There is a well-known Sanskrit treatise, where most of the deductions of
Dr. Yaeger are anticipated and practically applied to sexual selection
in the human species. The subject of aura seminalis finds a pretty full
treatment there. The connection between what Dr. Yaeger calls
"odorigen" and jiva or prana, as it is differently called in different
systems of Indian philosophy, has been well traced. But his remarks on
this subject, able as they no doubt are, call for a few observations
from the point of view of occult philosophy. Jiva has been described by
a trustworthy authority as a "form of force indestructible, and, when
disconnected with one set of atoms, is immediately attracted by another
set." Dr. Salzer concludes from this that occult philosophy looks upon
it as an abstract force or force per se. But surely this is bending too
much to the Procrustean phraseology of modern science, and if not
properly guarded will lead to some misapprehension. Matter in occult
philosophy means existence in the widest sense of that word. However
much the various forms of existence, such as physical, vital, mental,
spiritual, &c., differ from each other, they are mutually related as
being parts of the ONE UNIVERSAL EXISTENCE, the Parabrahma of the
Vedantist. Force is the inherent power or capacity of Parabrahma, or
the "matter" of occultism, to assume different forms. This power or
capacity is not a separate entity, but is the thing itself in which it
inheres, just as the three-angled character of a triangle is nothing
separate from the triangle itself. From this it will be abundantly
clear that, accepting the nomenclature of occult science, one cannot
speak of an abstract force without being guilty of a palpable absurdity.
What is meant by Jiva being a "form of force," &c., is that it is matter
in a state in which it exhibits certain phenomena, not produced by it in
its sensuous state; or, in other words, it is a property of matter in a
particular state, corresponding with properties called, under ordinary
circumstances, heat, electricity, &c., by modern science, but at the
same time without any correlation to them. It might here be objected
that if Jiva was not a force per se, in the sense which modern science
would attach to the phrase, then how can it survive unchanged the grand
change called death, which the protoplasms it inheres in undergo? and
even granting that Jiva is matter in a particular state, in what part of
the body shall we locate it, in the teeth of the fact that the most
careful examination has not been successful in detecting it? Jiva, as
has already been stated, is subtle supersensuous matter, permeating the
entire physical structure of the living being, and when it is separated
from such structure life is said to become extinct. It is not
reasonable therefore to expect it to be subject to detection by the
surgeon's knife. A particular set of conditions is necessary for its
connection with an animal structure, and when those conditions are
disturbed, it is attracted by other bodies, presenting suitable
conditions. Dr. Yaegar's "odorigen" is not Jiva itself, but is one of
the links which connects it with the physical body; it seems to be
matter standing between Sthula Sarira (gross body) and Jiva.
--Dharanidar Kauthumi