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-Project Gutenberg's Evolution of Life and Form, by Annie Wood Besant
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-Title: Evolution of Life and Form
-       Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary
-       meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898
-
-Author: Annie Wood Besant
-
-Release Date: July 13, 2012 [EBook #40224]
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   EVOLUTION OF LIFE AND FORM
 
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-Project Gutenberg's Evolution of Life and Form, by Annie Wood Besant
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Evolution of Life and Form
-       Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary
-       meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898
-
-Author: Annie Wood Besant
-
-Release Date: July 13, 2012 [EBook #40224]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVOLUTION OF LIFE AND FORM ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Jana Srna, Bryan Ness, Margo Romberg and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
-available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-  EVOLUTION OF LIFE AND FORM
-
-  _Four Lectures delivered at the Twenty-third Anniversary Meeting
-  of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898._
-
-  BY
-
-  ANNIE BESANT
-
-  SECOND EDITION
-
-
-  LONDON: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
-
-  BENARES: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
-
-  1900
-
-
-
-
-             CONTENTS.
-
-
-                              PAGE
-
-ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE      5
-
-FUNCTIONS OF THE GODS          46
-
-EVOLUTION OF LIFE              90
-
-EVOLUTION OF FORM             124
-
-
-
-
-[FIRST LECTURE.]
-
-ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE.
-
-
-My Brothers:--The subject on which I am to address you this morning, and
-the three mornings that follow, is one of considerable complexity and
-difficulty. I do not apologise to you for the difficulty of my theme.
-When we meet here in our Anniversary Meeting, we meet as students and
-not simply as superficial men and women of the world. We try to prepare
-ourselves, by study, for the exchange of thought which in these
-gatherings takes place, and although the subject is a difficult one,
-although it is not possible to make it clear and intelligible without
-the use of certain technical terms, yet, to the student technical
-terms--being precise--are really the easiest to understand, and inasmuch
-as, in a great majority at least, we are students, I who speak, and you
-who listen, we may be content to treat the subject in a somewhat formal
-and technical way. Roughly, my outline is this. I want to lay before you
-an intelligible conception of evolution, taking it on its two sides,
-that of the evolving life and that of the developing forms. I begin by
-laying before you a sketch of the methods of "Ancient and Modern
-Science," the direction in which each has worked, and is working, the
-ultimate union that, we hope, may take place between them. For what
-could more fully presage the good of the whole world, what could promise
-more happily for the relationship between the different races of
-humanity, than to draw together on the plane of mind the science of
-antiquity and of modern days, the science of the East and of the West,
-and, by wedding them to each other, draw together the nations that are
-now divided, and make objective that brotherhood of humanity of which we
-dream.
-
-Dealing first with ancient and modern science in this broad and general
-way, and taking that as my subject for this morning, I shall pass on
-to-morrow to speak on the "Functions of the Gods," meaning by that
-phrase the activities of that invisible side of nature on which the
-whole of the visible depends. Whether we use here the name "Devas" to
-represent those developed spiritual intelligences, or whether with the
-child of Islâm, with the Hebrew or the Christian, we speak of the
-"Angels" and "Archangels," the name matters nothing; the conception is
-common to every faith of man. We shall study their functions in the
-universe, and try to understand how they act as the ministers of the
-Divine Will. Then we shall pass on to treat of that "Evolution of Life"
-which lies underneath the evolution of forms. Finally, we shall treat
-the "Evolution of Forms," and see how, in that evolution, is the promise
-of final perfection, how all is working to a perfect ending, how the
-best that we can dream of is less than the performance of God.
-
-That is the outline of our work. Let us at once begin the first section
-of the subject--Ancient and Modern Science.
-
-Now, in the olden times, in those times to which in this land our
-thought turns back most fondly with reverence and with pride, in those
-times, here, as in every other ancient land, Religion and Science were
-wedded together, and there was no discord between the intelligence and
-the spirit. It matters not whither you wander amid the ancient nations
-of the world: you may travel through the whole of Chaldea; you may study
-the remains of ancient Egypt; you may go through Persia and search amid
-her monuments; you may cross the Atlantic to America, and unbury the
-cities that were lost ere yet the Aztecs had made the mighty State which
-fell under the blows of the Spaniards; you may go into China and, in the
-vast recesses of that well-nigh unknown land, you may search for what
-has been left there from ancient days; or without going outside the
-limits of your own land, you may take the literature that is our pride,
-the mighty books written by the Rishis of the past; and everywhere
-antiquity speaks with a single tongue. Religion reveals the spirit, the
-spiritual truth which is one. Intelligence studies that truth in its
-manifold manifestations, and its work; science, studying the phenomena
-which are images of aspects of the Divine, is the handmaid, is the
-sister, of religion, and between them discord is unnatural and fatal to
-progress. That is the ancient view; but when we come to our own century
-a new phenomenon presents itself to our gaze--religion on the one side
-suspicious of science in its progress, science on the other hand apt to
-be proudly contemptuous of religious claims. How has the divorce arisen?
-Why this discord between two of the great helpers of human evolution?
-The reason is not far to seek. In the western world the science of the
-elder time, the science of antiquity, disappeared in the great flood of
-barbaric invasions, underneath the whirlpool caused by the ruins of the
-Roman Empire, and later on, underneath the wreckage of that same Empire
-with its new centre in Constantinople. The invasions of barbarians, both
-from the East and the North, sweeping over the European continent,
-brought ignorance in the wake of barbaric conquest. The result was that
-night came down upon knowledge and thick darkness enveloped the lands
-which were to be the nursery of a new civilisation. When the Sun of
-science again began to rise upon the Western world, it presented itself
-in a form which was alien, nay, which was more than alien, which was
-hostile to the dominant religion of the time. It came from the children
-of Islâm. It came from those who recognised Muhammed as their Prophet.
-From the Muslim schools of Arabia came the first teachers of modern
-science to Europe. True, they were really by their intellectual ancestry
-descended from the thought of Greece. They drew their inspiration from
-the school of Plato through the Neo-Platonists; they reproduced the
-ideas of Porphyry and Ptolemy, and of other Grecian and Egyptian
-thinkers, Neo-Platonic and even Gnostic. But they threw over it the garb
-of Islâm, they presented it in the form of Arabic thought. The result of
-this was that, as it made its way into Spain in the wake of the
-conquering Moors, as it came with those who drove out of the Southern
-Peninsula the rule of the Spanish Christian monarchy, so the first
-aspect of science to Christians was an aspect of hostility. It came as
-an invading enemy and not as an illuminant to all. Hence conflict arose;
-some who were within the limits of the mighty Church of Rome, touched
-by a longing for the new learning, stretched out their hands to take the
-gifts that science was bringing. These men were regarded with suspicion,
-nay, with more than suspicion, with hatred that broke out in bitter
-persecution. Who can read the history of Roger Bacon, the wondrous monk;
-who can picture Copernicus on his death-bed as his immortal work is
-brought to him ere yet his eyes are closed, he having shrunk from
-earlier publication, lest the stake should be his portion; who can stand
-in the Field of Flowers in Rome, and see there the statue erected where
-he was burned to death, who dying in one century, lives for all
-centuries to come--Giordano Bruno; who can listen to Galileo, as with
-faltering lips he denies the truth he knows and utters the falsehood
-that he knows not; who can follow these martyr-steps, led on by bitter
-memories of blood and fire, without understanding the reason for the
-hostility of science to religion, without confessing with shame and
-sorrow that that hostility was caused and was justified by the cruelties
-wreaked by religion on science, when science was young and feeble? Every
-one of us who stands upon the side of religion should recognise that we
-are reaping the bitter harvest of our own past errors, and that the law
-is just which brings upon us the difficulties and opposition we
-encounter in our modern days. For as science grew strong, she grew
-strong with the sword in her hands. She fought for every inch of the
-ground on which she stood, and only so far as she could guard herself
-was she safe from the flame or from the prison. Hence she searched for
-everything in nature that could serve as a weapon against the foe that
-attacked her. Hence she welcomed eagerly everything which seemed to show
-that materialism was the true philosophy of life. If we go back
-twenty-five years, to the time when I and some of you were young, we
-shall find that over western science there hung the shadow of
-materialism, and that stronger and stronger grew the scientific tendency
-to "see in matter the promise and the potency of every form of life."
-You remember those famous words of Professor Tyndall, no materialist in
-his thought and a religious man in his aspirations, but wellnigh driven
-by despair to claim fair field for science, and to fling back the claims
-of religion, because among them was included the right to gag, the
-refusal to allow thought to be honestly uttered by the thinker. But
-things are changing more and more; as religion has been growing more
-liberal and more rational, science is becoming less materialistic and
-less aggressive; and we shall see presently that the most modern of
-modern science--not quite the science that you get in your textbooks,
-for that is practically out-of-date in the rush of thought which comes
-from the West, but the science of the leaders of thought, the science of
-the first men in the scientific camp--is more and more approaching the
-domain where scientists will recognise religion as helper and not as
-enemy. In fact, speaking from the same chair from which Tyndall had
-uttered his famous phrase that "in matter he saw the promise and potency
-of every form of life," his successor, Sir William Crookes, a member of
-our own Theosophical Society, declared, reversing those words of his
-predecessor, that "In life I see the promise and potency of all forms of
-matter."
-
-Such is the great change. Let us now examine in detail. The fundamental
-difference between ancient and modern science is that ancient science
-studies the world from the standpoint of life which is evolving, while
-modern science studies the world by observing the forms through which
-that life is manifesting. The first studies life, and sees in forms the
-expressions of life. The second studies forms, and tries, by the process
-of induction, to find out if there be an underlying principle by which
-the multiplicity of forms may be explained. The first works from above
-downwards, the second from below upwards, and in that very fact is the
-promise of a meeting place where the two will join hand in hand. But
-this fundamental difference carries with it very important results. If
-we are to study the world from the standpoint of forms, our study will
-be almost endless in its multiplicity. Think of a tree; the one trunk
-through which the life is pouring, innumerable leaves in which that life
-is ultimately expressed; it is an image of the tree of life, that great
-Ashvattha, the tree of which we have heard, whose roots are in the
-heavens and whose branches spread out over the earth. If we are to study
-it where its trunk is, the trunk of life, we have the unity of purpose
-and can trace why we have multiplicity of forms; but if we are to start
-at the parts where the leaves are growing, leaf by leaf we must examine,
-every difference of outline we must record, each little variety in shape
-we must carefully note and study. Science studies the leaves in modern
-days--the old science studied the life. There is the fundamental
-difference. There is also the reason of the difference of methods by
-which the study must be carried on. What is the method of modern
-science? The use of clear observation, keen judgment, power of placing
-like things together, and seeing the differences that divide the
-classes of the like from the classes of the unlike. But in order that
-this may be done, inasmuch as nature is infinite both in the vast and in
-the minute, man demands, to supplement his limited senses, instruments
-and apparatus of the most exquisite and delicate character; so that it
-has been even said that the progress of science is the progress of the
-exquisite nature of the apparatus which science uses, and scientific men
-will devise a more delicate balance, a more dainty way of adjustment,
-instrument after instrument, until perfection seems well-nigh to be
-reached; the modern man of science, to carry on his researches, demands
-a vast array of apparatus that he must use for his work, for according
-to the delicacy of his apparatus is the extent of his observation of the
-forms to which his attention is directed. But the man of science of the
-ancient type does not ask for instruments; he is not studying the
-evolution of forms; he has to study life, not form; and for such study
-he must evolve himself, the life that is within him, for only life can
-measure life, only life can respond to the vibrations of the living; his
-work is to unfold himself, to bring out of the depths of his own nature
-the divine powers that lie hidden therein, not in the senses but in the
-Self. His investigations can only be carried on by means of these
-powers, and only as he develops the divine within him will he be able to
-understand and measure the divine without him. Now this is only possible
-because, in essence, the natures of God and man are identical. This
-sounds a bold statement, but it is the fundamental truth of all
-religions. Need I quote to you the famous saying, "Thou art That"? Shall
-I take an equivalent phrase from the Hebrew Scripture, accepted by the
-whole Christian world: "God created man in His own image, in the image
-of God created He him"? The teaching is identical as all great truths
-are identical in the various religions; but what does it mean? God is
-manifest in His universe. Would you understand His work, you must
-develop the God within yourself, else will He for ever be veiled from
-your eyes. Not by the eyes of sense may you behold Him, not by the
-vision of intellect may you see that Form, invisible even to the
-intelligence. Only as the Self that is God is unfolded within you, will
-the Self that is the God without you manifest to you the full glory of
-His life. That is the ancient starting point. Thus what the man of old
-had to do, if indeed he were to be a man of science, was to become
-divine; he was to be a saint before he could be a sage. No man could be
-wise until he was pure, for how should impure eyes behold the Pure?
-There is the hall-mark of the man of science of the ancient days: he is
-developed within before he can be learned without. But from the modern
-man of science is not demanded this condition. He must indeed lead a
-life that is self-restrained, orderly, and fairly clean; were he to
-yield to the riot of the senses, his intelligence would become clouded.
-He must have keen power of observation, balanced strength of judgment,
-strong patience, unwearied industry, clear insight for differences and
-similarities. All these are demanded from him, if he is to be great, and
-these are among the noblest powers of intelligence. But all he asks of
-religion is to leave him alone. Of old, religion opened the gateway to
-science; now-a-days science asks nothing from religion save to stand
-aside. That is the difficulty in our way. We have to show that life
-cannot be understood until the student lives that which he seeks. That
-even the understanding of forms is very imperfect until the life
-expressed through them is recognised and partially understood. That
-fundamental difference of method then, will cover the whole field, and
-will enable us to comprehend the difference of the results.
-
-Now let us try to understand more clearly why it was that the ancient man
-of science was taught that the first step to true knowledge, or wisdom,
-was the unfolding of the Self. What is life or consciousness--for the two
-terms are synonymous? It is the power to answer to vibrations, the power
-to respond--that is consciousness. Evolution is the unfolding of a
-continually increasing power to respond. The whole universe is full of the
-vibrations of Íshvara, of God. He sustains and moves the whole.
-Consciousness is the power in us to answer to those vibrations. All powers
-lie hidden within us as the oak tree lies hidden in the acorn. But it is
-in the process of evolution that the sapling slowly grows out of the seed.
-In Eternity, in the Now, all is existent, perfect; in Time only is there
-succession, the unfolding of one thing after another. In the changeless
-Point everything is present: Space is but the field for diverse sequences.
-Hence Time and Space are the basic illusions, and are yet the fundamental
-conditions of thinking. Keep, I pray you, that definition of consciousness
-in mind, for it will govern the remainder of our study.
-
-The Self in man, being in the image of God, is triple as the Self, the
-Divine, is triple. I need not stop to argue this. You know it from that
-great literature which lies at the foundation of all Hindu Philosophy.
-Whether you speak in abstract terms and say with the Upanishad that
-Brahman is threefold, whether you speak of Him as Sat-chit-ânanda, or
-whether, instead of using philosophical, abstract terms, you say He is
-manifest as Íshvara in the Trimûrti as Mahâdeva, Vishnu and Brahmâ, it
-matters not. You may take the concrete form or the abstract, the
-fundamental idea is the same: that the Divine Self in manifestation is
-triple, and therefore in every great religion God is spoken of as a
-Trinity. If this were not so, the relationship between God and man would
-remain for ever unintelligible, for man shows a triplicity as he
-evolves. The human reflection of that triple Divine Self is the triple
-Self in man.
-
-One by one are the Divine aspects unfolded as manifestation proceeds.
-The lowest, if I may dare to use such a term, is the aspect which is
-first brought into activity for the building of the universe. So also in
-man the intelligence awakens and becomes active, the lowest aspect of
-the human Self. That is the reflection of Brahmâ, of the Universal Mind,
-the creative energy from which all comes forth; and you may find in
-yourselves, as you evolve, that creative faculty of imagination which,
-working at present in subtle matter, will, when man is perfect, work in
-grosser matter as well; for the imaginative power in man is the
-reflection of the power that in God created the universe. Brahmâ
-meditated, and all forms came forth; and in the creative power of mind
-lies every possibility of form. So in man is later evolved the next
-aspect, that of A'nanda, where unity is recognised instead of diversity.
-Chit, in man, is the intelligence that _knows_, that separates and
-divides and analyses, and it has to do with the multiplicity of forms
-and with their inter-relations; A'nanda is the wisdom that realises the
-unity of all things, and that accomplishes union, thus finding the joy
-that lies at the very heart of life; last of all in human evolution, is
-developed the third and highest aspect of Deity, Self-Existence, the
-Unity that lies beyond union, and this can be developed in man only
-because man is one with the Eternal in his nature. By this evolution, in
-ages to come, through the countless kalpas that lie in front, Íshvara
-after Íshvara arises, each as the fruitage of a universe, to carry on
-still more mightily the will of the "One without a second," and to
-manifest something of that perfection to the whole of the then
-manifested nature. Such, very roughly, is the course of human evolution
-into divinity, and this is carried on by races succeeding one another;
-as we come to the higher Root-races of man, to those that we speak of as
-the Fifth, in which we are, the Sixth, that shall succeed us, and the
-Seventh that finishes this cycle of human evolution, we learn that the
-characteristic of each of these three Root-races is that each gradually
-develops that aspect of God which belongs to it in the due sequence of
-evolution. The Fifth is developing the aspect of Chit, Intelligence, the
-mind is being evolved, and all the progress of modern science, so marked
-in our own days, is but part of the fruitage of that evolution, of that
-growth of intelligence which looks on the outer world as not itself--as
-the Not-Self--and seeks to study and understand it. The characteristic
-attributes belonging to the evolution of the two following races are
-even now to be reached by special methods, by individuals who are
-willing to take the pains to make the required sacrifices. That which we
-know as Yoga is the method by which evolution is quickened in the
-individual, and all the powers of the Self, up to the threshold of
-divinity, may by it be brought into manifestation in the man of the
-present. That is why Yoga training was necessary for the ancient
-scientist; he must develop in himself the three aspects of God, if he
-were to understand them as manifested in the universe around him.
-
-Now, at our own stage of evolution, it is specially the life of
-Brahmâ--or the Brahmâ aspect of God--with which the human mind is coming
-into touch, because the mind in man is the reflection of the universal
-mind in Kosmos. That life is the life that is the force in the atom,
-that vivifies every atom, nay, that brings the atom into existence, as
-we shall see, and remains during the whole of the growth of the universe
-as the fundamental life that keeps those atoms as active particles
-building up innumerable forms. Only as the life of Brahmâ, the aspect of
-Brahmâ, is developed in the human Self will man be able to study the
-workings of that life in the atomic forms that are filled by it; and it
-is very significant that some of the greatest problems of modern science
-are now turning on the nature of the atom, and that scientists are
-asking, what is it? Is it matter or force? Is it a particle or a vortex?
-Never will that question be answered with certainty until man has
-developed in himself the power to respond to the life that thrills in
-the atom, until, developing intelligence within himself to the fullest
-point, he is able to answer by that intelligence to the vibrations of
-the atomic life outside him. We have defined consciousness as the power
-to answer to vibrations, and if man is to measure life, if he is to know
-the underlying causes of phenomena, he must develop in himself the power
-to respond to that life outside him; and in the perfection of human
-intelligence--the reflection of the Brahmâ aspect of God--lies the only
-possibility of solution for this much debated problem in science. I said
-it was significant, for this problem belongs to the Fifth race, and the
-Western world is at present peopled largely by the fifth sub-race of the
-great Fifth. Thus it takes to the very highest point the concrete mind
-of man, that marvellous activity of the intellect, that swift and yet
-patient study, bringing about the achievements that modern science is
-performing. All these are a testimony of the truth of the ancient
-teaching that sub-race after sub-race arises, each one with its own work
-to do, and we should look on the work of each sub-division of humanity
-as good in itself: each should not be regarded as an isolated and
-hostile expression, but as part of the Divine manifestation, expressing
-that portion which it is destined to express.
-
-Looking thus, then, on the problem of the life that exists in the atom,
-we find that in order to understand it, we must develop the pure
-intellect in man; but to understand the life that clothes itself in
-organic forms, to unravel the secrets which will explain to us why one
-is formed thus and another thus, the next great aspect of the Self must
-be developed within us--that of the all-pervading life of Vishnu, that
-sustains the world as the mighty supporter of everything, the basis, the
-foundation of the whole. There alone is unifying energy and there the
-root from which all divisions have arisen; only as we realise this
-aspect of unifying energy in the Self will the secrets of organised
-forms in nature unravel themselves before our eyes. This work is that of
-the Sixth Root-race, and those who would ante-date their evolution must
-develop Sixth-race powers in themselves by Yoga. Remains one mightier
-problem, subtlest and most difficult of all, that of the life of the
-human spirit, of man evolving into God. The mysteries of that life may
-only be understood when the human Self, which comes forth from the
-Father of all--from the mighty One who is sometimes the Destroyer,
-sometimes the Creator, but always the Regenerator, the name that
-includes them both, Mahâdeva, the mighty God who is Sat, Existence--has
-developed the aspect of Sat, of pure Existence, thus becoming the triple
-Unity, a Logos, an Íshvara. That is the work of the Seventh Root-race,
-and when that is accomplished, then only will the final problems of the
-human spirit lie open before our gaze.
-
-The scientific man of antiquity, then, began by that self-attention,
-unfolding in himself one by one all those potentialities under a
-suitable Guru, passing from step to step till he reached the highest,
-and ever worshipping the Mahâguru, the Guru of the universe. Having
-unfolded his highest powers, he began to study life, life in its
-outpouring, not life in its manifold and veiled manifestations in the
-lower worlds. Hence the lofty point at which he started, no less than
-the arising of Íshvara enveloped in Mâyâ.
-
-What is Íshvara? What is Mâyâ? There is the first great problem. Let us
-reverently address ourselves to it. The philosophers of India have
-answered these questions in different ways, each one containing part of
-the eternal truth. Íshvara is that mighty centre of consciousness that
-exists unchanged in the bosom of the One Existence. There are
-innumerable such Centres of Consciousness, of which you may remember
-your own Svâmi Subba Rao wrote as existing in the bosom of the One
-Existence. Íshvara in manifestation is like a lamp, a light enclosed in
-a shade. Íshvara, enveloped in Mâyâ, brings forth a universe and is
-enclosed, as it were, in the universe of which He is the Light. Breaking
-the shade, the light shines forth in every direction. Dissolving the
-universe, He still remains. The centre remains, but the circumference
-that circumscribed it is gone. So is that mighty centre when the
-universe vanishes; He alone remains, holding His centre unshaken in the
-very act of merging in, expanding into, the Infinite, the Absolute, the
-Super-Consciousness, the One. Let us think of Him as an eternal centre
-of self-consciousness, able to merge in super-consciousness and to
-again limit Himself to self-consciousness.
-
-What, then, is Mâyâ? Mâyâ is prepared in every case by the merging in
-Íshvara of the whole of the universe which is come to its ending. As one
-loka rolls up and merges in the one above it, all forms in the loka thus
-merged disappear, but the consciousness that ensouled those forms does
-not vanish; a modification of consciousness remains, a modification
-expressing itself by a vibratory power--not a vibration, but a power to
-vibrate in a particular way; and though the form vanishes as the loka is
-merged in the one above it--because the matter disappears, being
-disintegrated into finer matter--in consciousness there remains the
-power to vibrate in the way in which it had vibrated in the grosser
-matter, and power persists although the forms caused by such vibrations
-disappear, for lack of material sufficiently coarse to respond to such
-vibrations. As one region passes into the next, this process is repeated
-over and over and over again, and loka after loka vanishes. The forms
-are gone, the vibrations are gone, only the modifications in
-consciousness capable of giving rise to similar vibrations remain until
-finally, when Íshvara--whose consciousness was the one consciousness in
-the universe, whose life was the one life, who supported every form,
-who made the possibility of every separated existence--gathers up His
-universe into Himself ere He merges Himself in the ONE, everything has
-vanished that we know as form, nothing remains save the centre of
-consciousness. There remains in Íshvara the power of vibrating in
-particular fashions, resulting from the evolution of His universe, in
-endless multiplicity of vibrations; when He merges Himself in the One
-Existence all has vanished as form, but powers remain in these subtle
-modifications, preserved in that unchangeable centre in the mightiness
-of the One Life. Is that only a dream?
-
-There was a great teacher, Vâsishtha. He taught Râmâ, as you will
-remember, and in the record of his teaching there are hints on some of
-the mysteries of life. If you keep what I have now said in mind, if I
-have succeeded by the clumsy words which are all that the human tongue
-can utter on these great problems, in clarifying at all your thoughts,
-then just listen to that same thought as expressed by Sûryadeva, when he
-was speaking of the same thing--the ending and the new beginning of a
-universe. We have only to add to what I have already said, that when
-Íshvara arises in order that a new universe may be formed, He throws His
-life into these modifications that had apparently disappeared, and the
-Mâyâ in which He arises, enveloped and circumscribed, is His own
-re-vivified memory, which can never be separated from Himself; He draws
-in His consciousness, under the impulse of the Great Breath, limiting it
-to self-consciousness, and turning His attention to the contents of that
-self-consciousness, its powers start into activity, and that is Mâyâ. So
-it is written: "Thereafter, Thou, O Lord, intent on [maintaining] the
-reign of night, fixed within the Self, having indrawn that order of
-things, [or universe.]... To-day, Thou hast awakened, and art most
-joyfully desirous of again throwing out [manifesting] the universe in
-mighty gradations [hierarchies of beings]." [_Yoga Vâsishtha_, lxxxvii,
-7, 8.] These nights and days are the "Nights and Days of Brahmâ," the
-inbreathing and outbreathing of the One Existence, and Mâyâ is this
-indrawn "order of things" that remains fixed through the Night, and
-starts forth as Íshvara awakens at the coming of Day. That is Mâyâ and
-if you take up the definitions given in the different schools, you will
-find that this includes and illumines every one of them, that it shows
-you what is meant by illusion, and explains to you what is implied in
-dreaming. The joyful throwing out into manifestation of all the powers
-that are remembered by Íshvara the moment His attention is turned to
-His own Self, that memory-prompted "desire" which arises in the bosom of
-the Eternal, is the root of the coming universe. Now this thought will
-prove to you the key of much ancient teaching. You have, in the
-Universal Mind full of ideas which are not yet concreted into phenomena,
-the world of ideas of Plato, the invisible world of the Hebrew Kabbalah;
-in every great teaching you find the same thought expressed. If, instead
-of being fettered by words, as for the most part we are, and if, instead
-of repeating phrases that carry with them no idea in the mind of the
-repeater, we would try to read the thought that underlies the words, we
-should find the Hindu philosophy in every modern philosophy that is
-worthy of the name, and see the traces of ancient India in Greece and in
-Rome, in Germany and in the England of to-day.
-
-What is the next stage? The Life-Breath goes forth. Íshvara, the Centre
-of all, enveloped in Mâyâ sends forth His breath; as that vibrating
-breath falls on the enveloping Mâyâ, Mâyâ becomes Prakriti, or
-Matter--rather, perhaps, Mûlaprakriti, the root of matter. As that
-breath, with its triple vibratory force falls on this matter, it throws
-it into three modifications, or "attributes"--Tamas, inertia, or better,
-stability; Rajas, activity, vigour; Sattva, a difficult word to
-translate: I am inclined to translate it as Harmony; for this reason,
-that wherever there is pleasure, Sattva is present. Without harmony no
-pleasure can anywhere exist. All pleasure is due to harmonious
-vibration, and that quality of harmonious inter-related vibrations is
-the quality that Sattva gives to matter. These three fundamental
-qualities of matter--answering to three fundamental modifications in the
-consciousness of Íshvara--inertia, activity, and harmony, these are the
-famous three Gunas without which Prakriti cannot manifest. Fundamental,
-essential, and unchangeable, they are present in every particle in the
-manifested universe, and according to their combinations is the nature
-of each particle.
-
-Then comes the seven-fold division. In a moment I will tell you why we
-speak of it as seven-fold instead of five-fold, which is the more
-familiar division to you. The seven-fold division, what is this? Here is
-matter with its three Gunas, now ready to receive another impulse from
-the Life-Breath; that breath comes forth from Brahmâ, for Íshvara has
-unfolded His triple nature into its three aspects, and it comes forth in
-seven great waves. Each one modifies matter, and evolves and ensouls
-those that follow it. The first two are absolutely beyond our knowing,
-and belong not to our present stages of evolution at all; therefore they
-are ordinarily left out, and only the five that make up the evolution of
-our universe are spoken of in the sacred books. Here and there the seven
-are mentioned, but only rarely. You may remember the seven tongues of
-fire, for instance, and one or two other similar phrases. But generally
-five-fold is Prâna, the five-fold evolving life. First, in every case,
-is a modification of consciousness sent forth as a power by Íshvara.
-Turn to the _Vishnu Purâna_ and you will see exactly the stage that I am
-pointing out to you in more modern phrases. Íshvara Himself, as Brahmâ,
-sends forth a power, due to a modification of His consciousness, called
-in the _Vishnu Purâna_ a Tanmâtra. In the English translation the word
-rudiment is used. You remember the rudiments of sound, of touch, of
-colour, and so on. All these rudiments are the tanmâtras. These
-tanmâtras are the powers due to modifications in consciousness or life,
-without which no modification in matter can be. The consciousness first,
-then the form. The first great vibration that goes forth is the
-vibration that gives rise to what we speak of here as sound--all our
-terms being drawn from the lowest, or physical, manifestations; the form
-that it brings into manifestation is A'kâsha, the mighty element of
-Ether; not the ether of modern science, of course, although that is its
-physical representative. Then into that the next tanmâtra, the next
-power due to a modification of consciousness, is sent forth; the
-A'kâsha, with the primary vibration within it, receives the second
-vibration sent out by Íshvara, and this, pervading the matter around it,
-brings about the next modification of matter, the element Vâyu, or Air.
-Vâyu, permeated, ensouled and enveloped in A'kâsha, receives a fresh
-impulse from Íshvara, the third tanmâtra, or power resulting from a
-modification of consciousness; this tanmâtra, working on Vâyu, produces
-the modification of matter called the element Agni, or Fire, and this
-fire-matter is permeated, ensouled, and enveloped in Vâyu, as Vâyu in
-A'kâsha. A similar process brings into manifestation the elements Apas
-and Prithivî. The "magnetic field" of an atom is composed of all the
-tanmâtras and elements above it. Try to realise this process if you can,
-though I know the conception is difficult. What has occurred? A
-modification of life or consciousness in Íshvara, manifested as a power,
-a vibration; everything depends on vibration; ancient and modern science
-speak alike on this. The universe is made up of vibrations, the
-vibrations which are the modifications of the Divine outpouring of life.
-These clothe themselves in fundamental forms of matter, out of which
-all multiplicity is developed. These modifications in matter, these
-great, or primary, elements are also called tattvas. Tanmâtras, then,
-are the powers sent out by modifications of consciousness, and these are
-awkwardly translated by the word rudiments; we have next the
-modifications in matter, the great elements, the primary elements, or
-tattvas. The first of the tattvas is called A'kâsha; then Vâyu, then
-Agni, then Apas, then Prithivî, the five following one after the other;
-the keynote of this evolution is that the modification of the previous
-higher tattva is reproduced within the lower, pervades it and expands
-outside it. If you will take the _Vishnu Purâna_, the second chapter,
-and read over again the evolution of the five tattvas, you will find
-that the Sanskrit word which is used comes from a root which means to
-pervade as well as to enclose, giving the idea of permeation as well as
-of expanding around to form an envelope. And you must understand that
-the central life of each tattva is the preceding tattva with its
-tanmâtra; that, with the new tanmâtra, makes up the life; and the outer
-form is the new tattva that by that productive action comes into
-existence.
-
-Now leaving that, for I cannot go into further details, let me just say
-to you one word about the seven and the five, because that has been a
-source of great dispute between some of our Hindu Pandits and some of
-our Theosophists. In the universe, taken as a whole, seven-fold is the
-life of Íshvara. Beyond the tattva that we know as A'kâsha, there is
-that tattva which has been called Anupâdaka, and beyond that A'ditattva,
-the first. Those are far beyond our knowing; we cannot think so far. For
-our life-evolution, the five mark the limit; and only the five,
-therefore, as a rule, are given in the books which are to be studied to
-show you how to evolve.
-
-Rapidly we must pass onward, then, to these tattvas as, modifying
-themselves by aggregations, and by disintegrations and re-combinations
-of these, they make innumerable forms. The fundamental conception is
-that there are as many basic forms of atoms in the universe as there are
-tattvas. The tattva of ancient science is the atom of modern science,
-but modern science makes the mistake of supposing that there is only one
-fundamental atom. The truth is that modern science is only seeking to
-get hold of the Prithivî Tattva, the lowest, or physical, atom, and it
-has not yet recognized even the existence of the four (or six) higher
-atoms that stretch beyond. These atoms form the regions of the universe.
-All that is physical is made up from the Prithivî Tattva. Not only is
-this so, but within the limits of this physical region, correspondences
-of all the higher six atomic forms are reproduced. The sub-divisions of
-the physical region, due to combinations of the Prithivî Tattva, show
-forth the characteristics of the great regions which make up the
-universe; so that we have here in our solid, liquid, gas, three ethers
-and atoms, correspondences of the six higher tattvas, but we have them
-all in their Prithivî form; they are the modifications of Prithivî,
-reproducing on a lower plane the great primary elements. We might call
-them Prithivî A'ditattva, Prithivî Anupâdhakatattva, Prithivî
-A'kâshatattva, Prithivî Vâyutattva, Prithivî Agnitattva, Prithivî
-Apastattva, Prithivî Prithivîtattva. Above the region of Prithivî comes
-the great realm of Apas, with similar sub-divisions, all of the
-Apastattva, and so again another seven above that in the higher realm of
-Agni, and above that the same in the still higher realm of Vâyu, and
-above that again in the A'kâsha, and then the highest two unknown
-realms. When you remember that all these regions interpenetrate the one
-the other, you will gain some glimpse of a complexity dizzying to think
-of, the vast complexity of the universe in which the One Life is
-working. Yet that complexity is simplified by thus working downwards,
-and there is the line of the study of the ancient science. Working out
-from this originally simple life into the endless multiplicity of forms,
-we may trace the One among the many, and see the Self in all things, and
-all things in Him.
-
-At the ending of a universe, the tattvas merge in each other by
-disintegration; Prithivî Tattva, having disintegrated into atoms, these
-atoms are themselves broken up, and the tanmâtra that formed them, being
-no longer able to express itself for lack of suitable material, ceases
-to be a power, and remains only represented by a modification in
-consciousness--a permanent possibility. Thus Apas Tattva becomes the
-lowest manifestation, and, by a repetition of the above process, ceases
-to exist. In like fashion each successively vanishes. Hence, Mahâdeva is
-represented as saying in the _Shivâgama_: "The universe proceeded from
-the tattvas; it goes on through the tattvas; it vanishes into the
-tattvas."
-
-Such is the grandiose conception of the kosmos given by the science of
-antiquity; one life, pulsing into innumerable vibrations, and these
-throwing matter into forms. On this was based the Pythagorean system of
-numbers; on this mathematics and music were founded; on this the "Great
-Science," or Magic, of long-perished nations was built up. That science
-only survives in its purity in the Great White Brotherhood, but its
-traces may yet be seen in the scriptures and the religions of the world.
-
-We take up modern science, and pass into a different atmosphere. Now
-phenomena are to be studied, forms are to occupy our attention. But as
-we look at modern science we find that it is beginning to transcend the
-study of forms; we find the efforts of its greatest men are turned to
-seek unity amid diversity. Do not think that, in speaking of modern
-science as studying forms, I am indifferent to the mighty achievements
-that it has made, or that I would say one word in derogation of the
-ability of the leading men of science, and the priceless value of the
-work that they are doing for humanity. Their achievements during the
-present century are achievements that are worthy of the very deepest
-respect, not only for the "sublime patience of the investigator," of
-which William Kingdon Clifford so rightly spoke, but also for the
-self-abnegation with which many of them have given their lives to follow
-truth, to study in the innermost recesses of the phenomena of nature
-what secrets she has hidden, what may be underneath the "Veil of Isis."
-I do not, then, speak a word against modern science, but I point out to
-you this fact, that the greatest work of science has been the
-generalisations that have been suggested in the attempt to reach
-simplicity, to reduce multiplicity to unity. How far has science gone
-from that generally accepted view of the materialistic school of thirty
-years ago, that the universe is made up of an indefinite number of
-atoms, the atoms being our chemical elements! A phrase from one of the
-most famous of the then leading men of science, Dr. Ludwig Büchner, will
-mark the greatness of the change: he declared that the carbon atom will
-always remain a carbon atom, and has been a carbon atom from all
-eternity; that the hydrogen atom from all eternity has been a hydrogen
-atom, and to all eternity a hydrogen atom it will remain; for atoms with
-their properties are indestructible, and are therefore eternal. What man
-of science would dare to allege that to-day, knowing that he would be
-laughed to scorn by all his scientific brethren; who would say that
-these atoms are eternally of the same nature as they have till now been
-made out to be? What is science in fact, doing as to the atom? It is
-finding in what is called the atom a composite body, a compound, not an
-element. This discovery is chiefly due to the researches of Sir William
-Crookes, who is guided in his investigations by a deeper philosophy of
-the universe than is common among scientists. It is gradually finding
-out that these atoms are things that are built up gradually, and that
-the qualities of atoms are not fixed, but are properties that change
-with every difference of conditions. Late investigations have shown that
-when chemical bodies are submitted to extraordinary conditions of
-cold--such cold as makes the air into a liquid and solidifies hydrogen
-and oxygen--they suffer the destruction of their supposedly permanent
-properties. It is proved that, as these conditions are changed, and as
-lower and lower ranges of temperature are brought to bear upon these
-chemical elements, one by one their eternal properties disappear, and
-they lie there changed in their activities, and lose the characteristic
-traits which enabled them to be discovered as parts of the moving world.
-Downward and downward falls the temperature, property after property
-disappears, until science asks, bewildered, what will happen when we
-reach the absolute zero, what will then become of the properties of
-matter, what will remain of the characteristics of the elements? Is
-there not but one Matter, and are not all chemical elements but
-modifications, aggregations, of this one ultimate matter? Similarly with
-Force, modern science has made the magnificent generalisation that all
-the forces that we know are modifications of one Force, and are
-identical in their essential nature; that heat, and light, and all the
-various forces around us, electricity, magnetism and the rest, that all
-these are but vibrations of varying lengths and activities in a subtle
-medium, and that they may be transmuted the one into the other. They are
-not fundamentally different, but are one and the same in their root. But
-if this be so, if there be but one Matter, if there be but one Force,
-then science is now tending towards unity; and as that unity is traced
-or aimed at, science will have to pass out of the grosser realm of dense
-matter into the realm of forces working in subtle media; and we find
-this wondrous change that, whereas in old days the existence of force
-was argued for inductively, by studying the changes in matter, now
-science is beginning to posit the existence of force and to question
-whether matter is anything more than the action of force. Instead of
-regarding an atom as a solid indivisible particle, the tendency is to
-regard it as a vortex of energy, a centre of force. One writer even goes
-so far as to suggest that an atom is a source "through which an
-invisible fluid is pouring into three-dimensional space." Other atoms,
-"anti-atoms," may be "sinks" through which the fluid pours out. If these
-unite, may not inertia be neutralised as well as gravity? May there not
-be potential matter, and may there not be such in space, without any of
-the attributes which characterise matter, but ready to be vivified and
-form a system of worlds? Here we have H. P. B.'s atoms and laya centres,
-put forward tentatively as a scientific problem. Science is mounting
-into the invisible world and is trying to measure and to weigh that
-which therein it finds. Now this tendency to unity is the testimony to
-the One that underlies all manifestation; only one Force, only one
-Matter; endless diversity of forces, transmutable into each other;
-endless diversity of forms, which break up again to recombine; only one
-Force under all forces, one Matter under all forms. It is seen that the
-very fact of harmony and of evolution points to a root unity, and that
-eternally independent self-moving particles would only perpetuate a
-chaos.
-
-As science travels along this most hopeful line, we find great changes
-are arising in the nature of the studies that are being carried on, and
-we have that wonderful theory of Sir William Crookes of the genesis of
-the elements. He takes protyle as a starting-point, which is really Vâyu
-in its form on this physical plane--Prithivî Vâyu--and out of that
-builds one atom after another, making all the chemical elements to be
-bodies aggregated together by the action of a positive and a negative
-force. Let me just remind you of this, because some amongst you go so
-eagerly after modern science and despise your own literature. If you had
-read your _Vishnu Purâna_, with your brain, and not merely with your
-eyes through modern spectacles, you might have learnt that theory of Sir
-William Crookes long, long before he gave it. He has drawn a picture,
-and the picture shows an immovable axis, and around it a spiral coil,
-and at points in that coil are atoms of the chemical elements, generated
-by that coil which represents a swinging and cooling force. That spiral
-is in the great ocean of protyle, or primeval matter, and, as that
-spiral goes round and round the immovable axis, it generates chemical
-elements one after another, and so brings into existence the materials
-out of which the world is to be formed. That is the dry scientific
-statement summarised from his own address. But I have read in an ancient
-book of a mountain--which is the emblem of stability, of an axis round
-which everything is to revolve--thrown into a mighty ocean; and I have
-read of a great serpent turned round that mountain in spiral coils; on
-the one side the Suras are pulling and on the other side the Asuras are
-equally busy. Between the two--the positive and negative of modern
-science--evolution is started and the serpent spiral begins to turn and
-turn round that axis. They call the axis Mount Mandara, and they call
-the spiral coil the serpent Vâsuki while the axis rests on Hari as a
-pivot; they call the positive and the negative forces the Gods and
-Demons, and their churning of the ocean gives rise to the materials of
-the universe. Aye! That is from the seer, who, looking at the ocean of
-matter, described pictorially what the eyes of the spirit beheld there;
-while the other is the dry scientific statement of the modern thinker,
-who works out his magnificent generalisation as the result of his study
-of the forms. The seer and the scientist have met.
-
-I shall show you, when I come to deal with life, that modern science is
-coming towards our view of life. I shall give you, from the latest
-declarations of our modern scientific teachers, points which will show
-you how they are climbing towards the ancient view which is found in our
-sacred books; and I will now finish this first part of our subject this
-morning by one plea addressed to all of you, which I would pray you to
-think over at your leisure.
-
-There is but One Life, the Life of God, within everything in His universe.
-No life save His life, no consciousness save His consciousness, no
-thought save His thought. This is our glory; for inasmuch as we are in
-His image, we can answer to the vibrations of His thinking, and can
-reproduce in our minds that which He has initiated in order that we may be
-evolved. In all the different parts of this universe, different lines of
-evolution are going on; the sun is doing part of it, the vegetable world
-another part, the animal world another, the world of man another; but in
-the world of man there is more diversity, because there Self-consciousness
-is arising. The final image of the Supreme on earth is man; in man alone
-is the highest life; the others are climbing towards it, but in them it
-has not yet evolved. Therefore in man there is more difference; therefore
-in man, for the time, more separation; therefore in man the great danger
-of antagonism that the lower kingdoms know not, because they are not
-sufficiently evolved. Then comes the conflict: I take my own poor
-reflection of one tiny bit of thought of Íshvara, and I say: "This is
-Íshvara Himself," and not my poor thought of Him; "Worship this as I see
-it," that is, "Worship me instead of Íshvara, and my thought of Him
-instead of Him." So man after man puts up his idea of God as God, and we
-see all the world divided into many forms of thought and of worship. Then
-a man imagines that his brother men are worshipping other Gods, and he
-becomes anxious and troubled, not realising that Gods are many because we
-are worshipping our own thoughts of God instead of God, our own limited
-representations instead of the Universal Self. Nay more--I, perhaps, not
-only say to you that you must worship my conception of God instead of your
-own, that my knowledge is the limit of manifestation, that my small
-fancies make up the universe instead of the infinite diversity that alone
-can represent His might; but perhaps I go further and say: "If you do not
-worship my idea of God, you are outcaste, you are alien, you belong to a
-different faith, you belong to a different creed; stand outside; for I am
-orthodox, you are heretic and blasphemous your faith." So speaks religion
-after religion, fanatic after fanatic; so one man after another makes his
-own reflection the God of the universe, and hence antagonises his
-brethren, whose representations of the divine image are as necessary to
-its completeness as his own.
-
-That is what I ask you to realise. God cannot be expressed wholly in you
-or in me, in our miserable limitations, in our poverty of thought, in
-our wretchedness of impudent assumption. He can only be even partially
-expressed by all the worlds together; His whole universe is His mirror,
-and every fragment in the universe gives back to Him, in part His own
-perfections. Is it not nobler, greater, more glorious, to be a fragment
-of a perfect whole, making a part of the whole unity itself, subserving
-it in mirroring Íshvara, than to be shut in with our own fragment of a
-looking glass, trying vainly to make it perfectly reflect the whole, and
-refusing any partial reflection of the perfect in our brethren on every
-side? That is the thought which these lectures will embody, and they
-will fail in their purpose if they do not carry it home to your minds.
-For Íshvara, who is Existence and Intelligence, is also A'nanda, Joy,
-Bliss inexpressible, and that Bliss is only realized when union is
-consciously accomplished, when the whole is known as one. May I but help
-you to see the Self in all things: what better service may man do for
-man?
-
-
-
-
-[SECOND LECTURE.]
-
-THE FUNCTIONS OF THE GODS.
-
-
-My Brothers:--Those of you who are familiar with your own sacred
-literature will know how great a part is played therein by those
-spiritual Intelligences who are spoken of as the Devas, or Gods. As I
-said yesterday, the existence, the presence, and the working of these
-Intelligences in the administration of nature, in the carrying out of
-the will of Íshvara, are recognised in every great faith that the world
-has known. The Hindu speaks of them sometimes as Suras, sometimes as
-Devas; the Hebrew, the Christian, the Mussulman, speak of them as Angels
-and Archangels, making the distinction between the higher and the lower;
-the Zoroastrian also recognises their work, speaking of them as
-Feristhas; and so, in each of the great religions, we find the presence
-of these workers in the Kosmos recognised, and we see their functions
-defined. Now it is exceedingly important, especially perhaps for the
-Hindu, to understand how wide is the area of their working, how general
-their functions, for no subject perhaps is more often made a subject for
-attack by those who desire to injure the ancient religion of India, than
-the actions of the Gods as detailed in the sacred books. You will
-continually find that those actions are being misunderstood or
-mis-represented. The mis-representation, one may always hope, is not
-deliberate and conscious. It is due to the general materialism of the
-age. It is due to the fact that men who believe in a religion nominally
-do not realise the effect of that religion in their consciousness. So
-that while a man may say that he believes in Angels and Archangels and
-so on, he leads his life as though they did not exist. Among our
-Christian brothers there is considerable difference of opinion with
-regard to these Angels. In the different sections of the great Christian
-community, the vast majority of those that profess Christianity--making
-up the old Greek Church, sometimes called the Eastern Christian Church,
-and those who are numbered in the Roman Communion, the Roman Catholic
-Church, the two ancient Churches which have preserved an unbroken
-antiquity and an unbroken tradition from the time of Christ and His
-Apostles--have maintained and maintain, uninjured and complete, the
-ancient belief in the ministry of angels. They really lead their lives
-as recognising the part that is played in the world by the angelic
-hosts, and not only do they regard the Archangels as the great rulers of
-animated nature--the seven chief Archangels taking the place of the
-seven Gods in other faiths--but they also recognise the lower host of
-angels as concerned continually in administering natural laws, in
-guiding human evolution; and indeed they go so far as to say that every
-individual man is in special charge of a guardian angel, who ministers
-to him from the cradle to the grave, who tries to help him in danger, to
-advise him in temptation, to protect him in peril, to ward off all the
-evils levelled against him, and who, helping him through the gateway of
-death, accompanies him on the other side through the invisible world,
-until he surrenders up his charge into the hands of Christ Himself. The
-Protestant communities, however, breaking off as they did, roughly and
-abruptly, from the ancient tradition, full of occult truth, have lost,
-among many other valuable things, this real belief in the work of the
-angels. Most members of the Protestant communities, while they
-acknowledge the existence of the angels and vaguely regard them as
-"ministers of God," have no very definite idea of the part that they
-play in the world. They do not address them, as do the Roman Catholics
-and the Greeks. They do not pay them reverence and homage day by day,
-or look on them as helpers, as intelligences superior to themselves,
-always willing to render assistance. Practically the angels have passed
-out of their lives, so far as any conscious realisation of their
-presence is concerned; and I cannot help thinking that the loss is a
-very serious loss when you are dealing with spiritual evolution; the
-whole idea of the Supreme tends to become degraded and anthropomorphised
-when the intermediate agents are forgotten, and when every petty concern
-of human life is, as it were, thrown directly under the immediate
-superintendence of the Supreme. We must not, of course, in recognising
-the working of the Gods, or the Devas, as I shall call them for the rest
-of the lecture, lose sight of the unity of the Supreme Deity. We do not,
-in Hinduism, deny or ignore the existence of Íshvara because we
-recognise the hosts of the Devas; we do not cloud our belief in the One
-because we recognise the innumerable hosts of the ministers of His will;
-there is nothing more against the unity of God in the recognition of the
-hosts of the Devas, than there is in recognising the diversity of men,
-yet it is not pretended that we are clouding the unity of the Divine
-Existence when we recognise the hosts of individuals who make up the
-whole of humanity. It is mere prejudice or ignorance that makes any one
-think that because the Hindu recognises the action of the Devas,
-therefore he has lost his belief in the One Existence beyond even
-Íshvara Himself, in the fundamental unity that underlies diversity. What
-he does is, that instead of regarding the world as superintended by an
-extra-kosmic God, separated as it were from His universe, with a mighty
-gulf existing between Him and it, he sees in Íshvara the manifestation
-of the one Life that pervades and sustains all, he sees in Íshvara the
-one Root out of which all separated existences spring; and he sees,
-stretching between himself and that Supreme, innumerable hosts of
-Intelligences, step after step, rank after rank, and he looks to
-climbing up that celestial ladder until he also stands at its very top;
-for he knows that he also is divine, although as yet in an early stage
-of evolution, and he recognises the more highly evolved divinity above
-him, as he recognises the divinity in the stone beneath his feet, in
-everything that exists in this universe of God.
-
-With that beginning, so that our study may not lead to a misconception,
-let us pass on to ask what are the functions of these Devas, of these
-Intelligences, who work in the world. You will at once realise that the
-functions must be very different, according to the grade of the Devas
-that we may happen to be studying. Through the whole of the Kosmos they
-are working. Some are very lofty, some are very little evolved above the
-level of humanity. One great difference there is between us and them,
-that whatever may be the grade of their mental, emotional, and spiritual
-life, they do not, normally, use a physical body. That is a clear mark
-or line of separation. The being functioning as man, while spiritual,
-intellectual and emotional, uses a physical body, in order to carry on
-the activities connected with the physical world. All the hosts of Devas
-are without that physical covering or vehicle; they normally use as
-their vehicle a body which belongs to the particular region in the
-universe in which their normal activities lie. Suppose, for instance,
-that a Deva belongs essentially to the spiritual world, he will normally
-use a spiritual body; if he wants to function on the mânasic plane, he
-will create for himself a temporary mânasic body, drawing together for
-this purpose the matter of that plane and holding it as his vehicle
-during the period of his functioning thereupon; if he wants to function
-in the kâmic region, he will draw together the material of that region
-and make of it for himself a temporary body; if he wants to function
-visibly in the world of man, he will draw round himself the matter of
-the physical plane, and make for himself a body suitable to the
-immediate purpose that he has in view. So with every other grade. The
-Devas of the mânasic world use normally the mânasic body, and create the
-kâmic or physical body as they may want a temporary vehicle. Those of
-the kârmic region use the kârmic body normally, and create a physical
-vehicle when they require it. Thus, in every case, the Deva's ordinary
-body is composed of the matter of the region of the universe to which he
-belongs; but he has always the power to create any vehicle that he needs
-for carrying out any purpose with which he is charged. This will perhaps
-suggest to you one reason for the great variety of forms which a single
-God may assume. Those whose inner sight is developed, who can see in the
-regions which to ordinary men are invisible, say that the Gods use many
-forms. And some of their forms have come down traditionally, described
-originally perhaps by a great Rishi, preserved by his disciples, then
-thrown into some form of earth, or stone, or metal, painted or
-sculptured as the case may be; then such an image of the God is handed
-down generation after generation, and represents that Deva under that
-particular form to his worshippers. We find many forms for one Deva,
-just because of the fact that the God makes the form he wants for the
-particular work he has upon hand, and that none of those forms bind him.
-They are merely transitory vehicles created for a definite purpose. Some
-of these forms are indeed relatively permanent, partly because of the
-worship which is addressed to them. For the Deva will often graciously
-use a particular form in order to meet the thought of his worshippers.
-Suppose for instance, taking a lofty example, that Shrî Krishna willed
-to reveal Himself to some Bhakta of His, in order that that devotee
-might have the joy of consciously realising the presence of his Lord, He
-then most certainly would clothe Himself in the form which that Bhakta
-was in the habit of worshipping and which drew up the deepest emotions
-of his heart. For these forms are taken for the very purpose of
-stimulating devotion, for the very object of attracting the heart by
-presenting the illimitable Deity in some conditioned form which the
-concrete mind of man is able more or less to grasp, to understand, to
-admire and to worship. You cannot love the void of space. You cannot fix
-your heart on the depths of infinity; you deceive yourself if, with your
-limited intelligence, untrained even in the lowest forms of Yoga, you
-think that you can realise Brahman, the Supreme. Too often when we speak
-of THAT, no real thought responds to our speaking; the lips speak, not
-the intelligence or the heart. Step by step we have to climb from the
-manifested to the unmanifested, and, in His compassionate love, God
-veils Himself in forms of beauty to attract the human heart, in order
-that the human heart may rise adoringly to His Feet, and that some
-portion of His life, pouring down thereinto, may enable the Self of the
-worshipper to realise even partially its unity with Him.
-
-The Devas, then, in their many ranks and divisions, perform functions
-according to their grade. Speaking generally, their work in the world is
-to guide evolution according to the design of Íshvara. That really sums
-up their functions, although we are going to study them in detail. I say
-nothing of the vast functions of the higher Devas that lie beyond our
-knowing, beyond the teaching that Rishis have given. I deal only with
-those lower functions that are concerned with our world, and with the
-solar system of which our world is part. Taking that limitation,
-suitable to our ignorance, we can study some of the functions of the
-Gods within the limits of our solar system.
-
-Speaking generally, as I said, that function is to guide evolution, to
-adapt, to correlate, to carry out the living will of the Supreme, and to
-carry out that will by bringing together in time and space all the
-agents and conditions necessary for carrying it out. There is only one
-supreme Will that guides the universe, and that Will points steadily to
-progress, to the goal set forth for the universe, the goal towards which
-it is evolving. Unchangeable, stable, perpetual, that Will knows no
-swerving; to use a Christian phrase, "there is no shadow of turning" in
-that immutable Will. The universe rolls along the road traced out by the
-Divine Will. It cannot be diverted from that road; it cannot change its
-path; that is the law of the universe, the law on which we rest with
-faith unshakable. But in the working out of the law in this universe
-where men are evolving--men in whom is the germ of that same sovereign
-and imperial Will of God, man being made in the Divine image and
-containing within himself the germ of the Divine powers--in this
-universe, as man evolves, wills also evolve which are separate,
-personal, individual. All the confusion in the world of man is due to
-this evolution of the separated wills that do not recognise their root
-in God, but try to follow their own diverse ways, and want to move after
-their own separated fashions; so that in the world of man, as nowhere
-else in nature, you have discord instead of harmony, clash instead of
-peace, struggle and war instead of tranquillity. The world of minerals
-obeys the compulsion of the law; the world of vegetables obeys the
-compulsion of the law; the world of animals obeys the compulsion of the
-law; but when man arises, man in whom the Supreme is to be developed
-after he has climbed through the lower stages, in man there awakens the
-germ of the will, and the separated wills bring about the discord which
-will yet end in something greater and richer than the harmony of the
-stones, of the vegetables, of the animals. For when human evolution is
-over, millions of separated wills will join in one mighty chord of
-harmonious union, and that union of the wills that voluntarily give
-themselves is mightier in its powers, more beautiful in its expression,
-than compelled obedience can ever be. The music that humanity sends up
-to God, in all its varied melody, is a far more perfect expression of
-Divinity than can be drawn from the monochord that we find in the lower
-kingdoms of nature; but you will readily understand that when these
-warring wills arise, something, some one, is wanted in order to adapt,
-to correlate, to bring about equilibrium among the contending forces, so
-that the one purpose may be steadily subserved. Let me take a concrete
-illustration. Suppose I had here a ball which I want to move. That ball
-can be moved along a straight line in innumerable ways. I might give it
-a single impulse in the direction in which I want it to move; and it
-would move straight on in that direction following my primary impulse.
-So would the universe move if it contained only minerals, vegetables and
-animals, if there were no clashing wills within it, if it were within
-the iron grip of compulsion, which never in any fashion could be
-resisted. But I can equally well drive my ball along that straight line,
-if I know enough of physics, by correlating different and opposed
-forces. I may send two forces against it at a particular angle, and if
-my angle be properly measured according to the strength of the forces,
-then the ball will travel along the same line by the interaction of the
-two forces as well as by the impact of the one; and I may bring three,
-or four, or five, or a million forces, to bear upon that ball, and still
-it will move along that one definite line, if only the forces are
-calculated and balanced so that their resultant shall always be a force
-along that straight line. That balancing is one of the functions of the
-Gods. They take these warring wills, these different directions that are
-being impressed, as it were, on the rolling world that is going along
-the road of evolution; they balance, adapt, and correlate them, and thus
-always keep the world travelling along the straight line, always
-bringing about the same resultant, the accomplishment of the Will of the
-Supreme; without them, these wills of ours would work infinite
-confusion, and the world would never complete its evolution, would never
-roll upwards to its place at the Feet of God.
-
-We find the Gods discharging other functions which subserve the same
-purpose. They mould the forms in which the growing life is to express
-itself. Evolution depends upon the growing power of the unfolding life,
-but it needs forms whereby that growth shall be carried on. These forms
-are moulded by the Devas, so that the life, which breaks by expansion
-its containing form that is out-worn, may have another form into which
-to go fitted for the capacity that was evolved in the form it has
-out-grown. We shall find also that they break up forms as well as build
-them; being always fixed on the one object of serving the evolution of
-the life. Then again they act as teachers, as guides, as councillors, to
-those that have gone beyond the normal evolution, that are the first
-fruits of the human race. Not acting as teachers directly to the masses,
-they take the more advanced human beings in charge, directly instruct
-them, test them and try them, as presently we shall see. So that while
-the general purpose is the helping forward of evolution, this help is
-rendered in a million ways, according to the needs of the time.
-
-Now, in the past, this working of the Gods was recognised, and the
-sacred books are full of it. They showed themselves continually among
-men, they carried on their work, as it were, in the full blaze of day.
-But now no longer do they show themselves to men at large, and many have
-forgotten even their existence, and very many people, even in India,
-materialised by the thought in which they have been trained, are half
-ashamed to say that they believe in the existence and the working of the
-Devas. The unbelief makes no difference, save to those who disbelieve.
-The working of the Gods remains ever the same. They are ever busy in
-carrying out the Supreme Will. Only they do not show themselves, and to
-those alone who recognise their existence and their work will they
-manifest themselves. If in the old days they showed themselves as they
-do not now, it was because men then had reverence and love and were
-willing to bow down to those who were wiser and greater than themselves;
-because then democracy was not reigning; because then the ignorant did
-not think themselves equal to the learned, nor did man deem himself
-equal to the Gods. In those days, because they could help they came to
-the helping; but they will never come visibly again to earth until men
-have learnt to reverence once more what is above them, and to understand
-their place in the Kosmos, to worship as well as to command. The Gods
-work all the same. They are not deprived of their functions by our
-folly, by our conceit, by our ignorance. Only they work unseen, and we
-forfeit the sweet comfort of their visible presence, the strength and
-joy of the old heroic days, the dignity of conscious companionship with
-the Immortals, the ever-renewed assurance of super-physical life. Not
-one death that happens on our earth, but a God has struck away that body
-whose work is over; not one "natural catastrophe," but a God has guided
-it to the happening; not one help given to a man in need, but a God is
-the agent behind the visible helper; not one answer to the cry of man in
-his distress, that is not the response of a God to human sorrow.
-Everywhere they are working. Everywhere they are bringing about what we
-see as dead mechanical nature. Every phenomenon is the veil of a God,
-and there is nothing done in which an Intelligence does not take part.
-
-Seven are the great Gods below the Trinity, below the Trimûrti. Every
-religion, again, acknowledges these Seven. The Christian speaks of the
-"Seven Spirits that are before the throne of God." The Zoroastrian
-tells us of the seven Ameshaspendas who rule the world. The Chaldean
-spoke of the seven great Gods. Five only are working and two are
-concealed, for the universe is in process of evolution and only five
-stages of it have been reached. Therefore only with regard to five can
-we definitely speak as to working. The two concealed are beyond our
-knowing; they are related to future stages of the evolution of the
-Kosmos. But the five we will now consider. Their names in connection
-with their functions you know well enough. They are connected with the
-tattvas of which we were speaking yesterday--the Lord of A'kâsha, Indra;
-the Lord of Air, Vâyu; the Lord of Fire, Agni; the Lord of Water,
-Varuna; the Lord of Earth, sometimes called Kshiti (various names are
-used for him); each of these great Gods has what we may call one region
-marked out for his working. The matter of that region is the matter in
-which he works; but in addition to that, each one is represented in the
-realms of the others by a sub-division on which his impression is
-especially made. These are the great kosmic planes that I have spoken of
-marked off from each other by the tattvas. But if we come down to the
-physical plane, dealing only with Prithivî Tattva, we shall then find
-that that is also seven-fold in division and that we have physical
-solid, physical earth or Prithivî, physical water or Apas, physical fire
-or Agni, physical air or Vâyu, physical ether or A'kâsha. Each of these
-great Gods works on each plane through the medium that corresponds to
-the region which belongs to him in the Kosmos as a whole. How often we
-see those correspondences as it were printed in physical nature. We have
-light with its seven sub-divisions as seen in the solar spectrums
-showing the seven colours, and the scale with its seven notes. Colours
-and notes alike result from vibrations, and are determined by the number
-of vibrations occurring in a unit of time. As the universe is built by
-vibrations, colour and sound are factors of the universe at large, and
-every region is said to have its own colour; the God of that region has
-his colour--dependent on his vibratory force--which he imprints on the
-region over which he rules; so that if a Rishi looks at the solar system
-from a higher plane, he not only hears the seven fundamental notes of
-music, making "the harmony of the spheres," but he sees a gorgeous
-display of colours, as the sphere of every great Deva with his own
-colour interpenetrates the others, yielding an iridescent splendour of
-interfering radiances, the marvellous "rainbow that is round the throne
-of God." Such mystic expressions have lost their meaning for the
-majority, because the sight of those who wrote them is but little
-developed in these days, and few are they who can see as the seer saw of
-old.
-
-Each of these great Gods has under him a host of subordinate Gods who
-carry out his decrees. The constitution of an ordinary state will give
-you a very good picture of the government of the solar system. We have
-at the head an Emperor or an Empress; then the officers who represent
-that supreme authority in separate divisions of the realm; there is the
-one central authority over the whole, and the officers who wield it in
-different areas of the Empire. Then these officers are graded in rank,
-and we have higher and subordinate Ministers, Judges, Magistrates, in
-descending order, each with a smaller and smaller district to
-administer, the functions of each becoming more limited as you descend
-the official ladder; and each responsible to his official superior. That
-is really a very good picture of the government of the solar system; the
-head of all is Íshvara Himself; His Viceroys are the great Gods, each
-with his own vast area over which he rules, and each with his official
-hierarchy under him, until you come down to the lowest Devas, who carry
-on the work in the limited area of a village of the solar system.
-
-Such is the outline, then, of the functions. The next thing to grasp is,
-that, when we see on this plane in which our consciousness is
-working--the physical plane--any one of these fundamental forms of
-manifestation, we should try to realise the presence of the God behind
-the material phenomenon. Not a fire that burns upon the earth, whether
-the fire of the volcanic mountain, whether the fire ranging through the
-vast forest, whether the fire burning on the household hearth, or on the
-sacrificial altar, that is not Agni in manifestation, with the
-possibility of his powers coming into visibility. They were not
-dreamers, they who bade you of old keep safe the fire, the household
-fire which husband and wife at the bridal kindled, and which, when the
-life of the married was over in the home, they still carried out into
-the forest; they carried with them the fire, and it took with them the
-presence of the God, who through the household life had blessed, had
-guided, had given prosperity and made the final withdrawal from the
-household life possible and desirable. That is one of the many truths
-which modern India is losing.
-
-But when these things were believed in, and the ceremonies connected
-with them were carried on, then nature worked in a definite order, and
-there were not the same continual irregularities that we have in our
-modern days. By that harmonious working between man and the Gods, nature
-answered to man as man answered to nature; while man did his duty,
-nature in her turn did her duty also; the failure of rain, the failure
-of crops, the failure of sunshine, the presence of plague, or of any
-other form of human misery, was seen as having its root in the failure
-of humanity; and man turned dutifully to that which he had neglected,
-and thus readjusted the balance which his irregularity had displaced.
-Let us try and see, as an example, one concrete working in what we call
-natural evolution. We will turn to the great God Varuna. He works
-through water; every manifestation of water is his, whether on the
-physical or on any other plane, in any of the forms that it may
-take, for what we call "water" is naturally the lowest, coarsest
-manifestation, his physical body, as it were. He works with it in nature
-in endless ways--to dissolve, to combine, to dissociate. When we take
-the greater workings, how very grand is the conception we may gain of
-the might of the God. Come back with me, far back, into the past, ere
-humanity had taken form; there see the world as it then was; see how, as
-fire and water, Agni and Varuna are working on every material to fit the
-world to be the birthplace of the yet unborn humanity. See how Varuna
-is working in order to prepare what is wanted of mountain and of
-valley, of river and of plain; see the might of his work as well as that
-of his brother Agni, in apparent clash but really in harmony; fire and
-water meet, explode, and toss up a mountain-chain where before there was
-none; see how he gathers snow on the mountain peaks, and gradually fills
-with masses of this snow, frozen into ice, the mountain ravines made by
-the combined volcanic action; see how the slow ploughing begins;
-ploughing, ploughing and ploughing again, as the mighty God works onward
-in the form of glaciers, grinding his furrow through the earth, and
-preparing for the future; see, ages later, how the channel cut out by
-the glacier is filled by the tumbling cataracts from melted snow, and a
-turbulent torrent rolls downwards, and against its resistless waves
-nothing is able to stand; the valley dug out by the plough of the ice is
-filled with water, and from it the soil is gradually deposited, which in
-the future will make fertile land for crops in order that man may live.
-Then Varuna binds his waters into a narrower and narrower channel, until
-there is mountain range and valley and a river flowing through it: and
-he carries his river downwards and pours it into the sea and his brother
-Agni draws it up again to form the clouds. There has come by that
-mighty action, destructive as it seems in appearance, the building of
-the plain and the valley where men shall live and love, where children
-shall be playing, where horses shall graze, where corn shall grow and
-ripen in the sunshine, and where, on the peaceful banks of the river,
-men shall worship the God who made possible their happy life.
-
-We talk about the "cruelty of nature." Let us try and understand what
-this cruelty means. The world now is inhabited. Crowds of men are here,
-and lo! the river, that made the habitation of the valley possible and
-keeps it fruitful, now overflows its banks and the mighty flood sweeps
-away village and town, men, women, children, and cattle, and only
-desolation is left behind. What is this? Is this horror a divine
-working? What is this that Varuna has done? Varuna is working for
-evolution. His thought is not fixed on the forms in which the life is
-cabined, but on the life that is evolving within them, which can make
-for itself new forms. When those men are swept away, it is only the
-breaking of the forms that happens; the life up-springs uninjured and
-set free; for the body is the prison-house of the evolving life, and if
-the prison doors were never thrown open, we should be in jail all our
-lives and make no progress for the future. The God to whom form is
-nothing and life everything, to whom form is but a changing, convenient
-vehicle, and the life that moulds the form is the one thing that is
-worthy of thought, he strikes away the form when its purpose is
-completed; to him such destruction is the act of mightiest charity; it
-is the deed most helpful to evolution. We err, my brothers, when we look
-on death with eyes that are full of tears, with hearts that are
-breaking. Death is he who brings us to a higher birth, and who sets free
-the imprisoned soul; it is the liberation of the bird confined within
-the limits of a cage, enabling it to soar upwards into the heavens,
-singing, as it goes, with joy at the freedom it has recovered. Does that
-seem strange? Let us take an illustration from the _Mahâbhârata_:--
-
-There was a council among the Gods in Svarga, how some of them would
-take incarnation upon earth for the sake of helping men at a great
-crisis in the world's history. Great men were needed, and the question
-arose whether some of the Gods were willing to bind themselves within
-the limits of human form, in order to give special help to human
-progress; among those who were needed for the work that was coming was
-the son of Soma Deva, Varchas, as he was called, and the Gods desired
-that this Deva should be born on earth. Soma Deva hesitated. He was not
-willing that his son should leave him and the heavenly life, and
-although he finally consented that he should be born as Abhimanyu, the
-son of Arjuna, it was only on the condition that he should live but for
-sixteen years, and be killed in the great battle of Kurukshetra. You
-say, what a strange view of life! What an extraordinary condition for
-love to make, that this youth should die at the age of sixteen, in the
-very flower of his dawning manhood, should die a death of violence. Yet
-that was the will of the one who loved him best, for heaven sees with
-different eyes from earth. Soma saw the life, and cared not for the
-form; to a God the form is a prison, death is the gaoler that liberates;
-hence the condition was made that only for sixteen years might the
-divine youth live a human life, and then "my son of mighty arms shall
-come back to me," and that from a battle field, dying gloriously in the
-midst of the fight.
-
-Do you know that sometimes the swamping of a civilisation by a natural
-convulsion--such as the going down of Atlantis below the waves of the
-ocean that we now call the Atlantic, the wiping out of the whole nation
-or race--is the best proof of love that the Supreme Íshvara through His
-intermediate agents can show to the lives therein embodied. For there
-are stages in the world's story where man is so passionately set on a
-line of action that is against his real progress, when he so
-determinately sets his desires on objects that hold him back and delay
-his evolution, that the only mercy that the Gods can show him is to
-break his form in pieces, and give him as it were a new start for the
-evolving of himself--the life. Sometimes I have felt, as I have gone
-through some of the miseries of our great cities in the West, when, in
-the pursuance of my duty, I have gone with breaking heart through the
-slums of eastern and southern London, or through those of Glasgow, or
-Edinburgh, or Sheffield, as I have noted the types of men and women
-around me, as I have seen the human almost veiled by the brute, and
-humanity degraded well-nigh beyond possibility of recognition, that no
-appeal for help was fitting save one that would set free that imprisoned
-life. I have felt that nothing save the destruction of the forms could
-give any hope for those imprisoned within them; that for those men and
-women, as they were, degraded, brutal, drunken, profligate, their very
-forms with the impress of the animal, the best mercy that God could show
-them would be an earthquake that would swallow the whole great city and
-set free the lives pent hopeless within it. For not one life would be
-lost, not one life would pass away, but they would be set free to go
-into somewhat less unplastic forms and give scope for that divine
-working towards evolution, which is in extreme cases only possible when
-the forms, forms of evil, are gone. We speak sometimes of the training
-of children being easier than that of grown-up people, because they are
-more plastic. So also the Gods want oftentimes the child-ego in the
-plastic form instead of in the prison-house grown rigid by age; and they
-therefore break that environment in order that the young life may grow.
-
-Another great function of the Gods is the dealing with the karma of
-nations, "collective karma," as it is sometimes called. Suppose a nation
-is acting in its collective capacity--I am not now thinking of the
-individuals brought into it by their individual karma but of the nation
-acting as a unit--and suppose it commits a crime against another nation.
-There has been one working of karma so tremendous during the last year,
-that I will take it as an illustration--Spain. Some centuries ago Spain
-was at the summit of her power; mighty was she among the western
-nations. There was sent to her, in order to help her forward, the gift
-of new knowledge. It came truly in a somewhat unacceptable guise, for it
-came from Arabia, with the stamp of Muhammed upon it; it was brought by
-the children of Islâm; they brought the light of science with them,
-and, as they established themselves in southern Spain, they gave that
-light to Spain. Universities were established. Large classes were
-formed. From every part of Europe men come crowding to the Schools of
-Cordova, and there they learnt the beginnings of the Science that has
-since grown into so mighty a tree in western lands. What did Spain do?
-Spain called up against these Moors, and against the Hebrews--who also
-were learned in the learning of the East--the frightful weapons of the
-Inquisition, the stake, the rack, the dungeon, the torture of exile. Who
-can count the hundreds of thousands driven out from home, the broken
-families, the miseries, the poverty and starvation intolerable, which
-marked the expulsion of the Jews and of the Moors from Spain? Still her
-karma of success was not complete. Across the Atlantic ocean she sped,
-Italy lending one of her sons for the glory of the Spanish Empire. In
-the wake of the ships of Columbus there followed the ships of the
-conquerors of America, full of Spanish soldiers. I cannot dwell on the
-story of the conquest of Mexico, and the still more terrible conquest of
-Peru; I have no time to wring your hearts, as I might, with the tale of
-the destruction of a great civilisation, of the killing out of the last
-exquisite traces in Peru of one of the most perfect civilisations that
-our world has ever known, of the crushing of the gentle Indian race
-there by chains, by imprisonment, shut out from the glorious Sun whose
-children their Incas were. Too gentle to struggle, accustomed only to a
-life of flowers, of music, and of sunshine, they were crammed into caves
-that they were made to dig in ancient cliffs, dying by thousands upon
-thousands in the digging out of the gold and silver which their Spanish
-conquerors demanded, until the very name of the ancient nation perished,
-and only a few scattered Peruvian Indians remained to represent what was
-one of the fairest civilisations of the world. Such was the karma made
-by Spain in the days of her glory, and the horror of her conquests sank
-into the oblivion of the past. But do the Gods forget? Nay, their memory
-is perfect. They are the administrators of the divine law, and give the
-harvest to the sowers. From the very country which they outraged, from
-the very land that they conquered, a new nation springs up as the
-centuries go on to take up the old struggle between the two hemispheres,
-and to-day we have seen America and Spain closing again in the
-death-grip, but the scale of balance is now weighed down on the other
-side, and America becomes the karmic agent for working out the woes of
-the Aztecs and the Peruvians, and for driving from the western
-hemisphere the nation that there outraged humanity in the centuries
-gone by. Thus the Gods are needed to bring nations together to balance
-up these accounts between the races, and so to restore equilibrium once
-again. Thus they work, using men as their agents, and they bring about
-these national results. Partly they do it by bringing to birth, at a
-particular time, men whose individual karma fits them to be the agents
-of the collective karma of the nation. What was more striking in the
-Spanish war which has just closed, than the absolute incapacity shown by
-the men who were the rulers of Spain? Whence came they? They were men
-who in the past by their individual karma had fitted themselves for the
-sorry fate of incapable rulers, and they were guided by the Gods to take
-birth in the families which give rulers to Spain, in order that, by
-their weakness and ineptitude, by their cowardice and their want of
-foresight, they might serve as men to lead their nation to destruction,
-the fitting instruments for the working out of Spain's evil karma. See
-also how at the fit time great men arise to lead a nation to victory.
-These men are also chosen by the Gods beforehand because of their
-individual karma, and they are brought to birth in the place and at the
-time when they are wanted for the working out of the collective karma
-of a nation. Not by chance is a man brought into the world, not by the
-compulsion of a dead law, or of a blind necessity; the Gods are working
-here with an intelligence that foresees and guides, and they choose for
-the accomplishment of their ends the men whose own karma fits them to be
-their agents for the work in hand, and then guide them to take birth at
-the place where that karma can subserve the collective karma of their
-people.
-
-This also is true in a much more limited way with regard to the working
-of individual karma. Sometimes you must have wondered how, with all the
-interfering activities of men, the karmic law could work out with
-undeviating justice; it is because the Gods are guiding the working. You
-see somewhere a man who is starving and if you misunderstand karma--as
-too many of you do, to the shame of India, in a land where this teaching
-is of immemorial antiquity--you turn aside from that starving man and
-say that it is his karma to starve and perish; in those hardened hearts
-of yours you use the will of God as a cover for your own selfishness,
-for your indifference and your lack of love. That man's karma to starve?
-Aye, and therefore he is starving! But if a Deva guides you to the place
-where your brother is starving, it is because he would make you the
-agent of his beneficence to that man whose evil karma of the present
-moment has been exhausted by his suffering; the Deva thus says to you:
-"Man, your brother man is starving, give him the relief it is his karma
-to receive, and be my agent in carrying out the law." But if you refuse
-the God, if, blinded by ignorance or indifference, you turn aside and
-will not carry his message to your brother, he will not for that be
-thwarted, he will find some other agent, or, as a last resource, he will
-do it himself by some act that may seem miraculous in the eyes of the
-blind, for the purpose of the God may not be blocked; but for those who
-have refused to act as his agents, who have refused to act as his
-messengers, they have made for themselves the karma of being left
-unassisted when the hour of their own need shall strike in the future.
-For the administrators of the good law forget not; every debt is
-collected, every creditor is paid in full. But you may say that it does
-not follow that a man's karma is exhausted when you meet him; true, but
-that is not your business, it is the business of the guiding God, and he
-will frustrate the physical aid if the karma be still evil. If you have
-that opportunity given you of making good karma, you have all the merit
-of your willingness to act, you have all the virtue of your readiness to
-sacrifice; but if it is not yet his time to be relieved, you will not
-find the object of your charity; by circumstances, as you will say, he
-will have been taken outside your reach. Leave you the Gods to do the
-work of the Gods, the administration of the law; do you that charity,
-that love and compassion, which it is ever their will that man should
-show to man. We cannot break the law; we cannot change their purpose;
-but we have the choice of co-working or refusing, and on that our
-individual karma depends.
-
-Then we find further that Devas bring people together and carry them
-apart, always for the working out of their individual karmas; that men
-are guided to places and positions at definite times, according to those
-circumstances which, by their karma, they must meet.
-
-Now men are related especially to one or other of the great Gods, by the
-constitution of their bodies visible and invisible. That gives them a
-special affinity for one Deva rather than for another. For instance, the
-lower hosts of Devas who, we will say, belong to Agni, build into a
-man's invisible and visible bodies, the kind of matter in which that God
-normally works. That gives the man a relationship to that particular
-God. Every man is connected with a special manifestation of God, to whom
-by his constitution and evolution he should turn. Unhappily ignorance
-has so widely taken the place of knowledge, that it is difficult for a
-man to discover to which Deva he is thus related. I have not time to
-work that out but you will see how thoroughly it supports the ancient
-idea that men rightly worshipped different manifestations of the Divine,
-and profited by such worship.
-
-But we must hurry on with this outline, for we have yet to deal with the
-more highly evolved souls, and on your understanding this last part of
-our subject will depend your power to defend our sacred literature when
-it is attacked by those who do not understand it. Therefore I will ask
-you to follow it carefully, and you can apply the principles that I will
-illustrate by special stories in a hundred other cases.
-
-The Devas, in their relationship to the more advanced human lives, have
-that function of teaching that I have alluded to, and also the function
-of testing and trying them, to see how far they are worthy and reliable,
-testing all their weak points in order that those weak points may be
-gotten rid of, trying them, where there is a germ of vice still
-remaining, in order that that germ of vice may be eradicated. Let us try
-to realise the nature of that working. Suppose we see a man who has made
-great progress. He is approaching the end of his births. In that man
-there is some germ of evil still remaining that has not been brought out
-yet into manifestation by the working of karma. He is going to be
-liberated, but he cannot be liberated while that germ remains. What
-shall be done with him? That germ of evil must be hastened to its
-ripening. It must be made to grow more quickly than otherwise it would
-grow. It must be gotten rid of, at any cost of pain, of anguish, and of
-temporary degradation, and the God will take such action as will ripen
-that germ and bring it to fruitage; so that, the man acting as he would
-act when that germ had been ripened by evolution, may suffer the results
-which would follow from the error, and by such suffering may get rid of
-that evil in his nature, which would otherwise have prevented him from
-attaining liberation.
-
-Let me give you a story for each of these to make the action clear. You
-see that a man is strong; well and good; but that strength must be
-tested to see if there be a flaw anywhere; if there is a rope on which
-the life of a man is going to depend, he holding it and descending a
-precipice, that rope must be pulled and tested to see if there be any
-weak point in it which might break when the man's body is hanging upon
-it, so that he would fall. There may be a flaw in the rope, and not
-till it has been tested will the man risk his life upon it. How much
-less then will the Deva risk the progress of an advanced man on a virtue
-not strong enough to bear every strain? He will test it with every
-possibility of strain, until it has proved itself strong enough to bear
-the weight which it may be called upon to hold up. We will take our
-stories from the _Mahâbhârata_, which you all know, or ought to know.
-Arjuna was seeking to get divine weapons; he was to be a great leader in
-a battle still in the future. We are at the time of the thirteen years'
-exile, and you may remember that he spent many of these years in the
-search for these weapons. During his search, he sought Maheshvara, who
-had promised to give him His own weapon, and he performed many
-austerities in order that he might come pure into the presence of God.
-One day as he was performing worship, a wild boar came along; at the
-same time a hunter appeared, a hunter of a very low caste, a hunter of
-the hills. Now you remember that Arjuna was a Kshattriya, and he
-accordingly caught up his bow to shoot at the wild boar; the hunter also
-raised his bow to shoot at the wild boar. Two arrows went from the two
-sides and the boar was struck dead. Arjuna was very angry at the
-interference of this low-caste hunter, and cried: "How dare you shoot at
-the wild boar which was mine?" and he began to quarrel and to threaten
-to slay him. Said the hunter: "If you wish to fight, fight"; at that,
-Arjuna showered his arrows on the hunter but they all fell off from him.
-The hunter, laughing, said: "Excellent! Excellent! go on! go on!"; and
-Arjuna hurled at him weapon after weapon, but everything failed. Arrows
-fell off him, everything broke against him--trees, rocks, everything; he
-remained untouched and uninjured, until at last He showed Himself as
-Mahâdeva, and praised the man who had held his own against the God. Thus
-He tried Arjuna's strength; could he be sent to Kurukshetra with
-celestial weapons if his strength were too little for the fight? Try him
-against the Divine potency, limited in order to be faced and fought;
-when his courage is found to be dauntless and his strength sufficient,
-then send him to Kurukshetra tried and proved, able to lead his men to
-victory.
-
-Take another case, more difficult. Yudhishthira is sad at heart; he is
-struggling, has failed, and is in danger. Drona is there, leading the
-hosts of his enemies, and he has been driven by him from the
-battle-field. No one is able to stand against Drona; every one flies
-before the face of that mighty warrior; he turns back every attack. What
-can be done? Yudhishthira is in despair. Is he to be conquered? A
-stainless king was this son of Pându, one of the noblest and most
-blameless figures that ancient literature paints; but with a strain of
-weakness in him which in critical times would sometimes show a too great
-readiness to yield, too little of the Kshattriya's power of standing
-alone against any force that might be brought to bear against him; a
-little germ of weakness was there, that had in it the possibility of a
-fatal fall. Shrî Krishna is there, the great Avatâra, and Bhîma comes
-rushing up from the battle-field saying that he has slain an elephant,
-whose name is the same as the name of the son of Drona. If Drona hear
-that his son Ashvatthâmâ is dead, he will drop his weapons, he will let
-go his enemy; no further will he fight when his beloved is gone. "I told
-him that Ashvatthâmâ was dead, but he would not believe me; he sent me
-to you saying that Yudhishthira is a devotee of truth, he will not tell
-a lie for the sovereignty of the three worlds. If he says Ashvatthâmâ is
-dead, I will believe." Terrible is the strain; mighty the force brought
-to bear against the man who has a weakness in him; and Shrî Krishna,
-standing by him, watching him steadfastly, advises him to utter that
-which is not true. God advises this almost blameless man to tell a lie?
-How strange the scene! Yudhishthira, yielding to Shrî Krishna, tells
-the falsehood, and Drona lets fall his weapons and is killed. If the
-story stopped there, we might well be puzzled. If Yudhishthira's life
-was no further told, we might well ask: what is this that we have
-studied? But when we remember that one of the great functions of the
-Teacher, the Gurudeva, is to bring out any weakness inherent in His
-pupil, because otherwise that weakness will keep the man tied, and he
-will not be fit to be liberated, we pause and read on. When that lie was
-spoken, the chariot of Yudhishthira sank downwards to the ground, no
-longer able to support itself, truth having been violated. And as years
-went on, the bitterness of that memory of a falsehood remained; the
-sorrow of the slaying of the preceptor by a lie ate deep into the heart
-of the king; he never recovered from it, he never got rid of its effect;
-over and over again, he breaks from his repose in anguish; "I have slain
-my Guru." The sorrow worked and the shame, till the anguish purified
-that noble soul from the last stain of weakness; and when the Great
-Journey is over, when wife and brothers lie dead behind him and he
-utters not a word of protest against the death of his beloved, when he
-stands ready to ascend to heaven, when only one living creature remains
-with him, the dog who had followed after him faithfully through all his
-wanderings since he left his capital, when that dog remained his sole
-companion, trusting his master's love faithfully unto death, then comes
-down a mighty God and stands beside him. "Your time has come; mount on
-my celestial chariot, and ascend in your body unto the heaven where you
-have won the right to sit and reign." Will he now yield to the
-invitation of the God? He said: "This dog is here; he has trusted to my
-protection and I cannot leave him alone; I must take him with me." The
-God answered: "Dogs have no place in heaven; dogs are unclean, no place
-for them is there; you have left your dead brothers behind, and your
-wife when she perished; why should you remain still with this dog?"
-"They are all dead," he answered "for the dead, the living can do
-nothing. This creature is still living and has sought my protection; I
-will not abandon him." "Nay," the God said, "be not so foolish; leave
-the dog there." But Yudhishthira stood firm; he was strong enough to
-stand against the God, and to show righteousness and fidelity to the
-poor brute that had placed his love in him; unless he might take the dog
-with him, he would stay on the earth and do his duty. Such lesson had he
-learnt from his fall; such is the result of the working of Shrî Krishna
-on his evolution. We can see this same working throughout the whole
-of that struggle. Trace Shrî Krishna through the pages of the
-_Mahâbhârata_, and you will find that He never deviates from one steady
-purpose--to bring the great struggle to a foreseen ending, where justice
-shall triumph and the Kshattriyas of India shall disappear; He was at
-once destroying injustice and preparing for the future of India,
-breaking down the iron wall of her warring caste that ringed her around
-with safety. There is a particular aim in everything that He does, and
-you will see that His purpose is immovable, if you study carefully. He
-is working towards its accomplishment the whole way through. Look at the
-way in which He steps in when His strength or protection is needed; see
-how He tries to stimulate the Pândavas to do their duty, and only takes
-their place when they fail. See the case where Shrî Krishna having
-promised that he would do no battle, Arjuna falters before the face of
-Bhîshma and has no heart to strike; you remember how sad was the
-struggle. Arjuna was not able to strike harshly at Bhîshma, the greatest
-of all men and all warriors, perfect in Dharma, the grandsire and the
-teacher of all. "How can I slay him?" insisted Arjuna; "I remember when
-as a child soiled with dust, I climbed on to his knees and throwing my
-arms around him called him 'Father,' and he said to me, 'I am thy
-father's father.' How can I bring myself to slay him?" And you will
-remember how Shrî Krishna Himself told him not to shrink, 'bade him slay
-him.' Hard was the task; Arjuna's memory was too strong for him; he only
-fought in appearance with restrained might, not with vigour, until at
-last Shrî Krishna saw that He must stimulate this man to do his duty,
-and to fight, though it were against his old teacher himself; He throws
-down the reins of His horses, takes the whip, and leaps down from the
-chariot, and with the whip He rushes through the brunt of the battle to
-attack Bhîshma Himself. Ah! that sight is hard for Arjuna; it appeals to
-him as Kshattriya, and duty is remembered instead of emotion; throwing
-his arms round Shrî Krishna to stop him he says, "Go back! Go back! and
-drive me yet again, and I will do my duty even to the slaying of
-Bhîshma." Now what does that mean? It means that the purpose of the God
-will be accomplished, whether or not a man is found to do it; that
-evolution will proceed, no matter who may falter or who may hinder; that
-while evolution will go on under the Will of God, individual progress
-depends on individual co-operation with that Will; that God evolves His
-agents by setting them to His work, and that their progress depends on
-the extent to which they are able to receive the impulse that He
-imparts. Only one other case I will take to show you how Shrî Krishna
-worked when the force was too great for Arjuna to meet, when He saw
-Arjuna could do nothing with all the valour at his command, that no
-force of appeal, no stimulus, could enable him to defend himself. One
-weapon was thrown that might not err in its aim, one weapon a celestial
-weapon that He had given as a boon, when He waked from His thousand
-years of sleep. That weapon was cast against Arjuna. Arjuna could not
-avert it. Alone of all the weapons in earth and heaven, that weapon must
-go to its ending, and Arjuna would have been slain in the midst of the
-battle. What can be done? He could not cut it with the arrows from
-Gândîva, he could not use against it any of the mighty weapons that the
-Gods had given him. This was the weapon of the Supreme, which nothing
-was able to oppose. Shrî Krishna then, at that last moment, as the
-weapon flies straight at the breast of the warrior throws Himself in
-front, and, as it strikes His bosom, it knows its Master and is changed
-into a garland of flowers. So also with the chariot on which He drove.
-He bade Arjuna first get down. He bade him take his weapons, and until
-Arjuna had left it, Shrî Krishna stood there immovable, He would not
-stir; and the moment He left it the whole chariot burst into flames, for
-only His presence had kept it together, He who was the Lord of fire, as
-well as the Lord of all else. You see, my brothers, how fruitful is the
-study of this subject, when you are dealing with the sacred literature;
-how you may be able to explain it to men of your own faith, and defend
-it against the attacks of men of other creeds. Do not defend it with
-bitter words, do not defend it with harsh language, do not defend it
-with wrath in your mind, and indignation making your tongue poisonous;
-but remember that where ignorance attacks, it is the duty of knowledge
-to defend; and that when that which ignorance attacks is the spiritual
-food of millions, every man of knowledge should spring forward to defend
-it, lest the ignorant of that faith should swerve, when they see the
-truths in their books assailed by those who do not understand.
-
-That then is the outcome of this lecture. I ask you to remember that in
-every stage of your life, Gods are around you. No karma that you make,
-that they will not remember; no appeal that you utter, that they will
-not answer. If for a moment no answer seems to come, or if sorrow that
-you shrink from falls upon you, remember that the hand of love allows it
-thus to fall, and that in bearing that sorrow bravely, you are swiftly
-working out your own deliverance. You are to be men, not children, in
-the future; men-sons of the living Íshvara whose image you are, and not
-babies that He must for ever carry in His arms. He asks from you the
-strength of men to help the Gods. He is evolving you as the agents for
-His future universe. You may delay, if you will. You may lose time, if
-you will. Kalpa after Kalpa, you may remain at a low stage. If so you
-choose, He will not force your will; but your wisdom lies in letting His
-Will work in you to your swift and perfect evolution, that you may have
-the joy of carrying out that Will in other worlds, of consciously being
-His agents under other conditions; for men are Gods in the making, and
-we are preparing to discharge the functions of the Gods.
-
-
-
-
-[THIRD LECTURE.]
-
-EVOLUTION OF LIFE.
-
-
-My Brothers,--We have reached a point in our study from which we may
-begin to trace the Evolution of Life in our own system that evolution
-takes place on the various planets, but it is similar in its general
-outline, though modified in its details on the different globes. We
-shall chiefly confine ourselves to our own world and our own humanity at
-the outset we shall be obliged to go somewhat further afield, but for
-the greater part of our study we may confine ourselves to the evolution
-of life on our earth. Now we are seeking in our study to find a common
-ground of agreement on which co-operation may arise between peoples of
-different faiths and of different schools of thought. If we are trying
-to find a meeting-place for western and for eastern Science, if we are
-seeking in the light of Religion to understand some of the mysteries of
-life, it is right and fitting that we should remember that no one
-religion has a monopoly of truth, and that any one who is seeking to
-expound the truth should be able to fortify his position from the
-different religions of the world, and to show that on all great,
-essential, and fundamental truths they speak with a single voice, they
-teach an identical lesson. Therefore in dealing with my subject this
-morning, I shall, as before, draw your attention on the main points
-where challenge might arise to the consensus of religious opinion, to
-the definite statements of the world's Teachers; so that the tendency
-towards unity, on which the future evolution of life depends, may be
-helped to develop amongst us. And there is a special reason for that
-just now. We shall see, as we trace out the evolution of life, that we
-are in the very crisis of the intellectual evolution, and we shall find
-that the characteristic of that stage of evolution is division and
-separation, and the placing of the individual apart from, and somewhat
-in conflict with, other individuals. And we shall find that the next
-stage in the evolution of life is the seeking for union amid the
-individualised units; that the next divine aspect that man has to
-develop in the Self within him is the aspect of union and not the aspect
-of diversity; and it is of importance that those who are seeking the
-light, those who are striving to co-operate with nature by understanding
-her hidden ways, should realise the next step of evolution as well as
-the present, in order that they may co-operate with nature by themselves
-taking that step, thus quickening the possibility of similar taking for
-all mankind.
-
-Now with regard to life in its relation to forms, change at the present
-time is coming over the thought of western Science. I pause on this for
-a moment in order to substantiate that assertion, for it is important in
-the search for the means of drawing together the two kinds of science,
-ancient and modern, to notice how much the position of the leading
-scientists of the West has been modified with regard to life and form
-during the last ten years. I take as a declaration on this subject of
-life, issued some years ago, the article on Biology in the last edition
-of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, written, as all the articles in that
-_Cyclopædia_ are written, by a prominent man in the scientific world. In
-dealing then with life, the writer of the article in question distinctly
-states that "a mass of living protoplasm is simply a molecular machine
-of great complexity, the total results of the working of which, or its
-vital phenomena, depend, on the one hand, upon its construction, and on
-the other, upon the energy supplied to it and to speak of 'vitality' as
-anything but the name of a series of operations is as if any one should
-talk of the 'horologity' of a clock." That is to say, that to regard
-life as being in any sense a common existing principle, as anything more
-than a mere succession of phenomena in connection with a particular
-apparatus of matter, is as foolish and unreasonable as if, looking at a
-clock, you should separate its going property from the mechanism of the
-clock itself. A purely mechanical view of nature is thus taken, and
-life-processes are regarded as being due to the unstable equilibrium of
-protoplasm; the series of these life-processes is brought about merely
-by mechanical and chemical changes, the actions called vital being thus
-mechanical in their character. But at the last meeting of the British
-Association, the President of the Chemical Section--chemistry having
-been the very science to lead the scientific world towards materialism
-in this respect--has taken up an entirely different standpoint, a point
-that brings the question into a line with ancient thinking, and that
-starts the investigations of western Science along a road whereon the
-most fruitful results are likely to be encountered. Dr. Japp, the
-President of that Section, compares the action of life to the action of
-an operator who is deliberately working with a purpose, using knowledge
-and will in order to bring about a definite result. "The operator," he
-says, "exercises a guiding power which is akin, in its results, to that
-of the living organism," and, going on to explain in very technical
-language the ground on which this view is based, he concludes by saying:
-"Every purely mechanical explanation of the phenomenon must necessarily
-fail. I see no escape from the conclusion that at the moment when life
-first arose a directive force came into play--a force precisely of the
-same character as that which enables the intelligent operator, by the
-exercise of his will, to select one crystallised enantiomorph and reject
-its asymmetric opposite." That is the declaration: that with the arising
-of life there is an arising of consciousness which exercises a directive
-force in nature, as we see it exercising a directive force in the choice
-exercised by men. Put those two statements side by side, see the entire
-reversal of the attitude, and then you will be able to measure to some
-extent the change that has come over western thinking--the recognition
-of life as identical with consciousness, a position which has ever been
-taken in the hoary Science of the East.
-
-Now let me, before going into details, suggest to you the path that we
-are to follow. From the One Existence, that One without a second,
-arises, as we saw in our first study--Íshvara, God in His creative and
-manifested aspect, Íshvara clothed in Mâyâ, out of which a new universe
-is to be builded. Threefold we found Him to be in His manifestation,
-threefold in the aspect that He showed forth; so that a Trimûrti, or
-Trinity, is the aspect towards this universe of the manifested God; His
-working will show this triple character, and the evolution of life is
-threefold, whether we study it in nature or in man. I know the thought
-that arises in many of you, accustomed to the broad statements in
-eastern literature. You think of the building, the sustaining, and the
-disappearing of a universe. Perfect, you say, is the One Existence,
-infinite, unchangeable; perfect in the ending is the universe, as
-perfect in the beginning; why then this long evolution of life with all
-its struggles, with all its imperfections gradually and slowly
-transcended. Why from the perfect should the imperfect come forth? Why
-should it be trained into perfection, and then return into that
-perfection whence it came? That question is based on a fundamental
-misunderstanding which it is necessary to correct; a misunderstanding
-which never could have risen amongst you if the Scriptures had been read
-in the light of the Yoga-developed consciousness, and if the broad
-outline which is presented had been followed out carefully in thought so
-that its stages might be marked. You will remember how it is written in
-the _Chhândhogyopanishad_ that the One willed to multiply; and the
-moment you grasp the idea of multiplication, if you think of what it
-means instead of merely repeating the word, you will realise that
-multiplication must necessarily mean division and therefore limitation,
-and that limitation necessarily implies imperfection. But having gone so
-far, you would then have proceeded to ask: By what words is the universe
-described, and what idea is hidden beneath the words? And you would find
-that when God is spoken of as a Fire, the universe is not spoken of as a
-Fire, but as a spark, and the lives of men are described as millions of
-sparks that come from the illimitable Fire. Not only is that word
-"spark" used, showing you the limitation that comes with manifestation,
-giving you the idea that the spark, fed by suitable fuel is to be
-developed into the likeness of the Flame whence it came; but as the
-spark is of the same nature as the flame, so we are told "Thou art
-That," the Self in man is identical in nature with the Self that gave it
-birth. You will remember another word which is constantly used to
-describe alike the universe as a whole, and also the parts of which it
-is composed--the word germ or seed. Let me ask you to turn to the
-_Bhagavad Gîtâ_ so familiar to every student amongst you, and to listen
-for a moment to the words chosen by Shrî Krishna when He desires to
-convey the idea of the nature of the universe, and its relation to the
-Supreme What does He say?
-
-    Mama yonir Mahad Brahma tasmin garbham dadâmyaham.
-    Sambhava sarva bhûtânâm tato bhavati Bhârata.
-
-"I place the germ in the womb of Mahad Brahma." What do these words
-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.
-
-As this intelligence develops, we find the recognition of the Self and
-the Not-Self giving rise to struggle all over the world, social struggle
-as well as mental struggle. In every civilisation in which the intellect
-is developing from its earlier stages, you must have struggle without in
-order to stimulate the evolution within; it is a necessary stage,
-although it be a passing one, and it need not distress us, who see its
-end, in a world guided by the Gods. All the stages through which a
-nation passes are necessary for its growth, and need not be condemned
-merely because of their being limited and imperfect. In practical
-politics condemnation is useful as a stimulus, as one of the agents for
-bringing about the evolutionary changes, but the philosopher should
-understand, and, understanding, he cannot condemn. The worst struggle
-that we may see, the most terrible poverty, the most shocking misery,
-the strife of man against man and nation against nation--all these are
-working out the Divine purpose, and are bringing us towards a richer
-unity than without them we could possibly attain.
-
-Let me take one instance which seems to be the most hopeless of all--the
-instance of war. What can be more inhuman than war, what more brutal and
-more terrible, stirring the angriest passions of man and making him like
-a wild beast in his rage? Aye, but that is not all. Let us look at the
-life within a soldier which has been evolved by this terrible discipline
-without. What is that life learning as its vehicles are plunged into
-strife, into blood-shed, into mutilation, into death? It is learning
-lessons that without that stern experience it could not learn, without
-which its evolution would be checked and be unable to proceed it is
-learning that there is something greater than the body, something
-greater than the physical existence, something higher, more noble, more
-compelling, than the guarding of the physical vehicle from injury and
-even from death; and the poorest soldier who goes out on a campaign, who
-goes through hardship after hardship, who finds himself frozen with cold
-or burnt up with heat, who plunges through frozen river or toils across
-sandy desert, who learns to preserve discipline and submission under
-hardship, who learns to keep cheerful under difficulty, so that his
-comrades may not be depressed, who is moved, not by the thought of the
-body which is suffering, but by the great ideal of the military renown
-of his regiment, and the safety of the country which he is serving, who
-is learning thus to sacrifice himself for an ideal, is developing
-thereby qualities invaluable in lives to come. Need I say this to you,
-who know the place of the Kshattriya in human evolution? Did Manu when
-he described these different castes demarcate a caste that had not its
-place in the evolution of life, that had not something to teach? Was not
-a man kept in the Kshattriya vehicle until he had learned that life was
-not dependent on the body, that life was to be held at the service of
-the ideal, at the service of the mother-land that gave him birth, of the
-king who ruled him, and who to him stood, as to every Hindu the king
-should stand, as an Avatâra of God? He learned that when that king
-called him to the battle-field, he had to give his body to mutilation
-and to death, because the life that was in him recognised the service of
-the ideal as evolving the real life, and the body as a mere garment to
-be thrown aside when duty called? Without that training, no Brâhmana
-could be; no man could come into the caste of the Brâhmana, save as he
-had gone through that discipline in the ranks of the Kshattriya; because
-until he had learned that life was everything and form nothing--and that
-is the lesson which war teaches when it is rightly understood--until
-that lesson was learned, he was not prepared for the far harder
-evolution of the life, which is to master the lesson of unity beneath
-diversity, of love beneath antagonism, of being the friend of every
-creature and the foe of none.
-
-When the intelligence has developed, when it has reached a fairly high
-standpoint, the germs of the next aspect of Deity begin to show
-themselves in man and that aspect is A'nanda, Joy or Bliss. But in what
-does A'nanda really consist? It is in the drawing together of separated
-objects and uniting them into one. That is the essence of Bliss, that
-the very core and heart of the next stage of evolution. In the old days
-of Hinduism, this was called the life of the Brâhmana, when the Brâhmana
-was really a Brâhmana and had no further birth before him on the wheel
-of births and deaths. In the Christian symbology it is called the
-Christ stage, that of Divine Sonship, and you will find in a great
-prayer of Jesus, called the Christ, that in praying for His disciples He
-asked that "they may be one in me," in union with each other and
-Himself. There is a grander unity yet, the unity between the Son and
-Father, a unity of nature not a union of the erst-separated; but before
-that unity can be reached, man must have realised the union with his
-brother men, must see humanity as united, and not as separate; that is,
-he must have changed his centre of consciousness--that responds to the
-impacts from without--from the vehicles in which the intellect and the
-feelings were developed to the life itself, which is one and the same in
-all. No longer is he to think himself as separate, inasmuch as the "I,"
-the separated self, is now to be transcended, is to be merged in the
-uniting aspect of the Deity, the Vishnu or the Christ. That is to be
-developed as the life of man, with all its wonderful beauty and power,
-with its unifying force. Therefore did Shrî Krishna come as an Avatâra
-to this Eastern world to show forth the life of Love; for the life of
-A'nanda, or Bliss, is ever the life of Love, and by Love alone may we
-evolve it within ourselves. The aspect of God that is Bliss shows itself
-as Love; and in word and in action, in simile and in parable, did the
-Beloved and the Lover of man reveal that Divine aspect to the longing
-hearts of his Bhaktas. That was His special work, to show out the Love
-power of God; and only as that is developed within us can the life take
-on this lofty unfoldment that knits all selves in the One Self, that
-sees all lives in Him. Now, in evolution, the Self knows itself as the
-Life, and is no longer deluded by the ignorance that made it identify
-itself with the Form; it is life which realises itself as Life. When
-this stage is reached by the evolving life, the man who was separated
-becomes Humanity, and is one of the Saviours of the world. There is
-nothing apart from him, nothing separate to him. He stands in the very
-Life itself, and sheds his light in every direction into whatever
-Upâdhi, or vessel, may be in need of it; wherever there is want or cry
-for his aid, thereto flow his powers. As the sun shines forth in heaven,
-and may shine unto a million houses, the only condition of his rays
-entering being that the houses shall lay themselves open to the
-sunshine, so is the man who has become the second aspect of Deity, in
-whom that perfection of Divine Sonship is revealed. Man, as the Son of
-God in Heaven, is above all the distinctions that you find on Earth. He
-sends down his rays into the waiting hearts of men, and the only
-condition necessary for his entrance, the one thing that ensures his
-coming, is that his brother will open his heart to receive him. For he
-will not break his way in, he will only come where he is welcome. Thus
-this great life of God shows itself forth now in the man who has become
-the Saviour, the Son, the Initiate, as a deep compassionate love for
-all. Every man who reaches that stage is a new force for the uplifting
-of humanity. Every man who develops that aspect of life is one more wing
-with which to lift everything upwards. If a man be weak, his life can go
-to him to strengthen him; if a man be sorrowful, his life can go to him
-to make him glad; if a man be sinful, his life can go to him to make
-him pure from sin. To all men he says: "Wherever a man is there will
-I meet him, and there will I accept him." That is Shrî Krishna in
-manifestation, that the love that shines forth from the bliss aspect of
-the Human Self.
-
-One step remains, the last, of evolution for this rapidly perfecting life.
-Again I take up my Christian symbol and venture the quotation:--"As Thou,
-Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." The Son
-becomes in fact what he has ever been potentially, one with the Father. He
-enters into the mighty realm of Self-Being, where God, in the Christian
-phrase, is "all-in-all." Do not let the narrower presentations of
-Christianity that here meet you blind you to these fundamental identities
-of the deeper and more spiritual Christianity with our own ancient faith.
-Shall these pettinesses, or even outer divergencies, separate those whom
-the living Spirit would unite? We learn, as we study the Hindu Scriptures,
-that man after having reached the second stage rises by Yoga, until he
-attains the last, and becomes one with the Deity Himself in full power of
-eternal Self-Being. It was because your own Svâmi T. Subba Rao knew this
-occult truth, which too many know not, that he spoke, as I before
-mentioned, of the innumerable Centres, or Logoi, in the One, every one of
-which could be the beginning of a new universe, of a new out-pouring of
-life. The building of those Centres is a purpose of Life-evolution. The
-building them up stage by stage is done as the life passes from form to
-form; and end or ending there is none in the infinite series of the
-future. What that life holds for us we cannot tell; how should we imagine
-that far off land, those distant reaches? But this we know: that no will
-of the Eternal is ever frustrate, no purpose of the Eternal lacks its
-fruit or misses its goal; and if our eyes fail us in the dazzle of the
-light wherein we see our unity with the Eternal Father--that unity that
-transcends our dreaming, when we shall know ourselves to be one with
-Him--it is enough that at last the evolution of all lives leads into that
-unimaginable splendour, known only to Íshvara Himself, who pours out His
-life that we may know it also. And Mahâdeva shall return to It with all
-the centres that His life has brought into existence, with all the new
-lives and joys that His imprisonment in His universe has made. That is
-enough for us to give us the hope--hope, do I say? it is too feeble a
-word--the joy inexpressible and the certainty which are founded on the
-very Life of God; for is He not the Truth, the Foundation of the Universe?
-And when we enter into SAT we shall know the future as we see the past,
-for we shall be not only immortal but Eternal.
-
-
-
-
-[FOURTH LECTURE.]
-
-EVOLUTION OF FORM.
-
-
-My Brothers,--We are now to concentrate our attention on the phenomenal
-side of the universe, that is, on the varied appearances that surround
-us, whether those appearances be visible to the physical eyes or not;
-for we must remember that the principle of form is to be found in every
-stage of the manifested universe, and that when the phrase "the formless
-world" is used, the word "formless" is only true in relation to the
-worlds below the one so spoken of. All higher worlds are "formless"
-regarded from below, that is, regarded by the organs of perception which
-are fitted for exercise in the lower world; but if a person has
-developed the capacity to respond to the vibrations in any given world
-of manifestation, then that world to him is a world of form and not of
-formlessness. Everywhere manifestation implies form, however subtle may
-be the matter which composes it; and you may remember that it is said in
-the _Vishnu Purâna_ that the one characteristic of matter which is
-always present is extension, that is, the capacity of taking form, of
-being shaped in a definite way.
-
-Now before we take up the details of evolution, there are one or two
-great principles that I want to ask you to keep in mind; for we shall
-never be able to understand the complexity of detail, if we take it as a
-series of isolated details; we need to classify these under certain
-fundamental principles and then, those principles being clear in the
-mind, we can easily, as it were, pack every detail into its appropriate
-pigeon-hole in our thought. I shall not trouble you this morning at all
-with that threefold division of the evolving life with which we dealt
-yesterday. We can, for our work now, treat life as a unit, speaking of
-the Divine Life as Íshvara, and of the reflection of that life in man as
-the Self. We will keep these two terms to avoid confusion: Íshvara as
-the Divine Life which is the source of evolution; the Self as the human
-life which is gradually evolving. And we need these two distinguishing
-names, without going into any of the sub-divisions that we dealt with
-yesterday in connection with life, in order that we may be able to see
-how forms are shaped, and to which principle, if I may say so, we are to
-refer the special modifications.
-
-The next thing that we must realise is the respective functions of these
-sources of life; one working through the whole kosmos, and therefore
-coming to man as a part of that kosmos, the other working in man as an
-individual through the early stages and transcending individuality at
-the close. The great life of Íshvara as it rolls outwards, building the
-universe of forms, expresses itself, as we have seen, by a certain
-series of vibrations, and every modification in the form is the result
-of an impulse coming by way of vibrations from the ensouling life. Now
-the point that strikes us most in this manifestation of Íshvara, as we
-study it, is the unutterable patience of it. We are impatient for
-results, He never. We are impatient for results, because, limited by
-time, we crave to see the outcome of our action; He being the eternal is
-unspeakably patient, set upon perfection and careless of the time which
-that perfection may take in evolving. For the evolution of forms this
-patience is absolutely necessary; when we come to think, we see that any
-impatience in the evolution of forms would mean the over-rapid breaking
-up of the forms. The form is comparatively rigid as compared with the
-life. If the life vibrates too rapidly for the form which it is
-evolving, the form will shatter under the stress of those vibrations.
-Let me give you a very common illustration to show you what I mean; a
-tube of glass, or an ordinary lamp-glass if you like, has a certain
-note to which it vibrates; and if that note be sung near the
-lamp-glass, you will hear the note sound out independently from the
-lamp-glass, as though the lamp-glass were singing; the glass has
-vibrated in answer to the vibrations of the sound sung to it, it having
-the capacity of that vibration in it, and thus it reproduces the note.
-If you increase the force of that note, if you continue vibration after
-vibration, beyond the point at which the glass is able to respond, your
-glass will shiver into pieces, shivered by the force of the effort to
-respond to vibrations beyond its limit of rigidity. I only take that as
-an illustration, as a picture; it is true in every world of form; and if
-Íshvara were to send forth vibrations too swift, too subtle for the form
-which He is ensouling to respond to, that form would be shivered into
-pieces, and its evolution would be stopped; nature would have again to
-begin to build a similar form in order to again reach the point which it
-had already reached. This patience of Íshvara is the thing that strikes
-us first as we study the evolution of forms. How slow are the changes,
-how gradual the modifications, what thousands of successive forms are
-worked in, how wellnigh imperceptible are the changes in their
-minuteness, although so great when we look at them in the mass; that is
-one great principle to bear in mind.
-
-Another great principle is the double and parallel action of Íshvara and
-of the evolving Self. Íshvara is present in the Self of man that is
-formed within Him. Every evolutionary impulse in the earliest stages
-comes directly from the life of Íshvara, and as He moulds the form
-without, He gradually strengthens the centre that He is building up
-within. His object is to make that centre the image of Himself,
-self-sustaining; but enormous reaches of time are needed for the
-building; as He shapes the forms, He builds the centre; and as He builds
-that centre, and it becomes more and more active, answering to the
-vibrations that He transmits to it from the outer world, it begins to
-take on a little action of its own and to send out vibrations, as we may
-say, on its own account. As this double action goes on within the form,
-more and more does that evolving centre begin to control the form within
-which it is developed. As this power of control develops and increases,
-He withdraws more and more of His directive energy as Íshvara; the
-energy drawn from Him is now beginning to work _quasi_-independently in
-the separated centre that He has been building, until at last that
-centre reflects Himself, and is able to be self-existent by the very
-life that it has drawn from Him. If this conception be a little
-abstract, let me give it again in a concrete form. There is one symbol
-that the sages have used over and over again, in order to express this
-wonder of the brooding life of Íshvara making an image of Himself and
-giving to that image the possibility of independent life. It is the
-symbol of the mother and the child within the womb. As the life of the
-mother passes into the child that is building within her, transmitting
-to that new form all the nourishment which is necessary for its growing
-life, the whole life of the child is dependent on the mother and the
-life-streams that nourish it are drawn from her own life. The building
-goes on, and on, and on, till the new centre of life has grown strong,
-but not until that centre can hold itself together amid the vibrations
-of the outer universe, is the new form with its ensouling life sent
-forth on its own independent course. So does the brooding mother-life of
-Íshvara envelope the children of His love, and so does He nourish them,
-building them within Himself as the ages pass, until they are able to
-hold their own centres in the illimitable life of the One, the Supreme.
-That is another principle which you have to remember throughout the
-details of the evolution of form.
-
-One other that has two divisions and then the statement of our main
-principles will be sufficiently complete. There are three aspects, we
-recollect, which the evolving Self has to unfold. We must add to this a
-comprehension of the nature of these aspects, when externalised; for we
-did not yesterday, for lack of time, glance quite precisely at the in
-characteristic outer mark of each aspect of life. As these aspects
-modify the evolution of form, the form cannot be understood unless its
-relations to the aspects of life be realised. We have, as we know, to
-show forth Knowledge, Bliss, and Being. These will come out as powers
-into the world of form as evolution reaches its later stages, and the
-form will be able to express those powers of the evolving life.
-Knowledge, showing forth through form, has as its power Intelligence;
-Bliss, shown forth through form, has as its power Love; Being, shown
-forth through form, has as its power Existence; so that the fundamental
-aspects may be said severally to manifest as the powers of intelligence,
-of love, of existence. Otherwise put, the nature of intelligence is
-knowledge, the nature of love is bliss, the nature of existence is
-being. The intelligence, love and existence of our worlds are the
-manifested Knowledge, the manifested Bliss, and the manifested Being of
-the Self. That is the outward aspect of the Self as the other is the
-inner aspect, and these characteristic natures seek their expression in
-form. This expression is sought cosmically and individually, alike by
-the life of Íshvara and the life of the Self. Cosmically they make the
-planes of the manifested universe, the five planes on which we are
-evolving. That which manifests as existence, the power of Being, has as
-its form the Akâsha of the higher realm; that which manifests as love,
-the power of Bliss, has as its form of matter Vâyu; that which manifests
-as intelligence, the power of Knowledge, has as its material Agni. These
-are the three fundamental manifestations in form. The other two are
-reflections: That which is love, reflecting itself in the lower form of
-matter--the denser matter of Varuna--takes on the aspect of desire and
-passion, and becomes kâma. That which is existence, reflecting itself on
-the yet grosser form of Prithivî, shows forth what we call objective
-reality. See how the planes correspond, the one with the other. Try and
-make a picture of a mountain reflected in a lake; and if you have that
-in your mind, you will follow exactly the way the reflection takes
-place. There is no reflection of intelligence because it is the central
-quality; the intelligence is the centre of the five, two are above it
-and two are below it. It is the central region, the pivot on which the
-whole has to turn. If you look above to the higher regions, we find love
-and existence showing themselves forth as the powers of Bliss and
-Being. That is as it were, the mountain. Now look at your reflection in
-the lake; the middle part of the mountain is reflected half-way down in
-the water. The shore is the dividing line between object and image, and
-represents the intelligence; below that, half-way down, will come the
-reflection of love showing itself as emotion and desire; then we see the
-highest peak reflected in the deepest depth of the lake, the existence
-above, the power of the real Being, reflected below in the plane of
-physical matter as that illusory existence which man calls real. Try and
-keep that picture, for the principle of reflection from above to below
-is one of the keys to understanding both above and below. It helps you
-to see why emotional love passes into devotion, and how, in the passing
-from emotion into the higher love which is devotion, it passes from the
-kâmic plane to the buddhic, where bliss is the distinguishing
-characteristic; and you will understand why action, the most illusory of
-things, has to us the sense of reality. It gives that peculiarly
-definite sense of reality to us because it is the reflection of the
-real, of the existence of which it is the lower form.
-
-Now these are the principles. Let us try to carry them out in our
-evolutionary study; for if you hold firm to the principles, the study
-of detail, of forms, will seem less confusing, less complex and less
-difficult; you will not lose your way among the trees, when once you
-have looked down on the forest as a whole; that is a simile I once heard
-from Professor Huxley, as illustrating principles and details, and it is
-a suggestive one.
-
-We begin then the detailed evolution of form; it is like a great circle
-traced downwards and upwards. There is a great difference between the
-downward arc, the one-half of the circle, and the upward arc, the other
-half of the circle. In the one case, coming downwards, Íshvara imparts
-qualities and attributes; in the other half, going upwards, He builds
-the qualities and attributes into vehicles. These are the two great
-differences between the downward and upward arcs. In the downward,
-matter takes up qualities; in the upward, matter is formed into
-vehicles, or sheaths, or bodies, whatever may be the term we prefer. A
-process of specialisation goes on, up to a certain point. After a time
-the specialised materials are drawn together and combined into a
-vehicle, an organised unity, serving as a tabernacle for the Self. First
-comes differentiation, and the first step to that is to impart qualities
-to matter. Let me remind you, as the subject is so difficult a one, what
-is meant by tattvas, the fundamental forms of matter, and recall once
-more that passage in the _Vishnu Purâna_ where their evolution is
-described, and where it is stated that the tanmâtra of sound produces
-A'kâsha; that is, a modification of the consciousness of Íshvara
-produces the form of matter that we call the atom of A'kâsha; that atom
-has a mere film of subtlest matter for its envelope, and the vibrating
-life of Íshvara for the force within. Then we are told that A'kâsha
-generates another tanmâtra which is touch, and that, enveloped,
-permeated by A'kâsha, produces the film of denser matter which is called
-Vâyu, the two tanmâtras and the A'kâsha being the generating force.
-
-This goes on through the whole of the five stages, so that when we get
-down to the physical plane, we find an atom showing a wall of denser
-matter, within it the involved life and without it the magnetic field,
-made up of the higher tanmâtras and their atomic sheaths. The Prithivî
-atom hence consists of its own tanmâtra plus the matter and the life of
-Apas; the matter and life of Agni; the matter and life of Vâyu; the
-matter and life of A'kâsha: so that on the physical plane, the physical
-atom is a mass of five interpenetrating spheres in which is present as
-life the whole of the matter and the life of the worlds above it, the
-envelope, or wall, of the physical atom alone showing forth any
-characteristics of the physical world--a fact inexpressibly important
-for evolution. For, each of those sheaths or koshas--as the student of
-Vedânta calls them, and there is no better word--every one of them is
-latent in and around the physical atom; and in the upward evolution,
-every one of them becomes active and strong as evolution proceeds,
-sheath after sheath being vitalised. How could these koshas, or sheaths,
-of ours learn to respond to the vibrations of the evolving life, unless
-every one of them was latently present in us, waiting to be brought into
-activity? The root of that possibility lies in the atom itself, with all
-its interpenetrating spheres of life and matter, the sheaths that are
-within it and around it. That is not the only thing which we understand;
-as this conception grows clear, we understand a phrase that had often
-puzzled us in the old days, that "the spirit is senseless on the plane
-of matter." What does that mean? The spirit, the very essence of
-consciousness, senseless and helpless on the plane of matter! Why?
-Because if you take spirit as pure spirit, the intermediate sheaths are
-not there by which the matter-vibrations are able to reach it, and
-without these sheaths it is unable to receive and respond to the
-vibrations of physical matter. It remains unconscious of their very
-existence, there being no bridge by which they can pass over and affect
-that life. This is really a perfectly simple statement of Madame
-Blavatsky's, but it is one that I have heard challenged over and over
-again as entirely meaningless, as conveying no idea, for how could
-consciousness be unconscious in any region? A little more knowledge
-would make us less rapid in our condemnation of our betters. That idea,
-then, we will take to help us in the first conception of how evolution
-can take place.
-
-Now let us look how, in the downward arc that we spoke of, Íshvara is
-imparting qualities. According to the nature of the vibrations that He
-sends and of the matter that answers to them will be the quality
-imparted. As to the idea that difference of vibrations implies a
-difference of manifestation, let me buttress myself on the great
-reputation of Sir William Crookes. He issued, two or three years ago, I
-don't remember the exact date, in 1896 I think, a table of vibrations,
-confined of course to the physical world; a very interesting table,
-giving a series of classified vibrations and pointing out which were
-known to science, and gave rise to what we call sound, light,
-electricity, and so on, the difference of vibratory frequency, and the
-subtlety of the matter in which the vibration was set up, giving rise to
-a particular impression, received and answered by a sensation in us.
-
-That is the principle which I am now applying to our system as a whole.
-According to the density of the matter will be the rapidity of the
-vibrations which that matter is capable of expressing; Íshvara sends out
-vibrations, and the mânasic matter, we will say, is thrown into
-corresponding vibrations or waves of a frequency identical with those of
-the life-impulse sent out from Him, so far as it is capable of
-responding, a limit being set by its fineness on the one side and by its
-density on the other. Its limit of fineness is the atom of the plane.
-Its limit of density is the coarsest aggregation of these atoms in the
-densest solid of the plane. If we take the physical plane for a moment,
-we have solid, liquid, gas, ether, finer ether, finest ether, and atoms.
-The lower five are related to the five senses in man as they are at
-present developed on the physical plane. These five correspond to the
-sense-organs and the senses that work through them, as is suggested in
-the names of the tanmâtras. The Solid is related to the sense of Smell;
-Liquid to the sense of Taste; Fire to the sense of Sight; Air to the
-sense of Touch; and A'kâsha to the sense of Sound. Nov these are not
-stated in the order given by the western scientist, but I have no time
-to go into the reason for the difference and to show you where his outer
-observation fails, because he is not able to trace beyond the limits of
-his senses into a finer working; in dealing with our Vâyu and A'kâsha,
-he classes them together, and his air is our Agni. These senses and
-their evolution belong to the upward arc. Coming downwards, Íshvara only
-gives the power to matter to respond to these particular vibrations, and
-these vibrations are connected on the physical plane with the
-sub-divisions that I have just mentioned, the different sub-divisions of
-matter, solid, liquid, gas, and so on, corresponding in the sense-organs
-to the senses.
-
-Coming downwards, beginning on the mental plane with Intelligence--missing
-the two higher ones of Existence and Love--He sends out vibrations to make
-the matter of the mental plane answer, and the vibrations with which that
-matter answers, that is, a certain range of vibrations, are called mental
-or intelligent. You may say, Why? Just for the same reason that in Sir
-William Crookes' tables definite names are given to the different classes
-of vibrations, which produce sound, light, etc., names are given in order
-to express a certain limit of vibratory force; within one set of limits
-the vibrations affect the ether, give "light," and the eye receives them.
-Similarly, vibrations that fall between certain limits of vibratory
-frequency affect the matter of the third plane, and when they are
-received by an organ fitted to focus them in a centre, thus giving rise to
-self-consciousness, we call that organ Mind, and the action through that
-Mind, Intelligence. The mere name is as arbitrary as any other name, and
-we class these under mental, just as a certain range of etheric vibrations
-is classed as light, is received by an organ fitted to focus them that we
-call the eye, and the action through that eye is vision. If we are to talk
-at all, we must have names to describe different classes of phenomena, and
-we use the word mental or intelligent to describe the range of vibrations
-working in the particular kind of matter of which, in the upward
-evolution, an organ is builded that we call the Mind. So, again, to the
-vibrations that He sends out into the next coarser form of matter, called
-Apas, or astral, we give the name Sensory. He imparts to them the quality
-of responding to pleasure and pain, and as He makes this downward sweep He
-brings into renewed existence on each plane Devas, or beings which have as
-their characteristic manifestation the quality of their own plane; thus
-the Devas of the mental plane have the quality of intelligence as their
-chief peculiarity, and the Devas of the next lower plane have as their
-chief quality feeling, or the power of sensation, and those of the lowest
-plane have as their chief quality action, activity. Each Deva class shows
-out specially the quality of its plane, and inasmuch as these Devas draw
-into their own bodies the matter of the plane in which they live, they
-help on its evolution; for they draw it in, use it and thus develop it,
-and throw it out again into the general reservoir, just as man draws in
-physical matter, uses it in his body, and again throws it out into the
-physical world. As that process goes on and on and on through the ages,
-the whole of that kind of matter we call mental passes through the bodies
-of these Devas, takes on to itself the habit of responding readily to the
-vibrations of intelligence, and thus becomes ready for building into the
-mental body of man. The matter of the astral plane is builded into the
-bodies of the Devas of that plane until it takes up this habit of more and
-more definitely responding to pleasure and pain, when impacts are made on
-it, and thus can be used for the building up of the sensory bodies of the
-lower world. On each plane this downward sweep brings into activity these
-classes of Devas, making the intermediate links which are to work in the
-building of forms. The essence of the building of forms by a Deva is that
-he builds them of the matter of which his own body is composed. Prepared
-by that earlier evolution, qualities being developed in the downward
-sweep of the life of Íshvara, matter is, in the upward arc, gathered into
-definite forms, the bodies of plant, animal and man: thus definite
-vehicles are made, by which the highest consciousness can communicate
-with, and receive vibrations from, the lowest world.
-
-Let us now, having taken this very rapid sweep downwards, begin to climb
-upwards. Each kind of matter is now seen to possess certain qualities.
-Every physical atom has a number of sheaths interpenetrating and
-surrounding it, the sheath of astral matter with its power of responding
-to sensation, the sheath of mental matter with its power of responding
-to intelligence, as well as the sheaths, if they may be called so, of
-the two higher, Love and Existence, that will not be brought into
-activity for a long, long time. All is there. Íshvara now begins the
-great stage of brooding action that I spoke of the building up of a
-centre, and it is His first work to build physical forms out of this
-prepared material, all the Devas of the physical plane being ready to
-act as His agents, working under His impulse and under the direction of
-the Lord of the Devas of the physical plane. All these innumerable
-intermediate agents are wanted; for innumerable are to be the forms, and
-every one of them has to be builded.
-
-The building of the physical bodies begins with the formation of the
-minerals. As a mineral body is formed, perhaps some crystal, the crystal
-of an element or a salt, a definite form is built up by a Deva of the
-physical plane. He takes up the material of his own body and such material
-of the physical plane as is of similar nature to himself, and he begins
-shaping these crystalline forms. He builds them on the lines of the
-life-energy sent out by Íshvara Himself, those lines which Science calls
-the axes of the crystal, "imaginary" lines; "imaginary"--aye; but they are
-from the creative imagination of Íshvara, that is far more potent than the
-lower matter in which He builds. That lower matter follows the creative
-imagination of the Lord, and these imaginary lines govern the shaping of
-that crystal that is builded by the Deva. Tyndall believed not in the
-working of the Devas, yet when he was lecturing on crystals to a popular
-audience in Manchester he declared that as he pictured to himself the
-building of a crystal, he found himself imagining tiny architects at work,
-placing every atom with exact precision, with all the intelligence and
-skill of a human architect, employed in making a building. Tyndall was
-speaking better than he knew. His imagination was answering to the truth
-more keenly than he realised. For it is the privilege of the man of
-genius who loves truth as Tyndall did--who was willing to break up every
-fetter of dogma rather than be a traitor to his conception of truth--to
-unconsciously intuit the truth that he seeks, so that his words give out a
-higher meaning than he dreamed of. Tyndall was wise in recommending what
-he called the scientific flight of the imagination, for that power of
-imagination is a most useful thing. Never clip the wings of your
-imagination when you are employed in your scientific work; for it may
-often give you glimpses of truths that without its aid you would never
-find. Thus the Devas work and build crystals, and those crystals have some
-remarkable properties. Professor Japp tells us that some crystals turn a
-polarised beam of light in a particular way; and he declares that in some
-of these forms there is a power which is directive and somewhat akin to
-the intelligence of man. Truly is it akin to human intelligence, inasmuch
-as it is the parent of human intelligence, the latter being the child that
-is developing the parental powers. This building goes on through stages on
-which we must not tarry, through the whole of the mineral world, gradually
-giving to matter the power to change shape between larger and larger
-limits without losing cohesion. This is what is called plasticity, the
-power of changing shape without disintegration. Matter also gains that
-which science speaks of as elasticity. Now what is elasticity? Not, as
-people generally think the mere power of elongation, calling a thing
-elastic that can be pulled out like a piece of India-rubber. An elastic
-body in the popular sense is not an elastic body from the scientific point
-of view, and, strange as it may sound, glass is much more elastic than
-India-rubber. Yet the glass does not elongate and is brittle. The proper
-definition of elasticity is the power of recovering the original form
-after distortion, and matter gradually acquires this power. As life
-develops, the equilibrium of the compounds that make up the form becomes
-more and more unstable, while at the same time the general cohesion of the
-form increases; when we come to the higher forms, such as the body of man,
-we find a power of maintaining the central position greater than we find
-in any other form, together with an increased plasticity and elasticity;
-so that a man can adapt himself to the cold of the polar regions, and to
-the heat of the tropics and of the equatorial zone, without losing his
-body, in a way that no lower animal can match, that is, he has the power
-of adapting his physical body to surrounding conditions to a greater
-extent than is the case with any other form. Coming back to the mineral
-kingdom we left, let us take the next stage; Íshvara can now expand and
-modify His material a little more than was originally possible without
-breaking it up. He begins the moulding of the vegetable kingdom, and there
-also he sets axes of growth, as "imaginary" and as real in their
-controlling force as in the crystal, though they are not always quite as
-easy to trace, they are nevertheless there. All the vegetable matter is
-built in according to these axes, and the natural classification of plants
-is largely determined by the numerical relations of the parts; thus the
-law of number shapes the form. As the matter becomes more plastic and
-yields more readily to the indwelling life, the higher members of that
-kingdom begin to show the dawning of sensation. That is due to the
-beginning of the vivification of the next sheath above the physical,
-composed of what we call astral matter, that which goes to make part of
-the manomaya kosha of the Vedântin. We see in that a growing
-susceptibility, an increasing sensory power, very slight in the vegetable
-world, but still present, and developed much more largely where the
-vegetable has a long experience of separated life. Take for instance a
-tree that has endured for centuries, and let me just trace the stages in
-which the dawning sensation is found, and even a dawn, though I hardly
-venture to use the word, a dawn of mental quality. That life in the tree
-responds to the vibrations received from outside, of cold and heat, of
-wind and rain, of sunshine and storm, and as the physical sheath is built
-up and developed by the action of the Devas working upon it, the etheric
-matter in it is continually thrown into vibration by the changes in
-temperature, light, and electrical conditions. The vibrations in the
-ethers that enter into the physical body are passed on to the atomic
-sub-plane, and as the atoms of the physical plane have their spirals made
-of the coarsest matter of the plane of Apas, or astral matter, a slight
-quivering is caused in that coarsest matter of the astral plane, and that
-sets up a little movement in the tree, responded to by the indwelling life
-by sensation, a massive and general feeling of pleasure or pain.
-
-Have you never walked through a forest, and felt as though all nature
-were enjoying the sunshine? This sensation of pleasure is shown still
-more strikingly when the hot season comes to its ending, and the first
-rains fall on the thirsty ground, and the well-nigh withering vegetation
-sends out a conscious thrill of joy and life renewed. The very trees and
-bushes rejoice as the rain comes down upon them with its message of life
-and of hope. At such moments we recognise that the vegetable world is
-sensitive, although the sensation be widespread, that which is called
-massive in character.
-
-Forgive me if for a moment I here digress, to say that this fact is one
-of the reasons why we owe a duty to the vegetable world, not needlessly
-to cause sensations of dawning suffering. We live too carelessly, my
-brothers, in this world which is all-living, where there is no atom that
-is dead, and especially is this sad here in India, where once there was
-so strong a reverence for life. That is now, alas, beginning to pass
-away. You are forgetting that all life is Íshvara, that according to the
-stage of His lower self-evolution is the power of response that is given
-to the form. In the old days, I remember how, when man took his food, he
-met the food with gracious greeting because it was sacrificing its life
-in order to build, through that sacrifice, his own. Though it did not
-possess the higher powers of sensation as we find them in the animal,
-but only the lesser sensation powers of the vegetable world, still, even
-then, he met it with reverence, as a sacrifice which was being made to
-him, and took it with gratitude and with love; that lower life was
-yielding itself up to him for his up-building. But to-day, so lost is
-that gentle grace in many of our Hindu people, that they not only
-disregard the sacrificed lives of the vegetable kingdom, but also those
-of the far more sentient forms which Íshvara has developed in the animal
-kingdom of His world. We find men who wear the outer shape of the Hindu,
-who have his colour, his form, his face, who boast themselves of their
-descent from antiquity, who hold themselves therefore in thought above
-the western nations, forgetting the life of the Self in this sentient
-creation, and nourishing their bodies with the bodies of their lower
-brethren, without showing any sense of the sacrifice made, or feeling
-even a passing gratitude for the life which is given for them.
-
-Let us come back to the tracing of our forms. Íshvara, brooding over the
-evolving forms, continues His patient work--patient, that the form may
-never be broken by an overstrain, but may be slowly developed into a
-vehicle of the life that ensouls it. In every form He lives, evolving
-it, but He limits with illimitable patience His manifestation of life to
-the poor capacities of the form, that it may grow and not be destroyed.
-Do you remember an old story of the ancient days, in which most of you
-would be ashamed to acknowledge belief, for are you not graduates and
-men of western knowledge? Though descendants from the old time, you have
-naught to do with it, but I, who was trained in the West, I have no
-feeling of shame in acknowledging my belief in the strange things that
-come down to us from the times when truth was less veiled than it is
-now. So I dare to recall the story to you, although you may think that
-it is but a fable or legend. There was a boy who believed in Vishnu or
-Hari, in whom his father believed not, Prahlâda he was named; and that
-boy went through many trials, but in all his faith in the Supreme
-defended him; at last his father, scoffing, said, turning to a pillar in
-his room: "You tell me that Hari is everywhere: is He in that pillar?"
-"O Hari, Hari!" cried the boy, and forth from the pillar in the form of
-a Lion burst an avatâra of Vishnu and the pillar was shivered into
-pieces. Truly is He everywhere, in every particle of matter; there is no
-one particle from which He cannot come forth in all the might of His
-Godhood, in all the majesty of His Deity. But He will not, because if He
-did, the form could not bear that revealing, and would shiver into
-pieces as the God appeared. A profound truth, even if you regard the
-story as an allegory, a truth which teaches us what evolution means.
-
-Thus Íshvara worked on age after age and æon after æon, with that
-marvellous patience of which I spoke, until matter was made sufficiently
-plastic to build it into the form in which His highest life was to begin
-its development, the form of man; building that form, He begins also to
-strengthen very much the centre which the form is for a while to
-protect. Let me say in passing one thing that I have omitted, that
-whenever a form has reached its highest possible point, its limit of
-expansion, He breaks it, in order that, in a new form better adapted,
-the ensouling life may continue to grow; for He knows when to break as
-well as when to hold; He knows when to destroy as well as when to
-preserve; and the moment that the limit of a form has been reached, and
-its matter can yield no further, He bursts the form asunder, that its
-materials may recombine themselves, under the impulse of life, into a
-more plastic organism, and that the life may thus gain further
-evolution, ensouling a higher form more fitted for the expression of its
-increasing powers. We call this breaking of the form death, and we fear
-and shrink from it, and if people talk to us of death, in the flush of
-our life, it comes as a jar and a shock. But, as I told you in the
-beginning, you may see very plainly that death is that beneficent aspect
-of Íshvara, which breaks a form that has become a prison, in order to
-give the life a new form in which it may continue to grow; He breaks the
-rigid form when it can develop no further, and gives the life the
-plastic form of a baby, that may be shaped more easily by the moulding
-forces of the life within it, yielding itself to every impulse from
-within. It seems then, that when we see things rightly, we should hail
-death as birth rather than as death. For looked at from the side of
-life, every death is a being born into the higher possibilities of a new
-shape that will adapt itself to the growing life.
-
-When man begins his long pilgrimage, a form is ready for his ensouling,
-prepared to receive and to respond to the impulses which come to it from
-the physical, astral and--to a small extent--from the mental planes. His
-physical atoms are considerably evolved, the sensory sheath is working
-actively, and there is a very imperfect lower mental sheath; these have
-been built up through the evolution of the animal realm. Do not fall
-into the mistake of the western way of thinking, and say that man
-descends from the animal; that is not true. It is only a fragment of
-truth half seen and thereby distorted. What is true is this: that the
-matter of his lower vehicles has been prepared by evolving through the
-stages of the elemental, mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, in
-order that it may be builded into the form of man; that _in previous
-kalpas_ forms had been evolved that might fairly be described as
-half-ape, half-human, that were never occupied by the triple Self, and
-that therefore belonged to the animal, not to the human kingdom; that
-in the present cycle the human form evolved, as a foetus evolves, passing
-rapidly through the lower stages on the way to the human, as in
-pre-natal life, and it therefore has stamped upon it the stages through
-which it has passed. I have been going over, roughly and swiftly, those
-stages through which the matter of which the body is composed has gone
-in the past, and you will see that the true theory of evolution is
-different from the somewhat crude view that there is a regular
-succession of births from the animal into the man. The matter has been
-made plastic in the animal, but man in his form is the result of a
-higher working; the germ of his life can never develop into the animal,
-but only into the human, because more has been infolded into it, and
-that germ must unfold along a line which is that of direct human growth.
-Remembering that, to prevent a possible misconception, we turn to the
-human centre that is now definitely formed. We speak of its encircling
-form as the causal body, or Karana Sharîra, the form by which the Self
-is limited; the Karana Sharîra is not the Self, remember, but is the
-containing vehicle of the triple Self, and the organ of one aspect of
-that Self, the aspect of knowledge, shown forth as intelligence. This
-sheath is important, being relatively of a permanent nature, and it goes
-on from birth to birth; death cannot touch it, birth cannot modify it;
-it is the treasure-house or receptacle of all the qualities acquired by
-experience through human evolution, and passes through the whole cycle
-of re-incarnations; it is the special _human_ characteristic. The form
-begins to adapt itself more and more to the life, and here comes in a
-growing difficulty. The characteristic of the life of man is the life of
-the intellect; this the specifically human part of evolution; but the
-life of sensation is far more vivid and tumultuous in the beginning, and
-the earlier stages of form are adapted to answer to these impulses. You
-may ask, why not give the man at once a mental body only, in which to
-work out his evolution, why must he struggle through the evolution of
-this body of sensation? Because, if he misses that stage, he will not be
-able to make up the links which are necessary for the continuity of his
-consciousness. At a later time the perfect man is conscious on all
-planes from Nirvâna downward to the physical, from the physical upwards
-to Nirvâna. On every plane in unbroken continuity of consciousness the
-Jîvanmukta lives and works. There is no link lacking. If, then, the man
-does not establish, in the building of his body of sensation, certain
-centres or, as they are called, chakras--that drawing into centres
-which is the work of the upward arc, as giving qualities is the work of
-the downward arc--if he does not draw the powers of sensation into
-definite centres in the sheath of his astral body, he will not have the
-links which he requires to receive impacts from the astral plane, and
-through which he can send out thrills of consciousness in order to
-impress it, rule it and guide it. That is why there is so much delay in
-the savage condition, where the life of sensation is supreme; these
-astral chakras are being builded up as centres of the senses, and they
-are built firm and strong; the outer organs, the eye, the ear, the nose,
-the tongue, the skin, these are merely the necessary organs in the
-physical body for the expression of consciousness through these chakras.
-
-If we take, for a moment, a swift survey of the evolution of forms, we
-shall find that the building of organs follows the exercise of
-life-functions; in the earliest forms there are no organs, but the
-functions of life are present and active; the creature breathes and
-assimilates, circulation goes on; but there are no organs for digestion,
-no organs for breathing, no organs for circulation; the whole body does
-everything. But as evolution proceeds and definite organs are formed in
-the physical body, in the nervous system, and as later, in the astral
-body, chakras or astral centres of sensation are formed--as this goes
-on, we find a more specialised being developed with definite organs.
-Always the organ comes after the function, and through the organ the
-function expresses itself more and more perfectly. That is a fundamental
-principle. And do not forget that in this you are on what is thought the
-safer ground of western science. You do not find an organ appearing
-before the development of its function. You always find the life-impulse
-first, and then the moulding of the matter into a shape which enables
-that impulse to express itself more perfectly. If we trace evolution
-from the amoeba upwards we find differentiation and specialisation
-becoming more marked the whole way through, yet man himself turns round,
-and with the very brain which has been formed under the vibrations of
-intelligence he reverses the whole process, and asserts that thought is
-produced by the brain; but every organ is formed as the organ of a
-function, it is produced by life, and is not its creator.
-
-This process goes on until the necessary organs are made and the nervous
-system is linked to the chakras in the astral body, chiefly through what
-is called the sympathetic system. There are certain nervous cells of a
-peculiar kind in that system, of which modern science does not say
-much, beyond giving you the forms and contents, and these are the links
-between consciousness in the physical body and in the sensory body. Then
-come the chakras already spoken of as the centres for the working of
-consciousness in the astral body. A similar process goes on in the
-mental body under the action of thought-impulses, and there we have also
-an organised body able to respond to different kinds of thought, and
-thus to serve consciousness as its organ for expression in the mental
-world. As we grow mentally we build our organs for consciousness.
-
-Coming to this building of form practically, we learn that we organise
-the body of sensation to higher purposes by checking the life-impulse as
-it runs out to the object of the senses. These objects gradually turn
-away from the abstemious dweller in the body, it is written, and as the
-lower world ceases to attract, the higher world begins to use the form
-for nobler ends. If we desire to increase mental power, we must practise
-steady thinking, and check the rovings of intelligence over the
-phenomenal world. As a matter of fact, many people never really think at
-all; what they call their thoughts are nothing more than the reflections
-of other people's thoughts to which their consciousness responds; their
-minds are looking-glasses, not productive organisms; most men's minds,
-I fear, are looking-glasses reflecting objects that are before them, and
-contemplating these reflections a man says to himself: "See! how I am
-thinking!" when he is only repeating the thoughts of others. Now we are
-not to be mere looking-glasses; when the objects of the outer world give
-rise to images, the mind is to work on them, analyse, re-arrange,
-combine; thinking is the work of the mind itself on the mental images
-supplied through sensation, the working on the materials which have been
-gradually gathered by experience. As soon might you call a loose heap of
-bricks that you see in the compound of a house, a building, as call the
-reflection of other people's thoughts, your thinking. That is only the
-material for thought. Thinking is the work of the architect, of the
-builder that builds these bricks into a definite edifice, and until we
-have built up thoughts in our minds, we have no right to arrogate to
-ourselves the name of thinkers. Practise then this independent thinking;
-it is hard; you will not know how hard until you try it. Never let pass
-a day without reading something that gives you material for thought. No
-matter if the book be not religious; if it be only intellectual, that
-will make you stronger in intellect. Even leaving spirituality aside
-with its nobler possibilities, take some great book worthy of being
-thought over, not a newspaper, not a sensational novel, not a child's
-book, but a BOOK--an original book, on a real topic; what Charles Lamb
-called a book. Read, but do not read much, perhaps not more than a dozen
-or twenty lines; think these lines over and over and over for at least
-thrice as long as you have taken to read them slowly. Do that every day
-regularly, and do not miss it. You find time for your dinner; why, if
-you can find time to feed your body and to talk, can you not find time
-to feed your mind? Then your mind would grow. If you do that as an
-experiment, say for three months only, never missing a day--for if you
-miss a day, you will slip back and lose the value of the automatic
-action of your mind--do that for three months as an experiment, as a
-scientific man makes an experiment, and thus train yourselves for three
-months in power of close attention and thought, and at the end of the
-three months, you will be startled to find how much these powers have
-grown. When you have put yourself through this experiment, then you will
-not want a lecturer to tell you about the value of such self-discipline,
-for you yourself will have proved it to be good. Take one faculty after
-another to train; train your reasoning faculty, your memory, your power
-of comparison and contrast. Take up a faculty, just as any one takes up
-a study that he is working at, and work at it until you are an artist
-in that particular faculty.
-
-That is how form is builded, when the human Self is beginning to
-co-operate with the work of Íshvara, when the centre is beginning to
-take the control of its vehicles. It rationalises its workings, and
-builds and modifies them step by step. When this has been done for many
-lives, then comes the life for Yoga; then the man may be taught how to
-make more rapid progress, and how to vivify the inner and subtler
-sheaths of his being by certain practices, that will be taught him the
-moment he is ready--but that will never be taught him until he _is_
-ready, nay though he range the world over in search of a Guru, or live
-the life of an ascetic in the cave or in the jungle. That is not enough,
-so long as his desire is unconquered, so long as his mind is still
-restless. When the senses are dominated, when the mind is controlled,
-and not before--but then, as certainly as before there will not be the
-coming--a Guru will appear who will take that man by the hand and lead
-him along the path that is narrow as the edge of a razor, that may only
-be trodden by the controlled in sense and by the steady in mind, for the
-fall either to the one side or to the other means delay for many a birth
-to come. Then is developed that aspect of Bliss which shows itself
-outwardly as love; a faint reflection of that bliss is felt in many
-stages of meditation, and joy has birth within you, wells up within you,
-enwraps you fold by fold, until you in yogic trance reach the true
-A'nanda, which is the essence of beauty, and makes you quiver under its
-subtle vibrations of ineffable delight. And later, later still, at a
-stage that you may reach, when all is purified through long evolution,
-there comes the rising into the highest, where the subtlest matter
-becomes the vehicle of that developed centre, now no longer a
-circumference restraining and necessary, but an obedient vehicle which
-will serve when it is wanted and fall away when wanted it is not. As it
-is written that in the A'kâsha there is every possibility of form, so
-the life that has reached Self-existence is a being that garbs itself in
-any form by gathering the A'kâsha around it. Thus it may develop vehicle
-after vehicle until the whole of the human series is builded for use,
-but none of them is prison for limitation; then we say that the man is a
-Jîvanmukta, He is free, and all matter has become His servant, to use
-when He has need of it, to cast aside when He needs it not; every region
-of the world is His to use, no region of the world is its own to bind
-Him; He is liberated, and as the liberated Self He may, if He will,
-still work for His brother men, remaining, as Shrî Shankarâchârya
-taught us, until the end of His age, in order to lift humanity more
-rapidly on its upward climb. Thus are formed Those who are the
-co-workers of Íshvara in the helping of humanity, who, having gone
-through all suffering, throw everything they have gained at the feet of
-the Lord, who turn back to the world, never again to be bound by it, but
-still responding to the compassion which is the very life of Íshvara
-Himself. As long as Íshvara wills to remain in manifestation, so long
-does He whose will is one with that of Íshvara, will also to remain. He
-has nothing to gain, nothing to learn, nothing to take that any world
-can give Him; but He stands beside His Lord as an organ of the
-expression of the highest life, existing no longer for anything that He
-takes, but as the channel of the life of God. That is the prize of our
-calling, that the goal on which our hearts are fixed.
-
-
-Women's Printing Society, Limited, 66, Whitcomb Street, W.C.
-
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
-
-The following variants appear in this text: "A'kâsha" and "Akâsha",
-"A'nanda" and "Ananda", "Kabbalah" and "Kabala", "kârmic" and "karmic",
-"out-pouring" and "outpouring", "Self-existence" and "Self-Existence",
-"wellnigh" and "well-nigh".
-
-The spelling "Brahmâ" appears to be standard, but "Brahma" also appears,
-in the phrase "Mahad Brahma".
-
-The phrase "may by" in "may by it be brought" on p. 20 should possibly be
-"may be" but has been left unchanged.
-
-Words in italics are indicated by underscores, _like this_.
-
-The following amendments to spelling and punctuation have been made:
-
-1) "hierachies" amended to "hierarchies" on p. 27.
-
-2) "philosphy" amended to "philosophy" on p. 28.
-
-3) "manâsic" amended to "mânasic" on p. 52.
-
-4) Period added after "tato bhavati Bhârata" on p. 97.
-
-5) "Avâtara" amended to "Avatâra" on p. 119.
-
-6) Comma added after "kingdom" on p. 119.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Evolution of Life and Form, by Annie Wood Besant
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       The Project Gutenberg eBook of Evolution Of Life And Form, by Annie Besant.
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-Title: Evolution of Life and Form
-       Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary
-              meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898
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-Author: Annie Wood Besant
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-Release Date: July 13, 2012 [EBook #40224]
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 <div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;">
 <img src="images/cover.png" width="353" height="550" alt="" />
@@ -4468,381 +4429,6 @@ in the phrase "Mahad Brahma".</p>
 <p class="pinset">6) Comma added after "kingdom" on  p. 119.</p>
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-Project Gutenberg's Evolution of Life and Form, by Annie Wood Besant
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-Title: Evolution of Life and Form
-       Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary
-       meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898
-
-Author: Annie Wood Besant
-
-Release Date: July 13, 2012 [EBook #40224]
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-Language: English
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-  EVOLUTION OF LIFE AND FORM
-
-  _Four Lectures delivered at the Twenty-third Anniversary Meeting
-  of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898._
-
-  BY
-
-  ANNIE BESANT
-
-  SECOND EDITION
-
-
-  LONDON: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
-
-  BENARES: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
-
-  1900
-
-
-
-
-             CONTENTS.
-
-
-                              PAGE
-
-ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE      5
-
-FUNCTIONS OF THE GODS          46
-
-EVOLUTION OF LIFE              90
-
-EVOLUTION OF FORM             124
-
-
-
-
-[FIRST LECTURE.]
-
-ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE.
-
-
-My Brothers:--The subject on which I am to address you this morning, and
-the three mornings that follow, is one of considerable complexity and
-difficulty. I do not apologise to you for the difficulty of my theme.
-When we meet here in our Anniversary Meeting, we meet as students and
-not simply as superficial men and women of the world. We try to prepare
-ourselves, by study, for the exchange of thought which in these
-gatherings takes place, and although the subject is a difficult one,
-although it is not possible to make it clear and intelligible without
-the use of certain technical terms, yet, to the student technical
-terms--being precise--are really the easiest to understand, and inasmuch
-as, in a great majority at least, we are students, I who speak, and you
-who listen, we may be content to treat the subject in a somewhat formal
-and technical way. Roughly, my outline is this. I want to lay before you
-an intelligible conception of evolution, taking it on its two sides,
-that of the evolving life and that of the developing forms. I begin by
-laying before you a sketch of the methods of "Ancient and Modern
-Science," the direction in which each has worked, and is working, the
-ultimate union that, we hope, may take place between them. For what
-could more fully presage the good of the whole world, what could promise
-more happily for the relationship between the different races of
-humanity, than to draw together on the plane of mind the science of
-antiquity and of modern days, the science of the East and of the West,
-and, by wedding them to each other, draw together the nations that are
-now divided, and make objective that brotherhood of humanity of which we
-dream.
-
-Dealing first with ancient and modern science in this broad and general
-way, and taking that as my subject for this morning, I shall pass on
-to-morrow to speak on the "Functions of the Gods," meaning by that
-phrase the activities of that invisible side of nature on which the
-whole of the visible depends. Whether we use here the name "Devas" to
-represent those developed spiritual intelligences, or whether with the
-child of Islam, with the Hebrew or the Christian, we speak of the
-"Angels" and "Archangels," the name matters nothing; the conception is
-common to every faith of man. We shall study their functions in the
-universe, and try to understand how they act as the ministers of the
-Divine Will. Then we shall pass on to treat of that "Evolution of Life"
-which lies underneath the evolution of forms. Finally, we shall treat
-the "Evolution of Forms," and see how, in that evolution, is the promise
-of final perfection, how all is working to a perfect ending, how the
-best that we can dream of is less than the performance of God.
-
-That is the outline of our work. Let us at once begin the first section
-of the subject--Ancient and Modern Science.
-
-Now, in the olden times, in those times to which in this land our
-thought turns back most fondly with reverence and with pride, in those
-times, here, as in every other ancient land, Religion and Science were
-wedded together, and there was no discord between the intelligence and
-the spirit. It matters not whither you wander amid the ancient nations
-of the world: you may travel through the whole of Chaldea; you may study
-the remains of ancient Egypt; you may go through Persia and search amid
-her monuments; you may cross the Atlantic to America, and unbury the
-cities that were lost ere yet the Aztecs had made the mighty State which
-fell under the blows of the Spaniards; you may go into China and, in the
-vast recesses of that well-nigh unknown land, you may search for what
-has been left there from ancient days; or without going outside the
-limits of your own land, you may take the literature that is our pride,
-the mighty books written by the Rishis of the past; and everywhere
-antiquity speaks with a single tongue. Religion reveals the spirit, the
-spiritual truth which is one. Intelligence studies that truth in its
-manifold manifestations, and its work; science, studying the phenomena
-which are images of aspects of the Divine, is the handmaid, is the
-sister, of religion, and between them discord is unnatural and fatal to
-progress. That is the ancient view; but when we come to our own century
-a new phenomenon presents itself to our gaze--religion on the one side
-suspicious of science in its progress, science on the other hand apt to
-be proudly contemptuous of religious claims. How has the divorce arisen?
-Why this discord between two of the great helpers of human evolution?
-The reason is not far to seek. In the western world the science of the
-elder time, the science of antiquity, disappeared in the great flood of
-barbaric invasions, underneath the whirlpool caused by the ruins of the
-Roman Empire, and later on, underneath the wreckage of that same Empire
-with its new centre in Constantinople. The invasions of barbarians, both
-from the East and the North, sweeping over the European continent,
-brought ignorance in the wake of barbaric conquest. The result was that
-night came down upon knowledge and thick darkness enveloped the lands
-which were to be the nursery of a new civilisation. When the Sun of
-science again began to rise upon the Western world, it presented itself
-in a form which was alien, nay, which was more than alien, which was
-hostile to the dominant religion of the time. It came from the children
-of Islam. It came from those who recognised Muhammed as their Prophet.
-From the Muslim schools of Arabia came the first teachers of modern
-science to Europe. True, they were really by their intellectual ancestry
-descended from the thought of Greece. They drew their inspiration from
-the school of Plato through the Neo-Platonists; they reproduced the
-ideas of Porphyry and Ptolemy, and of other Grecian and Egyptian
-thinkers, Neo-Platonic and even Gnostic. But they threw over it the garb
-of Islam, they presented it in the form of Arabic thought. The result of
-this was that, as it made its way into Spain in the wake of the
-conquering Moors, as it came with those who drove out of the Southern
-Peninsula the rule of the Spanish Christian monarchy, so the first
-aspect of science to Christians was an aspect of hostility. It came as
-an invading enemy and not as an illuminant to all. Hence conflict arose;
-some who were within the limits of the mighty Church of Rome, touched
-by a longing for the new learning, stretched out their hands to take the
-gifts that science was bringing. These men were regarded with suspicion,
-nay, with more than suspicion, with hatred that broke out in bitter
-persecution. Who can read the history of Roger Bacon, the wondrous monk;
-who can picture Copernicus on his death-bed as his immortal work is
-brought to him ere yet his eyes are closed, he having shrunk from
-earlier publication, lest the stake should be his portion; who can stand
-in the Field of Flowers in Rome, and see there the statue erected where
-he was burned to death, who dying in one century, lives for all
-centuries to come--Giordano Bruno; who can listen to Galileo, as with
-faltering lips he denies the truth he knows and utters the falsehood
-that he knows not; who can follow these martyr-steps, led on by bitter
-memories of blood and fire, without understanding the reason for the
-hostility of science to religion, without confessing with shame and
-sorrow that that hostility was caused and was justified by the cruelties
-wreaked by religion on science, when science was young and feeble? Every
-one of us who stands upon the side of religion should recognise that we
-are reaping the bitter harvest of our own past errors, and that the law
-is just which brings upon us the difficulties and opposition we
-encounter in our modern days. For as science grew strong, she grew
-strong with the sword in her hands. She fought for every inch of the
-ground on which she stood, and only so far as she could guard herself
-was she safe from the flame or from the prison. Hence she searched for
-everything in nature that could serve as a weapon against the foe that
-attacked her. Hence she welcomed eagerly everything which seemed to show
-that materialism was the true philosophy of life. If we go back
-twenty-five years, to the time when I and some of you were young, we
-shall find that over western science there hung the shadow of
-materialism, and that stronger and stronger grew the scientific tendency
-to "see in matter the promise and the potency of every form of life."
-You remember those famous words of Professor Tyndall, no materialist in
-his thought and a religious man in his aspirations, but wellnigh driven
-by despair to claim fair field for science, and to fling back the claims
-of religion, because among them was included the right to gag, the
-refusal to allow thought to be honestly uttered by the thinker. But
-things are changing more and more; as religion has been growing more
-liberal and more rational, science is becoming less materialistic and
-less aggressive; and we shall see presently that the most modern of
-modern science--not quite the science that you get in your textbooks,
-for that is practically out-of-date in the rush of thought which comes
-from the West, but the science of the leaders of thought, the science of
-the first men in the scientific camp--is more and more approaching the
-domain where scientists will recognise religion as helper and not as
-enemy. In fact, speaking from the same chair from which Tyndall had
-uttered his famous phrase that "in matter he saw the promise and potency
-of every form of life," his successor, Sir William Crookes, a member of
-our own Theosophical Society, declared, reversing those words of his
-predecessor, that "In life I see the promise and potency of all forms of
-matter."
-
-Such is the great change. Let us now examine in detail. The fundamental
-difference between ancient and modern science is that ancient science
-studies the world from the standpoint of life which is evolving, while
-modern science studies the world by observing the forms through which
-that life is manifesting. The first studies life, and sees in forms the
-expressions of life. The second studies forms, and tries, by the process
-of induction, to find out if there be an underlying principle by which
-the multiplicity of forms may be explained. The first works from above
-downwards, the second from below upwards, and in that very fact is the
-promise of a meeting place where the two will join hand in hand. But
-this fundamental difference carries with it very important results. If
-we are to study the world from the standpoint of forms, our study will
-be almost endless in its multiplicity. Think of a tree; the one trunk
-through which the life is pouring, innumerable leaves in which that life
-is ultimately expressed; it is an image of the tree of life, that great
-Ashvattha, the tree of which we have heard, whose roots are in the
-heavens and whose branches spread out over the earth. If we are to study
-it where its trunk is, the trunk of life, we have the unity of purpose
-and can trace why we have multiplicity of forms; but if we are to start
-at the parts where the leaves are growing, leaf by leaf we must examine,
-every difference of outline we must record, each little variety in shape
-we must carefully note and study. Science studies the leaves in modern
-days--the old science studied the life. There is the fundamental
-difference. There is also the reason of the difference of methods by
-which the study must be carried on. What is the method of modern
-science? The use of clear observation, keen judgment, power of placing
-like things together, and seeing the differences that divide the
-classes of the like from the classes of the unlike. But in order that
-this may be done, inasmuch as nature is infinite both in the vast and in
-the minute, man demands, to supplement his limited senses, instruments
-and apparatus of the most exquisite and delicate character; so that it
-has been even said that the progress of science is the progress of the
-exquisite nature of the apparatus which science uses, and scientific men
-will devise a more delicate balance, a more dainty way of adjustment,
-instrument after instrument, until perfection seems well-nigh to be
-reached; the modern man of science, to carry on his researches, demands
-a vast array of apparatus that he must use for his work, for according
-to the delicacy of his apparatus is the extent of his observation of the
-forms to which his attention is directed. But the man of science of the
-ancient type does not ask for instruments; he is not studying the
-evolution of forms; he has to study life, not form; and for such study
-he must evolve himself, the life that is within him, for only life can
-measure life, only life can respond to the vibrations of the living; his
-work is to unfold himself, to bring out of the depths of his own nature
-the divine powers that lie hidden therein, not in the senses but in the
-Self. His investigations can only be carried on by means of these
-powers, and only as he develops the divine within him will he be able to
-understand and measure the divine without him. Now this is only possible
-because, in essence, the natures of God and man are identical. This
-sounds a bold statement, but it is the fundamental truth of all
-religions. Need I quote to you the famous saying, "Thou art That"? Shall
-I take an equivalent phrase from the Hebrew Scripture, accepted by the
-whole Christian world: "God created man in His own image, in the image
-of God created He him"? The teaching is identical as all great truths
-are identical in the various religions; but what does it mean? God is
-manifest in His universe. Would you understand His work, you must
-develop the God within yourself, else will He for ever be veiled from
-your eyes. Not by the eyes of sense may you behold Him, not by the
-vision of intellect may you see that Form, invisible even to the
-intelligence. Only as the Self that is God is unfolded within you, will
-the Self that is the God without you manifest to you the full glory of
-His life. That is the ancient starting point. Thus what the man of old
-had to do, if indeed he were to be a man of science, was to become
-divine; he was to be a saint before he could be a sage. No man could be
-wise until he was pure, for how should impure eyes behold the Pure?
-There is the hall-mark of the man of science of the ancient days: he is
-developed within before he can be learned without. But from the modern
-man of science is not demanded this condition. He must indeed lead a
-life that is self-restrained, orderly, and fairly clean; were he to
-yield to the riot of the senses, his intelligence would become clouded.
-He must have keen power of observation, balanced strength of judgment,
-strong patience, unwearied industry, clear insight for differences and
-similarities. All these are demanded from him, if he is to be great, and
-these are among the noblest powers of intelligence. But all he asks of
-religion is to leave him alone. Of old, religion opened the gateway to
-science; now-a-days science asks nothing from religion save to stand
-aside. That is the difficulty in our way. We have to show that life
-cannot be understood until the student lives that which he seeks. That
-even the understanding of forms is very imperfect until the life
-expressed through them is recognised and partially understood. That
-fundamental difference of method then, will cover the whole field, and
-will enable us to comprehend the difference of the results.
-
-Now let us try to understand more clearly why it was that the ancient man
-of science was taught that the first step to true knowledge, or wisdom,
-was the unfolding of the Self. What is life or consciousness--for the two
-terms are synonymous? It is the power to answer to vibrations, the power
-to respond--that is consciousness. Evolution is the unfolding of a
-continually increasing power to respond. The whole universe is full of the
-vibrations of Ishvara, of God. He sustains and moves the whole.
-Consciousness is the power in us to answer to those vibrations. All powers
-lie hidden within us as the oak tree lies hidden in the acorn. But it is
-in the process of evolution that the sapling slowly grows out of the seed.
-In Eternity, in the Now, all is existent, perfect; in Time only is there
-succession, the unfolding of one thing after another. In the changeless
-Point everything is present: Space is but the field for diverse sequences.
-Hence Time and Space are the basic illusions, and are yet the fundamental
-conditions of thinking. Keep, I pray you, that definition of consciousness
-in mind, for it will govern the remainder of our study.
-
-The Self in man, being in the image of God, is triple as the Self, the
-Divine, is triple. I need not stop to argue this. You know it from that
-great literature which lies at the foundation of all Hindu Philosophy.
-Whether you speak in abstract terms and say with the Upanishad that
-Brahman is threefold, whether you speak of Him as Sat-chit-ananda, or
-whether, instead of using philosophical, abstract terms, you say He is
-manifest as Ishvara in the Trimurti as Mahadeva, Vishnu and Brahma, it
-matters not. You may take the concrete form or the abstract, the
-fundamental idea is the same: that the Divine Self in manifestation is
-triple, and therefore in every great religion God is spoken of as a
-Trinity. If this were not so, the relationship between God and man would
-remain for ever unintelligible, for man shows a triplicity as he
-evolves. The human reflection of that triple Divine Self is the triple
-Self in man.
-
-One by one are the Divine aspects unfolded as manifestation proceeds.
-The lowest, if I may dare to use such a term, is the aspect which is
-first brought into activity for the building of the universe. So also in
-man the intelligence awakens and becomes active, the lowest aspect of
-the human Self. That is the reflection of Brahma, of the Universal Mind,
-the creative energy from which all comes forth; and you may find in
-yourselves, as you evolve, that creative faculty of imagination which,
-working at present in subtle matter, will, when man is perfect, work in
-grosser matter as well; for the imaginative power in man is the
-reflection of the power that in God created the universe. Brahma
-meditated, and all forms came forth; and in the creative power of mind
-lies every possibility of form. So in man is later evolved the next
-aspect, that of A'nanda, where unity is recognised instead of diversity.
-Chit, in man, is the intelligence that _knows_, that separates and
-divides and analyses, and it has to do with the multiplicity of forms
-and with their inter-relations; A'nanda is the wisdom that realises the
-unity of all things, and that accomplishes union, thus finding the joy
-that lies at the very heart of life; last of all in human evolution, is
-developed the third and highest aspect of Deity, Self-Existence, the
-Unity that lies beyond union, and this can be developed in man only
-because man is one with the Eternal in his nature. By this evolution, in
-ages to come, through the countless kalpas that lie in front, Ishvara
-after Ishvara arises, each as the fruitage of a universe, to carry on
-still more mightily the will of the "One without a second," and to
-manifest something of that perfection to the whole of the then
-manifested nature. Such, very roughly, is the course of human evolution
-into divinity, and this is carried on by races succeeding one another;
-as we come to the higher Root-races of man, to those that we speak of as
-the Fifth, in which we are, the Sixth, that shall succeed us, and the
-Seventh that finishes this cycle of human evolution, we learn that the
-characteristic of each of these three Root-races is that each gradually
-develops that aspect of God which belongs to it in the due sequence of
-evolution. The Fifth is developing the aspect of Chit, Intelligence, the
-mind is being evolved, and all the progress of modern science, so marked
-in our own days, is but part of the fruitage of that evolution, of that
-growth of intelligence which looks on the outer world as not itself--as
-the Not-Self--and seeks to study and understand it. The characteristic
-attributes belonging to the evolution of the two following races are
-even now to be reached by special methods, by individuals who are
-willing to take the pains to make the required sacrifices. That which we
-know as Yoga is the method by which evolution is quickened in the
-individual, and all the powers of the Self, up to the threshold of
-divinity, may by it be brought into manifestation in the man of the
-present. That is why Yoga training was necessary for the ancient
-scientist; he must develop in himself the three aspects of God, if he
-were to understand them as manifested in the universe around him.
-
-Now, at our own stage of evolution, it is specially the life of
-Brahma--or the Brahma aspect of God--with which the human mind is coming
-into touch, because the mind in man is the reflection of the universal
-mind in Kosmos. That life is the life that is the force in the atom,
-that vivifies every atom, nay, that brings the atom into existence, as
-we shall see, and remains during the whole of the growth of the universe
-as the fundamental life that keeps those atoms as active particles
-building up innumerable forms. Only as the life of Brahma, the aspect of
-Brahma, is developed in the human Self will man be able to study the
-workings of that life in the atomic forms that are filled by it; and it
-is very significant that some of the greatest problems of modern science
-are now turning on the nature of the atom, and that scientists are
-asking, what is it? Is it matter or force? Is it a particle or a vortex?
-Never will that question be answered with certainty until man has
-developed in himself the power to respond to the life that thrills in
-the atom, until, developing intelligence within himself to the fullest
-point, he is able to answer by that intelligence to the vibrations of
-the atomic life outside him. We have defined consciousness as the power
-to answer to vibrations, and if man is to measure life, if he is to know
-the underlying causes of phenomena, he must develop in himself the power
-to respond to that life outside him; and in the perfection of human
-intelligence--the reflection of the Brahma aspect of God--lies the only
-possibility of solution for this much debated problem in science. I said
-it was significant, for this problem belongs to the Fifth race, and the
-Western world is at present peopled largely by the fifth sub-race of the
-great Fifth. Thus it takes to the very highest point the concrete mind
-of man, that marvellous activity of the intellect, that swift and yet
-patient study, bringing about the achievements that modern science is
-performing. All these are a testimony of the truth of the ancient
-teaching that sub-race after sub-race arises, each one with its own work
-to do, and we should look on the work of each sub-division of humanity
-as good in itself: each should not be regarded as an isolated and
-hostile expression, but as part of the Divine manifestation, expressing
-that portion which it is destined to express.
-
-Looking thus, then, on the problem of the life that exists in the atom,
-we find that in order to understand it, we must develop the pure
-intellect in man; but to understand the life that clothes itself in
-organic forms, to unravel the secrets which will explain to us why one
-is formed thus and another thus, the next great aspect of the Self must
-be developed within us--that of the all-pervading life of Vishnu, that
-sustains the world as the mighty supporter of everything, the basis, the
-foundation of the whole. There alone is unifying energy and there the
-root from which all divisions have arisen; only as we realise this
-aspect of unifying energy in the Self will the secrets of organised
-forms in nature unravel themselves before our eyes. This work is that of
-the Sixth Root-race, and those who would ante-date their evolution must
-develop Sixth-race powers in themselves by Yoga. Remains one mightier
-problem, subtlest and most difficult of all, that of the life of the
-human spirit, of man evolving into God. The mysteries of that life may
-only be understood when the human Self, which comes forth from the
-Father of all--from the mighty One who is sometimes the Destroyer,
-sometimes the Creator, but always the Regenerator, the name that
-includes them both, Mahadeva, the mighty God who is Sat, Existence--has
-developed the aspect of Sat, of pure Existence, thus becoming the triple
-Unity, a Logos, an Ishvara. That is the work of the Seventh Root-race,
-and when that is accomplished, then only will the final problems of the
-human spirit lie open before our gaze.
-
-The scientific man of antiquity, then, began by that self-attention,
-unfolding in himself one by one all those potentialities under a
-suitable Guru, passing from step to step till he reached the highest,
-and ever worshipping the Mahaguru, the Guru of the universe. Having
-unfolded his highest powers, he began to study life, life in its
-outpouring, not life in its manifold and veiled manifestations in the
-lower worlds. Hence the lofty point at which he started, no less than
-the arising of Ishvara enveloped in Maya.
-
-What is Ishvara? What is Maya? There is the first great problem. Let us
-reverently address ourselves to it. The philosophers of India have
-answered these questions in different ways, each one containing part of
-the eternal truth. Ishvara is that mighty centre of consciousness that
-exists unchanged in the bosom of the One Existence. There are
-innumerable such Centres of Consciousness, of which you may remember
-your own Svami Subba Rao wrote as existing in the bosom of the One
-Existence. Ishvara in manifestation is like a lamp, a light enclosed in
-a shade. Ishvara, enveloped in Maya, brings forth a universe and is
-enclosed, as it were, in the universe of which He is the Light. Breaking
-the shade, the light shines forth in every direction. Dissolving the
-universe, He still remains. The centre remains, but the circumference
-that circumscribed it is gone. So is that mighty centre when the
-universe vanishes; He alone remains, holding His centre unshaken in the
-very act of merging in, expanding into, the Infinite, the Absolute, the
-Super-Consciousness, the One. Let us think of Him as an eternal centre
-of self-consciousness, able to merge in super-consciousness and to
-again limit Himself to self-consciousness.
-
-What, then, is Maya? Maya is prepared in every case by the merging in
-Ishvara of the whole of the universe which is come to its ending. As one
-loka rolls up and merges in the one above it, all forms in the loka thus
-merged disappear, but the consciousness that ensouled those forms does
-not vanish; a modification of consciousness remains, a modification
-expressing itself by a vibratory power--not a vibration, but a power to
-vibrate in a particular way; and though the form vanishes as the loka is
-merged in the one above it--because the matter disappears, being
-disintegrated into finer matter--in consciousness there remains the
-power to vibrate in the way in which it had vibrated in the grosser
-matter, and power persists although the forms caused by such vibrations
-disappear, for lack of material sufficiently coarse to respond to such
-vibrations. As one region passes into the next, this process is repeated
-over and over and over again, and loka after loka vanishes. The forms
-are gone, the vibrations are gone, only the modifications in
-consciousness capable of giving rise to similar vibrations remain until
-finally, when Ishvara--whose consciousness was the one consciousness in
-the universe, whose life was the one life, who supported every form,
-who made the possibility of every separated existence--gathers up His
-universe into Himself ere He merges Himself in the ONE, everything has
-vanished that we know as form, nothing remains save the centre of
-consciousness. There remains in Ishvara the power of vibrating in
-particular fashions, resulting from the evolution of His universe, in
-endless multiplicity of vibrations; when He merges Himself in the One
-Existence all has vanished as form, but powers remain in these subtle
-modifications, preserved in that unchangeable centre in the mightiness
-of the One Life. Is that only a dream?
-
-There was a great teacher, Vasishtha. He taught Rama, as you will
-remember, and in the record of his teaching there are hints on some of
-the mysteries of life. If you keep what I have now said in mind, if I
-have succeeded by the clumsy words which are all that the human tongue
-can utter on these great problems, in clarifying at all your thoughts,
-then just listen to that same thought as expressed by Suryadeva, when he
-was speaking of the same thing--the ending and the new beginning of a
-universe. We have only to add to what I have already said, that when
-Ishvara arises in order that a new universe may be formed, He throws His
-life into these modifications that had apparently disappeared, and the
-Maya in which He arises, enveloped and circumscribed, is His own
-re-vivified memory, which can never be separated from Himself; He draws
-in His consciousness, under the impulse of the Great Breath, limiting it
-to self-consciousness, and turning His attention to the contents of that
-self-consciousness, its powers start into activity, and that is Maya. So
-it is written: "Thereafter, Thou, O Lord, intent on [maintaining] the
-reign of night, fixed within the Self, having indrawn that order of
-things, [or universe.]... To-day, Thou hast awakened, and art most
-joyfully desirous of again throwing out [manifesting] the universe in
-mighty gradations [hierarchies of beings]." [_Yoga Vasishtha_, lxxxvii,
-7, 8.] These nights and days are the "Nights and Days of Brahma," the
-inbreathing and outbreathing of the One Existence, and Maya is this
-indrawn "order of things" that remains fixed through the Night, and
-starts forth as Ishvara awakens at the coming of Day. That is Maya and
-if you take up the definitions given in the different schools, you will
-find that this includes and illumines every one of them, that it shows
-you what is meant by illusion, and explains to you what is implied in
-dreaming. The joyful throwing out into manifestation of all the powers
-that are remembered by Ishvara the moment His attention is turned to
-His own Self, that memory-prompted "desire" which arises in the bosom of
-the Eternal, is the root of the coming universe. Now this thought will
-prove to you the key of much ancient teaching. You have, in the
-Universal Mind full of ideas which are not yet concreted into phenomena,
-the world of ideas of Plato, the invisible world of the Hebrew Kabbalah;
-in every great teaching you find the same thought expressed. If, instead
-of being fettered by words, as for the most part we are, and if, instead
-of repeating phrases that carry with them no idea in the mind of the
-repeater, we would try to read the thought that underlies the words, we
-should find the Hindu philosophy in every modern philosophy that is
-worthy of the name, and see the traces of ancient India in Greece and in
-Rome, in Germany and in the England of to-day.
-
-What is the next stage? The Life-Breath goes forth. Ishvara, the Centre
-of all, enveloped in Maya sends forth His breath; as that vibrating
-breath falls on the enveloping Maya, Maya becomes Prakriti, or
-Matter--rather, perhaps, Mulaprakriti, the root of matter. As that
-breath, with its triple vibratory force falls on this matter, it throws
-it into three modifications, or "attributes"--Tamas, inertia, or better,
-stability; Rajas, activity, vigour; Sattva, a difficult word to
-translate: I am inclined to translate it as Harmony; for this reason,
-that wherever there is pleasure, Sattva is present. Without harmony no
-pleasure can anywhere exist. All pleasure is due to harmonious
-vibration, and that quality of harmonious inter-related vibrations is
-the quality that Sattva gives to matter. These three fundamental
-qualities of matter--answering to three fundamental modifications in the
-consciousness of Ishvara--inertia, activity, and harmony, these are the
-famous three Gunas without which Prakriti cannot manifest. Fundamental,
-essential, and unchangeable, they are present in every particle in the
-manifested universe, and according to their combinations is the nature
-of each particle.
-
-Then comes the seven-fold division. In a moment I will tell you why we
-speak of it as seven-fold instead of five-fold, which is the more
-familiar division to you. The seven-fold division, what is this? Here is
-matter with its three Gunas, now ready to receive another impulse from
-the Life-Breath; that breath comes forth from Brahma, for Ishvara has
-unfolded His triple nature into its three aspects, and it comes forth in
-seven great waves. Each one modifies matter, and evolves and ensouls
-those that follow it. The first two are absolutely beyond our knowing,
-and belong not to our present stages of evolution at all; therefore they
-are ordinarily left out, and only the five that make up the evolution of
-our universe are spoken of in the sacred books. Here and there the seven
-are mentioned, but only rarely. You may remember the seven tongues of
-fire, for instance, and one or two other similar phrases. But generally
-five-fold is Prana, the five-fold evolving life. First, in every case,
-is a modification of consciousness sent forth as a power by Ishvara.
-Turn to the _Vishnu Purana_ and you will see exactly the stage that I am
-pointing out to you in more modern phrases. Ishvara Himself, as Brahma,
-sends forth a power, due to a modification of His consciousness, called
-in the _Vishnu Purana_ a Tanmatra. In the English translation the word
-rudiment is used. You remember the rudiments of sound, of touch, of
-colour, and so on. All these rudiments are the tanmatras. These
-tanmatras are the powers due to modifications in consciousness or life,
-without which no modification in matter can be. The consciousness first,
-then the form. The first great vibration that goes forth is the
-vibration that gives rise to what we speak of here as sound--all our
-terms being drawn from the lowest, or physical, manifestations; the form
-that it brings into manifestation is A'kasha, the mighty element of
-Ether; not the ether of modern science, of course, although that is its
-physical representative. Then into that the next tanmatra, the next
-power due to a modification of consciousness, is sent forth; the
-A'kasha, with the primary vibration within it, receives the second
-vibration sent out by Ishvara, and this, pervading the matter around it,
-brings about the next modification of matter, the element Vayu, or Air.
-Vayu, permeated, ensouled and enveloped in A'kasha, receives a fresh
-impulse from Ishvara, the third tanmatra, or power resulting from a
-modification of consciousness; this tanmatra, working on Vayu, produces
-the modification of matter called the element Agni, or Fire, and this
-fire-matter is permeated, ensouled, and enveloped in Vayu, as Vayu in
-A'kasha. A similar process brings into manifestation the elements Apas
-and Prithivi. The "magnetic field" of an atom is composed of all the
-tanmatras and elements above it. Try to realise this process if you can,
-though I know the conception is difficult. What has occurred? A
-modification of life or consciousness in Ishvara, manifested as a power,
-a vibration; everything depends on vibration; ancient and modern science
-speak alike on this. The universe is made up of vibrations, the
-vibrations which are the modifications of the Divine outpouring of life.
-These clothe themselves in fundamental forms of matter, out of which
-all multiplicity is developed. These modifications in matter, these
-great, or primary, elements are also called tattvas. Tanmatras, then,
-are the powers sent out by modifications of consciousness, and these are
-awkwardly translated by the word rudiments; we have next the
-modifications in matter, the great elements, the primary elements, or
-tattvas. The first of the tattvas is called A'kasha; then Vayu, then
-Agni, then Apas, then Prithivi, the five following one after the other;
-the keynote of this evolution is that the modification of the previous
-higher tattva is reproduced within the lower, pervades it and expands
-outside it. If you will take the _Vishnu Purana_, the second chapter,
-and read over again the evolution of the five tattvas, you will find
-that the Sanskrit word which is used comes from a root which means to
-pervade as well as to enclose, giving the idea of permeation as well as
-of expanding around to form an envelope. And you must understand that
-the central life of each tattva is the preceding tattva with its
-tanmatra; that, with the new tanmatra, makes up the life; and the outer
-form is the new tattva that by that productive action comes into
-existence.
-
-Now leaving that, for I cannot go into further details, let me just say
-to you one word about the seven and the five, because that has been a
-source of great dispute between some of our Hindu Pandits and some of
-our Theosophists. In the universe, taken as a whole, seven-fold is the
-life of Ishvara. Beyond the tattva that we know as A'kasha, there is
-that tattva which has been called Anupadaka, and beyond that A'ditattva,
-the first. Those are far beyond our knowing; we cannot think so far. For
-our life-evolution, the five mark the limit; and only the five,
-therefore, as a rule, are given in the books which are to be studied to
-show you how to evolve.
-
-Rapidly we must pass onward, then, to these tattvas as, modifying
-themselves by aggregations, and by disintegrations and re-combinations
-of these, they make innumerable forms. The fundamental conception is
-that there are as many basic forms of atoms in the universe as there are
-tattvas. The tattva of ancient science is the atom of modern science,
-but modern science makes the mistake of supposing that there is only one
-fundamental atom. The truth is that modern science is only seeking to
-get hold of the Prithivi Tattva, the lowest, or physical, atom, and it
-has not yet recognized even the existence of the four (or six) higher
-atoms that stretch beyond. These atoms form the regions of the universe.
-All that is physical is made up from the Prithivi Tattva. Not only is
-this so, but within the limits of this physical region, correspondences
-of all the higher six atomic forms are reproduced. The sub-divisions of
-the physical region, due to combinations of the Prithivi Tattva, show
-forth the characteristics of the great regions which make up the
-universe; so that we have here in our solid, liquid, gas, three ethers
-and atoms, correspondences of the six higher tattvas, but we have them
-all in their Prithivi form; they are the modifications of Prithivi,
-reproducing on a lower plane the great primary elements. We might call
-them Prithivi A'ditattva, Prithivi Anupadhakatattva, Prithivi
-A'kashatattva, Prithivi Vayutattva, Prithivi Agnitattva, Prithivi
-Apastattva, Prithivi Prithivitattva. Above the region of Prithivi comes
-the great realm of Apas, with similar sub-divisions, all of the
-Apastattva, and so again another seven above that in the higher realm of
-Agni, and above that the same in the still higher realm of Vayu, and
-above that again in the A'kasha, and then the highest two unknown
-realms. When you remember that all these regions interpenetrate the one
-the other, you will gain some glimpse of a complexity dizzying to think
-of, the vast complexity of the universe in which the One Life is
-working. Yet that complexity is simplified by thus working downwards,
-and there is the line of the study of the ancient science. Working out
-from this originally simple life into the endless multiplicity of forms,
-we may trace the One among the many, and see the Self in all things, and
-all things in Him.
-
-At the ending of a universe, the tattvas merge in each other by
-disintegration; Prithivi Tattva, having disintegrated into atoms, these
-atoms are themselves broken up, and the tanmatra that formed them, being
-no longer able to express itself for lack of suitable material, ceases
-to be a power, and remains only represented by a modification in
-consciousness--a permanent possibility. Thus Apas Tattva becomes the
-lowest manifestation, and, by a repetition of the above process, ceases
-to exist. In like fashion each successively vanishes. Hence, Mahadeva is
-represented as saying in the _Shivagama_: "The universe proceeded from
-the tattvas; it goes on through the tattvas; it vanishes into the
-tattvas."
-
-Such is the grandiose conception of the kosmos given by the science of
-antiquity; one life, pulsing into innumerable vibrations, and these
-throwing matter into forms. On this was based the Pythagorean system of
-numbers; on this mathematics and music were founded; on this the "Great
-Science," or Magic, of long-perished nations was built up. That science
-only survives in its purity in the Great White Brotherhood, but its
-traces may yet be seen in the scriptures and the religions of the world.
-
-We take up modern science, and pass into a different atmosphere. Now
-phenomena are to be studied, forms are to occupy our attention. But as
-we look at modern science we find that it is beginning to transcend the
-study of forms; we find the efforts of its greatest men are turned to
-seek unity amid diversity. Do not think that, in speaking of modern
-science as studying forms, I am indifferent to the mighty achievements
-that it has made, or that I would say one word in derogation of the
-ability of the leading men of science, and the priceless value of the
-work that they are doing for humanity. Their achievements during the
-present century are achievements that are worthy of the very deepest
-respect, not only for the "sublime patience of the investigator," of
-which William Kingdon Clifford so rightly spoke, but also for the
-self-abnegation with which many of them have given their lives to follow
-truth, to study in the innermost recesses of the phenomena of nature
-what secrets she has hidden, what may be underneath the "Veil of Isis."
-I do not, then, speak a word against modern science, but I point out to
-you this fact, that the greatest work of science has been the
-generalisations that have been suggested in the attempt to reach
-simplicity, to reduce multiplicity to unity. How far has science gone
-from that generally accepted view of the materialistic school of thirty
-years ago, that the universe is made up of an indefinite number of
-atoms, the atoms being our chemical elements! A phrase from one of the
-most famous of the then leading men of science, Dr. Ludwig Buechner, will
-mark the greatness of the change: he declared that the carbon atom will
-always remain a carbon atom, and has been a carbon atom from all
-eternity; that the hydrogen atom from all eternity has been a hydrogen
-atom, and to all eternity a hydrogen atom it will remain; for atoms with
-their properties are indestructible, and are therefore eternal. What man
-of science would dare to allege that to-day, knowing that he would be
-laughed to scorn by all his scientific brethren; who would say that
-these atoms are eternally of the same nature as they have till now been
-made out to be? What is science in fact, doing as to the atom? It is
-finding in what is called the atom a composite body, a compound, not an
-element. This discovery is chiefly due to the researches of Sir William
-Crookes, who is guided in his investigations by a deeper philosophy of
-the universe than is common among scientists. It is gradually finding
-out that these atoms are things that are built up gradually, and that
-the qualities of atoms are not fixed, but are properties that change
-with every difference of conditions. Late investigations have shown that
-when chemical bodies are submitted to extraordinary conditions of
-cold--such cold as makes the air into a liquid and solidifies hydrogen
-and oxygen--they suffer the destruction of their supposedly permanent
-properties. It is proved that, as these conditions are changed, and as
-lower and lower ranges of temperature are brought to bear upon these
-chemical elements, one by one their eternal properties disappear, and
-they lie there changed in their activities, and lose the characteristic
-traits which enabled them to be discovered as parts of the moving world.
-Downward and downward falls the temperature, property after property
-disappears, until science asks, bewildered, what will happen when we
-reach the absolute zero, what will then become of the properties of
-matter, what will remain of the characteristics of the elements? Is
-there not but one Matter, and are not all chemical elements but
-modifications, aggregations, of this one ultimate matter? Similarly with
-Force, modern science has made the magnificent generalisation that all
-the forces that we know are modifications of one Force, and are
-identical in their essential nature; that heat, and light, and all the
-various forces around us, electricity, magnetism and the rest, that all
-these are but vibrations of varying lengths and activities in a subtle
-medium, and that they may be transmuted the one into the other. They are
-not fundamentally different, but are one and the same in their root. But
-if this be so, if there be but one Matter, if there be but one Force,
-then science is now tending towards unity; and as that unity is traced
-or aimed at, science will have to pass out of the grosser realm of dense
-matter into the realm of forces working in subtle media; and we find
-this wondrous change that, whereas in old days the existence of force
-was argued for inductively, by studying the changes in matter, now
-science is beginning to posit the existence of force and to question
-whether matter is anything more than the action of force. Instead of
-regarding an atom as a solid indivisible particle, the tendency is to
-regard it as a vortex of energy, a centre of force. One writer even goes
-so far as to suggest that an atom is a source "through which an
-invisible fluid is pouring into three-dimensional space." Other atoms,
-"anti-atoms," may be "sinks" through which the fluid pours out. If these
-unite, may not inertia be neutralised as well as gravity? May there not
-be potential matter, and may there not be such in space, without any of
-the attributes which characterise matter, but ready to be vivified and
-form a system of worlds? Here we have H. P. B.'s atoms and laya centres,
-put forward tentatively as a scientific problem. Science is mounting
-into the invisible world and is trying to measure and to weigh that
-which therein it finds. Now this tendency to unity is the testimony to
-the One that underlies all manifestation; only one Force, only one
-Matter; endless diversity of forces, transmutable into each other;
-endless diversity of forms, which break up again to recombine; only one
-Force under all forces, one Matter under all forms. It is seen that the
-very fact of harmony and of evolution points to a root unity, and that
-eternally independent self-moving particles would only perpetuate a
-chaos.
-
-As science travels along this most hopeful line, we find great changes
-are arising in the nature of the studies that are being carried on, and
-we have that wonderful theory of Sir William Crookes of the genesis of
-the elements. He takes protyle as a starting-point, which is really Vayu
-in its form on this physical plane--Prithivi Vayu--and out of that
-builds one atom after another, making all the chemical elements to be
-bodies aggregated together by the action of a positive and a negative
-force. Let me just remind you of this, because some amongst you go so
-eagerly after modern science and despise your own literature. If you had
-read your _Vishnu Purana_, with your brain, and not merely with your
-eyes through modern spectacles, you might have learnt that theory of Sir
-William Crookes long, long before he gave it. He has drawn a picture,
-and the picture shows an immovable axis, and around it a spiral coil,
-and at points in that coil are atoms of the chemical elements, generated
-by that coil which represents a swinging and cooling force. That spiral
-is in the great ocean of protyle, or primeval matter, and, as that
-spiral goes round and round the immovable axis, it generates chemical
-elements one after another, and so brings into existence the materials
-out of which the world is to be formed. That is the dry scientific
-statement summarised from his own address. But I have read in an ancient
-book of a mountain--which is the emblem of stability, of an axis round
-which everything is to revolve--thrown into a mighty ocean; and I have
-read of a great serpent turned round that mountain in spiral coils; on
-the one side the Suras are pulling and on the other side the Asuras are
-equally busy. Between the two--the positive and negative of modern
-science--evolution is started and the serpent spiral begins to turn and
-turn round that axis. They call the axis Mount Mandara, and they call
-the spiral coil the serpent Vasuki while the axis rests on Hari as a
-pivot; they call the positive and the negative forces the Gods and
-Demons, and their churning of the ocean gives rise to the materials of
-the universe. Aye! That is from the seer, who, looking at the ocean of
-matter, described pictorially what the eyes of the spirit beheld there;
-while the other is the dry scientific statement of the modern thinker,
-who works out his magnificent generalisation as the result of his study
-of the forms. The seer and the scientist have met.
-
-I shall show you, when I come to deal with life, that modern science is
-coming towards our view of life. I shall give you, from the latest
-declarations of our modern scientific teachers, points which will show
-you how they are climbing towards the ancient view which is found in our
-sacred books; and I will now finish this first part of our subject this
-morning by one plea addressed to all of you, which I would pray you to
-think over at your leisure.
-
-There is but One Life, the Life of God, within everything in His universe.
-No life save His life, no consciousness save His consciousness, no
-thought save His thought. This is our glory; for inasmuch as we are in
-His image, we can answer to the vibrations of His thinking, and can
-reproduce in our minds that which He has initiated in order that we may be
-evolved. In all the different parts of this universe, different lines of
-evolution are going on; the sun is doing part of it, the vegetable world
-another part, the animal world another, the world of man another; but in
-the world of man there is more diversity, because there Self-consciousness
-is arising. The final image of the Supreme on earth is man; in man alone
-is the highest life; the others are climbing towards it, but in them it
-has not yet evolved. Therefore in man there is more difference; therefore
-in man, for the time, more separation; therefore in man the great danger
-of antagonism that the lower kingdoms know not, because they are not
-sufficiently evolved. Then comes the conflict: I take my own poor
-reflection of one tiny bit of thought of Ishvara, and I say: "This is
-Ishvara Himself," and not my poor thought of Him; "Worship this as I see
-it," that is, "Worship me instead of Ishvara, and my thought of Him
-instead of Him." So man after man puts up his idea of God as God, and we
-see all the world divided into many forms of thought and of worship. Then
-a man imagines that his brother men are worshipping other Gods, and he
-becomes anxious and troubled, not realising that Gods are many because we
-are worshipping our own thoughts of God instead of God, our own limited
-representations instead of the Universal Self. Nay more--I, perhaps, not
-only say to you that you must worship my conception of God instead of your
-own, that my knowledge is the limit of manifestation, that my small
-fancies make up the universe instead of the infinite diversity that alone
-can represent His might; but perhaps I go further and say: "If you do not
-worship my idea of God, you are outcaste, you are alien, you belong to a
-different faith, you belong to a different creed; stand outside; for I am
-orthodox, you are heretic and blasphemous your faith." So speaks religion
-after religion, fanatic after fanatic; so one man after another makes his
-own reflection the God of the universe, and hence antagonises his
-brethren, whose representations of the divine image are as necessary to
-its completeness as his own.
-
-That is what I ask you to realise. God cannot be expressed wholly in you
-or in me, in our miserable limitations, in our poverty of thought, in
-our wretchedness of impudent assumption. He can only be even partially
-expressed by all the worlds together; His whole universe is His mirror,
-and every fragment in the universe gives back to Him, in part His own
-perfections. Is it not nobler, greater, more glorious, to be a fragment
-of a perfect whole, making a part of the whole unity itself, subserving
-it in mirroring Ishvara, than to be shut in with our own fragment of a
-looking glass, trying vainly to make it perfectly reflect the whole, and
-refusing any partial reflection of the perfect in our brethren on every
-side? That is the thought which these lectures will embody, and they
-will fail in their purpose if they do not carry it home to your minds.
-For Ishvara, who is Existence and Intelligence, is also A'nanda, Joy,
-Bliss inexpressible, and that Bliss is only realized when union is
-consciously accomplished, when the whole is known as one. May I but help
-you to see the Self in all things: what better service may man do for
-man?
-
-
-
-
-[SECOND LECTURE.]
-
-THE FUNCTIONS OF THE GODS.
-
-
-My Brothers:--Those of you who are familiar with your own sacred
-literature will know how great a part is played therein by those
-spiritual Intelligences who are spoken of as the Devas, or Gods. As I
-said yesterday, the existence, the presence, and the working of these
-Intelligences in the administration of nature, in the carrying out of
-the will of Ishvara, are recognised in every great faith that the world
-has known. The Hindu speaks of them sometimes as Suras, sometimes as
-Devas; the Hebrew, the Christian, the Mussulman, speak of them as Angels
-and Archangels, making the distinction between the higher and the lower;
-the Zoroastrian also recognises their work, speaking of them as
-Feristhas; and so, in each of the great religions, we find the presence
-of these workers in the Kosmos recognised, and we see their functions
-defined. Now it is exceedingly important, especially perhaps for the
-Hindu, to understand how wide is the area of their working, how general
-their functions, for no subject perhaps is more often made a subject for
-attack by those who desire to injure the ancient religion of India, than
-the actions of the Gods as detailed in the sacred books. You will
-continually find that those actions are being misunderstood or
-mis-represented. The mis-representation, one may always hope, is not
-deliberate and conscious. It is due to the general materialism of the
-age. It is due to the fact that men who believe in a religion nominally
-do not realise the effect of that religion in their consciousness. So
-that while a man may say that he believes in Angels and Archangels and
-so on, he leads his life as though they did not exist. Among our
-Christian brothers there is considerable difference of opinion with
-regard to these Angels. In the different sections of the great Christian
-community, the vast majority of those that profess Christianity--making
-up the old Greek Church, sometimes called the Eastern Christian Church,
-and those who are numbered in the Roman Communion, the Roman Catholic
-Church, the two ancient Churches which have preserved an unbroken
-antiquity and an unbroken tradition from the time of Christ and His
-Apostles--have maintained and maintain, uninjured and complete, the
-ancient belief in the ministry of angels. They really lead their lives
-as recognising the part that is played in the world by the angelic
-hosts, and not only do they regard the Archangels as the great rulers of
-animated nature--the seven chief Archangels taking the place of the
-seven Gods in other faiths--but they also recognise the lower host of
-angels as concerned continually in administering natural laws, in
-guiding human evolution; and indeed they go so far as to say that every
-individual man is in special charge of a guardian angel, who ministers
-to him from the cradle to the grave, who tries to help him in danger, to
-advise him in temptation, to protect him in peril, to ward off all the
-evils levelled against him, and who, helping him through the gateway of
-death, accompanies him on the other side through the invisible world,
-until he surrenders up his charge into the hands of Christ Himself. The
-Protestant communities, however, breaking off as they did, roughly and
-abruptly, from the ancient tradition, full of occult truth, have lost,
-among many other valuable things, this real belief in the work of the
-angels. Most members of the Protestant communities, while they
-acknowledge the existence of the angels and vaguely regard them as
-"ministers of God," have no very definite idea of the part that they
-play in the world. They do not address them, as do the Roman Catholics
-and the Greeks. They do not pay them reverence and homage day by day,
-or look on them as helpers, as intelligences superior to themselves,
-always willing to render assistance. Practically the angels have passed
-out of their lives, so far as any conscious realisation of their
-presence is concerned; and I cannot help thinking that the loss is a
-very serious loss when you are dealing with spiritual evolution; the
-whole idea of the Supreme tends to become degraded and anthropomorphised
-when the intermediate agents are forgotten, and when every petty concern
-of human life is, as it were, thrown directly under the immediate
-superintendence of the Supreme. We must not, of course, in recognising
-the working of the Gods, or the Devas, as I shall call them for the rest
-of the lecture, lose sight of the unity of the Supreme Deity. We do not,
-in Hinduism, deny or ignore the existence of Ishvara because we
-recognise the hosts of the Devas; we do not cloud our belief in the One
-because we recognise the innumerable hosts of the ministers of His will;
-there is nothing more against the unity of God in the recognition of the
-hosts of the Devas, than there is in recognising the diversity of men,
-yet it is not pretended that we are clouding the unity of the Divine
-Existence when we recognise the hosts of individuals who make up the
-whole of humanity. It is mere prejudice or ignorance that makes any one
-think that because the Hindu recognises the action of the Devas,
-therefore he has lost his belief in the One Existence beyond even
-Ishvara Himself, in the fundamental unity that underlies diversity. What
-he does is, that instead of regarding the world as superintended by an
-extra-kosmic God, separated as it were from His universe, with a mighty
-gulf existing between Him and it, he sees in Ishvara the manifestation
-of the one Life that pervades and sustains all, he sees in Ishvara the
-one Root out of which all separated existences spring; and he sees,
-stretching between himself and that Supreme, innumerable hosts of
-Intelligences, step after step, rank after rank, and he looks to
-climbing up that celestial ladder until he also stands at its very top;
-for he knows that he also is divine, although as yet in an early stage
-of evolution, and he recognises the more highly evolved divinity above
-him, as he recognises the divinity in the stone beneath his feet, in
-everything that exists in this universe of God.
-
-With that beginning, so that our study may not lead to a misconception,
-let us pass on to ask what are the functions of these Devas, of these
-Intelligences, who work in the world. You will at once realise that the
-functions must be very different, according to the grade of the Devas
-that we may happen to be studying. Through the whole of the Kosmos they
-are working. Some are very lofty, some are very little evolved above the
-level of humanity. One great difference there is between us and them,
-that whatever may be the grade of their mental, emotional, and spiritual
-life, they do not, normally, use a physical body. That is a clear mark
-or line of separation. The being functioning as man, while spiritual,
-intellectual and emotional, uses a physical body, in order to carry on
-the activities connected with the physical world. All the hosts of Devas
-are without that physical covering or vehicle; they normally use as
-their vehicle a body which belongs to the particular region in the
-universe in which their normal activities lie. Suppose, for instance,
-that a Deva belongs essentially to the spiritual world, he will normally
-use a spiritual body; if he wants to function on the manasic plane, he
-will create for himself a temporary manasic body, drawing together for
-this purpose the matter of that plane and holding it as his vehicle
-during the period of his functioning thereupon; if he wants to function
-in the kamic region, he will draw together the material of that region
-and make of it for himself a temporary body; if he wants to function
-visibly in the world of man, he will draw round himself the matter of
-the physical plane, and make for himself a body suitable to the
-immediate purpose that he has in view. So with every other grade. The
-Devas of the manasic world use normally the manasic body, and create the
-kamic or physical body as they may want a temporary vehicle. Those of
-the karmic region use the karmic body normally, and create a physical
-vehicle when they require it. Thus, in every case, the Deva's ordinary
-body is composed of the matter of the region of the universe to which he
-belongs; but he has always the power to create any vehicle that he needs
-for carrying out any purpose with which he is charged. This will perhaps
-suggest to you one reason for the great variety of forms which a single
-God may assume. Those whose inner sight is developed, who can see in the
-regions which to ordinary men are invisible, say that the Gods use many
-forms. And some of their forms have come down traditionally, described
-originally perhaps by a great Rishi, preserved by his disciples, then
-thrown into some form of earth, or stone, or metal, painted or
-sculptured as the case may be; then such an image of the God is handed
-down generation after generation, and represents that Deva under that
-particular form to his worshippers. We find many forms for one Deva,
-just because of the fact that the God makes the form he wants for the
-particular work he has upon hand, and that none of those forms bind him.
-They are merely transitory vehicles created for a definite purpose. Some
-of these forms are indeed relatively permanent, partly because of the
-worship which is addressed to them. For the Deva will often graciously
-use a particular form in order to meet the thought of his worshippers.
-Suppose for instance, taking a lofty example, that Shri Krishna willed
-to reveal Himself to some Bhakta of His, in order that that devotee
-might have the joy of consciously realising the presence of his Lord, He
-then most certainly would clothe Himself in the form which that Bhakta
-was in the habit of worshipping and which drew up the deepest emotions
-of his heart. For these forms are taken for the very purpose of
-stimulating devotion, for the very object of attracting the heart by
-presenting the illimitable Deity in some conditioned form which the
-concrete mind of man is able more or less to grasp, to understand, to
-admire and to worship. You cannot love the void of space. You cannot fix
-your heart on the depths of infinity; you deceive yourself if, with your
-limited intelligence, untrained even in the lowest forms of Yoga, you
-think that you can realise Brahman, the Supreme. Too often when we speak
-of THAT, no real thought responds to our speaking; the lips speak, not
-the intelligence or the heart. Step by step we have to climb from the
-manifested to the unmanifested, and, in His compassionate love, God
-veils Himself in forms of beauty to attract the human heart, in order
-that the human heart may rise adoringly to His Feet, and that some
-portion of His life, pouring down thereinto, may enable the Self of the
-worshipper to realise even partially its unity with Him.
-
-The Devas, then, in their many ranks and divisions, perform functions
-according to their grade. Speaking generally, their work in the world is
-to guide evolution according to the design of Ishvara. That really sums
-up their functions, although we are going to study them in detail. I say
-nothing of the vast functions of the higher Devas that lie beyond our
-knowing, beyond the teaching that Rishis have given. I deal only with
-those lower functions that are concerned with our world, and with the
-solar system of which our world is part. Taking that limitation,
-suitable to our ignorance, we can study some of the functions of the
-Gods within the limits of our solar system.
-
-Speaking generally, as I said, that function is to guide evolution, to
-adapt, to correlate, to carry out the living will of the Supreme, and to
-carry out that will by bringing together in time and space all the
-agents and conditions necessary for carrying it out. There is only one
-supreme Will that guides the universe, and that Will points steadily to
-progress, to the goal set forth for the universe, the goal towards which
-it is evolving. Unchangeable, stable, perpetual, that Will knows no
-swerving; to use a Christian phrase, "there is no shadow of turning" in
-that immutable Will. The universe rolls along the road traced out by the
-Divine Will. It cannot be diverted from that road; it cannot change its
-path; that is the law of the universe, the law on which we rest with
-faith unshakable. But in the working out of the law in this universe
-where men are evolving--men in whom is the germ of that same sovereign
-and imperial Will of God, man being made in the Divine image and
-containing within himself the germ of the Divine powers--in this
-universe, as man evolves, wills also evolve which are separate,
-personal, individual. All the confusion in the world of man is due to
-this evolution of the separated wills that do not recognise their root
-in God, but try to follow their own diverse ways, and want to move after
-their own separated fashions; so that in the world of man, as nowhere
-else in nature, you have discord instead of harmony, clash instead of
-peace, struggle and war instead of tranquillity. The world of minerals
-obeys the compulsion of the law; the world of vegetables obeys the
-compulsion of the law; the world of animals obeys the compulsion of the
-law; but when man arises, man in whom the Supreme is to be developed
-after he has climbed through the lower stages, in man there awakens the
-germ of the will, and the separated wills bring about the discord which
-will yet end in something greater and richer than the harmony of the
-stones, of the vegetables, of the animals. For when human evolution is
-over, millions of separated wills will join in one mighty chord of
-harmonious union, and that union of the wills that voluntarily give
-themselves is mightier in its powers, more beautiful in its expression,
-than compelled obedience can ever be. The music that humanity sends up
-to God, in all its varied melody, is a far more perfect expression of
-Divinity than can be drawn from the monochord that we find in the lower
-kingdoms of nature; but you will readily understand that when these
-warring wills arise, something, some one, is wanted in order to adapt,
-to correlate, to bring about equilibrium among the contending forces, so
-that the one purpose may be steadily subserved. Let me take a concrete
-illustration. Suppose I had here a ball which I want to move. That ball
-can be moved along a straight line in innumerable ways. I might give it
-a single impulse in the direction in which I want it to move; and it
-would move straight on in that direction following my primary impulse.
-So would the universe move if it contained only minerals, vegetables and
-animals, if there were no clashing wills within it, if it were within
-the iron grip of compulsion, which never in any fashion could be
-resisted. But I can equally well drive my ball along that straight line,
-if I know enough of physics, by correlating different and opposed
-forces. I may send two forces against it at a particular angle, and if
-my angle be properly measured according to the strength of the forces,
-then the ball will travel along the same line by the interaction of the
-two forces as well as by the impact of the one; and I may bring three,
-or four, or five, or a million forces, to bear upon that ball, and still
-it will move along that one definite line, if only the forces are
-calculated and balanced so that their resultant shall always be a force
-along that straight line. That balancing is one of the functions of the
-Gods. They take these warring wills, these different directions that are
-being impressed, as it were, on the rolling world that is going along
-the road of evolution; they balance, adapt, and correlate them, and thus
-always keep the world travelling along the straight line, always
-bringing about the same resultant, the accomplishment of the Will of the
-Supreme; without them, these wills of ours would work infinite
-confusion, and the world would never complete its evolution, would never
-roll upwards to its place at the Feet of God.
-
-We find the Gods discharging other functions which subserve the same
-purpose. They mould the forms in which the growing life is to express
-itself. Evolution depends upon the growing power of the unfolding life,
-but it needs forms whereby that growth shall be carried on. These forms
-are moulded by the Devas, so that the life, which breaks by expansion
-its containing form that is out-worn, may have another form into which
-to go fitted for the capacity that was evolved in the form it has
-out-grown. We shall find also that they break up forms as well as build
-them; being always fixed on the one object of serving the evolution of
-the life. Then again they act as teachers, as guides, as councillors, to
-those that have gone beyond the normal evolution, that are the first
-fruits of the human race. Not acting as teachers directly to the masses,
-they take the more advanced human beings in charge, directly instruct
-them, test them and try them, as presently we shall see. So that while
-the general purpose is the helping forward of evolution, this help is
-rendered in a million ways, according to the needs of the time.
-
-Now, in the past, this working of the Gods was recognised, and the
-sacred books are full of it. They showed themselves continually among
-men, they carried on their work, as it were, in the full blaze of day.
-But now no longer do they show themselves to men at large, and many have
-forgotten even their existence, and very many people, even in India,
-materialised by the thought in which they have been trained, are half
-ashamed to say that they believe in the existence and the working of the
-Devas. The unbelief makes no difference, save to those who disbelieve.
-The working of the Gods remains ever the same. They are ever busy in
-carrying out the Supreme Will. Only they do not show themselves, and to
-those alone who recognise their existence and their work will they
-manifest themselves. If in the old days they showed themselves as they
-do not now, it was because men then had reverence and love and were
-willing to bow down to those who were wiser and greater than themselves;
-because then democracy was not reigning; because then the ignorant did
-not think themselves equal to the learned, nor did man deem himself
-equal to the Gods. In those days, because they could help they came to
-the helping; but they will never come visibly again to earth until men
-have learnt to reverence once more what is above them, and to understand
-their place in the Kosmos, to worship as well as to command. The Gods
-work all the same. They are not deprived of their functions by our
-folly, by our conceit, by our ignorance. Only they work unseen, and we
-forfeit the sweet comfort of their visible presence, the strength and
-joy of the old heroic days, the dignity of conscious companionship with
-the Immortals, the ever-renewed assurance of super-physical life. Not
-one death that happens on our earth, but a God has struck away that body
-whose work is over; not one "natural catastrophe," but a God has guided
-it to the happening; not one help given to a man in need, but a God is
-the agent behind the visible helper; not one answer to the cry of man in
-his distress, that is not the response of a God to human sorrow.
-Everywhere they are working. Everywhere they are bringing about what we
-see as dead mechanical nature. Every phenomenon is the veil of a God,
-and there is nothing done in which an Intelligence does not take part.
-
-Seven are the great Gods below the Trinity, below the Trimurti. Every
-religion, again, acknowledges these Seven. The Christian speaks of the
-"Seven Spirits that are before the throne of God." The Zoroastrian
-tells us of the seven Ameshaspendas who rule the world. The Chaldean
-spoke of the seven great Gods. Five only are working and two are
-concealed, for the universe is in process of evolution and only five
-stages of it have been reached. Therefore only with regard to five can
-we definitely speak as to working. The two concealed are beyond our
-knowing; they are related to future stages of the evolution of the
-Kosmos. But the five we will now consider. Their names in connection
-with their functions you know well enough. They are connected with the
-tattvas of which we were speaking yesterday--the Lord of A'kasha, Indra;
-the Lord of Air, Vayu; the Lord of Fire, Agni; the Lord of Water,
-Varuna; the Lord of Earth, sometimes called Kshiti (various names are
-used for him); each of these great Gods has what we may call one region
-marked out for his working. The matter of that region is the matter in
-which he works; but in addition to that, each one is represented in the
-realms of the others by a sub-division on which his impression is
-especially made. These are the great kosmic planes that I have spoken of
-marked off from each other by the tattvas. But if we come down to the
-physical plane, dealing only with Prithivi Tattva, we shall then find
-that that is also seven-fold in division and that we have physical
-solid, physical earth or Prithivi, physical water or Apas, physical fire
-or Agni, physical air or Vayu, physical ether or A'kasha. Each of these
-great Gods works on each plane through the medium that corresponds to
-the region which belongs to him in the Kosmos as a whole. How often we
-see those correspondences as it were printed in physical nature. We have
-light with its seven sub-divisions as seen in the solar spectrums
-showing the seven colours, and the scale with its seven notes. Colours
-and notes alike result from vibrations, and are determined by the number
-of vibrations occurring in a unit of time. As the universe is built by
-vibrations, colour and sound are factors of the universe at large, and
-every region is said to have its own colour; the God of that region has
-his colour--dependent on his vibratory force--which he imprints on the
-region over which he rules; so that if a Rishi looks at the solar system
-from a higher plane, he not only hears the seven fundamental notes of
-music, making "the harmony of the spheres," but he sees a gorgeous
-display of colours, as the sphere of every great Deva with his own
-colour interpenetrates the others, yielding an iridescent splendour of
-interfering radiances, the marvellous "rainbow that is round the throne
-of God." Such mystic expressions have lost their meaning for the
-majority, because the sight of those who wrote them is but little
-developed in these days, and few are they who can see as the seer saw of
-old.
-
-Each of these great Gods has under him a host of subordinate Gods who
-carry out his decrees. The constitution of an ordinary state will give
-you a very good picture of the government of the solar system. We have
-at the head an Emperor or an Empress; then the officers who represent
-that supreme authority in separate divisions of the realm; there is the
-one central authority over the whole, and the officers who wield it in
-different areas of the Empire. Then these officers are graded in rank,
-and we have higher and subordinate Ministers, Judges, Magistrates, in
-descending order, each with a smaller and smaller district to
-administer, the functions of each becoming more limited as you descend
-the official ladder; and each responsible to his official superior. That
-is really a very good picture of the government of the solar system; the
-head of all is Ishvara Himself; His Viceroys are the great Gods, each
-with his own vast area over which he rules, and each with his official
-hierarchy under him, until you come down to the lowest Devas, who carry
-on the work in the limited area of a village of the solar system.
-
-Such is the outline, then, of the functions. The next thing to grasp is,
-that, when we see on this plane in which our consciousness is
-working--the physical plane--any one of these fundamental forms of
-manifestation, we should try to realise the presence of the God behind
-the material phenomenon. Not a fire that burns upon the earth, whether
-the fire of the volcanic mountain, whether the fire ranging through the
-vast forest, whether the fire burning on the household hearth, or on the
-sacrificial altar, that is not Agni in manifestation, with the
-possibility of his powers coming into visibility. They were not
-dreamers, they who bade you of old keep safe the fire, the household
-fire which husband and wife at the bridal kindled, and which, when the
-life of the married was over in the home, they still carried out into
-the forest; they carried with them the fire, and it took with them the
-presence of the God, who through the household life had blessed, had
-guided, had given prosperity and made the final withdrawal from the
-household life possible and desirable. That is one of the many truths
-which modern India is losing.
-
-But when these things were believed in, and the ceremonies connected
-with them were carried on, then nature worked in a definite order, and
-there were not the same continual irregularities that we have in our
-modern days. By that harmonious working between man and the Gods, nature
-answered to man as man answered to nature; while man did his duty,
-nature in her turn did her duty also; the failure of rain, the failure
-of crops, the failure of sunshine, the presence of plague, or of any
-other form of human misery, was seen as having its root in the failure
-of humanity; and man turned dutifully to that which he had neglected,
-and thus readjusted the balance which his irregularity had displaced.
-Let us try and see, as an example, one concrete working in what we call
-natural evolution. We will turn to the great God Varuna. He works
-through water; every manifestation of water is his, whether on the
-physical or on any other plane, in any of the forms that it may
-take, for what we call "water" is naturally the lowest, coarsest
-manifestation, his physical body, as it were. He works with it in nature
-in endless ways--to dissolve, to combine, to dissociate. When we take
-the greater workings, how very grand is the conception we may gain of
-the might of the God. Come back with me, far back, into the past, ere
-humanity had taken form; there see the world as it then was; see how, as
-fire and water, Agni and Varuna are working on every material to fit the
-world to be the birthplace of the yet unborn humanity. See how Varuna
-is working in order to prepare what is wanted of mountain and of
-valley, of river and of plain; see the might of his work as well as that
-of his brother Agni, in apparent clash but really in harmony; fire and
-water meet, explode, and toss up a mountain-chain where before there was
-none; see how he gathers snow on the mountain peaks, and gradually fills
-with masses of this snow, frozen into ice, the mountain ravines made by
-the combined volcanic action; see how the slow ploughing begins;
-ploughing, ploughing and ploughing again, as the mighty God works onward
-in the form of glaciers, grinding his furrow through the earth, and
-preparing for the future; see, ages later, how the channel cut out by
-the glacier is filled by the tumbling cataracts from melted snow, and a
-turbulent torrent rolls downwards, and against its resistless waves
-nothing is able to stand; the valley dug out by the plough of the ice is
-filled with water, and from it the soil is gradually deposited, which in
-the future will make fertile land for crops in order that man may live.
-Then Varuna binds his waters into a narrower and narrower channel, until
-there is mountain range and valley and a river flowing through it: and
-he carries his river downwards and pours it into the sea and his brother
-Agni draws it up again to form the clouds. There has come by that
-mighty action, destructive as it seems in appearance, the building of
-the plain and the valley where men shall live and love, where children
-shall be playing, where horses shall graze, where corn shall grow and
-ripen in the sunshine, and where, on the peaceful banks of the river,
-men shall worship the God who made possible their happy life.
-
-We talk about the "cruelty of nature." Let us try and understand what
-this cruelty means. The world now is inhabited. Crowds of men are here,
-and lo! the river, that made the habitation of the valley possible and
-keeps it fruitful, now overflows its banks and the mighty flood sweeps
-away village and town, men, women, children, and cattle, and only
-desolation is left behind. What is this? Is this horror a divine
-working? What is this that Varuna has done? Varuna is working for
-evolution. His thought is not fixed on the forms in which the life is
-cabined, but on the life that is evolving within them, which can make
-for itself new forms. When those men are swept away, it is only the
-breaking of the forms that happens; the life up-springs uninjured and
-set free; for the body is the prison-house of the evolving life, and if
-the prison doors were never thrown open, we should be in jail all our
-lives and make no progress for the future. The God to whom form is
-nothing and life everything, to whom form is but a changing, convenient
-vehicle, and the life that moulds the form is the one thing that is
-worthy of thought, he strikes away the form when its purpose is
-completed; to him such destruction is the act of mightiest charity; it
-is the deed most helpful to evolution. We err, my brothers, when we look
-on death with eyes that are full of tears, with hearts that are
-breaking. Death is he who brings us to a higher birth, and who sets free
-the imprisoned soul; it is the liberation of the bird confined within
-the limits of a cage, enabling it to soar upwards into the heavens,
-singing, as it goes, with joy at the freedom it has recovered. Does that
-seem strange? Let us take an illustration from the _Mahabharata_:--
-
-There was a council among the Gods in Svarga, how some of them would
-take incarnation upon earth for the sake of helping men at a great
-crisis in the world's history. Great men were needed, and the question
-arose whether some of the Gods were willing to bind themselves within
-the limits of human form, in order to give special help to human
-progress; among those who were needed for the work that was coming was
-the son of Soma Deva, Varchas, as he was called, and the Gods desired
-that this Deva should be born on earth. Soma Deva hesitated. He was not
-willing that his son should leave him and the heavenly life, and
-although he finally consented that he should be born as Abhimanyu, the
-son of Arjuna, it was only on the condition that he should live but for
-sixteen years, and be killed in the great battle of Kurukshetra. You
-say, what a strange view of life! What an extraordinary condition for
-love to make, that this youth should die at the age of sixteen, in the
-very flower of his dawning manhood, should die a death of violence. Yet
-that was the will of the one who loved him best, for heaven sees with
-different eyes from earth. Soma saw the life, and cared not for the
-form; to a God the form is a prison, death is the gaoler that liberates;
-hence the condition was made that only for sixteen years might the
-divine youth live a human life, and then "my son of mighty arms shall
-come back to me," and that from a battle field, dying gloriously in the
-midst of the fight.
-
-Do you know that sometimes the swamping of a civilisation by a natural
-convulsion--such as the going down of Atlantis below the waves of the
-ocean that we now call the Atlantic, the wiping out of the whole nation
-or race--is the best proof of love that the Supreme Ishvara through His
-intermediate agents can show to the lives therein embodied. For there
-are stages in the world's story where man is so passionately set on a
-line of action that is against his real progress, when he so
-determinately sets his desires on objects that hold him back and delay
-his evolution, that the only mercy that the Gods can show him is to
-break his form in pieces, and give him as it were a new start for the
-evolving of himself--the life. Sometimes I have felt, as I have gone
-through some of the miseries of our great cities in the West, when, in
-the pursuance of my duty, I have gone with breaking heart through the
-slums of eastern and southern London, or through those of Glasgow, or
-Edinburgh, or Sheffield, as I have noted the types of men and women
-around me, as I have seen the human almost veiled by the brute, and
-humanity degraded well-nigh beyond possibility of recognition, that no
-appeal for help was fitting save one that would set free that imprisoned
-life. I have felt that nothing save the destruction of the forms could
-give any hope for those imprisoned within them; that for those men and
-women, as they were, degraded, brutal, drunken, profligate, their very
-forms with the impress of the animal, the best mercy that God could show
-them would be an earthquake that would swallow the whole great city and
-set free the lives pent hopeless within it. For not one life would be
-lost, not one life would pass away, but they would be set free to go
-into somewhat less unplastic forms and give scope for that divine
-working towards evolution, which is in extreme cases only possible when
-the forms, forms of evil, are gone. We speak sometimes of the training
-of children being easier than that of grown-up people, because they are
-more plastic. So also the Gods want oftentimes the child-ego in the
-plastic form instead of in the prison-house grown rigid by age; and they
-therefore break that environment in order that the young life may grow.
-
-Another great function of the Gods is the dealing with the karma of
-nations, "collective karma," as it is sometimes called. Suppose a nation
-is acting in its collective capacity--I am not now thinking of the
-individuals brought into it by their individual karma but of the nation
-acting as a unit--and suppose it commits a crime against another nation.
-There has been one working of karma so tremendous during the last year,
-that I will take it as an illustration--Spain. Some centuries ago Spain
-was at the summit of her power; mighty was she among the western
-nations. There was sent to her, in order to help her forward, the gift
-of new knowledge. It came truly in a somewhat unacceptable guise, for it
-came from Arabia, with the stamp of Muhammed upon it; it was brought by
-the children of Islam; they brought the light of science with them,
-and, as they established themselves in southern Spain, they gave that
-light to Spain. Universities were established. Large classes were
-formed. From every part of Europe men come crowding to the Schools of
-Cordova, and there they learnt the beginnings of the Science that has
-since grown into so mighty a tree in western lands. What did Spain do?
-Spain called up against these Moors, and against the Hebrews--who also
-were learned in the learning of the East--the frightful weapons of the
-Inquisition, the stake, the rack, the dungeon, the torture of exile. Who
-can count the hundreds of thousands driven out from home, the broken
-families, the miseries, the poverty and starvation intolerable, which
-marked the expulsion of the Jews and of the Moors from Spain? Still her
-karma of success was not complete. Across the Atlantic ocean she sped,
-Italy lending one of her sons for the glory of the Spanish Empire. In
-the wake of the ships of Columbus there followed the ships of the
-conquerors of America, full of Spanish soldiers. I cannot dwell on the
-story of the conquest of Mexico, and the still more terrible conquest of
-Peru; I have no time to wring your hearts, as I might, with the tale of
-the destruction of a great civilisation, of the killing out of the last
-exquisite traces in Peru of one of the most perfect civilisations that
-our world has ever known, of the crushing of the gentle Indian race
-there by chains, by imprisonment, shut out from the glorious Sun whose
-children their Incas were. Too gentle to struggle, accustomed only to a
-life of flowers, of music, and of sunshine, they were crammed into caves
-that they were made to dig in ancient cliffs, dying by thousands upon
-thousands in the digging out of the gold and silver which their Spanish
-conquerors demanded, until the very name of the ancient nation perished,
-and only a few scattered Peruvian Indians remained to represent what was
-one of the fairest civilisations of the world. Such was the karma made
-by Spain in the days of her glory, and the horror of her conquests sank
-into the oblivion of the past. But do the Gods forget? Nay, their memory
-is perfect. They are the administrators of the divine law, and give the
-harvest to the sowers. From the very country which they outraged, from
-the very land that they conquered, a new nation springs up as the
-centuries go on to take up the old struggle between the two hemispheres,
-and to-day we have seen America and Spain closing again in the
-death-grip, but the scale of balance is now weighed down on the other
-side, and America becomes the karmic agent for working out the woes of
-the Aztecs and the Peruvians, and for driving from the western
-hemisphere the nation that there outraged humanity in the centuries
-gone by. Thus the Gods are needed to bring nations together to balance
-up these accounts between the races, and so to restore equilibrium once
-again. Thus they work, using men as their agents, and they bring about
-these national results. Partly they do it by bringing to birth, at a
-particular time, men whose individual karma fits them to be the agents
-of the collective karma of the nation. What was more striking in the
-Spanish war which has just closed, than the absolute incapacity shown by
-the men who were the rulers of Spain? Whence came they? They were men
-who in the past by their individual karma had fitted themselves for the
-sorry fate of incapable rulers, and they were guided by the Gods to take
-birth in the families which give rulers to Spain, in order that, by
-their weakness and ineptitude, by their cowardice and their want of
-foresight, they might serve as men to lead their nation to destruction,
-the fitting instruments for the working out of Spain's evil karma. See
-also how at the fit time great men arise to lead a nation to victory.
-These men are also chosen by the Gods beforehand because of their
-individual karma, and they are brought to birth in the place and at the
-time when they are wanted for the working out of the collective karma
-of a nation. Not by chance is a man brought into the world, not by the
-compulsion of a dead law, or of a blind necessity; the Gods are working
-here with an intelligence that foresees and guides, and they choose for
-the accomplishment of their ends the men whose own karma fits them to be
-their agents for the work in hand, and then guide them to take birth at
-the place where that karma can subserve the collective karma of their
-people.
-
-This also is true in a much more limited way with regard to the working
-of individual karma. Sometimes you must have wondered how, with all the
-interfering activities of men, the karmic law could work out with
-undeviating justice; it is because the Gods are guiding the working. You
-see somewhere a man who is starving and if you misunderstand karma--as
-too many of you do, to the shame of India, in a land where this teaching
-is of immemorial antiquity--you turn aside from that starving man and
-say that it is his karma to starve and perish; in those hardened hearts
-of yours you use the will of God as a cover for your own selfishness,
-for your indifference and your lack of love. That man's karma to starve?
-Aye, and therefore he is starving! But if a Deva guides you to the place
-where your brother is starving, it is because he would make you the
-agent of his beneficence to that man whose evil karma of the present
-moment has been exhausted by his suffering; the Deva thus says to you:
-"Man, your brother man is starving, give him the relief it is his karma
-to receive, and be my agent in carrying out the law." But if you refuse
-the God, if, blinded by ignorance or indifference, you turn aside and
-will not carry his message to your brother, he will not for that be
-thwarted, he will find some other agent, or, as a last resource, he will
-do it himself by some act that may seem miraculous in the eyes of the
-blind, for the purpose of the God may not be blocked; but for those who
-have refused to act as his agents, who have refused to act as his
-messengers, they have made for themselves the karma of being left
-unassisted when the hour of their own need shall strike in the future.
-For the administrators of the good law forget not; every debt is
-collected, every creditor is paid in full. But you may say that it does
-not follow that a man's karma is exhausted when you meet him; true, but
-that is not your business, it is the business of the guiding God, and he
-will frustrate the physical aid if the karma be still evil. If you have
-that opportunity given you of making good karma, you have all the merit
-of your willingness to act, you have all the virtue of your readiness to
-sacrifice; but if it is not yet his time to be relieved, you will not
-find the object of your charity; by circumstances, as you will say, he
-will have been taken outside your reach. Leave you the Gods to do the
-work of the Gods, the administration of the law; do you that charity,
-that love and compassion, which it is ever their will that man should
-show to man. We cannot break the law; we cannot change their purpose;
-but we have the choice of co-working or refusing, and on that our
-individual karma depends.
-
-Then we find further that Devas bring people together and carry them
-apart, always for the working out of their individual karmas; that men
-are guided to places and positions at definite times, according to those
-circumstances which, by their karma, they must meet.
-
-Now men are related especially to one or other of the great Gods, by the
-constitution of their bodies visible and invisible. That gives them a
-special affinity for one Deva rather than for another. For instance, the
-lower hosts of Devas who, we will say, belong to Agni, build into a
-man's invisible and visible bodies, the kind of matter in which that God
-normally works. That gives the man a relationship to that particular
-God. Every man is connected with a special manifestation of God, to whom
-by his constitution and evolution he should turn. Unhappily ignorance
-has so widely taken the place of knowledge, that it is difficult for a
-man to discover to which Deva he is thus related. I have not time to
-work that out but you will see how thoroughly it supports the ancient
-idea that men rightly worshipped different manifestations of the Divine,
-and profited by such worship.
-
-But we must hurry on with this outline, for we have yet to deal with the
-more highly evolved souls, and on your understanding this last part of
-our subject will depend your power to defend our sacred literature when
-it is attacked by those who do not understand it. Therefore I will ask
-you to follow it carefully, and you can apply the principles that I will
-illustrate by special stories in a hundred other cases.
-
-The Devas, in their relationship to the more advanced human lives, have
-that function of teaching that I have alluded to, and also the function
-of testing and trying them, to see how far they are worthy and reliable,
-testing all their weak points in order that those weak points may be
-gotten rid of, trying them, where there is a germ of vice still
-remaining, in order that that germ of vice may be eradicated. Let us try
-to realise the nature of that working. Suppose we see a man who has made
-great progress. He is approaching the end of his births. In that man
-there is some germ of evil still remaining that has not been brought out
-yet into manifestation by the working of karma. He is going to be
-liberated, but he cannot be liberated while that germ remains. What
-shall be done with him? That germ of evil must be hastened to its
-ripening. It must be made to grow more quickly than otherwise it would
-grow. It must be gotten rid of, at any cost of pain, of anguish, and of
-temporary degradation, and the God will take such action as will ripen
-that germ and bring it to fruitage; so that, the man acting as he would
-act when that germ had been ripened by evolution, may suffer the results
-which would follow from the error, and by such suffering may get rid of
-that evil in his nature, which would otherwise have prevented him from
-attaining liberation.
-
-Let me give you a story for each of these to make the action clear. You
-see that a man is strong; well and good; but that strength must be
-tested to see if there be a flaw anywhere; if there is a rope on which
-the life of a man is going to depend, he holding it and descending a
-precipice, that rope must be pulled and tested to see if there be any
-weak point in it which might break when the man's body is hanging upon
-it, so that he would fall. There may be a flaw in the rope, and not
-till it has been tested will the man risk his life upon it. How much
-less then will the Deva risk the progress of an advanced man on a virtue
-not strong enough to bear every strain? He will test it with every
-possibility of strain, until it has proved itself strong enough to bear
-the weight which it may be called upon to hold up. We will take our
-stories from the _Mahabharata_, which you all know, or ought to know.
-Arjuna was seeking to get divine weapons; he was to be a great leader in
-a battle still in the future. We are at the time of the thirteen years'
-exile, and you may remember that he spent many of these years in the
-search for these weapons. During his search, he sought Maheshvara, who
-had promised to give him His own weapon, and he performed many
-austerities in order that he might come pure into the presence of God.
-One day as he was performing worship, a wild boar came along; at the
-same time a hunter appeared, a hunter of a very low caste, a hunter of
-the hills. Now you remember that Arjuna was a Kshattriya, and he
-accordingly caught up his bow to shoot at the wild boar; the hunter also
-raised his bow to shoot at the wild boar. Two arrows went from the two
-sides and the boar was struck dead. Arjuna was very angry at the
-interference of this low-caste hunter, and cried: "How dare you shoot at
-the wild boar which was mine?" and he began to quarrel and to threaten
-to slay him. Said the hunter: "If you wish to fight, fight"; at that,
-Arjuna showered his arrows on the hunter but they all fell off from him.
-The hunter, laughing, said: "Excellent! Excellent! go on! go on!"; and
-Arjuna hurled at him weapon after weapon, but everything failed. Arrows
-fell off him, everything broke against him--trees, rocks, everything; he
-remained untouched and uninjured, until at last He showed Himself as
-Mahadeva, and praised the man who had held his own against the God. Thus
-He tried Arjuna's strength; could he be sent to Kurukshetra with
-celestial weapons if his strength were too little for the fight? Try him
-against the Divine potency, limited in order to be faced and fought;
-when his courage is found to be dauntless and his strength sufficient,
-then send him to Kurukshetra tried and proved, able to lead his men to
-victory.
-
-Take another case, more difficult. Yudhishthira is sad at heart; he is
-struggling, has failed, and is in danger. Drona is there, leading the
-hosts of his enemies, and he has been driven by him from the
-battle-field. No one is able to stand against Drona; every one flies
-before the face of that mighty warrior; he turns back every attack. What
-can be done? Yudhishthira is in despair. Is he to be conquered? A
-stainless king was this son of Pandu, one of the noblest and most
-blameless figures that ancient literature paints; but with a strain of
-weakness in him which in critical times would sometimes show a too great
-readiness to yield, too little of the Kshattriya's power of standing
-alone against any force that might be brought to bear against him; a
-little germ of weakness was there, that had in it the possibility of a
-fatal fall. Shri Krishna is there, the great Avatara, and Bhima comes
-rushing up from the battle-field saying that he has slain an elephant,
-whose name is the same as the name of the son of Drona. If Drona hear
-that his son Ashvatthama is dead, he will drop his weapons, he will let
-go his enemy; no further will he fight when his beloved is gone. "I told
-him that Ashvatthama was dead, but he would not believe me; he sent me
-to you saying that Yudhishthira is a devotee of truth, he will not tell
-a lie for the sovereignty of the three worlds. If he says Ashvatthama is
-dead, I will believe." Terrible is the strain; mighty the force brought
-to bear against the man who has a weakness in him; and Shri Krishna,
-standing by him, watching him steadfastly, advises him to utter that
-which is not true. God advises this almost blameless man to tell a lie?
-How strange the scene! Yudhishthira, yielding to Shri Krishna, tells
-the falsehood, and Drona lets fall his weapons and is killed. If the
-story stopped there, we might well be puzzled. If Yudhishthira's life
-was no further told, we might well ask: what is this that we have
-studied? But when we remember that one of the great functions of the
-Teacher, the Gurudeva, is to bring out any weakness inherent in His
-pupil, because otherwise that weakness will keep the man tied, and he
-will not be fit to be liberated, we pause and read on. When that lie was
-spoken, the chariot of Yudhishthira sank downwards to the ground, no
-longer able to support itself, truth having been violated. And as years
-went on, the bitterness of that memory of a falsehood remained; the
-sorrow of the slaying of the preceptor by a lie ate deep into the heart
-of the king; he never recovered from it, he never got rid of its effect;
-over and over again, he breaks from his repose in anguish; "I have slain
-my Guru." The sorrow worked and the shame, till the anguish purified
-that noble soul from the last stain of weakness; and when the Great
-Journey is over, when wife and brothers lie dead behind him and he
-utters not a word of protest against the death of his beloved, when he
-stands ready to ascend to heaven, when only one living creature remains
-with him, the dog who had followed after him faithfully through all his
-wanderings since he left his capital, when that dog remained his sole
-companion, trusting his master's love faithfully unto death, then comes
-down a mighty God and stands beside him. "Your time has come; mount on
-my celestial chariot, and ascend in your body unto the heaven where you
-have won the right to sit and reign." Will he now yield to the
-invitation of the God? He said: "This dog is here; he has trusted to my
-protection and I cannot leave him alone; I must take him with me." The
-God answered: "Dogs have no place in heaven; dogs are unclean, no place
-for them is there; you have left your dead brothers behind, and your
-wife when she perished; why should you remain still with this dog?"
-"They are all dead," he answered "for the dead, the living can do
-nothing. This creature is still living and has sought my protection; I
-will not abandon him." "Nay," the God said, "be not so foolish; leave
-the dog there." But Yudhishthira stood firm; he was strong enough to
-stand against the God, and to show righteousness and fidelity to the
-poor brute that had placed his love in him; unless he might take the dog
-with him, he would stay on the earth and do his duty. Such lesson had he
-learnt from his fall; such is the result of the working of Shri Krishna
-on his evolution. We can see this same working throughout the whole
-of that struggle. Trace Shri Krishna through the pages of the
-_Mahabharata_, and you will find that He never deviates from one steady
-purpose--to bring the great struggle to a foreseen ending, where justice
-shall triumph and the Kshattriyas of India shall disappear; He was at
-once destroying injustice and preparing for the future of India,
-breaking down the iron wall of her warring caste that ringed her around
-with safety. There is a particular aim in everything that He does, and
-you will see that His purpose is immovable, if you study carefully. He
-is working towards its accomplishment the whole way through. Look at the
-way in which He steps in when His strength or protection is needed; see
-how He tries to stimulate the Pandavas to do their duty, and only takes
-their place when they fail. See the case where Shri Krishna having
-promised that he would do no battle, Arjuna falters before the face of
-Bhishma and has no heart to strike; you remember how sad was the
-struggle. Arjuna was not able to strike harshly at Bhishma, the greatest
-of all men and all warriors, perfect in Dharma, the grandsire and the
-teacher of all. "How can I slay him?" insisted Arjuna; "I remember when
-as a child soiled with dust, I climbed on to his knees and throwing my
-arms around him called him 'Father,' and he said to me, 'I am thy
-father's father.' How can I bring myself to slay him?" And you will
-remember how Shri Krishna Himself told him not to shrink, 'bade him slay
-him.' Hard was the task; Arjuna's memory was too strong for him; he only
-fought in appearance with restrained might, not with vigour, until at
-last Shri Krishna saw that He must stimulate this man to do his duty,
-and to fight, though it were against his old teacher himself; He throws
-down the reins of His horses, takes the whip, and leaps down from the
-chariot, and with the whip He rushes through the brunt of the battle to
-attack Bhishma Himself. Ah! that sight is hard for Arjuna; it appeals to
-him as Kshattriya, and duty is remembered instead of emotion; throwing
-his arms round Shri Krishna to stop him he says, "Go back! Go back! and
-drive me yet again, and I will do my duty even to the slaying of
-Bhishma." Now what does that mean? It means that the purpose of the God
-will be accomplished, whether or not a man is found to do it; that
-evolution will proceed, no matter who may falter or who may hinder; that
-while evolution will go on under the Will of God, individual progress
-depends on individual co-operation with that Will; that God evolves His
-agents by setting them to His work, and that their progress depends on
-the extent to which they are able to receive the impulse that He
-imparts. Only one other case I will take to show you how Shri Krishna
-worked when the force was too great for Arjuna to meet, when He saw
-Arjuna could do nothing with all the valour at his command, that no
-force of appeal, no stimulus, could enable him to defend himself. One
-weapon was thrown that might not err in its aim, one weapon a celestial
-weapon that He had given as a boon, when He waked from His thousand
-years of sleep. That weapon was cast against Arjuna. Arjuna could not
-avert it. Alone of all the weapons in earth and heaven, that weapon must
-go to its ending, and Arjuna would have been slain in the midst of the
-battle. What can be done? He could not cut it with the arrows from
-Gandiva, he could not use against it any of the mighty weapons that the
-Gods had given him. This was the weapon of the Supreme, which nothing
-was able to oppose. Shri Krishna then, at that last moment, as the
-weapon flies straight at the breast of the warrior throws Himself in
-front, and, as it strikes His bosom, it knows its Master and is changed
-into a garland of flowers. So also with the chariot on which He drove.
-He bade Arjuna first get down. He bade him take his weapons, and until
-Arjuna had left it, Shri Krishna stood there immovable, He would not
-stir; and the moment He left it the whole chariot burst into flames, for
-only His presence had kept it together, He who was the Lord of fire, as
-well as the Lord of all else. You see, my brothers, how fruitful is the
-study of this subject, when you are dealing with the sacred literature;
-how you may be able to explain it to men of your own faith, and defend
-it against the attacks of men of other creeds. Do not defend it with
-bitter words, do not defend it with harsh language, do not defend it
-with wrath in your mind, and indignation making your tongue poisonous;
-but remember that where ignorance attacks, it is the duty of knowledge
-to defend; and that when that which ignorance attacks is the spiritual
-food of millions, every man of knowledge should spring forward to defend
-it, lest the ignorant of that faith should swerve, when they see the
-truths in their books assailed by those who do not understand.
-
-That then is the outcome of this lecture. I ask you to remember that in
-every stage of your life, Gods are around you. No karma that you make,
-that they will not remember; no appeal that you utter, that they will
-not answer. If for a moment no answer seems to come, or if sorrow that
-you shrink from falls upon you, remember that the hand of love allows it
-thus to fall, and that in bearing that sorrow bravely, you are swiftly
-working out your own deliverance. You are to be men, not children, in
-the future; men-sons of the living Ishvara whose image you are, and not
-babies that He must for ever carry in His arms. He asks from you the
-strength of men to help the Gods. He is evolving you as the agents for
-His future universe. You may delay, if you will. You may lose time, if
-you will. Kalpa after Kalpa, you may remain at a low stage. If so you
-choose, He will not force your will; but your wisdom lies in letting His
-Will work in you to your swift and perfect evolution, that you may have
-the joy of carrying out that Will in other worlds, of consciously being
-His agents under other conditions; for men are Gods in the making, and
-we are preparing to discharge the functions of the Gods.
-
-
-
-
-[THIRD LECTURE.]
-
-EVOLUTION OF LIFE.
-
-
-My Brothers,--We have reached a point in our study from which we may
-begin to trace the Evolution of Life in our own system that evolution
-takes place on the various planets, but it is similar in its general
-outline, though modified in its details on the different globes. We
-shall chiefly confine ourselves to our own world and our own humanity at
-the outset we shall be obliged to go somewhat further afield, but for
-the greater part of our study we may confine ourselves to the evolution
-of life on our earth. Now we are seeking in our study to find a common
-ground of agreement on which co-operation may arise between peoples of
-different faiths and of different schools of thought. If we are trying
-to find a meeting-place for western and for eastern Science, if we are
-seeking in the light of Religion to understand some of the mysteries of
-life, it is right and fitting that we should remember that no one
-religion has a monopoly of truth, and that any one who is seeking to
-expound the truth should be able to fortify his position from the
-different religions of the world, and to show that on all great,
-essential, and fundamental truths they speak with a single voice, they
-teach an identical lesson. Therefore in dealing with my subject this
-morning, I shall, as before, draw your attention on the main points
-where challenge might arise to the consensus of religious opinion, to
-the definite statements of the world's Teachers; so that the tendency
-towards unity, on which the future evolution of life depends, may be
-helped to develop amongst us. And there is a special reason for that
-just now. We shall see, as we trace out the evolution of life, that we
-are in the very crisis of the intellectual evolution, and we shall find
-that the characteristic of that stage of evolution is division and
-separation, and the placing of the individual apart from, and somewhat
-in conflict with, other individuals. And we shall find that the next
-stage in the evolution of life is the seeking for union amid the
-individualised units; that the next divine aspect that man has to
-develop in the Self within him is the aspect of union and not the aspect
-of diversity; and it is of importance that those who are seeking the
-light, those who are striving to co-operate with nature by understanding
-her hidden ways, should realise the next step of evolution as well as
-the present, in order that they may co-operate with nature by themselves
-taking that step, thus quickening the possibility of similar taking for
-all mankind.
-
-Now with regard to life in its relation to forms, change at the present
-time is coming over the thought of western Science. I pause on this for
-a moment in order to substantiate that assertion, for it is important in
-the search for the means of drawing together the two kinds of science,
-ancient and modern, to notice how much the position of the leading
-scientists of the West has been modified with regard to life and form
-during the last ten years. I take as a declaration on this subject of
-life, issued some years ago, the article on Biology in the last edition
-of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, written, as all the articles in that
-_Cyclopaedia_ are written, by a prominent man in the scientific world. In
-dealing then with life, the writer of the article in question distinctly
-states that "a mass of living protoplasm is simply a molecular machine
-of great complexity, the total results of the working of which, or its
-vital phenomena, depend, on the one hand, upon its construction, and on
-the other, upon the energy supplied to it and to speak of 'vitality' as
-anything but the name of a series of operations is as if any one should
-talk of the 'horologity' of a clock." That is to say, that to regard
-life as being in any sense a common existing principle, as anything more
-than a mere succession of phenomena in connection with a particular
-apparatus of matter, is as foolish and unreasonable as if, looking at a
-clock, you should separate its going property from the mechanism of the
-clock itself. A purely mechanical view of nature is thus taken, and
-life-processes are regarded as being due to the unstable equilibrium of
-protoplasm; the series of these life-processes is brought about merely
-by mechanical and chemical changes, the actions called vital being thus
-mechanical in their character. But at the last meeting of the British
-Association, the President of the Chemical Section--chemistry having
-been the very science to lead the scientific world towards materialism
-in this respect--has taken up an entirely different standpoint, a point
-that brings the question into a line with ancient thinking, and that
-starts the investigations of western Science along a road whereon the
-most fruitful results are likely to be encountered. Dr. Japp, the
-President of that Section, compares the action of life to the action of
-an operator who is deliberately working with a purpose, using knowledge
-and will in order to bring about a definite result. "The operator," he
-says, "exercises a guiding power which is akin, in its results, to that
-of the living organism," and, going on to explain in very technical
-language the ground on which this view is based, he concludes by saying:
-"Every purely mechanical explanation of the phenomenon must necessarily
-fail. I see no escape from the conclusion that at the moment when life
-first arose a directive force came into play--a force precisely of the
-same character as that which enables the intelligent operator, by the
-exercise of his will, to select one crystallised enantiomorph and reject
-its asymmetric opposite." That is the declaration: that with the arising
-of life there is an arising of consciousness which exercises a directive
-force in nature, as we see it exercising a directive force in the choice
-exercised by men. Put those two statements side by side, see the entire
-reversal of the attitude, and then you will be able to measure to some
-extent the change that has come over western thinking--the recognition
-of life as identical with consciousness, a position which has ever been
-taken in the hoary Science of the East.
-
-Now let me, before going into details, suggest to you the path that we
-are to follow. From the One Existence, that One without a second,
-arises, as we saw in our first study--Ishvara, God in His creative and
-manifested aspect, Ishvara clothed in Maya, out of which a new universe
-is to be builded. Threefold we found Him to be in His manifestation,
-threefold in the aspect that He showed forth; so that a Trimurti, or
-Trinity, is the aspect towards this universe of the manifested God; His
-working will show this triple character, and the evolution of life is
-threefold, whether we study it in nature or in man. I know the thought
-that arises in many of you, accustomed to the broad statements in
-eastern literature. You think of the building, the sustaining, and the
-disappearing of a universe. Perfect, you say, is the One Existence,
-infinite, unchangeable; perfect in the ending is the universe, as
-perfect in the beginning; why then this long evolution of life with all
-its struggles, with all its imperfections gradually and slowly
-transcended. Why from the perfect should the imperfect come forth? Why
-should it be trained into perfection, and then return into that
-perfection whence it came? That question is based on a fundamental
-misunderstanding which it is necessary to correct; a misunderstanding
-which never could have risen amongst you if the Scriptures had been read
-in the light of the Yoga-developed consciousness, and if the broad
-outline which is presented had been followed out carefully in thought so
-that its stages might be marked. You will remember how it is written in
-the _Chhandhogyopanishad_ that the One willed to multiply; and the
-moment you grasp the idea of multiplication, if you think of what it
-means instead of merely repeating the word, you will realise that
-multiplication must necessarily mean division and therefore limitation,
-and that limitation necessarily implies imperfection. But having gone so
-far, you would then have proceeded to ask: By what words is the universe
-described, and what idea is hidden beneath the words? And you would find
-that when God is spoken of as a Fire, the universe is not spoken of as a
-Fire, but as a spark, and the lives of men are described as millions of
-sparks that come from the illimitable Fire. Not only is that word
-"spark" used, showing you the limitation that comes with manifestation,
-giving you the idea that the spark, fed by suitable fuel is to be
-developed into the likeness of the Flame whence it came; but as the
-spark is of the same nature as the flame, so we are told "Thou art
-That," the Self in man is identical in nature with the Self that gave it
-birth. You will remember another word which is constantly used to
-describe alike the universe as a whole, and also the parts of which it
-is composed--the word germ or seed. Let me ask you to turn to the
-_Bhagavad Gita_ so familiar to every student amongst you, and to listen
-for a moment to the words chosen by Shri Krishna when He desires to
-convey the idea of the nature of the universe, and its relation to the
-Supreme What does He say?
-
-    Mama yonir Mahad Brahma tasmin garbham dadamyaham.
-    Sambhava sarva bhutanam tato bhavati Bharata.
-
-"I place the germ in the womb of Mahad Brahma." What do these words
-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
-Trimurti is spoken of as Brahma. 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 Brahma, 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 Ishvara 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'kasha in the highest sense of the term, then Vayu, then Agni, then
-Apas, then Prithivi; 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 Purana_ 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 Brahma 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 Prana 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
-Purana_, 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'kasha 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'kashic correspondences of Agni. Life is
-evolved by the modifications in consciousness which Ishvara brings
-about; the modification in the consciousness of Ishvara 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 Ishvara. 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
-Mahadeva, 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 Yogi, 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.
-
-As this intelligence develops, we find the recognition of the Self and
-the Not-Self giving rise to struggle all over the world, social struggle
-as well as mental struggle. In every civilisation in which the intellect
-is developing from its earlier stages, you must have struggle without in
-order to stimulate the evolution within; it is a necessary stage,
-although it be a passing one, and it need not distress us, who see its
-end, in a world guided by the Gods. All the stages through which a
-nation passes are necessary for its growth, and need not be condemned
-merely because of their being limited and imperfect. In practical
-politics condemnation is useful as a stimulus, as one of the agents for
-bringing about the evolutionary changes, but the philosopher should
-understand, and, understanding, he cannot condemn. The worst struggle
-that we may see, the most terrible poverty, the most shocking misery,
-the strife of man against man and nation against nation--all these are
-working out the Divine purpose, and are bringing us towards a richer
-unity than without them we could possibly attain.
-
-Let me take one instance which seems to be the most hopeless of all--the
-instance of war. What can be more inhuman than war, what more brutal and
-more terrible, stirring the angriest passions of man and making him like
-a wild beast in his rage? Aye, but that is not all. Let us look at the
-life within a soldier which has been evolved by this terrible discipline
-without. What is that life learning as its vehicles are plunged into
-strife, into blood-shed, into mutilation, into death? It is learning
-lessons that without that stern experience it could not learn, without
-which its evolution would be checked and be unable to proceed it is
-learning that there is something greater than the body, something
-greater than the physical existence, something higher, more noble, more
-compelling, than the guarding of the physical vehicle from injury and
-even from death; and the poorest soldier who goes out on a campaign, who
-goes through hardship after hardship, who finds himself frozen with cold
-or burnt up with heat, who plunges through frozen river or toils across
-sandy desert, who learns to preserve discipline and submission under
-hardship, who learns to keep cheerful under difficulty, so that his
-comrades may not be depressed, who is moved, not by the thought of the
-body which is suffering, but by the great ideal of the military renown
-of his regiment, and the safety of the country which he is serving, who
-is learning thus to sacrifice himself for an ideal, is developing
-thereby qualities invaluable in lives to come. Need I say this to you,
-who know the place of the Kshattriya in human evolution? Did Manu when
-he described these different castes demarcate a caste that had not its
-place in the evolution of life, that had not something to teach? Was not
-a man kept in the Kshattriya vehicle until he had learned that life was
-not dependent on the body, that life was to be held at the service of
-the ideal, at the service of the mother-land that gave him birth, of the
-king who ruled him, and who to him stood, as to every Hindu the king
-should stand, as an Avatara of God? He learned that when that king
-called him to the battle-field, he had to give his body to mutilation
-and to death, because the life that was in him recognised the service of
-the ideal as evolving the real life, and the body as a mere garment to
-be thrown aside when duty called? Without that training, no Brahmana
-could be; no man could come into the caste of the Brahmana, save as he
-had gone through that discipline in the ranks of the Kshattriya; because
-until he had learned that life was everything and form nothing--and that
-is the lesson which war teaches when it is rightly understood--until
-that lesson was learned, he was not prepared for the far harder
-evolution of the life, which is to master the lesson of unity beneath
-diversity, of love beneath antagonism, of being the friend of every
-creature and the foe of none.
-
-When the intelligence has developed, when it has reached a fairly high
-standpoint, the germs of the next aspect of Deity begin to show
-themselves in man and that aspect is A'nanda, Joy or Bliss. But in what
-does A'nanda really consist? It is in the drawing together of separated
-objects and uniting them into one. That is the essence of Bliss, that
-the very core and heart of the next stage of evolution. In the old days
-of Hinduism, this was called the life of the Brahmana, when the Brahmana
-was really a Brahmana and had no further birth before him on the wheel
-of births and deaths. In the Christian symbology it is called the
-Christ stage, that of Divine Sonship, and you will find in a great
-prayer of Jesus, called the Christ, that in praying for His disciples He
-asked that "they may be one in me," in union with each other and
-Himself. There is a grander unity yet, the unity between the Son and
-Father, a unity of nature not a union of the erst-separated; but before
-that unity can be reached, man must have realised the union with his
-brother men, must see humanity as united, and not as separate; that is,
-he must have changed his centre of consciousness--that responds to the
-impacts from without--from the vehicles in which the intellect and the
-feelings were developed to the life itself, which is one and the same in
-all. No longer is he to think himself as separate, inasmuch as the "I,"
-the separated self, is now to be transcended, is to be merged in the
-uniting aspect of the Deity, the Vishnu or the Christ. That is to be
-developed as the life of man, with all its wonderful beauty and power,
-with its unifying force. Therefore did Shri Krishna come as an Avatara
-to this Eastern world to show forth the life of Love; for the life of
-A'nanda, or Bliss, is ever the life of Love, and by Love alone may we
-evolve it within ourselves. The aspect of God that is Bliss shows itself
-as Love; and in word and in action, in simile and in parable, did the
-Beloved and the Lover of man reveal that Divine aspect to the longing
-hearts of his Bhaktas. That was His special work, to show out the Love
-power of God; and only as that is developed within us can the life take
-on this lofty unfoldment that knits all selves in the One Self, that
-sees all lives in Him. Now, in evolution, the Self knows itself as the
-Life, and is no longer deluded by the ignorance that made it identify
-itself with the Form; it is life which realises itself as Life. When
-this stage is reached by the evolving life, the man who was separated
-becomes Humanity, and is one of the Saviours of the world. There is
-nothing apart from him, nothing separate to him. He stands in the very
-Life itself, and sheds his light in every direction into whatever
-Upadhi, or vessel, may be in need of it; wherever there is want or cry
-for his aid, thereto flow his powers. As the sun shines forth in heaven,
-and may shine unto a million houses, the only condition of his rays
-entering being that the houses shall lay themselves open to the
-sunshine, so is the man who has become the second aspect of Deity, in
-whom that perfection of Divine Sonship is revealed. Man, as the Son of
-God in Heaven, is above all the distinctions that you find on Earth. He
-sends down his rays into the waiting hearts of men, and the only
-condition necessary for his entrance, the one thing that ensures his
-coming, is that his brother will open his heart to receive him. For he
-will not break his way in, he will only come where he is welcome. Thus
-this great life of God shows itself forth now in the man who has become
-the Saviour, the Son, the Initiate, as a deep compassionate love for
-all. Every man who reaches that stage is a new force for the uplifting
-of humanity. Every man who develops that aspect of life is one more wing
-with which to lift everything upwards. If a man be weak, his life can go
-to him to strengthen him; if a man be sorrowful, his life can go to him
-to make him glad; if a man be sinful, his life can go to him to make
-him pure from sin. To all men he says: "Wherever a man is there will
-I meet him, and there will I accept him." That is Shri Krishna in
-manifestation, that the love that shines forth from the bliss aspect of
-the Human Self.
-
-One step remains, the last, of evolution for this rapidly perfecting life.
-Again I take up my Christian symbol and venture the quotation:--"As Thou,
-Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." The Son
-becomes in fact what he has ever been potentially, one with the Father. He
-enters into the mighty realm of Self-Being, where God, in the Christian
-phrase, is "all-in-all." Do not let the narrower presentations of
-Christianity that here meet you blind you to these fundamental identities
-of the deeper and more spiritual Christianity with our own ancient faith.
-Shall these pettinesses, or even outer divergencies, separate those whom
-the living Spirit would unite? We learn, as we study the Hindu Scriptures,
-that man after having reached the second stage rises by Yoga, until he
-attains the last, and becomes one with the Deity Himself in full power of
-eternal Self-Being. It was because your own Svami T. Subba Rao knew this
-occult truth, which too many know not, that he spoke, as I before
-mentioned, of the innumerable Centres, or Logoi, in the One, every one of
-which could be the beginning of a new universe, of a new out-pouring of
-life. The building of those Centres is a purpose of Life-evolution. The
-building them up stage by stage is done as the life passes from form to
-form; and end or ending there is none in the infinite series of the
-future. What that life holds for us we cannot tell; how should we imagine
-that far off land, those distant reaches? But this we know: that no will
-of the Eternal is ever frustrate, no purpose of the Eternal lacks its
-fruit or misses its goal; and if our eyes fail us in the dazzle of the
-light wherein we see our unity with the Eternal Father--that unity that
-transcends our dreaming, when we shall know ourselves to be one with
-Him--it is enough that at last the evolution of all lives leads into that
-unimaginable splendour, known only to Ishvara Himself, who pours out His
-life that we may know it also. And Mahadeva shall return to It with all
-the centres that His life has brought into existence, with all the new
-lives and joys that His imprisonment in His universe has made. That is
-enough for us to give us the hope--hope, do I say? it is too feeble a
-word--the joy inexpressible and the certainty which are founded on the
-very Life of God; for is He not the Truth, the Foundation of the Universe?
-And when we enter into SAT we shall know the future as we see the past,
-for we shall be not only immortal but Eternal.
-
-
-
-
-[FOURTH LECTURE.]
-
-EVOLUTION OF FORM.
-
-
-My Brothers,--We are now to concentrate our attention on the phenomenal
-side of the universe, that is, on the varied appearances that surround
-us, whether those appearances be visible to the physical eyes or not;
-for we must remember that the principle of form is to be found in every
-stage of the manifested universe, and that when the phrase "the formless
-world" is used, the word "formless" is only true in relation to the
-worlds below the one so spoken of. All higher worlds are "formless"
-regarded from below, that is, regarded by the organs of perception which
-are fitted for exercise in the lower world; but if a person has
-developed the capacity to respond to the vibrations in any given world
-of manifestation, then that world to him is a world of form and not of
-formlessness. Everywhere manifestation implies form, however subtle may
-be the matter which composes it; and you may remember that it is said in
-the _Vishnu Purana_ that the one characteristic of matter which is
-always present is extension, that is, the capacity of taking form, of
-being shaped in a definite way.
-
-Now before we take up the details of evolution, there are one or two
-great principles that I want to ask you to keep in mind; for we shall
-never be able to understand the complexity of detail, if we take it as a
-series of isolated details; we need to classify these under certain
-fundamental principles and then, those principles being clear in the
-mind, we can easily, as it were, pack every detail into its appropriate
-pigeon-hole in our thought. I shall not trouble you this morning at all
-with that threefold division of the evolving life with which we dealt
-yesterday. We can, for our work now, treat life as a unit, speaking of
-the Divine Life as Ishvara, and of the reflection of that life in man as
-the Self. We will keep these two terms to avoid confusion: Ishvara as
-the Divine Life which is the source of evolution; the Self as the human
-life which is gradually evolving. And we need these two distinguishing
-names, without going into any of the sub-divisions that we dealt with
-yesterday in connection with life, in order that we may be able to see
-how forms are shaped, and to which principle, if I may say so, we are to
-refer the special modifications.
-
-The next thing that we must realise is the respective functions of these
-sources of life; one working through the whole kosmos, and therefore
-coming to man as a part of that kosmos, the other working in man as an
-individual through the early stages and transcending individuality at
-the close. The great life of Ishvara as it rolls outwards, building the
-universe of forms, expresses itself, as we have seen, by a certain
-series of vibrations, and every modification in the form is the result
-of an impulse coming by way of vibrations from the ensouling life. Now
-the point that strikes us most in this manifestation of Ishvara, as we
-study it, is the unutterable patience of it. We are impatient for
-results, He never. We are impatient for results, because, limited by
-time, we crave to see the outcome of our action; He being the eternal is
-unspeakably patient, set upon perfection and careless of the time which
-that perfection may take in evolving. For the evolution of forms this
-patience is absolutely necessary; when we come to think, we see that any
-impatience in the evolution of forms would mean the over-rapid breaking
-up of the forms. The form is comparatively rigid as compared with the
-life. If the life vibrates too rapidly for the form which it is
-evolving, the form will shatter under the stress of those vibrations.
-Let me give you a very common illustration to show you what I mean; a
-tube of glass, or an ordinary lamp-glass if you like, has a certain
-note to which it vibrates; and if that note be sung near the
-lamp-glass, you will hear the note sound out independently from the
-lamp-glass, as though the lamp-glass were singing; the glass has
-vibrated in answer to the vibrations of the sound sung to it, it having
-the capacity of that vibration in it, and thus it reproduces the note.
-If you increase the force of that note, if you continue vibration after
-vibration, beyond the point at which the glass is able to respond, your
-glass will shiver into pieces, shivered by the force of the effort to
-respond to vibrations beyond its limit of rigidity. I only take that as
-an illustration, as a picture; it is true in every world of form; and if
-Ishvara were to send forth vibrations too swift, too subtle for the form
-which He is ensouling to respond to, that form would be shivered into
-pieces, and its evolution would be stopped; nature would have again to
-begin to build a similar form in order to again reach the point which it
-had already reached. This patience of Ishvara is the thing that strikes
-us first as we study the evolution of forms. How slow are the changes,
-how gradual the modifications, what thousands of successive forms are
-worked in, how wellnigh imperceptible are the changes in their
-minuteness, although so great when we look at them in the mass; that is
-one great principle to bear in mind.
-
-Another great principle is the double and parallel action of Ishvara and
-of the evolving Self. Ishvara is present in the Self of man that is
-formed within Him. Every evolutionary impulse in the earliest stages
-comes directly from the life of Ishvara, and as He moulds the form
-without, He gradually strengthens the centre that He is building up
-within. His object is to make that centre the image of Himself,
-self-sustaining; but enormous reaches of time are needed for the
-building; as He shapes the forms, He builds the centre; and as He builds
-that centre, and it becomes more and more active, answering to the
-vibrations that He transmits to it from the outer world, it begins to
-take on a little action of its own and to send out vibrations, as we may
-say, on its own account. As this double action goes on within the form,
-more and more does that evolving centre begin to control the form within
-which it is developed. As this power of control develops and increases,
-He withdraws more and more of His directive energy as Ishvara; the
-energy drawn from Him is now beginning to work _quasi_-independently in
-the separated centre that He has been building, until at last that
-centre reflects Himself, and is able to be self-existent by the very
-life that it has drawn from Him. If this conception be a little
-abstract, let me give it again in a concrete form. There is one symbol
-that the sages have used over and over again, in order to express this
-wonder of the brooding life of Ishvara making an image of Himself and
-giving to that image the possibility of independent life. It is the
-symbol of the mother and the child within the womb. As the life of the
-mother passes into the child that is building within her, transmitting
-to that new form all the nourishment which is necessary for its growing
-life, the whole life of the child is dependent on the mother and the
-life-streams that nourish it are drawn from her own life. The building
-goes on, and on, and on, till the new centre of life has grown strong,
-but not until that centre can hold itself together amid the vibrations
-of the outer universe, is the new form with its ensouling life sent
-forth on its own independent course. So does the brooding mother-life of
-Ishvara envelope the children of His love, and so does He nourish them,
-building them within Himself as the ages pass, until they are able to
-hold their own centres in the illimitable life of the One, the Supreme.
-That is another principle which you have to remember throughout the
-details of the evolution of form.
-
-One other that has two divisions and then the statement of our main
-principles will be sufficiently complete. There are three aspects, we
-recollect, which the evolving Self has to unfold. We must add to this a
-comprehension of the nature of these aspects, when externalised; for we
-did not yesterday, for lack of time, glance quite precisely at the in
-characteristic outer mark of each aspect of life. As these aspects
-modify the evolution of form, the form cannot be understood unless its
-relations to the aspects of life be realised. We have, as we know, to
-show forth Knowledge, Bliss, and Being. These will come out as powers
-into the world of form as evolution reaches its later stages, and the
-form will be able to express those powers of the evolving life.
-Knowledge, showing forth through form, has as its power Intelligence;
-Bliss, shown forth through form, has as its power Love; Being, shown
-forth through form, has as its power Existence; so that the fundamental
-aspects may be said severally to manifest as the powers of intelligence,
-of love, of existence. Otherwise put, the nature of intelligence is
-knowledge, the nature of love is bliss, the nature of existence is
-being. The intelligence, love and existence of our worlds are the
-manifested Knowledge, the manifested Bliss, and the manifested Being of
-the Self. That is the outward aspect of the Self as the other is the
-inner aspect, and these characteristic natures seek their expression in
-form. This expression is sought cosmically and individually, alike by
-the life of Ishvara and the life of the Self. Cosmically they make the
-planes of the manifested universe, the five planes on which we are
-evolving. That which manifests as existence, the power of Being, has as
-its form the Akasha of the higher realm; that which manifests as love,
-the power of Bliss, has as its form of matter Vayu; that which manifests
-as intelligence, the power of Knowledge, has as its material Agni. These
-are the three fundamental manifestations in form. The other two are
-reflections: That which is love, reflecting itself in the lower form of
-matter--the denser matter of Varuna--takes on the aspect of desire and
-passion, and becomes kama. That which is existence, reflecting itself on
-the yet grosser form of Prithivi, shows forth what we call objective
-reality. See how the planes correspond, the one with the other. Try and
-make a picture of a mountain reflected in a lake; and if you have that
-in your mind, you will follow exactly the way the reflection takes
-place. There is no reflection of intelligence because it is the central
-quality; the intelligence is the centre of the five, two are above it
-and two are below it. It is the central region, the pivot on which the
-whole has to turn. If you look above to the higher regions, we find love
-and existence showing themselves forth as the powers of Bliss and
-Being. That is as it were, the mountain. Now look at your reflection in
-the lake; the middle part of the mountain is reflected half-way down in
-the water. The shore is the dividing line between object and image, and
-represents the intelligence; below that, half-way down, will come the
-reflection of love showing itself as emotion and desire; then we see the
-highest peak reflected in the deepest depth of the lake, the existence
-above, the power of the real Being, reflected below in the plane of
-physical matter as that illusory existence which man calls real. Try and
-keep that picture, for the principle of reflection from above to below
-is one of the keys to understanding both above and below. It helps you
-to see why emotional love passes into devotion, and how, in the passing
-from emotion into the higher love which is devotion, it passes from the
-kamic plane to the buddhic, where bliss is the distinguishing
-characteristic; and you will understand why action, the most illusory of
-things, has to us the sense of reality. It gives that peculiarly
-definite sense of reality to us because it is the reflection of the
-real, of the existence of which it is the lower form.
-
-Now these are the principles. Let us try to carry them out in our
-evolutionary study; for if you hold firm to the principles, the study
-of detail, of forms, will seem less confusing, less complex and less
-difficult; you will not lose your way among the trees, when once you
-have looked down on the forest as a whole; that is a simile I once heard
-from Professor Huxley, as illustrating principles and details, and it is
-a suggestive one.
-
-We begin then the detailed evolution of form; it is like a great circle
-traced downwards and upwards. There is a great difference between the
-downward arc, the one-half of the circle, and the upward arc, the other
-half of the circle. In the one case, coming downwards, Ishvara imparts
-qualities and attributes; in the other half, going upwards, He builds
-the qualities and attributes into vehicles. These are the two great
-differences between the downward and upward arcs. In the downward,
-matter takes up qualities; in the upward, matter is formed into
-vehicles, or sheaths, or bodies, whatever may be the term we prefer. A
-process of specialisation goes on, up to a certain point. After a time
-the specialised materials are drawn together and combined into a
-vehicle, an organised unity, serving as a tabernacle for the Self. First
-comes differentiation, and the first step to that is to impart qualities
-to matter. Let me remind you, as the subject is so difficult a one, what
-is meant by tattvas, the fundamental forms of matter, and recall once
-more that passage in the _Vishnu Purana_ where their evolution is
-described, and where it is stated that the tanmatra of sound produces
-A'kasha; that is, a modification of the consciousness of Ishvara
-produces the form of matter that we call the atom of A'kasha; that atom
-has a mere film of subtlest matter for its envelope, and the vibrating
-life of Ishvara for the force within. Then we are told that A'kasha
-generates another tanmatra which is touch, and that, enveloped,
-permeated by A'kasha, produces the film of denser matter which is called
-Vayu, the two tanmatras and the A'kasha being the generating force.
-
-This goes on through the whole of the five stages, so that when we get
-down to the physical plane, we find an atom showing a wall of denser
-matter, within it the involved life and without it the magnetic field,
-made up of the higher tanmatras and their atomic sheaths. The Prithivi
-atom hence consists of its own tanmatra plus the matter and the life of
-Apas; the matter and life of Agni; the matter and life of Vayu; the
-matter and life of A'kasha: so that on the physical plane, the physical
-atom is a mass of five interpenetrating spheres in which is present as
-life the whole of the matter and the life of the worlds above it, the
-envelope, or wall, of the physical atom alone showing forth any
-characteristics of the physical world--a fact inexpressibly important
-for evolution. For, each of those sheaths or koshas--as the student of
-Vedanta calls them, and there is no better word--every one of them is
-latent in and around the physical atom; and in the upward evolution,
-every one of them becomes active and strong as evolution proceeds,
-sheath after sheath being vitalised. How could these koshas, or sheaths,
-of ours learn to respond to the vibrations of the evolving life, unless
-every one of them was latently present in us, waiting to be brought into
-activity? The root of that possibility lies in the atom itself, with all
-its interpenetrating spheres of life and matter, the sheaths that are
-within it and around it. That is not the only thing which we understand;
-as this conception grows clear, we understand a phrase that had often
-puzzled us in the old days, that "the spirit is senseless on the plane
-of matter." What does that mean? The spirit, the very essence of
-consciousness, senseless and helpless on the plane of matter! Why?
-Because if you take spirit as pure spirit, the intermediate sheaths are
-not there by which the matter-vibrations are able to reach it, and
-without these sheaths it is unable to receive and respond to the
-vibrations of physical matter. It remains unconscious of their very
-existence, there being no bridge by which they can pass over and affect
-that life. This is really a perfectly simple statement of Madame
-Blavatsky's, but it is one that I have heard challenged over and over
-again as entirely meaningless, as conveying no idea, for how could
-consciousness be unconscious in any region? A little more knowledge
-would make us less rapid in our condemnation of our betters. That idea,
-then, we will take to help us in the first conception of how evolution
-can take place.
-
-Now let us look how, in the downward arc that we spoke of, Ishvara is
-imparting qualities. According to the nature of the vibrations that He
-sends and of the matter that answers to them will be the quality
-imparted. As to the idea that difference of vibrations implies a
-difference of manifestation, let me buttress myself on the great
-reputation of Sir William Crookes. He issued, two or three years ago, I
-don't remember the exact date, in 1896 I think, a table of vibrations,
-confined of course to the physical world; a very interesting table,
-giving a series of classified vibrations and pointing out which were
-known to science, and gave rise to what we call sound, light,
-electricity, and so on, the difference of vibratory frequency, and the
-subtlety of the matter in which the vibration was set up, giving rise to
-a particular impression, received and answered by a sensation in us.
-
-That is the principle which I am now applying to our system as a whole.
-According to the density of the matter will be the rapidity of the
-vibrations which that matter is capable of expressing; Ishvara sends out
-vibrations, and the manasic matter, we will say, is thrown into
-corresponding vibrations or waves of a frequency identical with those of
-the life-impulse sent out from Him, so far as it is capable of
-responding, a limit being set by its fineness on the one side and by its
-density on the other. Its limit of fineness is the atom of the plane.
-Its limit of density is the coarsest aggregation of these atoms in the
-densest solid of the plane. If we take the physical plane for a moment,
-we have solid, liquid, gas, ether, finer ether, finest ether, and atoms.
-The lower five are related to the five senses in man as they are at
-present developed on the physical plane. These five correspond to the
-sense-organs and the senses that work through them, as is suggested in
-the names of the tanmatras. The Solid is related to the sense of Smell;
-Liquid to the sense of Taste; Fire to the sense of Sight; Air to the
-sense of Touch; and A'kasha to the sense of Sound. Nov these are not
-stated in the order given by the western scientist, but I have no time
-to go into the reason for the difference and to show you where his outer
-observation fails, because he is not able to trace beyond the limits of
-his senses into a finer working; in dealing with our Vayu and A'kasha,
-he classes them together, and his air is our Agni. These senses and
-their evolution belong to the upward arc. Coming downwards, Ishvara only
-gives the power to matter to respond to these particular vibrations, and
-these vibrations are connected on the physical plane with the
-sub-divisions that I have just mentioned, the different sub-divisions of
-matter, solid, liquid, gas, and so on, corresponding in the sense-organs
-to the senses.
-
-Coming downwards, beginning on the mental plane with Intelligence--missing
-the two higher ones of Existence and Love--He sends out vibrations to make
-the matter of the mental plane answer, and the vibrations with which that
-matter answers, that is, a certain range of vibrations, are called mental
-or intelligent. You may say, Why? Just for the same reason that in Sir
-William Crookes' tables definite names are given to the different classes
-of vibrations, which produce sound, light, etc., names are given in order
-to express a certain limit of vibratory force; within one set of limits
-the vibrations affect the ether, give "light," and the eye receives them.
-Similarly, vibrations that fall between certain limits of vibratory
-frequency affect the matter of the third plane, and when they are
-received by an organ fitted to focus them in a centre, thus giving rise to
-self-consciousness, we call that organ Mind, and the action through that
-Mind, Intelligence. The mere name is as arbitrary as any other name, and
-we class these under mental, just as a certain range of etheric vibrations
-is classed as light, is received by an organ fitted to focus them that we
-call the eye, and the action through that eye is vision. If we are to talk
-at all, we must have names to describe different classes of phenomena, and
-we use the word mental or intelligent to describe the range of vibrations
-working in the particular kind of matter of which, in the upward
-evolution, an organ is builded that we call the Mind. So, again, to the
-vibrations that He sends out into the next coarser form of matter, called
-Apas, or astral, we give the name Sensory. He imparts to them the quality
-of responding to pleasure and pain, and as He makes this downward sweep He
-brings into renewed existence on each plane Devas, or beings which have as
-their characteristic manifestation the quality of their own plane; thus
-the Devas of the mental plane have the quality of intelligence as their
-chief peculiarity, and the Devas of the next lower plane have as their
-chief quality feeling, or the power of sensation, and those of the lowest
-plane have as their chief quality action, activity. Each Deva class shows
-out specially the quality of its plane, and inasmuch as these Devas draw
-into their own bodies the matter of the plane in which they live, they
-help on its evolution; for they draw it in, use it and thus develop it,
-and throw it out again into the general reservoir, just as man draws in
-physical matter, uses it in his body, and again throws it out into the
-physical world. As that process goes on and on and on through the ages,
-the whole of that kind of matter we call mental passes through the bodies
-of these Devas, takes on to itself the habit of responding readily to the
-vibrations of intelligence, and thus becomes ready for building into the
-mental body of man. The matter of the astral plane is builded into the
-bodies of the Devas of that plane until it takes up this habit of more and
-more definitely responding to pleasure and pain, when impacts are made on
-it, and thus can be used for the building up of the sensory bodies of the
-lower world. On each plane this downward sweep brings into activity these
-classes of Devas, making the intermediate links which are to work in the
-building of forms. The essence of the building of forms by a Deva is that
-he builds them of the matter of which his own body is composed. Prepared
-by that earlier evolution, qualities being developed in the downward
-sweep of the life of Ishvara, matter is, in the upward arc, gathered into
-definite forms, the bodies of plant, animal and man: thus definite
-vehicles are made, by which the highest consciousness can communicate
-with, and receive vibrations from, the lowest world.
-
-Let us now, having taken this very rapid sweep downwards, begin to climb
-upwards. Each kind of matter is now seen to possess certain qualities.
-Every physical atom has a number of sheaths interpenetrating and
-surrounding it, the sheath of astral matter with its power of responding
-to sensation, the sheath of mental matter with its power of responding
-to intelligence, as well as the sheaths, if they may be called so, of
-the two higher, Love and Existence, that will not be brought into
-activity for a long, long time. All is there. Ishvara now begins the
-great stage of brooding action that I spoke of the building up of a
-centre, and it is His first work to build physical forms out of this
-prepared material, all the Devas of the physical plane being ready to
-act as His agents, working under His impulse and under the direction of
-the Lord of the Devas of the physical plane. All these innumerable
-intermediate agents are wanted; for innumerable are to be the forms, and
-every one of them has to be builded.
-
-The building of the physical bodies begins with the formation of the
-minerals. As a mineral body is formed, perhaps some crystal, the crystal
-of an element or a salt, a definite form is built up by a Deva of the
-physical plane. He takes up the material of his own body and such material
-of the physical plane as is of similar nature to himself, and he begins
-shaping these crystalline forms. He builds them on the lines of the
-life-energy sent out by Ishvara Himself, those lines which Science calls
-the axes of the crystal, "imaginary" lines; "imaginary"--aye; but they are
-from the creative imagination of Ishvara, that is far more potent than the
-lower matter in which He builds. That lower matter follows the creative
-imagination of the Lord, and these imaginary lines govern the shaping of
-that crystal that is builded by the Deva. Tyndall believed not in the
-working of the Devas, yet when he was lecturing on crystals to a popular
-audience in Manchester he declared that as he pictured to himself the
-building of a crystal, he found himself imagining tiny architects at work,
-placing every atom with exact precision, with all the intelligence and
-skill of a human architect, employed in making a building. Tyndall was
-speaking better than he knew. His imagination was answering to the truth
-more keenly than he realised. For it is the privilege of the man of
-genius who loves truth as Tyndall did--who was willing to break up every
-fetter of dogma rather than be a traitor to his conception of truth--to
-unconsciously intuit the truth that he seeks, so that his words give out a
-higher meaning than he dreamed of. Tyndall was wise in recommending what
-he called the scientific flight of the imagination, for that power of
-imagination is a most useful thing. Never clip the wings of your
-imagination when you are employed in your scientific work; for it may
-often give you glimpses of truths that without its aid you would never
-find. Thus the Devas work and build crystals, and those crystals have some
-remarkable properties. Professor Japp tells us that some crystals turn a
-polarised beam of light in a particular way; and he declares that in some
-of these forms there is a power which is directive and somewhat akin to
-the intelligence of man. Truly is it akin to human intelligence, inasmuch
-as it is the parent of human intelligence, the latter being the child that
-is developing the parental powers. This building goes on through stages on
-which we must not tarry, through the whole of the mineral world, gradually
-giving to matter the power to change shape between larger and larger
-limits without losing cohesion. This is what is called plasticity, the
-power of changing shape without disintegration. Matter also gains that
-which science speaks of as elasticity. Now what is elasticity? Not, as
-people generally think the mere power of elongation, calling a thing
-elastic that can be pulled out like a piece of India-rubber. An elastic
-body in the popular sense is not an elastic body from the scientific point
-of view, and, strange as it may sound, glass is much more elastic than
-India-rubber. Yet the glass does not elongate and is brittle. The proper
-definition of elasticity is the power of recovering the original form
-after distortion, and matter gradually acquires this power. As life
-develops, the equilibrium of the compounds that make up the form becomes
-more and more unstable, while at the same time the general cohesion of the
-form increases; when we come to the higher forms, such as the body of man,
-we find a power of maintaining the central position greater than we find
-in any other form, together with an increased plasticity and elasticity;
-so that a man can adapt himself to the cold of the polar regions, and to
-the heat of the tropics and of the equatorial zone, without losing his
-body, in a way that no lower animal can match, that is, he has the power
-of adapting his physical body to surrounding conditions to a greater
-extent than is the case with any other form. Coming back to the mineral
-kingdom we left, let us take the next stage; Ishvara can now expand and
-modify His material a little more than was originally possible without
-breaking it up. He begins the moulding of the vegetable kingdom, and there
-also he sets axes of growth, as "imaginary" and as real in their
-controlling force as in the crystal, though they are not always quite as
-easy to trace, they are nevertheless there. All the vegetable matter is
-built in according to these axes, and the natural classification of plants
-is largely determined by the numerical relations of the parts; thus the
-law of number shapes the form. As the matter becomes more plastic and
-yields more readily to the indwelling life, the higher members of that
-kingdom begin to show the dawning of sensation. That is due to the
-beginning of the vivification of the next sheath above the physical,
-composed of what we call astral matter, that which goes to make part of
-the manomaya kosha of the Vedantin. We see in that a growing
-susceptibility, an increasing sensory power, very slight in the vegetable
-world, but still present, and developed much more largely where the
-vegetable has a long experience of separated life. Take for instance a
-tree that has endured for centuries, and let me just trace the stages in
-which the dawning sensation is found, and even a dawn, though I hardly
-venture to use the word, a dawn of mental quality. That life in the tree
-responds to the vibrations received from outside, of cold and heat, of
-wind and rain, of sunshine and storm, and as the physical sheath is built
-up and developed by the action of the Devas working upon it, the etheric
-matter in it is continually thrown into vibration by the changes in
-temperature, light, and electrical conditions. The vibrations in the
-ethers that enter into the physical body are passed on to the atomic
-sub-plane, and as the atoms of the physical plane have their spirals made
-of the coarsest matter of the plane of Apas, or astral matter, a slight
-quivering is caused in that coarsest matter of the astral plane, and that
-sets up a little movement in the tree, responded to by the indwelling life
-by sensation, a massive and general feeling of pleasure or pain.
-
-Have you never walked through a forest, and felt as though all nature
-were enjoying the sunshine? This sensation of pleasure is shown still
-more strikingly when the hot season comes to its ending, and the first
-rains fall on the thirsty ground, and the well-nigh withering vegetation
-sends out a conscious thrill of joy and life renewed. The very trees and
-bushes rejoice as the rain comes down upon them with its message of life
-and of hope. At such moments we recognise that the vegetable world is
-sensitive, although the sensation be widespread, that which is called
-massive in character.
-
-Forgive me if for a moment I here digress, to say that this fact is one
-of the reasons why we owe a duty to the vegetable world, not needlessly
-to cause sensations of dawning suffering. We live too carelessly, my
-brothers, in this world which is all-living, where there is no atom that
-is dead, and especially is this sad here in India, where once there was
-so strong a reverence for life. That is now, alas, beginning to pass
-away. You are forgetting that all life is Ishvara, that according to the
-stage of His lower self-evolution is the power of response that is given
-to the form. In the old days, I remember how, when man took his food, he
-met the food with gracious greeting because it was sacrificing its life
-in order to build, through that sacrifice, his own. Though it did not
-possess the higher powers of sensation as we find them in the animal,
-but only the lesser sensation powers of the vegetable world, still, even
-then, he met it with reverence, as a sacrifice which was being made to
-him, and took it with gratitude and with love; that lower life was
-yielding itself up to him for his up-building. But to-day, so lost is
-that gentle grace in many of our Hindu people, that they not only
-disregard the sacrificed lives of the vegetable kingdom, but also those
-of the far more sentient forms which Ishvara has developed in the animal
-kingdom of His world. We find men who wear the outer shape of the Hindu,
-who have his colour, his form, his face, who boast themselves of their
-descent from antiquity, who hold themselves therefore in thought above
-the western nations, forgetting the life of the Self in this sentient
-creation, and nourishing their bodies with the bodies of their lower
-brethren, without showing any sense of the sacrifice made, or feeling
-even a passing gratitude for the life which is given for them.
-
-Let us come back to the tracing of our forms. Ishvara, brooding over the
-evolving forms, continues His patient work--patient, that the form may
-never be broken by an overstrain, but may be slowly developed into a
-vehicle of the life that ensouls it. In every form He lives, evolving
-it, but He limits with illimitable patience His manifestation of life to
-the poor capacities of the form, that it may grow and not be destroyed.
-Do you remember an old story of the ancient days, in which most of you
-would be ashamed to acknowledge belief, for are you not graduates and
-men of western knowledge? Though descendants from the old time, you have
-naught to do with it, but I, who was trained in the West, I have no
-feeling of shame in acknowledging my belief in the strange things that
-come down to us from the times when truth was less veiled than it is
-now. So I dare to recall the story to you, although you may think that
-it is but a fable or legend. There was a boy who believed in Vishnu or
-Hari, in whom his father believed not, Prahlada he was named; and that
-boy went through many trials, but in all his faith in the Supreme
-defended him; at last his father, scoffing, said, turning to a pillar in
-his room: "You tell me that Hari is everywhere: is He in that pillar?"
-"O Hari, Hari!" cried the boy, and forth from the pillar in the form of
-a Lion burst an avatara of Vishnu and the pillar was shivered into
-pieces. Truly is He everywhere, in every particle of matter; there is no
-one particle from which He cannot come forth in all the might of His
-Godhood, in all the majesty of His Deity. But He will not, because if He
-did, the form could not bear that revealing, and would shiver into
-pieces as the God appeared. A profound truth, even if you regard the
-story as an allegory, a truth which teaches us what evolution means.
-
-Thus Ishvara worked on age after age and aeon after aeon, with that
-marvellous patience of which I spoke, until matter was made sufficiently
-plastic to build it into the form in which His highest life was to begin
-its development, the form of man; building that form, He begins also to
-strengthen very much the centre which the form is for a while to
-protect. Let me say in passing one thing that I have omitted, that
-whenever a form has reached its highest possible point, its limit of
-expansion, He breaks it, in order that, in a new form better adapted,
-the ensouling life may continue to grow; for He knows when to break as
-well as when to hold; He knows when to destroy as well as when to
-preserve; and the moment that the limit of a form has been reached, and
-its matter can yield no further, He bursts the form asunder, that its
-materials may recombine themselves, under the impulse of life, into a
-more plastic organism, and that the life may thus gain further
-evolution, ensouling a higher form more fitted for the expression of its
-increasing powers. We call this breaking of the form death, and we fear
-and shrink from it, and if people talk to us of death, in the flush of
-our life, it comes as a jar and a shock. But, as I told you in the
-beginning, you may see very plainly that death is that beneficent aspect
-of Ishvara, which breaks a form that has become a prison, in order to
-give the life a new form in which it may continue to grow; He breaks the
-rigid form when it can develop no further, and gives the life the
-plastic form of a baby, that may be shaped more easily by the moulding
-forces of the life within it, yielding itself to every impulse from
-within. It seems then, that when we see things rightly, we should hail
-death as birth rather than as death. For looked at from the side of
-life, every death is a being born into the higher possibilities of a new
-shape that will adapt itself to the growing life.
-
-When man begins his long pilgrimage, a form is ready for his ensouling,
-prepared to receive and to respond to the impulses which come to it from
-the physical, astral and--to a small extent--from the mental planes. His
-physical atoms are considerably evolved, the sensory sheath is working
-actively, and there is a very imperfect lower mental sheath; these have
-been built up through the evolution of the animal realm. Do not fall
-into the mistake of the western way of thinking, and say that man
-descends from the animal; that is not true. It is only a fragment of
-truth half seen and thereby distorted. What is true is this: that the
-matter of his lower vehicles has been prepared by evolving through the
-stages of the elemental, mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, in
-order that it may be builded into the form of man; that _in previous
-kalpas_ forms had been evolved that might fairly be described as
-half-ape, half-human, that were never occupied by the triple Self, and
-that therefore belonged to the animal, not to the human kingdom; that
-in the present cycle the human form evolved, as a foetus evolves, passing
-rapidly through the lower stages on the way to the human, as in
-pre-natal life, and it therefore has stamped upon it the stages through
-which it has passed. I have been going over, roughly and swiftly, those
-stages through which the matter of which the body is composed has gone
-in the past, and you will see that the true theory of evolution is
-different from the somewhat crude view that there is a regular
-succession of births from the animal into the man. The matter has been
-made plastic in the animal, but man in his form is the result of a
-higher working; the germ of his life can never develop into the animal,
-but only into the human, because more has been infolded into it, and
-that germ must unfold along a line which is that of direct human growth.
-Remembering that, to prevent a possible misconception, we turn to the
-human centre that is now definitely formed. We speak of its encircling
-form as the causal body, or Karana Sharira, the form by which the Self
-is limited; the Karana Sharira is not the Self, remember, but is the
-containing vehicle of the triple Self, and the organ of one aspect of
-that Self, the aspect of knowledge, shown forth as intelligence. This
-sheath is important, being relatively of a permanent nature, and it goes
-on from birth to birth; death cannot touch it, birth cannot modify it;
-it is the treasure-house or receptacle of all the qualities acquired by
-experience through human evolution, and passes through the whole cycle
-of re-incarnations; it is the special _human_ characteristic. The form
-begins to adapt itself more and more to the life, and here comes in a
-growing difficulty. The characteristic of the life of man is the life of
-the intellect; this the specifically human part of evolution; but the
-life of sensation is far more vivid and tumultuous in the beginning, and
-the earlier stages of form are adapted to answer to these impulses. You
-may ask, why not give the man at once a mental body only, in which to
-work out his evolution, why must he struggle through the evolution of
-this body of sensation? Because, if he misses that stage, he will not be
-able to make up the links which are necessary for the continuity of his
-consciousness. At a later time the perfect man is conscious on all
-planes from Nirvana downward to the physical, from the physical upwards
-to Nirvana. On every plane in unbroken continuity of consciousness the
-Jivanmukta lives and works. There is no link lacking. If, then, the man
-does not establish, in the building of his body of sensation, certain
-centres or, as they are called, chakras--that drawing into centres
-which is the work of the upward arc, as giving qualities is the work of
-the downward arc--if he does not draw the powers of sensation into
-definite centres in the sheath of his astral body, he will not have the
-links which he requires to receive impacts from the astral plane, and
-through which he can send out thrills of consciousness in order to
-impress it, rule it and guide it. That is why there is so much delay in
-the savage condition, where the life of sensation is supreme; these
-astral chakras are being builded up as centres of the senses, and they
-are built firm and strong; the outer organs, the eye, the ear, the nose,
-the tongue, the skin, these are merely the necessary organs in the
-physical body for the expression of consciousness through these chakras.
-
-If we take, for a moment, a swift survey of the evolution of forms, we
-shall find that the building of organs follows the exercise of
-life-functions; in the earliest forms there are no organs, but the
-functions of life are present and active; the creature breathes and
-assimilates, circulation goes on; but there are no organs for digestion,
-no organs for breathing, no organs for circulation; the whole body does
-everything. But as evolution proceeds and definite organs are formed in
-the physical body, in the nervous system, and as later, in the astral
-body, chakras or astral centres of sensation are formed--as this goes
-on, we find a more specialised being developed with definite organs.
-Always the organ comes after the function, and through the organ the
-function expresses itself more and more perfectly. That is a fundamental
-principle. And do not forget that in this you are on what is thought the
-safer ground of western science. You do not find an organ appearing
-before the development of its function. You always find the life-impulse
-first, and then the moulding of the matter into a shape which enables
-that impulse to express itself more perfectly. If we trace evolution
-from the amoeba upwards we find differentiation and specialisation
-becoming more marked the whole way through, yet man himself turns round,
-and with the very brain which has been formed under the vibrations of
-intelligence he reverses the whole process, and asserts that thought is
-produced by the brain; but every organ is formed as the organ of a
-function, it is produced by life, and is not its creator.
-
-This process goes on until the necessary organs are made and the nervous
-system is linked to the chakras in the astral body, chiefly through what
-is called the sympathetic system. There are certain nervous cells of a
-peculiar kind in that system, of which modern science does not say
-much, beyond giving you the forms and contents, and these are the links
-between consciousness in the physical body and in the sensory body. Then
-come the chakras already spoken of as the centres for the working of
-consciousness in the astral body. A similar process goes on in the
-mental body under the action of thought-impulses, and there we have also
-an organised body able to respond to different kinds of thought, and
-thus to serve consciousness as its organ for expression in the mental
-world. As we grow mentally we build our organs for consciousness.
-
-Coming to this building of form practically, we learn that we organise
-the body of sensation to higher purposes by checking the life-impulse as
-it runs out to the object of the senses. These objects gradually turn
-away from the abstemious dweller in the body, it is written, and as the
-lower world ceases to attract, the higher world begins to use the form
-for nobler ends. If we desire to increase mental power, we must practise
-steady thinking, and check the rovings of intelligence over the
-phenomenal world. As a matter of fact, many people never really think at
-all; what they call their thoughts are nothing more than the reflections
-of other people's thoughts to which their consciousness responds; their
-minds are looking-glasses, not productive organisms; most men's minds,
-I fear, are looking-glasses reflecting objects that are before them, and
-contemplating these reflections a man says to himself: "See! how I am
-thinking!" when he is only repeating the thoughts of others. Now we are
-not to be mere looking-glasses; when the objects of the outer world give
-rise to images, the mind is to work on them, analyse, re-arrange,
-combine; thinking is the work of the mind itself on the mental images
-supplied through sensation, the working on the materials which have been
-gradually gathered by experience. As soon might you call a loose heap of
-bricks that you see in the compound of a house, a building, as call the
-reflection of other people's thoughts, your thinking. That is only the
-material for thought. Thinking is the work of the architect, of the
-builder that builds these bricks into a definite edifice, and until we
-have built up thoughts in our minds, we have no right to arrogate to
-ourselves the name of thinkers. Practise then this independent thinking;
-it is hard; you will not know how hard until you try it. Never let pass
-a day without reading something that gives you material for thought. No
-matter if the book be not religious; if it be only intellectual, that
-will make you stronger in intellect. Even leaving spirituality aside
-with its nobler possibilities, take some great book worthy of being
-thought over, not a newspaper, not a sensational novel, not a child's
-book, but a BOOK--an original book, on a real topic; what Charles Lamb
-called a book. Read, but do not read much, perhaps not more than a dozen
-or twenty lines; think these lines over and over and over for at least
-thrice as long as you have taken to read them slowly. Do that every day
-regularly, and do not miss it. You find time for your dinner; why, if
-you can find time to feed your body and to talk, can you not find time
-to feed your mind? Then your mind would grow. If you do that as an
-experiment, say for three months only, never missing a day--for if you
-miss a day, you will slip back and lose the value of the automatic
-action of your mind--do that for three months as an experiment, as a
-scientific man makes an experiment, and thus train yourselves for three
-months in power of close attention and thought, and at the end of the
-three months, you will be startled to find how much these powers have
-grown. When you have put yourself through this experiment, then you will
-not want a lecturer to tell you about the value of such self-discipline,
-for you yourself will have proved it to be good. Take one faculty after
-another to train; train your reasoning faculty, your memory, your power
-of comparison and contrast. Take up a faculty, just as any one takes up
-a study that he is working at, and work at it until you are an artist
-in that particular faculty.
-
-That is how form is builded, when the human Self is beginning to
-co-operate with the work of Ishvara, when the centre is beginning to
-take the control of its vehicles. It rationalises its workings, and
-builds and modifies them step by step. When this has been done for many
-lives, then comes the life for Yoga; then the man may be taught how to
-make more rapid progress, and how to vivify the inner and subtler
-sheaths of his being by certain practices, that will be taught him the
-moment he is ready--but that will never be taught him until he _is_
-ready, nay though he range the world over in search of a Guru, or live
-the life of an ascetic in the cave or in the jungle. That is not enough,
-so long as his desire is unconquered, so long as his mind is still
-restless. When the senses are dominated, when the mind is controlled,
-and not before--but then, as certainly as before there will not be the
-coming--a Guru will appear who will take that man by the hand and lead
-him along the path that is narrow as the edge of a razor, that may only
-be trodden by the controlled in sense and by the steady in mind, for the
-fall either to the one side or to the other means delay for many a birth
-to come. Then is developed that aspect of Bliss which shows itself
-outwardly as love; a faint reflection of that bliss is felt in many
-stages of meditation, and joy has birth within you, wells up within you,
-enwraps you fold by fold, until you in yogic trance reach the true
-A'nanda, which is the essence of beauty, and makes you quiver under its
-subtle vibrations of ineffable delight. And later, later still, at a
-stage that you may reach, when all is purified through long evolution,
-there comes the rising into the highest, where the subtlest matter
-becomes the vehicle of that developed centre, now no longer a
-circumference restraining and necessary, but an obedient vehicle which
-will serve when it is wanted and fall away when wanted it is not. As it
-is written that in the A'kasha there is every possibility of form, so
-the life that has reached Self-existence is a being that garbs itself in
-any form by gathering the A'kasha around it. Thus it may develop vehicle
-after vehicle until the whole of the human series is builded for use,
-but none of them is prison for limitation; then we say that the man is a
-Jivanmukta, He is free, and all matter has become His servant, to use
-when He has need of it, to cast aside when He needs it not; every region
-of the world is His to use, no region of the world is its own to bind
-Him; He is liberated, and as the liberated Self He may, if He will,
-still work for His brother men, remaining, as Shri Shankaracharya
-taught us, until the end of His age, in order to lift humanity more
-rapidly on its upward climb. Thus are formed Those who are the
-co-workers of Ishvara in the helping of humanity, who, having gone
-through all suffering, throw everything they have gained at the feet of
-the Lord, who turn back to the world, never again to be bound by it, but
-still responding to the compassion which is the very life of Ishvara
-Himself. As long as Ishvara wills to remain in manifestation, so long
-does He whose will is one with that of Ishvara, will also to remain. He
-has nothing to gain, nothing to learn, nothing to take that any world
-can give Him; but He stands beside His Lord as an organ of the
-expression of the highest life, existing no longer for anything that He
-takes, but as the channel of the life of God. That is the prize of our
-calling, that the goal on which our hearts are fixed.
-
-
-Women's Printing Society, Limited, 66, Whitcomb Street, W.C.
-
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
-
-The following variants appear in this text: "A'kasha" and "Akasha",
-"A'nanda" and "Ananda", "Kabbalah" and "Kabala", "karmic" and "karmic",
-"out-pouring" and "outpouring", "Self-existence" and "Self-Existence",
-"wellnigh" and "well-nigh".
-
-The spelling "Brahma" appears to be standard, but "Brahma" also appears,
-in the phrase "Mahad Brahma".
-
-The phrase "may by" in "may by it be brought" on p. 20 should possibly be
-"may be" but has been left unchanged.
-
-Words in italics are indicated by underscores, _like this_.
-
-The following amendments to spelling and punctuation have been made:
-
-1) "hierachies" amended to "hierarchies" on p. 27.
-
-2) "philosphy" amended to "philosophy" on p. 28.
-
-3) "manasic" amended to "manasic" on p. 52.
-
-4) Period added after "tato bhavati Bharata" on p. 97.
-
-5) "Avatara" amended to "Avatara" on p. 119.
-
-6) Comma added after "kingdom" on p. 119.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Evolution of Life and Form, by Annie Wood Besant
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