdom was derived from a single Body, a single Lodge, a single System. They form part of an imperishable race, and live even now, secluded in the remote fastnesses of the earth. Mankind is never without their help, even though they be ignored, laughed at, disbelieved in. It is a condition of the work of this Great Lodge that its members be not observed by ignorant, thoughtless men who might create hindrances; so, when they occupy physical bodies they live in secret, guarded places, and when they pass among men they do so unrecognized and unnoticed except by their disciples. It cannot be imagined that we could locate them or their places of residence, for we would not recognize them unless we were completely pure and bent utterly on their Cause and devoted to their service. It is significant to note that they call themselves the "Servants of Humanity." It is we who keep ourselves away from them by our own selfish thoughts and actions.

Cyclically, to revive the Ancient Wisdom and its forgotten truths, they are permitted to send into the world a Messenger from among them. Often his message is given only to a narrow circle; but, occasionally, at the intersection of great cycles, to a far wider sphere.

Even if we consider only the Great Teachers known to humanity and of whom religious traditions speak, we shall find that they have made an indelible impress on mankind. For instance, the ancient Persians had the line of Zarathushtras—a generic name for great reformers and lawgivers, 13 in number, the first of whom lived in the early Atlantean days. The age of the last Zarathushtra is not known; according to some, he lived some 10,000 years ago. Many sacred and precious works of the Zoroastrians or Mazdeans were destroyed by Alexander, so that very little is known to us now of the line of Zarathushtras; but Occult records claim to have the correct dates and teachings of each of them.

The ancient Chinese, likewise, had their line of Divine Teachers. Their records are partly available in the Kiu-ti, the old Bamboo Books and the Shu-King. They have records of the Dragons (or Serpents) of Wisdom, of divine rulers and divine instructors who taught mankind all the arts and sciences. These records are said to stretch back over a period of more than five million years.

India baffles Orientalists and historians, and the dates they have assigned to its ancient records are generally most inaccurate. The Vedas, for instance, were known thousands of years before the date commonly assigned to them. H.P.B. says that they were composed by some of the earliest Initiates of the Fifth Race; and before the teachings they contain were recorded in writing, they were handed down by word of mouth from one generation to another. Volumes could be written on the treasures the ancient books of India contain; and though scholars see in some of them but myths and absurd fairy tales, those who read with the eye of understanding can discern in them profound truths. Thus, for instance, the great epic poem, the Ramayana, is a record of the early races of mankind—of the downfall of the Atlanteans, etc. The Mahabharata, too, is a repository of the ancient records and was used for the conveying of moral and spiritual precepts.

The origins of Egyptian civilization can be traced back to Alanto-Lemurian days, long before the pyramids were built. And the pyramids themselves are of untold antiquity. While in ancient records they are described as standing on the seashore, now they stand surrounded by desert sands. The history of Egypt goes so far back into prehistoric times that superhuman kings are said to have ruled there before the human ones, Menes being their first great human king. Records show the height of civilization that the ancient Egyptians had reached. They had advanced practical knowledge of hydraulics, engineering, architecture, mathematics, agriculture, land-reclamation, wireless and telephones, railroads, telescopes, electricity, chemistry, medicine, weaving, music, painting and other arts, astronomy, astrology, etc. Egypt had her great Teacher in Hermes. This is a generic name and there were at least five different personages in the line. The teachings of Hermes are recorded in the Book of the Dead, on monuments and tombs and tablets, and in the Books of Thot. All these reveal the depth and extent of the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient Egyptians.

The ancient glory of America is to be sought in Mexico, Central America and Peru. Peru had its line of great instructors and leaders. Its Incas belonged at the beginning of the Fifth Root race to a dynasty of divine kings, such as those of Egypt, India and Chaldea. The Mayas and Toltecs of Mexico and Central America also had their great Teachers. H.P.B. has said that the Mayas were coeval with Plato's Atlantis.

Babylonia, Assyria and Chaldea were once seats of great learning and culture; and wherever these have prevailed, there we are bound to find evidences of the Wisdom-Religion and of the great Adepts, even though a clear record of a line of spiritual teachers may now be difficult to trace. Babylon had its great King and lawgiver, Hammurabi. The Chaldean Book of Numbers is said to be derived from the "very old book" which was used as the basis of The Secret Doctrine, and itself served as the basis of the Kabala of the Jews. This Book of Numbers, as also the Sumerian literature with its account of creation and of the deluge, and the Babylonian hymns and poems, all served as models for many of the Old Testament books. The Jews, too, had their line of prophets and their real secret books.

Coming to comparatively recent times, we can compare with somewhat greater preciseness the great teachings offered to many peoples by their Great Men—by Krishna to the Hindus of 5,000 years ago, at the beginning of the Kali Yuga; by Buddha to the India of 2,500 years ago, and later by his grand successor, Shankaracharya; by Lao-tse and Confucius in China, in the sixth century B.C.; by Pythagoras and Plato in Greece, and later by the Neo-Platonists; by Jesus and Simon Magus and Apollonius of Tyana; by Tsong-kha-pa, the Tibetan reformer of the 14th century who introduced a purified Buddhism into his country. All these and many others reiterated in one form or another, under one system or another, the one and identical immemorial sacred and secret Philosophy. What they taught becomes more intelligible with the help of H. P. Blavatsky, the last Messenger of the Great White Lodge of Adepts to the 19th-20th century, who came under the centenary effort to enlighten the world, an effort initiated by Tsong-kha-pa in the 14th century.

To consider the key teachings of some of the Great Teachers mentioned above: Krishna's teachings we have in the Bhagavad-Gita. He stresses there the idea of duty—one's own and not another's. He taught the value of action as opposed to inaction, of devotion to the Supreme Spirit which is everywhere and therefore within each man.

Buddha taught renunciation, compassion, self-help. Sorrow, he declared, ever exists, but its root cause—selfishness—once found can be eradicated. In his Noble Eightfold Path he gave the steps that would lead one to the goal of Peace.

Lao-tse was a great sage, saint and philospher who preceded Confucius. His philosophy is known by the name of Taoism and is contained in the Tao-te-king (the Treatise of the Way and of Virtue). He taught that the universe is based upon a formative Principle, Tao—the Way. It is the uncreate, unborn and eternal energy of nature, manifesting periodically. Nature as well as man will reach rest after reaching the state of purity, and then all becomes one with Tao, which is the source of all bliss and felicity.

Jesus, who came to the Jews with a special mission, had in his youth studied under the Essenes, a mysterious sect having many Buddhistic ideas and practices. Perhaps that accounts for the fact that his teachings are so similar to those of the Buddha. The God he spoke of was, the Father who is in secret and who cannot be appealed to by public prayers. Self-reform, correct understanding of law, brotherliness, tolerance and goodwill to all, returning love for hatred, were his key teachings.

Greece had its Orpheus, who went round the world teaching wisdom and the sciences and establishing Mysteries. His system was one of the purest morality and of severe asceticism.

In historical times, Greece had Pythagoras, the famous mystic philosopher, born at Samos about 586 B.C. He belonged to the same general cycle as Buddha, Lao-tse and Confucius. He is known to have studied the esoteric sciences in India, where he is still remembered under the title of Yavanacharya. He also studied astronomy and astrology in Chaldea and Egypt, and later established at Crotona a college which attracted scholars from all over the world. He was the first to teach the heliocentric system, and was the greatest mathematician, geometer and astronomer of historical antiquity, as also the highest of the metaphysicians and scholars. He taught reincarnation as it was professed in India and much else of the Secret Wisdom.

Plato, who lived 400 years before our era, was another of the great Greek philosophers. He was an Initiate and his writings are known the world over. He was the pupil of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. In his works is to be found a complete guide to right thinking and living for individual and state for all time.

Later on, in 193 A.D., Ammonius Saccas founded in Alexandria the Neo-Platonic School of Philaletheians or "lovers of truth." It sought to reconcile Platonic teachings and the Aristotelian system with Oriental Theosophy. Its aim was to check the ever-increasing ignorant superstition and blind faith of the times. Among his followers were Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Origen, Longinus and Hypatia, all of whom made valuable contributions to the Neo-Platonic system of thought. But the Catholic Church did not allow this School to survive for long. With the fall of Hypatia and the ruin of the Alexandrian Library began the Dark Ages, a period when the light of truth was eclipsed by the growing power of the Church of Rome, when intellectual freedom and religious inquiry were suppressed, and those brave souls who dared express their individual opinions, persecuted.

The system the Alexandrian philosophers founded was also known as the Eclectic Theosophical system. The word Theosophy, therefore, can be traced back to the third century. Like its predecessor, the Theosophical Movement of our time has as one of its objects the reconciliation of all religions, philosophies and systems of thought under a common system of ethics, based on the eternal verities.

In recapitulation, all the traditions of antiquity, regardless of name and location, show similarity of metaphysical and ethical precepts. They speak of compassion for all living things, of unity and brotherhood, of One Life and One Truth; and though the Teachers of that Truth have been many, all show evidence of complete accord and attunement. They come from age to age to revive the age-old Science of Life and Art of Living. The few who make themselves ready will find themselves among the privileged who tread the narrow old Path that leads to the Lodge of the Spiritual Leaders of mankind.

The Secret Doctrine will explain many things, set to right more than one perplexed student.

—Mahatma K.H.