{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_57292/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_57292","id":"gutenberg_57292","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57292","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Theosophy"],"text":"Produced by David Edwards, Martin Pettit and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n+-------------------------------------------------+\n|Transcriber's note:                              |\n|                                                 |\n|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.  |\n|                                                 |\n|The Publisher updated some of the text of the    |\n|Book List by hand, indicating those which were   |\n|out of print.                                    |\n|The original text has been retained.             |\n|                                                 |\n+-------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nECHOES FROM THE ORIENT\n\nA BROAD OUTLINE OF THEOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES\n\nBY\nWILLIAM Q. JUDGE\n[OCCULTUS]\n\nSECOND POINT LOMA EDITION\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY\nPOINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA\n1910\n\n\nEntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890,\nin the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.\nBY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.\n\n[Illustration: Logo]\n\nTHE ARYAN THEOSOPHICAL PRESS\nPoint Loma, California\n\n\nDEDICATED TO\n\nHELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY\n\nWITH LOVE\n\nAND GRATITUDE\n\nBY\n\nTHE AUTHOR\n\n\n\n\nTO THE READER\n\n\nEchoes from the Orient was written by Mr. Judge sixteen years ago (1890)\nas a series of papers for a well known periodical. The author wrote\nunder the name of \"_Occultus_,\" as it was intended that his personality\nshould be hidden until the series was completed. The value of these\npapers as a popular presentation of Theosophical teaching was at once\nseen and led to their publication in book form. As Mr. Judge wrote in\nhis \"Antecedent Words\" to the earlier edition:\n\n\"The restrictions upon the treatment of the subject growing out of the\npopular character of the paper in which they were published precluded\nthe detail and elaboration that would have been possible in a\nphilosophical or religious periodical. No pretense is made that the\nsubject of Theosophy as understood in the Orient has been exhaustively\ntreated, for, believing that millions of years have been devoted by the\nsages who are the guardians of Theosophical truth to its investigation,\nI think no one writer could do more than to repeat some of the echoes\nreaching his ears.\"\n\nThe reader should remember that the scope and influence of the\nTheosophical Movement have since that time (1890) greatly expanded, the\nwork of THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY now reaching\nnearly every country in the world.\n\nPoint Loma, California, 1906\n\n\n\n\nECHOES FROM THE ORIENT.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\n\nWhat appears to the Western mind to be a very strange superstition\nprevails in India about wonderful persons who are said to be of immense\nage, and who keep themselves secluded in places not accessible to the\nordinary traveler. So long has this been current in India that the name\napplied to these beings is well known in the Sanskrit language:\n\"Mah\u00e2tma,\" a compound of two words, _maha_, great, and _\u00e2tma_, soul. The\nbelief in the existence of such persons is not confined to the ignorant,\nbut is shared by the educated of all castes. The lower classes look upon\nthe Mah\u00e2tmas as a sort of gods, and think most of their wonderful powers\nand great age. The pundits, or learned class, and educated Hindus in\ngeneral, have a different view; they say that Mah\u00e2tmas are men or souls\nwith unlimited knowledge of natural laws and of man's history and\ndevelopment. They claim also that the Mah\u00e2tmas--or Rishees, as they\nsometimes call them--have preserved the knowledge of all natural laws\nfor ages, not only by tradition among their disciples, but also by\nactual records and in libraries existing somewhere in the many\nunderground temples and passages in India. Some believers assert that\nthere are also stores of books and records in secluded parts all over\nthat part of Thibet which is not known to Europeans, access to them\nbeing possible only for the Mah\u00e2tmas and Adepts.\n\nThe credence given to such a universal theory grows out of an old Indian\ndoctrine that man is a spiritual being--a soul, in other words--and\nthat this soul takes on different bodies from life to life on earth in\norder at last to arrive at such perfect knowledge, through repeated\nexperience, as to enable one to assume a body fit to be the\ndwelling-place of a Mah\u00e2tma or perfected soul. Then, they say, that\nparticular soul becomes a spiritual helper to mankind. The perfected men\nare said to know the truth about the genesis of worlds and systems, as\nwell as the development of man upon this and other planets.\n\nWere such doctrines held only in India, it would be natural to pass the\nsubject by with this brief mention. But when it is found that a large\nbody of people in America and Europe hold the same beliefs, it is\ninteresting to note such an un-Western development of thought. The\nTheosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875, with the avowed\nobject of forming a nucleus for a Universal Brotherhood, and its\nfounders state that they believe the Indian Mah\u00e2tmas directed them to\nestablish such a society. Since its foundation it has gained members in\nall countries, including people of wealth as well as those in moderate\ncircumstances, and the highly cultured also. Within its ranks there\nflourish beliefs in the Mah\u00e2tmas of India and in Re\u00efncarnation and its\ntwin doctrine, Karma. This last holds that no power, human or divine,\ncan save one from the consequences of acts performed, and that in this\nlife we are experiencing the results due to us for all acts and thoughts\nwhich were ours in the preceding incarnation.\n\nThis has brought out a large body of literature in books and magazines\npublished in the United States, England, India, and elsewhere.\nNewspapers are published in the interest of the new-old cult in the\nvernacular of Hind\u00fbstan and also in old Ceylon. Even Japan has its\nperiodicals devoted to the same end, and to ignore so wide-spread a\nmovement would bespeak ignorance of the factors at work in our\ndevelopment. When such an eminent authority as the great French savant,\nEmile Burnouf, says that the Theosophical movement must be counted as\none of the three great religious influences in the world to-day, there\nis no need of an excuse for presenting its features in detail to readers\nimbued with the civilization of the West.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\n\nIn my former paper I merely hinted at the two principal doctrines\npromulgated by the Theosophical Society; it is well now to notice the\nfact that the Society itself was organized amid a shout of laughter,\nwhich at intervals ever since has been repeated. Very soon after it\nlaunched forth it found a new member in a Bavarian gentleman, Baron\nHenry Louis de Palm, who not long thereafter died and obligingly left\nhis body to be cremated.\n\nThe funeral was held at Masonic Hall, New York city, and attracted\nwidespread attention from both press and public. It was Theosophical in\nits character, and while conducted with befitting dignity in view of the\nsolemnity of the occasion, was along distinctly original lines. All this\nof course, drew forth satire from the press, but served the purpose of\ngaining some attention for the young Society. Its history since then has\nbeen remarkable, and it is safe to say that no other similar body in\nthis century has drawn to itself so much consideration, stirred up such\na thinking among people on mystical subjects, and grown so rapidly amid\nthe loudest derision and against the fiercest opposition, within the\nshort space of fifteen years.\n\nWhile the press has been sneering and enemies have been plotting, the\nworkers in the Society have established centers all over the world, and\nare to-day engaged persistently in sending out Theosophical literature\ninto every nook and corner of the United States. A glance at the\nTheosophical map shows a line of Branches of the Society dotting a strip\nof this country which reaches from the city of New York to the Pacific\nCoast; at either end this belt spreads out to take in Boston and New\nOrleans in the East and San Francisco and San Diego in the West; while\nnear the middle of the continent there is another accumulation of\ncenters. This is claimed to be strictly and mystically Theosophical,\nbecause at each end of the magic line of effort and at its central point\nthere is an accumulation of nucle\u00ef. It is a fact that the branches of\nthe Society in America are rapidly running up into the first hundred.\nFor some little time there existed in Washington a Branch of the Society\ncalled the Gnostic, but it never engaged in any active work. After it\nhad been once incontinently dissolved by its president, who thereafter\nwithdrew, leaving the presidency in the hands of another, the governing\nbody of the American Theosophists formally dischartered the Gnostic, and\nits members joined other Branches. There is, however, to-day a\nWashington Branch named boldly after the much lauded and belittled Mme.\nH. P. Blavatsky, while the Theosophical map shows an accumulation of\ninfluences in Washington that point to an additional Branch, and inquiry\nin official quarters discloses the fact that the matter is already\nmooted.\n\nThe Theosophical map of which I have spoken is a curiosity, an anomaly\nin the nineteenth century. Few of the members are allowed to see it; but\nthose who are say that it is a register of the actual state, day by day,\nof the whole United States Section--a sort of weather map, with areas of\npressure and Theosophical humidity in all directions. Where a Branch is\nwell founded and in good condition, the spot or sensitive surface shows\nclearness and fixity. In certain places which are in a formative\ncondition there is another appearance symptomatic of a vortex that may\nsoon bring forth a Branch; while, wherever the principle of\ndisintegration has crept into an existing organization, there the\nformerly bright and fixed spots grow cloudy. By means of this map, those\nwho are managing the real growth of the movement can tell how it is\ngoing and aid it intelligently. Of course all this sounds ridiculous in\nour age; but, whether true or false, there are many Theosophists who\nbelieve it. A similar arrangement would be desirable in other branches\nof our civilization.\n\nThe grand theories of the Theosophists regarding evolution, human races,\nreligions and general civilization, as well as the future state of man\nand the various planets he inhabits, should engage our more serious\nattention; and of these I propose to speak at another time.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n\nThe first Echo from the burnished and mysterious East which reverberated\nfrom these pages sounded the note of Universal Brotherhood. Among the\nmen of this day such an idea is generally accepted as vague and utopian,\nbut one which it will do no harm to subscribe to; they therefore quickly\nassent, and as quickly nullify the profession by action in the opposite\ndirection. For the civilization of to-day, and especially of the United\nStates, is an attempt to accentuate and glorify the individual. The\noft-repeated declaration that any born citizen may aspire to occupy the\nhighest office in the gift of the nation is proof of this, and the\nMah\u00e2tmas who guard the truth through the ages while nations are\ndecaying, assert that the reaction is sure to come in a relapse into the\nworst forms of anarchy. The only way to prevent such a relapse is for\nmen to really practice the Universal Brotherhood they are willing to\naccept with the tongue. These exalted beings further say that all men\nare--as a scientific and dynamic fact--united, whether they admit it or\nnot; and that each nation suffers, on the moral as well as the physical\nplane, from the faults of all other nations, and receives benefit from\nthe others also even against its will. This is due to the existence of\nan imponderable, tenuous medium which interpenetrates the entire globe,\nand in which all the acts and thoughts of every man are felt and\nimpressed, to be afterward reflected again. Hence, say the Adepts, the\nthoughts or the doctrines and beliefs of men are of the higher\nimportance, because those that prevail among people of a low character\nare just as much and as easily reflected upon the earth as are the\nthoughts and beliefs of persons occupying a higher plane of culture.\n\nThis is a most important tenet, if true; for, with the aid of the\ndiscoveries just now admitted by science respecting hypnotism, we are at\nonce able to see that an enormous hypnotizing machine is about. As this\ntenuous medium--called by the men of the East \"Ak\u00e0sa\" and by the\nmedi\u00e6val philosophers the \"Astral Light\"--is entirely beyond our\ncontrol, we are at the mercy of the pictures made in it and reflected\nupon us.\n\nIf to this we add the wonderfully interesting doctrine of Re\u00efncarnation,\nremembering also that the images made in the Astral Light persist for\ncenturies, it is at once seen that upon returning again to earth-life we\nare affected for good or evil by the conduct, the doctrine and the\naspirations of preceding nations and men. Returning here now, for\ninstance, we are moved, without our knowledge, by the impressions made\nin the Astral Light at the time when the Indians, the Spaniards and the\nharsh Puritans lived upon the earth. The words of the immortal\nShakspere--\n\n\n     The evil that men do lives after them;\n     The good is oft interr\u00e8d with their bones,\n\n\nreceive a striking exemplification under this doctrine. For, as the evil\nthoughts and deeds are the more material and therefore more firmly\nimpacted into the Astral Light, while the good, being spiritual, easily\nfade out, we are in effect at the mercy of the evil done. And the Adepts\nassert that Shakspere was, unconsciously to himself, inspired by one of\ntheir own number. I shall refer again to this branch of the subject. The\nscheme of evolution put forth by these beings and their disciples is so\nbroad, deep and far-reaching as to stagger the ordinary mind. It takes\nin with ease periods of years running up into trillions and\nquadrillions. It claims that man has been on earth for millions of years\nmore than science yet is willing to admit. It is not bound by the narrow\nscheme of biblical chronologists, nor startled by the magnificent age of\ncivilizations which disappeared long ago. The keepers of this doctrine\nsay that they and their predecessors lived in those older times, and\nhave preserved not only the memory of them, but also complete records.\nThese records, moreover, are not merely on perishable paper and palm\nleaf, but on imperishable stone. They point to such remains as the\nstatues twenty-seven feet high found on Easter Island; to rows of\ngigantic statues in Asia, that by their varying heights show the gradual\ndiminution of human stature, which kept pace with other degenerations;\nand, to crown all, they say that they possess to-day in the East the\nimmense and well guarded collections of records of all sorts. Not only\nare these records said to relate to the physical history of man, but\nalso to his astral and spiritual evolution.\n\nBefore closing this paper, I can only indicate one of their basic\ndoctrines in the scheme of evolution. That is, that the evolution of the\ninner, astral form of man came first in order, and continued for an\nimmense number of years before his physical structure was built up\naround it. This, with other portions of the doctrine, is vital and will\naid much in an understanding of the complex questions presented to us\nby the history of the human race, both that which is known and that\nwhich is still resting on conjecture.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\n\nThe records to which in my last paper I referred, as having been kept by\nthe Adepts and now in the possession of their present representatives\nand successors--Adepts also--relate not only to the birth of planets in\nthis solar system, but also to the evolution and development of man,\nthrough the various kingdoms of nature, until he reaches the most\nperfect condition which can be imagined. The evolution of the human\nbeing includes not only the genesis of his mortal frame, but, as well,\nthe history of the inner man, whom they are accustomed to call the real\none.\n\nThis, then, brings us to a very interesting claim put forward for the\nWisdom Religion, that it pretends to throw light not only upon man's\nemotions and mental faculties, but also upon his pre-natal and\npost-mortem states, both of which are of the highest interest and\nimportance. Such questions as, \"Where have I come from?\" and, \"What\nshall be my condition after death?\" trouble and confuse the minds of all\nmen, ignorant or cultured. Priests and thinkers have, from time to time,\nformulated theories, more or less absurd, as to those pre-natal and\npost-mortem states, while the Science of to-day laughs in derision at\nthe idea of making any inquiry into the matter whatever. Theologians\nhave offered explanations, all of which relate only to what they suppose\nwill happen to us after death, leaving entirely out of view and wholly\nunanswered the natural question, \"What were we before we were born\nhere?\" And, taking them on their own ground, they are in a most\nillogical position, because, having once postulated immortality for the\nsoul--the real man--they cannot deny immortality in either direction.\nIf man is immortal, that immortality could never have had a beginning,\nor else it would have an end. Hence their only escape from the dilemma\nis to declare that each soul is a special creation. But this doctrine of\na special creation for each soul born upon the earth, is not dwelt upon\nor expounded by the priests, inasmuch as it is deemed better to keep it\ndiscreetly in the background.\n\nThe Wisdom Religion, on the other hand, remains logical from beginning\nto end. It declares that man is a spiritual being, and allows of no\nbreak in the chain of anything once declared immortal. The Ego of each\nman is immortal; \"always was existent, always will be, and never can be\nnonexistent;\" appearing now and again, and re\u00e4ppearing, clothed in\nbodies on each occasion different, it only appears to be mortal; it\nalways remains the substratum and support for the personality acting\nupon the stage of life. And in those appearances as mortal, the\nquestions mooted above--as to the pre-natal and post-mortem states--are\nof vital interest, because knowledge or ignorance concerning them alters\nman's thought and action while an actor on the stage, and it is\nnecessary for him to know in order that he may so live as to aid in the\ngrand upward sweep of the evolutionary wave.\n\nNow the Adepts have for ages pursued scientific experimentation and\ninvestigation upon those lines. Seers themselves of the highest order,\nthey have recorded not only their own actual experiences beyond the veil\nof matter, on both sides, but have collected, compared, analyzed and\npreserved the records of experiences of the same sort by hundreds of\nthousands of lesser seers, their own disciples; and this process has\nbeen going on from time immemorial. Let Science laugh as it may, the\nAdepts are the only true scientists, for they take into account every\nfactor in the question, whereas Science is limited by brain-power, by\ncircumstance, by imperfection of instruments, and by a total inability\nto perceive anything deeper than the mere phenomena presented by matter.\nThe records of the visions and experiences of the greater and lesser\nseers, through the ages, are extant to-day. Of their mass, nothing has\nbeen accepted except that which has been checked and verified by\nmillions of independent observations; and therefore the Adepts stand in\nthe position of those who possess actual experimental knowledge of what\nprecedes the birth of the Ego in a human form, and what succeeds when\nthe \"mortal coil\" is cast away.\n\nThis recording of experiences still goes on; for the infinity of the\nchanges of Nature in its evolution permits of no stoppage, no \"last\nword,\" no final declaration. As the earth sweeps around the sun, it not\nonly passes through new places in its orbit, but, dragged as it is by\nthe sun through his greater orbit, involving millions of millions of\nyears, it must in that larger circle enter upon new fields in space and\nunprecedented conditions. Hence the Adepts go farther yet and state\nthat, as the phenomena presented by matter to-day are different from\nthose presented a million years ago, so matter will in another million\nof years show different phenomena still. Indeed, if we could translate\nour sight to that time, far back in the past of our globe, we could see\nconditions and phenomena of the material world so different from those\nnow surrounding us that it would be almost impossible to believe we had\never been in such a state as that then prevailing. And the changes\ntoward the conditions that will prevail at a point equally remote in\nadvance of us, in time, and which will be not less than those that have\noccurred, are in progress now. Nothing in the material world endures\nabsolutely unchanged in itself or its conditions, even for the smallest\nconceivable portion of time. All that _is_, is forever in process of\n_becoming_ something else. This is not mere transcendentalism, but is\nan old established doctrine called, in the East, \"the doctrine of the\nconstant, eternal change of atoms from one state into another.\"\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\n\nThe ancient doctrine of the constant, eternal change of every atom from\nstate to state, is founded upon, or rather grows out of, another which\npostulates that there is no such thing as dead matter. At every\nconceivable point in the universe there are lives; nowhere can be found\na spot that is dead; and each life is forever hastening onward to higher\nevolution. To admit this, we must of course grant that matter is never\nperceived by the eye or through any instrument. It is but the phenomena\nof matter that we recognize with the senses, and hence, say the sages,\nthe thing denominated \"matter\" by us is an illusion. Even the protoplasm\nof the schools is not the original matter; it is simply another of the\nphenomena. This first original matter is called by Paracelsus and others\nprimordial matter, the nearest approach to which in the Eastern school\nis found in the Sanskrit word _mulaprakriti_. This is the root of\nmatter, invisible, not to be weighed, or measured, or tested with any\ninstrument of human invention. And yet it is the only real matter\nunderlying all the phenomena to which we erroneously give its name. But\neven it is not dead, but full of the lives first referred to.\n\nNow, bearing this in mind, we consider the vast solar system, yet vast\nonly when not compared with the still greater aggregation of stars and\nplanets around it. The great sidereal year covered by the sun in going\nthrough the twelve signs of the zodiac includes over 25,000 mortal years\nof 365 days each. While this immense circuit is being traversed, the sun\ndrags the whole solar system with him around his own tremendous orbit,\nand we may imagine--for there are no observations on the point--that,\nwhile the 25,000 years of travel around the zodiac have been passing,\nthe solar system as a whole has advanced along the sun's own orbit only\na little distance. But after millions of years shall have been consumed\nin these progresses, the sun must bring his train of planets to stellar\nspace where they have never been before; here other conditions and\ncombinations of matter may very well obtain--conditions and states of\nwhich our scientists have never heard, of which there never has been\nrecorded one single phenomenon; and the difference between planetary\nconditions then and now will be so great that no resemblance shall be\nobserved.\n\nThis is a branch of cyclic law with which the Eastern sages are\nperfectly familiar. They have inquired into it, recorded their\nobservations, and preserved them. Having watched the uncountable lives\nduring cycles upon cycles past, and seen their behavior under different\nconditions in other stellar spaces long ago left behind, they have some\nbasis upon which to draw conclusions as to what will be the state of\nthings in ages yet to come.\n\nThis brings us to an interesting theory offered by Theosophy respecting\nlife itself as exhibited by man, his death and sleep. It relates also to\nwhat is generally called \"fatigue.\" The most usual explanation for the\nphenomenon of sleep is that the body becomes tired and more or less\ndepleted of its vitality and then seeks repose. This, says Theosophy, is\njust the opposite of the truth, for, instead of having suffered a loss\nof vitality, the body, at the conclusion of the day, has more life in it\nthan when it waked. During the waking state the life-waves rush into the\nbody with greater intensity every hour, and, we being unable to resist\nthem any longer than the period usually observed, they overpower us and\nwe fall asleep. While sleeping, the life waves adjust themselves to the\nmolecules of the body; and when the equilibrium is complete we again\nwake to continue the contest with life. If this periodical adjustment\ndid not occur, the life current would destroy us. Any derangement of the\nbody that tends to inhibit this adjustment is a cause of sleeplessness,\nand perhaps death. Finally, death of the body is due to the inequality\nof the contest with the life force; it at last overcomes us, and we are\ncompelled to sink into the grave. Disease, the common property of the\nhuman race, only reduces the power of the body to adjust and resist.\nChildren, say the Adepts, sleep more than adults, and need earlier\nrepose, because the bodily machine, being young and tender, is easily\novercome by life and made to sleep.\n\nOf course, in so short an article, I cannot elaborate this theory; but,\nalthough not probably acceptable now to Science, it will be one day\naccepted as true. As it is beginning to be thought that electricity is\nall-pervading, so, perhaps, ere long it will be agreed that life is\nuniversal even in what we are used to calling dead matter.\n\nAs, however, it is plain to any observant mind that there seems to be\nmore or less intelligence in the operations of this life energy, we\nnaturally approach another interesting Theosophical doctrine as to the\nbeings and hierarchies directing this energy.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\n\nWhile studying these ancient ideas, we may as well prepare ourselves to\nhave them clash with many long-accepted views. But since Science has\nvery little save conjecture to offer when it attempts to solve the great\nproblems of genesis and cosmo-genesis, and, in the act of denying old\ndogmas, almost always starts with a hypothesis, the Theosophist may feel\nsafe. In important matters, such as the heat of the sun or the history\nof the moon there is no agreement between scientists or astronomers.\nNewton, Pouillet, Z\u00f6llner, Secchi, Fizeau, Waterston, Rosetti, and\nothers all differ about the sun, the divergence between their estimates\nof its heat being as high as 8,998,600 degrees.\n\nIf we find the Adepts stating that the moon is not a mass thrown off\nfrom the earth in cooling, but, on the contrary, is the progenitor of\nthis globe, we need not fear the jeers of a Science that is as uncertain\nand unsafe in many things as it is positive.\n\nHad I to deal only with those learned men of the schools who abide by\nthe last utterance from the mouths of the leaders of Science, I should\nnever attempt the task of speaking of the beings and hierarchies who\nguide the lives of which I wrote in my last. My pen would drop from a\nhand paralyzed by negations. But the spiritual beliefs of the common\npeople will still be in vogue when the learned materialist has passed\naway. The great Immanuel Kant said: \"I confess I am much disposed to\nassert the existence of immaterial natures in the world, and to place my\nown soul in the class of these beings. It will hereafter, I know not\nwhere nor when, yet be proved that the human soul stands, even in this\nlife, in indissoluble connection with all immaterial natures in the\nspirit world, that it reciprocally acts upon these, and receives\nimpressions from them.\" And the greater number of men think so also.\n\nThat there are hierarchies ruling in the universe is not a new idea. It\ncan be easily found to-day in the Christian Church. The early fathers\ntaught it, St. Paul spoke of it, and the Roman Catholic Church has it\nclearly now in the Book of Ritual of the Spirits of the Stars. The four\narchangels who guard the four cardinal points represent the groups of\nrulers in the ancient system, or the heads of each group. In that system\nthe rulers are named Dhyan Ch\u00f4hans. Although the Theosophical philosophy\ndoes not postulate a personal God, whether extra- or intra-cosmic, it\ncannot admit that Nature is left unaided in her work, but asserts that\nthe Dhyan Ch\u00f4hans aid her, and are constantly occupied in directing the\nall-pervading life in its evolutionary movement. Mme. Blavatsky,\nspeaking on this subject in her _Secret Doctrine_, quotes from the old\n_Book of Dzyan_ thus:\n\n\"An army of the Sons of Light stands at each angle, the Lipika in the\nmiddle wheel.\"\n\nThe four angles are the four quarters, and the \"middle wheel\" is the\ncenter of space; and that center is everywhere, because as space is\nillimitable, the center of it must be wherever the cognizing\nconsciousness is. And the same author, using the _Disciple's Catechism_,\nwrites:\n\n\"What is it that ever is? Space, the Anupadaka. What is it that ever\nwas? The germ in the Root. What is it that is ever coming and going? The\ngreat Breath. Then there are three eternals? No, the three are one. That\nwhich ever is is one; that which ever was is one; that which is ever\nbeing and becoming is also one; and this is space.\"\n\nIn this parentless and eternal space is the wheel in the center where\nthe Lipika are, of whom I cannot speak; at the four angles are the Dhyan\nCh\u00f4hans, and doing their will among men on this earth are the\nAdepts--the Mah\u00e2tmas. The harmony of the spheres is the voice of the\nLaw, and that voice is obeyed alike by the Dhyan Ch\u00f4han and the\nMah\u00e2tma--on their part with willingness, because they are the law; on\nthe part of men and creatures because they are bound by the adamantine\nchains of the law which they do not understand.\n\nWhen I said that nothing could be spoken about the Lipika, I meant that,\nbecause of their mysterious nature and incomprehensible powers, it is\nnot possible to know enough to say anything with either sense or\ncertainty. But of the Dhyan Ch\u00f4hans and the Adepts we may know\nsomething, and are often given, as it were, tangible proof of their\nexistence. For the Adepts are living men, using bodies similar to ours;\nthey are scattered all over the earth in all nations; they know each\nother, but not according to mere forms and Masonic signs of recognition,\nunless we call natural, physical, and astral signs Masonic. They have\ntimes when they meet together and are presided over by some among their\nnumber who are more advanced in knowledge and power than the rest; and\nthese higher Adepts again have their communications, at which that One\nwho presides is the highest; from these latter begins the communication\nwith the Dhyan Ch\u00f4hans. All in their several degrees do that work which\npertains to their degree, and although only to the Highest can be\nascribed any governance or guidance of nature and mankind, yet the very\nleast occupies an important place in the whole scheme. Freemasons and\nthe numerous mock-Rosicrucians of the day will probably not unanimously\naccept this view, inasmuch as these Adepts have not submitted to their\nritual; but that there has always been a widespread--and, if you please,\na sometimes sneaking--belief in such beings and orders, is not difficult\nto discern or prove.\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\n\nAn old argument for the existence of an extra-cosmic--a personal--God,\nis this very intelligence that appears to pervade nature, from which the\nconclusion is drawn that there is a being who is the intelligent\ndirector. But Theosophy does not admit any such God, for he is neither\nnecessary nor possible. There are too many evidences of implacability in\nthe operations of nature for us to be able for very long to cherish the\nnotion of a personal God. We see that storms will rage and overwhelm\ngood and bad together; that earthquakes have no respect for age, sex or\nrank, and that wherever a natural law has to act it will do so\nregardless of human pain or despair.\n\nThe Wisdom Religion in postulating hierarchies such as those I have\npreviously referred to, does not thereby outline a personal God. The\ndifference between the personal God--say Jehovah for one--and the Lipika\nwith the hosts of the Dhyan Ch\u00f4hans, is very great. Law and order, good\nsense, decency and progress are all subservient to Jehovah, sometimes\ndisappearing altogether under his beneficent sway; while in the Wisdom\nReligion the Dhyan Ch\u00f4hans can only follow the immutable laws eternally\ntraced in the Universal Mind, and this they do intelligently, because\nthey are in fact men become gods. As these eternal laws are\nfar-reaching, and as Nature herself is blind, the hierarchies--the hosts\nat the angles--have to guide the evolutionary progress of matter.\n\nIn order to grasp the doctrine better, let us take one period of\nmanifestation such as that we are now in. This began millions of\nmillions of years ago, succeeding a vast period of darkness or\nhibernation. It is called Chaos in the Christian scheme. And preceding\nthat period of sleep there were eternally other periods of activity or\nmanifestation. Now, in those prior periods of energy and action the same\nevolutionary progress went on, from and out of which came great\nbeings--men perfected and become what to us are gods, who had aided in\ncountless evolutions in the eternal past. These became Dhyan Ch\u00f4hans and\ntook part in all succeeding evolutions. Such is the great goal for a\nhuman soul to strive after. Before it the paltry and impossible rewards\nof the Christian heaven turn to dross.\n\nThe mistake must not be made of confining these great evolutionary\nperiods and the beings spoken of, to our miserable earth. We are only in\nthe chain. There are other systems, other spaces where energy,\nknowledge and power are exercised. In the mysterious Milky-Way there are\nspots vast in size and incomprehensibly distant, where there is room for\nmany such systems as ours; and even while we now watch the assemblage of\nstars, there is some spot among them where the vast night of death is\nspreading remorselessly over a once fair system.\n\nNow these beings, under the sway of the law as they are, seem perhaps to\nbe sometimes implacable. Occasions are met where to mortal judgment it\nwould seem to be wise or just to save a city from destruction, or a\nnation from decay, or a race from total extinction. But if such a fate\nis the natural result of actions performed or a necessary step in the\ncyclic sweep, it cannot be averted. As one of the Masters of this noble\nscience has written:\n\n\"We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the mass to this or\nthat crisis in spite of the _general drift of the world's cosmic\nrelations_. The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and\nmoral light and darkness succeed each other as day does night. The major\nand minor yugas must be accomplished _according to the established order\nof things_. And we, borne along on the mighty tide, can only modify and\ndirect some of its minor currents. If we had the powers of the imaginary\npersonal God, and the immutable laws were but toys to play with, then,\nindeed, might we have created conditions that would have turned this\nearth into an Arcadia for lofty souls.\"\n\nAnd so in individual cases--even among those who are in direct relations\nwith some Adept--the law cannot be infringed. Karma demands that such\nand such a thing should happen to the individual, and the greatest God\nor the smallest Adept cannot lift a finger to prevent it. A nation may\nhave heaped up against its account as a nation a vast amount of bad\nKarma. Its fate is sure, and although it may have noble units in it,\ngreat souls even who are Adepts themselves, nothing can save it, and it\nwill \"go out like a torch dipped in water.\"\n\nSuch was the end of ancient Egypt, of whose former glory no man of this\nday knows aught. Although to us she appears in the historical sky as a\nfull-risen sun, she yet had her period of growth, when mighty Adepts sat\nupon the throne and guided the people. She gradually reached a high\npoint of power and then her people grew material; the Adepts retired;\npretended Adepts took their place, and gradually her glory waned until\nat last the light of Egypt became darkness. The same story was repeated\nin Chaldea and Assyria and also upon the surface of our own America.\nHere a great, a glorious civilization once flourished, only to disappear\nas the others did; and that a grand development of civilization is\nbeginning here again is one of the operations of the just and perfect\nlaw of Karma to the eye of the Theosophist, but one of the mysterious\nworkings of an irresponsible providence to those who believe in a\npersonal God who giveth the land of other men to the good Christian. The\ndevelopment of the American nation has a mysterious but potent\nconnection with the wonderful past of the Atlanteans, and is one of\nthose great stories outlined in the book of fate by the Lipika to whom I\nreferred last week.\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\n\nAmong the Adepts the rise and fall of nations and civilizations are\nsubjects which are studied under the great cyclic movements. They hold\nthat there is an indissoluble connection between man and every event\nthat takes place on this globe, not only the ordinary changes in\npolitics and social life, but all the happenings in the mineral,\nvegetable and animal kingdoms. The changes in the seasons are for and\nthrough man; the great upheavals of continents, the movements of immense\nglaciers, the terrific eruptions of volcanoes, or the sudden\noverflowings of great rivers, are all for and through man, whether he be\nconscious of it or present or absent. And they tell of great changes in\nthe inclination of the axis of the earth, past and to come, all due to\nman.\n\nThis doctrine is incomprehensible to the Western nineteenth century, for\nit is hidden from observation, opposed to tradition and contradicted by\neducation. But the Theosophist who has passed beyond the elementary\nstages knows that it is true nevertheless. \"What,\" says the worshipper\nof Science, \"has man got to do with the Charleston earthquake, or with\nthe showers of cosmic dust that invade our atmosphere? Nothing.\"\n\nBut the Adept, standing on the immeasurable height where centuries lie\nunder his glance, sees the great cycles and the lesser ones rolling\nonward, influenced by man and working out their changes for his\npunishment, reward, experience and development.\n\nIt is not necessary now to try to make it clear how the thoughts and\ndeeds of men effect any changes in material things; that I will lay down\nfor the present as a dogma, if you please, to be made clear later on.\n\nThe great subject of cycles has been touched upon, and brings us close\nto a most fascinating statement made by the Theosophical Adepts. It is\nthis, that the cycles in their movement are bringing up to the surface\nnow, in the United States and America generally, not only a great glory\nof civilization which was forgotten eleven thousand or more years ago,\nbut also the very men, the monads--the egos, as they call them--who were\nconcerned so many ages since in developing and bringing it to its final\nlustre. In fact, we of the nineteenth century, hearing of new\ndiscoveries and inventions every day, and dreaming of great advances in\nall arts and sciences, are the same individuals who inhabited bodies\namong the powerful and brilliant as well as wicked, Atlanteans, whose\nname is forever set immortal in the Atlantic Ocean. The Europeans are\nalso Atlantean monads; but the flower, so to speak, of this revival or\nresurrection, is and is to be on the American continent. I will not say\nthe United States, for mayhap, when the sun of our power has risen\nagain, there may be no United States for it to rise upon.\n\nOf course, in order to be able to accept in any degree this theory, it\nis essential that one should believe in the twin Theosophical doctrines\nof Karma and Re\u00efncarnation. To me it seems quite plain. I can almost see\nthe Atlanteans in these citizens of America, sleepy, and not well aware\nwho they are, but yet full of the Atlantean ideas, which are only\nprevented from full and clear expression by the inherited bodily and\nmental environment which cramps and binds the mighty man within. This\nagain is Nemesis-Karma that punishes us by means of these galling\nlimitations, penning up our power and for the time frustrating our\nambition. It is because, when we were in Atlantean bodies, we did\nwickedly, not the mere sordid wicked things of this day, but high deeds\nof evil such as by St. Paul were attributed to unknown spiritual beings\nin high places. We degraded spiritual things and turned mighty powers\nover nature to base uses; we did _in excelsis_ that which is hinted at\nnow in the glorification of wealth, of material goods, of the individual\nover the spiritual and above the great Man--Humanity. This has now its\ncompensation in our present inability to attain what we want or to\nremove from among us the grinding-stones of poverty. We are, as yet,\nonly preparers, much as we may exalt our plainly crude American\ndevelopment.\n\nHerein lies the very gist of the cycle's meaning. It is a preparatory\ncycle with much of necessary destruction in it; for, before\nconstruction, we must have some disintegration. We are preparing here in\nAmerica a new race which will exhibit the perfection of the glories\nthat I said were being slowly brought to the surface from the long\nforgotten past. This is why the Americas are seen to be in a perpetual\nferment. It is the seething and bubbling of the older races in the\nrefining-pot, and the slow coming up of the material for the new race.\nHere, and nowhere else, are to be found men and women of every race\nliving together, being governed together, attacking nature and the\nproblems of life together, and bringing forth children who combine, each\none, two races. This process will go on until in the course of many\ngenerations there will be produced on the American continents an\nentirely new race; new bodies; new orders of intellect; new powers of\nthe mind; curious and unheard-of psychic powers, as well as\nextraordinary physical ones; with new senses and extensions of present\nsenses now unforeseen. When this new sort of body and mind are\ngenerated--then other monads, or our own again, will animate them and\npaint upon the screen of time the pictures of 100,000 years ago.\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\n\nIn dealing with these doctrines one is compelled now and then to greatly\nextend the scope and meaning of many English words. The word \"race\" is\none of these. In the Theosophical scheme, as given out by the sages of\nthe East, seven great races are spoken of. Each one of these includes\nall the different so-called races of our modern ethnology. Hence the\nnecessity for having seven great root-races, sub-races, family races,\nand countless offshoot races. The root-race sends off sub-races, and\nthese divide into family groups; all, however, being included in the\ngreat root-race then undergoing development.\n\nThe appearance of these great root-races is always just when the world's\ndevelopment permits. When the globe was forming, the first root-race was\nmore or less ethereal and had no such body as we now inhabit. The\ncosmic environment became more dense and the second race appeared, soon\nafter which the first wholly disappeared. Then the third came on the\nscene, after an immense lapse of time, during which the second had been\ndeveloping the bodies needed for the third. At the coming of the fourth\nroot-race it is said that the present human form was evolved, although\ngigantic and in some respects different from our own. It is from this\npoint--the fourth race--that the Theosophical system begins to speak of\nman as such.\n\nThe old book quoted by Mme. Blavatsky has it in this wise:\n\n\"Thus two by two on the seven zones the third race gave birth to the\nfourth;\" and,\n\n\"The first race on every zone was moon-colored; the second, yellow, like\ngold; the third, red; the fourth, brown, which became black with sin.\"\n\nTopinard, in his _Anthropology_, gives support to this, as he says that\nthere are three fundamental colors in the human organism--red, yellow\nand black. The brown race, which became black with sin, refers to the\nAtlantean sorcerer race of which I spoke in my last; its awfully evil\npractices, both mental and physical, having produced a change in the\ncolor of the skin.\n\nThe evolution of these seven great races covers many millions of years,\nand it must not be forgotten that when the new race is fully evolved the\npreceding race disappears, as the monads in it have been gradually\nre\u00efncarnated in the bodies of the new race. The present root-race to\nwhich we belong, no matter what the sub-race or family we may be in, is\nthe fifth. It became a separate, distinct and completely-defined race\nabout one million years ago, and has yet many more years to serve before\nthe sixth will be ushered in. This fifth race includes also all the\nnations in Europe, as they together form a family race and are not to\nbe divided off from each other.\n\nNow, the process of forming the foundation, or great spinal column, for\nthat race which is to usher in the sixth, and which I said is now going\non in the Americas, is a slow process for us. Obliged as we are by our\ninability to judge or to count except by relativity, the gradual coming\ntogether of nations and the fusion of their offspring over and over\nagain so as to bring forth something new in the human line, is so\ngradual as to seem almost without progress. But this change and\nevolution go on nevertheless, and a very careful observer can see\nevidences of it. One fact deserves attention. It is the inventive\nfaculty displayed by Americans. This is not accorded much force by our\nscientists, but the Occultist sees in it an evidence that the brains of\nthese inventors are more open to influences and pictures from the astral\nworld than are the brains of the older nations. Reports have been\nbrought to me by competent persons of children, boys and girls, who were\nborn with most abnormal faculties of speech, or memory or otherwise, and\nsome such cases I have seen myself. All of these occur in America, and\nmany of them in the West. There is more nervousness here than in the\nolder nations. This is accounted for by the hurry and rush of our\ncivilization; but such an explanation really explains nothing, because\nthe question yet remains, \"Why is there such hurry and push and change\nin the United States?\" Such ordinary arguments go in a circle, since\nthey leave out of sight the fundamental reason, so familiar to the\nTheosophist, that it is human evolution going on right before our eyes\nin accordance with cyclic laws.\n\nThe Theosophical Adepts believe in evolution, but not that sort which\nclaims an ape as our ancestor. Their great and comprehensive system is\nquite able to account for rudimentary muscles and traces of organs\nfound complete only in the animal kingdom without having to call a\npithecoid ape our father, for they show the gradual process of building\nthe temple for the use of the divine Ego, proceeding ceaselessly, and in\nsilence, through ages upon ages, winding in and out among all the forms\nin nature in every kingdom, from the mineral up to the highest. This is\nthe real explanation of the old Jewish, Masonic and archaic saying that\nthe temple of the Lord is not made with hands and that no sound of\nbuilding is heard in it.\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\n\nIt is well now to say, more definitely than I have as yet, a few words\nof the two classes of beings, one of which has been much spoken of in\nTheosophical literature, and also by those on the outside who write of\nthe subject either in seriousness or in ridicule. These two classes of\nexalted personages are the Mah\u00e2tmas and Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas.\n\nIn respect to the Mah\u00e2tmas, a great many wrong notions have currency,\nnot only with the public, but as well with Theosophists in all parts of\nthe world.\n\nIn the early days of the Theosophical Society the name Mah\u00e2tma was not\nin use here, but the title then was \"Brothers.\" This referred to the\nfact that they were a band of men who belonged to a brotherhood in the\nEast. The most wonderful powers and, at times, the most extraordinary\nmotives were attributed to them by those who believed in their\nexistence.\n\nThey could pass to all parts of the world in the twinkling of an eye.\nAcross the great distance that India is from here they could precipitate\nletters to their friends and disciples in New York. Many thought that if\nthis were done it was only for amusement; others looked at it in the\nlight of a test for the faithful, while still others often supposed\nMah\u00e2tmas acted thus for pure love of exercising their power. The\nSpiritualists, some of whom believed that Mme. Blavatsky really did the\nwonderful things told of her, said that she was only a medium, pure and\nsimple, and that her Brothers were familiar spooks of s\u00e9ance rooms.\nMeanwhile the press in general laughed, and Mme. Blavatsky and her\nTheosophical friends went on doing their work and never gave up their\nbelief in the Brothers, who after a few years came to be called\nMah\u00e2tmas. Indiscriminately with Mah\u00e2tma the word Adept has been used to\ndescribe the same beings, so that we have these two titles made use of\nwithout accuracy and in a misleading fashion.\n\nThe word Adept signifies proficiency, and is not uncommon, so that, when\nusing it, some description is necessary if it is to be applied to the\nBrothers. For that reason I used Theosophical Adepts in a previous\npaper. A Mah\u00e2tma is not only an Adept, but much more. The etymology of\nit will make the matter clearer, the word being strictly Sanskrit, from\n_mah\u00e2_, great, and _\u00e2tm\u00e2_, soul--hence Great Soul. This does not mean a\nnoble-hearted man merely, but a perfected being, one who has attained to\nthe state often described by mystics and held by scientific men to be an\nimpossibility, when time and space are no obstacles to sight, to action,\nto knowledge or to consciousness. Hence they are said to be able to\nperform the extraordinary feats related by various persons, and also to\npossess information of a decidedly practical character concerning the\nlaws of nature, including that mystery for science--the meaning,\noperation and constitution of life itself--and concerning the genesis of\nthis planet as well as the races upon it. These large claims have given\nrise to the chief complaint brought forward against the Theosophical\nAdepts by those writers outside of the Society who have taken the\nsubject up--that they remain, if they exist at all, in a state of cold\nand selfish quietude, seeing the misery and hearing the groans of the\nworld, yet refusing to hold out a helping hand except to a favored few;\npossessing knowledge of scientific principles, or of medicinal\npreparations, and yet keeping it back from learned men or wealthy\ncapitalists who desire to advance commerce while they turn an honest\npenny. Although, for one, I firmly believe, upon evidence given me, in\nall that is claimed for these Adepts, I declare groundless the complaint\nadvanced, knowing it to be due to a want of knowledge of those who are\nimpugned.\n\nAdepts and Mah\u00e2tmas are not a miraculous growth, nor the selfish\nsuccessors of some who, accidentally stumbling upon great truths,\ntransmitted them to adherents under patent rights. They are human beings\ntrained, developed, cultivated through not only a life but long series\nof lives, always under evolutionary laws and quite in accord with what\nwe see among men of the world or of science. Just as a Tyndall is\ngreater than a savage, though still a man, so is the Mah\u00e2tma, not\nceasing to be human, still greater than a Tyndall. The Mah\u00e2tma-Adept is\na natural growth, and not produced by any miracle; the process by which\nhe so becomes may be to us an unfamiliar one, but it is in the strict\norder of nature.\n\nSome years ago a well-known Anglo-Indian, writing to the Theosophical\nAdepts, queried if they had ever made any mark upon the web of history,\ndoubting that they had. The reply was that he had no bar at which to\narraign them, and that they had written many an important line upon the\npage of human life, not only as reigning in visible shape, but down to\nthe very latest dates when, as for many a long century before, they did\ntheir work behind the scenes. To be more explicit, these wonderful _men_\nhave swayed the destiny of nations and are shaping events to-day.\nPillars of peace and makers of war such as Bismarck, or saviors of\nnations such as Washington, Lincoln and Grant, owe their elevation,\ntheir singular power, and their astonishing grasp upon the right men\nfor their purposes, not to trained intellect or long preparation in the\nschools of their day, but to these very unseen Adepts, who crave no\nhonors, seek no publicity and claim no acknowledgment. Each one of these\ngreat human leaders whom I have mentioned had in his obscure years what\nhe called premonitions of future greatness, or connection with stirring\nevents in his native land.\n\nLincoln always felt that in some way he was to be an instrument for some\ngreat work, and the stray utterances of Bismarck point to silent hours,\nnever openly referred to, when he felt an impulse pushing him to\nwhatever of good he may have done. A long array of instances could be\nbrought forward to show that the Adepts have made \"an ineffaceable mark\nupon diverse eras.\" Even during the great uprising in India that\nthreatened the English rule there, they saw long in advance the\ninfluence England and India would have in the affairs of the world\nthrough the very psychic and metaphysical changes of to-day, and often\nhastened to communicate, by their own occult and wonderful methods, the\nnews of successes for English arms to districts and peoples in the\ninterior who might have risen under the stimulus of imaginary reports of\nEnglish disasters. At other times, vague fears were spread instantly\nover large masses of the Hind\u00fbs, so that England at last remained\nmaster, even though many a patriotic native desired another result. But\nthe Adepts do not work for the praise of men, for the ephemeral\ninfluence of a day, but for the future races and man's best and highest\ngood.\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\n\nFor an exhaustive disquisition upon Adepts, Mah\u00e2tmas and Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas,\nmore than a volume would be needed. The development illustrated by them\nis so strange to modern minds and so extraordinary in these days of\ngeneral mediocrity, that the average reader fails to grasp with ease the\nviews advanced in a condensed article; and nearly everything one would\nsay about Adepts--to say nothing of the Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas--requiring full\nexplanation of recondite laws and abstruse questions, is liable to be\nmisunderstood, even if volumes should be written upon them. The\ndevelopment, conditions, powers, and function of these beings carry with\nthem the whole scheme of evolution; for, as said by the mystics, the\nMah\u00e2tma is the efflorescence of an age. The Adepts may be dimly\nunderstood to-day, the Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas have as yet been only passingly\nmentioned, and the Mah\u00e2tmas are misconceived by believers and deniers\nalike.\n\nBut one law governing them is easy to state and ought not to be\ndifficult for the understanding. They do not, will not, and must not\ninterfere with Karma; that is, however apparently deserving of help an\nindividual may be, they will not extend it in the manner desired if his\nKarma does not permit it; and they would not step into the field of\nhuman thought for the purpose of bewildering humanity by an exercise of\npower which on all sides would be looked upon as miraculous. Some have\nsaid that if the Theosophical Adepts were to perform a few of their\nfeats before the eyes of Europe, an immense following for them would at\nonce arise; but such would not be the result. Instead of it there would\nbe dogmatism and idolatry worse than have ever been, with a reaction of\nan injurious nature impossible to counteract.\n\nHypnotism--though by another name--has long been known to them. The\nhypnotic condition has often aided the schemes of priests and churches.\nTo compel recognition of true doctrine is not the way of these sages,\nfor compulsion is hypnotism. To feed a multitude with only five loaves\nwould be easy for them; but as they never act upon sentiment but\ncontinually under the great cosmic laws, they do not advance with\npresent material aid for the poor in their hands. But, by using their\nnatural powers, they every day influence the world, not only among the\nrich and poor of Europe and America, but in every other land, so that\nwhat does come about in our lives is better than it would have been had\nthey not had part therein.\n\nThe other class referred to--Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas--constantly engage in this\nwork deemed by them greater than earthly enterprises: the betterment of\nthe soul of man, and any other good that they can accomplish through\nhuman agents. Around them the long-disputed question of Nirv\u00e2na\nrevolves, for all that they have not been distinctly considered in it.\nFor, if Max M\u00fcller's view of Nirv\u00e2na, that it is annihilation, be\ncorrect, than a Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2ya is an impossibility. Paradoxically speaking,\nthey are in and out of that state at one and the same time. They are\nowners of Nirv\u00e2na who refuse to accept it in order that they may help\nthe suffering orphan, Humanity. They have followed the injunction of the\n_Book of the Golden Precepts_: \"Step out from sunlight into shade, to\nmake more room for others.\"\n\nA greater part is taken in the history of nations by the Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas\nthan anyone supposes. Some of them have under their care certain men in\nevery nation who from their birth are destined to be great factors in\nthe future. These they guide and guard until the appointed time. And\nsuch prot\u00e9g\u00e9s but seldom know that such influence is about them,\nespecially in the nineteenth century. Acknowledgment and appreciation of\nsuch great assistance are not required by the Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas, who work\nbehind the veil and prepare the material for a definite end. At the same\ntime, too, one Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2ya may have many different men--or women--whom\nhe directs. As Patanjali puts it, \"In all these bodies one mind is the\nmoving cause.\"\n\nStrange, too, as it may seem, often such men as Napoleon Buonaparte are\nfrom time to time helped by them. Such a being as Napoleon could not\ncome upon the scene fortuitously. His birth and strange powers must be\nin the order of nature. The far-reaching consequences going with a\nnature like his, unmeasurable by us, must in the eastern Theosophical\nphilosophy be watched and provided for. If he was a wicked man, so much\nthe worse for him; but that could never deter a Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2ya from turning\nhim to his uses. That might be by swerving him, perchance, from a path\nthat would have plunged the world into depths of woe and been made to\nbring about results in after years which Napoleon never dreamed of. The\nfear of what the world might think of encouraging a monster at a certain\npoint never can deter a sage who sees the end that is best. And in the\nlife of Napoleon there are many things going to show at times an\ninfluence more powerful than he could grapple. His foolhardy march to\nMoscow was perhaps engineered by these silent campaigners, and also his\nsudden and disastrous retreat. What he could have done had he remained\nin France, no present historian is competent to say. The oft-doubted\nstory of the red letter from the Red Man just when Napoleon was in a\nhesitating mood, may have been an encouragement at a particular\njuncture. \"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.\" Nor will\nthe defeat at Waterloo be ever understood until the Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas give\ntheir records up.\n\nAs a change in the thought of a people who have been tending to gross\natheism is one always desired by the Sages of the Wisdom Religion, it\nmay be supposed that the wave of spiritualistic phenomena resulting now\nquite clearly in a tendency back to a universal acknowledgment of the\nsoul, has been aided by the Nirm\u00e2nak\u00e2yas. They are in it and of it; they\npush on the progress of a psychic deluge over great masses of people.\nThe result is seen in the literature, the religion and the drama of\nto-day. Slowly but surely the tide creeps up and covers the once dry\nshore of Materialism, and, though priests may howl, demanding \"the\nsuppression of Theosophy with a firm hand,\" and a venal press may try to\nhelp them, they have neither the power nor the knowledge to produce one\nbackward ripple, for the Master hand is guided by omniscient\nintelligence propelled by a gigantic force, and--_works behind the\nscene_.\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\n\nThere have been so many secret societies during the Christian era, by\nwhom claims were made to knowledge of nature's secret laws, that a\nnatural question arises: \"In what do the Theosophic Eastern Sages differ\nfrom the many Rosicrucians and others so often heard of?\" The old\nbookshelves of Germany are full of publications upon Rosicrucianism, or\nby pretended and genuine members of that order, and to-day it is not\nuncommon to find those who have temerity enough to dub themselves\n\"Rosicrucians.\"\n\nThe difference is that which exists between reality and illusion,\nbetween mere ritualism and the signs printed by nature upon all things\nand beings passing forever up the road to higher states of existence.\nThe Rosicrucian and Masonic fraternities known to history rely upon\noutward signs and tokens to indicate the status in the order of their\nmembers, who, without such guarantees, are only uninitiated outsiders.\n\nBut the Sages we speak of, and their disciples, carry with them the\nindelible mark and speak the well-known words that show they are beings\ndeveloped under laws, and not merely persons who, having undergone a\nchildish ordeal, are possessed of a diploma. The Adepts may be called\nrugged oaks that have no disguise, while the undeveloped man dabbling in\nMasonic words and formulas is only a donkey wearing a lion's skin.\n\nThere are many Adepts living in the world, all of whom know each other.\nThey have means of communication unknown to modern civilization, by\nusing which they can transmit to and receive from each other messages at\nany moment and from immense distances, without using any mechanical\nmeans. We might say that there is a Society of Adepts, provided that we\nnever attach to the word \"society\" the meaning ordinarily conveyed by\nit. It is a society which has no place of meeting, which exacts no dues,\nwhich has no constitution or by-laws other than the eternal laws of\nnature; there are no police or spies attached to it and no complaints\nare made or received in it, for the reason that any offender is punished\nby the operation of law entirely beyond his control--his mastery over\nthe law being lost upon his infringing it.\n\nUnder the protection and assistance and guidance of this Society of\nAdepts are the disciples of each one of its members. These disciples are\ndivided into different degrees, corresponding to the various stages of\ndevelopment; the least developed disciples are assisted by those who are\nin advance of them, and the latter in a similar manner by others, until\nthe grade of disciple is reached where direct intercourse with the\nAdepts is possible. At the same time, each Adept keeps a supervisory eye\nupon all his disciples. Through the agency of the disciples of Adepts\nmany effects are brought about in human thought and affairs, for from\nthe higher grades are often sent those who, without disclosing their\nconnection with mysticism, influence individuals who are known to be\nmain factors in events about to occur.\n\nIt is claimed that the Theosophical Society receives assistance in its\ngrowth and the spreading of its influence from the Adepts and their\naccepted disciples. The history of the Society would seem to prove this,\nfor unless there were some hidden but powerful force operating for its\nadvantage it would have long ago sunk into obscurity, destroyed by the\nstorm of ridicule and abuse to which it has been subjected. Promises\nwere made, in the early history of the Society, that assistance would at\nall times be rendered, and prophecies were hinted that it would be made\nthe target for vilification and the object of opposition. Both\nprophecies have been fulfilled to the letter.\n\nIn just the same way as a polished diamond shows the work which gives it\nvalue and brilliancy, so the man who has gone through probation and\nteaching under the Adepts carries upon his person the ineffaceable\nmarks. To the ordinary eye untrained in this department, no such\nindications are visible; but those who can see describe them as being\nquite prominent and wholly beyond the control of the bearer. For this\nreason that one who has progressed, say, three steps along the way, will\nhave three marks, and it is useless to pretend that his rank is a step\nhigher, for, if it were, then the fourth mark would be there, since it\ngrows with the being's development. Now, as these signatures cannot be\nimitated or forged, the whole inner fraternity has no need for\nconcealment or signs. No one can commit a fraud upon or extract from\nthem the secrets of higher degrees by having obtained signs and\npass-words out of a book or in return for the payment of fees, and none\ncan procure the conferring of any advancement until the whole nature of\nthe man exactly corresponds to the desired point of development.\n\nIn two ways the difference between the Adept fraternity and the worldly\nsecret societies can be seen--in their treatment of nations and of\ntheir own direct special disciples. Nothing is forced or depends upon\nfavor. Everything is arranged in accordance with the best interests of a\nnation, having in view the cyclic influences at any time prevailing, and\nnever before the proper time. When they desire to destroy the chains\nforged by dogmatism, they do not make the error of suddenly appearing\nbefore the astonished eyes of the people; for they know well that such a\ncourse would only alter the dogmatic belief in one set of ideas to a\nsenseless and equally dogmatic adherence to the Adepts as gods, or else\ncreate in the minds of many the surety that the devil was present.\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\n\nThe training of the disciple by the teachers of the school to which the\nTheosophical Adepts belong is peculiar to itself, and not in accord with\nprevailing modern educational ideas. In one respect it is a\nspecialization of the pilgrimage to a sacred place so common in India,\nand the enshrined object of the journey is the soul itself, for with\nthem the existence of soul is one of the first principles.\n\nIn the East the life of man is held to be a pilgrimage, not only from\nthe cradle to the grave, but also through that vast period of time,\nembracing millions upon millions of years, stretching from the beginning\nto the end of a Manvantara, or period of evolution, and as he is held to\nbe a spiritual being, the continuity of his existence is unbroken.\nNations and civilizations rise, grow old, decline and disappear; but the\nbeing lives on, spectator of all the innumerable changes of environment.\nStarting from the great All, radiating like a spark from the central\nfire, he gathers experience in all ages, under all rulers, civilizations\nand customs, ever engaged in a pilgrimage to the shrine from which he\ncame. He is now the ruler and now the slave; to-day at the pinnacle of\nwealth and power, to-morrow at the bottom of the ladder, perhaps in\nabject misery, but ever the same being. To symbolize this, the whole of\nIndia is dotted with sacred shrines, to which pilgrimages are made, and\nit is the wish of all men in that so-called benighted land to make such\na journey at least once before death, for the religious duties of life\nare not fully performed without visiting such sacred places.\n\nOne great reason for this, given by those who understand the inner\nsignificance of it, is that the places of pilgrimage are centers of\nspiritual force from which radiate elevating influences not perceptible\nto the pig-sticking, wine-drinking traveller. It is asserted by many,\nindeed, that at most of the famous places of pilgrimage there is an\nAdept of the same order to which the Theosophical Adepts are said to\nbelong, who is ready always to give some meed of spiritual insight and\nassistance to those of pure heart who may go there. He, of course, does\nnot reveal himself to the knowledge of the people, because it is quite\nunnecessary, and might create the necessity for his going elsewhere.\nSuperstitions have arisen from the doctrine of pilgrimages, but, as that\nis quite likely to come about in this age, it is no reason why places of\npilgrimage should be abolished, since, if the spiritual centers were\nwithdrawn, good men who are free from superstition would not receive the\nbenefits they now may have. The Adepts founded these places in order to\nkeep alive in the minds of the people the soul idea which modern Science\nand education would soon turn into agnosticism, were they to prevail\nunchecked.\n\nBut the disciple of the Adept knows that the place of pilgrimage\nsymbolizes his own nature, shows him how he is to start on the\nscientific investigation of it and how to proceed, by what roads and in\nwhich direction. He is supposed to concentrate into a few lives the\nexperience and practice which it takes ordinary men countless\nincarnations to acquire. His first steps, as well as his last, are on\ndifficult, often dangerous places; the road, indeed, \"winds up hill all\nthe way,\" and upon entering it he leaves behind the hope for reward so\ncommon in all undertakings. Nothing is gained by favor, but all depends\nupon his actual merit. As the end to be reached is self-dependence with\nperfect calmness and clearness, he is from the beginning made to stand\nalone, and this is for most of us a difficult thing which frequently\nbrings on a kind of despair. Men like companionship, and cannot with\nease contemplate the possibility of being left altogether to themselves.\nSo, instead of being constantly in the company of a lodge of\nfellow-apprentices, as is the case in the usual worldly secret society,\nhe is forced to see that, as he entered the world alone, he must learn\nto live there in the same way, leaving it as he came, solely in his own\ncompany. But this produces no selfishness, because, being accompanied by\nconstant meditation upon the unseen, the knowledge is acquired that the\nloneliness felt is only in respect to the lower, personal, worldly self.\n\nAnother rule that this disciple must follow is that no boasting may be\nindulged in on any occasion, and this gives us the formula that, given a\nman who speaks of his powers as an Adept or boasts of his progress on\nthe spiritual planes, we can be always sure he is neither Adept nor\ndisciple. There have been those in the Theosophical Society who gave out\nto the world that they were either Adepts in fact or very near it, and\npossessed of great powers. Under our formula it follows that they were\nmere boasters, with nothing behind their silly pretensions but vanity\nand a fair knowledge of the weakness as well as the gullibility of human\nnature; upon the latter they play for either their profit or pleasure.\nBut, hiding themselves under an exterior which does not attract\nattention, there are many of the real disciples in the world. They are\nstudying themselves and other human hearts. They have no diplomas, but\nthere resides in them a consciousness of constant help and a clear\nknowledge of the true Lodge which meets in real secrecy and is never\nfound mentioned in any directory. Their whole life is a persistent\npursuit of the fast-moving soul which, although appearing to stand\nstill, can distance the lightning; and their death is only another step\nforward to greater knowledge through better physical bodies in new\nlives.\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\n\nLooking back into the past the nineteenth-century historian finds his\nsight speedily striking a mist and at last plunging into inky darkness.\nBound down in fact by the influence of a ridiculous dogmatism which\nallows only some six thousand years for man's life on earth, he is\nunwilling to accept the old chronologies of the Egyptians or Hind\u00fbs,\nand, while permitting the assumption of vast periods for geological\nchanges, he is staggered by a few millions of years more or less when\nthey are added to the length of time during which humanity has peopled\nthe globe. The student of Theosophy, however, sees no reason why he\nshould doubt the statement made by his teachers on this subject. He\nknows that the periods of evolution are endless. These are called\nManvantaras, because they are between two Manus, or, two men.\n\nThese periods may be called waves whose succession has no cessation.\nEach grand period, including within it all the minor evolutions, covers\n311,040,000,000,000 human years; under a single Manu the human years\ncome and go, 306,720,000 in number, and the lesser yugas--or ages--more\nimmediately concerning us, comprise of solar years 4,320,000. During\nthese solar revolutions the human races sweep round and round this\nplanet. Cave-dwellers, lake-dwellers and those of a neolithic or any\nother age appear and disappear over and over again, and in each of those\nwe who now read, write and think of them were ourselves the very Egos\nwhose past we are trying to trace.\n\nBut, going deep into geological strata, the doubt of man's existence\ncontemporaneously with the plesiosaurus arises because no fossil _genus\nhomo_ is discovered in the same stratum. It is here that the theories of\nthe Theosophist come in and furnish the key. Those hold that before man\ndeveloped any physical body he clothed himself with an astral form; and\nthis is why H. P. Blavatsky writes in her _Secret Doctrine_: \"it teaches\nthe birth of the _astral_ before the _physical_ body, the former being\nthe model for the latter.\" At the time of the huge antediluvian animals\nthey absorbed in their enormous bodies so much of the total quantity of\ngross matter available for frames of sentient beings that the astral man\nremained without a corporeal frame, as yet unclothed \"with coats of\nskin.\" For this reason he could exist in the same place with those huge\nbirds and reptiles without fear. Their massive proportions inspired him\nwith no terror, and by their consumption of food there was no lessening\nof his sustenance. And, therefore, being of such a composition that he\nleft no impression upon mud or plastic rock, the death of one astral\nbody after another left no fossil and no mark to be unearthed by us in\ncompany with the very beasts and birds which were his contemporaries.\n\nMan was all this time acquiring the power to clothe himself with a dense\nframe. He threw off astral bodies one after another, in the ceaseless\npursuit, each effort giving him a little more density. Then he began to\ncast a shadow, as it were, and the vast, unwieldy animal world--and\nothers as well--felt more and more the draughts made upon it by the\ncoming man. As he thickened they grew smaller, and his remains could not\nbe deposited in any stratum until such time as he had grown to\nsufficient hardness. But our modern anthropologists have not yet\ndiscovered when that was. They are ready enough to make definite\nstatements, but, learned as they are, there are surprises awaiting them\nnot so far off.\n\nWhile, therefore, our explorers are finding, now and then, the remains\nof animals and birds and reptiles in strata which show an age far\ngreater than any assigned to the human race, they never come upon human\nskeletons. How could man leave any trace at a stage when he could not\npress himself into the clay or be caught by soft lava or masses of\nvolcanic dust? I do not mean, however, to say that the period of the\nplesiosaurus is the period of the man of astral body devoid of a\nmaterial one. The question of exact period may well be left for a more\ndetailed account; this is only to point to the law and to the\nexplanation for the non-appearance of man's remains in very early\ngeologic strata. But the Theosophic Adepts insist that there are still\nin the earth bony remains of man, which carry his first appearance in a\ndense body many millions of years farther back than have yet been\nadmitted, and these remains will be discovered by us before much time\nshall have rolled away.\n\nOne of the first results of these discoveries will be to completely\nupset the theory as to the succession of ages, as I may call it, which\nis given and accepted at the present time, and also the estimation of\nthe various civilizations that have passed from the earth and left no\ntrace except in the inner constitution of ourselves--for it is held that\n_we are those very persons_, now in different bodies, who so long ago\nlived and loved and died upon the planet. We began to make Karma then\nand have been under its influence ever since, and it seems fitting that\nthat great doctrine should be taken up at another time for a more\ncareful examination.\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\n\nThe Oriental doctrine of reward and punishment of the human Ego is very\ndifferent from the theological scheme accepted throughout Christendom,\nsince the Brahmins and Buddhists fix the place of punishment and\ncompensation upon this earth of ours, while the Christian removes the\n\"bar of God\" to the hereafter. We may not profitably stop to argue upon\nlogic with the latter; it will be sufficient to quote to them the words\nof Jesus, St. Matthew, and the Psalmist. \"With what measure ye mete, it\nshall be measured unto you again,\" said Jesus; and Matthew declares that\nfor every word, act, and thought we shall have to answer, while David,\nthe royal poet, sang that those who serve the Lord should never eat\nbeggar's bread. We all know well that the first two declarations do away\nwith the vicarious atonement; and as for the Jewish singer's notion, it\nis negatived every day in any city of either hemisphere.\n\nAmong the Ceylonese Buddhists the name of the doctrine is Kamma; with\nthe Hind\u00fbs it is Karma. Viewed in its religious light, it \"is the good\nand bad deeds of sentient beings, by the infallible influence or\nefficacy of which those beings are met with due rewards or punishment,\naccording as they deserve, in any state of being.\"[A] When a being dies,\nhe emits, as it were, a mass of force or energy, which goes to make up\nthe new personality when he shall be re\u00efncarnated. In this energy is\nfound the summation of the life just given up, and by means of it the\nEgo is forced to assume that sort of body among those appropriate\ncircumstances which together are the means for carrying out the decrees\nof Karma.\n\nHence hell is not a mythical place or condition after death in some\nunknown region specially set apart by the Almighty for the punishment of\nhis children, but is in very truth our own globe, for it is on the\nearth, in earth-lives experienced in human bodies, that we are punished\nfor bad deeds previously done, and meet with happiness and pleasure as\nrewards for old merit.\n\nWhen one sees, as is so common, a good man suffering much in his life,\nthe question naturally arises, \"Has Karma anything to do with it, and is\nit just that such a person should be so afflicted?\" For those who\nbelieve in Karma it is quite just, because this man in a previous life\nmust have done such acts as deserve punishment now. And, similarly, the\nwicked man who is free from suffering, happy and prosperous, is so\nbecause in a previous existence he had been badly treated by his fellows\nor had experienced much suffering. And the perfect justice of Karma is\nwell illustrated in his case because, although now favored by fortune,\nhe, being wicked, is generating causes which, when he shall be reborn,\nwill operate then to punish him for his evil-doing now.\n\nSome may suppose that the Ego should be punished after death, but such a\nconclusion is not logical. For _evil deeds committed here on the\nobjective plane could not with any scientific or moral propriety be\npunished on a plane which is purely subjective_. And such is the reason\nwhy so many minds, both of the young and old, have rejected and rebelled\nagainst the doctrine of a hellfire in which they would be eternally\npunished for commission of sin on earth. Even when unable to formulate\nthe reason in metaphysical terms, they instinctively knew that it would\nbe impossible to remove the scene of compensation from the very place\nwhere the sin and confusion had been done and created. When the\ndisciples of Jesus asked him if the man who was born blind was thus\nbrought into the world for some sin he had committed they had in mind\nthis doctrine of Karma, just as all the Hind\u00fbs and Buddhists have when\nthey see some of their fellows crippled or deformed or deprived of\nsight.\n\nThe theory above hinted at of the person at death throwing out from\nhimself the new personality, so to speak, ready to await the time when\nthe Ego should return to earth seeking a new body, is a general law that\noperates in a great many other instances besides the birth or death of a\nbeing. It is that which is used by the Theosophists to explain the\nrelations between the moon and the earth. For, as the moon is held by\nthem to be the planet on which we lived before reaching the earth and\nbefore there was any such earth whatever; and that, when our so-called\nsatellite came to die, all the energy contained in it was thrown out\ninto space, where in a single vortex it remained until the time came for\nthat energy to be again supplied with a body--this earth--so the same\nlaw prevails with men, the single units in the vast aggregate which is\nknown among advanced Theosophists as the great Manu. Men being, as to\ntheir material envelope, derived from the moon, must follow the law of\ntheir origin, and therefore the Buddhist priest says, as quoted: \"At the\ndeath of a being nothing goes out from him to the other world for his\nrebirth; but by the efficacy--or, to use a more figurative expression,\nby the ray--of influence which Kamma emits, a new being is produced in\nthe other world very identical with the one who died away,\" for in this\n\"new being\" is held all the life of the deceased. The term \"being,\" as\napplied to it may be taken by us with some qualification. It is more\nproperly a mass of energy devoid of conscience and crowded with desires\nof the person from whom it emanated; and its special province is to\nawait the return of the individuality and form for that the new body in\nwhich it shall suffer or enjoy. Each man is therefore his own creator\nunder the great Cosmic laws that control all creations. A better term in\nplace of \"creation\" is \"evolution,\" for we, from life to life, are\nengaged in evolving out of the material provided in this _Manvantara_\nnew bodies at every turn of the wheel of rebirth. The instruments we use\nin this work are desire and will. Desire causes the will to fix itself\non objective life; in that plane it produces force and out of that comes\nmatter in its objective form.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[A] The Rev. T. P. Terunnanse, High-Priest at Dodanduwa, Ceylon.\n\n\n\n\nXVI.\n\n\nVery many Western people say that this Oriental doctrine of Karma is\ndifficult to understand, being fit only for educated and thoughtful\npersons. But in India, Ceylon and Burmah, not to mention other Asiatic\ncountries, the whole mass of the people accept and seem to understand\nit. The reason for this lies probably in the fact that they also firmly\nbelieve in Re\u00efncarnation, which may be said to be the twin doctrine to\nKarma. Indeed, the one cannot be properly considered without keeping the\nother in view, for Karma--whether as punishment or reward--could have no\nactual or just operation upon the Ego unless the means for its operation\nwere furnished by Re\u00efncarnation.\n\nOur deserts are meted out to us while we are associating in life with\neach other, and not while we are alone, nor in separateness. If being\nraised to power in a nation or becoming possessed of wealth is called a\nreward, it would lose all value were there no people to govern and no\nassociated human beings with and upon whom we could spend our wealth and\nwho might aid us in satisfying our manifold desires. And so the law of\nRe\u00efncarnation drags us into life again and again, bringing with us\nuncounted times the various Egos whom we have known in prior births.\nThis is in order that the Karma--or causes--generated in company with\nthose Egos may be worked out, for to take us off separately into an\nunknown hell, there to receive some sort of punishment, or into an\nimpossible serio-comic heaven to meet our reward, would be as impossible\nas unjust. Hence, no just-hanged murderer absolved by priest or praising\nJesus can escape. He, together with his victim, must return to this\nearth, each to aid the other in adjusting the disturbed harmony, during\nwhich process each makes due compensation. With this doctrine we restore\njustice to her seat in the governance of men, for without it the legal\nkilling of the murderer after condemnation is only a half remedy, since\nno provision is made by the State for the being hurled out of the body\nnor for the dependants he may have left behind, and, still further,\nnothing is done for those who in the family of the murderer survive him.\n\nBut the Theosophical sages of all ages push the doctrine of Karma beyond\na mere operation upon incarnated men. They view all worlds as being\nbound together and swayed by Karma. As the old Hind\u00fb book, the\n_Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_, says, \"all worlds up to that of Brahm\u00e2 are subject to\nKarma.\" Hence it acts on all planes. So viewing it, they say that this\nworld as it is now conditioned is the actual result of what it came to\nbe at the beginning of the _pralaya_ or grand death which took place\nbillions upon billions of years ago. That is, the world evolves just as\nman does. It is born, it grows old, it dies, and it is re\u00efncarnated.\nThis goes on many times, and during those incarnations it suffers and\nenjoys in its own way for its previous evolutions. For it the reward is\na greater advance along the line of evolution, and the punishment is a\ndegraded state. Of course, as I said in a former article, these states\nhave man for their object and cause, for he is the crown of all\nevolution. And, coming down from the high consideration of great cosmic\nspaces and phenomena, the Theosophist is taught to apply these laws of\nKarma and Re\u00efncarnation to every atom in the body in _especial_ and\napart from the total Karma. Since we are made up of a mass of lives, our\nthoughts and acts affect those atoms or lives and impress them with a\nKarma of their own. As the Oriental thinkers say, \"not a moment passes\nwithout some beings coming to life in us, acquiring Karma, dying, and\nbeing re\u00efncarnated.\"\n\nThe principal divisions of Karma are three in number. One sort is that\nnow operating in the present life and body, bringing about all the\ncircumstances and changes of life. Of this we see illustrations every\nday, with now and then strange climaxes which throw upon the doctrine\nthe brightest light. One such is immortalized in India by a building\nerected by the favored son of fortune, as we would say, and thus it came\nabout. A Rajah had a very strange dream, so affecting that he called\nupon his soothsayers for interpretation. They said that their horoscopes\nshowed he was required next day to give an immense sum of money to the\nfirst person he should see after awaking, their intention being to\npresent themselves at an early hour. Next day the King arose unusually\nearly, stepped to his window, threw it open, and there before him was a\nchandalah sweeping up the dirt. To him he gave a fortune, and thus in a\nmoment raised him to affluence from abject poverty. The chandalah then\nbuilt a huge building to commemorate his sudden release from the\ngrinding chains of poverty.\n\nAnother class of Karma is that which is held over and not now in\noperation because the man does not furnish the appropriate means for\nbringing it into action. This may be likened to vapor held in\nsuspension in the atmosphere and not visible to the eye, but which will\nfall as rain upon the earth the moment conditions are ripe.\n\nThe last chief class is that Karma which we are making now, and which\nwill be felt by us in future births. Its appropriate symbol is the arrow\nshot forward in the air by the archer.\n\n\n\n\nXVII.\n\n\nThe spirit is not affected by Karma at any time or under any\ncircumstances, and so the Theosophical Adepts would not use the terms\n\"cultivation of the Spirit.\" The Spirit in man, called by them\n_Ishwara_, is immutable, eternal and indivisible--the fundamental basis\nof all. Hence they say that the body and all objects are impermanent and\nthus deluding to the soul whenever they are mistaken for reality. They\nare only real on and for this plane and during the time when the\nconsciousness takes them up here for cognition. They are therefore\nrelatively real and not so in an absolute sense. This can easily be\nproved from dreams. In the dream state we lose all knowledge of the\nobjects which while awake we thought real and proceed to suffer and\nenjoy in that new state. In this we find the consciousness applying\nitself to objects partaking of course of the nature of the experiences\nof the waking condition, but at the same time producing the sensations\nof pleasure and pain while they last. Let us imagine a person's body\nplunged in a lethargy extending over twenty years and the mind\nundergoing a pleasant or unpleasant dream, and we have a life just of\nthat sort, altogether different from the life of one awake. For the\nconsciousness of this dreamer the reality of objects known during the\nwaking state is destroyed. But as material existence is a necessary evil\nand the one in which alone emancipation or salvation can be obtained, it\nis of the greatest importance and hence Karma which governs it and\nthrough whose decrees emancipation may be reached must be well\nunderstood and then be accepted and obeyed.\n\nKarma will operate to produce a deformed or deficient body, to give in a\ngood body a bad disposition or _vic\u00e8 vers\u00e2_; it will cause diseases,\nhurts or annoyances, or bring about pleasures and favorable situations\nfor the material frame. So we sometimes find with a deformed or\ndisagreeable body a most enlightened and noble mind. In this case the\nphysical Karma is bad and the mental good.\n\nThis leads us to the sort of Karma that works upon the mental plane. At\nthe same time that an unfavorable Karmic cause is showing forth in the\nphysical structure another and better sort is working out in the mind\nand disposition or has eventuated in conferring a mind well balanced,\ncalm, cheerful, deep, and brilliant. Hence we discover a purely physical\nas compared with an entirely mental Karma. Purely physical would be that\nresulting, say from a removal from the ground of fruit peel which might\notherwise cause some unknown person to fall and be hurt. Purely mental\nmight be due to a life spent in calm, philosophical thought and the\nlike.\n\nThere is in one of the Hind\u00fb books a strange sentence respecting this\npart of the subject, reading: \"Perfection of body or superhuman powers\nare produced by birth or by herbs or by incantations, penances, or\nmeditations.\"\n\nAmong mental afflictions esteemed as worse than any bodily hurt or loss\nis that Karma from a preceding life which results in obscurity of such a\ncharacter that there is a loss of all power to conceive of the reality\nof Spirit or the existence of soul--that is, materialism.\n\nThe last field of operation for this law may be said to be the psychical\nnature. Of this in America we have numerous examples in mediums,\nclairvoyants, clairaudients, mind-readers, hysteriacs, and all sorts of\nabnormal sensitives. There could be no clairvoyant according to the\nOriental scheme if the person so afflicted, using as I think the proper\nterm, had not devoted much of previous lives to a one-sided development\nof the psychical nature resulting now in powers which make the possessor\nan abnormality in society.\n\nA very strange belief of the Hind\u00fbs is that one which allows the\npossibility of a change of state by a mortal of such a character that\nthe once man becomes a _Deva_ or lesser god. They divide nature into\nseveral departments, in each of which are conscious powers or entities\ncalled _Devas_, to put it roughly. Yet this is not so far apart from the\nideas of some of our best scientific men who have said there is no\nreason why in each ray of the spectrum there may not be beings to us\nunseen. Many centuries ago the Hind\u00fb thinker admitted this, and pushing\nfurther on declared that a man might through a certain sort of Karma\nbecome one of these beings, with corresponding enjoyment and freedom\nfrom care, but with the certainty, however, of eventually changing back\nagain to begin the weary round of birth over again.\n\nWhat might be called the doctrine of the nullification of Karma is an\napplication in this department of the well-known law in physics which\ncauses an equilibrium when two equal forces oppose each other. A man may\nhave in his Karmic account a very unpleasant cause and at the same time\na cause of opposite character. If these come together for expression at\nthe same time they may so counteract each other as that neither will be\napparent and the equilibrium is the equivalent of both. In this way it\nis easy to understand the Biblical verse: \"Charity covereth a multitude\nof sins,\" as referring to the palliative effect of charitable deeds as\nopposed to deeds of wickedness, and giving a reason for the medi\u00e6val\nknight devoting some of the years of his life to almsgiving.\n\nIn the _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_, a book revered by all in India, the highest\nplace is given to what is called _Karma-Y\u00f4ga_ or the Religion of the\nPerformance of Works and Duty, and there it is said: \"He who, unattached\nto the fruits of his actions, performs such actions as must be done, is\nboth renouncer and devotee; not he who kindles no sacrificial fires and\nperforms no ceremonies. He who remains inert, restraining the organs of\naction, and pondering with his heart on objects of sense, is called a\nfalse pietist of bewildered soul. But he who, restraining his senses by\nhis heart and being free from interest in acting, undertakes active\ndevotion through the organs of action, is praiseworthy.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVIII.\n\n\nThat the doctrine of Karma is unjust, unsympathetic, and fatalistic has\nbeen claimed by those who oppose it, but such conclusions are not borne\nout by experience among those races who believe in it, nor will the\nobjections stand a close examination. The Hind\u00fbs and Buddhists\nthoroughly believe in Karma, convinced that no one but themselves\npunishes or rewards in this or any life, yet we do not find them cold or\nunsympathetic. Indeed, in the relations of life it is well known that\nthe Hind\u00fb is as loving and tender as his American brother, and there are\nas many instances of heroic self-sacrifice in their history as in ours.\nSome go further than this and say that the belief in Karma and\nRe\u00efncarnation has made the Hind\u00fb more gentle in his treatment of men and\nanimals than are the Europeans, and more spiritual in his daily life.\nGoing deeper into their history, the belief in Karma is found side by\nside with material works of great magnitude, and whose remains to this\nday challenge our wonder, admiration, and respect; it is doubtful\nwhether we could ever show such triumphs over nature as can be seen at\nany time in the rock-cut temples of Hindustan. So it would appear that\nthis doctrine of ours is not likely to produce bad or enervating effects\nupon the people who accept it.\n\n\"But,\" says an objector, \"it is fatalism. If Karma is Karma, if I am to\nbe punished in such and such a manner, then it will come about so\nwhether I will or not, and hence I must, like the Turk, say 'Kismet,'\nand do nothing.\" Now, although the Mohammedan doctrine of Kismet has\nbeen abused as fatalism, pure and simple, it was not so held by the\nProphet nor by his greatest disciples, for they taught that it was law\nand not fate. And neither is Karma amenable to this objection. In the\nminds of those who, having vaguely apprehended Karma as applying to one\nlife only, do not give the doctrine its true majestic, endless sweep,\nfatalism is the verdict. When, on the other hand, each man is seen as\nthe fashioner of the fate for his next fleeting earth personality, there\ncan be no fatality in it, because in his own hand is the decree. He set\nin motion the causes which will inevitably have certain results. Just as\neasily he could have made different causes and thus brought about\ndifferent results.\n\nThat there are a repellant coldness and want of tenderness in a doctrine\nwhich thus deals out inflexible justice and compels us to forever lose\nour friends and beloved relatives, once death has closed the door, is\nthe feeling of a few who make sentiment their rule in life. But while\nsentiment and our own wishes are not the guiding laws of nature, there\nis no reason even on the sentimental ground for this objection; it is\ndue to a partial knowledge of the doctrine which, when fully known, is\nfound to be as full of opportunity for the exercise of what is dear to\nthe heart as any other theory of life. The same law that throws us into\nlife to suffer or enjoy, as may be deserved, decrees that the friends\nand the relatives who are like unto each other must incarnate together,\nuntil by reason of differentiation of character they cannot under any\nlaw of attraction remain in company. Not unless and until they become\ndifferent do they separate from each other. And who would wish to be\neternally tied to the side of uncongenial relatives or acquaintances\nmerely because there was an accident of birth!\n\nFor our aid also this law works well and ceaselessly. \"Those whom you\nhelp will help you in other lives,\" is the declaration. In ages past\nperhaps we knew those who long since have passed up to greater heights.\nThe very moment in the long series of incarnations we come near to where\nthey are pursuing their pilgrimage, they at once extend assistance,\nwhether that be on the material or moral planes. And it makes no\ndifference whether one or the other is aware of who is assisting or who\nis being assisted. Inflexible law guides the current and brings about\nthe result. Thus the members of the whole human family reciprocally act\non one another, forced into it by a law which is as kind as it is great,\nwhich turns the contempt we bore in the past into present honor and\nopportunity to help our fellows.\n\nThere is no favoritism possible in nature; no man has any privilege or\ngift which he has not deserved, either as a reward or a compensation.\nLooking at the present life spread before our limited vision, we may see\nperhaps no cause why there should be any such reward to an unworthy man,\nbut Karma never errs and will surely repay. And it not only rewards, but\nto it solely belong those compensations which we with revenge attempt to\nmete out. It is with this in view that the holy writ of the Christians\nsays, \"Vengeance is mine; I will repay,\" for so surely as one hurts\nanother so is the certainty of Karma striking the offender;--but let\nthe injured one beware that he does not desire the other punished, for\nby Karma will he be punished also. So from all this web of life and\nceaselessly revolving wheel, Karma furnishes the escape and the means of\nescape, and by re\u00efncarnation we are given the time for escape.\n\n\n\n\nXIX.\n\n\nIn the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_, chapter x describes the place where,\nafter death, disembodied souls remain in different degrees of\nperfection. Some are shown as taking wheat three cubits high, while\nothers are only permitted to glean it--\"he gleaned the fields of\nAanroo.\" Thus some enjoy the perfection of spiritual bliss, while others\nattain only to minor degrees in that place or state where divine justice\nis meted out to the soul.\n\nDevachan is the land of reward; the domain of spiritual effects. The\nword spiritual here refers to disembodiment; it must only be used as\nrelative to our material existence. The Christian demonstrates this fact\nby the material _entourage_ of his heaven. In the _Secret Doctrine_, H.\nP. Blavatsky says: \"Death itself is unable to deliver man from it\n[Karma], since death is simply the door through which he passes to\nanother life on earth, after a little rest on its threshold--Devachan.\"\nDevachan, then, is the threshold of life. In the Hind\u00fb system it is\netymologically the place of the gods, Indra's heaven. Indra is the\nregent of heaven, who gives to those who can reach his realm\nlong-enduring gifts of happiness and dominion. The _Bhavagad-G\u00eet\u00e2_ says:\n\"After enjoying felicity for innumerable years in the regions of Indra,\nhe is born again upon this earth.\"\n\nFor the purpose of this article, we assume that the entire man, minus\nthe body, goes into Devachan. This, however, is not so. The\n_post-mortem_ division of our sevenfold constitution given by Theosophy\nis exact. It exhibits the basis of life, death and re\u00efncarnation. It\nshows the composite being, man, in analogy with that other composite\nbeing, nature. Both are a unity in diversity. Man, suspended in nature,\nlike her, divides and re\u00fcnites. This sevenfold division will be treated\nin a future article.\n\nDevachan, being a state of prolonged subjective happiness after the\ndeath of the body, is plainly the heaven of the Christian, but with a\ndifference. It is a heaven made scientifically possible. Heaven itself\nmust accord with the divine laws projected into nature. As sleep is a\nrelease from the body, during which we have dreams, so death is a\ncomplete separation and release, after which in Devachan we dream until,\non being again incarnated in a new body on earth, we come once more into\nwhat we call waking existence. Even the human soul would weary of the\nceaseless round of rebirths, if some place or state were not provided in\nwhich rest could be obtained; in which germinating aspirations,\nrestricted by earth-life, could have their full development. No energy\ncan be annihilated, least of all a psychic energy; these must somewhere\nfind an outlet. It is found in Devachan; this realization is the rest of\nthe soul. Its deepest desires, its highest needs are there enjoyed.\nThere every hope blooms out in full and glorious flower. To prolong this\nblissful state, Hind\u00fb books give many incantations and provide\ninnumerable ceremonies and sacrifices, all of them having for end and\naim a long stay in Devachan. The Christian does precisely the same. He\nlongs for heaven, prays that he may go there, and offers up to his God\nsuch propitiatory rites and acts as seem best to him, the only\ndifference being that he does not do it half so scientifically as the\nHind\u00fb. The Hind\u00fb is also more vivid in his conception of this heaven\nthan the Christian is. He postulates many places or conditions adapted\nto the energic and qualitative differences between souls. Kama-loka and\nother states are where concrete desires, restricted by life in the body,\nhave full expression, while in Trib\u00fbvana the abstract and benevolent\nthinkers absorb the joys of lofty thought. The orthodox heaven has no\nsuch proviso. It also ignores the fact that a settled monotony of\ncelestial existence would exhaust the soul--would be stagnation, not\ngrowth. Devachanic life is development of aspiration, passing through\nthe various stages of gestation, birth, cumulative growth, downward\nmomentum and departure to another condition, all rooted in joy. There is\nnothing in the mere fact of death to mould a soul anew. It is a group of\npsychic energies, and heaven must have something in common with these,\nor why should it gravitate there? Souls differ as men do. In Devachan\neach one receives that degree of bliss which it can assimilate; its own\ndevelopment determines its reward. The Christian places all the snuffy\nold saints as high as other holy souls, sinking genius to the level of\nthe mediocre mass, while the Hind\u00fb gives infinite variety of occupation\nand existence suited to grave and gay, the soul of genius or of poetry.\nNo one sits in undesired seats, nor sings psalms he never liked, nor\nlives in a city which might pall upon him if he were forever compelled\nto walk its pearly streets. The laws of cause and effect forbid that\nDevachan should be monotonous. Results are proportionate to antecedent\nenergies. The soul oscillates between Devachan and earth-life, finding\nin each conditions suited to its continuous development, until, through\neffort, it reaches a perfection in which it ceases to be the subject of\nthe laws of action and re\u00e4ction, becoming instead their conscious\nco-worker.\n\nDevachan is a dream, but only in the sense in which objective life can\nbe called such. Both last until Karma is satisfied in one direction, and\nbegins to work in the other. The Devachanee has no idea of space or\ntime except such as he makes for himself. He creates his own world. He\nis with all he ever loved, not in bodily companionship, but in one to\nhim real, close and blissful. When a man dies, the brain dies last. Life\nis still busy there after death has been announced. The soul marshals up\nall past events, grasps the sum total, the average tendency stands out,\nthe ruling hope is seen. Their final aroma forms the keynote of\nDevachanic existence. The lukewarm man goes neither to heaven nor hell.\nNature spews him out of her mouth. Positive conditions, objective or\nsubjective, are only reached through positive impulsion. Devachanic\ndistribution is governed by the ruling motive of the soul. The hater\nmay, by re\u00e4ction, become the lover, but the indifferent have no\npropulsion, no growth.\n\n\n\n\nXX.\n\n\nIt is quite evident to the unprejudiced inquirer that Christian priests\nfor some reason or other studiously ignore the composite nature of man,\nalthough their great authority, St. Paul, clearly refers to it. He spoke\nof body, soul, and spirit, they only preach of body and soul; he\ndeclared we had a spiritual body, they remain misty as to the soul's\nbody and cling to an absurd resurrection of the material casket. It\nbecame the duty of Theosophists to draw the attention of the modern mind\nonce more to the Oriental division of man's constitution, for through\nthat alone can an understanding of his state before and after death be\nattained. The division laid down by St. Paul is threefold, the Hind\u00fb one\nis of a sevenfold character. St. Paul's is meant for those who require\nbroad outlines, but do not care to inquire into details. Spirit, soul,\nand body, however, include the whole seven divisions, the latter being a\nmore complete analysis; and it is suspected by many deep thinkers that\nPaul knew the complete system but kept it back for good reasons of his\nown.\n\nAn analysis of body discloses more than mere molecular structure, for it\nshows a force or life or power that keeps it together and active\nthroughout its natural period. Some writers on Theosophical subjects,\ndealing more or less accurately with the Eastern system, have called\nthis _Pr\u00e2na_ or _J\u00eeva_; others, however, call it _Pr\u00e2na_ alone, which\nseems more appropriate, because the human aspect of the life force is\ndependent upon _Pr\u00e2na_, or _breath_.\n\nThe _spirit_ of St. Paul may be taken for our purposes to be the\nSanskrit _\u00c2tm\u00e2_. Spirit is universal, indivisible, and common to all. In\nother words, there are not many spirits, one for each man, but solely\none spirit which shines upon all men alike, finding as many\nsouls--roughly speaking--as there are beings in the world. In man the\nspirit has a more complete instrument or assemblage of tools with which\nto work. This spiritual identity is the basis of the philosophy; upon it\nthe whole structure rests; to individualize spirit, assigning to each\nhuman being his own spirit, particular to him and separate from the\nspirit of any other man, is to throw to the ground the whole Theosophic\nphilosophy, will nullify its ethics and defeat its object.\n\nStarting then with _\u00c2tm\u00e2_--spirit--as including the whole, being its\nbasis and support, we find the Hind\u00fb offering the theory of sheaths or\ncovers of the soul or inner man. These sheaths are necessary the moment\nevolution begins and visible objects appear, so that the aim of the soul\nmay be attained in conjunction with nature. In this way, through a\nprocess which would be out of place here, a classification is arrived at\nby means of which the phenomena of life and consciousness may be\nexplained.\n\nThe six vehicles used by the spirit and by means of which the Ego gains\nexperience are:\n\n_Body_, as a gross vehicle.\n\n_Vitality_, or _Pr\u00e2na_.\n\n_Astral Body_, or _Linga Shar\u00eera_.\n\n_Animal Soul_, or _K\u00e2ma R\u00fbpa_.\n\n_Human Soul_, or _Manas_.\n\n_Spiritual Soul_, or _Buddhi_.\n\nThe _Linga Shar\u00eera_ is needed as a more subtle body than the corporeal\nframe, because the latter is in fact only stupid, inert matter. _K\u00e2ma\nR\u00fbpa_ is the body, or collection, of desires and passions; _Manas_ may\nbe properly called the mind, and _Buddhi_ is the highest intellection\nbeyond brain or mind. It is that which discriminates.\n\nAt the death of the body, _Pr\u00e2na_ flies back to the reservoir of force;\nthe astral body dissipates after a longer period and often returns with\n_K\u00e2ma R\u00fbpa_ when aided by certain other forces to s\u00e9ance-rooms, where it\nmasquerades as the deceased, a continual lie and ever-present snare. The\nhuman and the spiritual soul go into the state spoken of before as\n_Devachan_ or heaven, where the stay is prolonged or short according to\nthe energies appropriate to that state generated during earth-life. When\nthese begin to exhaust themselves the Ego is gradually drawn back to\nearth-life, where through human generation it takes up a new body, with\nanother astral body, vitality, and animal soul.\n\nThis is the \"wheel of rebirth,\" from which no man can escape unless he\nconforms to true ethics and acquires true knowledge and consciousness\nwhile living in a body. It was to stop this ceaselessly revolving wheel\nthat Buddha declared his perfect law, and it is the aim of the true\nTheosophist to turn his great and brilliant \"Wheel of the Law\" for the\nhealing of the nations.\n\n\n\n\nXXI.\n\n\nHigh in the esteem of the Hind\u00fb stands the serpent, both as a symbol and\na creature. Moving in a wavy line, he figures the vast revolution of the\nSun through eternal space carrying the rapidly whirling Earth in her\nlesser orbit; periodically casting his skin, he presents a visible\nillustration of renewal of life or re\u00efncarnation; coiling to strike, he\nshows the working of the law of Karma-Nemesis which, with a basis in our\nactions, deals an unerring blow. As a symbol with tail in mouth, forming\na circle, he represents eternity, the circle of necessity, all-devouring\nTime. For the older Initiates he spoke to them also of the astral light\nwhich is at once devilish and divine.\n\nProbably in the whole field of Theosophic study there is nothing so\ninteresting as the astral light. Among the Hind\u00fbs it is known as Ak\u00e2sa,\nwhich can also be translated as \u00e6ther. Through a knowledge of its\nproperties they say that all the wonderful phenomena of the Oriental\nYogis are accomplished. It is also claimed that clairvoyance,\nclairaudience, mediumship, and seership as known to the Western world\nare possible only through its means. It is the register of our deeds and\nthoughts, the great picture gallery of the earth, where the seer can\nalways gaze upon any event that has ever happened, as well as those to\ncome. Swimming in it as in a sea are beings of various orders and also\nthe astral remains of deceased men and women. The Rosicrucians and other\nEuropean mystics called these beings Sylphs, Salamanders, Gnomes,\nUndines, Elementals; the Hind\u00fb calls them Gandharbhas or celestial\nmusicians, Yakshas, Raksh\u00e2sas and many more. The \"spooks\" of the\ndead--mistaken by Spiritualists for the individuals who are no\nmore--float in this Ak\u00e2sic substance, and for centuries have been known\nto the mystical Hind\u00fb as Bh\u00fbta, another name for devil, or Pis\u00e2cha, a\nmost horrible devil; neither of them any more than the cast-off\nsoul-body nearest earth, devoid of conscience and only powerful for\nevil.\n\nBut the term \"astral light,\" while not new, is purely of Occidental\norigin. Porphyry spoke of it when referring to the celestial or\nsoul-body, which he says is immortal, luminous, and \"star-like;\"\nParacelsus called it the \"sidereal light;\" later it grew to be known as\nastral. It was said to be the same as the _anima mundi_ or soul of the\nworld. Modern scientific investigators approach it when they speak of\n\"luminiferous ether\" and \"radiant matter.\" The great astronomer, Camille\nFlammarion, who was a member of the Theosophical Society during his\nlife, speaks of the astral light in his novel _Uranie_ and says: \"The\nlight emanating from all these suns that people immensity, the light\nreflected through space by all these worlds lighted by these suns,\n_photographs_ throughout the boundless heaven the centuries, the days,\nthe moments as they pass.... From this it results that the histories of\nall the worlds are travelling through space without dispersing\naltogether, and that all the events of the past are present and live\nevermore in the bosom of the infinite.\"\n\nLike all unfamiliar or occult things the astral light is difficult to\ndefine, and especially so from the very fact that it is called \"light.\"\nIt is not the light as we know it, and neither is it darkness. Perhaps\nit was said to be a light because when clairvoyants saw by means of it,\nthe distant objects seemed to be illuminated. But as equally well\ndistant sounds can be heard in it, heavy bodies levitated by it, odors\ncarried thousands of miles through it, thoughts read in it, and all the\nvarious phenomena by mediums brought about under its action, there has\nbeen a use of the term \"light\" which while unavoidable is none the less\nerroneous.\n\nA definition to be accurate must include all the functions and powers\nof this light, but as those are not fully known even to the mystic, and\nwholly _terra incognita_ for the scientist, we must be content with a\npartial analysis. It is a substance easily imagined as imponderable\nether which, emanating from the stars, envelopes the earth and permeates\nevery atom of the globe and each molecule upon it. Obeying the laws of\nattraction and repulsion, it vibrates to and fro, making itself now\npositive and now negative. This gives it a circular motion which is\nsymbolized by the serpent. It is the great final agent, or prime mover,\ncosmically speaking, which not only makes the plant grow but also keeps\nup the diastole and systole of the human heart.\n\nVery like the action of the sensitive photographic plate is this light.\nIt takes, as Flammarion says, the pictures of every moment and holds\nthem in its grasp. For this reason the Egyptians knew it as the\nRecorder; it is the Recording Angel of the Christian, and in one aspect\nit is Y\u00e2ma, the judge of the dead in the Hind\u00fb pantheon, for it is by\nthe pictures we impress therein that we are judged by Karma.\n\nAs an enormous screen or reflector the astral light hangs over the earth\nand becomes a powerful universal hypnotizer of human beings. The\npictures of all acts good and bad done by our ancestors as by ourselves,\nbeing ever present to our inner selves, we constantly are impressed by\nthem by way of suggestion and go then and do likewise. Upon this the\ngreat French priest-mystic, \u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi, says: \"We are often astonished\nwhen in society at being assailed by evil thoughts and suggestions that\nwe would not have imagined possible, and we are not aware that we owe\nthem solely to the presence of some morbid neighbor; this fact is of\ngreat importance, since it relates to the manifestation of\nconscience--one of the most terrible and incontestable secrets of the\nmagic art.... So diseased souls have a bad breath, and vitiate the\nmoral atmosphere; that is to say, they mingle impure reflections with\nthe astral light which penetrates them, and thus establish deleterious\ncurrents.\"\n\nThere is also a useful function of this light. As it preserves the\npictures of all past events and things, and as there is nothing new\nunder the sun, the appliances, the ideas, the philosophy, the arts and\nsciences of long buried civilizations are continually being projected in\npictures out of the astral into the brains of living men. This gives a\nmeaning not only to the oft-recurring \"co\u00efncidence\" of two or more\ninventors or scientists hitting upon the same ideas or inventions at\nabout the same time and independently of each other, but also to other\nevents and curious happenings.\n\nSome self-styled scientists have spoken learnedly of telepathy, and\nother phenomena, but give no sufficient reason in nature for\nthought-transference or apparitions or clairvoyance or the hundred and\none varieties of occurrences of an occult character noticed from day to\nday among all conditions of men. It is well to admit that thought may be\ntransferred without speech directly from one brain to another, but how\ncan the transference be effected without a medium? That medium is the\nastral light. The moment the thought takes shape in the brain it is\npictured in this light, and from there is taken out again by any other\nbrain sensitive enough to receive it intact.\n\nKnowing the strange properties of the astral plane and the actual fate\nof the sheaths of the soul spoken of in another article, the\nTheosophical Adepts of all times gave no credit to pretended returning\nof the dead. \u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi learned this well and said: \"The astral light\ncombining with ethereal fluids forms the astral phantom of which\nParacelsus speaks. This astral body being freed at death, attracts to\nitself and preserves for a long time, by the sympathy of likeness, the\nreflection of the past life; if a powerfully sympathetic will draws it\ninto the proper current it manifests itself in the form of an\napparition.\" But with a sensitive, abnormally constituted person\npresent--a medium, in other words, and all of that class are nervously\nunbalanced--the strong will is not needed, for the astral light and the\nliving medium's astral body recall these soulless phantoms, and out of\nthe same reservoir take their speech, their tones, their idiosyncrasies\nof character, which the deluded devotees of this debasing practice are\ncheated into imagining as the returned self of dead friend or relative.\n\nYet all I have referred to here are only instances of a few of the\nvarious properties of the astral light. So far as concerns our world it\nmay be said that astral light is everywhere, interpenetrating all\nthings; to have a photographic power by which it grasps pictures of\nthoughts, deeds, events, tones, sounds, colors, and all things;\nreflective in the sense that it reflects itself into the minds of men;\nrepellant from its positive side and attractive from the negative;\ncapable of assuming extreme density when drawn in around the body by\npowerful will or by abnormal bodily states, so that no physical force\ncan penetrate it. This phase of its action explains some facts\nofficially recorded during the witchcraft excitement in Salem. It was\nthere found that although stones and other flying objects came toward\nthe possessed one they always fell as it were from the force of gravity\n_just at the person's feet_. The Hind\u00fb Yogi gives evidence of a use of\nthis condensation of the astral light when he allows arrows and other\nprojectiles to be thrown at him, all of them falling at his feet no\nmatter how great their momentum, and the records of genuine\nSpiritualistic phenomena in the United States furnish similar\nexperiences.\n\nThe astral light is a powerful factor, unrecognized by science, in the\nphenomenon of hypnotism. Its action will explain many of the problems\nraised by Binet, Charcot and others, and especially that class in which\ntwo or more distinct personalities seem to be assumed by the subject,\nwho can remember in each only those things and peculiarities of\nexpression which belong to that particular stratum of their experience.\nThese strange things are due to the currents in the astral light. In\neach current will be found a definite series of reflections, and they\nare taken up by the inner man, who reports them through speech and\naction on this plane as if they were his own. By the use of these\ncurrents too, but unconsciously, the clairvoyants and clairaudients seem\nto read in the hidden pages of life.\n\nThis light can therefore be impressed with evil or good pictures, and\nthese are reflected into the subconscious mind of every human being. If\nyou fill the astral light with bad pictures, just such as the present\ncentury is adept at creating, it will be our devil and destroyer, but if\nby the example of even a few good men and women a new and purer sort of\nevents are limned upon this eternal canvas, it will become our Divine\nUplifter.\n\n\n\n\n_There is no Religion Higher than Truth_\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\n\n_Established for the benefit of the people of the earth and all\ncreatures_\n\n\nOBJECTS\n\nThis BROTHERHOOD is a part of a great and universal movement which has\nbeen active in all ages.\n\nThis Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. Its\nprincipal purpose is to teach Brotherhood, demonstrate that it is a fact\nin Nature and make it a living power in the life of humanity.\n\nIts subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and modern religions,\nscience, philosophy and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the\ndivine powers in man.\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, founded by H. P.\nBlavatsky at New York, 1875, continued after her death under the\nleadership of the co-founder, William Q. Judge, and now under the\nleadership of their successor, Katherine Tingley, has its Headquarters\nat the International Theosophical Center, Point Loma, California.\n\nThis Organization is not in any way connected with nor does it endorse\nany other societies using the name of Theosophy.\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, welcomes to\nmembership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the\neradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste or\ncolor, which have so long impeded human progress; to all sincere lovers\nof truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than the mere\npleasures and interests of a worldly life, and are prepared to do all in\ntheir power to make Brotherhood a living energy in the life of humanity,\nits various departments offer unlimited opportunities.\n\nThe whole work of the Organization is under the direction of the Leader\nand Official Head, Katherine Tingley, as outlined in the Constitution.\n\n                         *       *       *\n\nDo not fail to profit by the following:\n\nIt is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy and\nof our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P. Blavatsky\nthe Foundress, to attract attention to themselves and to gain public\nsupport. This they do in private and public speech and in publications,\nalso by lecturing throughout the country. Without being in any way\nconnected with the UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, in\nmany cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading\nthe public, and many honest inquirers are hence led away from the truths\nof Theosophy as presented by H. P. Blavatsky and her successors, William\nQ. Judge and Katherine Tingley, and practically exemplified in their\nTheosophical work for the uplifting of humanity.\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD LEAGUE\n\nFounded in 1897 by Katherine Tingley\n\n\nITS OBJECTS ARE:\n\n1. To help men and women to realize the nobility of their calling and\ntheir true position in life.\n\n2. To educate children of all nations on the broadest lines of Universal\nBrotherhood, and to prepare destitute and homeless children to become\nworkers for humanity.\n\n3. To ameliorate the condition of unfortunate women, and assist them to\na higher life.\n\n4. To assist those who are, or have been, in prisons, to establish\nthemselves in honorable positions in life.\n\n5. To abolish capital punishment.\n\n6. To bring about a better understanding between so-called savage and\ncivilized races, by promoting a closer and more sympathetic relationship\nbetween them.\n\n7. To relieve human suffering resulting from flood, famine, war, and\nother calamities; and, generally, to extend aid, help and comfort to\nsuffering humanity throughout the world.\n\nFor further information regarding the above Notices, address\n\nKATHERINE TINGLEY\n\nINTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS,\nPOINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA\n\n\n\n\nBOOKS RECOMMENDED TO INQUIRERS\n\nFor _complete_ BOOK LIST write to\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING CO., Point Loma, California\n\n\nISIS UNVEILED (H. P. Blavatsky). 2 vols., royal 8vo, about 1400 pages;\ncloth; with portrait of the author. _Point Loma Edition, with a\npreface._ Postpaid 7.00\n\nKEY TO THEOSOPHY, THE (H. P. Blavatsky). _Point Loma Edition, with\nGlossary and exhaustive Index. Portraits of H. P. Blavatsky and W. Q.\nJudge._ 8vo, cloth, 400 pages. Postpaid 2.25\n\n_A clear exposition of Theosophy in form of question and answer._ THE\nBOOK FOR STUDENTS.\n\nSECRET DOCTRINE, THE (H. P. Blavatsky). The Synthesis of Science,\nReligion, and Philosophy. New Point Loma Edition, 2 vols., royal 8vo,\nabout 1500 pages; cloth Postpaid 10.00\n\nVOICE OF THE SILENCE, THE (For the daily use of disciples). Translated\nand annotated by H. P. Blavatsky Pocket size, leather .75\n\nLIGHT ON THE PATH (M. C.), with comments, and a chapter on Karma;\nleather .75\nEmbossed paper .25\n\nMYSTERIES OF THE HEART DOCTRINE, THE. Prepared by Katherine Tingley and\nher pupils. Square 8vo, cloth 2.00 Paper 1.00\n\nA SERIES OF EIGHT PAMPHLETS, comprising different articles in above,\npaper, each .25\n\nBHAGAVAD G\u00ceT\u00c2 (Recension by W. Q. Judge, American Edition) Pocket size,\nmorocco, gilt edges 1.00\n\n_The pearl of the Scriptures of the East._\n\nYOGA APHORISMS (translated by W. Q. Judge). Pocket size, leather .75\n\nEPITOME OF THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS, AN (W. Q. Judge) 40 pages .15\n\nCONCENTRATION, CULTURE OF. (W. Q. Judge) .15\n\nINCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT (Joseph H.\nFussell). 24 pages, royal 8vo .15\n\nLIFE AT POINT LOMA, THE. Some notes by Katherine Tingley, Leader and\nOfficial Head of the UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. .15\n\nReprinted from _Los Angeles Post_, Dec., 1902\n\nKATHERINE TINGLEY, HUMANITY'S FRIEND; A VISIT TO KATHERINE TINGLEY (by\nJohn Hubert Greusel); A STUDY OF R\u00c2JA YOGA AT POINT LOMA (Reprint from\nthe San Francisco _Chronicle_, January 6th, 1907).\n\nThe above three comprised in a pamphlet of 50 pages, published by the\nWoman's Theosophical Propaganda League, Point Loma .15\n\nECHOES FROM THE ORIENT (W. Q. Judge); cloth .50\nPaper .25\n\n21 valued articles, giving a broad outline of the Theosophical\ndoctrines, written for the newspaper-reading public.\n\nERRORS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, SOME OF THE. Criticism by H. P. Blavatsky\nand W. Q. Judge .15\n\nHYPNOTISM: THEOSOPHICAL VIEWS ON. (40 pp.) .15\n\nNIGHTMARE TALES. (H. P. Blavatsky). _Newly illustrated by R. Machell._ A\ncollection of the weirdest tales ever written down. They contain\nparagraphs of the profoundest mystical philosophy. Cloth .60\nPaper .35\n\nTHE PLOUGH AND THE CROSS. A Story of New Ireland (William Patrick\nO'Ryan); 12mo, 378 pages, illustrated, Cloth 1.00\n\n\nOCCULTISM, STUDIES IN\n\n(H. P. Blavatsky). Pocket size, 6 vols., cloth; per set 1.50\n\nVol. 1. Practical Occultism. Occultism _vs._ the Occult Arts. The\nBlessing of Publicity. .35\n\nVol. 2. Hypnotism. Black Magic in Science. Signs of the Times .35\n\nVol. 3. Psychic and Noetic Action .35\n\nVol. 4. Kosmic Mind. Dual Aspect of Wisdom .35\n\nVol. 5. Esoteric Character of the Gospels .35\n\nVol. 6. Astral Bodies. Constitution of the Inner Man .35\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL MANUALS\n\nELEMENTARY HANDBOOKS FOR STUDENTS\n\nPrice, each, paper .25; cloth .35\n\nNo. 1. Elementary Theosophy.\n\nNo. 2. The Seven Principles of Man.\n\nNo. 3. Karma.\n\nNo. 4. Reincarnation.\n\nNo. 5. Man After Death.\n\nNo. 6. K\u00e2maloka and Devachan.\n\nNo. 7. Teachers and Their Disciples.\n\nNo. 8. The Doctrine of Cycles.\n\nNo. 9. Psychism, Ghostology, and the Astral Plane.\n\nNo. 10. The Astral Light.\n\nNo. 11. Psychometry, Clairvoyance, and Thought-Transference.\n\nNo. 12. The Angel and the Demon. (2 vols., 35c. each)\n\nNo. 13. The Flame and the Clay.\n\nNo. 14. On God and Prayer.\n\nNo. 15. Theosophy: the Mother of Religions.\n\nNo. 16. From Crypt to Pronaos. (An Essay on the Rise and Fall of Dogma)\n\nNo. 17. Earth. (Its Parentage; its Rounds and Its Races)\n\nNo. 18. Sons of the Firemist. (A Study of Man)\n\n\nTHE PATH SERIES\n\nSPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR INQUIRERS IN THEOSOPHY\n\nALREADY PUBLISHED\n\nNo. 1. THE PURPOSE OF THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\n.05\n\nNo. 2. THEOSOPHY GENERALLY STATED (W. Q. Judge) .05\n\nNo. 3. MISLAID MYSTERIES (H. Coryn, M. D.) .05\n\nNo. 4. THEOSOPHY AND ITS COUNTERFEITS .05\n\nNo. 5. SOME PERVERTED PRESENTATIONS OF THEOSOPHY (H. T. Edge, B. A.) .05\n\nThirty copies $1.00; 100 copies $3.00\n\n\nLOTUS GROUP LITERATURE\n\nLOTUS LIBRARY FOR CHILDREN\n\n_Introduced under the direction of Katherine Tingley_\n\n1. THE LITTLE BUILDERS AND THEIR VOYAGE TO RANGI (R. N.) .50\n\n2. THE COMING OF THE KING (Machell); cloth, gilt edges .35\n\nLOTUS SONG BOOK. Fifty original songs with copyrighted music .50\n\nLOTUS SONG--\"The Sun Temple\"--_with music_ .15\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL PERIODICALS\n\nCENTURY PATH. Illustrated weekly, Edited by Katherine Tingley\n\nA Magazine devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the Promulgation of\nTheosophy, and the Study of Ancient and Modern Ethics, Philosophy,\nScience, and Art\n\nYear $4.00 Single copy .10\n\nWrite for a sample copy to\n\nNEW CENTURY CORPORATION\n\nPoint Loma, California, U. S. A.\n\nR\u00c2JA YOGA MESSENGER. _Illustrated._ Monthly. Yearly subscription .50\n\nUnsectarian publication for Young Folk, conducted by a staff of pupils\nof the R\u00e2ja Yoga School at Lomaland. Address Master Albert G. Spalding,\nBusiness Manager, R\u00c2JA YOGA MESSENGER, Point Loma, California.\n\nINTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL CHRONICLE. _Illustrated._ Monthly. Yearly\nsubscription, postpaid 1.00\n\nThe Theosophical Book Co., 18 Bartlett's Buildings Holborn Circus,\nLondon, E. C.\n\nTHEOSOPHIA. _Illustrated._ Monthly. Yearly subscription, postpaid 1.50\n\nUniversella Broderskapets F\u00f6rlag, Box 265, Stockholm 1, Sweden.\n\nUNIVERSALE BRUDERSCHAFT. _Illustrated._ Monthly. Yearly subscription,\npostpaid 1.50\n\nJ. Th. Heller, Vestnertorgraben 13, N\u00fcrnberg, Germany\n\nLOTUS-KNOPPEN. _Illustrated._ Monthly. Yearly subscription, postpaid .75\n\nA. Goud, Steentilstraat 40, Groningen, Holland\n\nSubscriptions to the above four Magazines may be secured also through\nthe Theosophical Publishing Co., Point Loma, California.\n\n\nNeither the editors of the above publications, nor the officers of the\nUNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, or of any of its\ndepartments, receive salaries or other remuneration.\n\nAll profits arising from the business of the Theosophical Publishing\nCo., are devoted to Humanitarian Work. All who assist in this work are\ndirectly helping that Cause.","title":"Echoes From The Orient: A Broad Outline of Theosophical Doctrines","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":22526}