Proposition 1: Is Narayana First or Third Logos?

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Secret Doctrine's First Proposition Series · 23 pages

Twenty-three pages opened by an abstract of central ideas compiled by the series editor. The question in the title is a real one within the system, and the file is an attempt to settle it rather than a general essay.

Narayana is introduced as Self-born Spirit, ever stirring the primordial Ocean of Space or Akasha, which is his progeny — the name explained from Vishnu's own words, that he called the name of water Nara in ancient times and is hence called Narayana, for that was always the abode he moved in. The identifications come next and are the substance of the file: Narayana as androgyne Wisdom, the Sophia of the Gnostics and the Hindu female Nari, vivifying the waters of chaos from afar without touching the abyss of darkness — unable to do so, since Wisdom being purely intellectual cannot act directly on matter. He is called Self-created, that is, unmanifested Logos, with Īśvara as Logos manifested; the mover on the waters of space; one and the same as Shekhīnah and Daivīprakriti, the Light of the Logos; and, in a line that catches the tone of the whole series, not only the one who makes us sing and dance around him in a circle but the choirmaster at the centre of our being. He appears with every Manvantara and remains concealed in Akasha and present in Ether — he is, and yet he is not. The sacred word is then read letter by letter: Nara is A, the germ, Divine Spirit or Holy Ghost, which fecundates Nari or U, the virgin matrix or Waters of Life that is an emanation of itself, and Narayana is M, the Spirit of God moving the two into existence. Pythagoras is quoted for the rule that governs the answer — that he had a reason for never using the finite, useless figure two, since the One when manifesting can become only Three, the unmanifested remaining passive and concealed while a simple duality. Narayana is finally placed as the seventh and highest principle of our solar system, throbbing in the heart of every spiritual man, and as Logos itself.

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