Apollonius the Nazarene                                     [Image] [Image]

                          Apollonius the Nazarene
                                  Part 5:
                 Events in the life of Apollonius of Tyana
          Apollonius' Visit to the Brahman Sages of the Himalauas
    as recorded in "The Life of Apollonius of Tyana" by his biographer,
                                Philostratus

                  By: Dr. R. W. Bernard, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.



Apollonius's attention was then drawn to India, the fountain-head of
Wisdom. Five centuries previously, Pythagoras had brought some of the
Himalayan wisdom to Greece. But its memory had almost vanished. The world
was in need of a new emissary of the eastern masters. Apollonius believed
that he was called to perform such a mission; and so he set out,
accompanied only by his friend and disciple, Damis, on the long and
perilous trip to the Himalayas, following the same route formerly
traversed by Pythagoras when he traveled to India on a similar mission
five hundred years before.

This was revealed to Apollonius at a half-abandoned temple of Daphnaean
Apollo some distance from Antioch, where a peasant-priest brought him the
temple treasure, which had been preserved by tradition, handed down from
father to son. This consisted of some sheets of copper on which were
figures and diagrams. The priest had zealously preserved them till that
moment; awaiting the arrival of the man worthy to receive this gift.

While engaged in his early morning devotions in the light of the rising
sun, the priest gave Apollonius the copper sheets, which, as a
Pythagorean, he was able to decipher as a record of his Master's journey
to India, including the deserts and high mountains to be crossed before he
reached the river in which elephants disport themselves. He also saw
before him a description of the exact spot which he had to reach (in
trans-Himalayan Tibet), and of the monastery among the thousands of
monasteries in the Far East where, five centuries previously, Pythagoras
had studied at the feet of the same Masters who were soon to become his
teachers.

For Apollonius was to become their new western emissary, as Pythagoras had
been five centuries previously.*

     (*Apollonius was to be the last western emissary of the Masters
     of the Far East for many centuries. After him the door was shut.
     The Neo-Pythagorean, Plotinus, two centuries later, tried in
     vain to follow in his steps and reach India together with the
     armies of the Emperor Gordianus, but was compelled to turn back.
     It was not until a few centuries ago that the Masters found
     their next great emissary in Conte St. Germain (Francis Bacon),
     who, like Apollonius, retired to the Himalayas after his passing
     from the eyes of the world.)

Reaching the little town of Mespila, which had once been Ninevah,
Apollonius met his future traveling companion and disciple, Damis, who
immediately was attached to him and remained with him as his follower
tbroughout his life. Apollonius accepted him as his guide to take him to
Babylon, since Damis said he knew the way there perfectly, and boasted,
too, of knowing the languages spoken in the countries through which they
would have to pass: To this Apollonius smiled and replied that he himself
knew all languages spoken by men and understood their silence as well.

     (Damis was later to realize that he also possessed knowledge of
     the language of birds, and could read the great characters,
     against the blue of the sky, formed by the trajectory of their
     flight. It is claimed that it was from the Arabian philosophers
     that Apollonius learned to understand the speech of animals.)

Apollonius's chief public work was that of religious reform, involving the
abolition of animal sacrifices, which he replaced by bloodless offerings
that involved the death of no living being. The following incident is
cited concerning his teachings of kindness to animals, which constituted
the basis of his opposition to animal sacrifices and his advocacy of
vegetarianism,

When he reached Babylon, after refusing to do obeisance to the golden
image of the king, the latter, who knew him already by repute, called him
and, about to sacrifice a white horse to the sun, he asked Apollonius to
accompany him. Apollonius refused, replying, "You, O King, sacrifice in
your own manner, and give me leave to sacrifice in mine." Then, having
thrown frankincense on the flame, and uttered a prayer to the god, he
departed, so as to have no share in an offering of blood. When the king
invited him to join him in hunting the animals of his park, he expressed
disapproval of the pleasure taken in hunting and killing of wild animals
kept for sport.

After they had spent some time with the magi of Babylon and conversed with
them, the two travelers, Apollonius and Damis, climbed mountains whose
summits were veiled in the clouds. Unaffected by the gradual unfolding of
their snowy immensities, Apollonius said "When the soul is without blemish
it can rise far above the highest mountains." (into the higher spiritual
planes). They crossed the Indus and came across kings clothed in white who
despised ostentation. One evening, on a lonely river bank, they came on a
brass stele inscribed with the words; "Here Alexander halted."

Coming into the land of elephants, (India), nomads offered Apollonius date
wine, which he refused, though he did not forbid Damis to take it, just as
he did not refuse him to eat flesh, not wishing to impose his will on his
disciple; however, he himself abstained from both.

Coming to the court of Phroates, King of Taxila, Apollonius was hospitably
received by this vegetarian emperor who led a Pythagorean life except for
his mild use of wine. When he tried to argue with Apollonius concerning
the benefits of the moderate use of wine, saying that it promotes restful
sleep, Apollonius, defended his water-drinking, saying it preserves the
soul untroubled and makes true divination (clairvoyance) through dreams
possible, with which wine interferes.

Following the course of the Ganges, they climbed more hills and mountains
(the Himalayas), and when they were eighteen days' march from the Ganges,
they saw in the middle of a plateau (Tibet) high in the mountains, the
home of the wise men, which had the same elevation as the Acropolis at
Athens. A strange fog hovered over the place, and on the rocks surrounding
it were the imprints of men who appeared to have fallen in an attempt to
scale the heights, for an almost perpendicular ascent was necessary at
this point.

Then a young Indian approached the travelers, and coming over to
Apollonius, speaking in perfect Greek, he told him to halt and follow him
upwards, saying the Masters were expecting their arrival and had commanded
him to go to receive the visitors. Apollonius and Damis were then led by
their guide towards the community of Brahman sages dwelling on the
Himalayan heights, whose chief was IARCHUS, a great Buddhist religious
reformer. Philostratus described these sages as "Brahmans who dwell on the
earth, and yet are not on the earth; in places fortified, and yet without
walls; and who possess nothing and yet all things.*

     (*From de Beauvoir Preiaulaux, in his "The Indian Travels of
     Apollonius of Tyana," we gather the following facts about these
     Brahmans , whom he describes as a race superior to the rest of
     mankind. He writes: "The Brahman's education began even in his
     mother's womb. During the period of gestation she was soothed by
     song and chants in praise of continence, which in proportion as
     they won her pleased attention, beneficially influenced her
     future offspring. After the child's birth, and as it grew in
     years, it was passed from one preceptor to another, until it was
     old enough to become an auditor of the philosophers. These lived
     frugally, abstained from animal food and women, and in a grove
     outside the city spent their days in earnest discourse,
     communicating their knowledge to all who chose to listen. But in
     their presence, the novice was not permitted to speak, or spit,
     under the penalty of one day's banishment from their society. At
     the age of thirty-seven, his student life ceased.

     "The mountain Brahmans subsist on fruit and cow's curd with
     herbs. The others live on the fruit trees which are found in
     plenty near the river and which afford an almost constant
     succession of fresh fruits, and, should these fail, on the
     self-sown wild rice that grows there. To eat any other food, or
     even touch animal food, they held to be the height of impiety
     and uncleanliness. Each man has his own cabin, and lives as much
     as he can by himself, and spends the day and the greater part of
     the night in hymns and prayers to the gods....")

          (According to Damis, the Brahmans used the earth as a
          couch, but first strewed it with choice grasses. They
          walked, too, in the air; Damis saw them. He saw too,
          the fire which they drew from the sun's rays, while
          they worshipped the solar orb. Among their other
          miraculous powers were the capacity to cover
          themselves with clouds at will, and to get what they
          wanted at a moment's notice [yogic practices which
          yield `siddhis' or supernatural powers -- utilizing
          undiscovered laws of nature]. Damis describes these
          marvelous men as being strict vegetarians, who lived
          exclusively on fruits and vegetables.

          They were attired in a sleeveless one-piece linen
          dress; wearing no material of animal origin. They wore
          their hair long, which custom they explained on the
          basis of the physiological and psychological benefits
          which they considered the hair to impart to the brain.
          Just as the skin absorbs and transmits solar energy to
          the body as a whole, so they believed that the hair
          performs a similar function in relation to the brain,
          for which reason they exposed their long hair to the
          sun as often as possible, hoping thus to absorb as
          much as possible of the ultraviolet solar rays so
          powerful at the high altitude where they dwelt.)

And so saying he told Apollonius who his father was, his mother, all that
happened to him at Aegae, and how Damis joined him, and what they had said
and done on the journey; and he related this so distinctly and fluently,
that he might have been a companion of their route. Apollonius, greatly
astonished, asked him how he knew all this.

     "In this knowledge," he answered, "You are not wholly wanting,
     and where you are deficient, we will instruct you, for methink
     it not well to keep secret what is worthy of being known
     especially from you, Apollonius -- a man of most excellent
     memory. And memory, you must know, is of the gods the one we
     most honor.

     "But how do you know my nature?" asked Apollonius.

     "We," he answered, "see into the very soul, tracing out its
     qualities by a thousand signs. But as midday is at hand, let us
     to our devotions in which you also may, if you will take part."*

          [*The Indian yogic science is not based on outer "sun"
          worship. The yogi meditates on the inner "sun" or
          inner spiritual light which can be seen by the "third
          eye" between and behind the two eyebrows, which
          reveals itself when the attention is held steadily
          fixed at this inner centre (ajna chakra) within the
          astral body. The outer sun, symbolic of the inner
          spiritual splendour within, is only an outer symbol of
          devotion to the inner spiritual light (Naad, Word or
          Logos)].

Apollonius then asked Iarchus what opinion the Brahmans held of
themselves, and was told that they held themselves to be "gods" [advanced
spiritual beings] because they were good men, who knew all things because
they first knew themselves." Iarchus then told Apollonius his former
lives, stating that in his [former] incarnation he was an Egyptian sailor.

The Brahmans then undressed and took a bath, after which they put garlands
on their heads around their long hair, and proceeded to the temple, intent
on their hymns. There (quoting Damis's account), standing round in a
circle, with Iarchus as their leader, they beat the ground with their
staves, till bellying like a wave, it sent them up into the air about two
cubits; and they then sang a hymn, very like the paeon of Sophocles sung
at Athens to Aesculapius. They then descended to earth."* (*According to
Philostratus, the Brahmans levitate at will in the air "not for the sake
of vain glory, but to be nearer their Sun God," to whom they pray.)

When Apollonius asked the Brahmans whether, since they knew everything,
whether they knew themselves, they replied in Socratic fashion, We know
everything just because we begin by knowing ourselves, for no one of us
would be admitted to this philosophy unless he first knew himself." When
Apollonius inquired of Iarchus whether the cosmos was composed of Four
elements, the latter replied that it was made not of four but of five, the
fifth being the ether. There is, said the Indian sage, "the ether, which
we must regard as the stuff of which gods are made, for just as mortal
creatures inhale the air, so do immortal and divine natures inhale the
ether."

On an occasion when he was praising Apollonius for his devotion to mystic
lore, Iarchus said, "My great friend Apollonius, those who take pleasure
in divination [clairvoyance--a byproduct of the awakening of dormant
latent spiritual powers in the average man] are rendered divine thereby
and contribute to the salvation of mankind."

The word "salvation" embraced for Iarchus both spiritual and physical
health, for he declared that among the many blessings which the art of
divination conferred upon mankind, the gift of healing was the most
important, and to this art of divination he emphatically attributed "the
credit of discovering simples which healed the bites of venomous
creatures, and in particular of using the virus itself as a cure for many
diseases. For I do not think" he added, "that men without the forecasts of
a prophetic wisdom, would ever have ventured to mingle with medicines that
save life, those deadly of poisons."

Thus we see Iarchus instructing his student, Apollonius of Tyana, in the
science of medicine, as he instructed him in astrology and other sciences.
Reville, in his "Apollonius of Tyana, the Pagan Christ of the Third
Century," writes as follows concerning the Brahmans: "They worshipped
fire, which they boasted had been brought down directly from
the.sun...With his own eyes, Damis saw these sages rise up into the air to
the height of two cubits, without any extraneous support and without any
trickery whatsoever. The wise men do not live in houses, and when it rains
they summon a cloud and shelter under it. They wear their hair long, have
white mitres on their heads, and are clothed in linen garments, woven from
a peculiar kind of flax which is only lawful for themselves to gather.
Their prodigious wisdom overwhelmed even Apollonius, who was not
frequently astonished. They are in possession of absolute science; they
know at once the past history of every one they see; they can answer all
questions. When asked, "Who are you?" they answer, We are `god.' Why?
Because we are virtuous." [See "The Life and Teachings of the Masters of
the Far East" by Baird T. Spalding, in 5 volumes, for a detailed account
of the advanced spiritual sciences practised by the Himalayan yogic adepts
of India and Tibet].

The Brahmans were furnished with everything they needed as a spontaneous
gift of the earth, partaking of fresh vegetables and fruits in season
which were brought to them by their countrymen dwelling below them. During
his repast with the Brahman sages and their king, Apollonius and Damis
were amazed to observe that the food was brought to their tables by
self-moving tripods, while automata served as cup-bearers; these
mechanical robot waiters making the use of human servants unnecessary.*

     [*Atlantean technology is known to be secretly stored in
     underground caverns beneath the Potala at Lhasa, and in the many
     other caves that network underneath the sedimentary structures
     of the Himalayan mountains. Here we a have a demonstration of
     some of the lost technology being displayed, two thousand years
     before our supposedly advanced technological age].

Apollonius observed his teacher, Iarchus, perform miracles identical with
those purported to have been performed by the New Testament messiah, such
as, driving evil spirits out of a woman who was possessed, curing a
cripple, restoring sight to a blind man and restoring a man with paralyzed
hands to health. He had a high degree of clairvoyance, could see at any
distance, beheld both past and future, and could tell the past lives of
those he met.

Reville notes that Apollonius studied astrology and the science of
divination under Iarchus, for these sessions were secret and to them Damis
was not admitted, nor would Apollonius reveal to him the esoteric
knowledge then imparted to him by his Himalayan teacher. [Advanced
astrology can reveal the dates and times of previous incarnations of an
individual; it is an exact science when properly understood and applied.
The popular version commonly available today is but an enfeebled version
of the true astrology, which reveals the inner outworkings of the karmic
wheel, which balances all causes with corresponding effects.]

During his stay among the Brahman sages, Apollonius was instructed by his
Master in the basic doctrines of reformed Buddhism, of which movement
Iarchus was the recognized leader, who had fled to his far-off Himalayan
retreat to escape persecution by the established Brahman priesthood of
India. Apollonius carried westward the Buddhist teachings which he
received from Iarchus in the form of certain Buddhist gospels, otherwise
known as the DIEGESIS or the ORIGINAL GOSPEL, which he translated and
rewrote, adapting it to the language and psychology of his native land.

Among the ESSENES he found the first converts to this new doctrine, the
gospel of Chrishna; and those who followed these teachings (the Essenian
Therapeuts, who were otherwise known as NAZARENES) subsequently became
known as the first Christians. On his departure Iarchus gave Apollonius
Seven rings named after the seven planets, one of which was to be worn on
one day of the week; these seven rings would, he said, impart health and
long life. Before parting, Iarchus prophesied that Apollonius would, even
during his life, attain the honors of a divinity.

Thus for several months Apollonius lived among men who were `gods' in
human form, and from them he learned spiritual wisdom which he was
destined to later bring back to the west as the basis of a new religion
(Christianity) of which he was to be the founder. It was from Iarchus that
he received the mission that was to send him wandering all his life among
the temples of the Mediterranean countries, for the purpose of restoring
the ancient mysteries to their former purity.

When he left his Brahman master, Apollonius had certain assurance that he
would thereafter be in constant telepathic communication with him and
receive his guidance and instruction wherever he may be--which later
actually was the case.*

     (*On this subject, Magre, speaking of the Inner Voice on which
     Apollonius always relied for guidance, writes: "We shall never
     know to what order the spirit-guide of Apollonius belonged;
     whether the being who advised him took on a form as chaste as
     himself and as beautiful as the statue of the gods which he
     liked to contemplate, or whether the voice came from a distant
     Master who wished to see his pupil carry out the mission with
     which he entrusted him.

     "I shall continue to speak to you as though you were present,"
     Apollonius had said as he left his Indian Masters.

     "Was it their words that he heard at a distance? Did he by
     divine inspiration receive the influx of their wise thoughts?
     The man to whom he gave the name of Iarchus must have brought
     the consolation of distant support to the untiring traveler, the
     wandering mystic.")

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