If Akasa be considered to be Sakti or power** then my statement as
regards the ultimate state of Prakriti is likely to give rise to
confusion and misapprehension unless I explain the distinction between
Akasa and Sakti. Akasa is not, properly speaking, the crown of the
astral light, nor does it by itself constitute any of the six primary
forces. But, generally speaking, whenever any phenomenal result is
produced, Sakti acts in conjunction with Akasa. And, moreover, Akasa
serves as a basis or Adhishthanum for the transmission of force currents
and for the formation or generation of force or power correlations.***
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* According to the Buddhists, in Akasa lies that eternal, potential
energy whose function it is to evolve all visible things out of
itself.--Ed. Theos.
** It was never so considered, as we have shown it. But as the
"Fragments" are written in English, a language lacking such an abundance
of metaphysical terms to express ever minute change of form, substance
and state as are found in the Sanskrit, it was deemed useless to confuse
the Western reader, untrained in the methods of Eastern expression, more
than is necessary, with a too nice distinctions of proper technical
terms. As "Prakriti in its primary state is Akasa," and Sakti "is an
attribute AKASA," it becomes evident that for the uninitiated it is all
one. Indeed, to speak of the "union of Brahmam and Prakriti" instead of
"Brahmam and Sakti" is no worse than for a theist to write that "That
man has come into existence by the combination of spirit and matter,"
whereas, his word, framed in an orthodox shape, ought to read "man is a
living soul was created by the power (or breath) of God over matter."
*** That is to say, the Aryan Akasa is another word for Buddhist SPACE
(in its metaphysical meaning).--Ed. Theos.
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In Mantrasastra the letter Ha represents Akasa, and you will find that
this syllable enters into most of the sacred formula intended to be used
in producing phenomenal results. But by itself it does not represent
any Sakti. You may, if you please, call Sakti an attribute of Akasa.
I do not think that, as regards the nature of this principle, there can
in reality exist any difference of opinion between the Buddhist and
Brahmanical philosophers.
Buddhist and Brahmanical initiates know very well that mysterious
circular mirror composed of two hemispheres which reflects as it were
the rays emanating from the "burning bush" and the blazing star--the
spiritual sun Shining in CHIDAKASAM.
The spiritual impressions constituting this principle have their
existence in an occult power associated with the entity in question.
The successive incarnations of Buddha, in fact, mean the successive
transfers of this mysterious power, or the impressions thereof. The
transfer is only possible when the Mahatma* who transfers it has
completely identified himself with his seventh principle, has
annihilated his Ahankaram, and reduced it to ashes in CHIDAGNIKUNDUM,
and has succeeded in making his thoughts correspond with the eternal
laws of Nature and in becoming a co-worker with Nature. Or, to put the
same thing in other words, when he has attained the state of Nirvana,
the condition of final negation, negation of individual, or separate
existence.**
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* The highest adept.
* In the words of Agatha in the "Maha-pari-Nirvana Sutra,"
"We reach a condition of rest
Beyond the limit of any human knowledge"
--Ed. Theos.
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VII. Atma.--The emanation from the absolute, corresponding to the
seventh principle. As regards this entity there exists positively no
real difference of opinion between the Tibetan Buddhist adepts and our
ancient Rishis.
We must now consider which of these entities can appear after the
individual's death in seance-rooms and produce the so-called
spiritualistic phenomena.
Now, the assertion of the Spiritualists, that the "disembodied spirits"
of particular human beings appear in seance-rooms, necessarily implies
that the entity that so appears bears the stamp of some particular
personality.
So, we have to ascertain beforehand in what entity or entities
personality has its seat of existence. Apparently it exists in the
person's particular formation of body, and in his subjective experiences
(called his mind in their totality). On the death of the individual his
body is destroyed; his lingasariram being decomposed, the power
associated with it becomes mingled in the current of the corresponding
power in the macrocosm. Similarly, the third and fourth principles are
mingled with their corresponding powers. These entities may again enter
into the composition of other organisms. As these entities bear no
impression of personality, the Spiritualists have no right to say that
the disembodied spirit of the human being has appeared in the
seance-room whenever any of these entities may appear there. In fact,
they have no means of ascertaining that they belonged to any particular
individual.
Therefore, we must only consider whether any of the last three entities
appear in seance-rooms to amuse or to instruct Spiritualists. Let us
take three particular examples of individuals, and see what becomes of
these three principles after death.
I. One in whom spiritual attachments have greater force than terrestrial
attachments.
II. One in whom spiritual aspirations do exist, but are merely of
secondary importance to him, his terrestrial interests occupying the
greater share of his attention.
III. One in whom there exists no spiritual aspirations whatsoever, one
whose spiritual Ego is dead or non-existent to his apprehension.
We need not consider the case of a complete adept in this connection.
In the first two cases, according to our supposition, spiritual and
mental experiences exist together; when spiritual consciousness exists,
the existence of the seventh principle being recognized, it maintains
its connection with the fifth and sixth principles. But the existence
of terrestrial attachments creates the necessity of Punarjanmam
(re-birth), the latter signifying the evolution of a new set of
objective and subjective experiences, constituting a new combination of
surrounding circumstances, or, in other words, a new world. The period
between death and the next subsequent birth is occupied with the
preparation required for the evolution of these new experiences. During
the period of incubation, as you call it, the spirit will never of its
own accord appear in this world, nor can it so appear.
There is a great law in this universe which consists in the reduction of
subjective experiences to objective phenomena, and the evolution of the
former from the latter. This is otherwise called "cyclic necessity."
Man is subjected to this law if he do not check and counterbalance the
usual destiny or fate, and he can only escape its control by subduing
all his terrestrial attachments completely. The new combination of
circumstances under which he will then be placed may be better or worse
than the terrestrial conditions under which he lived; but in his
progress to a new world, you may be sure he will never turn around to
have a look at his spiritualistic friends.
In the third of the above three cases there is, by our supposition, no
recognition of spiritual consciousness or of spirits; so they are
non-existing so far as he is concerned. The case is similar to that of
an organ or faculty which remains unused for a long time. It then
practically ceases to exist.
These entities, as it were, remain his, or in his possession, when they
are stamped with the stamp of recognition. When such is not the case,
the whole of his individuality is centred in his fifth principle. And
after death this fifth principle is the only representative of the
individual in question.
By itself it cannot evolve for itself a new set of objective
experiences, or, to say the same thing in other words, it has no
punarjanmam. It is such an entity that can appear in seance-rooms; but
it is absurd to call it a disembodied spirit.* It is merely a power or
force retaining the impressions of the thoughts or ideas of the
individual into whose composition it originally entered. It sometimes
summons to its aid the Kamarupa power, and creates for itself some
particular ethereal form (not necessarily human).
--------
* It is especially on this point that the Aryan and Arahat doctrines
quite agree. The teaching and argument that follow are in every respect
those of the Buddhist Himalayan Brotherhood.--Ed. Theos.
--------
Its tendencies of action will be similar to those of the individual's
mind when he was living. This entity maintains its existence so long as
the impressions on the power associated with the fifth principle remain
intact. In course of time they are effaced, and the power in question
is then mixed up in the current of its corresponding power in the
MACROCOSM, as the river loses itself in the sea. Entities like these
may afford signs of there having been considerable intellectual power in
the individuals to which they belonged; because very high intellectual
power may co-exist with utter absence of spiritual consciousness. But
from this circumstance it cannot be argued that either the spirits or
the spiritual Egos of deceased individuals appear in seance-rooms.
There are some people in India who have thoroughly studied the nature of
such entities (called Pisacham). I do not know much about them
experimentally, as I have never meddled with this disgusting,
profitless, and dangerous branch of investigation.
The Spiritualists do not know what they are really doing. Their
investigations are likely to result in course of time either in wicked
sorcery or in the utter spiritual ruin of thousands of men and women.*
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* We share entirely in this idea.--Ed. Theos.
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The views I have herein expressed have been often illustrated by our
ancient writers by comparing the course of a man's life or existence to
the orbital motion of a planet round the sun. Centripetal force is
spiritual attraction, and centrifugal terrestrial attraction. As the
centripetal force increases in magnitude in comparison with the
centrifugal force, the planet approaches the sun--the individual reaches
a higher plane of existence. If, on the other hand, the centrifugal
force becomes greater than the centripetal force, the planet is removed
to a greater distance from the sun, and moves in a new orbit at that
distance--the individual comes to a lower level of existence. These are
illustrated in the first two instances I have noticed above.
We have only to consider the two extreme cases.
When the planet in its approach to the sun passes over the line where
the centripetal and centrifugal force completely neutralize each other,
and is only acted on by the centripetal force, it rushes towards the sun
with a gradually increasing velocity, and is finally mixed up with the
mass of the sun's body. This is the case of a complete adept.
Again, when the planet in its retreat from the sun reaches a point where
the centrifugal force becomes all-powerful, it flies off in a tangential
direction from its orbit, and goes into the depths of void space. When
it ceases to be under the control of the sun, it gradually gives up its
generative heat, and the creative energy that it originally derived from
the sun, and remains a cold mass of material particles wandering through
space until the mass is completely decomposed into atoms. This cold
mass is compared to the fifth principle under the conditions above
noticed, and the heat, light, and energy that left it are compared to
the sixth and seventh principles.
Either after assuming a new orbit or in its course of deviation from the
old orbit to the new, the planet can never go back to any point in its
old orbit, as the various orbits lying in different planes never
intersect each other.
This figurative representation correctly explains the ancient
Brahmanical theory on the subject. It is merely a branch of what is
called the Great Law of the Universe by the ancient mystics.
--T. Subba Row