Having seen how ancient India influenced the Egyptian civilization, when we study and compare the traditions and beliefs of the people of this mighty civilization with those of the East, we find a great deal of similarity.

Slow evolutionary processes evolved various kingdoms of nature from the simplest form to the most complex. Man is the crown piece of evolution. But infant humanity was not left alone to work out its future progress. The human child is cared for by its parents and elders. The child is given its education by elders at home and in school. This knowledge is passed on from elder to younger, from senior to junior, older generation to younger generation. Similarly, when for the first time man became a thinking being, there were divine instructors to guide him. These divine beings had already undergone evolutionary progress and perfected themselves in earlier worlds. They were like our graduates and post-graduates who come back to schools and colleges to teach others. These god-like beings guided and instructed early humanity until it produced its own guides and elders to carry on this tradition. They taught to mankind the arts and sciences, astrology, agriculture, architecture, mathematics and astronomy.

Confirming this tradition, Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that it is he who gave the divine wisdom to Vivaswat, which was passed on to Manu and then to Ikshwaku. Ikshwaku "founded the line of Solar Kings, who in early times in India were men of supreme knowledge. They were adepts every one, and ruled the lands as only adepts could" (Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita, p. 103). The great body of knowledge has come down to us from gods and demi-gods through our great adept-kings. Pharaohs were the adept-kings of Egypt. Egypt also had its divine instructors in Isis-Osiris. Prosperity and advancement of Egypt is attributed to Isis-Osiris.

As Bosuage shows, the Egyptians themselves confessed that science flourished in their country only since Isis-Osiris, whom they continue to adore as gods, "though they had become Princes in human form." And he adds of Osiris-Isis (the divine androgyne): "It is said that this Prince (Isis-Osiris) built cities in Egypt, stopped the overflowing of the Nile; invented agriculture, the use of the vine, astronomy, and geometry." (S.D., II, 366)

Not only Herodotus—the "father of History"—tells us of the marvellous dynasties of gods that preceded the reign of mortals, followed by the dynasties of demi-gods, Heroes, and finally men, but the whole series of classics support him; Diodorus, Eratosthenes, Plato, Manetho, etc., etc., repeat the same, and never vary the order given. (S.D., II, 367)

Herodotus was shown by the priests of Egypt the statues of their human Kings and Pontiffs-piromis (the archi-prophets or Maha-Chohans of the temples), born one from the other (without the intervention of woman) who had reigned before Menes, their first human King. These statues, he says, were enormous colossi in wood, three hundred and forty-five in number, each of which had his name, his history and his annals. And they assured Herodotus...that no historian could ever understand or write an account of these superhuman Kings, unless he had studied and learned the history of the three dynasties that preceded the human—namely, the DYNASTIES OF THE GODS, that of demi-gods, and of the Heroes, or giants. These "three dynasties" are the three Races. (S.D., II, 369)

In the Egyptian tradition, Osiris and Isis hold a sacred and special position. On a pre-cosmic level, they represent Spirit-matter or ideation-form aspect, giving birth to Logos or son—Horus or Thoth. According to the Osiris-Isis myth, Osiris was an earthly ruler, who was popular with his subjects. His brother, Set (or Typhon), was jealous of this popularity and plotted against Osiris. He secretly obtained his brother's measurements and had a magnificent casket made to fit. This casket was in the form of a human-shaped box. Set then organized a large feast to which Osiris and a number of others were invited. At the height of the festivities Set produced the casket and announced that it would be given to whoever it fitted. All the guests tried the casket for size, but none fitted until finally Osiris stepped into it. Set immediately slammed the lid shut and sealed the casket. The sealed coffin was then thrown into the Nile. Isis was devastated at the loss of her husband and searched for the casket and eventually found it. Before burial, for safekeeping she concealed it in the marshes beside the Nile. Unfortunately for Isis, Set found the casket and he chopped the body of Osiris into 14 pieces, and scattered the parts throughout the land of Egypt. Isis had then to set out again, looking for the parts of her husband. Eventually she reassembled Osiris and wrapped him in bandages. Isis breathed life back into Osiris' body and it was then that Horus was conceived. As we shall see, the myth can be interpreted in various ways.

"The Egyptians," says Dunlap, "distinguish between an older and youger Horus, the former the brother of Osiris, the latter the son of Osiris and Isis." The first is the Idea of the world remaining in the Demiurgic Mind, "born in darkness before the creation of the world." The second Horus is this "idea" going forth from the Logos, becoming clothed with matter, and assuming an actual existence. (Isis Unveiled, I, 56)

The Sun (the Father), the Moon (the Mother), and Mercury-Thoth (the Son), were the earliest Trinity of the Egyptians, who personified them in Osiris, Isis, and Thoth (Hermes). (S.D., II, 462)

Thus, Horus represents "unexpressed thought" as well as the physical manifested universe, and Sun corresponds to Jiva [or Prana] and Osiris. This is very suggestive, as Osiris corresponds to Jiva, "the one Life," and various principles are but modifications of Jiva. Thus:

The four chief aspects of Osiris were—Osiris-Phtah (Light), the spiritual aspect; Osiris-Horus (Mind), the intellectual manasic aspect; Osiris-Lunus, the "Lunar" or psychic, astral aspect; Osiris-Typhon, Daimonic, or physical, material, therefore passional, turbulent aspect. In these four aspects he symbolizes the dual EGO—the divine and the human, the cosmicospiritual and terrestrial. (The Theosophical Glossary)

Osiris is also considered to be the greatest god of Egypt, the first manifesting deity, third logos, identical with Ahura Mazda of Zoroastrian religion. Osiris, when differentiated and personified, becomes Typhon, his brother, Isis and Nephtys his sisters, Horus his son and his other aspects. In Zoroastrian religion, Ahura Mazda and Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) are the representatives of Good and Evil, of Light and Darkness, of Spiritual and material elements in man. So are the Egyptian Osiris and Typhon. They are the two opposite poles of one creative power, the eternal pair of good and (necessary) evil, God and Devil, Sura and Asura, Deva and Danava. In various religious traditions, these two are shown warring against each other. As for the inner meaning of "Wars in Heaven," we are told:

The great "Wars in Heaven," in the Puranas; the wars of the Titans, in Hesiod and other classical writers; the "struggles," also in the Egyptian legend between Osiris and Typhon, and even those in the Scandinavian legends, all refer to the same subject....They relate severally to astronomical, theogonical and human struggles; to the adjustment of orbs, and the supremacy among nations and tribes. The "Struggle for Existence" and the "Survival of the Fittest" reigned supreme from the moment that Kosmos manifested into being, and could hardly escape the observant eye of the ancient Sages. (S.D., I, 202)

At another level, it represents the war within the disciple. When for the first time a disciple resolves to walk the spiritual path, his own evil tendencies, threatened with dethronement, line up as a mighty army in war, as the evil Kauravas did against the Pandavas in the great epic of Mahabharata. It is the struggle of man's good nature against the force of his own evil propensities and that of his own race. Explaining this allegory of the opposing forces of Osiris and Typhon, we are further told:

Typhon was also called Set. He is simply the dark side of Osiris, his brother, as Angra Mainyu is the black shadow of Ahuramazda. Terrestrially, all these allegories were connected with the trials of adeptship and initiation. Astronomically, they referred to the Solar and Lunar eclipses, the mythical explanations of which we find to this day in India and Ceylon, where anyone can study the allegorical narratives and traditions which have remained unchanged for many thousands of years. (S.D., II, 380)

Typhon was but a symbol for the lower quaternary, the ever conflicting and turbulent principles of differentiated chaotic matter, whether in the Universe or in Man, while Osiris symbolized the higher spiritual triad. (The Theosophical Glossary)

The greatest mystery, the mystery of man's true nature, was known to the Egyptians. They knew that man is not just his body, which dies. They believed man to be made up of seven souls, seven constituents. According to Egyptologists, sevenfold constitution of man was the cardinal doctrine of old Egyptians. H.P.B. confirms that Seven Souls of Pharaoh often mentioned in Egyptian texts refer to seven principles of man. Mr. G. Massey shows striking similarity between Esoteric and Egyptian teaching with regard to the constitution of man in the following tabulation:

* This is a great mistake made in the Esoteric enumeration. Manas is the fifth, not the fourth; and Manas corresponds precisely with Seb, the Egyptian fifth principle, for that portion of Manas, which follows the two higher principles, is the ancestral soul, indeed, the bright, immortal thread of the higher Ego, to which clings the Spiritual aroma of all the lives or births. (S.D., II, 632)

They compared man's sevenfold nature with seven cubits of wheat. Wheat was sacred to the Egyptians and they even placed wheat with their mummies in the coffins. Wheat was, with the Egyptians, the symbol of the Law of Retribution or Karma. The mystery of what happens to man after death is explained in detail in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. When a man dies, he is considered to be still sevenfold—"a direct reference to the esoteric division of man's principles symbolized by the divine wheat." This is represented by wheat seven cubits high in the region of the Manes (disembodied men). But after an interval, his higher three principles separate from the lower four and reach the heaven world represented by wheat three cubits high in the land of Aanroo. Now Aanroo is the heaven world or Swarga or Devachan. Thus, "Egyptians had the same esoteric philosophy which is now taught by the cis-Himalayan adepts, who, when buried, have corn and wheat placed over them." (S.D., II, 374 fn.)

(To be concluded)

The mind is like a bright pearl. If obstructed by material desires, it is like a pearl covered with mud and sand. But if clasped by passions, it is like a pearl adorned with silver and gold. Accordingly, a scholar is afraid not of an unclean malady, but of the difficult cure of a clean malady; and he fears not a barrier in events, but the difficult removal of a barrier in principles.

—Hung Tzu-Ch'eng