Shernrezig or Cherenzi

By: Dr. Mario Roso de Luna

Wizard of Spiritual strength; Master of Wisdom; Word of Sagacity; Maker of Cultures; Guiding Genius of Civilizations; Instigator of a Modern Spiritual Renaissance. All these is this divine one, whom no one can listen to in real sincerity without learning to love him and to recognize in him a genuine guardian spirit imbued with the divinity of mystic and universal being.

I gave spent hours of time with him in intimate conversation, when a man cannot deceive another, and I have heard him discussing all the questions relating to the reasoning capacity of the human mind, which is equivalent to the expression of intelligence IN ONESELF and THROUGH ONESELF, which can leave no place for doubt nor false impressions in a mind which, like mine, is accustomed to demand exactness as well as the beautiful and sublime.

I have seen in him all the qualities which one would wish to find in a true Master of Wisdom, in an Arahat, a Buddha, or a Christ. And what is more, I have seen him always promoting, promulgating, pointing out and even inspiring new values in the inner being. All his teachings, in fact, turn on the expression of the qualities of the inner being, which are found in one only in a potential state, but which must be called forth and made to assume exterior expressions by means of the evaluation of the many and varied exigencies of life. For this reason, when he is preaching, he preaches only as the Word, which exalts and brings out and expresses values, which awakens conscience, all the values lying buried in the Universal Consciousness in the form of life materials.

I made is acquaintance during a trip in the environs of Madrid. I found him resting at the side of the road. He seemed to me to be transparent, almost luminous. His face seemed to speak to me, it imparted to me in silence a kind of mysterious message without words which took shape while I looked at him. I could not speak before him. I guessed that I stood in the presence of more than a mere man. His figure was that of a man´s, but it sent forth subtle and mysterious irradiations, so to speak, invisible, intangible rays, which might have been those of sympathy, but which transcended all that is merely corporeal and human. There was in him much of a rolling sublimity and a moving Universality. He seemed to me at some moments to be all the Universe incarnate.

He chatted. He spoke in Spanish, but I noted that it was not his native tongue. I thought he was a Moor, but also one could have mistaken him for a Spanish American. He knew Portuguese. He spoke Italian and French. German and English were entirely familiar to him. And I noted in him from almost the first moment a deep understanding of human history, of the happenings of earth from time immemorial. Human nature seemed to keep from him none of its secrets, since he showed that he understood more of psychology, of relativity, religion, and of philosophy, than many men who specialize in those subjects. A formidable critic, employing the most subtle irony, he showed himself to possess an unusual gift of genius and an exceptional capacity for analysis, and imagination.

After our first interview, which lasted six hours, we saw each other often in Madrid, where he found a safe retreat. Here he continued his worldly activities with the principal personages in politics, the world of society and of science, as much in Europe as in America and Asia in general, which could do no less than amaze me since I was permitted to see the wide extent of the influence of this simple and humble man of the penetrating glance and the long board, who nevertheless seemed no older than 33 years.

Thus I began a close friendship with this extraordinary personage. I have known in person many unusual people, among other Mathers, Hartmann, Lytton, Eliphas Levi, Papus, Blavatsky, Besant, the Count of Cuaita, the Counts of Proctor, but altogether they could not have impressed me so much as this wanderer without a fatherland nor a famous name. Undoubtedly, one was not dealing with a mere human being. It is only at the end of three years, after having kept in contact with him and various initiating institutions in Egypt, Tibet, China and India, that y succeeded in understanding something about him with some degree of certitude.

I knew, for instance, that he is worshipped as a Master in all these initiating institutions. From many countries – Argentine, Belgium, Germany, Cuba, Mexico, Australia and England – I received news of his activities, all different and almost as if intended to thwart every attempt to find out who he is and where he is from.

I understood, because of all this that I was dealing with a true initiate, since it is an inflexible rule with them to guard such information in absolute secrecy.

But after long investigation, and with the help of Count Stanislaus of Guaita and of Sir Colonel Laden La of Darjeeling, India, I obtained evidence regarding information which was already extent among certain Masonic lodges of France, Germany, Bulgaria and Russia. Cherenzi is an ex-prince of Tartary. He renounced his titles and hereditary revenues in the same manner as centuries before the great Buddha Gautama renounced his. Now, calling himself Professor Lind, or Cherenzi Lind, he was living humbly, a true lover of nature and of sublime simplicity.  All this he later confirm, and it is now a matter of public knowledge.

At a later time he returned to Spain. After living three months under the same roof, eating at the same table, working together before the same telescope – the ancient manuscripts and sources of culture – exploring the factors in higher mathematics, unceasingly adoring Beethoven, Lizt, Massenet and Wagner, one learns to understand a person, and thus one can speak with authority concerning him.

All the problems which present themselves to the human intelligence seem to interest him to an unusual degree. It is thus as Professor Lind that I learned to love him, since I always found in him a Master, one who could always teach me and satisfy my infinite yearnings for realizations, one who is a sublime elegy in his teaching of Wisdom, and a living symphony in all the affairs of his life.

One strange thing – in spite of knowing him for more than ten years, and after having been associated with him in home life and in various excursions, such as that we made to the temples of Huesca, those eight unforgettable days when we slept like simple shepherds in the grottos of Montserrat, during a trip we made in search of a valuable article of an Initiatory nature, which has been hidden there since the middle ages, since the first Knight Templars, who came from the Orient, established their center of activity in Spain; in fact, while we spent more than a month together studying the lakes of Samiedo, that is, as it were, knowing him intimately, never could I exchange personal gossip with him. His bearing is mot simple and familiar, but it always inspires deep respect and inspiration. I consider him the true inspiration of all my work and my greatest teacher. My works, “Wagner, mythologist and occultist”, “In the shadow of mystery”, “The book of the Jinas”, I owe entirely to his kindness and affectionate assistance. It was a great truth that my first teacher, the Ven. Marques Stanislaus de Guaita (Head of the Rose-Cross Seminary of the Gauls, Toulouse, France, and Grand Chancellor of the Sublime Order of Templars) gave me when he made this statement regarding the Prince: “He is a teacher who is very lovable, but above all very strict. It is impossible that one be with him and not become an initiate, unless one does not know how to be worthy of his efforts and watchfulness, and prefers self-love and his own stupidity to the vitalizing magic word of Elias Artista”. On another occasion, when I was visiting the Prince, his servant, a Chinese, spoke to me in these exact words: “The best of his disciples does not deserve to kiss the shadow he casts on the earth. They say that they love the truth and spiritual perfection, but when they have it they do not know how to understand it, nor even less can they make themselves worthy of that which they seek”  Harsh words, but true speaking! It is impossible to exaggerate when one treats of the transcendental.

To follow by his side one must be extremely desirous of understanding and must divest himself of all vanity and hindering passions. On the other hand, no one can be at his ease near him, or even under his spiritual guidance. It is severe, indeed, but it is also just. There could not be found a more faithful defender of spiritual principles than he.

It is for exactly this reason that the Sanctuaries seek him and the mystic organizations ask for him as director or Initiator. That is how we see him, heading institutions, very diverse in their demands and aspirations, without stopping to quibble over their traditions which they follow or even over their very names. He rules Mohammedan groups, Budhists, Christians, Hermetists, Hebrews, Taoists, Spiritualists. He directs the Rose-Cross movement over all the world and receives honors from everywhere. He does not participate in any “ism” nor does he embroil himself in any political entanglements, in any “system” and thus we see him supplying majestic teachings to al the ideologies, and showing forth the way of evolving consciousness.

All esoteric philosophy receives from him even today its greatest worth. He reformed it, calling it Transcendental of Fundamental Philosophy. He has changed nothing, but has simply made it more understandable and more popular, by clarifying its concepts. All the esoteric Sanctuaries follow his teachings, which mark a new step in human thought, much more transcendental in its cultural and spiritual implications than those put forth by Sankaracharya, and the same majestic truths of Buddha Gautama, which reformed all Vedanta. He has formulated a real philosophy or science of consciousness, and his teachings constitute the best prologue to a transcendental cosmic philosophy.

What I am unable to understand is the deep bitterness, or is it jealousy – which Mrs. Annie Besant & Bishop Leadbeater show toward him. Such a bold expositor of wisdom, such an incomparable initiator, Master of Wisdom, who surely personifies all the spiritual truth of a Manvantara of light and purity, defender at the same time of the Great Universal Spiritual Brotherhood, deserves neither criticism, nor malevolence from anyone – or should we say does not accept Krishnamurti, who desires to turn himself into a Messiah and incarnation of the Lord Maitreya, among the Theosophists of Central India. And why does he not accept Krishnamurti? He has told me many times in words like these: “When Krishnamurti or whoever he may be is really a Messiah, that is to say, according to cosmic requirements and mystic implications, I will accept him and honor him, as such. But the world is already sufficiently crammed with charlatanism and mystic farces, to the end that there is to be created a new cosmogony, the only aim of which is to meet with the captious urges of megalomaniacs, eccentrics, liars, victims of hallucinations and paranoics.

It is time that the true lovers of Truth organize themselves to defend her. To take the Sanctuaries, the Masters of Agartha and the sacred teachings for such coarse fantasies is a moral crime and blasphemy against the word of life. I oppose myself to such cynicism, since for me more than for any other person opposition is a duty. The Truth before all else! And behind me are all the esoteric Sanctuaries, and with me all the true Masters of Wisdom as well as the entire Universal Spirit”

With the use of such terms as these there would not be the least doubt that those on lower planes of development would resent his attitude and nothing could be more logical than that there would be few who could understand and be satisfied with such lofty thinking and such perfection. It does not explain, however, the fact that almost all his activities have been misinterpreted; that he has been accused of all that which he condemns most heartily and tries to avoid, that is to say, that which could most darken and obscure his high calling to Spiritual Culture. He expressed the same thought thus: “The weapons of the poor in spirit are evil speaking and malevolent intentions. Hate gives more inspiration to low souls than the most noteworthy philosophical postulates. However, these motions of his all seem to point to the thought: “There is nothing mightier, more beautiful, more useful, and more necessary than truth!” and “The power of Conscience is invincible”, he is often heard to say: I often lose battles, but I never surrender, and I always triumph in my campaigns”.  He is a strong and great spirit as is worthy of a descendant of an Emperor of the world, the Notable Sage and Genial Soldier who tried to establish the Spiritual and Fraternal Unification of Mankind, Gengish Kha Khan.

Always when I think of him I see him, or as it were, I have a prescience of him like an immense glory of lowing light, which breaks all the geographical lines and dissolves all the motivating ideologies which set man against man. Worthy of his name, Cherenzi (in Tibetan it is written Shenrezig and pronounce Cherenzi) he is a true sage of a Divine Wisdom which shows itself in all his acts as well as in all his teachings.

Let this serve as a sketchy introduction. At another time, perhaps it will be possible for me to give a more detailed presentation of the one whom I cherish as my beloved and Venerable Master.

Mario Roso de Luna

Note: This short study was reprinted from “The Ring”, No. 1, of Barcelona, Spain, 1936. It is not necessary to introduce the author of this sketch. Dr. Mario Roso de Luna is a distinguished man of science, mathematician, astronomer, author of various literary works on the occult, Theosophy, etc. and is considered an authority on such matters by the world. He has known as the Wizard of Logrosan, such was his fame as sage and great mystic. This article shows forth in strong terms a picture of the R.C. Esoteric teacher who in a short time will visit South America. During his recent trip through Europe, he was named Titular Instructor of the Order of Templars.

From:    THE BODHA RENAISSANCE
Official Organ of The Bodha Society of America, Inc.
Vehicle of The Great Universal Spiritual Brotherhood
Vol.3, No. 5, Fall 1940, California USA
From: “EL RENACIMIENTO ESPIRITUAL”, Vol.3, Sept. 1938.

Published by COLEGIO ROSA-CRUZ ESOTERIO DE LA AMERICA SEPTENTRIONAL.
Los Angeles, California.