William Judge was a great Theosophist. He did not
write an article about skandhas, but he repeatedly mentioned them in his
writings, and below I transcribe what he said about them:
In his book The Ocean of
Theosophy, when William Judge explained about the Kama-Loka, he wrote:
« Struggling out of the
body the entire man goes into Kama-Loka,
to purgatory, where he again struggles and loosens himself from the lower skandhas
During mortal life the desires
and passions are guided by the mind and soul; after death they work without
guidance from the former master; while we live we are responsible for them and
their effects, and when we have left this life we are still responsible,
although they go on working and making effects on others while they last as the
sort of entity I have described, and without our direct guidance. In this is
seen the continuance of responsibility.
They are a portion of the skandhas — well known in
eastern philosophy — which are the aggregates that make up the man. The body
includes one set of the skandhas,
the astral man another, the kama
principle is another set, and still others pertain to other parts.
In kama are the really active and important ones
which control rebirths and lead to all the varieties of life and circumstance
upon each rebirth.
They are being made from day to
day under the law that every thought combines instantly with one of the
elemental forces of nature, becoming to that extent an entity which will endure
in accordance with the strength of the thought as it leaves the brain, and all
of these are inseparably connected with the being who evolved them.
There is no way of escaping; all
we can do is to have thoughts of good quality, for the highest of the Masters
themselves are not exempt from this law, but they "people their current in
space" with entities powerful for good alone.
Now in Kama-Loka this mass of
desire and thought exists very definitely until the conclusion of its
disintegration, and then the remainder consists of the essence of these skandhas, connected, of
course, with the being that evolved and had them.
They can no more be done away
with than we can blot out the universe. Hence they are said to remain until the
being comes out of Devachan,
and then at once by the law of attraction they are drawn to the being, who from
them as germ or basis builds up a new set of skandhas
for the new life. »
(Chapter 12)
And in this same book, when William Judge explained about the Devachan,
he stated:
« What Master Kuhumi did say on this is as follows: The "dream of devachan" lasts until
karma is satisfied in that direction. In Devachan
there is a "gradual exhaustion of force." "The stay in Devachan
is proportioned to the unfinished psychic impulses originating in earth-life:
those whose attractions were preponderatingly material will be sooner drawn
back into rebirth by the force of Tanha."
The thirst for life expressed by
the word Tanha
is the pulling or magnetic force lodged in the skandhas inherent in all beings. »
(Chapter 13)
In an article where William Judge talks about karma, he pointed out:
« Karma in their cases operates through what
Patanjali calls “mental deposits.” These are the net results stored from each
life by Manas . For as the body dies, taking the brain with it, there can be no
storage there, nor means of connecting with the next earth-life; the division
known as Kāma is dissipated or purged away together with the astral body at
some time before rebirth; the astral body retains nothing — as a general rule —
for the new life, and the value of summation of those skandhas which belong to
Kāma is concentrated and deposited in Manas or the mind. »
(Echoes of the Orient I, p.278-79)
And in another article where William Judge spoke about reincarnation, he
explained that:
« When death arrives, the brain disintegrates and
there is nothing left of it all, but a few tendencies — skandhas, not of the
very best. The advantages then turn out in the end to be disadvantages
altogether.
But imagine the same brain and body not in places of ease, struggling for
a good part of life, doing their duty and not in a position to please the
senses; this experience will burn in, stamp upon, carve into the character,
more energy, more power and more fortitude. It is thus through the ages that
great characters are made. »
(Echoes of the Orient I, p.485)
And on other occasions William Judge commented that:
« Every inimical and uncharitable thought makes
for disunion, and every opposite one for harmony. The skandhas are full of all
the impressions we received; those skandhas wait and are ours again when we
emerge from Devachan. »
(Echoes of the Orient II, p.315)
« When the astral body in which they cohere is
disintegrated, as it is in time, they remain a sort of entity in the Kama-Rupa,
a form of still less materiality than the Linga-Sarira. Eventually this too is
said to fade out, leaving only their essence, the skandhas, fateful germs of
karmic consequence, which, when the Ego emerges from the devachanic state, are
by the law of attraction drawn to the new being in which it incarnates. »
(Echoes of the Orient III, p.236)
And finally, when a person asked:
What is the relationship of the
Esoteric Seventh principle to that principle which is derived from the violet
sub-ray of the Violet Hierarchy of Nature?
William Judge replied:
« The Auric Egg is the esoteric seventh principle. The
Linga-Sarira is derived from the violet sub-ray of the Violet Hierarchy [568].
The relation is that of transitory emanation to eternal basic principle. The
essence of the Linga-Sarira is derived from the Violet Hierarchy, but its
individual coloring, nature, and form are furnished by the Auric Egg and the
taṇhic elementals or essence of former skandhas. »
(Echoes of the Orient III, p.405)
