(Saptaparṇa) A Sanskrit compound meaning “seven-leafed plant” or perhaps less accurately, “seven-leafed lotus.” In some writings the human is called Saptaparna, implying the seven-fold constitution.

It is said that one day, while teaching the mendicants, the Lord Buddha compared man to a SaptaparŠa, showing them how after the loss of its first leaf every other could be easily detached, but the seventh leaf directly connected to the stem (CW V:247).

There is mention of Saptaparna in The Secret Doctrine where it is expressed in the symbology of the Stanzas of Dzyan as: “The three are (linked into) one; and it is our thread, O Lanoo, the heart of the man-plant, called Saptaparna” (SD I:231). Helena P. BLAVATSKY comments that the concluding sentence of this stanza shows how old is the belief and the doctrine that the human is sevenfold in constitution.

P.S.H.

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