Kumāras

Of all the seven great divisions of Dhyan-Chohans, or Devas, there is none with which humanity is more concerned than with the Kumâras. Imprudent are the Christian Theologians who have degraded them into fallen Angels.

It thus becomes clear why the Agnishwatta, devoid of the grosser creative fire, hence unable to create physical man, having no double, or astral body, to project, since they were without any form, are shown in exoteric allegories as Yogis, Kumaras (chaste youths), who became “rebels,” Asuras, fighting and opposing gods,* etc., etc.

“The Kumâras,” explains an esoteric text, “are the Dhyanis, derived immediately from the supreme Principle, who reappear in the Vaivasvata Manu period, for the progress of mankind.” [Footnote]: They may indeed mark a “special” or extra creation, since it is they who, by incarnating themselves within the senseless human shells of the two first Root-races, and a great portion of the Third Root-race—create, so to speak, a new race: that of thinking, self-conscious and divine men.

In the esoteric teaching, they are the progenitors of the true spiritual SELF in the physical man—the higher Prajâpati, while the Pitris, or lower Prajâpati, are no more than the fathers of the model, or type of his physical form, made “in their image.” Four (and occasionally five) are mentioned freely in the exoteric texts, three Kumâras being secret.

The Exoteric four are: Sanât-Kumâra, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanatana; and the esoteric three are: Sana, Kapila, and Sanatsujâta.

Makara

But very few are those who know—even in India, unless they are initiated—the real mystic connection which seems to exist, as we are told, between the names Makara and Kumâra. The first means some amphibious animal called flippantly ‘crocodile,’ as some Orientalists think, and the second is the title of the great patrons of Yogins (See “Saiva Purânas,”) the Sons of, and even one with, Rudra (Siva); a Kumâra himself. It is through their connection with Man that the Kumâras are likewise connected with the Zodiac. Let us try to find out what the word Makara means.

Regarding the symbolic meaning of the term, T. Subba Row wrote:

The letter Ma is equivalent to number five and Kara means hand. Now in Samskrt Tribhuja means a triangle, bhuja or kara (both are synonymous) being understood to mean a [Page 16] side. So, Makara or Pañchakara means a Pentagon.

Mme. Blavatsky adds "the five-pointed star or pentagon representing the five limbs of man" and in a footnote says: "What is the meaning and the reason of this figure? Because, Manas is the fifth principle, and because the pentagon is the symbol of Man—not only of the five-limbed, but rather of the thinking, conscious MAN".