Manasaputra
Mānasaputra is a combined Sanskrit term meaning the "mind-born" or "sons of mind" (from mānasa (मानस) "mind" + putra (पुत्र)"son").
In Hinduism it is said that at the beginning of the universe, Brahmā creates from his mind four sons, the Kumāras, to help him with production of man. They are described as the first mind-born sons. However, they refuse his order to procreate and instead devoted themselves to worship God and to celibacy. Brahmā then proceeded to create from his mind another seven (sometimes ten) sons, the Prajāpati-s, who became the fathers of the human race. Since all these sons were born from his mind they are called "mānasaputras".
In Theosophy
The term "mānasaputra" is used in different ways in the Theosophical literature. On one hand, it refers to the Kumāras and Agniṣvāttas who incarnated in infant humanity to awaken its mind. The term is also used to refer to the human Higher Egos before they incarnated during the third Root-Race. H. P. Blavatsky wrote:
The reincarnating Ego [is that] which old Aryan philosophers call Manasaputra, the “Sons of Mind” or of Mahat, the Universal Cosmic Mind.[1]
Manasaputra (Sans.) Lit., the "Sons of Mind" or mind-born Sons; a name given to our Higher Egos before they incarnated in mankind. In the exoteric though allegorical and symbolical Puranas (the sacred and ancient writings of Hindus), it is the title given to the mind-born Sons of Brahma, the Kumara.[2]
All our "Egos" are thinking and rational entities (Manasa-putras) who had lived, whether under human or other forms, in the precedent life-cycle (Manvantara), and whose Karma it was to incarnate in the man of this one.[3]
They are also referred to as Mānasa-Dhyānis:
Mânasa Dhyânis (Sk.). The highest Pitris in the Purânas; the Agnishwatthas, or Solar Ancestors of Man, those who made of Man a rational being, by incarnating in the senseless forms of semi-ethereal flesh of the men of the third race.[4]
Some Manasaputras are "the Sons of Wisdom who informed the mindless man, and endowed him with his mind (manas)."[5]
See also
Additional resources
- Mānasa Dhyānis in Theosophy World
- Mānasaputras in Theosophy World
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. XII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 411.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical Universtity Press, 1972), 347.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (London: Theosophical Publishing House, [1987]), ??, fn.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 203.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 608.