The wheel of reincarnations
In these this earth is the
turning point where the soul of man begins its conscious career. Here, after
having passed through all forms of animate and inanimate life he begins to come
consciously under the operation of the law of Karma, which is a law demanding complete
compensation for every act, word, and thought, and which results in removing
the idea of the possibility of a vicarious atonement; and here he is born over
and over again, reaping in each life the exact results due to him from the life
preceding, and being therefore at any one instant of time the exact product or
resultant of all his previous lives and experiences.
So that these two doctrines of
Karma and Rebirth, are interwoven one with the other.
After death the real man — the
ego — (the inner
being) goes to what the Christians call Heaven, and which in
the East is called Devachan. The words of the Bhagavad-Gītā will best enunciate this. In Chapter VI [vv. 37, 40-1,
43], Arjuna asks:
-
“Whither O Kṛishṇa,
doth the man go after death, who although he be endowed with faith, hath not
obtained perfection in his devotion?”
To which Kṛishṇa replied:
-
“His destruction is
found neither here nor in the world above. A man whose devotions have been broken
off by death, having enjoyed for an immensity of years the rewards of his
virtues in the regions above, is at length born again. . . . Being thus born
again he resumes in his new body the same habit he had before acquired and the
same advancement of the understanding and here he begins again his labor (where
he left it off).”
This law applies to all,
righteous or not, and the period of rest which is had in Devachan is the exact
length of time the spiritual energy stored up in earth life will last.
The length of time one stays in Devachan
has been put by one or two English writers at fifteen hundred years, but this
is erroneous, for the stay there depends in each particular instance upon the
application of the immutable law to the facts of that case.
The Devachanic period is the great
resting spell for all, and is one of the means provided by Nature for
preventing a total degradation. During that state the Ego acquires some
goodness for the next earth life, and when the Ego of a man who had before been
extremely wicked is reborn, the new personality has to feel the consequences of
all the evil done in that preceding life but comes to the task with the aid of
the good influences of the rest in Devachan.
(Echoes of the Orient III,
p.252-3)
What happens after death?
Theosophy teaches, as may be
found in all sacred books, that after death the soul reaps a rest. This is from
its own nature. It is a thinker, and can not during life fulfill and carry out
all nor even a small part of the myriads of thoughts entertained.
Hence when at death it casts off
the body and the astral body, and is released from the passions and desires,
its natural forces have immediate sway and it thinks its thoughts out on the
soul plane, clothed in a finer body suitable to that existence.
This is called Devachan. It is
the very state that has brought about the descriptions of heaven common to all
religions, but this doctrine is very clearly put in the Buddhist and Hindu
religions.
It is a time of rest, because the
physical body being absent the consciousness is not in the completer touch with
visible nature which is possible on the material plane. But it is a real
existence, and no more illusionary than earth life; it is where the essence of
the thoughts of life that were as high as character permitted, expands and is
garnered by the soul and mind.
When the force of these thoughts
is fully exhausted the soul is drawn back once more to earth, to that
environment which is sufficiently like unto itself to give it the proper
further evolution.
This alternation from state to
state goes on until the being rises from repeated experiences above ignorance,
and realizes in itself the actual unity of all spiritual beings. Then it passes
on to higher and greater steps on the evolutionary road.
(Echoes of the Orient II, p.139)
Memory after dying
Question:
How is it that after the death of the physical body, the entity survives and
takes with her to the Devachan the memories she had during her stay on Earth?
Answer: In the book The Key to Theosophy in [Section] IX
describes the process in general to which the question refers. There it appears
that at death the body, life-force, and astral body are lost, and the middle
principle (Kāma-rūpa), together with
Manas, Buddhi, and Ātma, is in Kāma-Loka, which is a state or condition and not
a place. Then the separation between Kāma-rūpa and the higher triad begins, after the completion of which Manas-Buddhi-Ātma
fall into the Devachanic state.
Turning to page 92 of the same
book, we find in the column “explanatory” that if the Manas naturally
gravitates to Buddhi and away from Kāma-rūpa, the “Ego goes into Devachanic bliss.” This gives the process. It
cannot be said to be suffering or painful. The only point left, then, is as to
memory.
T.E.K. rightly says
“recollections.” [Section] VIII of The Key makes this clear. “Memory” is the
physical brain-memory; rem iniscence is the “memory of the soul.” Each new
brain makes a new physical memory used by Manas in each life, but Manas itself
is the seat of memory proper, called by H. P. Blavatsky “reminiscence.”
It is not meant that Manas takes
into Devachan the remembrance of every circumstance in life, but only the
efflorescence of its life, the reminiscence of its best hours, leaving the
painful and evil portions to the dying brain and to Kāma-rūpa.
If the questioner desires, as a
help, an objective illustration of what happens to Manas through the separation
from Kāma-rūpa, this may do: Imagine Manas as attached on its lower side to Kāma-rūpa just as a photograph may be attached to a glass plate. When dry, the paper
can be taken from the plate, leav ing on it the film of the picture.
Thus when Manas is separated, its
lower film may be left attached to Kāma-rūpa, its higher portion going into Devachan. And it is in Higher Manas
that real memory is.
(Echoes of the Orient II,
p.281-2)
Where is the Devachan located?
I understand
Devachan is a state and not a locality; but evidently there must be some sort
of locality in which the Devachanic state can take place. Is there any
information as to the whereabouts of this particular locality?
Answer: Inasmuch as the
doctrine of Devachan is postulated and declared only in respect to the
inhabitants of our world, it must follow that those of us who go into that
state must keep within the attractive limits of the earth’s chain of planets.
This would give the “place” in space
in which the Ego undergoes Devachanic experience, but as the earth and its “companion
globes” are always moving through space, it is evident that this loka (the subtle region) is moveable.
Imagine a huge hollow ball
containing the earth and rolling through space. The hollow ball may stand for the
attractive limits of the Ego who belongs for the time to the race, and within
those limits — fixed in themselves but ever moving in space — the being goes
into and remains in the Devachanic state. And as there the weight of the
physical is not felt nor its density perceived, the Devachanic state may as
well be on the earth as anywhere else outside up to the limits of attraction
spoken of.
(The subtle
planes of Earth occupy the same space as the physical plane, but they are in
other "dimensions.")
(Echoes of the Orient II, p.318-9)
Who goes to Devachan and what he
experiences there?
In Devachan, the soul pursues its
highest ideals spiritually, and, seeming to carry those all out to highest
perfection, it is benefited, enlarged and strengthened. Devachan is for rest
and recuperation and not for action.
Not alone do evil and mediocre
people go to Devachan, but preeminently those who have high and deep — though
unfulfilled — aspirations. These are artists, musicians, dreamers, religious
enthusiasts. And they, having impetuous thoughts, stay there longer than
others.
But those who have been through
all those experiences here and in Devachan, and who have triumphed over
illusion through self-conquest, do not need Devachan because they have grown to
their full strength and cannot against their wish be thrust into it by natural
force. So they do not become subject to it. But that is the Adept.
(The Adepts
having reached a high development, they can immediately reincarnate if they
wish, or they can also ascend to the divine world as others do, but they will
no longer fall into the devachanic dream.)
And the Adepts can also enter into the Devachanic state of another so as to help and
benefit the other.
(While ordinary humans can only do that very sporadically and
unconsciously.)
We are not such as yet, but may
perhaps some day, in the distant future, be able to do such great and
altruistic work.
(Echoes of the Orient II,
p.381-2)
What is the difference between dream on
Devachan and dream on Earth?
Forms seen in dreams and visions
are almost always pictures; those on the Kāma-Mānasic are more often actual
forms of that sort of matter.
(The person
creates his own reality with the manasic substance of the mental plane.)
The difference — when existing —
is that which there is between a photograph of a form and the form itself. The “forms”
of Devachanic consciousness are not objective to us, but are to the being in
the Devachanic state of consciousness. As the entity is not free — hence in
Devachan — the mind creates for itself all its surround ings in every detail,
and also thereby cultivates departments of the nature which could not be
cultivated to the same extent elsewhere.
The connection with the Higher
Ego, as to which F.J.D.’s ideas are vague, is the same connection as in
earth-life, only operating by a different channel.
(Echoes of the Orient II, p.248)
Can one reincarnate again without having to
go Devachan?
To skip a period in Devachan is
possible, but it is exceedingly exceptional, and seldom advantageous. It
occurs, we are told, in two instances.
First in certain rare cases when
the Adepts, in order to hasten the development of a chela, aid him in passing
at the moment of death into some other and younger body, which is at that
instant in the act of losing its own tenant, but which is not so diseased as to
prevent full recovery of health after the advent of the new vitality.
Secondly in the case of the
higher Lamas, when, at the death of the old Lama his spirit enters the new body
while it is still unborn.
(Echoes of the Orient II, p.450)
The desire to reincarnate again
Question: Does the devachani
have aspects or propensities which
draw it back to incarnation here?
Answer: A careful study of
the philosophy will show that it is held that the Ego in Devachan, consisting
of Ātma, Buddhi, and Manas, must contain within it the seeds, qualities, or
propensities which will draw it back to life on earth again.
If this is not so, then there
would never be any reincarnation whatever. If this be so, as I believe it is,
then all the rest of the discussion seems to be merely discussion in a circle
about nothing, but that which will lead to mental confusion.
The last part of the discussion
is settled by reflecting that if the Ego using Manas in Devachan keeps itself
in a state or condition which is connected with earth-life, it will inevitably
return to earth-life be cause of the attraction which it retains for that state
of existence.
(In Sanskrit
this connection is called Tanha and
it is the desire of the soul to have new experiences on Earth.)
(Echoes
of the Orient II, p.330-1)
Who has already freed themselves from the
Devachan?
Not the
masters, because although they are already conscious and awake throughout their
post-mortem journey (contrary to ordinary humans), but they are still subject
to the cycle of reincarnations, and therefore they still have to go
periodically to the Devachan (although they stay awake while the rest of the
humans stay asleep).
There is much confusion in this
question, and hence I infer a similar state in the mind of the questioner as to
the matter propounded. Two states or kinds of development are mixed together,
one the free or liberated state of a Jīvanmukta, and the other that of a being who
is obliged to reincarnate.
Only those are free who are
Jīvanmuktas; having reached that state they are no more confined to mortal
birth, but may take up a body or not as they see fit. A Jīvanmukta participates
in the souls of all creatures and works for the good of the human family.
To take a known case, it should
be remembered that the Adept who is helping the Theosophical Society is a
Jīvanmukta, but is all the time engaged in the great work of assisting the
great orphan, Humanity.
(Note:
perhaps this Jīvanmukta mentioned by Wiiliam Judge is Chohan Serapis or Lord Bouddha.)
(Echoes
of the Orient II, p.272)
No comments:
Post a Comment