autores varios - theosophical articles and notes

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PHX-ULT

THEOSOPHICAL

ARTICLES AND NOTESReprinted from

Original Sources

THE THEOSOPHY Co.

FOREWORD

The articles in this volume come from a variety of sources. They arepresented here for their intrinsic worth to students of Theosophy. They

are grouped according to the place of first appearancein theTheosophist, Lucifer, the Path, and other sources. Within thesegroupings they are arranged chronologically. Internal evidence stronglysuggests that some of them have an adept origin, and they are sopresented. One or two articles unintentionally omitted from TheosophicalArticles by H.P.B. and W.Q.J. are included. Other contributions, notidentified as to author, are of a quality which makes it appropriate toreprint them here. Thus there are articles, replies and notes whichappeared in the Theosophist and Lucifer, also material by Damodar K.Mavalankar, and two articles signed Murdhna Joti from the Path.Ciceros Vision of Scipio is included by reason of H.P.B.s briefly in

formative footnotes. Judges Notes on the Bhagavad Gita is a Patharticle which was not a part of the book of that name. Finally, there ismaterial taken from A.P. Sinnetts The Occult World, from the notes ofRobert Bowen, a pupil of H.P.B., and also from notes found in the effectsof Countess Wachtmeister, apparently taken down from dictation byH.P.B.

The value of the writings here presented will be self-evident toTheosophical students and readers.

The Editors

ARTICLES FROM THE THEOSOPHIST

CONTENTS

Index

Castes in India 1
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A Reply to our Critics 6

Mediums and Yogees 11

Whence the Name Lunatics? 15

Devachan: Reply IThe Real and Unreal 17

Reply ITDream Life 23

Reply IIIVarious States of Devachan 29

Projection of the Double 35

Contemplation and Correspondence 39

Correspondence on Contemplation 44

The Metaphysical Basis of Esoteric Buddhism 49

Astrology 57

Initiation 60

Le Phare de LInconnu (VII) 62

NOTES FROM THE THEOSOPHIST

As you can see below a list of titles for untitled replies and provided linksto the sections. The words in the new titles are from the textat the beginning of what particular reply is being referenced.

Notes from The Theosophist 73

The Theosophical Society requires no oaths 76

Conjuror, mesmerist, medium or spiritualist! 80

Questions by two correspondents 83

FUNERAL RITES AMONG SAVAGE RACES 93

The pale reflections of men and women 98

To realize the conditions of spiritual existence 99

THE FIVE-POINTED STAR 101

To THE EDITOR OF THE THE0S0PHIST: 105

The physical phenomena of stone showers, 106

The mysteries of bird-flying 114

The phenomena of Hypnotism 115

The power of the Yogi 116

Human hibernation 119

Do female adepts exist at all? 122
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Neither Tibetan nor Hindu Mahatmas meddle with politics 125

The belief in a personal god 127

FROM LUCIFER

Thoughts on Theosophy 131

Some Words on Daily Life 133

The Three Desires 137

What Good Has Theosophy Done in India 143

A Masters Letter 148

Consciousness 150

The Function of Attention in Personal Development 153

The Genesis of Evil in Human Life 159

Thoughts on Karma and Reincarnation 167

The Vision of Scipio 175

India 184

The Great Masters Letter 189

Notes from Lucifer 194

FROM THE PATH

Seership 213

Living the Higher Life 224

The Worship of the Dead 236

Kama LokaSuicidesAccidental Deaths 239

Notes on Devachan 242

Devachan 248

Notes on The Bhagavad Gita 251Some Views of an Asiatic 257

A Friend of Old Time and of the Future 261

OTHER SOURCES
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The Dwellers on High Mountains 265

The Secret Doctrine and Its Study 270

From The Occult World 276

Notes From Madame 298

CASTES IN INDIA

NO man of sincerity and moral courage can read Mr. G. C. WhitworthsProfession of Faith, as reviewed in the April Theosophist, without feelinghimself challenged to be worthy of the respect of one who professessuch honourable sentiments. I, too, am called upon to make mystatement of personal belief. It is due to my family and caste-fellows thatthey should know why I have deliberately abandoned my caste and

other worldly considerations. If, henceforth, there is to be a chasmbetween them and myself, I owe it to myself to declare that thisalienation is of my own choosing, and I am not cut off for bad conduct. Iwould be glad to take with me, if possible, into my new career, theaffectionate good wishes of my kinsmen. But, if this cannot be done, Imust bear their displeasure, as I may, for I am obeying a paramountconviction of duty.

I was born in the family of the Karhda Mahrshtra caste of Brahmins,as my surname will indicate. My father carefully educated me in thetenets of our religion, and, in addition, gave me every facility foracquiring an English education. From the age of ten until I was about

fourteen, I was very much exercised in mind upon the subject of religionand devoted myself with great ardour to our orthodox religiouspractices. Then my ritualistic observances were crowded aside by myscholastic studies, but, until about nine months ago, my religiousthoughts and aspirations were entirely unchanged. At this time, I had theinestimable good fortune to read Isis Unveiled; a Key to the Mysteries ofAncient and Modern Religion and Science, and to join the TheosophicalSociety. It is no exaggeration to say that I have been a really living manonly these few months; for between life as it appears to me now and lifeas I comprehended it before, there is an unfathomable abyss. I feel thatnow for the first time I have a glimpse of what man and life are thenature and powers of the one, the possibilities, duties, and joys of theother. Before, though ardently ritualistic, I was not really enjoyinghappiness and peace of mind. I simply practised my religion withoutunderstanding it. The world bore just as hard upon me as upon others,and I could get no clear

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view of the future. The only real thing to me seemed the days routine;at best the horizon before me extended only to the rounding of a busylife with the burning of my body and the obsequial ceremonies renderedto me by friends. My aspirations were only for more Zamindries, socialposition and the gratification of whims and appetites. But my later

reading and thinking have shown me that all these are but the vapoursof a dream and that he only is worthy of being called man, who hasmade caprice his slave and the perfection of his spiritual self a grandobject of his efforts. As I could not enjoy these convictions and myfreedom of action within my caste, I am stepping outside it.

In making this profession, let it be understood that I have taken thisstep, not because I am a Theosophist, but because in studyingTheosophy I have learnt and heard of the ancient splendour and glory ofmy countrythe highly esteemed land of Aryvarta. Joining theTheosophical Society does not interfere with the social, political, orreligious relations of any person. All have an equal right in the Society to

hold their opinions. So far from persuading me to do what I have, Mme.Blavatsky and Col. Olcott have strongly urged me to wait until somefuture time, when I might have had ampler time to reflect. But theglimpse I have got into the former greatness of my country makes mefeel sadly for her degeneration. I feel it, therefore, my bounden duty todevote all my humble powers to her restoration. Besides, his stories ofvarious nations furnish to us many examples of young persons havinggiven up everything for the sake of their country and having ultimatelysucceeded in gaining their aims. Without patriots, no country can rise.This feeling of patriotism by degrees grew so strong in me that it hasnow prepared my mind to stamp every personal consideration under my

feet for the sake of my motherland. In this, I am neither a revolutionistnor a politician, but simply an advocate of good morals and principles aspractised in ancient times. The study of Theosophy has thrown a lightover me in regard to my country, my religion, my duty. I have be come abetter Aryan than I ever was. I have similarly heard my Parsi brotherssay that they have been better Zoroastrians since they joined theTheosophical Society. I have also seen the Buddhists write often to theSociety that the study of Theosophy has enabled them to appreciatetheir religion the more. And thus this study makes every man respect hisreligion the more. It fur-

3nishes to him a sight that can pierce through the dead letter and seeclearly the spirit. He can read all his religious books between the lines. Ifwe view all the religions in their popular sense, they appear stronglyantagonistic to each other in various details. None agrees with the other.And yet representatives of those faiths say that the study of Theosophyexplains to them all that has been said in their religion and makes themfeel a greater respect for it. There must, therefore, be one common


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ground on which all the religious systems are built. And this ground,which lies at the bottom of all, is truth. There can be but one absolutetruth, but different persons have different perceptions of that truth. Andthis truth is morality. If we separate the dogmas that cling to theprinciples set forth in any religion, we shall find that morality is preached

in every one of them. By religion I do not mean all the minor sects thatprevail to an innumerable extent all over the world, but the principalones from which have sprung up these different sects. It is, therefore,proper for every person to abide by the principles of morality. And,according to them, I consider it every mans duty to do what he can tomake the world better and happier. This can proceed from a love forhumanity. But how can a man love the whole of humanity if he has nolove for his country men? Can he love the whole, who does not love apart? If I, there fore, wish to place my humble services at the disposal ofthe world, I must first begin by working for my country. And this I couldnot do by remaining in my caste. I found that, instead of a love for his

countrymen, the observance of caste distinction leads one to hate evenhis neighbour, because he happens to be of another caste. I could notbear this injustice. What fault is it of any one that he is born in aparticular caste? I respect a man for his qualities and not for his birth.That is to say, that man is superior in my eyes, whose inner man hasbeen developed or is in the state of development. This body, wealth,friends, relations and all other worldly enjoyments, that men hold nearand dear to their hearts. are to pass away sooner or later. But the recordof our actions is ever to remain to be handed down from generation togeneration. Our actions must, therefore, be such as will make us worthyof our existence in this world, as long as we are here as well as after

death. I could not do this by observing the customs of caste. It made meselfish and unmindful of the requirements of my fellow brothers. Iweighed all these circumstances in my mind, and

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found that I believed in caste as a religious necessity no more than inthe palm-tree yielding mangoes. I saw that, if it were not for thisdistinction, India would not have been so degraded, for this distinctionengendered hatred among her sons. It made them hate and quarrel withone another. The peace of the land was disturbed. People could notunite with one another for good purposes. They waged war with one

another, instead of devoting all their combined energies to the cause ofameliorating the condition of the country. The foundation of immoralitywas thus laid, until it has reached now so low a point that, unless thismischief is stopped, the tottering pillars of India will soon give way. I donot by this mean to blame my ancestors who originally instituted thissystem. To me their object seems to be quite a different one. It wasbased in my opinion on the qualities of every person. The caste was notthen hereditary as it is now. This will be seen from the various ancient


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sacred books which are full of instances in which Kshatriyas and evenMhrs and Chmbhrs, who are considered the lowest of all, were notonly made and regarded as Brahmins, but almost worshipped as demi-gods simply for their qualities. If such is the case, why should we stillstick to that custom which we now find not only impracticable but

injurious? I again saw that, if I were to observe outwardly what I did notreally believe inwardly, I was practising hypocrisy. I found that I was thusmaking myself a slave, by not enjoying the freedom of conscience. I wasthus acting immorally. But Theosophy had taught me that to enjoypeace of mind and self-respect, I must be honest, candid, peaceful andregard all men as equally my brothers, irrespective of caste, colour, raceor creed. This, I see, is an essential part of religion. I must try to putthese theoretical problems into practice. These are the convictions thatfinally hurried me out of my caste.

I would at the same time ask my fellow countrymen, who are of myopinion, to come out boldly for their country. I understand the apparent

sacrifices one is required to make in adopting such a course, for I myselfhad to make them, but these are sacrifices only in the eyes of one whohas regard for this world of matter. When a man has once extricatedhimself from this regard and when the sense of the duty he owes to hiscountry and to himself reigns paramount in his heart, these are nosacrifices at all for him. Let us, therefore, leave off this distinction whichseparates us from one

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another, join in one common accord, and combine all our energies forthe good of our country. Let us feel that we are Aryans, and prove

ourselves worthy of our ancestors. I may be told that I am making afoolish and useless sacrifice; that I cut myself off from all socialintercourse and even risk losing the decent disposal of my body by thoseupon whom our customs impose that duty; and that none but a visionarywould imagine that he, even though chiefest among Brahmins, couldrestore his countrys greatness and the enlightenment of a whole nation,so great as ours. But these are the arguments of selfishness and moralcowardice. Single men have saved nations before, and though my vanitydoes not make me even dream that so glorious a result is within myhumble grasp, yet a good example is never valueless, and it can be seteven by the most insignificant. Certain it is that, without examples and

self-sacrifices, there can be no reform. The world, as I see it, imposes onme a duty, and I think the most powerful and the only permanent causeof happiness is the consciousness that I am trying to do that duty.

I wish it understoodin case what has preceded has not made thisperfectly clearthat I have neither become a Materialist nor a Christian.I am an Aryan in religion as all else, follow the Ved, and believe it to bethe parent of all religions among men. As Theosophy explains the


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secondary human religions, so does it make plain the meaning of theVed. The teachings of the Rishis acquire a new splendour and majesty,and I revere them a hundred times more than ever before.

DAMODAR K. MAVALANKAR

Theosophist, May, 1880

A REPLY TO OUR CRITICS

(Our final answer to several objections.)

IN the ordinary run of daily life speech may be silver, while silence isgold. With the editors of periodicals devoted to some special objectsilence in certain cases amounts to cowardice and false pretences.Such shall not be our case.

We are perfectly aware of the fact that the simple presence of the word

Spiritualism on the title-page of our journal, causes it to lose in theeyes of materialist and sceptic 50 per cent of its valuefor we arerepeatedly told so by many of our best friends, some of whom promiseus more popularity, hencean increase of subscribers, would we buttake out the contemptible term and replace it by some othersynonymous in meaning, but less obnoxious phonetically to the generalpublic. That would be acting under false pretences. The undisturbedpresence of the unpopular word will indicate our reply.

That we did not include Spiritualism among the other subjects to whichour journal is devoted in the hopes that it should do us good serviceamong the Spiritualists is proved by the following fact:From the first

issue of our Prospectus to the present day, subscribers from Spiritualquarters have not amounted to four per cent on our subscription list.Yet, to our merriment, we are repeatedly spoken of as Spiritualists bythe press andour opponents. Whether really ignorant of, or purposelyignoring our views, they tax us with belief in Spirits. Not that we would atall object to the appellationtoo many far worthier and wiser personsthan we, firmly believing in Spiritsbut that would be acting underfalse pretences again. And so, we are called a Spiritualist by personswho foolishly regard the term as a brand, while the orthodoxSpiritualists, who are well aware that we attribute their phenomena toquite another agency than Spirits, resent our peculiar opinions as aninsult to their belief, and in their turn ridicule and oppose us.

This fact alone ought to prove, if anything ever will, that our journalpursues an honest policy. That established for the one and

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sole object, namely for the illumination of truth, however un popularithas remained throughout, true to its first principlethat of absolute


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impartiality. And that as fully answers another charge, viz., that ofpublishing views of our correspondents with which we often do notconcur ourselves. Your journal teems with articles upholding ridiculoussuperstitions and absurd ghost-stories, is the complaint in one letter.You neglect laying a sufficient stress in your editorials upon the

necessity of discrimination between facts and error, and in the selectionof the matter furnished by your contributors, says another. A third oneaccuses us of not sufficiently rising from supposed facts, to principles,which would prove to our readers in every case the former no betterthan fictions. In other wordsas we understand itwe are accused ofneglecting scientific induction? Our critics may be right, but neither arewe altogether wrong. In the face of the many crucial and strictlyscientific experiments made by our most eminent savants it would takea wiser sage than King Solomon himself, to decide now between fact andfiction. The query: What is Truth? is more difficult to answer in thenineteenth than in the first century of our era. The appearance of his

evil genius to Brutus in the shape of a monstrous human form, which,entering his tent in the darkness and silence of night promised to meethim in the plains of Philippiwas a fact to the Roman tyrannicide; it wasbut a dreamto his slaves who neither saw nor heard any thing on thatnight. The existence of an antipodal continent and the heliocentricsystem were facts to Columbus and Galileo years before they couldactually demonstrate them; yet the existence of America as that of ourpresent solar system was as fiercely denied several centuries back asthe phenomena of spiritualism are now. Facts existed in the pre-scientific past, and errors are as thick as berries in our scientificpresent. With whom then, is the criterion of truth to be left? Are we to

abandon it to the mercy and judgment of a prejudiced society constantlycaught trying to subvert that which it does not understand; ever seekingto transform sham and hypocrisy into synonyms of propriety andrespectability? Or shall we blindly leave it to modern exact Science socalled? But Science has neither said her last word, nor can her variousbranches of knowledge rejoice in their qualification of exact, but so longas the hypotheses of yesterday are not upset by the discoveries of to-day. Science is atheistic, phantasmagorical, and always in labor withconjecture.It can never become knowledgeper se. Not to

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know is its climax, says Professor A. Wilder, our New York Vice-President, certainly more of a man of Science himself than many ascientist better known than he is to the world. Moreover, the learnedrepresentatives of the Royal Society have as many cherished hobbies,and are as little free of prejudice and preconception as any othermortals. It is perhaps, to religion and her handmaid theology, with herseventy times seven sects, each claiming and none proving its right to


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the claim of truth, that, in our search for it, we ought to humbly turn?One of our severe Christian Areopagites actually expresses the fear thateven some of the absurd stories of the Puranas have found favour withthe Theosophist. But let him tell us; has the Bible any less of absurdghost-stories and ridiculous miracles in it than the Hindu Puranas, the

Buddhist Maha Jataka, or even one of the most shamefully superstitiouspublications of the Spiritualists? (We quote from his letter). We areafraid in all and one it is but:

Faith, fanatic faith, once wedded fast

To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last . .

andwe decline accepting anything on faith. In common with most ofthe periodicals we remind our readers in every number of theTHEOSOPHIST that its Editors disclaim responsibility for opinionsexpressed by contributors with some of which they (we) do not agree.And that is all we can do. We never started out in our paper as Teachers

but rather as humble and faithful recorders of the innumerable beliefs,creeds, scientific hypotheses, and even superstitions current in thepast ages and now more than lingering yet in our own. Never havingbeen a sectariani.e. an interested partywe maintain that in the faceof the present situation, during that incessant warfare, in which oldcreeds and new doctrines, conflicting schools and authorities, revivals ofblind faith and incessant scientific discoveries running a race as thoughfor the survival of the fittest, swallow up and mutually destroy andannihilate each otherdaring, indeed, were that man who would assumethe task of deciding between them! Who, we ask, in the presence ofthose most wonderful and most unexpected achievements of our great

physicists and chemists would risk to draw the line of demarcationbetween the possible and the impossible? Where is the honest man whoconversant at all with the latest conclusions of arch philology,paleography, and especially Assyriology, would undertake to prove thesuperiority

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of the religious superstitions of the civilized Europeans over those ofthe heathen, and even of the fetish-worshipping savages?

Having said so much, we have made clear, we hope, the reason why,believing no mortal man infallible, nor claiming that privilege forourselves, we open our columns to the discussion of every view andopinion, provided it is not proved absolutely supernatural. Besides,whenever we make room to unscientific contributions it is when thesetreat upon subjects which lie entirely out of the province of physicalscience. Generally upon questions that the average and dogmaticscientist rejects a priori and without examination; but which, the realman of science finds not only possible but after investigation very often


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fearlessly proclaims the disputed question as an undeniable fact. Inrespect to most transcendental subjects the sceptic can no moredisprove than the believer prove his point. FACT is the only tribunal wesubmit to and recognise it without appeal. And before that tribunal aTyndall and an ignoramus stand on a perfect par. Alive to the truism that

every path may eventually lead to the highway as every river to theocean, we never reject a contribution simply because we do not believein the subject it treats upon, or disagree with its conclusions. Contrastalone can enable us to appreciate things at their right value; and unlessa judge compares notes and hears both sides he can hardly come to acorrect decision. Dum vitant stulti vitia in contrariais our motto; andwe seek to prudently walk between the many ditches without rushinginto either. For one man to demand from another that he shall believelike himself, whether in a question of religion or science is supremelyunjust and despotic. Besides, it is absurd. For it amounts to exacting thatthe brains of the convert, his organs of perception, his whole

organization, in short, be reconstructed precisely on the model of that ofhis teacher, and, that he shall have the same temperament and mentalfaculties as the other has. And why not his nose and eyes, in such acase? Mental slavery is the worst of all slaveries. It is a state over whichbrutal force having no real power, it always denotes either an abjectcowardice or a great intellectual weakness. . .

Among many other charges, we are accused of not sufficientlyexercising our editorial right of selection. We beg to differ and contradictthe imputation. As every other person blessed with brains instead ofcalfs feet-jelly in his head, we certainly have

10our opinions upon things in general, and things occult especially, tosome of which we hold very firmly. But these being our personal views,and though we have as good a right to them as any, we have nonewhatever to force them for recognition upon others. We do not believe inthe activity of departed spiritsothers and among these, many of theFellows of the Theosophical Society doand we are bound to respecttheir opinions, so long as they respect ours. To follow every article froma contributor with an Editors Note correcting his erroneous ideaswould amount to turning our strictly impartial journal into a sectarianorgan. We decline such an office of Sir Oracle.

The THEOSOPIHST is a journal of our Society. Each of its Fellows beingleft absolutely untrammeled in his opinions, and the body representingcollectively nearly every creed, nationality and school of philosophy,every member has a right to claim room in the organ of his Society forthe defence of his own particular creed and views. Our Society being anabsolute and an uncompromising Republic of Conscience, preconceptionand narrowmindedness in science and philosophy have no room in it.


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They are as hateful and as much denounced by us as dogmatism andbigotry in theology; and this we have repeated ad nauseam usque.

Having explained our position, we will close with the following partingwords to our sectarian friends and critics. The materialists and scepticswho upbraid us in the name of modern Sciencethe Dame who always

shakes her head and finger in scorn at everything she has not yetfathomedwe would remind of the suggestive but too mild words of thegreat Arago: He is a rash man, who outside of pure mathematicspronounces the word impossible. And to theology, which under hermany orthodox masks throws mud at us from behind every securecorner we retort by Victor Hugos celebrated paradox: In the name ofRELIGION, we protest against all and every religion!

Theosophist, July, 1881

MEDIUMS AND YOGEES

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO?

BY * * *

YOGEE is a man who has prepared himself by a long discipline of bodyand spirit, and is thereby rendered capable of dealing with phenomena,and receiving occult communications at will, the theory being that he, soto say, paralyzes his physical brain and reduces his mind to completepassivity by one of the numerous modes at his command, one of whichis the magnetization of the second set of faculties pertaining to andexercised by the spiritual or inner man. The soul is inducted by the body,

and, in its turn, is used to liberate the spirit, which is thus placed intodirect rapport with the object desired. For example:A telegraph line atstations A, B, C, D, E, in ordinary cases, sends messages from A to B, Bto C and so on; but, when the several stations are connected, themessage may be received direct at E from A without the intermediatestations being made aware of it. In the same manner, the nervesbecoming passive, the Yog power controls the other faculties, andfinally enables the spirit to receive a communication, which, in the othercase, it cannot, because it must act through several mediums.

As the magnetic power is directed to any particular faculty, so thatfaculty at once forms a direct line of communication with the spirit,1which, receiving the impressions, conveys them back to the physicalbody.2

1 Sixth principlespiritual soul.

2 In the normal or natural state, the sensations are transmitted from the lowestphysical to the highest spiritual body, i.e., from the first to the 6th principle (the 7thbeing no organized or conditioned body, but an infinite hence unconditioned principleor state), the faculties of each body having to awaken the faculties of the next higher


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one to transmit the message in succession, until they reach the last, when, havingreceived the impression, the latter (the spiritual soul) sends it back in an inverse orderto the body. Hence, the faculties of some of the bodies (we use this word for want ofa better term) being less developed, they fail to transmit the message correctly to thehighest principle, and thus also fail to produce the right impression upon the physicalsenses, as a telegram may have started, from the place of its destination, faultless andhave been bungled up and misinterpreted by the telegraph operator at someintermediate station. This is why some people, otherwise endowed with greatintellectual powers and perceptive faculties, are often utterly unable to appreciatesay, the beauties of nature, or some particular moral quality; as however perfect theirphysical intellectunless the original, material or rough physical impression conveyedhas passed in a circuit through the sieve of every principle(from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, upto 7, and down again from 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, to No. 1)and that every sieve is in goodorder,the spiritual perception will always he imperfect. The Yogi, who, by a constanttraining and incessant watchfulness, keeps his septenary instrument in good tune andwhose spirit has obtained a perfect control over all, can, at will, and by paralyzing thefunctions of the 4 intermediate principles, communicate from body to spirit and viceversadirectEd. Theosophist.

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The spirit cannot grasp at the communications it desires to receive,unassisted by the physical organization, just as, in the case of a lunatic,the spirit is present, but the faculty of reason is lost, and, therefore, thespirit cannot make the man sane; or, as in the case of a blind man, thespirit and reasoning powers are sound, but the faculty of sight isdestroyed; hence the soul of the blind man cannot realize theimpressions which would be conveyed to it by the optic nerves andretina.

The spirit is an immortal ether (principle?) which cannot be impaired inany way, and, although it is, to a certain extent, subservient to the body

and its faculties during the life-time of the body it is attached to, it can,through their agency, be so liberated in a higher or lesser degree as tobe made to act independently of the other principles. This can beachieved by magnetic power or nerve power, if preferred, and thus thespiritual man be enabled to receive communications from other spirits,to traverse space and produce various phenomena, to assume anyshape and appear in any form it desires.

The secret of the theory is this, that the Yogee, possessing the power ofself-mesmerisation and having a perfect control over all his innerprinciples, sees whatever he desires to see, rejecting all elementary

influences which tend to contaminate his purity.The medium receives his communications differently. He wishes forspirits; they are attracted towards him, their magnetic influencescontrolling his faculties in proportion to the strength of their respectivemagnetic powers and the passivity of the subject; the nervous fluidconveys their impressions to the soul or spirit in the same manner, andoften the same results are produced as in the case of the Yogee, withthis important difference that they are not what the medium or spiritist


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wishes, but what the spirits (elementary influences) will produce; henceit is that sometimes (in spiritism) a question on one subject is asked, anda reply of a different nature received, irrelevant to the point and more orless after the Elementarys disposition. The spiritist cannot at desirepro duce a fixed result,the Yogee can. The spiritist runs the risk of evil

influences, which impair the faculties the soul has to command, andthese facultiesbeing more prone to evil than good (as every thinghaving a great percentage of impure matter in it)are rapidlyinfluenced. The Yogee overcomes this, and his faculties are entirelywithin his control, the soul acquiring a greater scope for

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working them and keeping them in check; for, although the soul is theirruler, yet it is subservient to them. I will give a familiar illustration :Abattery generates electricity, the wires convey the cur rent, and themechanism is put in motion. Just so, the soul is the generator or battery,

the nerves the wires, and the faculties the mechanism made to work.The Yogee forms a direct connection between his spiritual soul and anyfaculty, and, by the power of his trained will, that is by magneticinfluence, concentrates all his powers in the soul, which enables him tograsp the subject of his enquiry and convey it back to the physicalorgans, through the various channels of communication.

If the Yogee desires to see a vision, his optic nerves receive themagnetic fluid; if an answer to a question is wanted, the faculties ofthought and perception are charged by him; and so on. If he desires totraverse space in spirit, this is easily done by him by transferring thefaculty of will, and, as he may have acquired more or less power, so will

he be able to produce greater or minor results.

The soul of the medium does not become the generator. It is not thebattery. It is a Leyden jar, charged from the magnetic influence of thespirits. The faculties are put in action just as the spirits socalled,make them work from the jar they have charged with their own currents.These currents, being magnetic, take after the invisibles own good orevil disposition. The influence of a really good spirit is not left upon theearth after death, so that, in reality, there are no good spirits, althoughsome may not be mischievous, while others may be full of real devilry.The question arises, how the influences of the bad ones are left behind,

when the soul exists no more on earth after death? Well, just as lightfrom the sun illumines an object, which reflects certain invisible activerays, and these, concentrated in a camera, produce a latent image on aphotographic plate; in like manner the evil propensities of man aredeveloped and form an atmosphere around him, which is soimpregnated with his magnetic influence that this outer shell (as it were)retains the latent impressions of good or evil deeds. These, after death,are attached to certain localities, and travel as quick as thought


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wherever an attractive influence is exercised the stronger, they beingless dangerous as less attracted to men in gen-

1 Ordirect, which is oftener the case, we believeEd. Theosophist.

2 From the physical to the Spiritual body and concentrating it there, as we understand

itEd. Theosophist.

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eral, but more to spiritists who attract them by the erratic power of theirwill, i.e., their own ill-governed magnetic power. Have not manyexperienced coming across a man unknown to them, whose veryappearance has been repulsive, and, at the sight of whom, feelings ofdistrust and dislike spring up in them spontaneously, although theyknew nothing of or against him? On the other hand, how often do wemeet a man who, at first sight seems to attract us to him, and we feel asif we could make a friend of him, and if, by chance, we become

acquainted with that person, how much we appreciate his company. Weseem lost in hearing him speak, and a certain sympathy is establishedbetween us for which we cannot account. What is this, but our own outershell coming in contact with his and partaking of the magnetic influencesof that shell or establishing a communication between each other.

The medium is also influenced by his own spirit sometimes, the reactionof his nerves magnetizing some faculties accidentally, while theelementary spirits are magnetizing the other senses; or a stray currentreaches some faculty which their magnetism has not reached, and thisleads to some of those incompre-hensible messages, which are quiteirrelevant to what is expected, and a frequent occurrence which hasalways been the great stumbling block at all sances.

Theosophist, May, 1882

WHENCE THE NAME LUNATICS?

IT is well known that the moon-beams have a very pernicious influence;and recently this question became the subject of a very animateddiscussion among some men of science in Germany.

Physicians and physiologists begin to perceive at last, that the poets had

led them into a trap. They will soon find out, it is to be hoped, thateastern Occultists had more real information about the genuinecharacter of our treacherous satellite than the Western astronomers withall their big telescopes. Indeedfair Diana, the Queen of Night, she,who in clouded majesty

. . . unveils her peerless light,and oer the dark her silver mantle throws .


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is the worstbecause secretenemy of her Suzerain, and thatSuzerains children, vegetable and animal as well as human. With outtouching upon her occult and yet generally unknown attributes andfunctions, we have but to enumerate those that are known to scienceand even the profane.

The moon acts perniciously upon the mental and bodily constitution ofmen in more than one way. No experienced captain will allow his men tosleep on deck during the full moon. Lately it was proved beyond anydoubt, by a long and careful series of experiments, that no personevenone with remarkably strong nervescould sit, lie or sleep for any lengthof time, in a room lit by moon- light without injury to his health. Everyobserving housekeeper or butler knows that provisions of any nature willdecay and spoil far more rapidly in moon-light than they would in entiredarkness. The theory that the cause of this does not lie in the specificperniciousness of the moon-beams but in the well-known fact that all therefrangible and reflected rays will act injuriouslyis an exploded one.

This hypothesis cannot cover the ground in our case. Thus, in the year1693, on January 21, during the eclipse of the moon, thrice as many sickpeople died on that day than on the pre ceding and following days. LordBacon used to fall down sense less at the beginning of every lunareclipse and returned to consciousness but when it was over. Charles theVI, in 1399, became a

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lunatic at every new moon and at the beginning of the full moon. Theorigin of a number of nervous diseases was found to coincide withcertain phases of the moon, especially epilepsy and neuralgiathe only

cure for which is, as we know, the sun. After a discussion of many days,the wise men of Germany came to no better conclusion than the implicitconfession that: Though it is a pretty well established fact that thereexists some mysterious and nefastconnection between the nightluminary and most of the human and even animal and vegetablediseases, yet wherein lies the cause of such connectionwe are unable,at present, to determine.

Of course not. Who of these great physicians and physiologists butknows since his boyhood that there was in old Greece a widelyspreadbelief that the magicians, and especially the enchanters and sorcerers of

Thessaly, had an uncontrollable power over the moon, drawing her downfrom heaven at will by the mere force of their incantations andproducing thereby her eclipses? But that is all they know unless theyadd to it their conviction that the stupid superstition had nothing at all init at the bottom. Perhaps, they are right, and ignorance, in their case,may be bliss. But the occultists ought not to forget, at any rate, that Isisof the Egyptians and the Grecian Diana or Luna were identical. That bothwear the crescent on their heads or the cows horns, the latter the


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symbol of the new moon. More than one profound mystery of nature issecurely shrouded by the veils of Isis and Diana, who were both theanthropomorphized symbolsor Goddesses of nature, whose priestswere the greatest and most powerful adepts of the lands thatworshipped the two. The fact alone, that the temple of Diana in Aricia

was served by a priest who had always to murder his predecessor, ismore than suggestive to a student of Occultism; for it shows him that inthe temples of Diana, the greatest as the most reverenced of all thegoddesses of Rome and Greecefrom that of Ephesus, one of the sevenwonders of the world, down to the said temple of Aricia, the samemysterious initiations took place as in the sacred temples of theEgyptian Isis:i.e., the initiator having unveiled the Goddess, or shownthe neophyte naked truthhad to die.

Theosophist, April, 1883

DEVACHANWESTERN STRICTURE AND EASTERN VERSION

[The sixth installment of the series, Fragments of Occult Truth, whichappeared in the Theosophist for March, 1883, drew criticism from aBritish Theosophist who maintained that the account given of theDevachanic condition was either inadequate or described a cheat bynature, in that there seemed to be no true intercourse between souls inthis after-death state, but only an imagined or dreamed relationship.The readers comment and objections were provided at some length in amemorandum which H.P.B. printed in the Theosophist for August, 1883,

followed by three Replies which, she said, came from three differentsources. Eds.]

THE REAL AND THE UNREAL

REPLY I

The perfect consciousness that I am Brahma

Removes the false appearances projected

By Ignorance. . .Know that indeed as BrahmaNothing exists but Brahma, when aught else

Appears to be tis like the mirage false.Atma-bodha (Knowledge of Soul)

SANKARACHARYA

THE misunderstanding arises from a natural misconception of thesense in which certain terms are made use of rather than from anyinconsistent language used. The alternative of moving for ever in avicious circle faces the European student of Occult philosophy, who


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begins his study before having made himself familiar with the technicalmode of thought and peculiarity of expression of its teachers. His firstnecessity is, to know the esoteric views of the ultimate nature of Spirit,of Matter, Force and Space; the fundamental and axiomatic theories asto the Reality and Unreality, Form and the Formless (rupa and arupa),

dream and waking.1

Especially should he masterat least approximatelythe distinction between the objective and the sub-

1 The Vedanta philosophy teaches as much as Occult philosophy that our monadduring its life on earth as a triad (7th, 6th, and 5th principles), has, besides thecondition of pure intelligence, three conditions; namely, waking, dreaming, andsushuptia state of dreamless sleepfrom the stand-point of terrestrial conceptions;of real, actual soul-lifefrom the occult stand-point. While man is either dreamlessly,profoundly asleep or in a trance state, the triad (Spirit, Soul and Mind) enters intoperfect union with the Paramatma, the Supreme Universal SoulEd.

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jective in the living mans sensuous perceptions and the same as theyappear to the psychic perceptions of a disembodied entity(Devachanee). It will not strengthen his case to put forth the objectionthat the mode of the intercourse is not such as we can at presentrecognize from experience; in other words, that until one becomes aDevachanee one cannot enter into sympathy with his feelings orperceptions. For, the disembodied individuality being identical in naturewith the higher triad of the living man, when liberated as the result ofself evolution effected by the full development of conscious and trainedwill, the adept can through this triad learn all that concerns theDevachanee; live for the time being his mental life, feel as he feels, and

sharing thoroughly in his super- sensuous perceptions, bring back withhim on earth the memory of the same, unwarped by mayavicdeceptions, hencenot to be gain-said. This, of course, assuming theexistence of such lusus natur as an adept, which may, perhaps, beconceded by the objectors for the sake of argument. And the furtherconcession must be asked that no comparison shall be made to theadepts detriment between the perceptive powers of his triad, when sofreed from the body, and those of the half liberated monad of theentranced somnambule or medium which is having its dazed glimpsesinto the celestial arcana. Still less, is it allowable to gauge them by thereveries of an embodied mind, however cultured and meta physical,

which has no data to build upon, save the deductions and inductionswhich spring from its own normal activity.

However much European students may seem to have outgrown thecrude beliefs of their earlier years, yet a special study of Asiatic mentaltendencies is indispensable to qualify them to grasp the meaning ofAsiatic expressions. In a word, they may have out grown their hereditaryideas only far enough to qualify them as critics of the same; and not


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sufficiently to determine what is inconsistent language or consistent,of Eastern thinkers. Difference in the resources of language is also amost important factor to keep in mind. This is well illustrated in thealleged reply of an Oriental visiting Europe, when asked to contrastChristianity with Buddhism: It requires an Index or glossary; for it

(Christianity) has not the ideas for our words, nor the words for ourideas. Every attempt to explain the doctrines of Occultism in themeagre terminology of European science and metaphysics to studentsignorant of our terms, is likely to result in disastrous misunderstandings

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despite good intentions on both sides. Unquestionably, such expressionsas life real in a dream must appear inconsistent to a dualist whoaffirms the eternity of the individual soul, its independent existence, asdistinct from the Supreme Soul or Paramatma, and maintains theactuality of (the personal) Gods nature. What more natural than that the

Western thinker, whose inferences are drawn from quite a different lineof thought, should feel bewilderment when told that the Devachanic lifeis realitythough a dream, while earthly life is but a flitting dreamthough imagined an actuality. It is certain that Prof. Balfour Stewartgreat physicist though he bewould not comprehend the meaning ofour Oriental philosophers, since his hypothesis of an unseen universe,with his premises and conclusions, is built upon the emphaticassumption of the actual existence of a personal God, the personalCreator, and personal moral Governor of the Universe. Nor would theMussulman philosopher with his two eternitiesazl, that eternity whichhas no beginning, and abd, that other eternity having a beginning but no

end; nor the Christian who makes every mans eternity begin (!) at themoment when the personal God breathes a personal soul into thepersonal bodycomprehend us. Neither of these three representativesof belief could, without the greatest difficulty, concur in the perfectreasonableness of the doctrine of Devachanic life.

When the word subjective is used in connection with the state ofisolation of the Devachanee, it does not stand for the ultimate possibleconcept of subjectivity, but only for that degree of the same thinkable bythe Western non-Oriental mind. To the latter everything is subjectivewithout distinction which evades all sensuous perceptions. But theOccultist postulates an ascending scale of subjectivity which grows

continually more real as it gets farther and farther from illusionaryearthly objectivity: its ultimate, RealityParabrahm.

But Devachan being but a dream, we should agree upon a definition ofthe phenomena of dreams. Has memory anything to do with them? Weare told by some physiologists it has. That the dream-fancies beingbased upon dormant memory,2 are determined and developed in most


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cases by the functional activity of some

2 One of the paradoxes of modern physiology seems to be that the more sure andperfect memory becomes, the more unconscious it becomes. (See Body and Mind, byH. Maudsley, M.D.)

20internal organ, the irritation of which awakens into activity that part ofthe brain with which the organ is in specific sympathy.

To this, bowing reverentially to modern science, the Occultist repliesthat there are dreams and dreams. That there is a difference between adream produced by outward physiological causes, and the one whichreacts and becomes in its turn the producer of super-sensuousperceptions and feelings. That he divides dream into the phenomenaland the noumenal, and distinguishes between the two; and that,moreover, the physiologist is entirely unfit to comprehend the ultimate

constitution of a disembodied Egohence the nature of its dreams.This, he does for several reasons, of which one may be particularlynoticed: the physiologist rejects a priori WILL, the chief andindispensable factor of the inner man. He refuses to recognize it apartfrom particular acts of volition, and declares that he knows only thelatter, viewed by him simply as a reaction or desire of determination ofenergy outward, after the complex interworking and combination ofideas in the hemispheral ganglia. Hence the physiologist would have toreject at once the possibility of consciousnessminus memory; and theDevachanee having no organs, no sensory ganglia, no educated noreven idiotic centres,3 nor nerve-cells, cannot naturally have that, what

the physiologists would regard and de fine as memory. Unfettered fromthe personal sensations of the manas, the devachanic consciousnesswould certainly have to be come universal or absolute consciousness,with no past as with no future, the two merging into one eternalPRESENTbut for the trammels of the personal Ego. But even the latter,once severed from its bodily organs, can have no such memory asdefined by Professor Huxley, who fathers it upon the sensigenousmolecules of the brainthose molecules, which, begotten by sensation,re main behind when it has passed away, and that constitute, we aretold, the physical foundation of memory; hence also the foundation of alldreams. What can these molecules have to do with the ethereal atoms

that act in the spiritual consciousness of the monad, during its blisswholly based and depending upon the degree of its connection with onlythe essence of the personal Ego!

What may then be the nature of the Devachanic dream? we are askedand how does the occultist define the dream of the still embodied man?To Western science a dream is a series of


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3 Professor Maudsteys expressions.

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thoughts, of connected acts or rather states, which are only imaginedto be real. The uninitiated metaphysician, on the other hand, describes itin his exoteric way, as the passage of sense from darkness into lightthe awakening of spiritual consciousness. But the occultist, who knowsthat the spiritual sense pertaining to the immutable can never sleep oreven be dormantper Se, and is always in the Light of reality, says thatduring the state of sleep, Manas (the seat of the physical and personalintelligence) becomes ableits containing vehicle Kama, the WILL, beingallowed the full freedom of its conscious action owing to volition beingrendered passive, and unconscious by the temporary inactivity of thesensory centresto perceive that reality in the subjective world whichwas hidden from it in waking hours. That reality does not become lessreal, because upon awakening the sensigenous molecules, anduneducated centres throw and toss in the mayavic light of actual lifethe recollection and even the remembrance of it into confusion. But theparticipation of the manas in the Devachanic bliss, does not add to, buton the contrary takes away from, the reality that would fall to the lot ofthe monad were it altogether free from its presence. Its bliss is anoutcome of Sakkayaditthi, the delusion or heresy of individuality,which heresy, together with the attavadic chain of causes, is necessaryfor the monads future birth. It is all this that leads the occultist toregard the association or intercourse between two disembodiedentities in the Devachanhowever more real than life it may beas anillusion, and from his stand point still a dream, so to speak of it; whilethat which his critics would fain callhowever regretfullydreamstheinterludes which fancy makesis in the knowledge of the former simplyglimpses of the Reality.

Let us take an instance: a son loses a much beloved father. In hisdreams he may see and converse with him, and for the time it lasts feelas happy and unconscious of his death as though the father had neverleft this earth. This upon awakening, he will regard with sorrow as amere dream that could not last. Is he right to so regard it? The occultistsays that he is wrong. He is simply ignorant of the fact that his spiritbeing of the same essence and nature as that of his father,as all spiritsareand the inherent property of mutual attraction and assimilation

being in their special case strengthened by the paternal and filial love22

of their personal Egosthat they have, in fact, never separated fromeachother, death itself being powerless to sever psychic associationthere, where pure spiritual love links the two. The dream was in thisinstance the reality; the latter a maya, a false appearance due to avidya(false notions). Thus it becomes more correct and proper to call the


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sons ignorance during his waking hours a dream and a delusion,than to so characterize the real intercourse. For what has happened? ASpiritualist would say: the spirit of the father descended upon earth tohold communion with his sons spirit, during the quiet hours of sleep.The Occultist replies; Not so; neither the fathers spiritdescended, nor

has the sons triad ascended (strictly and correctly speaking). Thecentre of Devachanic activity cannot be localized: it is again avidya.Monads during that time even when connected with their five finiteKosas (sheaths or principles) know neither space nor time, but arediffused throughout the former, are omnipresent and ubiquitous. Manasin its higher aspect is dravyaan eternal substance as well as theBuddhi, the spiritual soulwhen this aspect is developed; and unitedwith the Soul Manas becomes spiritual self-consciousness, which is aVikara (a production) of its original producer Buddhi.4 Unless madeutterly unfit, by its having become hopelessly mixed with, and linked to,its lower Tanmatras, to become one with Buddhi, it is inseparable from

it. Thus the higher human triad, drawn by its affinity to those triads itloved most, with Manas in its highest aspect of self consciousness(which is entirely disconnected with, and has no need as a channel ofthe internal organ of physical sense called antah-karana)5 it is everassociated with, and enjoys the presence of all those it lovesin death,as much as it did in life. The intercourse is real and genuine.

The critic doubts whether such an intercourse can be called a veritableone. He wants to know whether the two disembodied entities arereally and truly affected the one by the other, or, is it merely that oneimagines the presence of the other, such intercourse correspondingwith no fact of which the other person-

4It is only when Ego becomes Ego-ism deluded into a notion of independent existenceas the producer in its turn of the five Tanmatras that Manas is considered Maha-bhuticand finite in the sense of being connected withAhancara, the personal I-creatingfaculty. Hence Manas is both eternal and non-eternal: eternal in its atomic nature(paramanu rupa), finite (Or karya-rupa) when linked as a duadwith Kama (Volition), alower production.Ed.

5 Anta-karana is the path of communication between soul and body, entirelydisconnected with the former: existing with, belonging to, and dying with the bodyEd.

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ality (either embodied or disembodied) could take cognizance; andwhile doubting, he denies that he is postulating an incongruity inobjecting that such an intercourse is not real, is a mere dream, for hesays, he can conceive a real intercourseconscious on both sides andtruly acting and reacting which does not apply only to the mutualrelationship of physical existence. If he really can, then where is thedifficulty complained of? The real meaning attached by the occultist tosuch words as dream, reality, and unreality, having been explained,


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what further trouble is there to comprehend this specific tenet? Thecritic may also be asked, how he can conceive of a real consciousintercourse on both sides, unless he understands the peculiar, andtohim as yet unknownintellectual reaction and inter-relation between thetwo.

[sympathetic reaction is no fanciful hypothesis but a scientific factknown and taught at initiations, though unknown to modern science andbut hazily perceived by some metaphysiciansspiritualists.]6 Or is itthat, alternatively, he anthropomorphises Spiritin the spiritualisticmistaken sense? Our critic has just told us that the mode of theintercourse is not such as we (he) can at present recognize fromexperience. What kind of intercourse is it then that he can conceive of?

6 It is demonstrated to Occultists by the fact that two adepts separated by hundreds ofmiles, leaving their bodies at their respective habitations and their astral bodies (thelower manas and volition kama) to watch over them, can still meet at some distantplace and hold converse and even perceive and sense each other for hours as thoughthey were both personally and bodily together, whereas, even their lower mayavi-rupasare absent.

DREAM LIFE

REPLY II

The Appendix referred to in the Fragments No. VI, in the TheosophistforMarch, is in no way inconsistent. When properly understood in the lightof our doctrines, App. C. (p. 136) gives what it professes to explain andleaves nothing doubtful, while the Fragments itself has perhaps a few

expressions that may be misleading: though exclusively so to those whohave not paid sufficient attention to that which preceded. For instance:Love, the creative force, has placed their (the associates) living imagebefore the personal soul which craves for their presence, and that imagewill never fly away. It is incorrect to use the term personal soul inconnection with the monad. The personal or animal soul is, as alreadysaid, the 5th principle, and cannot be in Deva-

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chan, the highest state permitted to it on earth being samadhi. It is onlyits essence that has followed the monad into Devachan, to serve it there

as its ground-tone, or as the background against which its future dreamlife and developments will move; its entity, or the reliqui? is theshell, the dross that remains behind as an elementary to fade awayand in time disappear. That which is in Devachan is no more thepersonthe mask, than the smell of a rose is the flower itself. The rosedecays and becomes a pinch of dust: its aroma will never die, and maybe recalled and resurrected ages thence. Correctly expressed, thesentence would have to read:


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. . the living image before the Spiritual Soul, which being now saturatedwith the essence of the personality, has thus ceased to be Arupa(formless or rather devoid of all substance) for its Devachanic duration,and craves for their presence, etc. The gestation period is over, it haswon the day, been reborn as a new out of the old ego, and before it is

ushered again into a new personality, it will reap the effects of thecauses sown in its precedent birth in one of the Devachanic or Avitchianstates, as the case may be, though the latter are found wide apart.Avasyam eva bhoktavyam kritam karma Shubhashubam.1 TheDevachanic condition in all its aspects is no doubt similar to a dreamystate when considered from the standpoint of our present objectiveconsciousness when we are in our waking condition. Nevertheless, it isreal to the Devachanee himself as our waking state is to us. Therefore,when it is asked Whether Devachan is a state corresponding to ourwaking life here or to our sleep with dreams,the answer given is thatit is not similar to either of these conditions; but it is similar to the

dreamy condition of a man who has no waking state at all, if such abeing can be supposed to exist. A monad in Devachan has but one stateof consciousness, and the contrast between a waking state and adreamy state is never presented to it so long as it is in that condition.Another objection urged is, that if a Devachanee were to think of anobject or person as if the object or person were present before him whenthey are not so (when judged from the common ideas of objectiveperception) then the Devachanee is cheated by nature. If such is reallythe case, he is indeed always cheated by nature, and the suggestioncontained in the foregoing letter as to the possible mode ofcommunication between a Devachanee and one living on earth will not

save him from delusion. Leaving aside

I The fruit of the tree of action, whether good or bad, must unavoidably be eaten.

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for a moment the nature of a Devachanees communication with anothermonad either in or out of Devachan, let the nature of his ideas beexamined so far as they are connected with objects; and then the truthof the above mentioned statement will be easily perceived. Suppose, forinstance, Galileo in Devachan, subjectively engaged his favouriteintellectual pursuit. It is natural to suppose that his telescope often

comes within the range of his Devachanic consciousness, and that theDevachanee subjectively directs it towards some planet. It is quite clearthat according to the general ideas of objectivity, Galileo has notelescope before him, and it cannot be contended that his train of ideasin any way actually affects the telescope which he left behind him in thisworld. If the objectors reasoning is correct, Galileo is being cheated bynature, and the suggestion above referred to will in no way help him inthis case.


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Thus, the inference that it is neither correct nor philosophical to speak ofa Devachanee as being cheated by nature becomes once moreunavoidable. Such words as cheating, delusion, reality are alwaysrelative. It is only by contrast that a particular state of consciousnesscan be called real or illusionary; and these words cease to have any

significance whatever, when the said state of consciousness cannot becompared with any other state. Supposing one is justified in lookingupon Devachanic experience as delusion from his present stand-point asa human being living on this earth, what then? We fail to see how anyone means to make use of this inference. Of course from the foregoingremarks the reader is not to suppose that a Devachanees consciousnesscan never affect or influence the state of consciousness of anothermonad either in or out of Devachan. Whether such is the case or not, thereality or the unreality of devachanic experience, so far as aDevachanee is concerned, does not depend upon any suchcommunicative influence.

In some cases it is evident that the state of consciousness of one monadwhether in Devachan or yet on earth, may blend with, as it were, andinfluence the ideation of another monad also in Devachan. Such will bethe case where there is strong, affectionate sympathy between the twoegos arising from participation in the same higher feelings or emotions,or from similar intellectual pursuits of spiritual aspirations. Just as thethoughts of a mesmerizer standing at a distance are communicated tohis subject by the

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emanation of a current of magnetic energy attracted readily to wards

the subject, the train of ideas of a Devachanee are communicated by acurrent of magnetic or electric force attracted towards anotherDevachanee by reason of the strong sympathy existing between the twomonads, especially when the said ideas relate to things which aresubjectively associated with the Devachanee in question. It is not to beinferred, however, that in other cases when there is no such action orreaction, a Devachanee becomes conscious of the fact that hissubjective experience is a mere delusion, for it is not so. It was alreadyshown that the question of reality or unreality does not depend upon anysuch communication or transmission of intellectual energy.

We are asked, if some of those (the Devachanee loved) are notthemselves fit for Devachan, how then? We answer: Even in the caseof a man still living on earth, or even of one suffering in Avitchi, theideation of a monad in Devachan may still affect his monad if there isstrong sympathy between the two as indicated above,2 Yet theDevachanee will remain ignorant of the mental suffering of the other.

If this generous provision of nature that never punishes the innocentoutside this our world of delusion, be still called a cheating of nature,


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and objected to, on the ground that it is not an honest symbol of theother personalitys presence, then the most reasonable course would beto leave the occult doctrines and Devachan alone. The noble truths, thegrandest goal in soullife, will remain for ever a closed book to suchminds. Devachan instead of appearing what it isa blissful rest, a

heavenly oasis during the laborious journey of the Monad toward ahigher evolution, will indeed present itself as the culmination, the veryessence of death itself. One has to sense intuitionally its logicalnecessity; to perceive in it, untaught and unguided, the outcome andperpetuation of that strictest justice absolutely consonant with theharmony of the universal law, if one would not lose time over its deepsignificance. We do not mean it in any unkind spirit, yet with such anopposition to the very exposition (since no one is pressed for itsacceptance) of our doctrine by some western minds, we feel bound toremind our opponents that they have the freedom of choice. Among thelater great world philosophies there

2 The reader is reminded in this connection that neither Devachan nor Avitchi is alocality, but a slate which affects directly the being in it and all others only by reactionEd.

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are two,the more modern the outgrowth of the older,whose afterstates are clearly and plainly defined, and the acceptance of either ofwhich, moreover, would be welcomed: oneby millions of spiritualists,the otherby the most respectable portion of humanity, viz., civilizedWestern society. Nothing equivocal, or like cheating of nature in the

latter: her Devachanees, the faithful and the true, are plainly andcharitably promised the in effable rapture of seeing during an eternitythose whom they may have loved best on earth suffering the tortures ofthe damned in the depths of Gehenna. We are, and do feel willing togive out some of our facts. Only occult philosophy and Buddhism havingboth failed as yet to produce a Tertullian to strike for us the key-note ofan orthodox hell,3 we cannot undertake to furnish fictions to suit everytaste and fancy.

There is no such place of torture for the innocent, no such state in whichunder the plea of reward and a necessity for honest symbols, theguileless should be made witness to, or even aware of, the sufferings of

those they loved. Were it otherwise, the active bliss of the DhyanChohans themselves would turn into a shoreless ocean of gall at such asight. And He who willedLet all the sins and evils flowing from thecorruption ofKaliyug, this degenerate age of ours fall upon me, but letthe world be redeemedwould have so willed in vain, and might havegiven preference to the awes of the visible to those of the invisibleworld. To suppose that a Soul escaping from this evil-girdled planetwhere the innocent weep while the wicked rejoice, should have a like


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fate in store for it even within the peaceful haven of Devachan, would bethe most maddening, the dreadful thought of all! But we say, it is not so.The bliss of a Devachanee is complete, and nature secures it even at therisk of being accused of cheating by the pessimists of this world unableto distinguish between Vastuthe one reality and Vishayathe mayas

of our senses. It is fetching rather too far the presumption that ourobjective and subjective shall be the true standards for the realities andunrealities of the rest of the universe; that our criterion of truth andhonesty is to stand as the only universal land-mark of the same. Had

3 Reference is probably made here to the soul-inspiring monologue that is found inTertullians Despect, Chapter XXX, Falling into a wild ecstasy of joy over the bareprospect of seeing some day all the philosophers who have persecuted the name ofChrist burn in a most cruel fire in hell this saintly Patristic character, a Father of theChristian Church, exclaims: Oh what shall be the magnitude of that scene. How I shalllaugh! How I shall rejoice! How I shall triumph etcEd.

28we to proceed upon such principles, we would have to accuse nature ofcheating incessantly not only her human but also her animal offspring.Who, of our objectors, when treating of facts of natural history and thephenomena of vision and colour, would ever hazard the remark thatbecause ants are utterly unable to see and distinguish colours as humanbeings do, (the red, for instance, having no existence for them)therefore, are they also cheated by nature. Neither personality norobjectivity as known to us, have any being in the conceptions of amonad; and could, by any miracle, any living human creature comewithin the range of the Devachanic vision, it would be as little perceived

by the Devachanee as the elementals that throng the air around us areperceived with our natural eyes.

One more error of the critic. He seems to be labouring under theimpression that if one has some conception of Devachanic state ofsubjective consciousness while in this life, he will know that suchexperience is illusionary when he is actually there; and then Devachanicbeatitudes will have lost all their reality so far as he is concerned. Thereis no reason to apprehend any such catastrophe. It is not very difficult toperceive the fallacy that underlies this argument. Suppose, for instance,A, now living at Lahore, knows that his friend B is at Calcutta. He dreams

that they are both at Bombay engaged in various transactions. Does heknow at the time he is dreaming that the whole dream is illusionary?How can the consciousness that his friend is really at Calcutta, which isonly realized when he is in his waking condition, help him in ascertainingthe delusive nature of his dream when he is actually dreaming? Evenafter experiencing dreams several times during his life and knowing thatdreams are generally illusionary, A will not know that he is dreamingwhen he is actually in that condition.


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Similarly, a man may experience the devachanic condition while yetalive, and call it delusion, if he pleases, when he comes back to hisordinary state of objective consciousness and compares it to the saidcondition. Nevertheless, he will not know that it is a dream either whenhe experiences it a second time (for the time being) while still living, or

when he dies and goes to Devachan.The above is sufficient to cover the case were even the state underdiscussion indeed a dream in the sense our opponents

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hold it in. But it is neither a dream nor in any way cheating. It maybeso from the stand-point of Johnsons dictionary; from that of factindependent of all human definition, and the stand point of him whoknows something of the laws that govern the worlds invisible, theintercourse between the monads is real, mutual, and as actual in the

world of subjectivity, as it is in this our world of deceptive reality. It isthe old story of Zllners man from the two-dimensional region disputingthe reality of the phenomena taking place in the three-dimensionalworld.

THE VARIOUS STATES OF DEVACHAN

REPLY III

The foremost question that presents itself to the mind of the occultist ofAsiatic birth, upon seeing the multifarious difficulties which beset the

European students of Esotericism, as regards Devachan: how to accountfor their weird fancies with regard to the after states! It is natural for oneto measure other persons intellectual operations by his own; notwithout an effort can he put himself in his neighbours place and try tosee things from his stand-point. As regards Devachan, for example,nothing would apparently be clearer than the esoteric doctrine,incompletely as it may have been expressed by Lay Chela; yet it isevidently not comprehended, and the fact must be ascribed, I think,rather to the habitual differences in our respective ways of looking atthings than to the mechanical defects in the vehicle of expression. Itwould be very hard for an Asiatic Occultist to even conjure up such a

fancy as that of Swedenborg, who makes the angels our post-morteminquisitors, obliged to estimate a souls accumulated merits anddemerits by physical inspection of its body, beginning at the tips of thefingers and toes and tracing thence to centres! Equally baffling would bethe attempt to bring ourselves to the point of seriously tracing a denizenof the American Summer-Land of Spirits through the nurseries, debatingclubs, and legislative assemblies of that optimistic Arcadian Eden. Awarp of anthropomorphism seems to run through the entire woof of


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European metaphysics. The heavy hand of a personal deity and hispersonal ministers seems to compress the brain of almost every Westernthinker. If the influence does not show itself in one form, it does in another. Is it a question about God? A metaphysical slide is inserted, andthe stereopticon flashes before us a picture of a gold-paved,

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pearly-doored New Jerusalem, with its Durbar Hall, peacock throne,Maharajah, Dewans, courtiers, trumpeters, scribes, and general train. Isthe intercourse between disembodied spirits under discussion? TheWestern constitutional bias of mind can conceive of no such intercoursewithout some degree of mutual conscious ness of an objective presenceof the corporeal kind: a sort of psychic chit-chat. I hope I do not wrongour Western correspondents, but it is impossible, for myself at least, todraw any other conclusions from the whole tenor of the BritishTheosophists memorandum. Vapoury and etherealized as his concept

may be it is yet materialistic at the core. As we would say, the germ-point of metaphysical evolution is of Biblical derivation: and through itsopalescent vapour sparkle the turrets of the New Jerusalem.

There is much fanciful exotericism to be sure, in Asiatic systems. Quiteas much and more perhaps than in the Western; and our philosophieshave many a harlequin cloak. But we are not concerned now withexternals: our critic comes upon metaphysical ground and deals withesotericism. His difficulty is to reconcile isolation, as he understands it,with intercourse as we understand it. Though the monad is not like aseed dropped from a tree, but in its nature is ubiquitous, all-pervading,omnipresent; though in the subjective state time, space and locality are

not factors in its experiences; though, in short, all mundane conditionsare reversed; and the now thinkable becomes the then unthinkable andvice-versyet the London friend goes on to reason as though all thiswere not so.

Now, Buddhistically speaking, there are states and states and degreesupon degrees in Devachan, in all of which, notwithstanding the (to us)objective isolation of the principal hero, he is surrounded by a host ofactors in conjunction with whom he had during his last earth-life createdand worked out the causes of those effects that are produced first on thefield ofDevachanic or Avitchean subjectivity, then used to strengthen

the Karma to follow on the objective (?) plane of the subsequent rebirth.Earth life is, so to say, the Prologue of the drama, (or we should,perhaps, call it mystery) that is enacted in the rupa and arupa lokas.Now were we to say that nature, with every due regard to personalityand the laws of objectivity as understood in exotericism, constitutes averitable intercourse between the devachanic heroes and actors; andinstead ofdissociating the monads not only

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as regards personal corporeal but even astral associationestablishes actual companionship between them, as on the earth-plane, we might, perhaps, avoid the strange accusation of naturecheating in Devachan. On the other hand, after thus pandering toemotional objections, we could hardly help placing our European Chelas

in a far more inextricable dilemma. They would be made to face aproblem of personalpost-mortem ubiquity, throwing that of the Westerndeity far in to the background of illogical absurdity. Suppose for onemoment a Devachanic father, twice wedded, and loving both his wivesas he does his children, while the step-mother loves neither his progenynor their mother, the coolest indifference if not actual aversion reigningbetween the two. Actual companionship, and real personalintercourse (the latter applied even to their astral bodies) implies herebliss for the father and irritation for the two wives and children, allequally worthy of Devachanic bliss. Now imagine again the real motherattracting by her intense love the children within her devachanic state,

and thus depriving the father of his legitimate share of bliss. It has beensaid before, that the devachanic mind is capable only of the highestspiritual ideation; that neither objects of the grosser senses nor anything provocative of displeasure could ever be apprehended by itforotherwise, Devachan would be merging into Avitchi, and the feeling ofun alloyed bliss destroyed for ever. How can nature reconcile in theabove case the problem without either sacrificing her duty to ourterrestrial sense of objectivity and reality, or without compromising herstatus before our criterion of truth and honest dealing? On one hand, thechildren would have to double and triple themselves ad infinitumasthey too may have disembodied, devachanic objects of spiritual

attachment clamouring elsewhere for their presencewhich process ofubiquity would hardly be consistent with our notions of personal, actualpresence, at one and the same time and at several different places; or,there would always be some body, somewhere cheated by nature. Toplace the monads promiscuously together, like one happy familywouldbe fatal to truth and fact: each man, however insignificant he may havebeen on earth, is yet mentally and morally sui generis in his own distinctconceptions of bliss and desires, and has, therefore, a right to, and anabsolute necessity for, a specific, personal, isolated devachan.

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The speculations of the Western mind have hitherto scarcely everdepicted any higher future life than that of the Kama and Rupa lokas, orthe lower, intra-terrestrial spirit-worlds. In Appendix D. many statesand spheres are hinted at. According even to exoteric Buddhisticphilosophy disincarnate beings are divided into three classes of(1)Kamawchera, or those wh

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