Reincarnation Part 21

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 81: The fifth, or Aryan race, in theosophic nomenclature; the fourth was that of Atlantis; the third lived on the great southern continent, Lemuria; the two preceding ones were, so to speak, only the embryologic preparation for the following races.]

[Footnote 82: The "life-atoms," infinitesimal particles which by aggregation form the human body. Certain of these atoms are preserved, on the death of the body, as germs which will facilitate the reconstruction of the physical body at the next rebirth.]

[Footnote 83: The divine Essence which animates animals, and so, in another sense the astral bodies of men and animals, bodies whose particles _transmigrate_ as do the physical atoms.]

[Footnote 84: H. P. Blavatsky, _Secret Doctrine._]

[Footnote 85: These words are relative; they express differences in the evolution of souls.]

[Footnote 86: The atmosphere of subtle physical elements radiating round the human body and acting in a defensive _role_ by preventing the penetration of unhealthy elements from the immediate surroundings.]

[Footnote 87: The "material sin" of Manu.]

[Footnote 88: One, here means the "life atoms" of a man's body.]

[Footnote 89: The word is here used in a generic sense; in the present work, it would be more precise to replace it by the word Resurrection.]

[Footnote 90: This "triad" comprises the visible matter of the body, the etheric substance, and the life (Prana) which the human ether absorbs and specialises for the vitalising of the body. See _Man and his Bodies_, by A. Besant.]

[Footnote 91: H. P. Blavatsky, _The Theosophist_, Vol. 4, pages 287, 288.]

[Footnote 92: The finer elements invisible to physical eye. Their function is sensation, and by their a.s.sociation with the human mental body incarnated in them, they give birth to the emotions and pa.s.sions, in a word, to the animal in man.]

[Footnote 93: The _Umbra_ of the Latin races.]

[Footnote 94: The _Kama Rupa_ of the Hindus.]

[Footnote 95: The purgatory of Christians, the astral plane of theosophists, and the _Kamaloka_ of Hindus.]

[Footnote 96: By the _fire_ of purgatory, says the Catholic metaphor.]

[Footnote 97: See A. Besant's masterly work on _Reincarnation._]

[Footnote 98: Dharma is a wide word, primarily meaning the essential nature of a thing; hence the laws of its being, its duty; and it includes religious rites, appropriate to those laws. This definition, as also the extracts quoted, are taken from A. Besant's translation of the _Bhagavad Gita._]

[Footnote 99: Human souls, not all of them, but only the pious ones, are daimonic and divine. Once separated from the body, and after the struggle to acquire piety, which consists in knowing G.o.d and injuring none, such a soul becomes all intelligence. The impious soul, however, remains in its own essence and punishes itself by seeking a human body to enter into, for no other body can receive a human soul, it cannot enter the body of an animal devoid of reason: divine law preserves the human soul from such infamy. Hermes Trismegistus, Book I, _Lacle_: Hermes to his son Tat.]

[Footnote 100: Bodies.]

[Footnote 101: The physical body with its etheric "double," and life (_Prana_).]

[Footnote 102: The kamic body.]

[Footnote 103: The causal body.]

[Footnote 104: _History_. Book 2, chap. 123.]

[Footnote 105: The causal body.]

[Footnote 106: The buddhic body, which, in ordinary man, is only in an embryonic stage.]

[Footnote 107: Generally called _Prana_, in man. _Jiva_ is the solar life which, on being trans.m.u.ted by the physical body, becomes _Prana_, the human physical life. Both _Jiva_ and _Prana_ differ from each other in nature and in vibration.]

[Footnote 108: The mental body.]

[Footnote 109: The causal body. In annihilation--what has been called the loss of the soul--the kamic principle (astral body) in the course of a rather long succession of lives, does not allow the mental body to become separated from it in purgatory; it keeps it imprisoned up to the time of its disintegration; the causal body reaps nothing from the incarnations, at each re-birth it loses the forces it is putting forth in order to form the new mental body. It gradually atrophies until the time comes when it is no longer fit to make use of the ordinary bodies of the race to which it belongs. Then it remains at rest, whilst the mental body gradually disintegrates; afterwards it takes up once again its series of incarnations in the imperfectly evolved bodies of primitive races. This will be understood only by those who have studied theosophy.]

[Footnote 110: In this pa.s.sage, H. P. Blavatsky alludes to the few etheric, astral, and mental atoms which, at each disincarnation, are incorporated in the causal body and form the nuclei of the future bodies corresponding to them.]

[Footnote 111: _History._ Vol. 2, book 2, chap. 123 (already quoted).]

[Footnote 112: Of the elements of the personality--of the astral body, in all probability.]

[Footnote 113: The Ego (soul) also lives in the air (the symbol of heaven) and on the earth (whose symbol is water, dense matter)--in heaven, after disincarnation; on earth, during incarnation.]

[Footnote 114: The soul is immortal and needs no food.]

[Footnote 115: Its name, Khopiroo, comes from the root Koproo, to become, to be born again (H. P. Blavatsky).

Hartley says: "At the centre of the solar disk appears the Scarabeus as the symbol of the soul re-uniting itself with the body. The Scarabeus is called by Pierret the synthesis of the Egyptian religion--type of resurrection--of self-existence--of self-engendering like the G.o.ds. As Tori, or Chepi, the Sun is the Scarabeus, or self-engenderer, and the mystery of G.o.d."]

[Footnote 116: Also called kamic body, astral body, body of desire, etc.]

[Footnote 117: Reincarnation.]

[Footnote 118: Vol. 3, p. 124.]

[Footnote 119: The causal body illumined by the divine Essence, which theosophy names atma-Buddhi.]

[Footnote 120: He calls him "the prince of lying fathers and dishonest writers." (_Egypt_, vol. 1, p. 200).]

[Footnote 121: Eusebius even confesses this himself: "I have set forth whatever is calculated to enhance the glory of our religion, and kept back everything likely to cast a stain upon it." (_Proeparatio Evangelica._ Book 12, chap. 31).]

[Footnote 122: _Namae-Sat Vakhshur-i-Mahabad_, also in the fourth "Journey" in chap. 4 of _Jam-i-Kaikhoshru_ (see _The Theosophist_, p.

333, vol. 21).]

[Footnote 123: See _Bardic Triads_, by E. Williams. Translated from the original Welsh.]

[Footnote 124: "'Abred' is the circle of the migrations through which every animated being proceeds from death: man has pa.s.sed through it."

_Triad_ 13.

"Transmigration is in 'Abred.'" _Triad_ 14.

"There are three primitive calamities in 'Abred': the necessity of evolution (of rebirths), the absence of memory (of past incarnations) and death (followed by rebirth)." _Triad_ 18 (the words in parentheses are our own).

"By reason of three things man is subjected to 'Abred' (or transmigration): by the absence of the effort to attain knowledge, by non-attachment to good, and by attachment to evil. As the result of these, he descends into 'Abred,' to the stage corresponding to his development, and begins his transmigrations anew." _Triad_ 25.