imply? for the whole turns on our understanding of that word "germ."
Mahad Brahma is the matter of the universe, vivified by Brahman in His
third aspect--that which Theosophists call the Third Logos, which in the
Trimûrti is spoken of as Brahmâ. Looking on Brahman as the _One_, Mahad
Brahma is the third aspect of His revealing, which vivifies and makes
atomic the matter of the universe, the womb of the seed of the Eternal
Life. In that, brought into manifestation by Brahmâ, or the Third Logos,
the Second, the generating Father, Vishnu, places that germ of life that
therein it may develop; not Himself in all the might of His Deity, not
Himself in the force of His unfolded powers, but the seed of His
life--capable of evolution, containing everything within it potentially,
but showing forth nothing in manifestation at the beginning of the
universe. True, the child is the father revived; true, the child is the
same as the father. None the less, the life which the father gives is
the seed containing the power of development, and the universe is but
the seed of Deity, with every power involved within it, and capable by
its evolution of becoming the image of the Supreme: none the less is
every power germinal, not developed, potential, not actual; only at the
ending will that seed, grown into perfect manhood, show forth the image
of its generating Sire, and give a new Íshvara to the future from whom
further universes may evolve. That is the answer to the question: Why
this long evolution? It is this evolution that we are to trace from the
germ to the perfect, life given as germ to grow to the God.
Let us look first at the matter in which this life is to be clothed--not
in detail, that is to-morrow's work--but just as to the principle involved
in the evolution of the matter through which the life is to express
itself. We heard the first day about tattvas. We found that they were
modifications of Prakriti, the primary matter, brought out one after the
other as the regions of the universe were builded. All that we need for
our purpose this morning is to remember that five of these are concerned
with the present evolution, that the highest of these is the A'kâsha in
the highest sense of the term, then Vâyu, then Agni, then Apas, then
Prithivî; all these are kosmic and they represent vast planes in the
universe, but have their correspondences in the physical globe--ether,
air, fire, water, earth, these being only the reflections in miniature of
their great prototypes in the system at large. The only other thing we
need to remember this morning with regard to matter, is that the whole of
these are animated by the life of the _third_ aspect of God. Here is a
point where we may pause for a moment and look at other religions, and we
shall find that they all tell us exactly the same. Not only do we find in
Hinduism, in such a book as the _Vishnu Purâna_ that the Divine creation
was from Mahat--the third manifestation--that these great tattvas were
evolved by modifications from the principle of individuality which is the
characteristic of that aspect; but if we turn to the Hebrew teachings we
shall find that it is distinctly stated that the "Spirit of God," the
third aspect, or Wisdom, moved on the face of the waters. Translating the
symbol of water we have matter; it is so used in every great religious
scripture, and when it is said that the Spirit of God moved on the face of
the waters, we have the picture of a brooding life, brooding over and
permeating the ocean of primeval matter, giving to it the life that will
enable it to serve as the womb for a higher life; the divine energy that
thus vivifies matter comes from the third Person of the Christian
Trinity. That Hebrew statement dominates the whole of Christendom,
inasmuch as the Christian Churches take the older part of their scriptures
from the hands of the Hebrew people; and in quoting that, I am not quoting
it only as an authority from the Hebrews but as including the authority of
the whole of Christendom, bound by that Hebrew teaching. I might show you,
did time permit, that other great Teachers have spoken in the same sense;
the outcome being that the matter in which evolution is to take place--of
which our world of organisms, including our own bodies, is to be
formed--that matter is permeated by the Divine life, and the aspect of
Divine life that permeates it is that of the third manifestation of God.
That is the fundamental reason why Brahmâ is no longer worshipped. That is
why no temples are raised to Him and why worshippers do not throng to His
shrines. His work was dominant in the earlier stages of the universe, but
is now overshadowed by the working of another aspect of the mighty God,
Vishnu as Preserver, as Sustainer, and as Organiser. He is the life which
is active in all organisms; and the life which animates the atoms of
matter having been given and partially evolved, the continuing aspect of
that work is hidden at the present stage of the universe; the main
evolution of life that is now occurring is carried on and directed by
other aspects of God.
Sometimes in theosophical literature, that vivification and building up
of matter is spoken of as the work of the first great life-wave in the
solar system; as a wave rolling forth so does the life of God go forth
for the building of the atoms whereof the system is to be composed. The
critical point is this: that the life is veiled over and over again in a
five-fold involution; we find it said that Prâna five-fold divides
itself, for five are the types of the atoms, five are the great
divisions of the materials, and in each successive type, the previous
type permeates and encloses it, as we found we could read in the _Vishnu
Purâna_, dealing with the building up of the tattvas. (It will be
remembered that the types are really seven, but that two are concealed.)
One important result comes from this which I will deal with more fully
to-morrow, that the form--being built up from matter containing within
it this involved and concealed life--has the power of unfolding to the
highest possibility of the life thus concealed. Sheath after sheath is
made in order that sheath after sheath may be brought into activity as a
vehicle of the Self, and that five-fold ensheathing for the human Self
is wrought in order that it may have a vehicle capable of responding to
every vibration that it sets up or that it receives. As the vibrations
become subtler and subtler in their character, sheath after sheath
becomes active and responsive, and enables the life to function
externally by means of the sheath. Let us however turn--for that will be
fully worked out to-morrow--to the next great life-wave with which we
are concerned; it is the life of the second aspect of Deity, spoken of
in Hinduism as the life of Vishnu, spoken of in Christianity as the life
of the Son of God by whom all things were made. As that life outpours
into the universe prepared to receive it, as that life begins to draw
together the matter which, vivified by the first out-pouring, is now
ready to respond to the vibrations of the life that organises and
sustains, vibrations are sent out by this Divine Life into the higher
regions of the universe, beginning the task of drawing the matter
together into forms. The earliest stages of these are the ante-types of
what shall be in evolution--not such forms as we speak of in the lower
world, concrete objects which can give rise to concrete ideas, but that
which dimly we are trying to reach in the mind to-day, when we abstract
from a great class of concrete objects its uniting quality, its common
characteristic, and formulate this apart from the objects themselves. I
have sometimes taken the triangle as the very simplest image which
thought can form. You may have triangles of any size, you may have
triangles of almost any shape, provided only three lines are used,
and those lines are right lines, or unbent. What is the governing
characteristic of the triangle? That its three angles, formed by the
meeting of enclosing sides, must be equal to two right angles. Now
supposing that you have the power of brain, the power of abstraction, to
take ten, twenty or thirty concrete triangles and hold them in the mind
as though you were looking at them in outer form, to create their mental
images so that every form is present in your mind, you directing your
attention to them all at the same time, then--if out of these many
concrete objects that have the particular properties in common of the
three right lines that enclose and the sum of the three angles equalling
two right angles--if you can draw out the idea of that common property,
separated from every concrete triangle, and make it an object in
consciousness, then you will have risen from the concrete to the
abstract, and will have some idea of what is meant by an archetype in
the higher world. The earliest actions of the Deity in evolving a system
are of this nature; He generates certain types or archetypes, and by the
sub-division and multiplication of these the whole universe of concrete
objects is formed; each one of them is capable of generating innumerable
forms that reproduce its own characteristic amid endless diversities of
subsidiary properties.
It is not without interest that some of our scientific men have tried to
find unity amidst diversity, and to discover the types of the animal
kingdom amid the innumerable diversities of the separated animal forms.
One of the most famous of those men, Sir Richard Owen, tried to
formulate an archetype which should represent every fundamental
characteristic of the vertebrate, like no particular vertebrate but
showing forth the qualities present in every vertebrate; he worked this
out from a study of vertebrates, setting aside the characteristics in
which they differ and synthesising into a single form the qualities
possessed by all. The reverse process is what really occurred; the
archetype which came forth from the Divine Mind generated in the world
of matter myriad different types in each of which it is itself
expressed. That gleam of genius which illuminated the mind of the modern
scientist is interesting as a ray from the conception of creative action
given in our sacred literature; and you will find, if you study
carefully, that the earliest forms are not concrete objects but
generative powers, and that these coming forth from God make models for
the future types, each type being related to its ante-type, each
concrete object to its abstract idea. Thus also the Greeks taught,
Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato; thus also many of the Hebrews taught,
the doctors of the Kabala; and both the Greek Philosopher and Hebrew
Kabalist have declared that the visible world of objects could never
have come into existence had not the invisible world of Ideas preceded
it, so that the objects repeated in multitude what an Idea presented in
unity. That Idea thus coming forth from God and drawing to itself forms
in subtle matter, produces the types of forms that are gradually to be
worked out in evolution; and those of you who have studied the _Secret
Doctrine_ of Madame Blavatsky may remember that the archetypal world is
therein spoken of as the first which is created, and as that on which
the whole of the evolution of denser worlds depends. It is made of the
A'kâsha which contains within itself the possibility of all forms as we
are told, and these Ideas are drawn forth and reproduced in greater
detail by the Builder on the A'kâshic correspondences of Agni. Life is
evolved by the modifications in consciousness which Íshvara brings
about; the modification in the consciousness of Íshvara preceding the
moulding of the matter. As that life-wave descends into denser and
denser matter, it draws together more and more separate forms, that
become denser in their nature, until at last, through kingdom after
kingdom, it comes down to the mineral forms, where life is most
restricted in its operations, where consciousness is most limited in its
scope. This is the process of the involution of life in matter, the
descending arc. From this lowest point the life ascends, revealing more
and more of its powers, and ordinary western "evolution" begins here,
the earlier process being ignored.
How did that Divine life and consciousness, in the first upward stage of
evolution, evolve in the germinal life the power to respond? The life
within the stone has the capacity to respond, but in a very limited
fashion, partly owing to its germinal nature, partly owing to the
rigidity of its surrounding vehicle; therefore the brooding life of
Vishnu, nourishing this germ, at once stimulates it by impacts from
without and gradually modifies the rigidity so as to make progress
possible. Long, long remains the life imbedded in this rigid material,
working from within outwards, as all life works, playing upon and thus
softening the rigidity, and slowly giving the form more plasticity in
response; we can sum up the whole of the working of the life, as the
receiving of vibrations from matter without and the answering of
vibrations from itself within. Notice in the earliest stages how
tremendous are the impacts; if you go back to the time when the world
knew not humanity, how gigantic are the operations of nature showing
herself in her mineral forms; earthquakes, eruptions, crushing and
grinding of materials, disintegration and reconstruction, all on the
mightiest and most gigantic scale; under all that, the life, trying to
make the matter more plastic and able to answer more readily; and
inasmuch as there is life, there is consciousness, _i.e._, the power to
respond, that power is developed within it, stimulated by the brooding
life of Íshvara. He dwelling within, and enveloping and permeating all
objects, makes the seed of life extend and grow by his nourishing
warmth, that it may become finally an independent centre. We see the
life within the stone beginning to vibrate more actively as these
tremendous blows come upon it from without; and mass is thrown against
mass, and mountain is piled upon mountain, until at last these mineral
materials gain larger power of transmitting impulses to the life within;
the impulse coming through more strongly because of the lessened
opposition from the form, the life responds more actively and begins to
evolve, developing more definitely the power of response. As this
process is repeated over and over again, the life within the minerals
vibrates with ever increasing rapidity, and the matter yields to it with
ever greater readiness, until a stage of plasticity is reached at which
the beginnings of the vegetable world can be brought into existence.
Between mineral and plant in the lowest stages no definite dividing line
can be drawn by science. So general is this absence of dividing lines in
nature that a separate kingdom has been recognised as including low
types of both vegetable and animal, and between the vegetable and
mineral kingdoms a class is recognised in which the rigid crystal which
belongs to the mineral kingdom has become the plastic crystalloid that
belongs to the vegetable; maintaining the outline of the mineral form,
but showing the plasticity of the vegetable, and thus yielding far more
readily to the moulding influences of the life within. The life thus
encased in more plastic material receives vibrations from without
more easily and responds more strongly, until in the ascent that it
is beginning to make, it adds the early beginnings of a power of
consciousness that in the mineral was not present. We call it sensation:
the power of feeling pleasure and pain, the power of responding to the
outside impact by a feeling within the life. After the life in the
mineral has developed the power of response, then the next stage in
evolution is that the response takes on the sensations of pleasure and
pain, appearing as that within the life which responds severally to
harmonious or discordant impact from without. As the life develops this
power of sensation, progress becomes more rapid. The animal kingdom is
gradually builded and the power of sensation is the great characteristic
which is developed through that kingdom, until--the animal forms having
been rendered plastic through many ages by the impulse of life, and the
life having formed and strengthened the power of responding by pleasure
and pain to harmonious and discordant vibrations--the next stage is
ready to be taken, the building of the vehicle for man.
That outer body in which man is to dwell resembles closely in its
nature, in some of its fundamental characteristics, the animal bodies
which the life had vivified before man was called into existence. "Out
of the dust of the ground," says the Hebrew scripture, God formed the
body of man, a symbolic way of saying that out of the material that had
made the lowest forms of life, was also to be made the outer coating of
that vessel, into which a new flood of Divine life was to be outpoured,
forming the human Self, or Spirit. We learn, when we study occultism,
that this third outpouring of Divine life comes neither from the Third,
nor from the Second, but from the First Logos, therefore called
Mahâdeva, the Great God, the Supreme. From Him comes the third impulse
which is to complete evolution, the third outpouring of life, that only
accomplishes its final evolution in this age by methods of Yoga;
therefore is He often represented as the great Yogî, the great Guru,
under whose instructions the latest stages of evolution are to be
carried out. When that life-force comes down, and the human Self is sent
forth to occupy its tabernacle, the ancient process is again repeated,
and it is only the germ of the highest life that is given and not the
completed life. Round it are vehicles that are able to respond, round it
are vehicles that have the power of developing more highly, that are
already capable of sending in vibrations arousing feeling in the life
that they enclose, and now--enwrapped by the life of Vishnu--this germ
of the Divine Self begins to stir and live as man.
At first there comes from it very little response to the life that is
transmitted, very little answer to that which is outside; but what are
the characteristics of this infant Self, this spark of the Eternal Fire?
Triple in aspect is the life in man as it is triple in the Deity, and
its characteristics are the same, Sat, Chit, Ananda. We speak thus of
Brahman, and if we study the human Self we shall find these three
aspects present also in that human Self; and the first to develop in
man, as in the Kosmos, is Chit or knowledge. All the earliest stages of
human evolution have to do with the evolution of Intelligence; it is
that with which we are now concerned, as we climb this mighty ladder. We
are evolving intelligence or intellect, and if we trace its stages from
the earliest germs as they appear in the primeval races of the humanity
of our globe, and as fostered in those races by the Great Ones who came
to us as Teachers from other worlds, we shall find that the dawning
intellect in man was but very slightly responsive to anything that came
to it from without, and that at first every effort of the intelligence
was stimulated by the promptings of the animal nature, by the sting of
desire, by the passions which belong to the animal part of man. Consider
a savage. When is a savage active? Only when some animal desire awakens
within him. If he is hungry, yes, then he will begin to think, "where
can I find food?" If he is thirsty, he will ask, "where shall I find
liquid?" Any animal prompting that arises within him, his dawning mind
applies itself to satisfy; and the germ of mind is stimulated by the
promptings of animal desire. In that stage he knows not right from
wrong; right and wrong for him have no existence; hunger and thirst,
sexual desire, and the need for sleep, these are the things that make up
his life and that move his dawning consciousness; these only are strong
enough to stir it into activity; it cannot yet initiate activity from
within. But as these play upon it, life after life, birth after birth,
century after century, in successive incarnations of this germinal but
growing life, as these vibrations continually arouse, awaken the life of
the intelligence, which is the third aspect of the Self, these repeated
vibrations, repeated over and over and over again a thousand times, by
that very repetition bring about an internal tendency to repeat it again
without a fresh stimulus from outside; and we find in the next stage of
the evolution of intelligence, still in the savage, that the savage does
not wait for hunger in order to search for food, but that the memory of
hunger and the memory of food are enough to send him out, before the
hunger strikes him, in search of the meal that to-morrow he will require
to satisfy the needs of the body. But what a change is there if we
consider it, small as it is in appearance. The man is no longer
stimulated by an outer impulse coming from the animal nature; he is
stimulated by a mental image, a connected picture of the painful state
of the body wanting food and of the food which is able to change that
state into one of pleasure; that is, he is now able to form mental
images, and these stimulate him into activity. How great the change! No
less than a change of the centre of consciousness from the animal to the
human, one of the most significant changes in the evolving life. Now,
for the first time, he does not wait to be pushed from without. He
begins action from within, and the body obeys the impulse that comes
from the centre, instead of the impact that strikes the centre from
without. Now evolution becomes more rapid, for as this great change, one
of the hardest of changes, is made, the intellect in man begins to
cognise itself, and Self-consciousness begins to arise. Separation is
recognised between its own centre, that thinks, and the things outside
that make it think; the "I" and the "Not-I" arise, and the centre begins
to shape itself and to be capable of growth.
How shall the growth go on? By conflict. This is the characteristic of
the intellect. It has to make the "I" a strong centre, a separate
centre, otherwise no further evolution is possible. You may say that
this looks like going downwards; nay, it is the germ of a new centre of
life in which Divinity itself shall unfold when evolution is complete.
There must be a clearly defined centre of consciousness, else how shall
it work onward to perfection? And that centre grows by struggle. All
strength comes by struggle of one kind or another. If you want your arms
to become strong, it is no good to lie on a sofa and leave the muscles
to grow merely by the nourishment that you give them. They want more
than nourishment, they want exercise; and it is the law of all growth of
form that the life must be drawn into the form, for only then can the
form expand and become capable of receiving a further impulse of life;
if the muscles are to grow, the cells that compose them must be
stretched by exercise, and the life must flow into the expanded cell;
only then does it become capable of multiplication, so that there may be
many cells where before there was only one. The difference between the
weak man and the strong man, the man who is feeble and the man who is
athletic, is the difference brought about by exercise and struggle, by
pulling against resistance, by taking up a weight and whirling it round
and making the muscles strain against the weight. That is a picture of
the way in which all life is working for development of form; the
impulse of life leads to the exercise of the form, the exercise makes it
plastic and increases the form, through which the life is thus enabled
to flow more largely. That is as true in the mental world as in the
physical world; for the mental world is also a world of phenomena. It is
not the One; its characteristic is diversity, each being standing by
himself, and regarding other things as separate. I know an object. How?
By its differences from some objects and its likenesses to others;
otherwise I could not know it. You cannot think of unity until you have
seen variety; you cannot recognise likeness until you have seen
unlikeness. The characteristic of intellectual evolution is the
discrimination of differences followed by the recognition of likenesses;
thus the intellect recognises object after object, each of them by its
own characteristic marks. Analysis precedes synthesis. Differences are
seen before an underlying unity is recognised.