Māra
Literally “death” or “killing,” from the Sanskrit root m “kill.” In Buddhist literature, M€ra, the equivalent of the Christian idea of Satan, is the tempter of Siddh€rtha Gautama during his final meditation which led to enlightenment. Theosophists, however, along with many Buddhists, would interpret that story as allegorical of our own subconscious desires which metaphorically cause the death of our spiritual nature, hence must be killed out in their turn in order to reawaken our spirituality. As the Mah€tma KOOT HOOMI put it in a letter to Alfred P. SINNETT, “The victor’s crown is only for him who . . . attacks M€ra single handed and conquers the demon of lust and earthly passions . . .” (The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, chronological ed., p. 299). In fact, in Hindu mythology, M€ra is the passion of desire or k€ma (cf. Harivaˆa). Helena P. BLAVATSKY, in pointing out this idea and relating it to Hindu astrology and Egyptian mythology, comments that M€ra is not only associated with death, but “is also the unconscious quickener of the birth of the Spiritual” (SD II:579).
Some early theosophical literature also identifies the “dwelling of ‘M€ra’ (Death)” as “a locality” between what is termed k€ma-loka and r™pa-loka (cf. Mah€tma Letters, p. 195). The context of the quote is a discussion of life after death, so it would again indicate that persons who are so completely under the sway of their passions that they have entirely killed out their spiritual nature not only get “hung up” in the plane (loka) of desire (k€ma) after death, but end up in what the Buddhists term av…chi (literally “waveless”), the lowest of the Buddhist hells, from which there is no escape — in other words, annihilation. Apparently, however, this is an extremely rare (even if theoretically possible) occurrence.
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