Chapter V. The Three Departments of the Hierarchy

Initiation, Human and Solar, by Alice A. Bailey, [1922], at sacred-texts.com

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CHAPTER V

THE THREE DEPARTMENTS OF THE HIERARCHY

We have already dealt with the subject of the founding of the Hierarchy upon earth, and we saw how it came to be, touching likewise upon certain crises which have occurred, and which still affect events in the present time. In dealing with the work and aims of the personnel of the Hierarchy, it will not be possible to state what those aims have been, nor to consider in detail who the active personalities have been during the past millennia of years since the Hierarchy came into existence.

Many great Beings from planetary and solar sources, and once or twice from cosmic sources, have at times lent Their aid and dwelt briefly upon our planet. By the energy which flowed through Them, and by Their profound wisdom and experience, They stimulated earth's evolutions and brought the purposes of the Planetary Logos so much the nearer to completion. Then They passed on, and Their places were taken by those among the members of the Hierarchy Who were willing to undergo a specific training and expansion of consciousness. In turn these adepts and Masters had Their places filled by initiates, and thus constantly has there been opportunity for disciples and highly evolved men and women to pass into the ranks of the Hierarchy, and thus constantly has there been a circulation of new life and blood, and the coming in of those who belong to a particular period or age.

Some of the great names during the later periods are known to history, such as Shri Sankaracharya, Vyasa,

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[paragraph continues] Mahommet, Jesus of Nazareth, and Krishna, down to those lesser initiates, Paul of Tarsus, Luther, and certain of the outstanding lights in European history. Always have these men and women been agents for the carrying out of race purpose, for the bringing about of group conditions, and for the furthering of the evolution of humanity. Sometimes they have appeared as beneficent forces, bringing peace and contentment with them. More often have they come as agents of destruction, breaking up the old forms of religion and of government in order that the life within the rapidly crystallising form might be set free and build for itself a newer and a better vehicle.

Much that is stated here is already well known, and has already been given out in the different occult books. Yet in the wise and careful enunciation of collected facts, and their correlation with that which may be new to some students, comes an eventual synthetic grasp of the great plan, and a wise uniform realisation as to the work of that great group of liberated souls who, in utter self-abnegation, stand silently behind the world panorama. Through the power of their will, the strength of their meditations, the wisdom of their plans, and the scientific knowledge of energy which is theirs, they direct those force currents, and control those form-building agencies which produce all that is seen and unseen, movable and immovable in the sphere of creation within the three worlds. This, coupled to their vast experience, is what fits them to be the agents for the distribution of the energy of the Planetary Logos.

As has already been stated, at the head of affairs, controlling each unit and directing all evolution, stands the KING, the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara, the Youth of Endless Summers, and the Fountainhead of the Will, (showing forth as Love) of the Planetary Logos. Co-operating with Him as His advisers are three Personalities

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called the Pratyeka Buddhas, or the Buddhas of Activity. These four are the embodiment of active intelligent loving will. They are the full flowering of the intelligence, having achieved in an earlier solar system that which man is now striving to perfect. In earlier cycles in this system They began to demonstrate intelligent love, and from the standpoint of the average human being They are perfect love and perfect intelligence, though from the standpoint of that Existence Who embraces even our planetary scheme in His body of manifestation, that love aspect is as yet but in process of developing, and the will is only embryonic. Another solar system will see the will aspect come to fruition, as love will mature in this.

Standing around the Lord of the World, but withdrawn and esoteric, are three more Kumaras, Who make the seven of planetary manifestation. Their work is to us necessarily obscure. The three exoteric Buddhas, or Kumaras, are the sumtotal of activity or planetary energy, and the three esoteric Kumaras embody types of energy which as yet are not in full demonstration upon our planet. Each of these six Kumaras is a reflection of, and the distributing agent for, the energy and force of one of the six other Planetary Logoi, the remaining six spirits before the Throne. Sanat Kumara alone, in this scheme, is self-sustaining and self-sufficient, being the physical incarnation of one of the Planetary Logoi, which one it is not permissible to state, as this fact is one of the secrets of initiation. Through each of Them passes the life force of one of the six rays, and in considering Them one might sum up Their work and position as follows:—

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Besides these main presiding Personalities in the Council Chamber at Shamballa, there is a group of four Beings Who are the representatives upon the planet of the four Maharajas, or the four Lords of Karma in the solar system, who are specifically concerned with the evolution at the present time of the human kingdom. These four are connected with:—

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Co-operating with these karmic Lords are the large groups of initiates and devas who occupy themselves with the right adjustment of:—

and who are responsible to the Planetary Logos for the correct manipulation of those forces and building agencies which bring in the right Egos on the different rays at the correct times and seasons.

With all these groups we have little concern, for they are contacted only by initiates of the third initiation, and by those of even more exalted rank.

The remaining personnel of the Hierarchy is divided into three main and four subsidiary groups, each of these groups, as will be seen by reference to the appended chart, being presided over by one of Those Whom we call the three Great Lords.

The work of the Manu.

The Manu presides over group one. He is called Vaivasvata Manu, and is the Manu of the fifth root-race. He

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is the ideal man or thinker, and sets the type for our Aryan race, having presided over its destinies since its inception nearly one hundred thousand years ago. Other Manus have come and gone and His place will be, in the relatively near future, taken by someone else. He will then pass on to other work of a more exalted kind. The Manu, or the prototype of the fourth root-race, works in close co-operation with Him, and has His centre of influence in China. He is the second Manu that the fourth root-race has had, having taken the place of the earlier Manu at the time of the final stages of Atlantean destruction. He has remained to foster the development of the race type, and to bring about its final disappearance. The periods of office of all the Manus overlap, but there remains no representative of the third root-race upon the globe at this time. Vaivasvata Manu has His dwelling place in the Himalaya mountains. and has gathered around Him at Shigatse some of those immediately connected with Aryan affairs in India, Europe and America, and those who will later be concerned with the coming sixth root-race. The plans are prepared for ages ahead, centres of energy are formed thousands of years before they will be required, and in the wise fore-knowledge of these Divine Men nothing is left to sudden eventuation, but all moves in ordered cycles and under rule and law, though within karmic limitations.

The work of the Manu is largely concerned with government, with planetary politics, and with the founding, direction, and dissolution of racial types and forms. To Him is committed the will and purpose of the Planetary Logos. He knows what is the immediate objective for this cycle of evolution over which He has to preside, and His work concerns itself with making that will an accomplished fact. He works in closer co-operation with the building devas than does His Brother, the Christ, for to Him is

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given the work of setting the race type, of segregating the groups out of which races will develop, of manipulating the forces which move the earth's crust, of raising and lowering continents, of directing the minds of statesmen everywhere so that racial government will proceed as desired, and conditions be brought about which will produce those needed for the fostering of any particular type. Such a work can now be seen demonstrating in North America and Australia.

The energy which flows through Him emanates from the head centre of the Planetary Logos, passing to Him through the brain of Sanat Kumara, Who focalises all the planetary energy within Himself. He works by the means of a dynamic meditation, conducted within the head centre, and produces His results through His perfect realisation of that which has to be accomplished, through a power to visualise that which must be done to bring about accomplishment, and through a capacity to transmit creative and destructive energy to those who are His assistants. And all this is brought about through the power of the enunciated sound.

The work of the World Teacher, the Christ.

Group two has the World Teacher for its presiding Head. He is that Great Being Whom the Christian calls the Christ; He is known also in the Orient as the Bodhisattva, and as the Lord Maitreya, and is the One looked for by the devout Mohammedan, under the name of the Iman Madhi. He it is Who has presided over the destinies of life since about 600 B.C. and He it is Who has come out among men before, and Who is again looked for. He is the great Lord of Love and of Compassion, just as his predecessor, the Buddha, was the Lord of Wisdom.

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[paragraph continues] Through Him flows the energy of the second aspect, reaching Him direct from the heart centre of the Planetary Logos via the heart of Sanat Kumara. He works by means of a meditation centred within the heart. He is the World Teacher, the Master of the Masters, and the Instructor of the Angels, and to Him is committed the guidance of the spiritual destinies of men, and the development of the realisation within each human being that he is a child of God and a son of the Most High.

Just as the Manu is occupied with the providing of the type and forms through which consciousness can evolve and gather experience, thus making existence in its deepest sense possible, so the World Teacher directs that indwelling consciousness in its life or spirit aspect, seeking to energise it within the form so that, in due course of time, that form can be discarded and the liberated spirit return whence it came. Ever since He left the earth, as related with approximate accuracy in the Bible story (though with much error in detail) has He stayed with the sons of men; never has He really gone, but only in appearance, and in a physical body He can be found by those who know the way, dwelling in the Himalayas, and working in close co-operation with His two great Brothers, the Manu and the Mahachohan. Daily He pours out His blessing on the world, and daily He stands under the great pine in His garden at the sunset hour with hands uplifted in blessing over all those who truly and earnestly seek to aspire. To Him all seekers are known, and, though they may remain unaware of Him, the light which He pours forth stimulates their desire, fosters the spark of struggling life and spurs on the aspirant until the momentous day dawns when they stand face to face with the One Who by being "lifted up" (occultly understood) is drawing all men unto Himself as the Initiator of the sacred mysteries.

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The work of the Lord of Civilisation, the Mahachohan.

Group three has as its Head the Mahachohan. His rule over the group persists for a longer period than that of His two Brothers, and He may hold office for the term of several root-races. He is the sumtotal of the intelligence aspect. The present Mahachohan is not the original one Who held the office at the founding of the Hierarchy in Lemurian days—it was then held by one of the Kumaras, or Lords of the Flame, Who came into incarnation with Sanat Kumara—but He took hold of His position during the second sub-race of the Atlantean root-race. He had achieved adeptship on the moon-chain, and it was through His instrumentality that a large number of the present more advanced human beings came into incarnation in the middle of the Atlantean root-race. Karmic affiliation with Him was one of the predisposing causes, thus making this eventuality possible.

His work concerns itself with the fostering and strengthening of that relation between spirit and matter, life and form, the self and the not-self, which results in what we call civilisation. He manipulates the forces of nature, and is largely the emanating source of electrical energy as we know it. Being the reflection of the third, or creative aspect, energy from the Planetary Logos flows to Him from the throat centre, and He it is Who in many ways makes the work of His Brothers possible. Their plans and desires are submitted to Him, and through Him pass the instructions to a large number of the deva agents.

Thus you have Will, Love, and Intelligence represented in these three great Lords; you have the self, the not-self, and the relation between synthesised in the unity of manifestation; you have racial government, religion and civilisation forming a coherent whole, and you have physical manifestation, the love or desire aspect, and the mind

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of the Planetary Logos working out into objectivity. The closest co-operation and unity exists between these three Personalities, and every move and plan and event exists in Their united foreknowledge. They are in daily touch with the Lord of the World at Shamballa, and the entire guidance of affairs rests in Their hands, and in those of the Manu of the fourth root-race. The World Teacher holds office in connection with both the fourth and fifth root-races.

Each of these departmental heads directs a number of subsidiary offices, and the department of the Mahachohan is divided into five divisions, so as to take in the four lesser aspects of Hierarchical rule.

Under the Manu work the regents of the different world divisions, such as, for instance, the Master Jupiter, the oldest of the Masters now working in physical bodies for humanity, Who is the regent for India, and the Master Rakoczi, Who is the regent for Europe and America. It must be remembered here that though the Master R., for instance, belongs to the seventh ray, and thus comes under the department of energy of the Mahachohan, yet in Hierarchical work He may and does hold office temporarily under the Manu. These regents hold in Their hands the reins of government for continents and nations, thus guiding, even if unknown, their destinies; They impress and inspire statesmen and rulers; They pour forth mental energy on governing groups, thus bringing about the desired results wherever co-operation and receptive intuition can be found amongst the thinkers.

The World Teacher presides over the destiny of the great religions through the medium of a group of Masters and initiates Who direct the activities of these different schools of thought. In illustration:—The Master Jesus, the inspirer and director of the Christian Churches every

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where, though an adept on the sixth ray under the department of the Mahachohan, works at present under the Christ for the welfare of Christianity; other Masters hold similar posts in relation to the great oriental faiths, and the various occidental schools of thought.

In the department of the Mahachohan a large number of Masters, in fivefold division, work in connection with the deva evolution, and with the intelligence aspect in man. Their divisions follow those of the four minor rays of attribute:—

just as the three departmental heads represent the three major rays of:

[paragraph continues] The four rays or attributes of mind, with the third ray of intelligence, as synthesised by the Mahachohan, make up the sumtotal of the fifth principle of mind or manas.