Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power

At widely differing periods of history, we find indications of frequent opposition between the representatives of two powers, one spiritual and the other temporal. We find them even far beyond what are conventionally called historical times, insofar as we can reach back that far with the help of the concordant testimony supplied by the oral or written traditions of all peoples. This holds whatever particular forms the two powers may have assumed to adapt to differing circumstances in different periods and countries. It does not mean, however, that this opposition and the struggles it engenders are ‘as old as the world,’ to use an expression that is far too often abused. That would be a manifest exaggeration, for according to the teaching of all traditions, humanity must already have reached a phase quite far removed from pure primordial spirituality before they could arise. Moreover, at the origin, the two powers in question cannot have existed as separate functions exercised respectively by different individuals. On the contrary, both must then have been contained in the common principle from which they proceed, representing only two indivisible aspects, indissolubly linked in the unity of a synthesis both superior and prior to their distinction. This is expressed in particular by the Hindu doctrine when it teaches that there was originally only one caste. The name Hamsa, given to this single primordial caste, indicates a very high spiritual degree, now altogether exceptional but then common to all men, who possessed it, as it were, spontaneously; this degree is beyond the four castes that were subsequently constituted and among which the various social functions were distributed.