10

Holy Order of Kr.s.n.a

Henrik Bogdan

177-201

p. 178

"Swami Pares[`]wara ... (or Yogi Bhikshu) ... acted as the personal "guru" to a Londoner named David Curwen (1893-1984), who got into contact with Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) in 1944, and became the last IXo member (the highest initiatory degree ...) of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) during Crowley's lifetime. [SP/YBh]'s ... manuscript commentary on the Ananada {sic : read A-nanda} Lahari, would later exert a profound influence on the British occultist Kenneth Grant (1924-2011) and his interpretation of sexual magic. ... .

... according to Grant Curwen came to realize -- based on his knowledge of Tantra derived from his South Indian Guru -- that certain aspects of the sexual magic of the OTO were incorrect, and he would later initiate Grant into the tantric mysteries. Grant subsequently developed a new form of sexual magic in his revised version of the OTO that he began to promulgate in the so-called New Isis Lodge in the middle of the 1950s.

p. 179

... Curwen's mysterious tantric guru ... Kenneth Grant identifies ... as Swami Pares[`]wara ..., a "high priest of a Shakta temple in Travancore" (Grant 1999:85). ... The correspondence between Crowley and Curwen ... was published in Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley : A Correspondence (Crowley and Curwen 2010)".

p. 198, n. 5

"Yogi Publication Society ... published Yogi Bhikshu's two books. The publisher was closely associated with William Walker Atkinson. For further information on Atkinson, see Philip Deslippe's introduction to Atkinson

(2011)."

p. 179

"The Holy Order of Krishna is linked to the Latent Light Culture, founded by Dr T. R. Sanjivi in Tinnevelly ... in 1905, ... and ... the Latent Light Culture worked as an outer organization for the Order of Krishna. ... However, ... the Latent Light Culture ... undertook to teach by correspondence ... "hypnotism, ... mesmerism, occult-therapeutics, mind reading, telepathy,

p. 180

clairvoyance, and magnetic healing". ...

Many {or perhaps all?} of the lessons ... actually consist of long excerpts from published works, although the original sources are not {usually} stated in the lessons. For instance, one lesson entitled "Palmistry" for the Probationary Grade, is in fact taken verbatim from a work by William Horatio Bates (1860-1931) ... . In some instances the name of the original author is given; for instance, the lesson no. 33 for the First Grade, "The Elixir of Life" is composed of extracts from an article written by Godolphin Mitford ... . [p. 198, n. 3 : "The extracts were taken from ... "The Elixir of Life", in ... Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, No. 1., (Calcutta : Calcutta Central Press, 1882), Appendix, pp. 54-74. Reprinted from The Theosophist, nos. 6 & n7 (1882)."]

According to the ... manifesto, the initiatory system of the Order of Krishna is divided into a Probationer's Grade and three main degrees. In "Grade 0", the Probationer's Grade, the aspirant is expected to study twenty-four lessons (1-24) ..., including ... thought-control, and introduction to the astral plane and so on.

p. 181

When the probationer has completed the first twenty-four lessons, he has "an indefeasible right of admission into the Order of Krishna, as Yajamana, sacrificer", that is, Grade One. In this grade there are another fourteen lessons (25-38) which include ... "Sankhya Yoga as Samadhi", "Correct Teaching on the Pineal Gland", "details of Raja Yoga", "the Elixir of Life", "Hat[.]ha Yoga" and so on. ...

After three months the member is eligible for admission to the Second Grade, that of Pra-Ves[`]ya ... . He is also required to complete successfully a written Question Paper before he is accepted into the Second Grade. In the Second Grade there are additional lessons ... . ...

The member ... may be admitted into the Third Grade, called Rajanah {Rajan} (Prince) after nine months. On applying for the Third Grade the member has to state that he ... has destroyed all fear ... of ... death itself ... . (Latent Light Culture 1931:9)

... a Fourth Grade (Chakravarti[n]s, Emperors) ... mentioned {is for officers of the Order} ... .

The official magazine of the Latent Light Culture, and by extension of theHoly Order of Krishna, was The Kalpaka : The Psychic Review of the East, which had been founded in 1905."

p. 182

"To Crowley, the primary goal of initiation is ... the so-called Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel, which is in essence to discover the true self {parama-atman ["paramatma the supreme soul within the heart of all jivas or embodied beings " (Bhagavat Gita 18.63)]}, the Will {of the parama-atman}, and to act out this will." (vide Bogdan & Starr 2012)

{Para-atman and parama-atman (aequivalent to Carl Jung's animus and anima for a male, reversed for a female) are, respectively, guardian-angel (in the material plane) and spirit-guide (in the subtle planes).}

p. 183

[quoted from Bhiks.u 1928, p. 19 :] "you may bring out all the universe {/jagat/, of the Jagannatha, according to ISKON} that is of you, ... the whole {/sarva/, for /sarva-jn~ata/ 'omniscience'} of you {i.e., para-atman together with parama-atman} and not the puny portion {/kala/} of you miscalled the "I" {/ahamkara/ 'egotism' [likewise S`iva saith, "he who is without self-interest, without egotism, ... is my disciple" (Is`vara Gita -- ES`, s.v. "Bhakti -- Doctrine C. Lower Bhakti", vol. 1, p. 28 )]} at the thresh[h]old, at the outer gate of consciousness"".

p. 184

"The Kalpaka. In the "Notes of the Month" of the April 1929 issue, it was discussed how the "cult of the Vauls (Bengalee, bauls)" ... is "akin to

{/VAUL/ is a modernly syncopated form of the word /VyAkULa/ 'impatiently eager'. It could not be intended as a syncopated form of the word /VArTULa/ (/VAT.ULa/ in Apabhrams`a) 'whirlwind', because the /VAUL/ is a Caitanya-oriented devotee to Acyuta-Kr.s.n.a; very different from Pas`upati's devotee a pas`upata, "and the Pas`upata "scripture is known as Vat[.]ula[-]tantra" (ShATh, p. 226; citing Bhattacharyya 1982, p. 203).}

the religion of the Bhagavad Gita ... : [quoted from KALPAKA XXIV(1929).4:116 :] ... "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" says the Gita also (18.63)".

{This so expressed (without mention that it is prayer of submission to one guardian-angel, the "thou" mentioned therein) as an insider's joke about outside unbelievers who do not realize that there is in ultimate reality (that is, in the Perfect Reality of perfected ethics) no such thing as "Free Will", the will of true-believers [in the metaphysics of control of the universe by the collectivity of deities] remaining in submission via heeding one's guardian-angel.}

p. 184

[quoted from Crowley 1974a, p. 164 :] "Love under {directed by} will {of the guardian-angel} -- ... love magically directed .. This love, then, should be the serpent

{"Use of The Fire Breath Orgasm, in conjunction with the Cobra Breath [14-fold, for the 14 Manu-antara-s, making for "seven levels" as per the Theosophical Society], will accelerate ... the flow of your life force energy through the Chakra energy centres (Inner Flute)." ("CCB")} {"It is the fire of love that inspires the flute" (Rumi 1981, p.19 -- "AASA").}

p. 185

love, the awakening of the Kun[.]d[.]alini"{which is seen in "visions" as "a cobra" (GF, p. 131)}.

[quoted from "Notes of the Month", in THE KALPAKA XXVIV(1929).4:118 :] Love, to the Vaul[-]s, is the law; love under the Law of ... rhythm and tune. Here is the religion ... that all men ... shall, as indeed they do, meet within the influence of music, of the chant ... . It is ... the rhythm and tune, the harmony and melody[,] that shall bring together all men {and women} to the One religion" {of the Sound-Current Yoking (Surat S`abda Yoga)}.

{"When it pierces the third eye and your Sahasrara opens you get the sound of flute, basuri. They say that Krishna’s basuri is all the time available. ... It is all the time playing but you listen to that only when the Sahasrara is pierced through the Kun.d.alini. You actually listen to the sound of flute, omkar nada, they are actually heard." ("SK")} {In Laya Yoga, the 7th praeternatural sound is "the tune of a flute" ("ME").}

p. 185

[quoted from Sanjivi 1929:227-8 :] "The astral plane ... is nowhere else except on the physical

{If taken literally, this allegation is rubbish. No "part of the physical" plane do "we see by closing our eyes, hear by shutting our ears to aught else"; but at that time the subtle planes may possibly have some opportunity to become accessible (though more so in dreaming).} {When astrally projecting, one may, howbeit, travel through what would appear to be the material plane -- with enough variations, though, from the ordinary material plane, to be regarded as a subplane of the material plane, so that in this application Sanjivi's assertion might have some validity. [written July 24 2014]}

p. 186

plane; it is part of the physical that we see by closing our eyes, hear by shutting our ears to aught else. It s not the mental plane at all and

statements of various people about elementals and elementaries on this plane are utter rubbish ... .

{Though the elemental spirits are more frequently encountred relative to the material plane, they may also be visited in other planes, during dreaming.}

You can invoke any of these ..., but you shall not blaspheme or ridicule any of these".

{That these elemental spirits are to be venerated (in contradistinction to being blasphemed) is an indication of their being denizens of a plane higher than the material plane.}

"Yogi Publication Society ... had also published two books by Charles Stansfeld Jones (1886-1950), The Chalice of Ecstasy (1923) and Crystal Vision Through Crystal Gazing (1923). C. S. Jones ... became Crowley's closest disciple during Crowley's stay in the US (1914-19) ..., and it appears that Bhikshu's interest in Crowley -- as shown in Karma Yoga and the Grade Papers of the Holy Order of Krishna -- may have come from C. S. Jones ".

p. 188

"by Grant's own account he [Grant] was "initiated into the A(nuttara) A(mnaya), and confirmed in IXo OTO, by Frater Ani Abthilal" in 1946. ...

p. 189

The picture of Curwen that emerges ... is that of a tantric adept who initiated ... into the vama {vama} marg, or Left-Hand Path, and, further, whose teachings form the basis of the ... sexual magic that Grant expounds in his Tryphonian Trilogies. These teachings derive from ...

p. 190

"an invaluable contemporary Kaula Comment[ary] on ancient Tantric rites" (Grant 1973:2). In Beyond the Mauve Zone Grant goes on to identify this text as a commentary on Ananda[-]lahari ... . Furthermore, Gerald Yorke also connects the manuscript to Bhairavi Diksha, initiation into tantric eroto-mystical practices involving a female horde collectively known as the Yoginis." [p. 199, fn. 16 : "For a discussion ..., see White (2003)."]

p. 192

"Reuss ... had not created the OTO on his own, but ... he had been assisted in this project by the Austrian Freemason Carl Kellner (1850-1905) and the German theosophist Franz Hartmann (1838-1912). It is Keller in particular who has been credited as the source of ... the Order ... knowledge of yoga ... allegedly ... from his meeting with two Indian gurus, Bheema Sena Pratapa and Mahatma Agamya Paramahamsa, and the Arab Hadji Soliman ben Ai:sa."

p. 199, n. 22

"Mahatma Agamya Guru Paramahamsa (born c. 1841) ... visited Europe several times, and met with Aleister Crowley ... . ... Bheema (or Bherma) Sena Pratapa (born c. 1872) ... visited Europe at the turn of the century. Hadji Soliman ben Ai:sa (born c. 1865), "the invulnerable fakir", ... travelled around Europe in the mid-1890s and performed at the Panoptikum in Berlin ... . ... Hadji Soliman ben Ai:sa belonged to the secret dervish Order of Sa[<]adi, founded bySa[<]adeddin Dschebari in 1335. See also Kaczynski (2009: esp. 90-96)."

p. 193

"The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor had been founded in the early 1880s and had branches in the United States, England, France and Sweden. The Order was governed by Peter Davidson (1837-1915) and Thomas Henry Burgoyne (c. 1855- c. 1895) with Max Theon (Louis M. Bimstein, c. 1848-1927) as Grand Master. The most conspicuous aspect of the teachings of the H. B. of L. ... was a particular form of sexual magic, based on the teachings of Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-75)."

p. 199, n. 24

"For the sexual magic of Randolph," vide "[>]Ans[.]airetic Mystery" (Deveney 1997:311-26) & "Mysteries of Eulis" (Deveney 1997:327-41).

p. 199, n. 25

""On the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and the teachings of Randolph," vide "Godwin et al. (1995); Randolph and Naglowska (2012)."

p. 195

"a subtle essence called ojas ... is the White Eagle of the Alchemists. Amr.ita ... is produced by the marriage of the White and Red Eagles; ... its production is essential for ... the subtle body without which the final body of the ... spirit (atma {atman}) ... is impossible. Two methods

p. 196

are taught for making this Elixir, one by the three oli mudras of the Hat[.]ha[-]yogin[-]s ..., the other in the Kaula circle of the Bhairavi Diksha, when the Suvacini dances naked. This latter technique ... is the treasured secret of the Hermetic Order known as the OTO."

p. 196

"Karl J. Germer (1885-1962), who had succeeded Crowley as international head of the OTO, ... 1951 ... issued a charter to Grant to open a camp of the order in London ... the New Isis Lodge, ... making him head of the "Order in Britain" ... . ... After Crowley's death, Grant took it upon himself to rework the sexual magic of the OTO along ... tantric principles. ... At some time in the 1950s Grant is ... a follower of "the sage of Arunachala {Arun.a-acala ('Pink Unmoved'}", Bhagavan S[`]ri Ramana Maharshi {Maha-r.s.i} (1879-1950), and during the period 1953-61 ...

p. 197

writing a number of articles on A[-]dvaita Vedanta {Veda-anta ('Wit's End')} for ... The Call Divine, published in Bombey. [p. 200, n. 37 : "These articles have been collected, together with a few later articles, and published as Kenneth Grant ... (2006).]

The New Isis Lodge was active until 1962 ... . ... It was during this period that two key texts in the magical system of Kenneth Grant were received ... : Wisdom of S'lba (Grant 1994:166-81) and OKBISh, or The Book of the Spider {Strong's 5908 /<akkabis^/ 'spider'} (Grant 2002:1-49).

In the Typhonian Trilogies, ... moreover, ... the Nin[e]th Degree deals with heterosexual sex while the Eleventh Degree ... does ... deal ... with heterosexual sex during which the woman is menstruating. According to Grant, ... psycho-sexual secretions of the tantric

suvasini ...

{This is a different word from /su-vacini/.}

refers in the Tantras "specifically to the vaginal vibrations brought on by ... ritual procedure during the performance of the Kaula rites" (Grant 1973:211-12)."