Five Years of Theosophy Part 11

We ascend from that principle up to the seventh by almost imperceptible gradations. But four stages are recognized in the progress where the change is of a peculiar kind, and is such as to arrest an observer's attention. These four stages are as follows:--

(1) Where life (fourth principle) makes its appearance.

(2) Where the existence of mind becomes perceptible in conjunction with life.

(3) Where the highest state of mental abstraction ends, and spiritual consciousness commences.

(4) Where spiritual consciousness disappears, leaving the seventh principle in a complete state of Nirvana, or nakedness.

According to our philosophers, the fifth principle under consideration is intended to represent the mind in every possible state of development, from the second stage up to the third stage.

IV. Brahmam and Sakti. This principle corresponds to your "spiritual intelligence." It is, in fact, Buddhi (I use the word Buddhi not in the ordinary sense, but in the sense in which it is used by our ancient philosophers); in other words, it is the seat of Bodha or Atmabodha.

One who has Atmabodha in its completeness is a Buddha. Buddhists know very well what this term signifies. This principle is described in the "Fragments" as an ent.i.ty coming into existence by the combination of Brahmam and Prakriti. I do not again know in what particular sense the word Prakriti is used in this connection. According to our philosophers it is an ent.i.ty arising from the union of Brahmam and Sakti. I have already explained the connotation attached by our philosophers to the words Prakriti and Sakti.

I stated that Prakriti in its primary state is Akasa.*

If Akasa be considered to be Sakti or power** then my statement as regards the ultimate state of Prakriti is likely to give rise to confusion and misapprehension unless I explain the distinction between Akasa and Sakti. Akasa is not, properly speaking, the crown of the astral light, nor does it by itself const.i.tute any of the six primary forces. But, generally speaking, whenever any phenomenal result is produced, Sakti acts in conjunction with Akasa. And, moreover, Akasa serves as a basis or Adhishthanum for the transmission of force currents and for the formation or generation of force or power correlations.***

-------- * According to the Buddhists, in Akasa lies that eternal, potential energy whose function it is to evolve all visible things out of itself.--Ed. Theos.

** It was never so considered, as we have shown it. But as the "Fragments" are written in English, a language lacking such an abundance of metaphysical terms to express ever minute change of form, substance and state as are found in the Sanskrit, it was deemed useless to confuse the Western reader, untrained in the methods of Eastern expression, more than is necessary, with a too nice distinctions of proper technical terms. As "Prakriti in its primary state is Akasa," and Sakti "is an attribute AKASA," it becomes evident that for the uninitiated it is all one. Indeed, to speak of the "union of Brahmam and Prakriti" instead of "Brahmam and Sakti" is no worse than for a theist to write that "That man has come into existence by the combination of spirit and matter,"

whereas, his word, framed in an orthodox shape, ought to read "man is a living soul was created by the power (or breath) of G.o.d over matter."

*** That is to say, the Aryan Akasa is another word for Buddhist s.p.a.cE (in its metaphysical meaning).--Ed. Theos.

In Mantrasastra the letter Ha represents Akasa, and you will find that this syllable enters into most of the sacred formula intended to be used in producing phenomenal results. But by itself it does not represent any Sakti. You may, if you please, call Sakti an attribute of Akasa.

I do not think that, as regards the nature of this principle, there can in reality exist any difference of opinion between the Buddhist and Brahmanical philosophers.

Buddhist and Brahmanical initiates know very well that mysterious circular mirror composed of two hemispheres which reflects as it were the rays emanating from the "burning bush" and the blazing star--the spiritual sun Shining in CHIDAKASAM.

The spiritual impressions const.i.tuting this principle have their existence in an occult power a.s.sociated with the ent.i.ty in question.

The successive incarnations of Buddha, in fact, mean the successive transfers of this mysterious power, or the impressions thereof. The transfer is only possible when the Mahatma* who transfers it has completely identified himself with his seventh principle, has annihilated his Ahankaram, and reduced it to ashes in CHIDAGNIKUNDUM, and has succeeded in making his thoughts correspond with the eternal laws of Nature and in becoming a co-worker with Nature. Or, to put the same thing in other words, when he has attained the state of Nirvana, the condition of final negation, negation of individual, or separate existence.**

--------- * The highest adept.

* In the words of Agatha in the "Maha-pari-Nirvana Sutra,"

"We reach a condition of rest Beyond the limit of any human knowledge"

--Ed. Theos.

VII. Atma.--The emanation from the absolute, corresponding to the seventh principle. As regards this ent.i.ty there exists positively no real difference of opinion between the Tibetan Buddhist adepts and our ancient Rishis.

We must now consider which of these ent.i.ties can appear after the individual's death in seance-rooms and produce the so-called spiritualistic phenomena.

Now, the a.s.sertion of the Spiritualists, that the "disembodied spirits"

of particular human beings appear in seance-rooms, necessarily implies that the ent.i.ty that so appears bears the stamp of some particular personality.

So, we have to ascertain beforehand in what ent.i.ty or ent.i.ties personality has its seat of existence. Apparently it exists in the person's particular formation of body, and in his subjective experiences (called his mind in their totality). On the death of the individual his body is destroyed; his lingasariram being decomposed, the power a.s.sociated with it becomes mingled in the current of the corresponding power in the macrocosm. Similarly, the third and fourth principles are mingled with their corresponding powers. These ent.i.ties may again enter into the composition of other organisms. As these ent.i.ties bear no impression of personality, the Spiritualists have no right to say that the disembodied spirit of the human being has appeared in the seance-room whenever any of these ent.i.ties may appear there. In fact, they have no means of ascertaining that they belonged to any particular individual.

Therefore, we must only consider whether any of the last three ent.i.ties appear in seance-rooms to amuse or to instruct Spiritualists. Let us take three particular examples of individuals, and see what becomes of these three principles after death.

I. One in whom spiritual attachments have greater force than terrestrial attachments.

II. One in whom spiritual aspirations do exist, but are merely of secondary importance to him, his terrestrial interests occupying the greater share of his attention.

III. One in whom there exists no spiritual aspirations whatsoever, one whose spiritual Ego is dead or non-existent to his apprehension.

We need not consider the case of a complete adept in this connection.

In the first two cases, according to our supposition, spiritual and mental experiences exist together; when spiritual consciousness exists, the existence of the seventh principle being recognized, it maintains its connection with the fifth and sixth principles. But the existence of terrestrial attachments creates the necessity of Punarjanmam (re-birth), the latter signifying the evolution of a new set of objective and subjective experiences, const.i.tuting a new combination of surrounding circ.u.mstances, or, in other words, a new world. The period between death and the next subsequent birth is occupied with the preparation required for the evolution of these new experiences. During the period of incubation, as you call it, the spirit will never of its own accord appear in this world, nor can it so appear.

There is a great law in this universe which consists in the reduction of subjective experiences to objective phenomena, and the evolution of the former from the latter. This is otherwise called "cyclic necessity."

Man is subjected to this law if he do not check and counterbalance the usual destiny or fate, and he can only escape its control by subduing all his terrestrial attachments completely. The new combination of circ.u.mstances under which he will then be placed may be better or worse than the terrestrial conditions under which he lived; but in his progress to a new world, you may be sure he will never turn around to have a look at his spiritualistic friends.

In the third of the above three cases there is, by our supposition, no recognition of spiritual consciousness or of spirits; so they are non-existing so far as he is concerned. The case is similar to that of an organ or faculty which remains unused for a long time. It then practically ceases to exist.

These ent.i.ties, as it were, remain his, or in his possession, when they are stamped with the stamp of recognition. When such is not the case, the whole of his individuality is centred in his fifth principle. And after death this fifth principle is the only representative of the individual in question.

By itself it cannot evolve for itself a new set of objective experiences, or, to say the same thing in other words, it has no punarjanmam. It is such an ent.i.ty that can appear in seance-rooms; but it is absurd to call it a disembodied spirit.* It is merely a power or force retaining the impressions of the thoughts or ideas of the individual into whose composition it originally entered. It sometimes summons to its aid the Kamarupa power, and creates for itself some particular ethereal form (not necessarily human).

-------- * It is especially on this point that the Aryan and Arahat doctrines quite agree. The teaching and argument that follow are in every respect those of the Buddhist Himalayan Brotherhood.--Ed. Theos.

Its tendencies of action will be similar to those of the individual's mind when he was living. This ent.i.ty maintains its existence so long as the impressions on the power a.s.sociated with the fifth principle remain intact. In course of time they are effaced, and the power in question is then mixed up in the current of its corresponding power in the MACROCOSM, as the river loses itself in the sea. Ent.i.ties like these may afford signs of there having been considerable intellectual power in the individuals to which they belonged; because very high intellectual power may co-exist with utter absence of spiritual consciousness. But from this circ.u.mstance it cannot be argued that either the spirits or the spiritual Egos of deceased individuals appear in seance-rooms.

There are some people in India who have thoroughly studied the nature of such ent.i.ties (called Pisacham). I do not know much about them experimentally, as I have never meddled with this disgusting, profitless, and dangerous branch of investigation.

The Spiritualists do not know what they are really doing. Their investigations are likely to result in course of time either in wicked sorcery or in the utter spiritual ruin of thousands of men and women.*

-------- * We share entirely in this idea.--Ed. Theos.

The views I have herein expressed have been often ill.u.s.trated by our ancient writers by comparing the course of a man's life or existence to the orbital motion of a planet round the sun. Centripetal force is spiritual attraction, and centrifugal terrestrial attraction. As the centripetal force increases in magnitude in comparison with the centrifugal force, the planet approaches the sun--the individual reaches a higher plane of existence. If, on the other hand, the centrifugal force becomes greater than the centripetal force, the planet is removed to a greater distance from the sun, and moves in a new orbit at that distance--the individual comes to a lower level of existence. These are ill.u.s.trated in the first two instances I have noticed above.

We have only to consider the two extreme cases.

When the planet in its approach to the sun pa.s.ses over the line where the centripetal and centrifugal force completely neutralize each other, and is only acted on by the centripetal force, it rushes towards the sun with a gradually increasing velocity, and is finally mixed up with the ma.s.s of the sun's body. This is the case of a complete adept.

Again, when the planet in its retreat from the sun reaches a point where the centrifugal force becomes all-powerful, it flies off in a tangential direction from its...o...b..t, and goes into the depths of void s.p.a.ce. When it ceases to be under the control of the sun, it gradually gives up its generative heat, and the creative energy that it originally derived from the sun, and remains a cold ma.s.s of material particles wandering through s.p.a.ce until the ma.s.s is completely decomposed into atoms. This cold ma.s.s is compared to the fifth principle under the conditions above noticed, and the heat, light, and energy that left it are compared to the sixth and seventh principles.

Either after a.s.suming a new orbit or in its course of deviation from the old orbit to the new, the planet can never go back to any point in its old orbit, as the various...o...b..ts lying in different planes never intersect each other.

This figurative representation correctly explains the ancient Brahmanical theory on the subject. It is merely a branch of what is called the Great Law of the Universe by the ancient mystics.

--T. Subba Row