The Great and Holy Master Kuthumi (Koot Hoomi)

The Great and Holy Master Kuthumi (Koot Hoomi)

In this presentation on the Great and Holy Master Kuthumi, we learn through his past incarnations the meaning of karmic balance. As the incisive philosopher-mathematician Pythagoras, the devoted Magi priest of Babylon, the mendicant and devoted Francis of Assisi, the ruthless, egotistical Mughal King Shah Jahan who tried to stretch his empire over the entire Indian subcontinent and built the magnificent Taj Mahal, and finally the Mahatma Koot Hoomi Lal Singh, the Master who guided Mme. Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott to found the Theosophical Society, we have today the same soul as the Ascended Master, Chohan of the Second Ray of Love and head of the Office of the Christ in the Great Brotherhood of Light. He works intimately with the Great and Holy Master Sanctus Germanus in preparing the world to receive the World Teacher in whatever form that great position takes in the near future.

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Kuthumi as Aethalides and Euphorbus

Scholars of ancient Greek philosophy mention that Pythagoras (see below) possessed a perfect recall of his former lives and introduced the idea of soul transmigration and reincarnation to the ancient Greeks. Pythagoras said he was once born as Aethalides who was considered to be the son of Greek God Hermes. Hermes invited him to choose whatever he wanted, except immortality; so he asked that, alive and dead, he should remember what happened to him. Thus in his life he remembered everything, and when he died he retained the same memories of previous lives.

                                                  

Aethalides then died and reincarnated as Euphorbus, a warrior in the Trojan War. When Euphorbus died, his soul passed into one called Hermotimus. Hermotimus wanted to produce proof of his past lives and so went to Branchidae, entered the temple of Apollo and pointed to the shield which Menelaus had dedicated. He said that he had dedicated the shield to Apollo when he sailed back from Troy; it had by then decayed and all that was left was the ivory boss.

When Hermotimus died, he became Pyrrhus, the Delian fisherman; and again he remembered everything-how he had been first Aethalides, then Euphorbus, then Hermotimus, then Pyrrhus. When Pyrrhus died, he became Pythagoras and remembered everything also.

As so through Pythagoras and his verifiable past lives in Greek history the concept of reincarnation, one taken for granted in the East, made its inroads into the cradle of western philosophical thinking.

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The Master Kuthumi as Pythagoras, Greek Philosopher and Mathematician (582?-500?BC)

Born on the island of Sámos, Pythagoras was instructed in the teachings of the early Ionian philosophers Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. At the age of eighteen he had absorbed all the learning which these great teachers of Greece could give him and it was about this time also that he had a vision in which he was shown in geometric lines the "key to the universe, the science of numbers, the rhythm and harmony of sacred numbers, the ternary law which rules the constellations and the septenary law which controls all evolution.

Stimulated by his vision, he set off too Egypt to study under the Egyptian sages. At first, the sages ignored him thinking that a Greek could not have the persistence to pursue deep study in the mysteries, but he persisted and they finally relented, and admitted him to their schools where he excelled. He passed all tests and initiations of the times.

Over a twenty-two year period he mastered all that the wise men had to teach him about sacred mathematics and the science of numbers. When he was about to return back to his home on Samos, the Persians overran Egypt and took Pythagoras and other Egyptian Magi prisoners to far-off Babylon.

Babylon in those days was a great metropolis of sages, in its heyday, for in addition to their native Chaldean priests who were descendants of the Zoroasters, the Persians had captured Israelites from Palestine as well as sages from Egypt. It was during this time that Pythagoras became exposed to all these other doctrines, religions, cults and magical practices. After absorbing all their teachings, he knew more than anyone else about the eternal principles and laws and the science of numbers relating to the secrets of the universe.

From Grecian polytheism, Hindu trinitarianism, Persian dualism, and Hebrew monotheism he synthesized an esoteric science of numbers all his own, thus bringing into realization the vision he had had at eighteen.

After thirty-four years abroad, he obtained permission to return home to Samos where he intended to establish a School of Esotericism. But Samos proved too small and limiting so he and his mother moved to a city called Crotona in Italy around 530 BC where he established his school for initiates of the science of numbers. His admission standards were very rigorous, giving preference to the very young.

The school proved a success and his fame grew. He founded a movement with religious, political, and philosophical aims, known as Pythagoreanism. The philosophy of Pythagoras is known only through the work of his disciples. Pythagoras was not only an influential thinker, but also a complex personality whose doctrines addressed the spiritual as well as the scientific.

The Pythagoreans adhered to certain mysteries, similar in many respects to the Orphic mysteries. Obedience and silence, abstinence from food, simplicity in dress and possessions, and the habit of frequent self-examination were prescribed. He won many followers in the city of Croton itself and many from the nearby foreign territory, both kings and noblemen. What he said to his associates no-one can say with any certainty; for they preserved no ordinary silence.

Pythagoras, as we mentioned above, claimed that he had been Euphorbus, a warrior in the Trojan War, and that he had been permitted to bring into his earthly life the memory of all his previous existences. When he was staying at Argos he saw a shield from the spoils of Troy nailed up, and burst into tears. When the Argives asked him the reason for his emotion, he said that he himself had borne that shield at Troy when he was Euphorbus. They did not believe him and judged him to be mad, but he said he would provide a true sign that it was indeed the case: on the inside of the shield there had been inscribed in archaic lettering EUPHORBUS. Because of the extraordinary nature of his claim they all urged that the shield be taken down-and it turned out that on the inside the inscription was found. Consistent with his previous lives, the Pythagoreans taught the immortality and and transmigration of souls. Pythagoras seems to have been the first to introduce these doctrines into Greece.

Among the extensive mathematical investigations carried on by the Pythagoreans, were their studies of odd and even numbers and of prime and square numbers. From this arithmetical standpoint they cultivated the concept of numbers, which became for them the ultimate principle of all proportion, order, and harmony in the universe. Through such studies they established a scientific foundation for mathematics. In geometry the great discovery of the school was the hypotenuse theorem, or Pythagorean theorem, which states that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

The astronomy of the Pythagoreans marked an important advancement in ancient scientific thought, for they were the first to consider the earth as a globe revolving with the other planets around a central fire. They explained the harmonious arrangement of things as that of bodies in a single, all-inclusive sphere of reality, moving according to a numerical scheme. Because the Pythagoreans thought that the heavenly bodies are separated from one another by intervals corresponding to the harmonic lengths of strings, they held that the movement of the spheres gives rise to a musical sound-the "harmony of the spheres."

As Pythagoras, Kuthumi laid the foundations of western intellectual thinking. Can you imagine a world today without numbers, without mathematics? Every object depends on some measurement for its understanding. Kuthumi's work as Pythagoras was to weave cosmic laws into the daily thinking of western thinking. Slowly, concepts such as the reincarnation of man's soul, certain immutable mathematical principles, and the origins of the earth through astronomy would form the basis western thinking.

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The Master Kuthumi as the Magi Priest (circa AD)

According to the Aquarian Gospel, the three magi who followed the star of Bethlehem were called Hor, Lun, and Mer. We have explored the role of these three Magi priests, who warned the father Joseph (St. Germain) of King Herod's treachery. Joseph subsequently fled Bethlehem with Mary and the Child Jesus and headed for Egypt.

These three were part of the Magi order, a Zoroastrian sect led by three chief Magi priests called Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar. Balthasar was the Master Kuthumi; Melchior, the Master Morya; and Caspar, the Master Dwjal Khul during those incarnations. According to the Aquarian Gospel, Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar did not meet the Elder Brother Jesus until he was an adult of twenty-four years old. Jesus had journeyed to India and spent several years there learning the ancient mysteries of the Brotherhood and on his return to Nazareth, he stopped by Persia. The three other Magis, being clairvoyant, knew of his arrival and gave him a joyous welcome on the street and brought him to their home where they introduced him to Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar.

When the seven came together, they sat in silence for seven days, for Jesus knew they were all part of the Silent Brotherhood. Jesus taught them in such a way that they knew he was the great teacher, for He helped them resolve many contradictions in the Zoroastrian religion. Then Jesus disappeared.

A few days later, while the six Magis were together, Jesus suddenly reappeared before them and declared that they were the first to witness the transmutation of Jesus in the flesh, for he was really sitting in a garden very far from their house. This transmutation was prophesied for later when he would appear before the twelve disciples after his crucifixion. So, as brothers of the Silent Brotherhood, the six Magis had a sneak preview of Jesus'transmutation.

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The Master Kuthumi as Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

Many centuries later, the Master Kuthumi reincarnated as the Italian Francis of Assisi, who founded the Franciscan Order of Brothers of the Catholic Church.

Born in Assisi, Italy as Giovanni Francesco Bernardone, he received little formal education, even though his father was a wealthy cloth merchant. As a young man, he led a worldly, carefree life. Following a battle between Assisi and Perugia, he was held captive in Perugia for over a year. While imprisoned, he suffered a severe illness during which he is said to have experienced a dream vision that was to alter his way of life.

Back in Assisi in 1205, he performed charities among the lepers and began working on the restoration of dilapidated churches. Francis' change of character and his expenditures for charity angered his father, who legally disinherited him. Francis then discarded his rich garments for a bishop's cloak and devoted the next three years to the care of outcasts and lepers in the woods of Mount Subasio.

Francis of Assisi wrote the following about his mission:

"The Lord gave it to me, Brother Francis, this way to begin doing penance. Because, when I was in sin, it seemed very bitter to me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself brought me among them and I made mercy with them. And I withdrew from them, what had seemed bitter to me was changed to sweetness of body and soul to me. And after this, I stayed a little while and left the world."

This statement sums up Kuthumi's mission as Francis of Assisi: 1) that God himself "gave"or told him what to do and 2) that this was to share his life with the outcasts of society. He interpreted the living the gospel of Jesus Christ as not just penance, poverty and preaching, but to uncompromisingly witness of the gospel to the world.

At first he withdrew from the world and lived the life of a hermit. He restored the ruined chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli. In 1208, one day during Mass, he heard a call telling him to cast off his hermit's garb and go out into the world and, according to the text of Matthew 10:5-14, to possess nothing, but to do good everywhere, a very proactive interpretation of the gospel.

Upon returning to Assisi that same year, Francis began preaching. He gathered round him the twelve disciples who became the original brothers of his order, later called the First Order; they in turn elected Francis superior. All who joined the order had to sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. They were to avoid all contact with money, except in the case of alms necessary to care for sick brothers and lepers. In their solidarity with the impoverished and outcasts of society, they were not to be ashamed to beg for alms because "alms are a legacy and the due right of the poor."

The brothers were encouraged to wander through the world as examples of peacefulness, poverty, and humility: as missionaries among non-believers of the truth. For this, he obtained from Pope Innocente III the License to Preach Everywhere. In other words, Francis of Assisi was the forerunner of the evangelical preacher.

In 1212 he received a young, well-born nun of Assisi, Clare, into Franciscan fellowship; and through her was established the Order of the Poor Ladies (the Poor Clares), later known as the Second Order of Franciscans. From 1205-1212 Francis' evangelical order proved attractive to men and women and grew rapidly.

In late 1218 Francis set out for the Holy Land, but a shipwreck forced him to return. Other difficulties prevented him from accomplishing much missionary work when he went to Spain to preach to the Moors. In 1219 he was in Egypt, where he succeeded in preaching to, but not in converting, the sultan. Francis then went on to the Holy Land, and stayed there until 1220. He wished to be martyred and rejoiced upon hearing that five Franciscan friars had been killed in Morocco while carrying out their duties.

On his return home he found dissension in the ranks of the friars and resigned as superior, spending the next few years in planning what became the Third Order of Franciscans, the tertiaries.

In September 1224, after 40 days of fasting, Francis was praying upon Monte Alverno when he felt pain mingled with joy, and the marks of the crucifixion of Christ, the stigmata, appeared on his body. Accounts of the appearance of these marks differ, but it seems probable that they were knobby protuberances of the flesh, resembling the heads of nails. Francis was carried back to Assisi, where his remaining years were marked by physical pain and almost total blindness.

Knowing that death was near, he had himself laid naked upon the naked earth, before organizing a "last supper" for his brethren. Francis died on the morning of October 4, 1226.

He was canonized in 1228. In 1980, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him the patron saint of ecologists. In art, the emblems of St. Francis are the wolf, the lamb, the fish, birds, and the stigmata.

Did Francis of Assisi show any of the signs of a mystic? A study of his writings does not indicate so. Instead, his life followed an almost literal imitation of Jesus' life as described in the traditional scriptures and liturgical materials. It was a life of absolute devotion.

We will see in the Master Kuthumi's next incarnation as Shah Jahan, how karmic balance created an entirely different character.