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'''Mahātma''' or Mahātman (devanāgarī: महात्मन्) is a [[Sanskrit]] term meaning "Great Soul". This epithet is commonly applied to saints, spiritual teachers, and even prominent people.
#REDIRECT [[Mahatma]]
 
In [[Theosophy|Theosophical]] literature the term is used to refer to the [[Masters of the Wisdom]].
 
== General description==
 
In [[The Theosophical Glossary (book)|''The Theosophical Glossary'']] [[H. P. Blavatsky]] defines the term as follows:
 
<blockquote>'''Mahâtma'''. Lit., “great soul”. An [[adept]] of the highest order. Exalted beings who, having attained to the mastery over their [[Principle#Individuality_and_personality|lower principles]] are thus living unimpeded by the “man of flesh”, and are in possession of knowledge and power commensurate with the stage they have reached in their spiritual evolution. Called in Pali Rahats and Arhats.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Theosophical Glossary'' (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 201.</ref></blockquote>
 
The Mahatmas are [[Occultism|occultists]] who have developed the psychic and spiritual [[Siddhi|powers]] that are still latent in most human beings:
 
<blockquote>A Mahatma is a personage who, by special training and education, has evolved those higher faculties and has attained that spiritual knowledge which ordinary humanity will acquire after passing through numberless series of incarnations during the process of cosmic evolution, provided, of course, that they do not go, in the meanwhile, against the purposes of Nature. . .</blockquote>
 
<blockquote>The occultist, when he has identified himself thoroughly with his [[Ātman|Atma]], acts upon the [[Buddhi]], for, according to the laws of Cosmic [[Evolution]], the [[Puruṣa|Purusha]] — the universal seventh principle––is perpetually acting upon and manifesting itself through [[Prakṛti|Prakriti]]—the universal [[sixth principle]]. Thus the MAHATMA, who has become one with his [[seventh principle]]—which is identical with Purusha, since there is no isolation in the spiritual [[monad]]—is practically a creator, for he has identified himself with the evoluting and the manifesting energy of nature.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 261-262.</ref></blockquote>
 
However, since the Mahatmas are incarnated, they are subject to limitations when acting through the body. As [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] wrote in [[Mahatma Letter No. 130#Page 10|one of his letters]] to [[Alfred Percy Sinnett|A. P. Sinnett]]:
 
<blockquote>For you know — or think you know, of one [[Koot Hoomi|K.H.]] — and can know but of one, whereas there are two distinct personages answering to that name <u>in him</u> you know. The riddle is only apparent and easy to solve, were you only to know what a real <u>Mahatma</u> is. You have seen by [[Henry Kiddle#The Kiddle Incident|the Kiddle incident]] — perchance allowed to develop to its bitter end for a purpose — that even an "[[adept]]" when acting in his body is not beyond mistakes due to human carelessness.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 130 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 433.</ref></blockquote>
 
== See also ==
*[[Adepts]]
*[[Masters of Wisdom]]
 
==Online resources==
===Articles===
*[http://www.theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?title=Mah%C4%81tma# Mahātma] at Theosopedia
 
== Notes ==
<references/>
 
[[Category:Sanskrit terms]]
[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]
[[Category:Hindu concepts]]
[[Category:Mahatmas and Adepts]]

Latest revision as of 23:34, 6 July 2017

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