The oriental idea of the universe does not differ fundamentally
in its general conception, from that of modern science, but it
goes farther and explains more. The physics of the secret
doctrine are based upon a material universe of four planes of
vibration and a spiritual universe of three planes of vibration
beyond matter. This Something in vibration may be given the
English name, Consciousness--without entering upon its nature.
Spirit is consciousness in vibration and undifferentiated.
Matter is consciousness in vibration and differentiated.
As we divide the seven octaves of a piano into Treble and Bass
for clearness of thought and writing, so the Hidden Knowledge
divides the seven octaves of vibration, or planes, into Spirit
and Matter. In their ultimate analysis they are one and the same
thing, as ice and water are the same thing; but for study they
must be differentiated.
The material and physical universe consists of four planes of
matter, or four great octaves of vibration, each differentiated
from the other as in our physics prakriti is differentiated from
ether. The material universe, the ancient physics teach, was
originally pure thought, Manasa, the product of the spiritual
planes above. This manasic world was differentiated, a real
world. That is to say it was given elementary substances by the
union of its atoms in different sized molecules. Some of its
elements combined and formed Prana. The prana gathered and
formed other worlds, pranic worlds. Then in the pranic world
etheric worlds were formed; and finally in the etheric worlds,
prakritic globes like the earth were formed. The earth is the
centre of a prakritic globe, revolving in ether around the sun.
The sun is the centre of a solar globe of ether, revolving in
prana around Alcyone. Alcyone is the centre of a stellar globe
of prana revolving in manasa around the central and hidden sun of
the great manasic globe. These four conditions of matter
prakriti, ether, prana, and manasa are the earth, water, fire,
air of the Ancient Metaphysics, the four elements of matter, and
are present in every atom of prakriti. When the atom of prana
was formed, it had an envelope of manasa. When the atom of ether
was formed it had an envelope of pranic-manasic atoms. When the
prakritic atom was formed it had an envelope of etheric-pranic-
manasic atoms, each of its encircling etheric atoms being the
centre of a pranic molecule, and each pranic atom of that
molecule being the centre of a manasic molecule.
Each atom of prakriti was the material universe in miniature. It
held the potentialities of mind, life, and phenomena. In every
aggregation of atoms, there were the four planes, each in touch
through the Cosmic Mind, its manasa, with other atoms in the
universe, with every other globe of whatever kind. "As above, so
below," was the secret Key-word. The unity of all the material
universe in its prakriti, ether, prana and manasa, was the corner
stone of this knowledge. The three planes above prakriti were
called Astral, and in common speech there was the ordinary
division into two planes, visible and invisible, or "Spirit," as
the invisible was called, and "Matter," as the visible was
called. Only in the hidden secret doctrine of physics, and in
the open metaphysics which were a "stumbling block" and
"foolishness" to those who had not the "inner light" of the
physics, were the three divisions of the "astral" made known, and
the true distinction between the spirit of the three higher
planes and the matter of the four lower was kept out of the
metaphysics, or only vaguely alluded to.
There is no "oriental science" because the oriental does not
attach the same value to merely physical knowledge that we do.
But that must not be understood to imply that there is no
oriental physics. In all the matters that interest us now, as
far as principles are concerned, the oriental knew all that we
know. He knew it thousands of years ago, when our ancestors were
sleeping with the cave bears.
"That is all the good it did him," the scientist says. No. That
is not true. It is perfectly true that the oriental, the
Babylonian who carved on the Black Stone now in the British
Museum the five moons of Jupiter, exposing himself to the
derision of our astronomers prior to their own discovery of the
fifth moon in 1898, did not care particularly whether there were
four moons or five, and had no sale for any telescopes he might
make, for no one else cared particularly. But it was not true
that he did not care for any and all knowledge that would improve
his spiritual condition by giving him correct ideas of the
universe and of his own part in it. To him life was more than
meat and the body more than raiment. He was more afraid of sin
than of ignorance. We are more afraid of ignorance than of sin.
He preferred to better men's moral condition; we prefer to
better their physical condition.
If one of the Sages of the East could be called up and put on the
stand to be questioned, he would say, substantially:
"You are right in regard to your ether, and to prakriti being
ether that has been dropped a great octave in vibration. Your
physical atom is surrounded by a molecule of ether, this molecule
containing many atoms of ether. The chording vibration does
produce all physical phenomena.
"But where did the ether atom come from? How can you explain how
and whence life comes, or what it is? This explains physical,
but how do you explain vital phenomena?
"You are wrong in assuming that all the matter of the universe
apart from the earth or planets is ether and only ether. The
etheric world in which you are interested ends with your solar
system. It ends with each solar system, to the people of that
system. Between each solar system and another there is another
form of matter that is not ether.
"This etheric solar world of ours is very large, many billions of
miles in diameter; but it is not the whole universe. You know
that the sun and all its planets are revolving around the star
Alcyone. Your astronomers told you that years ago, and they have
recently given you the rate of speed as 4,838 miles per hour.
"Did you not see and know that if they had this revolution around
a central sun it must be within a solar globe?
"Did you think that the sun and its planets, and other suns and
their planets, were tearing their way through the ether like so
many fish on a dipsy-hook from a Marblehead fishing smack running
before the wind?
"Did it never occur to you that the ether of this solar system
must be revolving around this central sun? The whole solar
system, ether and planets, are revolving around Alcyone, and the
reason why their minor revolution around the sun is not affected
by it is because the solar system is a vast globe of ether,
having a thinner and rarer medium to revolve in, the same as our
earth has. It is the motion of a fly in a moving car.
"Now fix your attention on this globe of ether, this solar globe.
You must do it to get the concept before you. You have known of
it all your life without once really apprehending it, for you
have never learned to think, or to utilize the knowledge that was
given you. The idea is as new and as strange as if you had never
known it.
"What lies beyond the surface of the solar globe? Something
must; something as much rarer and thinner than the ether as the
ether is rarer and thinner than prakriti. Can you not guess?
"It is Prana, the life force of the universe. As prakriti is
made from ether, so ether is made from prana. It is made in the
same way. Each atom of the ether is the centre of a molecule of
prana, surrounded by an atmosphere of pranic atoms, exactly as
your prakritic atom is surrounded by an atmosphere of etheric
atoms. You say that each atom of prakriti is the centre of a
molecule of ether. So it is. But each atom of that etheric
molecule is the centre of a pranic molecule. Each atom of your
physical matter is triple, not double.
"You say that all physical phenomena come from the chording
vibration of the etheric and prakritic atoms of the two planes of
matter. Yes. But do you not see that all vital phenomena come
from the chording vibration of the pranic, etheric, and prakritic
atom of the three planes of matter which are in each atom?
"In the living leaf the three planes are sounding in chord in each
atom of it. In the dead leaf, drying up and falling to pieces,
only the lower two are sounding in chord. The silver chord has
been broken.
"Each atom of prakriti you say has the potentiality of some kind
of phenomenon. We add 'and of life also.' The potentialities of
life are in every atom of prakriti. Even the atom of iron may
live in the blood. It cannot become a part of any living
organism until its prana is sounding the chord of life in unison
with the ether and prakriti--the threefold silver chord.
"What is the centre of this prana? It is Alcyone. There are
other solar globes beside ours circling around Alcyone, and we
have been considering only our own solar globe of ether. Alcyone
is the centre of the prana in which they revolve as the sun is
the centre of our ether in which the planets revolve. As this
prana has a centre around which we revolve with other solar
systems, then it must have a center of gravity.
"Then this prana is a globe.
"The prana does not then fill this material universe. There must
be yet another form of matter rarer and finer than prana, from
which prana is made, as ether is made from prana and prakriti
from ether. Have we any other class of phenomena to explain,
except vital and physical? Yes, there is a very important class,
mental. And here we have the explanation, if we exercise our
reason.
"These pranic globes are floating in an ocean of manasa, matter
in its rarest form.
"Each atom of prana is formed from manasa, exactly as ether was
formed from prana, and each pranic atom in the universe is the
centre of a manasic molecule, having an atmosphere of manasic
atoms.
"So we are not exact in giving the prakritic atom three planes or
octaves of vibration. It has four. You merely surround it with
etheric atoms, and this is correct so far as it goes. You only
wish to explain physical problems. But there are other problems
to be explained, problems of life and mind, and the same
knowledge you have explains them as well as the others, if you
simply avail yourself of it. That you do not consider the atom
as four-fold instead of two-fold is your own fault. I have not
told you anything you did not already know. I have only asked
you to apply your present knowledge of physics to these problems
of life and mind, and apply your reasoning powers.
"The chording vibration in an atom of matter of
"The two planes produces Force, or phenomena
"The three planes produces Life--the silver chord
"The four planes produces Mind--the golden chord.
"You say there is no gulf between the prakritic and etheric
worlds; that it is one continuous world; and all its phenomena
are by continuity and not impact. That is true, but it is not
the whole truth.
"There is no gulf to cross between the prakritic and etheric
worlds; none to cross between that and the manasic. The four
worlds are one great world, continuous, interchangeable. Through
the four as well as through the two, there is continuity and not
impact. Whether it is an atom or a world, the four are there.
Nothing, no combination of atoms, no matter of any kind, however
small or large, can exist in this prakritic world unless it has
the four elements, which from time immemorial our philosophers
have called Earth, Water, Fire, Air, meaning the four globes or
forms of matter in the universe. We do not have to leave the
earth to live in the etheric globe. It is here. Nor do we have
to go millions of miles to reach the pranic globe. It is here.
The problems of light and heat are no easier than the problems of
birth and death. The pranic globe is within us; within
everything. So is the manasic.
"It is here on these higher planes that the chances for worthy
study are greatest. At least we think so, though you may not.
We live on the manasic--pranic--etheric globe on precisely the
same terms that we live on this of prakriti, and the problems of
the three are equally open to us.
"If there are any who care to follow up the line of thought I
have opened, who care for the questions that interest us of the
East, I will talk as long as they care to listen, provided they
will not ask for knowledge that will give them power over others,
which cannot fail to be used for evil."
This is but a glimpse of Hindu physics, yet it has helped us in
the metaphysics. We now understand the chain of globes--in
part. The earth is fourfold. As each atom of the earth is
fourfold, so their aggregations give us prakritic earth, an
etheric earth, a pranic earth, and a manasic earth--in
coadunition and not like the skin of an onion. They are separate
and distinct globes, each on its own plane. It is four down and
three up for the Angel entering matter, whether from the outmost
boundary of manasic matter, or the surface of the earth, or the
cover of a baseball. The "chain of globes" in the Secret
Doctrine represents the unity of the material universe.
The three-fold nature of the astral model is revealed, and the
unity of all prakritic things. But more than that, to many
minds, will be the explanation it gives of why there are but four
planes of vibration in matter; that the highest form of
development in prakriti shows only four elements, prakriti or
body, sensation or force, life, and mind, and that these last
three, present in all things in esse, become present in posse
when they work together harmonically.