OCCIET TISTORY LOEJAVA

W.LEADDEATER

The Occult History of Java 1
Borobudur and Mendoot 20
Talaga Warna 36
Air Nature Spirits
Angelic Co-operation. 46

• 43

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OCCULT HISTORY OF JAVA

1'RW SING~POP..E LO~ 1H£()SOPHICAL SOCIET't" 10 ~n AI~ (S) II

OCCULT HISTORY OF JAVA

BY

C. W. LEADBEATER
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE ADYAR, MADRAS 20, INDIA

by the Publishers

Printed by D. V. Sya.ma.la. Ra.u, a.t the Va.sa.nta. Press, The Theosophica.l Society, Adya.r, Madras

OCCULT HISTORY OF JAVA

History

THE early history of Java appears to be wrapped in mystery. From reading most of the books written in English on the subject one would infer that the Island was entirely unknown to the rest of the world until it was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hien in the year 412 A.D.; and even after that there are at intervals gaps of several cen- turies which it seems at present impossible to fill by any ordinary means. Ruins are plentiful, but scarcely any of them are more than 1200 years old, and very few records or inscriptions have been preserved. Certain traditions have been handed down among the princely Javanese families; but even those become distinctly apocryphal as we follow them back to the beginning of the Christian era, and beyond that they are

! By calling in the aid of clairvoyance we can of course carry our investigations back indefinitely, but for our present purpose it will suffice to try to examine the conditions existing in the country somewhere about 2000 B.C. Long before that these islands had been an Atlantean colony, but when Atlantis broke up they became a separate state, which passed through many vicis- situdes as the ages rolled on. This part of the world has long been an area of vigorous volcanic activity, which has not even now entirely died out, as is witnessed by the tremendous eruption of Krakatau in 1883, which killed 35,000 people, and caused a 50-ft. tidal wave which travelled as far as Cape Horn, 7818 miles away, and even affected the level of the river Thames in London, besides throwing out so enormous a volume of dust that it rose to a height of two hundred miles and provided the whole world with phenomenally beautiful sunsets for two years thereafter.

Sea is only 200ft. deep, and the continuation of the channels cut by the rivers of Sumatra and Borneo may still be traced at the bottom of this comparatively shallow sheet of water. Even up to the year 915 A.D. the islands of Java and Sumatra were one, and it was an erup- tion of Krakatau in that year that broke them asunder and created the Straits of Sunda. Outbreaks on such a scale as this :frequently devastated whole kingdoms, and had a seriouS" influence upon the history of the country.

Black Magic from Atlantis

The colonists from Atlantis in the very early days had brought with them the dark and evil religion of their country, and as time rolled on, its hold upon the people became ever stronger and more pernicious.

It was based entirely upon fear, as are

all these gloomy faiths; they worshipped cruel and abominable deities, who required

and. they lived ever under the shadow of a ghastly tyranny from which no escape was possible .. They were ruled at the time to which I now refer by a dynasty of chiefs or kings,. each of whom, like the Pharaoh of Egypt,. was at the same time the high-priest of the religion; and among these priest-kings we find one who was specially earnest and fanatical in his awful faith. So far as can be seen in a brief examination, there seems. no reason to doubt that his belief in these horrors was quite genuine; he had a kind of love for this fair land of Java, and he really thought that only by the perpetuation of his appalling scheme of daily blood sacrifices (which, however, were human only once a week, except on certain special festivals!) could his country be saved from utter des- truction at the hands of the spiteful and bloodthirsty deities who were supposed to manifest their anger in frequent volcanic eruptions. Poor fellow, he was under the direct inspiration of the Darker Powers, but of course he was quite unaware of that, and probably regarded himself as a patriot!

-ensure as far as he could that it should be ~ontinued throughout the ages yet to come. To that end he worked a most elaborate sy~a tem of magic, throwing by a tremendous and long-continued effort of his will a kind of spell upon the Island-laying it under a -curse, as it were, that while his will held, the offering of the sacrifices should never fail. The result of his action may still be seen both etherically and astrally, in the shape of a vast dark cloud hovering low over the Island, just not sufficiently material to be visible to ordinary physical eyesight, but very nearly so. And this malign cloud has the curious appearance of being " pegged ,down " at certain definite spots, so that it may not drift away. These spots were of course specially mag- netized by him for that purpose; they are nearly always coincident with the craters of the various volcanoes, presumably because these outlets are usually inhabited by a peculiar type of natm·e-spirits of marvellous

he- was using, and capable of retaining andre- inforcing it for an indefinite period. Natural- ly also the Darker Powers whom, however unconsciously, he was serving took caret() give his scheme such support as they could; and thus it comes that this cloud is still in evidence even in the p'resent day, though with far less than its ancient power.

An Aryan Invasion

The inhabitants of Java are a very mixed race·-in fact, a conglomeration of races, but all having on the whole a preponderance of Atlantean blood. They were therefore in those earlier days under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chakshusha Manu; but He, being highly dissatisfied with the conditions then existing here, arranged with the Lord Vaivas- vata Manu to send down a series of waves of Aryan immigration into the country in the hope of bringing about an improvement. The earliest of these waves with which my

1200 B.c., though I think that there had been previous efforts; but neither of them nor of this inflow does any definite tradition now remain among the royal archives. These Hindu invaders seem to have come first as peaceful traders, settling on the coast and gradually forming themselves into small independent commercial States; but in pro- cess of time their power greatly increased, and they eventually became the dominant section of the mixed community, so that they were able to impose their laws and their ideals upon the earlier inhabitants. Their religion was Hinduism, though not perhaps of the purest type; but it was at least an enormous improvement upon what had preceded it here. One would have expected those of the older faith to welcome with enthusiasm any theory that would deliver them from its horrors; but as a matter of fact they do not seem to have taken kindly to the complicated ceremonies offered to them, and though under the new regime the foul and ghastly ancient rites were

they had to be offered surreptitiously. Superstition always dies hard, and the more cruel and loathsome it is, the more tenaciously do its votaries cling to it. Hindu- ism remained the official religion of the country, but more and more as the centuries rolled on did the old devil-worship reassert itse)f, until its votaries scarcely troubled to conceal their nefarious practices, and the actual condition of the common people was very little better than before the invasion. This being so, the Lord Vaivasvata decided to make another effort, so He inspired the celebrated Indian ruler King Kanishka of Northwest India to send down ·an ex- pedition to Java in the year 78 A.D. The leader of this new enterprise is known in the tradition of the country as Aji Saka, or sometimes Sakaji, and his name is still reverenced by all the well-read Javanese.

.extirpation of cannibalism, the introduc- tion (or perhaps rather the reassertion) of Hindu law and culture, of the caste system, of vegetarianism, of the Hindu epos and the Javanese script, which seems to be derived from the Devanagari. He (since he was an orthodox Hindu), -or more probably some of his officers, set up schools of-Buddhism in both of its forms, the Hinayana and the Mahayana. The former seems to have prevailed for some time, but under the rule of the Shailendra Kings in the eighth century the latter school ·Came into prominence, and eventually almost ~nth·ely superseded the Hinayana form. Bud- ·dhism was quickly and widely adopted in the Island, but its followers and those of the Brahmanical religion seem to have lived :aide by side in perfect amity and tolerance.

Magnetic Centres

Sakaji was well aware of the work which he had been sent to do. It is related of him

in local tradition that in seven places in the

country he buried certain strongly magnet- ized objects in order to rid Java of evil influences, endeavouring thus to counter- act the " pinning down " process of the At- lantean priest-king. In the Javanese langu- age these evil-destroying charms are called tumbal, and the fact of their existence is well known among the country folk. Though some of the feats attributed to him (such as the removal of certain mountains, etc.} partake rather of the character of the labow·s of Hercules, he is very far from being merely a legendary figure, and he has set his mark in many ways upon the country which h~ ruled so firmly. He may not have moved the mountains, but he gave them the Sans- krit names by which they are still universally known today. A mountain in the J a para district, said to- be the oldest and originally the highest elevation in the Island, was in earlier days identified with Mahameru but Sakaji gave it the name of Maw·iapada-the footprint of Maurya. In his time it had already been 1The dynasty of the Mauryas began in 322 B.C. after the ) death of Alexander. The Capital was Pli.taliputra. (now Pa.tna). The Emperor Asoka was of Ma.urya. dynasty.

" welling up ") the same annals mention a well several miles from the coast with so rich an outpouring of fresh water that the sea-water for some distance was not at all salt, nor even brackish, but could be drunk with impunity. Sakaji selected for the burial-place of the most important and the most powerful of his tumbal or talismans a certain low round- ed eminence, the last of the range of hills which overlook the river Prago-a spot which, whether by design or by mere coincidence, is very near to the central point of the whole Island of Java as it is now-though of course in the time of Aji Saka its position was very far from central, as Java and Sumatra were then joined in one. Now Theosophical students are aware that each country has its own governing Deva, who superintends its

of all the king- ·doms of nature in his country-not the ' human only, but the animal, vegetable and even the mineral as well, including the vast host of the nature-spirits. He has under him a great number of subordinate Devas, each taking charge of a district, and under them in turn are younger and less experi- enced spirits, who are learning how to manage still smaller tracts-a wood, a lake, a hill-side.

The Presiding Deva

All these different types and levels of Angels live in their respective provinces, whether those provinces be large or small, and indeed they identify themselves with their territories in a way which is not very easy for human beings to comprehend; each may almost be said to ensoul his region, though it is also true that he has always

M l I lVI., 150-B, East Coast Rolld, 13 SINGAPOI\E-15.

within that region a particular spot which may be regarded as his special residence. A Deva who finds within his district a suitably- placed mountain or hill frequently selects that as the centre of his operations, and makes it his home-so far as a pervading spirit can be said to have a home. Now at the same time that our Lord the Manu arranged for the descent of Aji Saka upon what are now the Netherlands Indies, He also appointed a certain Deva to the office of spiritual superintendent of this most in- teresting group of islands. This presiding Deva looked round his new province for a desirable residence, but found that practically all the mountains were already pre-empted by the minions of the Atlantean priest-king. How much Sakaji in his physical brain knew about this, to what extent he and the Deva consciously co-operated, I do not know; but the fact emerges that the Angel finally chose for his abode a low rounded eminence. The Aryan leader buried his strongest charm in its depths.

If we remember that that talisman had

been specially magnetized for the purpose by

·realize what an unusual combination we have here, and what a tremendously powerful centre that low hill has become. Small wonder that when, seven hundred years later, the Shailen- dra dynasty of kings came into power in Mid-Java and desired to erect a really superb monument in honour of the Lord Buddha, the more sensitive of their monastic advisers recommended that hill as a suitable site, and so came into existence the wonderful struc- ture which we now call Borobudur.

The Designer of Borobudur

Tradition gives the name of the designer of this marvellous fabric as Gunadharma, and states that he was a Hindu Buddhist from the borders of Nepal; but the huge army of workmen whom he employed were Javanese. It is difficult to be certain of dates, but I think that the stupa was completed

in 775 A.D. That date has been suggested by some of the archaeologists, and such research- ·es as I have been able to make confirm this. During the eighth century a sect called Vrajasana came rather suddenly into pro- minence in the entire Buddhistic world; it was founded in the Deccan, but its presenta- tion of the religion spread into many coun- tries, Java among the number, and there is some evidence that Borobudur was built under its influence. Not for very long, however, was this 1:1plendid edifice allowed to fulfil the primary .object of its builder-that it should be a place of pilgrimage and of instruction to the Buddhist nations of the world. In the year 915 A.D. there occurred another of those terrible volcanic outbursts which have so frequently and so effectually punctuated the history of this part of the world. The great volcano of Krakatau (then called the Rahata or Cancer-volcano) broke out i!).to an eruption so tremendous that it split the whole island into two parts-now called Java and Sumatra respectively-and brought into existence the Straits of Bunda. In the oldest reco,rds we

China. was always through the Malacca channel; but soon after the earth had settled down again from this awe-inspirng convulsion we begin to hear of the adoption of the new southern passage through the Straits of Sunda. This- appalling catastrophe is mentioned in the· inscriptions of King Erlanggha, sometimes called J ala-langgha, which signifies "he who· walks over the waters "-apparently because- he escaped from the devasting floods caused by the eruption, and took refuge on the flank of the great Lawu mountain in Surakarta.

Borobudur Buried

At the same time the volcano Merapi threw out an incredible amount of sand and ashes, destroying almost the whole of Erlanggha's Mid-Java kingdom, and entirely burying (among many other buildings) Borobudur, Mendoot, and the Prambanan temples. Naturally an immense amount of injury was. done to all these monuments; the dagoba at the top of Borobudur and a good many of the other projections were broken, but on.

held more or less in position. For many centuries the very existence of this great shrine was forgotten; if it could only have remained so until the present day, and been uncovered now by careful and reverent hands, how very much better it would have been! Erlanggha, thus suddenly deprived at one fell swoop of his kingdom and his revenues 1, seems to have lived a private life with a few retainers for some years on the slopes of Mount Lawu, where he met some Vaishna- vite Brahmans who were living in the woods there as ascetics. He learnt much from them and was deeply impressed by their doctrine, which coloured the whole of his future life. After some time, however, he came forth from his seclusion and made his way into East Java, where he had eventually the good fortune to marry the daughter of the King of Kadiri, and so in due course 1 inherited another throne • He was evidently an able man, for he developed a rich and powerful kingdom there in East Java, where 1In 1007.1In 1030.

and were equally respected; in fact, to a large extent they seem to have blended. The present royal families of Bali and Lombok are descended from Erlanggha. Some sort of tradition about Borobudur must have lingered among the Javanese royal families, for there is a story that the Crown Prince of Djokjakarta visited it in 1710; but so far as public knowledge goes, i't was rediscovered, during the short English occupation of Java in Napoleonic times, by the Governor-General Sir Stamford Raffles, who took a great interest in the temples and ruins of the island. He ordered its exhuma- tion, but it was soon found that the work would take years, and but little had been achieved when the time came to hand / back the Islands to Holland. The Dutch

and more immediately pressing work on hand, and antiquarian research was not seriously undertaken until the middle of last century. Most unfortunately this peerless monu- ment was not at first placed under Government protection, and so some of the images were removed to museums, or even presented to distinguished visitors, and the villagers of the neighbourhood used the ruins as a stone-quarry, in the barbarous way in which villagers do all over the world. At the present time the Government has fully awakened to the immense importance of the trust confided to it, and has created a special department devoted to the protection and restoration of the ruins. The restoration has been done with very great care and judgment, replacing missing stones where absolutely necessary for the support of the building, but never attempting any carving or decoration, so that the new stone is always a blank stone, and we see no art but that of the original period.

THE wonderful monument called Borobudur is often described as a temple; but this is not strictly speaking correct. A temple is an edifice more or less like a Christian ohuroh or a Muhammadan mosque-a build· ing in which people gather together for reli· gious purposes, to offer worship or prayer to their Deity, or to listen to expositions of the doctrines of their faiths. Another type of sacred structure is the Stupa or Dagoba, which is usually a solid bell-shaped erection, built to enshrine and to safeguard a relic of the Lord Buddha or some other great saint or teacher. Perhaps the finest specimen of this is the great Shwe Dagon or Golden ?agoda at Rangoon-a magnificent gilded spire higher than St. Paul's Cathedral · in London. Borobudur has more of the characteristics of a Stupa than of a temple, for undoubtedly a relic was at one time preserved there; yet

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'JlEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Moulmein Rise (S) I I 20

PIatI

THE SINGAPORE LODGE THEOSOPHICAL 11

it is like no other Stupa in the world, for it

may be called a great picture-gallery, the scenes of which are not painted on canvas -or in fresco, but carved in bas-relief in stone, in a series of panels of wonderful precision throughout, and many of tbem really beauti- ful. The1·e are 2141 of these, and it is calcu- lated that if they were placed end to end they would extend for nearly three miles. Perhaps the best way to realize Borobudur is to think of it neither as a temple nor a Stupa, but as a low rounded hill sheathed with masonry. The original rock of the hill forms the core of the entire erection, which is simply built on to it in successive terraces. The arrangement of these will be best understood by examining first the view of Borobudur from the air (Plate I). We see from ijhe air photograph that the whole fabric may be said to consist of three separate parts. There is first the square base on which the whole edifice stands, each side of the square measuring 620ft.; and even that will be seen to be really double, consisting of two platforms. These platforms have their own symbolism, to which I shall refer presently.

Plate II From this base rises the second part of the edifice, consisting of four rectangular stages, each being a wide terrace or gallery between ·walls, but open to the sky. It is upon these walls that we find the beautiful

PIa tI

Lalitavista'ra,, while the other scenes are understood to illustrate His teaching in the successive stages of the heaven-world. We see the third division of the building-the three circular platforms and the large central dagoba (Plate I). Unquestionably these seven stages are meant to represent the seven planes. The well-known Dutch archreologist, Professor Krom, writes in his Life of Buddha :

''In accordance with the cosmic signifi-

cance of the building the galleries are richly decorated, but the platforms which, in contrast to the phenomenal world below, are intended to represent the region of formlessness, have been left unadorned. The reliefs represent texts that were intended to impress lessons of wisdom on the believer's mind

Stupa, and so to prepare him for the attainment of the highest insight that the Mahayana brings before his eyes. In this way he was also spiritually brought on to a higher plane as he approached the central Stupa" (p. viii). Quite apart from the carvings and their story, thE:.re are in these four galleries 432 larger statues of the Lord Buddha ranged at regular intervals along the upper part of the walls, each sitting in its own niche or recess- ed shrine (Plate IV). All the 108 images on each side are seated with the same Mudra or gesture of hands (Plate V). On the North, the Mudra is tbat called Abhaya-Have no fear; on the East, the Mudra is Bhumi- sparsha-Touching the earth; on the South, Dana-Giving; on the West, Dhyana-Meditation. As will be seen from Plate VI, on each of the circular platforms we find a ring of statues of the Lord, 72 in all; but in these cases each statue sits inside a lattice-work dagoba or cupola of stone. The lattice-work differs on these platforms, the holes. being sometimes

Plate IV

N. ABHAYABHUMISPARSHA

S.DANA W. DHYANA

Platę V

Plate VI

Plate VII

-can be done in stone) the marvellous trans- parency and delicacy of appearance of the auras or vehicles of men on these higher levels. The senior monks of the Buddhist Sangha .used to lead their pupils and their pilgrim- ' visitors from stage to stage of the building, delivering a series of lectures upon the life and teaching of the Lord, and using the carvings as illustrations. But to the more advanced students they also expounded the theory of the seven planes, and yet further, af the seven principles of man, employing the three circles and the four squares as emblems, just as we today use the triangle and the square to signify the Upper Triad and the Lower Quaternary. The whole edifice is surmounted by a larger cupola, fifty feet in diameter, crowned by a broken spire (Plate VII). This cupola originally contained a small box or jar of ashes (which have, however, long ago been stolen) and also a curious unfinished statue of a Buddha. The theory of many archmologists is that it was intended to symbolize Amitabha, and

re- presented in human form, but could only be suggested-that, as Mr. Banner says in his Romantic Java: "Mortal skill may not pre- sume to represent in His completeness the All-Highest". The same author also remarks: " The lowest of the angled terraces is decorated with carvings representative of common mundane scenes, to empha- size the moral that upon the earth rest all the higher spiritual values. But upon either wall of the four galleries there- after we find a continuous series of bas- reliefs illustrating the religious pheno- mena in ascending gradation. The first gallery, that is to say, displays a selec- tion of scenes from the historical life of Buddha; the second shows us the minor deities of the Brahmanic worship adopted into the Buddhist Pantheon; the third contains the higher deities, at the plane in which the shrine rather than the deity itself is worshipped; while in the fom·th we find only groups of Dhyani-Buddhas." ~ Op. cit., p. 126.

for I am not sufficiently acquainted with the minute indications by which specialists in archreology consider that they recognize the various types of Buddhas; but the general idea corresponds with much that I have seen. The square double platform upon which the whole vast structure rests really makes another stage below the surface of the earth, in which there is an elaborate series of carvings representing various lokas-evident- ly the lower astral plane, which actually does occupy exactly that position in space. It is supposed by some that this lowest stage was originally intended to be open to the air exactly like the others; other archreologists claim that it was always intended to be underground to typify the "hells," but that a broad vaulted passage ran round in front of the carvings, so that they could be seen. Traces of this vaulted passage are said to exist, but when the place was discovered by Europeans it was already .filled by huge blocks of stone. The theory is that the enormous weight of the superincumbent

st::tge in order to save the whole. In .other words, it was seen that the base would not be strong enough to support the whole, so in order to strengthen that base, a large band of masonry was built round it like a gigantic stone ring, which is now the square platform. In the middle of each of the four sides of the square a steep stairway ascends, the gate- way to each stairway being guarded by sitting lions, and spanned by ornate arches of the highest architectural perfection (Plate VII). From the square basic platform to the top- most of the circular platforms is but 118 ft. in perpendicular height, while the peri- meter of the whole pyramid standing on that lower platform is 2080 ft., so that the entire complexity of galleries, with their bewildering wealth of ornamentation, makes a much-flattened half-globe, whose contour against the sky is a perfect curve. In fact, as one writer has unpoetically said, the work has been carried out so skilfully that from

Shwe Dagon (Rangoon), or the stupendous ruins at Angkor-Wat (Indo-China), but in its details it is far more wonderful and beautiful than either of them. Mr. Scheltema, in his book Monumental Java, describes it as

"the most consummate achievement of Bud-

dhist architecture in the whole world "; and in another place he speaks of " the super- natural beauty of Borobudur." Professor Krom, whom I have already quoted, remarks that Borobudur is one of the most renowned documents and religious monuments of Bud-dhist art, ll.nd that this very beautiful archi· tectura1 erection surpasses all works of art which one finds in the East. Dr. Krom himself, who is otherwise a materialist, was so affected by the beauty of Borobudur that he says that the atmosphere radiated by this monument is so extraordinary because of the divine inspiration which guided the hands that shaped it. [Note by C. Jina'rajadasa : I first saw Borobudur in 1919. Since then I have visited

the monument twice. I have been profoundly impressed by one special quality of the archi- tect's great conception. This monument is linked in my mind with that marvel of India, the Taj Mahal. There is in both an unusual quality of a transcendental unity, and in addition something almost supernatural. It is as if each monument were really a great thought-form-in granite at Borobudur and in marble at Agra, and that this thought-form descended to earth and clothed itself in matter. It becomes then the monument which we admire. In the oases of both Borobudur and the Taj Mahal, there is a feeling that if some magician were to wave his wand, each monument would in its enti1·ety simply rise upwards into the heavens and vanish. I know of no other monuments which have this unusual spiritual quality. Probably the Parthenon at Athens had the same magic quality.] A mile and a half from Borobudur is the temple of Mendoot-a building which, though very much smaller than the other and having quite a different purpose, is evidently of the same period and exhibits the same

• I am told, shows remarkable skill in vaulting. It is supposed that there was originally some sort of dagoba-like top or spire as a finish to the truncated pyramid, but as no

re- ferred, sitting with their backs to the three walls, precisely as though they were gathered round a table in conversation; but there is no table (Plate X). As we enter, the image of the Lord Buddha faces us, while that shown on our right is a Bodhisattva. The statue in the middle, which by many marks- is clearly intended for the Lord Buddha, is fourteen feet high in its sitting position, while the other two are only eight feet from 1 top to toe as they sit. Originally, therefore, the central statue must have towered above the others, but its enormous weight has caused its base to subside considerably, so that now they are almost on a level.

1As the two images to the right and to the left wear crowns, they r epresent Bodhisattvas. Otten the crown of a Bodhisattva. has a. small Buddha image carved on it, as a. sign tha~ the Bodhisattva. will later become a. Buddha..-C. J.

Plate VIII

Plate IX

least the traditional half-Mongolian Buddha figures; the faces are clearly Aryan, and also quite individual-indeed, they are supposed to be portraits. The Lord Buddha is seated as a European and not as an Asiatic, and the others are at least halfway between the two postures. The edge of the Lord's robe is conventionally indicated by a line, yet it does not seem to conceal the rest of the body. Both of the other statues are much more ornately dressed, wearing necklaces, armlets, wristbands, anklets and tiaras; and it is remarkable that these ornaments are far more Brahmanical than Buddhistic in character. There is much dispute among archreologists as to the identity of these other figures, and no reliance can be placed upon the names of Padmapani and Manjushri, which are often attached to them by the photographers. The curator who was in charge of Mendoot on my first visit-a very able man who was ex- ceedingly kind and helpful-professed himself as fairly certain that the figure on the left of the Lord (but of course on ou1· right as we

archooologist of high reputation, discovered in the course of his excavations a red-brick building under the foundations of Mendoot, but was unable to continue his investigations because they endangered the stability of the whole edifice.

It is supposed that Mendoot was the central

shrine (the private chapel, as it were,) of a great group of monasteries occupied by the host of monks attached to Borobudur.

Story of Java

THREE Initiates stood on the brink of a lonely pool. Far from all human habitation

-the nearest being a small group of huts

used by a few uncultured labourers working upon a vast plantation-the whole place was steeped in the marvellous pregnant silence .of the tropical noon. It seemed as though all the world lay dozing in the glow of that splendid sunlight, waiting to waken to a more active life when the cool dews of even- ing should descend upon the expectant earth. This tiny lake is on the shoulder of a mountain; it is surrounded and shut in by noble trees, but not far away, through a break in the forest, one can look out over miles of undulating plain with little sign of human occupation. A road passes within easy reach of this magic spot, but travellers are few, and the deep peace of the district is but rarely disturbed by the uncouth grunt- ings of a climbing motor.

On the opposite side of

it there rises abruptly an almost perpen-

dicular cliff, probably seven or eight hundred feet in height, just not too steep to be clothed with a perfect curtain of trees and bushes-a wonderful and most beautiful hill- side. The water is absolutely still, sheltered and unruffied.

It should be-it is now-a scene of utter-

most peace, a haven of calm for a troubled spirit; but at the time of the visit of the-Brothers of whom I spoke, there was about it a curious feeling of unrest, of long-endur- ing melancholy and remorse, hoping for relief, yet hardly daring to expect it. Looking. round for the source of this strange sadness~ oui-Brethren found that it emanated from the Spirit of the Lake, who was a Devi- that is to say, a spirit with a distinctly feminine appearance. We know that in the Deva kingdom there is nothing corresponding

Our Brothers watched her very closely for a few moments, and one said to another: "For whom is she waiting? It cannot be for us, though I thought at :first that it was." " No," replied the other; "but she has done something-something that makes her very sad, and she hoped for a moment that we had come to put it right.'' They were all conscious that there was a very :fine and a very kindly Deva on the summit of that steep hill-side just across the pool, and that he .was watching over the Lake-Spirit's trouble with great solicitude and tenderness. Naturally, our Brethren expressed the deepest sympathy, and asked as delicately as possible what was the

anything they could do to help. In response the Lake-Spirit thanked them rather wearily and brought before them a succession of scenes-which, you know is a Deva's way of telling a story, a sort of astral and mental cinematograph-from which om· friends acquired the outline of her tale of woe~

It seems that that country haC}. long ago·

been for centuries under very evil influences connected with Atlantean black magic; later there had been an Aryan invasion which introduced great improvements in religious matters, but for a long period both forms of belief and practice existed simultaneously,. and even now in the twentieth century relics of the more ancient faith are to be found in remote places, as I can personally testify. There was a time, not so very long ago. when the land was parcelled out among a number of petty Aryan chieftains or Rajas, whose dominions were in many cases hardly larger than the more modern German Grand Duchies; but these distinctly minor kings. were (softly be it spoken) just as proud and arrogant as though they had been

Aryan intolerance by the scions of the conquering race.

It appears that once upon a time the son

of the local Raja had the bad taste (from his father's point of view) to fall in love with one of these Atlantean princesses-not a bad-looking person by any means, and of very kindly and affectionate disposition. Of course the Aryan father behaved as fathers so often do under such circumstances; he would not bear of such a marriage at any price, and fell into a violent fury; so the unhappy young people ran away together in the best traditional manner, with the avenging parent hot-foot upon their trail, breathing all kinds of fire and slaughter. The lovers fled in great disorder, and just when they came into the neighbourhood of the lake the lady began to feel faint, in the inappropriate way which Victorian ladies frequently adopted at critical moments; and so the irate father overtook

them, or at least was m sight and on the point of doing so. The Devi of the Lake seems to have been at that time an inexperienced person, young at her work. She knew quite enough of Atlantean centres and methods to be aware that there were spirits in connection with other lakes and woods who made an obscene sort of livelihood by receiving sacrifices and inducing people either to drown themselves or to throw their enemies into a lake, as the case might be; and she seems to have felt a kind of envy of the power gained by these foul entities, or at any rate a strong curiosity to try an experiment and see whether black magic was really quite as dreadful as the Deva on the hilltop had always said it was. So just when the young couple were full of despair she impressed upon their minds a very powerful suggestion that they should throw themselves into the lake, thus dying together and ending all their troubles. Under their desperate circumstances the idea com- mended itself to the half-crazy lovers, and in a few moments the tragedy was over, and the father was left weeping upon the bank,

Ullin in the Scottish version of a very similar story : Come back, come back, he cried in grief Across the stormy water, And I'll forgive thy Highland chief, My daughter ! 0 my daughter ! The Spirit of the Lake shrank back in horror, realizing in a moment the awful result of her unhallowed desires; and she had been mourning about it ever since, not knowing what to do in the way of atone- ment. It seemed to do her some good to tell her story, or at least to exhibit it in a series of pictures; and the Brethren did their best to comfort her, explaining that the past was past and could not be recalled, and that the only thing to do now was to try to make some kind of compensation by radiat- ing peace and goodwill upon all those who came to visit this lonely spot. They then gave her a Blessing and exchanged courteous greetings with the Deva of the hilltop, who thanked them very heartily for what they had done. A few months later the Brethren visited the Lake again, and were delighted to find

the· condition of affairs. The Deva and Dev'i are- now in much closer friendship than beforet and are therefore able to do much better work for the ruling Angel of the whole- mountain, who is a very great person, and one of the principal lieutenants of the Deva-King of that country-its national Angel. So the apparently casual help given to the ·attendant Spirit of a small and lonely lake has had far-reaching and important results. I have heard since that that little pool is called Telaga Warna, and I am told that Telaga means lake, and that W arna is a corruption of the Samskrit varna, which means colour or caste-because originally the different castes were distinguished by the fact that the Aryan had intermarried with various lower races, and so there was between them an actual distinction of colour. As the whole point of the story depends upon the father's horror of an intermarriage between different castes and different reli- gions, it seems to me that we have a kind of indirect reference to that story in this. popular name.

NATURE SPIRITS

C. W. LEADBEATER, describes his first aeroplane journey, from Brisbane to Too- woomba, in August 1928, as follows: " The air spirits seemed to hail us with riotous joy; they clustered around us and oil'Cled at our prow just as I have often seen dolphins behave round the bows of a steamer. We were flying at a very fair speed, but these creatures circled round us with the utmost ease, as though they did not feel the air pressure at all. They gave me the im- pression of being extremely friendly and well-disposed, and did not in the slightest degree resent our intrusion upon theh~ domain. Curiously enough, however, I caught sight of some other creatures higher up- much higher up-who seemed by no means so friendly. They were of immense size and looked somehow far more material than the sylphs. They were curiously sullen in appearance, and I rather wondered what sort

like the look of them; they reminded me uncomfortably of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's powerful story 'The Horror of the Heights'. But after all they may have been quite harmless, though sulky."

CO-OPERATION

At the Dasara Festival at Mysore

[Each year at the Festival observed through- out India, called Dasa'ra, which lasts for ten days, the Maharajah of Mysore holds various ceremonial functions. A few invited guests can also be present. At one of them he receives all the State officials who, dressed in their State uniforms, present to him cer- tain traditional gifts, which however he only " touches and remits ". On another day there is the puja and blessing of all the State animals-elephants, camels, horses and bul- locks-of automobiles and all the coaches- and carts, of the State umbrella, and of all the equipment and articles used by the Palace household, and so on. One afternoon there is a great procession through the prin- cipal streets of the city, when the streets are lined with the subjects of the Maharajah. 1 He rides slowly in procession, sometimes 1 When I sa.w this procession there was not a single police- man about to keep the crowd in order, as was the case in .British India.-0. J.

State horse, and at certain points the priests come for- ward with offerings. He stops for a moment to "receive" them, i.e., to touch them, and then passes on. The Maharajah of Mysore, the predecessor of the present Maharajah, was deeply reli- gious, and several afternoons of each week he would drive to Chamundi Hill, where there is the temple of the patron goddess of Mysore, the Goddess Chamundi, who is one embodiment of the Goddess Parvat1, the consort of the God Shiva; There he would divest himself of his ordinary garb, and dressed in a dhoti as a pious Hindu would sit in meditation. The subjects of the Maharajah had profound veneration for him, and when- ever there was · an opportunity, as at the public procession, they expressed it, in silent reverence with joined palms. What happened in the occult world on one of these occasions in 1933 is here described by C. W. Leadbeater.-0. J.] I ought perhaps to premise that what most especially engaged my attention was the faot

a reigning monarch took a leading part in all the ceremonies. Having studied occult- ism for half a century, I have learnt that there is a tremendous inner reality behind -the idea of "the divinity which doth hedge a King," and that, though probably he hardly .ever realizes it, he is just as truly set apart .and consecrated for his position under the :august Head of the First Ray as is an Arch- bishop for his quite different work on the Second Ray. Through each there flows the influence peculiar to his Ray; for each there is the same distinction, so little understood, between the power that may flow and the power that must flow. Let me try to explain what I mean. I oan do so best by employing an analogy, drawn in this case from Christian sources. The great majority of Christians accept the doctrine of Apostolic Succession; that is to say, they know that in order to perform certain ceremonies and to do certain work a Priest must be duly ordained. The power effectively to perform those ceremonies and to do that work is conferred upon him by a duly authorized official, and that power, once

any~ but he cannot be deprived of his priestly power. That this doctrine is understood and accepted by the Church may be seen by the perusal of the 26th of the Articles of ReJ igion of the Church of England "On the Un- worthiness of the Minister, which hindereth not the Effect of the Sacrament ". This may seem startling to some, but is really logical and reasonable; he who wishes for an explanation of this is referred to The Hidden Side of Things or to 'l'he Science of the Sacraments, in both of which this matter is treated fully. From thiH it fol1ows, however strange it may seem, that a Sacrament may be effectu- ally administered by a Priest who is far from understanding it, or is even of doubtful character; that is the power or influence that must flow through him because of his ordina- tion. But it is obvious that along with this a great deal more may and indeed must flow through a really good and earnest Priest who is devoted to his holy work, and doe~ it

Still more is this true of his superior officer, the Bishop or Archbishop; indeed, it is expected of the Bishop that he shall be a perpetual fount of blessing wherever he goes-a true follower and representative of the Head of the Second Ray. What I wish to emphasize is that a pre- cisely similar attitude is expected from a. King-that he has a similar consecration (at the time of his coronation), a similar power, a similar duty; but with this very important difference, that his work lies on the line of the First Ray instead of the Second. His function is to rule, to guide, to guard, and when necessary to restrain; the virtues on which he lays most stress are truth, justice, strength and courage, whereas those emphasized by the Second Ray are love, gentleness, and compassion. One is con- cerned principally with physical life and its circumstances, the other chiefly with spiritus.! development. Wisdom is equally necessary on both lines. The special work of the Priest or the Bishop constantly brings him before the

public in the exercise of his power to bless~ so I have frequently had the opportunity of watching the mechanism of the Second Ray in action, even apart from my own work in .the Church; but it is not so frequently that the chance comes in one's way to see the royal function in operation on a large scale. Also, not every King is aware of the full scope of his power, and so he may not use it intentionally. The "tongue of good report," however, had universally been heard in favour of His Highness the Maharajah of Mysore; every one spoke of him as an enlightened sovereign, religious by nature and anxious to do his duty to his people; so it occurred to me that it would be of interest to observe the play of forces around him on the occasion of this great public function. The entry of the Maharajah into the Audience Hall was exceedingly impressive. The Maharajah certainly had an escort-in fact he had a double escort, one visible to all, the other and much larger probably seen by few. First, a distinct aura or wave of influ- ence preceded him. He has a very fine aura.

astral) were walking in the midst of a globe of light of the same nature as the aura which had preceded him, but far

more brilliant. This globe moved with the party, but was entirely distinct from the in- dividual auras of the sovereign and the Angels and men surrounding him. Those auras are of course permanent, whereas the globe gave the impression of being specially formed for the occasion. When the Maharajah reached the foot of the throne he paused for a few moments, and then walked round it, which seemed slightly to check the flow of the force, but on the other hand produced a strong mag- netic effect--a sort of preliminary cleansing. Then he ascended to the throne, and as his gaze swept over that vast assembly, one felt that he was as it were entering into his king- dom, making a strong personal link with all who could respond to him, in an intimate way which had been rendered possible only by that preliminary action. of his Devas· in sending out the influence before him. One felt that thereby he held his audience within his grip, so that the active beneficence men- tioned could be applied and materialized in their hearts. His Angel escort was indus- triously co-operating in all this, and it~ mem- bers contrived to keep up something of this

a.ttendants who had been floating round and .a.bovethe throne brought into action a curious
a.stral construction, the like of which I ~ave not hitherto seen. They produced an object which I can only compare to a gigantic, sparkling, diaphanous crown, perhaps six feet ~r thereabouts in diameter, the base of it being the usual circular ring, but the upper parts rising apparently into a number of points resembling rather an earl's crown than that of a King. This strange shape they held in the air some distance above the head of the ruler, so that it interpenetrated the golden .()anopy or roof of the throne. Into this there seemed to flow from above what I can des- -cribe only as a kind of stream of soft, liquid light, which seemed to be absorbed by-to

the- throne. When the Maharajah stretched out his hand to touch something, a flash of this soft light passed from him to the person or- object touched, and in the case of some· of the recipients it evoked a certain outpour- ing in reply; but this varied greatly in volume, in colour and in brilliance with different people-! imagine according to- their receptivity. It was evidently this scheme which enabled him to endure the fatigue of the ceremony, and yet "to give· unto the last even as unto the first ". The Durbar on the ninth night is the only one in which European guests participate.

On this occasion they are presented to His

Highness and receive from him a gift of flowers-garlands for the men and bouquets. for the ladies. This night is more specially than the others a mere social function-there is about it less solemnity, because the Western element is so foreign to the sur- roundings. I can well understand this feeling of " less solemnity," for there was practically n(} inner side to this part of the function. The

sparing- ly, and received scarcely any response, save in one or two oases. The Maharajah was still every inch a king, but it was obvious that he was not thei1· king, though quite genial and kindly disposed towards them. The concluding procession was again a most interesting example of the whole-hearted co-operation of the Angel kingdom with the human. I do not know exactly from what point of view His Highness the Maharajah regards that pi·ooession, but I am able to say that the Deva helpers look upon it as a grand final demonstration intended to impress permanently on the minds and hearts of the people the lessons which they have been trying to inculcate. Their efforts are always directed to the genera'! upliftment of the masses whom they are trying to help, and they regard the affection and devotion which the people feel for their ruler as very impor- tant factors through which they can be-

to- strengthen such feelings where they already exist, and to awaken them where they do not, and they hope, through the emotion excited by the magnificence of this final procession to stamp these ideas so deeply upon their people that they will not fade out until the- next great festival comes to revivify them. In trying to understand the work of the-Devas, we have always to bear in mind that selfishness is absolutely unknown among them; they regard its frequent manifestation by humanity as a kind of terrible disease- which must be eliminated at all costs. There- fore they are always working to increase contentment and fraternal feeling in humanity, and it is in that direction that they have been moving through all the days of this prolonged festivity. They see readily that there is much in the hardness and the- competition of the daily life of man which by its constant pressure tends to deaden these- finer feelings and gradually to erase them,. and so they wish to use this culmination of the feast to ret~in the level just gained ..

Once more the Maharajah is the centre of all this influence, and it is through him that the greatest of the bless- ings are outpoured. What is there that we can learn from all this? Happily most of us are not called upon to bear the heavy burden of a royal crown; yet there are many among us who are kings in a small way-employers on a more or less extensive scale, heads of departments or offices. We cannot hope to wield the wide- spread influence of a monarch, but we can make happier or less happy the lives of those over whom we find ourselves temporarily in control, and we know of the promise that he who is faithful in small things will pre- sently have the opportunity to extend that

80 shall we deserve the angelic co-operation, and, deserving it, be sure that we shall receive it.

It was extremely interesting to me to find

80 marked a case of this angelic co-operation. It seems to me to show that if ever we are happy enough to reach a stage in which all the world will work together in that way along similar lines, the help of the higher evolution of the Deva Kingdom will un- doubtedly be extended to us in many ways of which at present we have no conception.

CORRECTIONS Plate IX in the text should read as Plate VIII. Plate X,,, Plate IX.