III. Sukti. This principle corresponds to your Kamarupa. This power or
force is placed by ancient occultists in the Nabhichakram. This power
can gather akasa or prakriti, and mould it into any desired shape. It
has very great sympathy with the fifth principle, and can be made to act
by its influence or control.
IV. Brahmam and Sakti, and Prakriti. This again corresponds to your
second principle, Jiva.
This power represents the universal life-principle which exists in
Nature. Its seat is the Anahatachakram (heart). It is a force or power
which constitutes what is called Jiva, or life. It is, as you say,
indestructible, and its activity is merely transferred at the time of
death to another set of atoms, to form another organism.
V. Brahma and Prakriti. This, in our Aryan philosophy, corresponds to
your fifth principle, called the physical intelligence. According to
our philosophers, this is the entity in which what is called mind has
its seat or basis. This is the most difficult principle of all to
explain, and the present discussion entirely turns upon the view we take
of it.
Now, what is mind? It is a mysterious something, which is considered to
be the seat of consciousness--of sensations, emotions, volitions, and
thoughts. Psychological analysis shows it to be apparently a congeries
of mental states, and possibilities of mental states, connected by what
is called memory, and considered to have a distinct existence apart from
any of its particular states or ideas. Now in what entity has this
mysterious something its potential or actual existence? Memory and
expectation, which form, as it were, the real foundation of what is
called individuality, or Ahankaram, must have their seat of existence
somewhere. Modern psychologists of Europe generally say that the
material substance of brain is the seat of mind; and that past
subjective experiences, which can he recalled by memory, and which in
their totality constitute what is called individuality, exist therein in
the shape of certain unintelligible mysterious impressions and changes
in the nerves and nerve-centres of the cerebral hemispheres.
Consequently, they say, the mind--the individual mind--is destroyed when
the body is destroyed; so there is no possible existence after death.
But there are a few facts among those admitted by these philosophers
which are sufficient for us to demolish their theory. In every portion
of the human body a constant change goes on without intermission. Every
tissue, every muscular fibre and nerve-tube, and every ganglionic centre
in the brain, is undergoing an incessant change. In the course of a
man's lifetime there may be a series of complete tranformations of the
substance of his brain. Nevertheless, the memory of his past mental
states remains unaltered. There may be additions of new subjective
experiences and some mental states may be altogether forgotten, but no
individual mental state is altered. The person's sense of personal
identity remains the same throughout these constant alterations in the
brain substance.* It is able to survive all these changes, and it can
survive also the complete destruction of the material substance of the
brain.
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* This is also sound Buddhist philosophy, the transformation in
question being known as the change of the skandhas.--Ed. Theos.
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This individuality arising from mental consciousness has its seat of
existence, according to our philosophers, in an occult power or force,
which keeps a registry, as it were, of all our mental impressions. The
power itself is indestructible, though by the operation of certain
antagonistic causes its impressions may in course of time be effaced, in
part or wholly.
I may mention in this connection that our philosophers have
associated seven occult powers with the seven principles or entities
above-mentioned. These seven occult powers in the microcosm correspond
with, or are the counterparts of, the occult powers in the macrocosm.
The mental and spiritual consciousness of the individual becomes the
general consciousness of Brahmam, when the barrier of individuality is
wholly removed, and when the seven powers in the microcosm are placed
en rapport with the seven powers in the macrocosm.
There is nothing very strange in a power, or force, or sakti, carrying
with it impressions of sensations, ideas, thoughts, or other subjective
experiences. It is now a well-known fact, that an electric or magnetic
current can convey in some mysterious manner impressions of sound or
speech, with all their individual peculiarities; similarly, I can
convey my thoughts to you by a transmission of energy or power.
Now, this fifth principle represents in our philosophy the mind, or, to
speak more correctly, the power or force above described, the
impressions of the mental states therein, and the notion of
self-identity or Ahankaram generated by their collective operation.
This principle is called merely physical intelligence in the
"Fragments." I do not know what is really meant by this expression. It
may be taken to mean that intelligence which exists in a very low state
of development in the lower animals. Mind may exist in different stages
of development, from the very lowest forms of organic life, where the
signs of its existence or operation can hardly be distinctly realized,
up to man, in whom it reaches its highest state of development.
In fact, from the first appearance of life* up to Tureeya Avastha, or
the state of Nirvana, the progress is, as it were, continuous.
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* In the Aryan doctrine, which blends Brahmam, Sakti, and Prakriti in
one, it is the fourth principle then, in the Buddhist esotericisms the
second in combination with the first.
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We ascend from that principle up to the seventh by almost imperceptible
gradations. But four stages are recognized in the progress where the
change is of a peculiar kind, and is such as to arrest an observer's
attention. These four stages are as follows:--
(1) Where life (fourth principle) makes its appearance.
(2) Where the existence of mind becomes perceptible in conjunction with
life.
(3) Where the highest state of mental abstraction ends, and spiritual
consciousness commences.
(4) Where spiritual consciousness disappears, leaving the seventh
principle in a complete state of Nirvana, or nakedness.
According to our philosophers, the fifth principle under consideration
is intended to represent the mind in every possible state of
development, from the second stage up to the third stage.
IV. Brahmam and Sakti. This principle corresponds to your "spiritual
intelligence." It is, in fact, Buddhi (I use the word Buddhi not in the
ordinary sense, but in the sense in which it is used by our ancient
philosophers); in other words, it is the seat of Bodha or Atmabodha.
One who has Atmabodha in its completeness is a Buddha. Buddhists know
very well what this term signifies. This principle is described in the
"Fragments" as an entity coming into existence by the combination of
Brahmam and Prakriti. I do not again know in what particular sense the
word Prakriti is used in this connection. According to our philosophers
it is an entity arising from the union of Brahmam and Sakti. I have
already explained the connotation attached by our philosophers to the
words Prakriti and Sakti.