G.R.S. Mead - The World-Mystery, Four Essays, 1895 by gnosisclassics

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THE

WORLD-MYSTERY FOUR ESSAYS

G. R. S.

MEAD,

B.A., M.R.A.S.

LONDON THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING 7,

SOCIETY, W.C.

DUKE STREET, ADELPHI, madras: " THEOSOrillST

BENARES

OFFICE, ADYAR.

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY. 1895

CONTENTS.

PAGE

The World-Soul

The Vestures

of the Soul

The Web of Destiny

113

True Self-Reliance

143

19S5144

Ashcharyyavat pasliyati kashchidenam

Ashcharyyavad vadati tathaiva chanyah Ashchavyyavach chainamanyah shrinoti

Shrutvapycnam veda na chaiva kashchit.

One

sees this as a wonder,

As a wonder,

too,

one speaks of

As a wonder one hears

And having

heard,

knows

it,

not anyone.

Bhagavad GJta,

II.

29.

'Cs

ovv lyivcTO

T^KOvacv,

OTi

Traucra/xcvov atTov,

tijv

7rpo<;

ITav

/Acyas

Kat yeviaOai

And

fiTTciv,

â&#x20AC;¢

jxiyav

TToXXuiv crTevay/xbi' afxa Oavfxa(rfJi(3

dead."

yrjv

Ti6vr]Kev

ov)(

wcnrep Se

<j>6r]vaL

evos

dXXa

/xe/JLLyfJLevov.

so he called out to the land, as he had heard, " Pan, the Great,

And hardly had he

ceased,

when

there arose a mighty cry, not oi

one, but of many, mingled with wonderment.

Plutarch, On the Cessation of Oracles,

'iSov', jxvcTTripiQV vjXLV

Behold,

I tell

xvii.

Acyoj.

you a mystery. I.

Corinthians, xv.

51.

THE WORLD-SOUL. The one

;

task that

it is

less

propose to myself

light

than to discuss some of the

opinions of

point out,

possible,

fellow-men on Deity, and to

some common ground of

agreement or reconciliation between the innumerable ideas put forward on this inexhaustible topic.

shall not write either as

an avowed

monotheist, pantheist, theist, or atheist, for conceive that a real

student of theosophy

I is

imbued with the spirit of the great law of expansion and progress, not to condemn himself or herself to the narrowing limits of any of these sectarian ideas, which cannot fail to bring him in conflict with the prejudices of some sufficiently

section or other of his brother-men. I

hope to find

ment,

for at

this

common ground

any rate the

of agree-

theist, pantheist, or

monotheist, in the concept of the World-Soul, in one or other of its aspects

of finding

;

although

much sympathy from

despair

the so-called

THE WORLD-MYSTERY. whose intellectual negation

atheist, if

frequently,

For

not invariably, stultified by his actions.

do we not

find the

avowed

atheist searching for

the reason of that which he denies to have any

operation

intelligent

do we not

;

him

find

frequently striving for an ideal which can never

be attained,

as he supposes, the present

if,

the outcome of the past interaction of blindly driving force and matter

he work

for the

Why,

again, should

improvement of the race

race, as he himself,

that

to depart into the void

together with the producer of his and sciousness

its

con-

For the body dies and the earth

will also die.

And

consciousness

a product

of organized matter, then the disruption of that

organism means inevitably the dissipation of

Why,

consciousness. fit

then, this effort to bene-

that which must, on his

tend inevitably to annihilation

From

the

materialists,

perchance, will gain

although of

their

forward,

may

hypothesis,

then,

this

little intellectual

meet,

which if

not

will

be brought

with

consideration, at least with respect. it

be any part of

essay,

sympathy,

venture to hope that the ideals

fellow-men, will

own

reverential

Nor

will

task to criticize, except in

THE WORLD-SOUL.

the briefest manner, any of the crude expressions of man's aspiration to the Divine, but rather to put forward a

number

of instances of the

minds and some measure mysterious bond

perfect expressions of great

great

teachers

who have

sensed the actuahty of that

makes

that

all

men one. me say

First, then, let

Soul

that the term

World-

not intended in this essay to carry the

meaning of the platonic

or neoplatonic

All-Soul or Soul of the Universals

{^vxyj tov Travros

technical

and so in order to express in some way what the term World-Soul is intended to mean, it will be necessary to give a meaning to By " soul " the words " soul " and " world." is intended the underlying "something" under or

Tuiv

oAwv);

every manifested form, that something which is

the

life,

consciousness or

whatever term

intelligence,

which makes it that Nor should we exclude

preferred,

form and no other.

anything, not even that which in these latter days is called " inanimate," from our sympathy, for

our greater Selves naught that exists,

nay, not even the grain of sand,

in-animate,

for then it would be soid-\ess, and the Divine would have been excluded from part of itself.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

And now

let

enquiry, where a

us start with ourselves in our

find a soul encased in a body,

body made of many

"lives,"

And

man

yet the soul of

" lives "

;

of infinite

"form"

infinitesimal cells, each the

of a soul.

not composed of these

the consciousness

man

not

simply the product or sum of their consciousness,

nor

;

dies not nor

one, a

imperish-

indestructible,

unit,

able, self-motive

compound

The. soul of man

their intelligence.

self-centred

intelligence

his

comes

into

being.

Next,

let

us,

taking this as a starting-point,

use analogy to aid us, as

pass within, into

For analogy is the only method we can employ, if we wish to widen our understanding, and without it we might well doubt the possibility of knowledge. Every the region of ideas.

thing,

rather

every

every other soul, just

dology of Leibnitz a

knowledge

knowledge of is

soul,

of all

;

and

one

as if it

soul

the

mirror

the

Mona-

were not that comprises

other souls, and that

contained potentially

the

kosmos

every atom, then

were our striving towards wisdom vain and our aspiration

reality

likewise

vain.

Taking,

THE WORLD-SOUL. then, the example of the

human

were a sun

an ocean of bathed,

system, or as

conceive that there

try

its

we regard

which the "lives" are

light in

let

midst of

in the

enshrined

soul,

in a universe of "lives," whether

another and more mighty Life, a Divine Soul,

which the human souls are " hves," and which we may term the Soul of Humanity. And yet this Soul is not made up of the souls of men, but is a unit of itself, self-motive, and itself and of

naught so'

Further

else.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for the

human mind

constituted that nothing short of infinitude

can

suffice

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

this Divine Soul

in its

number of

turn a Life, one of an infinite " Lives " of a like degree, that enshrine a

transcending them as

much

man

Soul

transcends

And

the "lives" of the universe of his body. further

still,

Divine

is,

further

that

its

turn,

in Is

which transcends the But why go ,

not the series infinite

Where

can we set the term, or place a boundary, or limit infinitude

then the mind loses

itself in

thou go

and

the stupendous

soaring and must return to earth

height of

its

to rest

wings.

its

far shalt

Thus towards

infinity

rise in

our ideation,

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

conceiving every atom as the shrine of a soul

;

every stone, animal,

man

system, and universe

every system of universes,

;

and

every globe,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and universe of systems as the shrine of a Soul. For our universe is neither the first nor their number is infinite. the last of its kind ;

And when

the consummation of our present

universe

perfected

Word

there will

"another

on the tongue of the Ineffable,"

Ineffable speaks infinitely, or, as our

brethren

say,

there are

for the

Brahman

" crores of crores of

Brahmas," or universes. Thus an infinity in one direction of thought, and equally so an infinity in the other direction. For are not the "

lives " of the body, too, the universe of other invisible " lives " souls of a ;

and

these, each in its turn, the suns of

invisible

universes, until

the

)^ou

may have thought

concept we have nothing but an of eternally separated entities sion

;

separateness alone

;

but as

One.

infinite series

;

of a stupendous

This might be so in all

all is

that in this

of infinite divi-

;

of a chaos of multiplicity

more small

infinitely

blends with the infinitely great and

Perhaps

still

things here below,

have no manifestation without the

stood

we can

help

THE WORLD-SOUL. we must

contraries,

complete

many and

unity of

twin concept to

its

it.

In pluribus Uniiin in

take

all

Uniun in pluribus "

many One.

ages.

That

The

;

One

essential

with the Over-Soul "

souls

fundamental postulate of the

essence,

say

are

souls

all

may

they

forms

whatever

Wisdom

all

one

ensoul.

But what is more what is almost an overpowering thought, necessary though it be to ;

universal progress

;

human

not only the

soul,

but even the soul of the very grain of dust has the potentiality of expanding

its

consciousness

Every soul is and receiving giving endowed with the power of

into

the

All-consciousness.

with respect to every other soul

through

every

stage

;

of passing

consciousness

;

expanding; just as the One, the All-Soul, so to say, contracted itself into manifestation, into the

Many, subordinating itself to itself, that every soul might know and become every other soul, by virtue of that Love which is the cause of existence.

Thus, then, every soul aspires to union with its

own

essence

religious spirit of

and this constitutes the mankind and also our love

;

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

8 of

wisdom and our search

constitutes

Path to

that

This

for certainty.

Knowledge of

the

Divine Things, which we to-da}' call Theosophy

;

that synthesis of true religion, philosophy and

science right

;

of right aspiration, right thought and

which the

world

then, for us,

observation,

ever

blindly seeking.

The World-Soul, of

Humanity, which

will differ for

the

One Soul

each soul in

proportion to the state of consciousness arrived

at.

No two

has

souls are alike, just as

two blades of grass or grains of sand are alike, for then, as

has been well said, there would be

no reason why one should be

a particular

place or state and not the other, and so the

Reason of the universe be

The term

stultified.

" world," in our present enquiry,

therefore, will be limited to the cycle of mani-

festation of our particular humanity, for this

our present world

;

the collective

embodiment

may

consequently

of that Divine Soul, which

be referred to as the World-Soul.

This source of his being, this essence of his nature,

this

something that transcends him-

self in his highest self-consciousness,

by many names,

of which the one

man

calls

which ob-

THE WORLD-SOUL. tains

most generally

And

here,

feelings of

much

Western world, and

in the

in the English tongue,

any devout

" God,"

shrink from hurting the

believer,

against the tendency of nearly

would protest

all

unreflecting

religionists to limit the illimitable, to crystallize

the fountain of their being, and to materia-

lize

That, which

it is

blasphemy to name, much

less to attempt to dress in the tawdry rags of our own mental equipment. There are those

who

will talk to

you of "

God"

of a personal acquaintance, liarity

would

that

who

outrage

as they

would

profess a fami-

our

feelings

object of their remarks were holy man whom we had and even a wise learned to reverence. There are others who

decency

the

have such limited notions of the Divine that they cling with desperation to terms that have their origin in the vulgarest misunderstanding,

and who dub those who Shibboleths

will

"atheists,"

not use their

simply

because

they cannot understand that there is a reverence of the mind that transcends terms of the

emotions

;

transcends

human

that all

there

aspiration

that

endeavour to give the names of

qualities to

That which

beyond

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

and

qualities,

blasphemy.

which

their pious jargon is

such reverence

" atheism,"

we had

better change our terms and cease words that no longer possess meaning. Let all men agree that no definition is possible, and that any enunciation of the mystery is

then

to use

but a temporary stepping stone to higher and higher things, and there will no longer be

still

seen the sad spectacle of

human

beings trying

to pour the ocean into a waterpot.

For

after all

what do men

fear in the des-

peration with which they cling to such limiting

terms all is

To me

they appear to fear that, where

and

so vague

abstract, the goal they pro-

pose to themselves would, without definition,

seem too far off for them to ever hope to reach But surely they have the infinitude within it. their

own

nature

potential in every

and

" Is there not a " Christ

man which

and beyond, and beyond within the nature and in

the "Father of all Fatherhoods"

But

Infinitude?

all

the essence of every

nothing which is

his true Self;

beyond, the " Fatherhood "

man

;

nothing

without,

not of the same essence

;

all

Is it so strange to "go home " ? That Is it an abstract void, a negation, to know .

THE WORLD-SOUL. the Self's true Being is

Or, on the other hand,

mere exaggeration of the personal by self-pride and self-

this

man

Is this dictated

conceit

such reverent aspiration

condemned by any, they

will first

thus

have to show

that the great world-teachers have lied, for the

teaching.

men can come before their One and all, the great teachers have

inculcated

this

word

little all

of no lesser

wisdom

study to find

and

;

requires but

how admirably

explains

the apparent contradictions in the exoteric

expressions of the world-scriptures. " Be humble if thou wouldst attain to wis-

dom."

Yes,

humility

fawning.

but

do not

not slavishness

How

debase yourself; ;

reverence

can Deity take pleasure

not

in that

which a noble-minded man could never view without the greatest pity

worm

thy sight," David

there are those

who

"I am but as a made to sa}^ and

rejoice to echo the words,

and declare that without the " Grace of God," they must continue worms. But how can even the body, much man, the mind, or thinker,

Each

most honourable

and only dishonourable

in its

less

the

debased

own dominion,

proportion as

fails

—

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

"do

mystery "

its

whose " Grace "

in sacrifice to the Self,

its

very Hfe and being and

It is the duty of the well-spring of its action. " and not to grovel. Deity the worship" man to

present that which

and not "

salvation

pleasing, (w<TT€.

for well-

Deity."

0€os yap

OiXuv Koi TO ivepyetv

Icttlv o

ivepywv tv

i'fuv

Kat to

Philippians

Tqs evSoKia?.

virep

13.)

And

that worker

reason

there that

debase

itself,

man work

should humble

itself,

very power that makes

for the

out his

the Divine Self, what

own

salvation

that Deity

shall

now be

words of Krishna, 21, 22)

worker

for the

/A€Ta cf)6/3oV KOI TpOjXOV Ti]V caUTuJv CTOiTTJpLaV

KaTepya.t,€(T$€.

itself

both as to willing and working

in you,

12,

to the Self,

with fear and trembling

work out your own

ii.

"worthy"

debasement

to delight in

And

understand

the

the Bhagavad Gitd

(vii.

able to

Whichever

form

[of

deity]

worship-

per longs with faith to worship, in that form I make his faith steady. Endowed with that faith

he seeks to propitiate

it.

in that

Jorm]

THE WORLD-SOUL.

and obtains therefrom his profitable desires which are in truth bestowed by me."

(Y yo yam yam tanH})ibhakiah shraddhaydrchchitum ichchhati,

Tasyd tasydchaldm shraddhdm tdmcva viddhdmy-

aham,

tayd shraddhyd yuhUistasydrddhanamlhate,

Labhatc cha tatah kdjiuin mayaiva vihitdn hitdn.)

And "

again

(ix.

23)

Even those devotees

worship with worship

faith,

of other deities

they too,

Son

indeed, though not as

who

of Kunti, it

laid

down." (Yo'py anyadevatd bhaktd yajante shraddhydnvitdh, Te'pi nidmeva Kaunteya yajantyavidhipiirvakam.)

For Krishna all

men "

(x.

20)

is :

Lord of doubt,

the heart of

all

dtnid,

beings.

middle and end of

(Aham

the World-Soul, the Self of

all

am the I am the

Self seated in

beginning and

creatures."

Guddkcsha, sarvabhiltdshyasthitah,

Aham ddishchamadhyancha bhutdndnianta eva cha.) And now is

that no one

may

think that

all this

a bald assertion and an unsupported state-

;

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

ment,

from

let all

us collect the evidences of

wisdom

climes and races and times, evidences

as grand and unimpeachable as any that the

modern

scientist

possesses for

his

five-sense

facts.

The wealth

of material

difficult to cull a

leave so

much

know

what order

which

so great that

Neither

unnoticed.

to take first

As, however,

passage here and there and is it

easy to

to take the world-religions

or which

we must

;

last.

start

somewhere,

let

us begin with the oldest scriptures of our Aryan

and then the oldest of the us take a glance at Taoism, the most mystical of the creeds of the far East race, the Vedas,

Puranas.

let

then pass to the Avesta, that ancient scripture of the Parsis

;

and so on

to Egj'pt

;

first

quot-

ing from the Zohar and other kabalistic wTitings

which contain the wisdom of the Chaldaeans

and

a key to the misunderstood scriptures of

the Jews.

Egypt

will lead us to

speak of the

of Hermes and the Gnosis of those who now known generally as Gnostics and this

wisdom are

will lead to a quotation

;

from Paul and some

reference to the Greek and

Roman

philosophy,

and the ancient systems of Orpheus and other

THE WORLD-SOUL. ideas

among

all

shall find identical

the Scandinavian peoples, and a

striking confirmation in All,

Finally

great teachers.

Mohammedan

Sufiism.

without exception, sensed the World-

Soul,

hymned

for of

what

sought union therewith

it,

else could

glorified that

which

they speak

was

in its

;

Only they essence, and

did not worship its grossest and most impermanent manifestation, the surface of five-

Such an idolatry was reserved

sense nature.

the latter end of the nineteenth century,

when human

intellect

worships the ground

its

body treads on, the gross body of the WorldSoul, and has forgotten whence it came and whither it will return. Our times are an age of the deification of matter and the consequent fall

of ideals

Thus, then,

let

first

turn to that myste-

rious link with the past, the

knows whence origin

came

Perchance those

Rig Veda.

Who

can

who have

Who tell

its

kept the

record since the great Deluge of Atlantis could

name its transmitters, and tell of those who withdrew to the " Sacred Island."

Among

prayers to the Supreme Principle, the

World-Soul,

first

must come the famous Gayatri,

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

" the holiest verse in the Vedas," It runs as " Wilson calls, Sir William follows, in what Jones's translation of a paraphrastic interpretation."

" Let us adore the supremacy of that Divine

Sun, the Godhead, recreates

all,

Who

illuminates

from \\'hom

all

must return, \\'hom we invoke to

all

all.

proceed, to

Who

Wliom

direct our

understandings aright in our progress toward

His holy seat."

(Sir

Works,

Jones'

xiii.

3^7-)

This mantra

found

the 4th Ashtaka (Eighth) of the

Rig Veda, not

lection) of the

expanded paraphrase, but form, for " such

Hymn

loth

in the

Samhita (Col-

as in the above

an abbreviated

the fear entertained of pro-

faning this text, that copyists of the Vedas not

unfrequently refrain from transcribing

Wilson.

{Vishnu Purdna,

ii.

251.)

duty of every Brahman to repeat his

it,"

says

It is

the

mentally in

morning and evening devotions," and

to be suspected that the western world has not

yet

received

correct

the

William Jones may

text,

the truth than his successors. that the

Brahmans

though

Sir

have got a version nearer It is well

known

are the proudest and

most

THE WORLD-SOUL.

exclusive people in the world where the secrets

of their religion are concerned,

and

reason-

it is

mantra that pertains to would not be lightly revealed.

able to suppose that a their initiation

The

subtle metaphysical

and mystical

inter-

pretations of this most sacred formula, especially those of the

Vedanta School,

The number

sanctity.

that the words of the

testify to its

of interpretations also

mantra lend themselves

to are almost innumerable.

The

phrasing, for

instance, can be taken as neuter or masculine

and so on. Perhaps the

of the central thought of

spirit

the oriental religious world

Hymn,

explained by another

William Jones.

It reiterates

may

further

translated by Sir that most stupen-^

dous intuition of the human mind, that feeling of identity with the World-Soul, in a magnificent litany which runs as follows " May that Soul of mine, w^hich mounts aloft :

waking hours, as an ethereal spark, and

which, even in

slumber, has a like ascent,

soaring to a great distance, as an emanation

from the

light

of lights, be united by devout

meditation with the Spirit supremely blest, and

supremely intelligent

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

i8 "

May

that Soul of mine, by an agent similar

which the low-born perform

menial

their

works, and the wise, deeply versed in sciences,

duly solemnize their

which was

itself

sacrificial rite

that Soul,

;

the primal oblation

placed

creatures, be united by devout medi-

within

all

tation

with the Spirit supremely

blest,

and

supremely intelligent "

May

perfect

that Soul of mine, which

wisdom, pure

existence,

which

a ray of

and permanent

intellect

the unextinguishable light

fixed within created bodies, without

which no

good act is performed, be united by devout meditation with the Spirit supremely blest, and supremely intelligent "

May

that Soul of mine, in which, as an

immortal essence, may be comprised whatever has past, is present, or will be hereafter by ;

which

the

officiate, is

sacrifice,

where

seven

ministers

properly solemnized, be united by

devout meditation with the Spirit supremely blest,

and supremely

May

that

inserted, like

intelligent

Soul of mine,

interwoven

all

Vedas

which are in the axle

the spokes of a wheel

of a car, the holy texts of the is

into

;

into

which

that belongs to created forms.

THE WORLD-SOUL.

be united by devout meditation with the Spirit

supremely " in

May

blest,

and supremely

intelligent

that Soul of mine, which, distributed

other

bodies,

guides mankind,

skilful

charioteer guides his rapid horses with reins that Soul

which

fixed in

from old age, and extremely swift

;

exempt

breast,

in its course,

be united, by divine meditation, with the Spirit

supremely

(Sir

Such

and supremely

blest,

Jones' Works, is

xiii.

intelligent

372, 373.)

an instance of the advanced theosophy

of the Vedas, in the face of which

understand

" !

difficult

it is

crude criticisms of

the

Weber-Miillerite School of materialistic scholar-

who would

ship,

set

down

all

imaginings of a primitive pastoral people. theosophical student

The

glad to turn to such a

estimate as that of Barth,

fair

the

who

says

" Neither in the language nor in the thought of the that

Rig Veda have

quality of

which so many are poetry to

been able to discover

primitive fain

natural to

see

simplicity it.

The

contains appears to me, on the contrary,

be of a singularly refined character and

artificially

reticences,

elaborated,

full

of pretensions

of to

allusions

mysticism

and and

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

theosophic expression

and the manner of such as reminds one more

insight is

;

quently of the phraseology in use small

groups of

initiated

of India, p.

Truly so

fre-

among certain

than the

language of a large community."

its

poetic

{The Religions

xiii.) ;

and

perhaps

before

long

the

methods of the Veda may be better understood, and it will be recognized how that the powers of nature and the moral attributes of man are fitter symbols of a divine theogony than personifications which include all the vices and pettiness of animal-man.

As H.

Wallis says {Cosmogony of

the

Rig

Veda, p. 8)

"The

deities oi the

from the Gods

Rig

F^rfa differ essentially

Greek

Scandinavian

mythology and of the Mahdbhdrata,

the

and almost impersonal nature of their characters. They are little more than factors in the physical and moral order of the world, apart from which none, except perhaps Indra, abstract

has a self-interested existence."

the Greek, Scandinavian and Mahabhara-

tan deities,

we may add

the Pantheons of other

nations as well, and also their Indras, Zeuses,

THE WORLD-SOUL.

whose " self-interest " expHcable seeing that they were but the

Jehovahs, and the is

rest,

representations of the time-period or manifestations of a certain world, for there are crores

Brahmas, Jupiters and Jehovahs

Kosmos.

in the ideal

time that the western nations

should remember their birth-place.

are

not Semites but Aryans, a younger branch of the great Aryan

Race,

should remember

the

but

perchance,

Aryans and not Semites.

And

wisdom

still

being so

of our fathers

and put aside the crude conceptions of the Semites as to Deity. Jehovah is in his place as the

God

of a small warlike

nomad

tribe,

but

entirely out of place in the Religion of those

who

profess to be followers of the Christ.

It is

high time to lay aside such gross anthropomor-

phism,

which the

rejected, testify.

The

belief in this

their

learned

Kabalah

curse of

Jews and

themselves Philo well

Christendom to-day

"jealous" and "self-interested"

Jehovah as the

One God, an

idea alien to Aryan

Direful indeed has been the effect of thought. the " curse " of the " chosen people " on their

They were robbed deprived of them by

spoliators. tures,

of their Scripforce,

and

the

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

ravished maiden of the Semites, forced against her will into the arms of the marauding Aryans, " magic arts " against the tribe

has used her

that holds her prisoner, for to-day she imprisons

the minds of those

who

hold her body captive.

In other words, the western nations, being the

youngest of the Aryan family, and lusty only in body, have in their ignorance worshipped the

dead

they have not under-

letter of that w-hich

and

stood,

debased

minds

their

and

characters with a bibliolatry scarce paralleled

Let us hope that

in the history of the world. this

passed and that the end of the nineteenth

century may see the " prodigal son " return " home," and chastened by the experience of

his exile,

that

his

East,

who

his real heredity in

sluggish

has never

left

an activity

brother in the

elder

home,

can never

manifest in such abundance, because of his very passivity. religion,

see to

The

Ar3'ans

and every Aryan

have in

the

ancestral

West should

that he does not pursue after other

Gods.

Of course I speak of the crude exoteric God Hebrew populus, and not of the Mystery

of the

Deity, the Father, preached to the Jews by the

THE WORLD-SOUL. whom the West

Jesus of Nazareth. For did he not say that his hearers were " of " Abratheir father the Devil," for they were " " " ruler of the Abraham was ham's seed and Initiate,

this

world

calls

I mean any disrespect to who are no more the Jews than we are Goths or Vandals, or

Nor do

the Jews of to-day, of the Bible,

woad-besmeared Britons. " bodies,"

or for, and " souls " of the

whose ancestry

Lord of the Body,

name you

do not write about,

writing for is

call

" minds "

and not him by what

divine,

will.

long will the perverse mind of persist in telling us the fashion in which "

How

created " the world

;

how

long will

men

man God blas-

phemously speak of That which is and degrade the majesty of their Divine Souls into the poor imaginings of the animal minds unutterable,

which think in terms of their gross bodies, and More reverently indeed did of naught else ? the mystery when they phrase our ancestors were yet uncontaminated by the mire of their earthly tabernacles, and a huckstering commerciahsm and a pseudo-science that gropes, on

hands and knees, with eyes fixed on the surface things, had not dragged the ideals of

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

humanity down

the dust.

the Rig

Veda

The passage

How

cosmogony

are the beginnings of

different

as sung of in

famihar to

western students in the noble verse of Cole-

The

brooke. version

following,

however,

another

The non-existent was not, and the existent was not at that time there was no air or sky beyond what was covering in ? and where ? under shelter of what ? was there water ;

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

deep depth

" Death was not nor immortality then, there

was no discrimination

of night

and day

one thing breathed without a wind of self

;

apart from

there

was nothing

that

its

own

else at all

beyond. " Darkness there was, hidden in darkness, in the beginning, everything here was an indiscrimi-

was void covered with emptiness, that one thing was born b}' the all that was power of warmth. nate chaos

;

it ;

" So in the beginning arose desire, which the

first

seed of

mind

;

was

the wise found out by

thought, searching in the heart, the parentage of the existent in the non-existent.

" Their line was stretched across

;

what was

— THE WORLD-SOUL. above

what was below

there were generators,

there were mighty powers

svadha, [nature per-

;

haps] below, the presentation of offerings above.

"Who

knoweth it forsooth? who can an? whence it was born, whence this The gods came by the creating of creation is ? who then knoweth the one thing) it [i.e.,

novnice

here

;

whence "

it is

come

into being

Whence this creation

into being, whether

[lit.

emission]

come

was ordained or no

— He

whose eye is over all in the highest heaven, He indeed knoweth it, or may be He knoweth it (Wallis, Cosmogony of the Rig Veda, pp. not." 59, 60.

[R. v., X. 129]

Even such wooden

translation cannot prevent

the grandeur of the original occasionally peep-

how much more noble then would translation of one who was whole-hearted

ing through,

be the

in his version

Notice the

The World-Soul may

last lines.

know, or perchance even it knoweth not. For there are other World-Souls, and as among men

most are ignorant of

their

some

may know,

many

the

own

— the

the World- Souls,

genesis so

amid

few perchance ignorant

knoweth absolutelv but the One.

;

none

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Passing next to a later Ar3-an Scripture,

how

us read

hymn

the

Pnrdna "

let

the great sect of the Vaishnavas written

deity,

the

Vishnu

(I. i.)

glory to

Him who

dwells in

Victory be to Thee,

(Vasudeva).

pervading one (Pundarikaksha)

all

beings

Thou

heart-

adoration be

;

Thee, Thou cause of the existence of

things (Vishvabhavana)

glory

;

all

Thee,

Lord of the senses (Hrishikesha), the Supreme (Mahapurusha),

Spirit

ancient

the

birth

(Purvaja)."

And 16,

later

the

same work we read

(v.

14-

Wilson's Translation)

Who

" Salutation to Thee,

manifold,

all-pervading.

inconceivable existence

Who

art

Supreme \\^ho

Spirit,

art

Salutation to Thee,

simple

inscrutable,

Truth, and the essence of oblations

Salutation to Thee,

unknown.

Who

and

glory,

uniform and

art

Who

existest in

art five

Lord,

Whose

nature

beyond Primeval Matter, forms, ^ as one with the

These are given by Wilson (i. 3) as: i. Bhutatman, one with created things, or Pundarikaksha 2. Pradhanatman, one with Crude Nature, or Vishvabhavana 3. Indriyatman, one with the Senses, Hrishikesha 4.^Paramatman, Supreme Spirit, or Mahapurusha; and 5. Atman, Living Soul, animating Nature, and existing before it, or Purvaja. ^

;

;, ;!

THE WORLD-SOUL. with

Elements,

Show of

favour,

addressed

Matter,

Supreme

Soul, with

Spirit

Soul of the Universe, essence perishable

things,

all

with

the Faculties,

with the Living

Vishnu, Shiva, or the

like.

whether

eternal,

designation

the

b}'

Brahma,

adore Thee,

God Parameshvara, Supreme Lord, rather! Whose nature is indescribable. Whose purposes are inscrutable. Whose name, even, is unknown I

kind are not

for the attributes of appellation or

applicable to Thee,

Who art That, the supreme

Brahma

eternal,

created

[neuter]

accomplishment

our

attained except through

Thou

art

Thou, unborn

Ananta

other beings art

the

objects

some

cannot

specific

form,

all.

[the Endless,] or Vishnu.

(divinity),

art all the object of

Thou Thou art

these impersonations

Thou

un-

But as

termed by us Krishna, Achyuta [the

Imperishable]

all

unchangeable,

unborn, rather,]

[Aja,

;

art the

Gods, and

World

the whole

Soul of the Universe, thou art

exempt from change and there is nothing except Thee in this whole existence. Thou ;

art

Brahma

(sacred)

[male]

animals

Pashupati [Shiva, ,

Aryaman,

Lord of and

Dhatri,

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

V'idhatri;*

thou art Indra,* Air, Fire, the Regent

of the Waters

Dead

of the

God of WeaUh,* and Judge and Thou, although but one,

the

AryamAn and Dbitri

are two of the Twelve Adityas, or

Aditi, the "

Mother," which were seven originally, MArttanda, the "rejected" Sun being the eighth. Later they became the Twelve Sun Gods. V'idhitri is the arranger or disposer, the Kosniokrat6r or Demiurge, and is added as a title to Brahml, V'lshvakarman and KAma, the Er6s of the Orphic fragments. As Dr Muir says " This KAma or Desire, not of sexual enjoyment, but of good in general, is celebrated in a curious hymn of the Atharva Vida : KAma was born first [the Orphic Pr6togonos] Him, i:eitber gods, nor fathers, nor men have equalled Thou art

Sons of

saperioT to these, and for ever great ." *

The "Zens dwelling

aldifn yaiiM'

—

Iliad,

ii.

412)

The Pater ^Ether

Gods

in the ^ther" of Homer (Zeit in the .£ther, the abode of the of Virgil. ;

* V'aruna (Ooaroona), the Regent of the Astral Waters of Space the Uranus (Oaranos) of the Greeks, who was emasculated and dethroned by Cronus (Time; at the instigation of his mother and wife Ga?a lEArth) From the drops of his " r blood sprang the the early Races, and from the foam i.' ..is limbs in the sea, sprang Venus-Ap:.. -... w.^.^., t 1&0-195.) ,

...

Kuvera. the keeper of the treasures of the Earth, lord of the Earth, called the Egg of Jewels, Ratnagarbha. * Antaka the " Ender." a title of Yama, the Restrainer," *

tt-

•

-:-

" tt.;...

tells

.e first _.

^iys :"

us that

Yama

that departed

was who

found out the way to the home whicb cannot be taken away Those who are now born (followi by their own paths 10 the place whither our ancient fathers have departed " This, in the more direct tradition of the \'edas, is a glyph of the Third Race that brought '

And

all

death into the world oar woe. with loss of Eden " .

THE WORLD-SOUL.

presidest over the world, with various energies

Thou, identical

addressed to various purposes.

with the solar ray, Greatest the universe;

substance

elementary qualities

composed

and Thy supreme form

;

the imperishable term Sat.

...

;

'unreal'),

Glory be to

bow.

Thy

denoted by

one with True Knowledge not, perceptible (sat and asat,

who

all

To Him who is, and

and Lord Him, the '

real

Vasudeva The same

strain of adoration

emphasized

in the

Vishnu,

the Boar Incarnation, or Varaha

hymn

still

further

of the Yogins

when

Avatara, raised the Earth out of the Waters (Ibid.,

63)

Thou

art,

God, there

no supreme

condition but Thou."

Or again, as the God Brahma prays to the Supreme Hari (Vishnu) {Ibid., i. 139) " We glorify Him, Who is all things the :

;

But Yama, in the later traditions Pitripati and PretarAja, the " Lord of the Manes" and " King of the Ghosts," was also Dharmaraja, "King of Justice," our Sch^es who judge ourselves, in the clear Alcashic Light, while Chitragupta (the " Hidden Painting or Writing "). the Scribe of Yama, reads the imprint of our virtues and our vices from the Agra-, sandhani or "Great Record," the Tablets of the Imperishable Memory of the Astral Light. Yama is represented as of a green colour, clothed with red.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Lord supreme over

all

unborn, imperishable

;

the protector of the mighty ones of creation,

the

unperceived/

Naraj-ana

indivisible

the

;

smallest of the small, the largest of the largest

Elements

Whom

are

tence

the

;

Whom

;

all

things

God Who

are

^^^ho

;

is all

end of ultimate objects Spirit,

and

;

all

things

was before

beings

Who

;

Who

contemplated, as the cause of

exisis

beyond

one with Supreme Soul

by sages anxious to be

from

;

the

final

Who

final liberation,

free."

As the Avatara Krishna, He is hymned of by Indra after his defeat by Him. (Ibid., v. 103.) " Who is able to overcome the unborn, unconstituted Lord, Who has willed to become a mortal, for the good of the world ?" And when Krishna is nailed by the arrow to the tree, and the Kali Yuga begins, this is how Arjuna, his beloved companion, laments departure'^of the ^Christ-Spirit, of

" unites

the

That which

Entity to Non-entity."

{Ibid.,

161, 162.)

" Hari,

Who

Aprakasha

was our strength, our might.

Fitzedward Hall

tator explains this to

mean

tells

us that the

" self-illuminated."

commen-

THE WORLD-SOUL.

our heroism, our prowess, our prosperity, our brightness, has

and departed.

left us,

of him, our friend,

ilkistrious,

speaking,

we have become

of straw.

Purushottama,

Deprived

and ever kindly

as feeble as

who was

made

the living

weapons, my arrows, and my bow, As long as we looked upon Him, fortune, fame, wealth, dignity never abandoned us. But Govinda is gone from among us. Not I alone, but Earth, has grown old, miserable and lustreless, in His absence. Krishna vigour of is

gone.

gone

Let us next pass to China and the Far East. Lao-tze, perhaps the greatest of the Chinese

masters,

teaches as

work the

follows,

Tao-teh-king,

Perfection of Nature " {A

his

"The Book Study on

the

sublime of the

Popular

Religion of the Chinese, by J. J. M. de Groot translated from the Dutch in Les Annales du

Musee Guimct,

ii.

692

etseq.):

"There was a time when Heaven and Earth did not exist, but only an unlimited Space in

which reigned absolute immobility.

All the

and

which

possess

Space

from a

visible

things

existence, were born

all

that

powerful principle, which existed by

Itself,

and

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

from

Itself

developed

Itself,

and which made

the heavens revolve and preserved the universal life

;

a principle as to which philosophy declares

we know

not the name, and which for that

reason

designates by the simple appellation

Tao, which

we may

nearly describe

the

Universal Soul of Nature, the Universal Energy of Nature, or simply as Nature."

And

speaking of the mysterious Tao, the

That which cannot be principle,

an essay

translated, the nameless

we may with advantage quote from by a sympathetic scholar, who writes

as follows {Taoism, an essay by

Frederic

Balfour, in Religious Systems of the World, p. yy): " are told that it has existed from all

eternity.

Chuang-tze, the ablest writer of the

Taoist school, says that there never was a time

when

was

not.

Lao-tze, the reputed founder

of Taoism, affirms that the image of before is

God

Himself.

no place where

Uni\-erse with it is

its

so subtle that

in the tip of a

the sun and orbits,

It is all is

pervasive

not found.

moon

existed

there

;

It fills

grandeur and sublimity it

;

the }-et

exists in all its plenitude

thread of gossamer.

and gives

causes

to revolve in their appointed life

to the

most microscopic

THE WORLD-SOUL. Formless,

insect.

see

it is

inaudible,

;

sound we hear

the source of every form

invisible,

;

produces,

yet

phenomenon

every

spheres of being.

and passionless

;

It is

beneficence to

And

in-

vivifies

the

all

impartial, impersonal,

Fate,

its

yet

ends with the

abounding

all."

later

exists

working out

remorselessness of

world;

and

sustains

which

of every

that which lies

in the

behind every external object active,

source

the

quotes as follows

from

Chuang-tze " There

was a time when

beginning.

The time when

beginning had a beginning

all

things had a

there

itself.

was yet no There was a

beginning to the time when the time that had

had

beginning

existence and there

not is

begun.

There

also non-existence.

the time which had no beginning there existed

Nothing.

When

the time which had

no beginning had not yet begun, then there also

existed

Nothing

;

but

Nothing. it

Suddenly,

there

was

cannot be known, respecting

and non-existence, what was certainly existing and what was not." existence

have given the

above as a specimen of c

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

and also as an example to show the utter inadequacy of words

subtle metaphysical speculation,

The mind

to express ideas.

deavouring to

transcend

loses itself in en-

even to the

itself,

extent of appearing entirely incomprehensible to those

who have

contemplation

not seriously approached the

supreme intuition

that

humanity, the essential Unity of

But no one should think that is

things.

all

this

No-thing

an empty abstraction and mere negation;

transcends our

One

iinite

concepts, but

Reality because of that.

less the

the right

perception of these great problems that inspires

such noble

concepts of existence and calm contemplation of " death " as those expressed in the

words of Lieh-tze

" Death

How

life

delusion

they

my I

How

lot

How

their eager rush

what

as going

away

to coming.

can we know that to die here

born elsewhere

day,

for

life,

can

I tell

may

was when

can we

men

are not under a

whether,

if I

die to-

not prove far preferable to I

was

originally born

is it,

not to be

whether, in

tell

men know the dreadfulness do not know its rest.

cellent

that from

all

of death .

;

How

but ex-

antiquity Death has

THE WORLD-SOUL. been the

common

lot of

men

repose for

the good man, and a hiding-away of the bad.

Death

are those

The dead a going home again. who have gone home, while we, who

just

are living, are

Aye; death " going

home

still

wanderers."

{Op.

p. 8i.)

cit.,

indeed a "going home," but a

" that

need not be delayed until

Some theosophists have heard who "go home" when they have

the body dies. of those

" died " to their lower natures; and then they

know

the real nature of this illusory existence,

although, as the Rishi Narada reported,

very pleasant for those

"who had

their birth-place."

The Soul

World-Soul, weeps

for her children,

their are,

was

forgotten

Humanity, the

who

forget

Mother and, "prodigal sons" that they

fill

their bellies with husks of the swine.

Continuing our depredations from the shelves of the world-library, or

pass to ancient Persia

whatever country gave to the world the

wisdom

of the old Avesta.

Written in a language

hardl}' yet plainly decipherable,

approached to the Vedas

language be referred to one of the lets of

may

in antiquity, first

well be

and

its

branch-

the mother of Sanskrit.

In the Avesta of the Parsis, Zarvana Akarna,

;

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

36 "

Time without Bounds,"

the ineffable All

Ahura Mazda, the World-Soul, whose names are many. He is The Being and the One Existence; the One, Who was, Who is and Who shall always be. He is Pure Omniscient Spirit and the Spirit of Spirits He Sovereign. and Omnipotent, the Supreme is beneficent, benevolent, and merciful to in this arises

;

In the Dinkard

all.

(ii.

8i),

described

Supreme

protector,

sovereign, wise creator, supporter,

giver

of good

things,

virtuous

actions and merciful."

Let us now see what the Kabalah has to teach us, and mark the difference of

its

great

large spirit from the glorification of the "jealous

God," the

"God

of armies," to

whom

so-called

Christian nations pray to bless their respective

arms

in fratricidal wars.

To-day sees Christian

Europe armed to the teeth in honour of Jehovah, while the "Father" of Jesus, the "God of Love " is set on one side and forgotten.

Solomon

ben

Yehudah

Ibn

Gebirol,

Cordova, the greatest of the mediaeval kabalistic adepts, thus sings of the World-Soul, or the

Supreme

Principle, in

one of his philosophical

THE WORLD-SOUL. Hymns, Crown

called

of the

"Thou Divinity,

"The

the existences by is

Thy

not any

Thy

between

Who

supports,

Thy

the things formed, and sustains

all

and there

Malkuth," or

Kether

Kingdom." God,

art

Eternity, and

distinction

Thy

Divinity,

Thy

Thou

Unity.

Existence

;

all

God,

art

established

Thy

Unity,

because

all

may Thou

only one mystery, and, although the names be distinct, art

Wise,

all

have only one meaning.

Wisdom which

the fountain of

from Thee, and compared with

floweth

Wisdom,

all

the

life,

Thy

knowledge of mankind

Thou art Wise, being from all and Wisdom was always nourished by Thou art Wise, and Thou hast not ac-

foolishness. eternity,

Thee.

Thy Wisdom from another than ThyThou art Wise, and from Thy Wisdom Thou hast made a determining Will, as the workman or artist does, to draw the Existence quired

self.

from the No-Thing, as the of the eye extends

itself.

light

Thou

which goes out didst

draw from

the Source of Light without the impression of

any

seal,

that

is,

form, and

Thou madest

withoutanyinstrument." {My er'sQabbalah, p. See

how

differently the

mind

all 3.)

of this learned

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Jew regarded

the "creation" of the Universe

from the absurdity of the dead-letter dogma of "creation out of nothing."

Just as the artist

fashions the pot out of the clay, so does the

Wisdom which

Deity, out of its or

evolve

determining

emanate draw the

is Itself,

Will

" Existence" from the "No-Thing," the potentiality of that

in that

think

of,

same Wisdom, for it all and ever}'

transcends that

No-Thing

thing

we can

to say, the highest conceptions

human thought. But It is no more " Nothing" than is Deity the " Unconscious." The No-Thing is not " nothing," the Nonof

conscious

not "unconscious," but both are

attributes expressive

asserting that all

of our

ignorance, while

That transcends

all

things and

consciousness.

So that we should do well to bear in mind the wise words of the Zohar and appl}- the injunction contained therein to the words of the Hymn of the master of the Kabalah we have just cited, being well assured that he would have permitted none of his pupils to take the words of his instruction for the real mystery itself. Says the Zohar (III. fol. 1526; in Myer's Qabbalah,

p. 102)

THE WORLD-SOUL. "

Woe

man who

to the

sees in the

Thorah

(Law) only simple recitals and ordinary words. .

Each word

of the

Thorah contains an

The

elevated meaning and a sublime mystery.

Thorah are the vestments of the to him who takes this garment for the Thorah itself." Or, again, as Origen, perhaps the most philosophical of all the Church Fathers, writes " Where can we find a mind so foolish as to

recitals of the

Thorah.

Woe

God

suppose that

common

acted like a

hus-

bandman, and planted a paradise in (the and Garden of) Eden, towards the East placed in it a Tree of Life visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily And, again, that one was teeth obtained life ? a partaker of good and evil by masticating ;

what was taken from the tree ? said to walk in the paradise and

Adam

to hide himself

And in

under a

God

the evening, tree, I

do not

suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively

indicate

certain

not literally." cited,

315

(Origen's

et seq.,

Bk.

the

mysteries,

history having taken place in appearance,

and

Works, Clark's Ed.,

iv. c. 2.)

But then Origen was once the

disciple

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Pantsenus, after the latter's return from India,

who was

also the teacher of Clement.

Yet one more citation from the Zohar, before

leave the Kabalah, in order to vindicate the

writers of that

the

famous collection of books called

which

Bible,

almost universally mis-

understood.

"The Ancient of the the

Unknown, has

form.

Universe

form as

Ancients, the

a form,

}-et

Unknown of

also has not

has a form

through

maintained.

It also

which

iii.

288a

;

Myer,

the

has not any

cannot be comprehended."

" Idra Zuta,"

any

{Zohar,

ibid., p. 274.)

Passing from Chaldsea and Judaea to Egypt

and its hoary wisdom, this is what M. Gaston Maspero, the learned French Egyptologist,

cerning

the

his Hisioire d'Orioit, writes con-

ideas

Soul of the World " In

the

Egyptians on the

the

was

beginning

Primordial Ocean,

the

which floated the germs of all

eternity

God

the

infinite all

Noon,

the

depths of

things.

From

generated Himself and gave

birth to Himself in

the

bosom

of this liquid

mass, as yet without form and without use.

This

God

of the Egyptians,

One Being

only,

THE WORLD-SOUL. knowledge

endowed with

perfect,

and

fallacious intelligence, incomprehensible far

what He is the One Only One,

no one can say

comprehensible.

Who

and on the Earth

Who

the

not generated, the

(Quoted by M. E. Amehneau Gnosticisme

Heaven

Mother of Mothers."

Father of Fathers, the Egyptien,

alone lives

substance, the sole generator in

so in-

Who

essentially.

exists

unin

in his

the

Essai

siir le

Les

series

Tom. xiv. 282.) The Supreme God of the Mysteries whom the Greeks named Ammon, the Egyptians As M. E. de Rouge says called Amen. "The name {Melanges d' Archeologie, p. 72): Amen means hidden,' enveloped,' and by

Annales du Mnsee Giiimet,

extension

that

Amen

was most

Hymn

Ammon

Amen,

Ra)

Na^â&#x20AC;˘ille

has

because

And,

God

This

represented

secret in Divinity."

In a

name Amnion

Ra, speaking of the

Hymne a name even more than

said (Grebaut,

" Mysterious

his births."

....

mystery.'

then was called all

his

in the invocations,

collected

Litanie du Soleil, the

under

same God

the is

which M. title

called

of the hidden spheres," the " Mysterious

"Lord One,"

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

" Hidden."

the

(Amelineau,

op.

cit.,

285.)

Here

Hymn

must be appended a magnificent symbol of the Worldwhich we can see peeping through the

also

to the Sun, the

Soul, in

mysticism of both the initiatory Psalms of the

Old Testament and certain concepts

Thus it runs " The Princes

in the

New.

Heaven

glory of the King's Crown,

all

daily behold the

upon the head of

Thee, the Mighty Prince, which of Power, which of

the

Crown

of the

the

Crown

Endurance

Thy Government, an Image of Th}' might.

Songs of praise to the Creator of Egypt, and of the Shining Bark of the Lord (the Sun). 'â&#x20AC;˘

Make those to fear, who hate Thee, make Thine enemies to blush, Lord and Prince of the very Thou Who hast joined together Thy plantation, Thou Who seest the Murderer of Thy Child of Man, the Righteous. shining Star-house

Let

me go

look

Universe

;

Thee unite me with Thee let upon Thy Sunlight, King of the to

;

" Praise to

Thy

Face, Beaming Light in the

Firmament, to Thee, to the Shining Lord of the Heaven's Bark, to the Creator and Ruler

THE WORLD-SOUL. Who

renders justice to

men, who delight

all

see Thee walking in the Web of Thy Splendour." (From Uhlemann's Book of the Dead, as quoted in Uunlap's

Sud

now

Let us

turn to another

and hear what has to

The Mysteries ofAdoni,

Mind

mirrored

p. 187.)

Wisdom, greatest,^

In the treatise

World-Mind, Pcemandres,

of the Absolute"

Hermes, the thrice

us of the mystery.

tell

called Pceuiandres, the

the "

Book

(6 t^s av6€VTia<; voGs)^

Ego

the Higher

of the Initiate,

thus speaks to his lower consciousness " Say well, O Thou speaking such things. !

myself, the Mind,

present with the holy

and good, and pure and merciful, with those living piously and my presence becomes a help and forthwith they are cognizant of all things, and lovingly propitiate the Father, and ;

;

give

thanks,

Him

ranks

affection

to its

;

own

praising and [in

singing

their orders,

hymns

rather]

from

and before delivering over the body death, they detest the senses,

know-

The Mind,

will not suffer the operations of the

body which

ing their operations

Great"

the Rosetta stone he

—

/i-e'ya?,

/i.£yas,

or rather

;

called simply " Great, Great,

fj.eya<;.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

happen, to be accomplished keeper,

will shut out the

for

;

being door-

incomings of the

evil

and base operations, cutting off desires."^ Although it is impossible in the short space at

disposal to attempt an analysis of the

various passages

cited,

still

would

briefly

suggest to students a few hints as to interpre-

The Father

tation.

here,

cognate

schools of philosophical mysticism, the Atma-

Buddhi in Kosmos and Man, and the hymns the " music of the spheres " of man's septenary nature, which sing in

harmony only when man

becomes one with the

The

idea

Soul of Nature.

great

well expressed

by Dryden, who

writes

''From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began ;

From harmony

harmony,

Through all the compass The diapason closing full

The

of the notes

ran,

in man."'

teaching, however, as to the loathing^ of

1 From Chambers' translation (p. 12), which is as accurate and painstaking 'as may be, considering the translator's strong sectarian bias. The Pcemandycs, however, has yet to be translated by a true theosophical student. f

Mvo-ttTTecr^at

nate, detest, loathe

;

a very strong word, meaning to abomiused of filth and foulness.

THE WORLD-SOUL. the senses

different

to the wiser instruction

where we learn that both longing and detestation are equally bonds of attachment, and that pure freedom can never of the Upanishads,

won by such means.

Mark well also the curious expression that Mind is the "door-keeper," both the great Mind and the mind of man the one keeping

the

;

the doors or gates of the great planes of the

septenary

universe,

the

guarding the

other

And

portals of the seven "principles."

we may do well to call to mind H. words

P. Blavatsky's

" In that mansion called the

here

human

body the brain is the front door, and the only one which opens out into Space." {Lucifer, vii.

182.)

Let us

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as the preceding sentences naturally â&#x20AC;&#x201D;pause here a moment to learn

lead up to

the path of the Soul up to the " Father," w'hen

death overtakes the body, and when the seven corruptible

are

put

off for

the

incorruptible,

according to the Hermetic Gnosis. " You have well taught me,' '

things

desired,

O Mind

further about the ascent that

said,

But

tell

all

to be.'

these things Poemandres said: 'First,

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

indeed, in the dissolution of the body material, it

deHvers up the body

unto alteration,

itself

the form which thou hast becomes invisible,

and delivers the character deprived of energy

demon

to the

(daimon), and the senses of the

body return back to their respective sources, becoming portions, and again united together And passion and desire with the energies. depart to the irrational nature.

"'And

upwards

residue hastens

thus the

through the Harmony, and gives up to the

zone

energy

the

decrease

;

and the fraud deenergized

of the evils

;

and

;

and

deception deener-

means of

satisfaction

;

and to the

the unholy boldness and the rashness of

the audacity ings

to the fourth the pride of domineer-

ing without fifth

first

that

and to the second the machination

the third the concupiscent

gized

and

increase

after

;

and

to the sixth the evil covet-

wealth, deenergized

and

;

to the

seventh zone insidious falsehood.

"'And,

energizing at

proper power, [essences]

denuded from the operations

then,

[energizings]

the

Harmony,

the eighth

and

hymning

nature,

along with

The

becomes

having

the

Father.

its

entities

Those

;

THE WORLD-SOUL.

being present at this his coming there, rejoice together,

and being made Hke

with Him, he hears also the

above the eighth nature

who Powers who to those

in a certain

are

sweet voice

hymning The God. And then in order they mount upward to The Father, and they deHver themselves up to the Powers, and becoming Powers they become in God. This is the good end of those attaining knowledge, to be made Divine. it

For the

why

rest,

delayest thou

not that having accepted

all

thou

things,

mayest become guide to those who are worthy

mankind through thee may

so that the race of

be saved by

God

? '

(Chambers, pp.

One might almost written by the that

same hand that inscribed

wonderful

of Egyptian

relic

Who

called the Pistis Sophia.

was the original source of wisdom ?

The passage

loses

general reader, and

are

for us

Gnosticism

can

tell

whence

of this hoary tradition

much it

in translation for difficult

word

that nearly every

term, just

13, 14.)

think that the treatise was

the

to recognise

a precise technical

the terms

the opening

chapters of the Gospel according to John. It

easy to

see

that

the

first

paragraph

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

refers to the dissolution of the lower four prin-

whereas the second paragraph

ciples,

refers to

the seven aspects of the lower mind, and the last to the

mysteries of the Higher Ego, of the

Primordial Emanations in the Pleroma, of the Hierarchies of the Sons of the Mind, and of the su-

preme realisation of the N irvana of Atma-Buddhi. What the idea of the Egyptian Initiate was concerning this attainment, and how difficult it is to treat of such lofty themes without the grossest self-contradictions,

the following passage " Holy The God,

we may

The Father

versals,

Whose

powers.

Holy The God Who known by His own.

and

learn from

counsel

of the Uni-

own willeth to know Holy Thou art

perfected by His

W^ho by Word hast constituted the

Thou

art

Holy, of

Whom

all

Entities.

nature was born

Thou art Holy Whom the formed nature not. Thou art Holy Who art stronger than all power. Thou art Holy Who Thou art Holy art greater than all excellence.

the

Who

image.

art superior to praises.

sacrifices pure

Thee,

silence

Accept rational

from soul and heart, intent upon

unspeakable,

ineffable,

(Ibid., pp. 15, ib.)

invoked by

THE WORLD-SOUL. The

human words

inability of

to express that

—

which must ever escape expression the Universe

even

for

incapable of expressing

itself is

number of Universes and the failure of the human mind to express the Divine Mind arc well shown in It,

seeing that there

infinite

—

the following passage also " This the God is superior to a :

the unmanifest

contemplated by the mind eyes

;

rather

name

This visible to the

;

This incorporeal, multicorporeal

body

of every

which This

there

for

;

For This

not.

above

And because of this He has that He is One Father, and because has not a name that He is Father of is

{evXoyrja-aL)

able

bless,

below,

all

names,

of this he all.

Who,

praises

Thee, Concerning Thee, or to Thee

Looking whither dition,

sing

—yea,

nothing

things.

then,

This

;

This the most manifest, to be

;

shall

bless

Thee, above,

within, without ? for there is no conno place about Thee, nor anything else

of the Entities

;

for all things are in

things from Thee, having given receiving nothing

;

for

Thou

and nothing that Thou hast

"When, O Father

all

hast

Thee,

all

things and all

things,

not.

shall I

hymn Thee D

for

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

neither Thine hour nor time

ascertain

possible to

concerning what also shall

concerning what things

Thou

hymn ?

hast made, or

concerning those Thou hast not made

con-

Thou hast made manifest, or concerning those Thou hast concealed ? Wherefore, also, shall I hymn Thee ? As if being of myself, as if having something mine own ? as being another ? For Thou art what I may be, Thou art what I may do, Thou art what I may speak, for Thou art all things, and there is nothing else that Thou art not." (Ibid., pp. cerning those

41, 42.)

all

the various exoteric presentations of

Wisdom-Religion,

the

World-Soul

was

and was symbolized indifferently personifications which were male and female,

Intelligence, in

Egypt and Phoenicia, India and Greece. in The Universal Mind of Pythagoras was an

androgjme or sexless

;

Babylon and China,

attribute

deity

universally

recognized in

Athena was Wisdom, and Bacchus the Divine Mind, for the philosopher and initiate. Thus we shall have no difficulty in antiquity,

understanding

and

also,

why Poemandres

by the

light

the Mind,

of the interpretation of

THE WORLD-SOUL. Esoteric

the

Blavatsky,

Philosophy outHned by

why

H. P.

there are seven spheres in the

Harmony,

must

all

be musicians and

learn to sing sweetly on Apollo's heptachord

before

" can hear the powers

above the eighth nature

We lute

in a certain

which are

sweet voice."

must learn to play on the seven-stringed of the radiant Sun-God, and modulate the

harmonies of our own septenary nature,

for

"Seven sounding letters sing the praise of me, The immortal God, the Almighty Deity ;

Father of I

all,

that cannot wearied be.

the eternal viol of

all

things,

the melody so sweetly rings

Whereby Of heavenly music."

The Pythagorean Triangle,

(Oliver,

p. 175.)

Passing next to the cognate schools of socalled

Gnosticism,

know,"

those

let us take a thought or

who

"tried to

two that comes

from the minds of the great masters of the Gnosis.

Epiphanius professes to describe the ceremony whereby the Heracleonitaj prepared a dying brother for the next world. of

The words

power wherewith the soul might break the

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

and burst open the gates of the Nether

seals

World

its

passage

are given as

to rest,

follows

"I, the Son from the Father, the Father Preexisting, but the

Son

the present time,

am come to behold all things both of others and of my own, and things not altogether of Achamoth [one of World-SouF who feminine, and hath created them for herself.

others, but belonging unto

the aspects of Akasha, the is

But

my own origin from the Preexisting am going back unto my own from

derive

One, and

which

have come."

{Adv. Hcev., xxxvi.

Cf. also Irenaeus, Adv. Hcer.,

xxi. 5.)

There were many of such mystic formulae containing occult truths which students of theosophy

will instantly recognize,

such

as, for

instance, the garnering of the harvest of

experiences by

the

Epiphanius from the tells us

" self

life-

Higher Ego, quoted by

which

lost Gospel of Philip,

have known myself,

from

unto the

all parts,

Ruler

have

neither have

collected

World, but

of this

my-

begotten sons I

have

plucked up the roots, and gathered together the scattered members.

know

thee

who thou

THE WORLD-SOUL. art, for

and

their

But

one from above."

Remains,

[King's Gnostics

p. 333.)

us take a passing glance at the chief

let

of these great "heresies."

system of Simon, the Soul of the

the

World was his

Great

called Fire (Pur), as Revelation.

Menander,

learn from

{Philosophumena,

his disciple, called

vi.

i.)

the (Divine)

Thought, Ennoia (Irenaeus, Adv. Hcbv., I. xxiii.) and Satornilus, the disciple of Menander,

named

the

Unknown Father

(Pater Agnostos).

{Pliilos., vii. 2.)

As we pass down the corridors of history we find the disciple of the latter, Basilides, one of the most famous masters of the Gnosis, renaming this Un-nameable of many names, and calling in

by the mysterious appellation Abraxas,

the transliteration of the

mystery-tongue. This was the Unborn Father, Pater Innatus, "

He who

xxiv.

;

the

not."

Adv. Hcbv.,

XXIV.

This he did

"many,"

(Irenaeus,

iv to dyeVvj/Tov,

for

the

Adv. Hcbv.,

according to Epiphanius,

i.)

the comprehension

"few" he had

of the

a further

teaching

"It was when naught was; nor was that

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

naught aught of that which

is,

but (to speak)

nakedly, and so as to avoid suspicion, and with-

out any contrivance,

One." It

was, in one of

which

Naught

not even

fine

the Perfect

Gods.

of the

Creation "

the One (i), Number lo in

aspects,

its

(o),

manifestation

divine

the

was

(Philos., vii. i.)

the

Primary

But even such a the above was a subtle intellect and

metaphysical definition as materialization spiritual {ibid.)

" is

the of

Basilides,

he says

for

That

not absolutely unspeakable which

so called

able,'

intuition

;

inasmuch as we

but That

call

Unspeak-

not even 'The Unspeakable.'

The Unspeaknamed The Unspeakable,' for It is beyond all name that can be named." Carpocrates, who follows next in date, like

So that That which able cannot be

Satornilus,

not even

speaks of the

Unknown

Father,

the Ungenerable, Pater Ingenitus, according to

the text of Irenseus. Finally, the

God

{Philos., viii. 4.)

of the Valentinian Gnosis

was called Bythos, the Depth, from which came all the iEons. This was not called the Father until the primal Syzygy or Double,

THE WORLD-SOUL. Sige

emanated

(Silence),

the

All-Unity. "

This was the Noon of the Egyptians. art

Gods

the First-born of the

Whom

came

"Thou

forth."

we read

creating Himself,"

;

Thou

Thou, from art

the

One

the Book of the

Dead.

Among to be

prayers to the Supreme Principle are

remarked the mystic invocations

Coptic MSS.,

and preserved

and

the

brought back from Abyssinia, in the

in the British

Bodleian Library, Oxford,

Museum.

on the Egyptian Gnosis.

These are

treatises

In the concluding

section, the Saviour, the First Mystery, thus addresses the hidden " Father " in the mystic

of which a " fragment remains in the Sacrament " of the celebration of the initiatory rite

churches.

The "prayer"

the

mystery

language, untranslatable by the "profane," and

runs as follows " Hear me, Father, Father of

Boundless Light

all

Fatherhood,

aeeiouu, iao, aoi, oia, psinother,

thernops, nopsither, zagoure,

pagoure nethmomauth,

nepsiomauth, marachachtha, thubarrhabau, tharna-

chachan, zorokothora, leou, Sabaoth.^' awL, wia, if/LVioOep,

ViOju^fxawd,

OeproxJ/,

viil/ioixauiO,

vo)i//i^ep,

{aerjiovoy,

t,ayovpr],

law,

Trayovprj,

/xapaâ^â, OioâppaPav,

Oap-

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

l^opOKoOopa,

va)^a^av,

Itov,

'^a/3aw6.)

(Schwartze

Pistis-Sophia, pag. 125.)

The theosophical

student will at once perceive

method of permutation of the first m3'Stery names, and will remember the seven, five, and three-vowelled names used in the Secret Doctrine. Though the full interpretation, however, will probably remain unknown for many a long year to come, from the work itself we learn "This is the name of the Immortal AAA Qilil -^ and this is the Name of the Voice which

the

Cause of the Motion

Man m." And again tion

of the

Perfect

immediately following the invoca-

we read

"This

the interpretation thereof:

Universe has come return within

Ends."

;

66,

forth;

alpha,

there shall

iota,

the

they shall

End

be an

{Ibid.,pagg. 3S7y35^-)

kabalistic

method

have yet applied

for

obtaining a numerical solution has produced

any

name

and the sum of the whole invocation 1

sum

satisfactory result, except that the

the digits of the seven-vowelled

The Father

Gnostiqiie Bruce.

of the Pleroma.''

M. E. Amelineau,

C/. Notice siir p. 113.

seven,

likewise le

Papyrus

THE WORLD-SOUL. The work has

seven.

be done, and

all

though no theosophist has yet publicly solved the

method

we should

of this deeply-concealed mysticism,

bear in

mind that no scholar has

attempted a

even

other

solution

than

the

wildest speculation bred of a diseased philology.

Let us next take the purely Gnostic teaching of Paul

his

first

Letter

the

Colossians.

i2-ig.)

(i.

" Giving thanks to the Father

who

a share in the Inheritance of the

Light

;

who

us for

fits

Holy

in the

preserved us from the Power of

the Darkness, and translated us into the King-

dom

of the

Son

of his Love, in

Whom

we have

our Redemption,^ the Remission of Sins, is

the Image of God, the

Invisible,

Who

the First-

For in Him are Heavens and on Earth, whether Thrones or

born of every Foundation.

founded

all

visible

and

things, in the invisible,

Dominions, Rulerships^ or Powers.

Him and and in Him

All things

were founded through

for

Him.

And He

all

things

before

all,

The Authorised Version adds

through his blood," but

this is not in the original.

" Beginnings," a Hierarchy of ^Eons, the same ^ Archai, term used in the opening words of the Gospel according to John, In the Beginning was the Word." '

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

58 unite

of the

Body

Beginning,^

the

And He

stand together).

(lit.,

Head

Dead,^ that

of the

the

Assembly/

First-born

might be

from

in all things

the

Who

the

Himself

seemed good that all the Fullness^ should dwell in Him." The spirit and terminology of the whole For

supreme.

passage

entirely Gnostic,

and can only be

understood by a student of Gnosticism.

The

identity of every Soul with the Over-Soul has

been,

is,

and

the Gnosis.

will

The

be a fundamental doctrine of glorified

initiate,

the Christ,

the man, who, perfected by the sufferings

and consequent experience of many births, becomes at one with the Father, the World-Soul, from which he came forth, and at

finally

last

arises

from the Dead

;

he, indeed, is the

first-born, the perfected, self-conscious

Man, containing

Mind, or

himself the whole divine

creation or Pleroma, for he

hierarchies of spiritual Beings

one with the

who gave him

one of the iEons.

Ecclesia,

Arche, the Primaeval JEon.

The

uninitiated.

Pleroma, the totality of the /Eons, the synthesis of their Hierarchies. Cf. Epiphanius, Adv. Har., I. iii. 4, who shows the Valentinians quoting this text. *

THE WORLD-SOUL. birth,

and instead of being the Microcosm, as become the the Dead, has

when among Macrocosm or

the World-Soul

Through

itself.

the power of this spiritual union do

we win our

Redemption from the bonds of matter and thus attain the Remission of Sins, which, according

among

the wise

the Gnostics, was in the

and supreme Mystery alone, our own Higher Self, that which is at the same time our Judge and Saviour, sending forth the Sons of its Love, all Rays of the great Ocean

hand of the

last

of Compassion, into the Darkness of Matter,

that Matter

may become

perfected.

In plainer words, these Rays are

each the Higher (Anthropos),

Ego

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

itself

and so

every child of the

proceeding

Source (Buddhi)

self-conscious

from

that

their

Ocean

Man

Divine

Love and

Compassion which is the Veil of the Innominable and Incognizable Self (Atman). It must not, however, be supposed that such ideas were foreign to the greater minds of Greece and Rome. all

As has already been

that can be attempted in this essay

select a

few passages here and there.

said, is

Pytha-

goras and Plato, and the Neoplatonic and Neo-

pythagorean writers, can supply us with innu-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

merable quotations, but as alread}'

been given from their works writings,

be sufficient to acknowlqdge

will

much has

theosophical

the deep debt of gratitude humanity owes these great thinkers, and to less

known

show

that there are other

philosophers in this connection

can yield us evidence.

who

For instance, Xeno-

phanes, the principal leader of the Eleatic sect,^

God

described

as a

Being, incompre-

Great

hensible " Incorporeal

globular

and

;

That He

is all

Wisdom

;

figure

no respect similar to man.

sight

That He

breathe.

and

substance,

and hearing, but does not is all things the Mind and ;

not generate but eternal, impassible

and immutable."

(Oliver,

Pythagorean

Tlie

Triangle, 49.)

Lucian also makes Cato say "

God

world

;

makes

fills

known

Himself

up the whole

all

circle

the

of the

Universe, but makes His particular abode in the

centre,

which

the Soul of the Just,"

{Ibid., 51.)

Nor

were

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

these

philosophical

^atpco-is lit., a school, a heresy a study of Greek literature (Polyb.,

;

e.g.,

xl.

concepts

atpccrts 'EA./\7;vtK>),

6, 3).

THE WORLD-SOUL. evolved by "civilization," for

same the "Orphic

find the

ideas again and again reiterated in

Fragments," which must be given an original antiquity

Trojan

contemporaneous with the

at least

War

Let

period.

translation of one of these

" Zeus

the

Zeus

head).

Zeus the middle.

things made. perishable,

of the Earth

Breath

last.

Zeus

here attempt a

Zeus that

first.

thunder

the

hymns. is

rules

the

the beginning

(lit.,

From Zeus were

all

Zeus, the im-

male.

a maid. Zeus is the foundation and starry Heaven. Zeus is the

(Air)

wearied Fire.

Zeus the whirl of un-

all.

Zeus

the root

of the

Sea

Sun and Moon. Zeus is King. Zeus Himself the Supreme Parent of all. There is but one Power, One Daimon, Zeus

(Water).

One Great Chief which

all

all.

things circle.

One

royal frame in

and Water, and

Fire,

Earth, and yEther, Night and Day, and Metis

(Wisdom) the

first

Parent,

and

all-pleasing

Eros (Love).

For

body of Zeus.

Would'st thou see his head and

fair faces ?

The

these are in the great

radiant heaven, round which

his golden locks of

space above in

all

gleaming stars wave

all their

beauty.

the

either side

;

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

two golden taurine horns, the rising and the setting of the Gods, the paths of the celestials. His e3'es the Sun and the opposing Moon His ;

Mind

that never lies

(From the

^Ether."

the imperishable kingly text of Cory, as found in

Eusebius, PrcBp. Evan., HI, Proclus, Tim., and Aristotle,

Let us

De Miind.) now turn to

vian forefathers,

simply repeats a in

the night of

World-Soul, of

the lore of our Scandina-

more hoary tradition lost time. Thus it speaks of the the Supreme Deity and the still

Primordial State of the Universe

" Gangler thus began his discourse is

which

the prose Edda,

the first or eldest of the Gods ? " In our language,' replied Har, '

' :

Who

called Alfadir (All-Father, or the Father of All)

but in the old Asgard " Where is this '

'what

He had God ?

twelve names.' '

said

His power? and what hath

to display

His glory

Gangler

;

He done

"'He liveth,' replied Har, 'from all ages, He governeth all realms, and swayeth all things great and small.'

"'He

hath formed,' added Jafnhar, 'heaven

;

THE WORLD-SOUL. and

earth,

and the

air,

and

all

things thereto

belonging.'

And what is more,' continued Thridi, He hath made man, and given him a soul which "

and never perish, though the body have mouldered away or have been burned

shall live shall

to ashes.'

But with what did He begin, or what was

the beginning of things

? '

demanded Gangler.

"' Hear,' replied Har, 'what

said in the

Voluspa^ " 'Twas time's

When

first

dawn,

naught yet was,

Nor sand nor sea, Nor cooling wave Earth was not there, Nor heaven above. Naught save a void And yawning gulf." (From L A. Blackwell's translation, appended to Bishop Percy's translation of M. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Bohn's Edition, pp. 400, 401.) or Volo-spa, meaning " The Song of the Proa kind of sibylline song containing the whole system of Scandinavian mythology. 1

The Volu

phetess,"

—

;

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

And now we have almost done with serried ranks of witnesses

our

multitudes have not

;

been called into court, but are waiting be to convince the present age that

man

need of a

divine nature and not a congeries of molecules.

Let

us, therefore,

from

conclude our case by citing

Mohammedan

mystical

Sutiism,

which

why Allah is supreme in the hearts many millions of our fellow-men. The passionate longing for union with the

will tell us

of so

World-Soul, with the Source of our Being, magnificently portrayed poets.

Thus Jami,

in his

the mystical Persian

b}'

Yihnfn Zuleykhd, sings

" Dismiss every vain fancy, and abandon every

doubt

Blend into One every

—

and form and place;

know One speak of One One chant of One and seek One."

See One Desire

spirit,

—

{Religious Systems of the World, Art., " Sikhism," p. 306.)

And

again

" In solitude where Being signless dwelt

And

dormant lay. Concealed in selflessness, One Being was, Exempt from I or Thou '-ness, and apart all

the universe

still

THE WORLD-SOUL. From

all

duality

;

Beauty Supreme,

Unmanifest, except unto

Itself

By Its own light, yet fraught with power to charm The souls of all concealed in the Unseen, An Essence pure, unstained by aught of ill." ;

{Ibid, p. 328.)

Perhaps some

may

from

have omitted

the

that

surprised

numerous

citations

already adduced any reference to Buddhism.

have done

so,

not because the idea of the

absent from that system, but

World-Soul

because, for the most part,

to find

is difficult

therein anything in the nature of prayers or

adoration to a Supreme Principle. of

Gautama

The

protest

against the externalization of the

Divine was so strong, that his followers, as

seems to me, have

in course of

time leaned to

extremes, and preferred to express their aspirain terms of denial of material than in positive terms of definition of

tions rather qualities spiritual

attributes.

But what

after

all

Nirvana but a synonym of the World- Soul

And

this

well

is ?

shown by the more transcendent

term Parinirvana, which provides

for

infinite

extension of the concept.

The word

nir-vdna

means

literally

" blown

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

out," " extinguished," as of a

means "tamed,"

for

as,

fire

;

but

instance,

also

a-nirvdna,

used of an elephant, not tamed, or one just caught or wild. There is no doubt whatever that the term describes a state in which the

lower nature

though

entirely tamed,

be regretted that a more positive teaching does not obtain in the so-called Southern Church of

Buddhism. ever,

Its greatest

metaphysicians, how-

declare that the state of Nirvana

such a nature that no words can even hint at its reality, much less describe it, and that it is not wise to inculcate material ideas, however lofty, in

Therefore

the minds of the people.

that in popular

Buddhism we

are

met with such

apparently self-contradictory statements as

"They who, by steadfast mind, have become exempt from evil desire, and well-trained in the teachings of Gautama they, having obtained the fruit of the fourth Path, and immersed ;

ambrosia,

themselves in that

without price, and Nirvana.

Their old

new Karma free

are

the

Karma

being produced

from the longing

is ;

have

received

enjoyment of exhausted, no their hearts are

after future life

;

the cause

of their existence being destroyed, and no

new

THE WORLD-SOUL.

yearnings springing up within them, they, the

(Ratana

wise, are extinguished hke this lamp." Stitia, 7, 14.

are extinguished,

If they One how can they enjoy Nirvana ?

naturally asks

tradictions are the lot of

But such con-

popular presenta-

all

tions of rehgion, and in fact,

seems to be

the nature of things that Truth can only be Nothing but a study of stated in a paradox. esotericism will reconcile the exoteric systems

with each other and with themselves nor will anything else persuade an orthodox Buddhist ;

that there

salvation without the " teachings

of Gautama," or a

Brahman without

or a Christian without the Bible.

ent

the spirit that animates

Lamas, who consider

Let

among

me all

a sin, not only to say,

man

superior

then venture on a positive exposition this over-cautious negation, is

and sug-

the plane of con-

sciousness of the World-Soul.

Of course

this

not orthodox Buddhism, either of the Nor-

known to us, but Buddhism with the

thern or Southern Church, as it

gest that the Nirvanic state

differ-

some among the

but even to think, that their religion to that of any other

the Vedas,

How

enables us to reconcile

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

how

other world systems, and also to see esoteric interpretation

tween

all

the connecting link be-

how

of them, and

the

completes their

insufficient statements.

The "great heresy" of the "pilgrim soul" is the feeling of " separateness." With men, the senses,

and especially the brain-mind,

which keeps us from the

rest, for

that

they produce

the illusion of an external universe, whereas

it is

the heart that binds us to our fellows, and which alone can make us one with all men and with all nature. And though I do not wish to

fall

into the error of transferring our present

conditions to that of the World-Soul, and thus

becoming

guilty of materializing

and anthropo-

morphizing that which transcends our present consciousness,

an analogy

still I

may

think that the suggestion of

not be harmful.

man

the head externalizes and separates, and the heart binds

and

imagine, there

looks

within,

so,

would

an external state of conscious-

ness of the World-Soul, and also an internal " consciousness. Thus we find a " head-doctrine

and a " heart-doctrine

" in every religion,

and

a goal that can be reached by pursuing either.

Nirvana can be reached by two Paths.

By one

THE WORLD-SOUL.

an external state of consciousness can be arrived at, by the other a union with " all that

and breathes." Of course, the external state mentioned is one internal and subjective to our present senses, but it differs from that full reality of the heart that beats in compassion

lives

with

all

hearts, just as the gratification of the

senses and intellect differs from the calm of a

noble soul conscious of striving for truth and purity in the midst of the most unfavourable surroundings.

Nor

the intuition of the heart doctrine

absent from any of the best religionists of today.

dom

The most advanced

thinkers of Christen-

utterly reject the idea of an eternal joy in

Heaven, spent

in vain

adoration and inactive

With true intuition they conceive that the joy of Heaven would be incomplete so long The grim Calvinism of a as others suffer. Tertullian who counted it one of the joys of his Heaven to look down upon the tortures of the damned in Hell, finds approbation only among the ignorant. The larger minds of the Church will have none of it, just as some Buddhists count the Pratyeka Buddha, he who obtains bliss.

the Nirvana of the " eye," a symbol of spiritual

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

selfishness.

sea)ice-TOom

characters,

For

rejoice

and

call

"spooks"

as the

masquerade as ^reat

themselves Homer,

and

Dante, and Jesus, so do countless religionists

and Budd-

love to call themselves Christians hists, title

whereas they have as

little

claim to the

as the irresponsible " spooks."

To me, then, the attainment of Nirvana, or the " Peace of God," or Moksha (Liberation), or whatever

name you choose

to call

by,

the attainment of the degree of consciousness

have would referred it to Heaven as an illustration, rather connote this with Svarga or Devachan,

For although

World-Soul.

of the

I I

or whatever

between

name

two

given to the state of bliss

But

earth-lives.

this

not

becoming the World-Soul, or a World-Soul, any

more than the possession

of a

human body To become

an entity a man. World-Soul, the Nirvana of the " eye

stitutes

conthe

must

be renounced, just as the world of external sensation

must be renounced

the Higher Ego, that thou hast,

become one with

who commands and follow Mc,"

" Leave in

that

all

"ye

brought nothing into the world, neither shall ye take anything out."

THE WORLD-SOUL. Nirvana must be renounced Soul of

for until

;

every

has attained Nirvana, the World-

man

Soul has no

rest,

and he who would be one with

must take up the burden of a like responsiand just as the adept purifies the atoms from the taint of passion in order his body of to reach the knowledge of the Self, so must the Nirmanakaya aid in purifying the souls, whose

bility

;

purification will

enable

ascend to a more

glorious state of activity.

And though we make order to give still all is

and

distinctions in

these

faint idea of the mystery,

the Self sacrificing Itself to

and meanings

selfishness

lose their all

some

World-Soul to

that

selflessness are in

Itself,

words that

an intuition that escapes

words.

But to return to popular Buddhism. Though there is little evidence of any cult of a Supreme Principle, in the ordinary sense of the word, in

the Southern Church, in the Northern Church it is

The

different.

Bodhisattvas are to

cult of

one or other of the

extensively

practised,

depend upon the authorities

and we

find prayers addressed to Manjushri, the per-

sonification

Wisdom, and

shvara, the " merciful protector

Avalokite-

and preserver

THE WORLD-MYSTERY. and of men," who are invoked

of the world

and prayed to as, for example, by Fa Hian {Buddhism, by T. W. Rhys Davids, p. 203) just as Shiva or Vishnu is worshipped by orthodox Hindus.

How

the esoteric interpretation throws light

on the misunderstanding of the

exoteric rituals,

know from and the WorldSoul, Adi-Buddha, which emanates the five

students of the Esoteric Philosophy

the works of H. P. Blavatsky

;

(according to the Esoteric Philosophy, seven)

Dhyani-Buddhas, shows the identity of conception with the other great religions.

Perhaps

may also have

caused surprise that

the Upanishads have not been cited but that has not been for lack of passages, for the whole ;

object of these mystical scriptures

the identity of

man

with the

to inculcate

All.

This is the key-note of the Aryan religion, and every Upanishad persistently reiterates it. As H. P. Blavatsky, but for whose teaching these essays would not have been written, says in that inexhaustable store-house of instruction,

and information. The Secret Doctrine (i. 330) " Not till the Unit is merged in the All, whether on this or any other plane, and Subject

THE WORLD-SOUL. and Object

alike vanish in the absolute negation

of the Nirvanic State (negation, only from our plane), not until then is scaled that peak of

selves

;

riddle

highest

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the knowledge of things-in-themand the solution of the yet more awful approached, before which even the

Omniscience

Dhyan Chohan must bow

silence

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and ignorance the unspeakable mystery of That which is called by the Vedantins, Parabrahman." Of course this may be denied by the theist, but remember that definition, even of the most metaphysical character, will land the definer in the most reader

may

The

contradictions.

preposterous also object:

what does

Madame

Blavatsky know of the highest Dhyan Chohan To which, if I may (Spiritual Existence) ? venture to say

so,

her reply would be, as

has

been to many another question " Thus have I heard." In other words, the teaching is that :

of those

whom

knowledge.

H. P. Blavatsky knew had

But that

not

all

;

for the explan-

ations contained in The Secret Doctrine were never meant to rest on mere assertion, and the

statement above quoted finds the great world-religions, as

its

may

support in

all

be amply seen

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

even from the few quotations adduced

this

article.

will

be remarked, avoided any

selections from the

heterogeneous Scriptures

have

also,

which are now called the Old Testament, preferring to give citations from the Kabalah. Perhaps also some readers may be surprised that I have also refrained from giving the prayer of Christendom from the New Testament, commonly known as the " Lord's Prayer."

But

reason for this

that

was not a

Christian prayer originally, but a Jewish one,

and that even James,

the

"brother of the

Lord," gives a teaching directly opposed to one This prayer is found its principal clauses.

almost verbatim in the Jewish Kadish, and runs as follows

"Our

Father,

gracious to us,

which art in Lord our God

heaven, ;

hallowed be

and let the remembrance of Thee in heaven above, and upon earth be Let Thy kingdom reign over us, here below. now and for ever. Thy holy men of old said Remit and forgive unto all men whatsoever they have done against me.' And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil

Thy name

;

glorified

THE WORLD-SOUL. thin^.

For Thine

shalt reign

the

glory, for

Kingdom, and Thou ever and for ever

more.^

Moreover

James

any authority, we find

ourselves placed on the horns of a theological

dilemma,

for

he says

" Let no one,

when he

tempted of the Deity':

tempted of

evil,

tempted, say

for the

Deity cannot be

neither tempteth he any man."^

teaching more in harmony with the direc-

tion to " enter into

tliy

closet,

and when thou

hast shut thy door pray to thy Father in

secret.''

aov tw

rw KpvTrrM.)

This does not mean that being

a physical

(Matthew

vi.

closet, the prayer

irarpi

But

thus "in secret."

that this prayer, or contemplation, is to be made to, or on, the " Father in Secret," within

the

" chamber

text proves

And now,

of the heart," as

the Greek

beyond any question. in closing, let

again say that

1 Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis, ii. 469. from A Critical Examination of the Gospel History, p. Basnage, Hist, desjnifs, p. 374.

Version log.

Of.

-James, i. 13. The words used for tempted, etc., are all from the verb irei.pa.^op.aL, and are identical with the word used in the prayer as found in the texts of Matthew [vi. 13) and Luke (xi. 4), viz., wâ&#x201A;Źipaa/J.6i.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

God

think that both the behevers in a Personal

and those who refuse to give any attribute to Deity may find some common ground of agreement

in the

it is

course,

any appeal

concept of the World-Soul.

only to the broad-minded that

made.

In our days unorthodoxy of reproach

;

now

has

no longer a term

securely saddled re-

And for this we owe many thanks to

proach on the back of orthodoxy. desirable state of affairs

fearless free thought, to the

unwinking scrutiny

of scientific observation, and the logic of scien-

But the pendulum begins to swing to the extreme, and it is time to protest against freedom developing into licence, and

tific

methods.

the newly-fashioned idols of orthodox science

being substituted for the crumbling idols of Religious thinkers are be-

orthodox religion.

ginning to broaden

though Churchmen term " Personal to

still

every direction,

hold persistently to the

God, which owes

ignorant

and

blunder,

they

its

genesis

will,

under

pressure, so sublimate the concept that

easy to perceive that the words have no longer for

them

their just

reason best

known

meaning, and that

for

to themselves, or for

some some

THE WORLD-SOUL, undefined

fear,

conservative

policy,

The

prefer to

call

tends that

men must have something

white black.

17 they

thcist con-

to lean on,

and that to take away the personality of Deity would be to destroy the hope of the Christian world.

every

But why so

man

Christ the very

know Himself?

lean

Is there not a Christ in

upon

Nay,

not the

Man himself, if he would What more is requisite ?

but

But the orthodox world has so long been Jehovah that they have forgotten the teachings of their Founder who

reciting invocations to

spoke of the " Father

Secret "

teaching, as the above quotations

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

no new amply prove,

but a repetition of the old, old mystery.

And

more advanced Christians are almost invariably ashamed of Jehovah and do not care yet the

to have his exploits referred to.

explain

They

try to

airily referring to a partial revela-

tion to the Jews, preluding a full revelation to

themselves.

you

refer to the

injustice

leaving other world-religions out in the cold,

they generally maintain a freezing silence and regard you henceforward as a dangerous disturber of the public morals. of

Or they

will talk

monotheism and polytheism, and beg the

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

by assuming that Judaism, in its present dead-letter orthodox garb, is monotheism, whereas in reahty it should rather be

question

called monolatry.

doubt some who read this and call themselves Christians, will see here an additional

reason for condemning theosophical writers as anti-Christian, and in disgust will inform their friends that theosophy

and

an enemy of Christ

a child of that interesting creation of the

human

brain which

called the Devil.

And

perhaps they are partially right from their own point of view, for their

certainly

dogmas and

destructive of

superstitions

;

but whether

such dogmas and superstitions were taught by the Christ

another question.

But equally so is theosophy destructive of dogmas and superstitions in Brahmanism, or Buddhism, or Taoism, or Mohammedanism, and so to the bigoted externahst of each of these religions it must be anti-Brahmanical, antiBuddhistic, and so on. Whereas the theosophist claims that he

not really an

enemy

any religion, but, on the contrary, as true a believer as

any of such

religionists.

In such a pitiable state of

affairs,

our task

THE WORLD-SOUL.

should be to bring once more to the sight of

men

the

that the

old

ideals

memory

humanity,

of the past

once more, and that

all

trusting

may come back

men, without distinction

of race, caste, creed or sex, ma}^ recognize a

common

possession in them.

weld us together

in those

And may

they

bonds of harmony

and brotherhood which have only been loosed by licence, but which freedom will once more place on our willing hands

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Vasdiisi jh-iiaiii yathd vilidya

Navani ffrihnati naro 'pardiii Tatha shartrdni vihdya jiriuinyAiiydni sanydti navdiii dehi.

As a man casting off worn-out garments takes other new ones, so the lord of the body casting off worn-out bodies enters other new ones.

Bhagavad GtxA,

ii.

22.

— 8i

THE VESTURES OF THE SOUL. Handbooks and pamphlets on theosophy as

sketched

the

Philosophy that

system

Esoteric

of the

been

has

prominently

brought forward by H. P. Blavatsky

— are

to-

day so numerous, that almost all my readers must be aware of what have been called the seven "principles" of man. that

man

ever one entity.

This

we may

get a

has been done, in order that clearer

to say,

regarded from seven points of view,

although in reality he

vehicles,

That

idea of the

complex

nature of

which the divine consciousness manifests For as in the case of the human being. sciences, so in the greatest science of all

of the if

human

soul

itself

in all

— that

— we must resort to analysis,

we would have

problem before

the

garments, or vestures, in

sheaths,

clear conception of the

us.

There are many systems,

all

which divide F

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

the nature of man, each in

its

the present essay, however,

endeavour to

some idea of what some

of these soul-

And by consciousness in man

vestures divine

not insist

division, but shall

on any precise give you

own way. shall

may

be.

Soul

—which

mean

the

spoken

—

and not the restricted more generally connoted with the term in the w^estern world. Of this Self, the Bhagavad Gltd speaks as follows (ii. 20) "This is not born, nor dies it ever, nor having once been will it not be again. Unof sometimes as the Self

idea that

born, eternal, everlasting, ancient, this slain

though the body be

not

slain."

Aye, no matter how^ sublime and god-like the for even that garbody or vesture may be ment of God by which men behold Him, as Goethe says, the whole conceivable universe, woven in the loom of time, even this will perish in the eternities. But the Self is {ibid., ii. 24.)

—

" Eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable,

ancient

—

this is said to

be the unmanifestable,

this the unthinkable, this the unchangeable."

Therefore, as Krishna says " Knowing it to be such, pray do not grieve." :

Yes, the Soul has

many

a garment besides

VESTURES OF THE SOUL.

the "coats of skin" that covered the spiritual

nakedness

primeval

Selves,

the

childhood of our present humanity.

was

left

our

to the dulled intellect of our present age

and its immediate predecessors to clothe the naked physical bodies of a pictorial Adam and

Eve with the

skins of wild beasts, stitched to-

gether, forsooth, by the " It is

Lord God

" himself.

high time to end such a theological farce

and publish a revised edition of this grand soulmyth, which, if Carlyle had not anticipated us,

we might very

appropriately call the " sartor

resartus," or stitcher re-stitched.

Let us

trace the descent of the Soul, or Self, as

first it

in-

volves downwards, clothing itself in several main vestures and other minor ones, according to the

teaching of the Vedantic philosophers and seers of ancient India. that

You

will find the

mystical treatise.

passage in

The Dream of Rdvan,

(London The Theosophical Publishing Society, The " Four States and Tabernacles of 1895). :

Man "

are described as follows

"There

are four spheres of existence,

enfolding the other^

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

(i)

one

the inmost sphere of

1 That is to say, interpenetrating each other, and not like the skins of the onion.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Turiya

[lit.,

duahzed

the fourth]

spirit

phinged

spirit,

forgetting

in the

its

indivi(2)

the

ocean of Agnana

>on-

unconsciousness f and utterly real Self,^ undergoes a change of

total

gnostic tendency

knowing

Lethe, in which the

sphere of transition,

wisdom] or

which the

Hves the ecstatic Hfe

all,

[polarity?]

and from not

unconsciousness,

absolute

emerges on the hither side of that Lethean boundary to a false or reversed knowledge of things (Viparita Gnana), under the influence of

illusive Pragfia, or belief in,

and tendency

to,

knowledge outward from itself, in which delusion it thoroughly believes, and now endeavours to realize

had

was

whereas the true knowledge which

in the state of Turiya, or the ecstatic all

li'ithin

itself,

knew and experienced the sphere

which

all

of Pragna, or

things.

intuitively

And from

out-knowdng

struggle to reach and recover outside

that

once possessed within own

As we know consciousness.

Because of

its

itself,

life,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this

itself all

and

lost

plane of true spiritual consciousness.

this vesture of

Agnina.

That is to say of recovering its primal wisdom or Gnana, which is the same word as Gnosis. 4

—

VESTURES OF THE SOUL to regain for the lost

intuition

objective

perception through the senses and understand-

—

which the spirit became an intelHgence merges into (3) the third sphere of dreams,

ing

where

beheves

shade, and where

all

a universe of Hght and existence

A-bhasa, or phantasm.

There

is in it

the

way

imagines

itself

Lingadeha (Psyche)^ or subtle, semimaterial, ethereal, soul, composed of a vibrating or knowing pentad, and a breathing or undulainto the

The

ting pentad.

vibrating or knowing pen-

tad consists of simple consciousness radiating into four different forms of knowledge

(a) the

egoity or consciousness of self; (b) the ever-

changing, devising, wishing mind, imagination or fancy

;

bering faculty

;

thinking, reflecting,

and

(d) the

remem-

apprehending and

determining understanding or judgment.^ "

The breathing

or undulating pentad con-

tains the five vital aurae life,

—namely, the breath of

and the four nervous

aethers that

1 This is the Astral Soul, not the Astral Esoteric Philosophy.

produce

Body

the

- This is the Lower Mind or Manas of the Esoteric Philosophy, and the Antahkarana or Inner Organ of the Vedantins, consisting of [a) Ahankara, ib) Chittam, k) Manas, {d) Buddhi.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

and

motion,

sensation,

other

the

vital

phenomena. **

From

subtle

this

phantasmal sphere,

personification

due time

the fourth or outmost sphere, where

into (4)

matter and sense are triumphant universe

mode

and where that

;

where the

;

believed a solid reality

things exist in the

form

and

progresses

;

where

all

of A-kara,^ substantial

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;which successively

for-

got itself from spirit into absolute unconscious-

ness and awoke on this side of that boundary of oblivion into an intelligence struggling out-

and

ward,

from

this

outward

struggling

intelligence imagined itself into

a conscious,

feeling,

breathing, nervous soul,

prepared for

further

clothing

thisj

now

body, with

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; [where

that which does

out-realises itself five

all

from soul into a

senses or organs of perception,

and five organs of action, to suit it for knowing and acting in the external world, which it once held within, but has now wrought out of itself.'^ 1

From

d-Ii)i,

to bring

towards or down, to make or form

wholly. - The five organs of sensation are the skin, eyes, nose, ears, tongue, corresponding to the simple consciousness and the four different forms of knowledge of the vibrating or knowing pentad, viz., the Lower Mind. The five organs of action

;

(i)

VESTURES OF THE SOUL.

The

(2)

first

or spiritual state

from ecstasy

consciousness, but internal world of it

;

forgot itself into deep sleep

from profound sleep

(3)

was ecstasy

still

awoke out of un-

within

dreams

;

(4)

into the

itself,

from dreaming

passed finally into the thoroughly waking

and the outer world of sense. Each state has an embodiment of ideas or language of its own. (i) The universal, eternal, ever-present

state,

intuitions that be eternally with the spirit

the

first,

are in the second utterly forgotten for

(2) then emerge reversed, and translated into divided successive

a time, and

limited, intellec-

rather, of a struggling

tions, or gropings,

and

as yet unorganized intelligence, having reference to place and time,

world, which

and an external

seeks but cannot

all

In the third

(3)

realize outside itself.

come

historical at

once

they be-

pictured by a creative fantasy into phan-

tasms of persons, things and events, in a world of light and shade within us, which is visible even

when

the eyes

are sealed in

dreaming

are the mouth, hands, feet, and the two lower organs, corresponding to the breath of life and the four nervous aethers, which are the five vital aurae of the breathing or undulating pentad.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

slumber, and

of the sohd world that (4)

coming.

In the fourth

the out-forming or objectivity

They

shadow

a prophecy and forecast

complete.

are embodied by the senses into hard

That

external realities in a world without us.

ancient seer (Kavi Purana) which the Gitd and

Mahdhhdraia mention as abiding of each, (2)

falls

logician

in the breast

a prophet and poet

(i) first

;

then

asleep and awakes as a blindfold

and

historian,

without materials for

reasoning, or a world for events, but groping

towards them

;

(3)

a painter with an ear

inward phantasmal music, too

;

at last (4)

a sculptor carving out hard palpable

solidities."

for

have ventured on

because

this lengthy quotation

one of the plainest statements

have yet found of the famous but system of \'edantic psychology.

difficult

has to be

carefully thought out to be fully appreciated,

but will well repay the trouble by bringing to light

many

fresh beauties

which a cursory

reading will necessarily slur over.

It is

first

a most

beautiful idea, that of the self-same Self being

successively clothed in Vestures which transform it first

into a poet

and prophet,

of time and space

;

in a state out

then a blindfold logician

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. and

historian, in time

and space,

in a sort of

external historical world, with which

yet

touch,

and where

its

not

operations

are

compared

to divided successive intellections or

gropings

next a painter and musician limning

;

images on the phantasmal surface of things,

and with an

ear for inward

harmony

a sculptor, carving out objects

and lastly three dimen;

sional space.

As may be seen from the above, the four, or rather three states for it would be wrong to

—

term the highest a the Self in

its

own

state, in that

essence

represents

— correspond

three great Vestures of the Soul, and told

that an

adept can

separate

from another, and clothe the Self

to the

are

them one which he

will.

These Vestures are again composed of several Garments, which are generally spoken of as Sheaths (Koshas). Starting from below, we have first the Food Sheath, formed from food by the alchemy of nature. This is transformed

by the vital aurae into protoplasm, and so transformed into blood, flesh, bone, muscle, skin, etc., eventuating finally into our physical body

—

truly graphically described as a

"coat of skin."

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

This is called the Food Garment or Sheath ( Annamaya Kosha).^ Next we have the fivefold Garment of the

life

breath, the undulating pentad, for

This

energises

long rhythmic waves.

Sheath (Prana-maya Kosha). comes the Garment of the whose wave lengths are vibrating pentad is thought shorter and more rapid, for called the

Life

Following this

body.

the fold

rapid

even

This

latter

Sheath

one

than

the

Garment

being

wdth the faculty

things

what

our illusive personalities ing,

call

two-

with

which

judgment refers

;

all

" ourselves "

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;with the ever-chang-

devising, wishing mind,

fancy,

connected

determination, understanding and the other

forces

life

imagination,

and the thinking, expecting, remembering

faculty.

doubt a clearer definition could be

made, but the traditional method of the Vedantic schools has based its classification on

1 I should, however, like to be informed why the modern Vedantic classification omits the Anna.-yasa-ma.ya Kosha, which, in the second Anuvaka of Taittir'tyopanishad, is given as entirely distinct from either the Anna-maya or Prinamaya Kosha. The Sheath composed of the essence {rasa) of food should correspond with the Linga Sharira of the Eso-

teric

Philosophy.

VESTURES OF THE SOUL.

the five developed senses, and publicly ignores the septenary division, which alone can provide

a truly scientific classification.

purpose of this present paper

But as the not to criticize

but to give some idea of the Garments of the Soul,

will proceed.

The two Garments just Mind and Knowledge

referred to are called the

Sheaths (Mano-maya and Vi-gnana-maya Ko-

And above them is that Lethean Vesture it may prevent us from knowing true Selves as long as we identify ourselves

shas).

which, though our

with our temporary Garments,

nevertheless a

blessed vesture of forgetfulness of the misery

and shame of our past lives, when we once more don it and enter into the much needed rest from our labours. priately

This has thus been appro-

termed the Garment of Bliss (Ananda-

maya Kosha). But

all

our misery consists in our imagining

ourselves apart from the Self. this

And

to destroy

misery we must begin by freeing ourselves

from the

illusion

of mistaking these

various

Garments for our real Selves. This must be done gradually, beginning wath the lowest, the Food Garment.

The

illusion I refer to is stated in

such false

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

WORLD-MYSTERY.

TPIE

ideas as

born

;

live

a male

grow

;

a female

change

;

I am a child, a man I am a priest, a physician, man a total abstainer, a drunkard.

shall hereafter die

old

;

decay

am ;

youth, an a trades-

;

Again the the Life

with

illusion of identifying oneself

Garment

revealed by such thoughts

am hungry I am thirsty I am strong I am the talker, the walker, the I am brave giver I am dumb, I am lame. as

;

So again with the Mind Garment, by such conceptions as

or grieves, or

one that thinks, or fancies,

deluded

toucher, the taster and he

;

who

the hearer,

smells

;

deaf, or blind.

And

then with the Garment of Knowledge

or Discrimination, by such intelligent

;

learned person

;

thoughts as

going to Heaven

indifferent

;

I am am a

sensual

pleasures.

And

so finally with the

thinking

ignorant or

Garment

am happy I am vicious I am wise ;

;

of Bliss, by

content ;

;

foolish.

' I have adapted the following from the translation of the " Meditations of Vasudeva " Lucifer, September, 1892, pp. 24 ct scqq., now also published in book form.

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. The

example must

last

taken as the

reflection of the characteristics of this

embodied

in the

body, this Garment

what we

call

When

state.

Garment

freed from the

freed from the idea of

the " I."

Again, the very same ideas, though with a different nomenclature, are to be found in the books of wisdom, of ancient Egypt. Let us select a few passages from the Divine Pyinandey

Hermes Trismegistus, which still retains some of the old ideas, no matter how garbled of

by translation, re-translation In the Fourth

lation.

we read seqq.)

(Everard's

Book

and

mis-trans-

called "

Translation,

The Key," pp.

" 46. But the Soul of

manner

the Soul,

Man

carried in this

The Mind is in Reason, Reason The Soul in the Spirit, The Spirit

in in

the Body."

That is

clothed

Mind

;

Reason

to say the Soul of :

first

or the Self,

then with the Knowing Garment of ;

then with the Garment of Fancy and

the rest, called by

the

Man,

with the Blissful Garment of

Garment of

Hermes

the Soul

Life or Spirit

by the Gross Body.

;

and

;

next with last of all

For as Hermes says

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

" 47.

The

Spirit

[i.e.,

Life or Pranaj

being

and going through the veins, and arteries, and blood, both moveth the hving creature, and after a certain manner beareth it. diffused

"48. Wherefore some also have thought the Soul to be blood, being deceived in Nature, not

knowing that

the Spirit must return into

first

the Soul, and then the blood

congealed, and

the veins and arteries emptied, and then the living thing dieth

and

this is the death of the

Body."

And

further

on he says, speaking of the

change which takes place " 56.

When

back into

the Soul [or

itself,

the Spirit

death

Lower Mind] runs contracted into the

blood, and the Soul into the Spirit.

Mind

But the

Higher Mindj being made pure, and

from these clothings, and

free

being Divine by

Nature, taking a Fiery Body [or Vesture] ,^ rangeth abroad in every place, leaving the Soul to judgment

and to the punishment

hath

deserved."

This refers to the post-mortem state of the 1 This will explain the mystical meaning of the "chariot of fire," in which Elijah is carried to Heaven, and much

else.

VESTURES OF THE SOUL.

Garments which endure for a which the Esoteric Philosophy-

cast-off lower

time

in a state

calls

Kama Loka

or the Place of Desire.

Fur-

Hermes speaks more distinctly Garments when he says of these " 59. The disposition of these Clothings or Covers is done in an Earthly Body for it is impossible that the Mind [the Higher] should ther on again

;

establish or rest

Earthly Body

itself,

naked, and of

neither

;

able to bear such immortality that

might

suffer so

compacted, as passable

Body

some

and, therefore,

great virtue, the

And

the Soul being also

sort Divine, useth the Spirit

as her Minister or Servant

Body which

When

Mind

of the Soul [Lower Mind] as a

governeth the living things " 60.

Body

were, and took to itself the

Covering or Clothing. in

itself in

the Earthly

composed

[Prana]

and the

;

[that

Spirit

to say, the

of myriads of 'lives']

therefore the

Mind

separated,

and departeth from the Earthly Body, presently it puts on its Fiery Coat, which it could not do, having to dwell in an Earthly Body. " 61. For the Earth cannot suffer Fire, for is all

burned of a small spark

;

therefore

Water poured round about the Earth,

the

as a wall

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

defence,

[That

withstand the flame of Fire.

to say, the Physical

Body

of all

is first

an Astral Garment or Body.]

clad in

" 62. But the Mind being the most sharp or swift of all the

Divine Cogitations, and more

swift than all the Elements, hath the Fire for its

Body. " 63. For the Mind, which

all,

useth

used by only.

Workman

useth the Fire as his Instrument in his

Workmanship all

the

;

and he that is the Workman of making of all things, as it is the making of Earthly things

to the

Man

For the Mind that

Lower Mind] void ,

upon Earth

naked of

Fire,

the business of men, nor that which

wise the affairs of God. " 64. But the Soul of

Man

[the

other-

Lower

Manas, the Ray from the Higher Mindj yet not every one, but that which

]the

cannot do

and

pious and

and Divine. And such a Soul, after it is departed from the Body, having striven the strife of Piety, becomes either Mind

religious, is Angelic

or God. " 65.

And

[the Selfj it

the strife of Piety

and

to injure

becomes Mind.

Man

;

know God this way

and

VESTURES OF THE SOUL.

" 66, But the impious Soul abidcth in

own

punished of

offence,

itself,

its

and seeking an

Earthly and Human Body to enter into. " 67. For no other Body is capable of a

Human Soul to

Soul, neither fall

into the

living thing

God

For

to preserve a

of an unreasonable

the

Man's

lawful for a

is it

Body

Human

Law

or Decree of

Soul from so great a

contumely and reproach."

Here we have an unbroken ray of light shining out of

the darkness

The

Ancient Egypt.

from the Mysteries of secret

teaching

of the

temples differed superstition

entirely from the popular and though the populace were

;

taught that they risked to be reincarnated in the bodies of animals, in order that fear might

generate virtue,

the

better

taught the higher doctrine.

instructed

The same

unconsciously in Christianity to-day. the ignorant, a

those In

who can

were

obtains

Hell for

more enlightened teaching

for

understand.

the collection

commonly known

of heterogeneous

books,

as the Bible, the persistent

mistranslation of purely technical terms has resulted in

Body, Soul

a simple trichotomy of

and

Spirit,

which

man in

into itself

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

insufficient

writers of the

represent the thought several

Paul, in his First Letter

books.

that there are also

many

Heavenly and

For instance,

Corinthians (ch. xv),

to the

says that every seed has

the

appropriate body, kinds of " Fleshes," and its

Earthly

Bodies

(o-oj/xara

In this connection he

iTTovpavia, Koi croi/xaTa CTrt'ycta).

speaks of the Bodies of the Sun, Moon and Stars which he calls " Glories " (So^at), and

which we may compare with the " Fiery Vesture " mentioned by to use the

Hermes

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Sidereal

words of Paracelsus.

Bodies,

Later on he

speaks of a Psychic and Pneumatic, or Spiritual,

Body in

caTL (TMfxa ipv)^LK6v,

{el

ecrrt

Koi TrvevfxaTLKOv)

connection with which he says that the "

birth " is into a

Living Soul

{^f/vxrjv t,u)(Tav),

first

where-

as the " second birth " will be into a Vivifying Spirit

(TTvevfjLa ^oiTTOLovv).

The "

man

first

said to be of the earth, or rather of liquid earth,

and hence

called " choic "

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; reminding us of the

Gnostic fourfold division into Choic, Hylic, Psychic and Pneumatic Bodies, but sort out

difficult to

from the Paulinian text as

stands.

Further on we read of the " image " of the

Choic

Man and

of the " image " of the

Man, purely technical terms

again.

Heavenly It

was

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. one of these Bodies that matter

how many

was wrapt Heavens no

this Initiate

Heaven,^ which

to the Third

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

so ever they be

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; have

each

an appropriate Vesture of Purity. And there he heard those " ineffable words " (apprjTa p^fi-ara) which cannot be spoken they can no more be expressed in human speech than can the ocean ;

oe contained in a water pot.

What

the learned Gnostics and Kabalists taught concerning the " coats of skins " of our allegorical First Parents in the mystical

Eden

that the idea

may

tion, here is

one out of

their books.

kabalistic

quoted

Garden

have already told you, but in order

not rest merely on

many

asser-

passages from

taken from the Zohar, the

of Splendour "

Book

(ii.

2296

;

Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopcedia,

p. 411)

When Adam

dwelled

the Garden

Eden, he was dressed in the celestial garment which is a garment of heavenly light. But when he was expelled from the Garden of Eden,

and became subject to the wants of this world, what is written ? The Lord God [Elohim] '

II.

Corinthians,

xii. 2.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

100

coats of skins unto Adam and to his wife, and clothed them {Gen., iii. 21), for prior to this they had garments of light light of that light which was used in the Garden of Eden." For as the Zohnr says elsewhere (ii. 76a

made

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

ihid., p.

412)

man is after the Heavenly Man. And just as we

The mystery

mystery of the

of the earthly

see in the firmament above, covering different signs

planets,

all

and which contain

secret

profound mysteries, studied by those wise and expert in those signs the skin

[Astral

Body

;

things,

and things and

which are formed of the

stars

who

are

so these are in

rather^

which

the

cover of the body of the son of man, and which is like

and

the sky which covers

features,

which are the

things, signs,

all

stars

and planets of

the skin, indicating secret things and profound mysteries."

There is a curious Rabbinical tradition with regard to these " coats of skins " which may not be without interest, nection.

It is

found

quoted

in the

in this

con-

Yaschar or Scpher

The Book of the Just," more commonly known as " The Book of the Generations of Adam " or " The Book of the History Hatyaschar,

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. Man

loi

which has been translated into French by the Chevaher P. L. B. Drach. The legend

runs as follows (see Apocryphes, torn.

Migne, Dictionnairc des

coll.

1102, 1150)

" After the death of

Adam and

ii.

coats were given to

Enoch,

at the

Eve, these

Enoch, son of Jared.

time of his being taken to God,

gave them to his son Mathusalah.

After the

death of Mathusalah, Noah took them and kept them with him in the Ark. Ham stole them and hid them so successfully that his brethren were unable to find them. Ham gave them secretly to his eldest son Chus, who made a mystery of it to his brothers and sons. When Nimrod reached the age of twenty years, he (Chus) clothed him with this vesture, which gave him extraordinary strength." It was only when Nimrod was stripped of this

garment that he could be

We have all

killed.

heard of Joseph's " coat of

colours" {Genesis,

xxxy'ii. ^)

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the Septuagint translation has

many

^(tTwva ttoikIKov, it

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but few have

any idea that this is a symbolical Garment of the Soul, woven of a warp and woof of beams from the Spiritual Sun, just as the prismatic rays originate from a

ph3''sical

beam

of sunlight.

102

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Garment that all must be clothed in when the King Initiate comes in to inspect the guests, as we are told in the Gospel according to Matthew (xxii. ii.). This " wedding Such again

garment

the

" {Ivhvfxa

y6.fx.Qv) is

no mortal dress, but

a Garment of the Soul, a very real Vesture that we have to weave for ourselves. It must be " a coat

....

(xtTwv)

without seam, woven

from the top throughout " {John, xix. 23), the same which Joseph's Brethren brought back to Father (Atma) when they had sold the Beloved Son (Manas) into the slavery of incarnation in the Egypt of the body, and for which his

the

soldiers

cast

lots

when

the

Christ

crucified.

This is

a very old story, but

as old as the story

its

itself, for

interpretation I

simply

repeating what the sages of old taught

And

disciples.

completion of

convey

this

you

me towards

brings

task where

some

slight

would idea

their

the

try to

the

three Great Vestures of Initiation which cor-

respond to the three higher Principles of

Man

according to the classification of the Esoteric Philosophy.

In that marvellous relic of Gnostic

Philosophy called the Pistis-Sophia (see Lucifer,

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. April,

103

and June, 1890, pp. 321,

1890, p. Ill,

322), the three vestures of the Glorified Christos

or perfected future birth

And

man

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;what we may

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;are thus described

all

be in some

the Disciples saw not Jesus because of

the great Light with which he was surrounded,

which proceeded from him. For their eyes were darkened because of it. But they gazed or

upon the Light only, shooting forth great rays Nor were the rays equal to one of light. another, and the Light was of divers modes and various aspect, from the lower to the higher part thereof, each ray more admirable than its fellow in infinite manner, in the great radiance

of the immeasurable Light.

the earth to the heaven. three

degrees,

infinite

stretched from

...

one surpassing the

The

manner.

midst, excelled the

first

was of

other

second, which was

which was below

the third, the most admirable of

all,

in the it,

and

surpassed

the other twain."

The Master

explains this

Disciples as follows

mystery to

" Rejoice, therefore, in that the time that

should put on

his

come

Vesture.

have put on

Vesture and

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

104

power has been given me by the First Mystery. Yet a Httle while and I will tell you every henceforth Mystery and every Completion ;

from

this

hour

I will

conceal naught from you,

but in Perfectness will

Completion, and

all

perfect

you

all

Perfectioning and every

Mystery, which indeed are the End of all Ends, and the Completion of all Completions, and the I

Wisdom

(Gnosis) of all

you

will tell

all

Wisdoms. Hearken!

things which have befallen

me. "

in the

came

to pass,

when

the sun had risen

places of the East, a great Stream of

Light descended, in which was my Vesture, which I placed in the Four-and-twentieth

And

Mystery.

found the Mystery on Five

written

pertain to

the

Height.

Rachama

Ozai.^

Vesture

And

\\^ords,

which

Zama Zama Ozza this

the

inter-

1 Compare the Pancha-Kosha or Five Sheaths of the Vedantins previously referred to. For an explanation of the number five, and the pentagon, see Secret Doctrine, ii. pp. In one of the books of the Perataj Gnostics 575-580. mention is made of a dodecagonal pyramid (dudeKaytliviov

wvpa/xlda) in

a sphere of the colour

night (vvkt6xpovv).

This pyramidâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; every side of which was a regular pentagon had a door leading into it which was painted with varigated colours {woiKiXais

x/"^a's)-

(See Philosophumena,

14.)

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. thereof

pretation

without

ill

The

;

which

the World, because of which the

Universe was made, Progress

Mj-stcry

105

projected

things therein.

Evolution and

all

emanations and

all

Because of

every Mystery

and the Regions [Lokas] thereof. Come We are to us, for we are thy fellow members. We are one and the same, all one with thee. and thou art one and the same. That is the

exists

First Mystery,

which was from the beginning

the Ineffable, before

came

forth there-

and its name is all of us. Now, therefore, we all live together

from "

;

for thee

which also is the last at That also is a Mystery from the Interiors. Now, therefore, we have sent thee part of us. which indeed is thine from the Vesture, thy the last

Limit

;

beginning, which thou didst place in the last

through this fivefold door that the Soul passes from the Spiritual World, which is now darkness to us because of our ignorance, into the Solar Universe, which was sj?mbolized by the Platonic Solid called the Dodecahedron. This door is of many colours, Hke Joseph's coat, for what we call colours here below are the witnesses to very real powers or is

In the passage from the Pistisforces in spiritual nature. Sophia these are referred to as the five " Words " written on the Vesture of the Christos. They are the five attributes of the Spiritual Body of the Yogacharya School of Buddhism,

which

will

be referred to later on.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

io6

Limit, which also

the last Mystery from the

should be

Interiors, until its time

fulfilled ac-

command of the First Mystery, time being now completed, / will give For we all stand by Come to us

cording to the

Lo it

its

thee.

thee to clothe thee with the First Mystery, and

Glory by

all its

command

tion,

gave

of the same, because

coming

that the First Mystery,

two vestures

into manifestato

clothe

thee

besides the one, which we have sent thee, since thou art worthy of them and art prior to us,

and came

into being

the

therefore,

before

ns.

Mystery

First

through us the Mystery of

all

For sent its

this cause, for

thee

Glory, two

Vestures."

The

on to detail the Hierand iEons, Powers and Gods, which compose these Heavenly Garments corresponding detail for detail with the whole emanatext then goes

archies

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

tive

Universe wherebj' the

potencies of the

Garment

of Deity

woven, and then continues

magnificent exposition

its

;

the living Powers

which form the Vesture speaking as follows on the Great Day " Be with us " the moment of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

Supreme

Initiation

" Behold, therefore,

we have

sent thee this

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. Vesture, which no one has

known from

107

the First

Precept dow^nwards, because the radiance of

Light had been hidden therein, nor did the

its

Spheres and the

fore, clothe thyself

was

Ineffable

it).

with this Vesture.

for ever, until the

;

downward from Make haste, there-

the Regions

all

Precept (know

first

fulfilled,

we have been

thee, to clothe thee with the

the

Command

need of

two Vestures by

of the First Mystery.

Lo, then,

Come, therefore, to us that we may put them on thee, until

that time quickly,

thou

Come

time appointed by the

fulfillest

fulfilled.

every Ministry of the Perfections

of the First Mystery, appointed by the Ineffable.

Come

to us quickly,

thee according to the

Mystery short.

;

for the

Thou

the World.

thou receive

will

put them upon

command

of the First

time that yet remains

very

coming to us and wilt leave Come, therefore quickly shalt art

;

all

thy Glory, the Glory of the

First Mystery."

These three Vestures are the three Buddhic

Robes described 96, 97).

in the Voice of the Silence (pp.

They may be described

Bliss (Sambhoga-kaya),

Body Body of

as the

of Transformation (Nirmana-kaya), the

and the Body of the

io8

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Law

(Dharma-kaya).

Very

publicly

little

of these Transcendent Vestures, even

known

Buddhists

by the

we have

accounts

the books

various

Oriental scholars arc contradictory and

The

leading.

Law which H. all attributes,

highest

and describes Vesture

end, and, therefore, the aside

work on

for

may

they

that

Spiritual

all

still

voc,

{sub

speaks of the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;which he

five

calls " the (!)

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

....

materiality (Rupa). " 2. Tranquillity

" ideal

Compassion remain and

Body in five portions" them as follows

describes " I. Precept

from

Dictionary

attributes of this Vesture

all

void of

Nevertheless, Eitel in

" Pancha Dharma-kaya

all

as an

assumed every is at an

Buddhas

humanity.

Sanskrit-Chinese

his

connection with the earth

possible

lay

mis-

the Vesture of the

P. Blavatsky tells us

If this

breath."

the

that

themselves,

exemption from

....

exemption

sensations (Vedana).

Wisdom

....

exemption from

consciousness (Sangna). " 4. Emancipation (Moksha)

exemption from

all

moral activity (Karma).

VESTURES OF THE SOUL. "5.

views

Intelligent

tion from

all

....

109

exemp-

knowledge (Vigiiana)." from the

exemption

In other words,

five

Skandhas or groups of qualities. These " attributes," it will be seen, arc all negations, and the first is, strangely enough, called " Precept," the identical idea preserved in

" First

the term

the precise

Precept "

number

of "

by the

used

More, there are

Gnostic writer.

of them,

five

Words

" written

the lowest Vesture of the Gnostic narrative.

These three Bodies are the Trinity

in every

Buddhism the ineffable Ocean of Light and Compassion is called Bodhi. By In

religion.

bathing or being " baptized " in this, man These becomes a Buddha or Enlightened. three Vestures are **

Bodhi

Essential

flected

Bodhi

thus said "

Re-

(Sambhogakaya), and " Prac-

(Nirmanakaya). Bodhi tical op. cit., sub voc, " Trikaya.") last,

consist

(Dharmakaya), "

the Vesture

of Practical

(See

And

Eitel, is

the

Bodhi, which

assumed by the Christs and Buddhas of Compassion who help on man's salvation.

Perhaps

may

remembering the

not be without interest,

when

important part pla}-ed

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

" sheep " in Christian symbology, to learn that the three S}'mbohcal vehicles of the saints across the river of said

life,

or conditioned existence, are

by the Buddhists to be Sheep,

Shravakas

i.e.,

— Hearers

Disciples.

Deer,

they

who

i.e.,

Praty-ekaBuddhas

are unable to impart their

Oxen,

— Solitaries,

obtain salvation for themselves but

i.e.,

wisdom

Bodhi-sattvas

to others.

— they

of the

essence (Sattva) of Bodhi, or Compassion and Wisdom. (See Eitel, sub voc, " Triyana."

Further information

may

obtained from

Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet, p. 38.)

But the present theme pen

too lofty a one for a

own, and the Doctrine of the Great

Renunciation of the two higher Vestures

—to

don the comparatively lowly one of the Nirmanakaya has been treated of, in some

—

measure,

What

other

theosophical

has been said, however, as

writings. to

these

—

Robes woven of Nature Powers which are really Human Powers, if we would only " help Nature and work on with her " what little has

—

been said

may

perhaps enable us to better

understand the grand passage from the Book

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; VESTURES OF THE SOUL, of the Golden Pvcccpis (Voice of p. 72),

follows

which

tell

iii

the Silence, ist cd.,

us of the birth of a Master, as

" Behold, the mellow light that floods the

Eastern sky.

In songs of praise both heaven

and earth unite. And from the four-fold manifested Powers a chant of love ariseth, both from the flaming Fire and flowing Water, and from sweet-smelling Earth and rushing Wind. " Hark from the deep unfathomable vortex of that golden light in which the !

Victor

bathes. All Nature's wordless voice in

thousand tones ariseth to proclaim

Joy unto ye, O men of Earth. A Pilgrim hath returned back from the other shore. A "

new Arhan

born.' "

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Feeling himself, his

When

own low

The whole one

Yet

spreading all

all

still

;

Out of the furnace of man's end the fabric

no alien knows wing can travel

oblivious of

possessing. life

arise, flames purified, that soaring

in the

whole

Self, that

self.

Self, far dififused as fancy's Self,

self the

he by sacred sympathy might make

its

own,

Coleridge. and

its

black smoke, winged flames

onward, 'neath the karniic eye, weave

glorified of the three vestures of the Path.

Book of the Golden Precepts.

113

THE WEB OF DESTINY. How familiar parents

to every child born of Christian

the phrase, "

out of nothing"

reason cannot grasp fore

pertains to

quia ahsurdiun

the truth,

the

And

;

created the world

a matter of belief, the it is

absurd and there-

domain of faith. Credo I was told by a Jesuit

yet

was a " postulate of pure reason " was a rational being and had heard it was nothing but the obstinacy of

father that

that as

God

It is

;

heart that prevented

acceptance of the

dogma, and for that same obduracy I was I and property condemned to Hell. uncharitand the obduracy was thought that it

rightly

ableness of someone else's heart that so con" less of a " Christian

demned me, and departed of that kind than ever.

Nevertheless there

good and good in it

evil are

good

hidden

in the

in all

dogma,

things.

for

The

human

soul shrinks from

admitting anything else than

God in the boundH

that the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

114

Nothing but God. And " Verily God what of that ? But how ? " Out of nothing

fields of being.

less

the universe, created

it."

but himself,"

think

hear the small voice

whisper.

The dogma its

good

of " creation out of nothing " has

side, for

it is

understood, to bring

mind the

to the uninstructed

great truth that

nature does fabricator,

an attempt, when rightly

home

not

that

perform

its

deity in

the

own

its

of a

function

"creations" are those of

transcendent and spiritual, and that the " creatures " of its divine creation in their turn

will,

carry out the behests of the divine will, and

emanate and evolve, build and fashion, the w^ondrous fabric of the universe.

The of

evil side of

the doctrine

the use

made

bv an ignorant priesthood to dwarf the b}' ever imposing upon its natural

human mind

questionings the dull weight of an unintelligible

dogma, which crushes terrifies

its

sprouting

life

and

the half-awakened intelligence with the

nightmare of a vengeful deity that punishes every timid turning of the soul to higher light. Fortunately, however, there has been, long before this curious priest-made

dogma

(for

it is

THE WEB OF DESTINY. not to be found

115

the scriptures) was invented,

and there still is, another view of the matter which avoids the Scylla and Charybdis of the extremes which

have pointed out above

view which supplies a

way

golden mean

along which the soul can

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

or passage-

sail in safety.

In the Vedic scriptures the Eternal

said to

by the

have thought the universe out of himself,

self-emanative power of self-contemplation.

Supreme Being evolved

other words, the

created the universe out of himself; that say, that Deity

both the

efficient

or to

and material

cause of the universe.

Many commentaries have been

written upon

the Vedas, and the habit of some of them is to argue out the great statements in the original

forward objection

after

scriptures,

bringing

objection.

In fact, in the commentaries, there

a familiar dramatic character who turning up, called the " objector." " is

always

How then

can it be possible," interrupts the objector, " that God can be both the material and efficient

of clay. clay

;

cause?

The

potter

the efficient

the same person.

makes his pots out not the same as the

potter is

and material causes are not

The

potter does not

make

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

ii6

And

the pot out of himself."

commentary rephes, using a

of the

sacred scripture

the

spider spins

draws

itself,

thread out of

its

again, so this universe

Supreme and

the

then the writer

simile found

Even as the itself and withis

spun out of

again withdrawn."

It is,

however, carefully stated that a simile must not be confounded with an

identit}-.

The Supreme

does not weave the garment of the universe out of himself in precisely the same manner as the spider spins is,

any

its

web, but the simile of the spider

rate, a nearer

approach to the reality

than the crude analogy of the potter.

So we read

the Shvetdsvatara

Upanishad

May the One God, who, like the (vi. lo) spider, through his own nature, encases himself with many threads, which are produced by the make us one with the Supreme." first [Nature] And again in the Mundaka Upanishad (i. 7) "

;

" As the spider casts out and draws in .

[its

web]

produced the universe from the

Indestructible."

The

ideas of a spider

and of a web are found

over and over again in the sacred books of the

Hindus so much so that it is borne in upon the mind of the careful reader that such a ;

THE WEB OF DESTINY.

117

frequent simile must correspond to a very im-

portant fact in nature. simile that

But there

even more graphic.

figure of the chrysalis

and

another is

the

the butterfly, of the

And here let me many which will give

silkworm and the cocoon. quote one passage out of 3'ou a foretaste of

what

this essay designs to

treat of.

The vast Indian epic, called the Mahabharata or Great War, is many times larger than the Ihad of the Greeks, and

its

epic dress

only

the setting for long religious and philosophical

One of its great divisions or books is called the Book of Peace, and one of the subdivisions of this Book is entitled the Book of In it we read as folthe Laws of Freedom.

discourses.

lows

" As the silkworm spinning in itself its

on every side

in every

its

cocoon shuts

way by means

self-made threads, even so the soul, though

in reality itself

transcends

all

attributes, invests

on every side with attributes [and thus

deprives itself of freedom]

(Sec. ccciv.)

This cannot but remind us of the graceful myth of Psyche among the Greeks. Psyche, the soul, painted and sculptured with butterfly

ii8

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

wings

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

that

soul

wings

its

from the chrysalis of the body

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

joyful is

flight

a figure so

and beauty that the mind is at once held captive by the sweet graciousness of innate with

life

so fair a conceit.

Let us next turn to another ancient book, fragments of which are given by H. P. Blavatsky,

where we its

shall find the

One

spinning.

same idea

runs as follows " Father-Alother spin a

end

of a

web and Dzyan

of the Stanzas of

Web, whose upper One

fastened to Spirit, the Light of the

Darkness, and the lower one to end, Matter

and

;

Two

spun out of the

Web

this

its

shadowy

the Universe,

Substances made

One."

is the graphic name for the when viewed as emanating the universe Spirit and Matter are out of its own essence. names for the modes of its existence as viewed

Father-Mother

Eternal

little

men.

Spirit

the author of the

Book

created by the divine

be light."

It is

because Spirit inner eye of

fiat

that Light of which

of Genesis speaks as that willed "

the Light of the

let

there

One Darkness,

the brightest light that the

man can

bear

;

and yet beyond which

this the intuition declares there is that

THE WEB OF DESTINY, transcends even this most glorious

iig but

light,

upon which no mortal can look and live, for to see it he must become immortal. And this is, and so

therefore, darkness to mortal gaze,

not inappropriately termed the

One Darkness. web of the

So, then. Father- Mother spin the

universe out of the two substances, Spirit and

Matter, which really are not two in essence but one, for they are Father-Mother essentially.

In this connection

hardly necessary to

remind the reader of the words put into the mouth of the Erdgeist by the genius of Goethe

" Thus at the roaring loom of

And weave

Him

for

God

Time

I pi}',

the garment thou see'st

by."

This garment of

God

the universe.

The

loom of the Erdgeist roars as the shuttles fly on back and forth but their

their cyclic journey

roaring

;

no chaotic cacophony, but the " har-

monious song" of the " spheres." It may be useful to remark here that with regard to the idea of a cocoon or

web

egg, or

same

the garment

ever spheroidal), the symbol of an

embryonic germ,

idea,

(for

and

its

an index of the

frequent occurrence in the

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

120 old

religions

manner

because

the

marvellous

which so universal a phenomenon

nature shadows forth the manner of the inner

workings of the creative energy. Yet one more instance of the same idea, this time from the hieroglyphics of ancient Khem. Several of the inscriptions on the tombs of the

kings in the ancient sacred city of Thebes have

been translated by Edouard Naville, the French Egyptologist, and embodied in his book. Litanie du Soleil.

few sentences dealing

w'ith

the present subject, together with M. Naville's excellent

commentary, were translated

May number ing, "

in the

of Lucifer (1894), under the head-

The Gods and their Dwellings." SpeakTeb Temt, the term for the Supreme

ing of

Being "

in these old records,

which closely

M. Naville writes:

a being enclosed in

an envelope,

more symbol

neither a sphere nor an egg, but

resembling

the

latter.

The

which represents the envelope Teb has exactly the shape of the cocoon of the silkworm. This is, no doubt, the origin of the tradition handed on to us by Eusebius, which attributes the form of

to the universe." It

would be easy

to multipl}' quotations

and

THE WEB OF DESTINY.

121

produce much evidence of the frequency of this idea in ancient scriptures, but sufficient has been said to warrant a

fuller exposition

than

the conception were of very rare occurrence.

Now,

the study of the allegorical descriptions

of creation and the origin of the universe that are found in every scripture, would be of only

minor importance if they had but a remote bearing on human affairs. If primordial processes and the development of long series of hierarchies are simply to serve as a pretext for airy metaphysical speculation, they can only be

of interest for a very limited class of minds. If, on the other hand, the processes of the great world are directly applicable to the processes

of the is

little

world,

the history of the universe

also the history of

such processes

man, then the study of

of very vital interest to us, for

they teach us the history of the

spirit

and soul

man, and so wean him from the illusion that he is a mere body, and the powers of man only such as the physical body will permit him to

wield.

We have all heard the trite old aphorism,

commonly

called

Hermetic,

" as

below," and some have met with and have learned to realise its

above

elsewhere

truth, for

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

122

helps the solution of the great problem of in a

manner

that no other

of processes and

method will.

the great

fact

life

Analogy

that

man

"This is That," as the grand logion of the Vedas has it, is the only means whereby a solution of the problem can be attempted and a religion or a philosophy,

potentially deity, that

;

or a science, that neglects this central fact ends

nowhere but

has

(II. iv. lo)

that

That

in confusion.

there

;

What

As the Kathopanishad verily

here below

what is there is likewise here.'' what is true of the universe is

to say,

man, what is true of man is true of the universe what is true of little man, the little world, is true of the heavenly man, the great true of

;

world.

bear this in mind and apply it to the subject in hand, our " web of destiny."

Let

us, then,

The web single

of destiny

not one but three, not

but threefold, for are there not three

worlds?

The

threads of the

web

are gross,

and subtler than subtle, for is not man and body ? And is not man God, did he but know it ? There is but one Self "hidden in the heart of all creatures." It is

subtle,

spirit, soul

the bodies that

make

the Self seem different, for

THE it

one

destiny,

body

for

;

oi*'

think

th;i.t

man

but his physical

not so say the scriptures.

man

beyond.

enwrapped, and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for

The

seers of

as spirit, soul and bfjdy, and

the wisest say that the Self Self

123

These bodies are webs (A There are self-woven.

all.

truth speak of

the

dj:stiny.

self-evolved,

who

those

wj:i;

yet

iii.in,

rcrdly

nf;t

words are incapable of truly in a spiritual body or stating the mystery spirit, in a psychic body or Sf;iil, ?i.rid in physical body three webs of destiny, or, if you

enwrapped

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;i,

;

prefer tual,

it,

one web of

triple texture.

The

spiri-

psychic and material vestures clothe the

Self in a triple disguise that produces this seem-

ing separateness which

called

heresy" by those who know the Vedantic psychologists call subtle

and causal vestures or

the Self.

"great

The

them the gross, disguises, and the

early Christian mystics, the so-called Gnostics,

mankind into the Hylics, Psychics and Pneumatics. These Greek names signified classified

that

men were

to be distinguished according to

the bonds in which they were bound, according to the error in

which they were plunged, for and Psyche soul, and

Hyle means matter,

Pneuma

spirit.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

124

But these vestures are is

the material

and the

spiritual life

there

life, ;

living vestures, for

and the psychic

three oceans of

life

life,

and

consciousness, and yet not three but one, for

they are the to

life

;

such desperation life

For what is more precious what does he cling to with

Self.

man than

clings to the Self, for

Through

the Self.

have some conception of world.

And

Life

we have

life,

and yet

all

three bodies and three lives,

and the one

here in this

God.

the habitual or material

psychic

alone can

life

God

life,

the emotional or

intuitional or spiritual

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

Self.

life,

Here we have

the seven-fold nature of the Esoteric Philo-

sophy, so

stood

;

much

and yet

talked of and it is

little

under-

a natural classification, an

unavoidable classification. It is by what the Vedantins call the " false attribution " of the Self to the gross vesture or physical

the is

"waking"

experienced

body that

consciousness, or habitual ;

by the

false attribution

life,

of the

Self to the subtle vesture, or psychic body, that

the

" dreaming " consciousness, or emotional

life, is

sensed

;

and by the

false attribution of

the Self to the causal vesture, or spiritual body,

THE WEB OF DESTINY. that

the

125

" deep sleeping " consciousness, or

Hfe, is enjoyed. Now these terms " deep sleeping," " dreaming " and "waking"

noetic

are very inadequate, or

and are only the

memories of the three great

reflections

lives, or states

For what we call dream is only a memory, and what we call deep sleep is only a reminiscence, our small brains.

of consciousness, in

a vague feeling, that

These three

we have

slept

ill

states appear to us in our

or well.

normal

consciousness as waking and dreaming and

deep sleep

;

but there

a waking conscious-

ness appropriate to each of the three bodies of

man, and a dreaming state, and one of so-called deep sleep; and beyond all is the "fourth," the " peace that passeth

all

understanding."

Here below in this world we are wrapped round in a triple vesture, for all things centre together here in the battlefield of good and evil.

The

triple "

carapace of selfhood " im-

prisons and confines us.

In the " interspace," or "middle distance," there are but two vestures,

complete sever-

ance from physical bonds can be achieved if

not, the

;

but

shadows cast by the blackness of

the sins committed in the body are reflected

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

126

into the world of the soul

its

and accompany

passage through the " hall of learning."

In the highest world there

and

vesture of causation;

but one, the

in this

"heaven-

world " the disciple learns the past and future. They say the wise ones can separate these three vestures at will, can assume and lay for the Self strides

them

aside,

through the three worlds

the twinkling of an eye.

The mystics of the early days of the Chrisnow condemned as heretics, knew of

tian era,

these sacred things and understood the mean-

Thus

ing of the outward rites and symbols.

they called those

who had no thought

thing but the body and

its

for

any-

pleasures the "dead."

These were the Hyhcs, the " sepulchres," for they were indeed dead to higher things such men and women were naturally without the ;

community

of real " Christians

without by any man-made

;

" not placed

ordinances,

but

naturally outside the " church" or assembly of For to enter therein they had to " rise saints.

from the dead " and be baptized. This baptism was no outer form the outer form was but a symbol. It was a real natural process open to ;

all

men, not

to be given

by favouritism, not to

THE WEB OF DESTINY. And

be withheld by mortal hands.

two

great baptisms, the lesser

The baptism

127

there were

and the

greater.

of water and the baptism of

or of the holy

spirit.

These were the

fire

lesser

and the greater mysteries that we hear of among the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Persians and elsewhere. For what is the baptism of water ? We know what water is here on earth but just as the " dreaming " state is but a memory and ;

reflection of the true state of the

waking consciousness, so

soul in our

the water of the

earth a reflection of the true water of nature.

On my

soul,

gentlemen, ye have never seen

the

true earth," says Eugenius Philalethes, and he might have added, " On my soul, good

have never seen the true water of For this water is the ocean of soul-life,

friends, ye life."

the " astral " ocean, that causes the soul-sight to

live.

was only when the pilgrim had

learned to put on his subtle vesture at will and was " doused " into the waters of the ocean of

pure astral light and

life,

baptized with water.

And

the lesser mysteries.

that he

was indeed

yet these were but

Those who were illumined

this natural initiation

were called Psychics.

But the greater mysteries pertained

the

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

128

The baptism

perfect, the just.

was the

fire

reception of the spiritual influx of divine hght

The breath of the Holy Spirit (air) and energised their spiritual bodies, and thus they were called Pneumatics. and

hfe.

vivified

Beyond these greater mysteries, transcendent and unspeakable as they are said to be, there was something grander and greater and more wondrous. Beyond the three states is the " fourth "

;

the Self, the Father,

on the threshold

ever waiting

for his children.

the

mystery of the At-one-ment, the baptism of

when

the very

life

given that

man may

be one with the Highest.

blood, is

Pity

it is

that these high things are so degraded

in our age.

make

But we arc

the best of

Let us

and essence of deity

now

in the

mire and must

it.

return to our three vestures, the

karmic webs that we have woven

for

our weal

and woe. The third depends on the second, and the second on the first. The physical body is the product of the psychic, and the psychic of the spiritual.

vesture

mould

other words, the gross

"precipitated" through the force-

of the psychic vesture,

by means of the

character and experience stored up in the spiri-

THE WEB OF DESTINY. Each vesture has The " shadow-man

tual vesture.

its

Hfe-span.

than the physical,

may

normal

life is

may its

appropriate

Hves longer

be but a few years,

life-span

physical

of the

that

be centuries, for

The

life-cycle

gross and subtle

This

bodies have their root in the causal. root

perennial

the

"eternity."

its

But both these

governed by the great

of the spiritual body.

as variable

though

vesture,

of greater length.

life-cycles are

129

throughout

living

the

worlds depend,"

this "all the

as the scripture saith, or in other words, from it

grow

all

the bodies, gross and subtle, that

serve as vestures for the reincarnating Lord.

And

seeing that these psychic and physical

bodies sprout forth from

and die down into

cause the

summer and winter of its great year warm life now to be breathed forth

and then

to be withdrawn,

it,

as the

that

all

causation rests with

karmic storehouse of

and

all

"book

needs must be ;

that each

will be; that (to use

the very

that

man

was,

another simile),

of the recording angel."

because of this that the whole past of a surrounds him on every side

his psychic vesture

;

the

it is

is,

it is

It is

man

impressed

(the sidereal or astral I

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

130

man),

for

it is

the " influence of the stars "

;

stamped upon his physical frame and But these " stars " are not the stars of heaven, and the predictions of astrologists and cheiromantists and the rest are based on a correspon-

features.

True astrology

dence and not on a reahty. deals with something higher.

Nor need we go further than the mythology Book of Genesis to gain a conviction of For the truth of this triple nature of man. " image" of there is first the man made in the of the

God, and then the

Adam

of " red-earth,"

dwelt in paradise, no physical region as

understand the word. is

The

the soul, and not until

who we now

paradisiacal

man

body

cast out of

Paradise does God lastly fashion for him his " coat of skin." Only when man is born into physical

life is

he clad in the gross vesture of

Can anyone be God actually made

the material body.

so foolish

as to think that

for

Adam

and Eve garments from the skins of animals wherewith to clothe them ? Let us leave such crudities to the uninstructed congregations of

our " it is

little

Bethels," and proceed to see whether

possible for

web of his

man

destiny

;

to escape

and how the

from the

triple

passivity of the

THE WEB OF DESTINY. three great oceans of

life

may

be changed into

the activity of the three great Hghts that the triple-tongued flame

and destroy the webs and

about

writing

destiny,

may

;

and how

burst forth

the ineffable

join

Grand Master, the Fire Self. Perhaps some may think

131

that,

should

therefore,

enter into a long disquisition on freewill and necessity

;

but

Freewill and

have no desire to enter into controversy.

squirrel-wheel

endless

that

necessity are mutually dependent

each exists because of the other

;

remove one

and the other ceases to be. They are a pair of opposites, and the best religion and philosophy teach that there is that which transcends all

pairs of opposites,

inmost nature can

which

and that man

his

reach that all-desirable goal

a solution of the great problem of

manifested existence. But, again, someone

web

of destiny

may

not eternal

ask,

surely this

By no means

;

to be eternal, in the absolute sense of the word, it needs must be woven with the shuttle of the

That is to say, that into all our and thoughts we must put the and words acts whole of the eternal will of the universe. eternal will.

132

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

Surely this

impossible in the very nature of

That which we think to be ourselves, that which acts in us, is not the Self but that which we think to be ourselves. It is not a reality, but an ever-changing and impermanent

things

something.

For no matter how long

aye, even for

persist,

an " eternity,"

may not

The eternal in the absolute sense of the word. Eternal, the One Reality, knows no change. The web

of the universe

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; love

for

shuttle of divine love

good fice,

universal

It is that deific desire for

breathes. or

woven with the all that lives and

harmony

giving of

distinction.

its

;

life

Thus

a perpetual self-sacri-

and

it is

light to all

in the

without

" above," but in

the " below," here in the world of men, the shuttle

whereby we weave our web of destiny

the shuttle of desire.

power

This

selfishness

;

that concretes, that draws to itself for

We weave our webs of destiny from the warp and woof of things of sensation and of matter by means of the shuttle of desire. But itself.

as this lower desire

no stronger than our-

selves, our lower natures,

fabric

cannot be that the

weaves should be eternal.

It is

up of ever-changing and impermanent

made

materials,

THE WEB OF DESTINY.

133

and so must cease when the energy that produced it is exhausted. What is most important to reaHsc, however, What we is that this web is a Kving thing. call

matter

only negative

of destiny extends

realms of

Thought

life

the

into

one of the most important subit is

" All that

have thought

;

made up

are is

As the Dham-

woven.

mapada of the Buddhists says

This

web

but the

emotion, volition and mind.

feeling, is

stances from which

it is

;

beyond matter

(x. 3)

the result of what

founded on our thoughts,

of our thoughts."

the great teaching brought out so

powerfully in the

Gospel

Christendom

woman

;

"He who

casteth his eyes on a

after her,

has committed adultery already with

her in his heart. '^

That

to lust

to say, in his soul,

within in the region of his mind which potent a region of his universe. teaching

not

explained

Though

this

length in the

Christian canon, in the Buddhist

and Vedic

canon there are numberless dissertations on the nature and power of thought. One example will suffice.

34,

Max

In the Maitrdyana Upanishad

Miiller's Translation),

we read

(vi.

134

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

" Thought alone causes the round of a newbirth

and a new death

man therefore What a man

let

;

strive to purify his thoughts.

thinks, that he

the thoughts of

this

the old secret.

men were

on the

fixed

Eternal, as they are on the things of this world,

who would

not be freed from bondage

" ?

same teaching as that of the Sermon on the Mount " The pure in heart shall see God." This vesture of thought and the rest, then, This

the

a very real thing.

It is alive,

lives in us.

ancient

This was also the belief of

After the death of the body, the soul to pass forth

its

off its

state,

Just as the soul had

body, so did the

psychic vestures, as

and these

was said

path through the different

regions of the Amenti.

shed

Egypt.

spirit

shed

passed back into

vestures, just as the

off its its

own

body here

below consists of countless " lives," consisted of living " beings," were woven out of living In the Litany of

threads. referred

to,

divers beings

mention

the

made

Sun already

of " prayers to

which have to serve as envelope

to the essence of the Defunct."

And now

the question arises, "If this

so.

THE WEB OF DESTINY. how

is it

awful

possible to avoid for ever weaving this

web

more and more densely Thoughts come into our

of destiny

round ourselves.

mind unbidden. rid of

135

impossible for one to get

It is

them."

Now

in the

Roman

Catholic Church there

a teaching that there is no sin, if a man does not join his " will " to the thought. This is precisely the teaching of the other religions

have referred whole of what is

to, I

and

consonant with the

have previously written. There

a continual procession of thoughts ever pass-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

empty shapes, shadows and images. We can reject these shadows and let them pass on or arrest them by fixing our If we go further and attention upon them. give our consent to them we put our desire into them, and so breathe into them the breath ing through our minds

of our

They then become

life.

part of us,

have ensouled them, they are our children. our desire

selfish

weave round ourselves and and impure forces.

know

and impure, then these

children of ours are of a like nature, and

into our nature evil

that these things have been written

of over and over again, but the story will not

136

THE WORLD-MYSTERY. As we

spoil for retelling.

live,

every

moment

give birth to that which will be our self in

a future existence and a future

And

birth to a child.

this child, are impure, passionate

the child

we generate

life.

give

we, the dual parent of

will

and immoral,

be of

nature.

Just as diseased and immoral parents, parents

who

procreate children in drunkenness and in

obedience to the dictates of mere animal

lust,

give birth to abortions, crippled, lunatic

and

vicious children, so does each one of us give birth to an abortion

are slaves of our desires.

But if, on the other hand, we strive to transmute our lower desire into the divine love and will,

then

we may

give birth to a divine child

which will in time grow into the full stature of the Heavenly Man. This is the " second birth," the spiritual creation, spoken of by the Christ This is why the Brahmans, in the Gospel. not those but those

who are born into a physical who truly know Brahman,

caste,

or the

Eternal, are rightly called the "twice-born."

Yes, wc can escape from our web of destiny by weaving for ourselves the glorious vesture of the spirit, the "wedding garment," the " coat woven without scam of the Christ."

THE WEB OF DESTINY.

137

As the Book of Peace {Mahdbhdrata, Shanti Parvan, Mokshadharma Parvan,

"By these

casting five

off,

faults

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; attachment,

large

attains to

breaking through

fishes,

the net, pass into their

heedlessness,

man

covetousness, lust and wrath, a

freedom.

ccci.) says

through the aid of Yoga,

own clement

[to

sport

same manner Yogins [breaking through the net of lust, wrath and the rest] become cleansed of all sins and attain As powerful to the blessed state of freedom. in blessedness]

after the

breaking

animals,

through

nets

the

with

which the hunters surround them, escape into the blessed state of freedom, after the same

manner Yogins,

freed from

Feeble beings,

entangled in

Even such

destroyed.

of Yoga-power.

destitute

bonds, attain

all

path that leads to liberation.

to the sinless

acts,

are

surely

the case with those

weak

fishes,

fallen into the net, become entangled in

even so

men

destitute of the

encounter destruction world].

they that

it,

power of Yoga,

[amid the bonds of the

Bound by the bonds of their acts, are weak meet with destruction, while

they that

are

through them."

possessed

strength

break

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

138 "

The kingdom of heaven is to be attained by violence." Yoga means union, the striving for

union with the divinity that

This

all

the consummation of

creatures.

power

the at-one-ment that

all

the

divine

will.

developed by " brooding " upon of the Eternal, that of one's

Yoga-

religion.

the strength of the spiritual

energizing of

in the heart

life

is,

;

the

by service

by dedicating the whole

to the Self;

and by

and confidence

faith

It it

life,

faith, that

is,

in the possibility of

such union. the universe by

Supreme Being created means of such brooding (Tapas).

By wrapping

oneself

said that the

spiritual

round with

power, by ever living in

it,

great

this

by realising

germ of

the great Presence of the Eternal, the

the divine child will develop within.

brooding

the formation of a virgin

from which the immaculate child This brooding

also heat

and

that the three streams of

life

This

womb,

shall be born.

fire.

It is

thus

and conscious-

ness (see p. 124) no longer continue as passive

oceans of external existence, each on

its

plane, but change into active energies

become three

fires,

own

which

or rather a triple-tongued

THE WEB OF DESTINY.

139

flame that finally blazes forth into the great

and light of the universe. Without doubt we can cast off our old garments of desire and stand in the purified robes of divine will and universal compassion. To cast off our old squalid raiment we must practise non-attachment to it. We must be willing to stand naked before our Self, and this we cannot do unless we love that Self. There is a negafire

tive

and a

positive

method

The

to be followed.

practice of non-attachment

the things

matter, to our possessions in this world, and to all

that

think

within,

oitrs

necessary, but this alone

must

also be

absolutely

not sufficient,

accompanied by the positive love

of the highest and the best, of the Self within.

Both these

forces are necessary.

danger even here, there

But there

danger that a

man

should seek that Self for himself alone, should love that Self that so he his

own

sake.

may

Therefore

gain salvation for is,

that

and

who

would gain true wisdom, and live the Self here on earth, must learn to love that Self in all that lives and breathes and not in himself alone. Then and not till then will he be on the path of final liberation from the delurealise

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

140

sion of that spiritual ignorance which

him

This

weave is

his

web

the doctrine of the Christ, the saviour,

whom

the spirit within, the one from

come

causes

of destiny.

we could

but understand

many

the

This

it.

Egypt of old. To quote more from the inscriptions on the the kings of ancient Thebes

also the teaching of

yet once

tombs of

"The kingly Osiris is an intelligent essence who are born from him create him they rest when they have caused the kingly Osiris '

;

those

;

to be born."

The

kingly Osiris

highest vesture

that

of the Self, the spirit or spiritual body.

the

causal vesture,

which the soul proceeds.

come

It is

karmic record, from

The

personalities

all

forth from the divine individuality accord-

ing to that karmic record.

This

forth for the one.

The many came the perennial root

from which we came forth and into which we return,

and by " we

mean

the "

I," the

person we think we are for one life, and not the real " I am " that is for the eternity. This " I

an "

are born from it

" Those

who

" are our personalities,

and

intelligent essence."

him

the personal

man who, by

his efforts at

THE WEB OF DESTINY.

141

and aspiration to this divine prototype within, shall grow like unto the spiriSo that at last he shall become at tual man.

self-purification

one with the Christ within, and so " create

And then shall we be at "rest," then shall we have found refuge in the " Self of Peace," then shall we have reached that " peace of God that passeth all understanding," and the web of our destiny shall be the

the kingly .Osiris.

same

as that of the self-made

destiny of God.

and self-appointed

Deum te igitur scito esse. Know then that thou art God. Cicero, Somkium Scipionis.

Om!

Peace, peace, peace!

143

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE A STUDY FROM CICERO AND THE UPANISHADS.

What am

I ?

Whence came

Whither

I ?

one crying

the wilderness, mourning, and not to be

journey

Verily, the voice of

comforted either by the

lifeless

dogmas

of an

theology or the cold denials of a material-

effete

istic science.

It is

from the sages of

old,

from

the wise of the past, that the answer comes.

That

From That

art thou.

didst thou come.

Aye, That art

Into That shalt thou return.

thou

were

That

the final

thy

Self,

none other.

Such

words whispered into the ear of

the disciple in the

golden

True then,

days of ancient countless

ages

before, true for the rest of the eternity.

No-

Aryavarta.

true

where else is to be found true Self-reliance, nowhere else that peace which none can take away.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

144

cold creed

not cold.

It is

hear some one say

Nay,

a truth that transcends enthu-

siasm, that surpasses

all

hope, that merges the

highest ideal of love into an endless, boundless

compassion

for all that lives

and breathes.

For

thus runs the Upanishad " Now will I tell thee the ancient mj'stery of :

the Highest. " That true

Man, who wakes when we

accomplishing every desire

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

Shining, the Highest, the Deathless. all

sleep,

called the

In that

the spheres are contained, and no one goes

beyond.

Aye,

this

[true

Man]

That

[the Universal Soul]

fire,

though one, on entering into the

form after form, takes the what it enters] so the Inner Self of creatures, though one, takes on shape after

world, [pervading]

form all

[of

shape, and yet [remains] apart.

" As

air,

though one, on entering into the

world, [pervading]

form

after form, takes the

what it enters] so the Inner Self of though one, takes on shape after shape, and yet [remains] apart. " As the sun, the means by which the whole world sees, is not sullied by the outer impurities form all

[of

creatures,

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE.

145

which our eyes behold, so the Inner Self of creatures, being one,

of the world, but [remains] apart [from

this

all

not sullied by the misery

Inner Self of

all

it]

creatures, the

Lord of the Will, who, though one, causes the

The wise who

one form to appear manifold.

find this abiding in themselves, theirs

blessed-

ness everlasting, and not others'.

"The

eternal

conscious one,

fulfils

among

the non-eternal,

the unconscious, who, though

the desires of many.

The wise who

find this abiding in themselves, theirs everlasting,

"'This their

peace

and not others'. That' so runs the burthen of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

thoughts

beggars

the

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

transcendent

description."

Adhyaya ii., Valli v. 6-14.) The Upanishad then proceeds that this Higher Self

that

bliss

{Kathopanishad,

explain

self-luminous,

and the

cause, not only of the light on earth, but also

of that in the heaven.

The

own

within.

light, it is self-motive

This

Self shines by

the secret of true Self-reliance

;

its

no-

where else is a lasting basis to be found, nowhere else unchanging certitude. In this self-motivity resides the essence of

immortahty

— THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

146

and nowhere else it is the one spark of divinity A man must grow from within within man. All other growth is is the law. for such out, artificial and unnatural, deceptive and illusory. ;

one from without can give us peace and

blessedness

;

these

must perforce come from

within, from the Inner Self of

our true Higher

Even should

who

a Master

—a

— cast

power round the

disciple,

in his aura, even then,

his Soul with

own

in the

body,

should he wrap him

were to no

profit, if

not ready to burst the veils of

self-effort.

If the nature of the disciple its

still

the mantle of his

with that Higher Self

Ji\'anmukta, one

has attained union, while

the disciple

creatures

all

Self.

will,

and grow of

artificial exaltation

does not respond

its

own

energy, the

would be not only unprofit-

able but even injurious.

protecting wall were

For the instant the

removed, the

reaction

would sweep the unprepared neophyte off his The passions and desires that had been feet. curbed and held back by the external power of the teacher would fiercely spring forth, and the lassitude

the pupil's

artificial stimulus,

will,

following

the

would be unable to check

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE. And

wild career.

their

difficult

that

why

147

even for a Master to interfere with the

natural growth of the disciple.

meant by

This

what

saying that even sages dare not inter-

fere with the

growth of karmic seeds.

Nature

must work on in her own way, and growth must proceed /ro;7i within without and never from without within.

This applies to

mental attitude we

The true

of us, especially in the

all

take

perfect fruit of nature

Man.

natural steady growth

up is

artificial ;

Theosophy.

the birth of the creation,

but a

a birth with pain and

sorrow, with mighty throes suffered and joyfully

But to be perfect it must be self-born, must be divine, and that which is born from

endured. it

another than the Self

other than divine,

subject to death and decay.

work out our own salvation, wisely, There are no swaddling clothes for the Self, no apron-strings to tie the soul to from the very beginning it must walk of itself, of its own energy and force. There is no spoonmeat, no nursing, no whimperings to be hushed. It strides It is a Man, no animal embrj^o. imcst

humbly, nobly.

;

forth as a giant from the egg that envelops

it.

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

148

They who have conquered

are Shepherds of

Compassion, not sheep, are Lions of Mercy, not

They

deer.

Buddhas, and like

are

unto them,

the

Christs

and the

their will that all shall

it is

be one with them.

all

Let us not, then, weakly repeat the words of others, if

and

reflect the

thoughts of others, but

the words are good and the thoughts wise,

strive to develop

in ourselves

the spirit that

dictated such words or induced such thoughts.

The Lodge does

dom

not wish for the mere monkey-

of external imitation, or

repetition of words.

whom

reliance

companions

rely

the parrot-like

requires companions on

can be placed, because such

on that Self which

the Self

of the Lodge.

The secret of the Self is that it is self-motive. As Cicero writes, repeating the noble doctrine of the Stoics and of the Mysteries

" Strive on, with the assurance that

thou

who

it is

not

art subject to death, but thy body.

For that which is really thyself is not the being which thy bodily shape declares. But the real man is the thinking principle of each, and not the form which finger.

can be pointed to with the

this, then,

be sure, that thou art

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE. God

inasmuch as deity

;

149

that which has will,

memory, foresight and rules, regulates and moves the body it has in charge, just as the Supreme Deity does the Universe. And Hke as Eternal Deity guides the universe, which sense,

is in

;

a certain degree subject to decay, so the

sempiternal soul moves the destructible body.

Now

that which

ever in motion

eternal.

that which communicates motion to

Whereas

and which is set in motion by an external cause, must necessarily cease to exist when its motion is exhausted." And then (as Macrobius says), repeating the PhcBclrus of Plato, word by word, Tully consomething

tinues

else,

" That, therefore, which has the principle of

can never

motion

itself, is

the only eternal existence, and, more-

over,

the source and causative principle of

itself,

motion to ment.

have

all

The no

seeing that

other bodies

fail

endowed with move-

causative principle, however, can

antecedent

For

cause.

all

things

spring from this principle, which cannot, in

the nature of things, be generated from any-

thing else

for if

the principal cause.

were

so,

would cease to be

And if this

without begin-

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

150 ning,

can evidently have no end, for

ciple of causation

were destroyed,

be re-born from anything anj'thing out of

itself, for all

the prin-

could not

nor give birth to

things must neces-

generated from the causative prin-

sarily be ciple.

else,

The

principle

motion, therefore,

comes from that which is endowed with selfmovement and this can suffer neither birth ;

nor death

otherwise every heaven would col-

;

and every nature necessarily come to a it could no longer obtain that force by which it was originally impelled.

lapse,

standstill, seeing that

" Since, therefore, is

eternal

deny that

which this

destitute

evident that that only

who

set in

the

soul is

principle,

;

for this is

And

if it

things has the attribute of

self-

the soul's proper nature and power. all

energized by

an interior and self-created motion

movement,

there to

motion by external

whereas everything ensouled

alone of

a rational attribute of souls

For everything that impulse

it is

self-motive,

surely

not subject to birth but

eternal."^

1 From The Dream of Seipio, in Cicero's Dc RepiihUca, vi. In commenting on this passage, Macrobius (Commcntarius in Somnium Scipkuiis, II. xiii) gives a number of syllogisms which may be useful to set down here.

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE. on

But there are those who rely on their their strength, on their wealth, or

151

intellect,

position,

This

their beauty, their relatives or their friends. is

not true Self-reliance, for

all

these pass away.

Intellect will fade in its turn, just as the

fades in

small cycle, for

its

Thou

art the sheath of the Highest,

turn

in its

enveloped in

isj

{Taittirtyakopanishad, Valli

the

[which

intellect."

Anuvaka

an envelope, a

Intellect is but

removed, a garment to be

body

veil

i.)

purified, before the,

true Self shines forth.

Strength and wealth and position and beauty are

more impermanent

even

strength and

beauty fade even before the body wears out, 1. The soul ever in motion

self-motive

Whatever

and

self-motive

Therefore the soul is ever in motion. 2. The soul is ever in motion Whatever is ever in motion Therefore the soul is immortal. is immortal Whatever is self-motive is the 3. The soul is self-motive principle of motion Therefore the soul is the principle of motion. Whatever is the 4. The soul is the principle of motion principle of motion is not subject to birth Therefore the :

soul

not subject to birth. soul is not subject to birth

The

Whatever is not subimmortal Therefore the soul is immortal. soul is self-motive: Whatever is self-motive is the principle of motion Whatever is the principle of motion is not subject to birth Whatever is not subject to birth is immortal Therefore the soul is immortal. (Aurelii Macrobii Qua Extant Omnia, Patavii, 1736.) 5.

ject to birth is 6.

The

— THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

152

wealth and position must be abandoned when

Yama

speaks the word.

Friends and relations, parents, husband, wife

and children, are but weaklings like ourselves to mourn and rejoice with all subject to the

—

sway of Death.

There

but one place of

peace, but one source of true reliance.

"That

place [of peace] which

writings sing

of,

proclaimed by

the sacred

all

who

strive to

purify their nature, for the sake of which men enter

the service of the Highest, that place [of peace] will I in brief

recount to thee.

" Aye, that word

Om.'

the Highest, that the

He who knows this,

Supreme.

the

It is

all

that he longs

for is his.

" That

most

the best on which to rely, that the

He who

excellent.

relies

that,

waxes

great in the heaven-world.

" He, the [harmonious] singer,

he dies not.

any one was ancient

— this

he. is

[came] not any whence, nor

Unborn,

not slain

eternal, everlasting,

when the body

" If the slayer thinks he slays, or thinks he not, nor **

slain,

not born,

both are deluded.

is slain.

the slain

slays

is slain.

Smaller than small, greater than great,

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE.

153

the Self of a man, hidden in the secret chamber [of his heart]

" It

that a

by the favour of the Lord [the Logos] beholds the majesty of the Self,

man

[but only

when he

without preconceived

is]

notions and free from distress. " Sitting It goes far, resting It journeys every-

Who

where.

and

rejoices

"The

know

but myself can

that which

rejoices not.

wise

man who

regards the Self as

bodiless among bodies, as ever-abiding among the

mighty Sovereign, he grieves not. This Self is not to be obtained by much instruction, nor by intellectual study, nor by holy

fleeting, as the *'

writ.

Him whom

It enfolds

by him

is It

gain-

man. The "But he who has not turned his back on evil-doing, who is not at peace, and not controlled, who is not of quiet mind, he, even with Self enfolds the very soul of the

ed.

knowledge, cannot gain

Adhyaya

It is in

Valli

{KatJiopanishad,

15-24.)

the Self that

moral sanction.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " the

ii.

It."

find the source of all

the "still small voice"

voice of the silence

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the

voice that

grows into a roar of thunder if the Then it becomes the transgressed.

Law

"great

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

154 terror for

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the one

it is

by the

thing that the disciple fears,

Law

of his higher nature that he

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;to

continued bondage in the meshes of the karmic net he has supphed threads for the weaving of by neglect of duty. As in condemns himself

World

the Great

so in the

world, as in

little

the Universal Self so in the individual self, as " That art thou " in the Kosmos so in man. !

emanated

thyself,

Chaos

thou

little

of the

man

Law

Thou

emanate

canst give birth

Son of Righteousness, and

or to the

wilt.

so dost thou

Itself,

Therefore, choose.

Transgression

creates difference,

and so a depar-

ture from the Self; union with the

the conditions for the Self to

Law provides

show

forth its

Learn, then, from what takes place in World " unconsciously," what must

glory.

the Great

be done in the of

world by the conscious will

him who would be free. " In the beginning this [manifested world]

was

non-existent.

That made

arose. it

little

Thence, its

own

Now

called the self-made.

verily

to the

essence, for only

essence

For who could

live,

when

filled

who

veril}',

the existent

Wherefore

self.

that

self-made

man

attains

with blessedness.

could breathe,

that

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE.

155

blessedness were not in the quintessence [of the heart]

" For

For

it is

when

that

man

which causes blessedness. finds fearless reliance in

that which no eye can see, which transcends

all

selves, which caniiot be defined and which needs no support then has he ceased from fear.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Whereas, should a man make were a speck^ within

This

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;then

but

him.

him who knows and

ever a terror for

ponders upon

fear arises for

it.

"For thus says the scripture: 'From terror of That the wind blows, from terror the sun rises.' {Taittiriyakopanishad, Valli i, Anuvaka viii. i.)

And again "The whole emanated :

universe trembles in

Its Breath, That is the Great Terror, an up-raised

thunderbolt.

They who know

it,

mortal." {Kathopanishad, Adhyaya,

man

For no

can

flee

from the

can escape from his conscience. enfolds

there that

him

in his

no escape

Law.

become imii,

Valli vi. 2.)

man The Law no

Self,

own

doings, from which

until

he takes refuge with

As the King- Psalmist says

given up by the commentators and I would suggest that it may mean the most translators. simple organism, which modern science affirms to be little else than a sac or " stomach." The trained seers and initiates of old were familiar with such primary orgsxiisms psychically. 1

This expression

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

156

" Whither shall whither shall " If

go from thy

spirit

from thy presence

ascend up into heaven, thou art there: make my bed in hell, behold, thou art

I flee

there also."

(Psalms, cxxxix.

7, 8.)

For " That which is down here in a man and that which is over there in the sun, both are one. :

He who

thus knows, on leaving this sphere,

passes into the food-self, thence into the

first

thence into the sense-self, thence into

life-self,

the mind-self, thence into the self of blessed-

and identifying himself with the spheres

ness,

beyond, experiencing what he

whatsoever form he desires, he sings " Havu, havu, havu Food am '

food

eater, the food-eater

them,

blend them

Righteousness.

who consumes

Lit., "

That

blend them,

hymn am :

food

me.

He who I

blend

the First-born of

Before the gods was

verily he preserves

this

the food-cater, the food-

centre of the Immortal.

food,

assuming

wills,^

in the

gives me,

consume him as

food.

eating whatever food he desires." to say, I am object (food) and subject (food-eater), the union of both object and subject, the one consciousness.

and

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE. "

have flooded the world,

157

the Golden

" So even does he who thus knows.' {Taittiriyahopanishad, Valli iii, Anuvaka x. 4-6.) He who has thus conquered, who has become

Light.

the First-born of Righteousness,

who

verily

Knower

a Twice-born (Dvija), a true

Highest (Brahma-vid), he verily is " The [true] Sun in the Highest

of the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

[for]

thus

stands the doctrine, and thus the exposition thereof.

" In

The

the beginning this

non-existent

developed.

was non-existent.

then became existent.

turned into an Egg.

the measure of a cycle.

It lay for

broke in twain.

The

halves were one of silver, the other of gold. " Thence was born the Sun. When he was .

born shouts of joy arose." (Chhcindogyopantshad,

Prapathaka

iii,

Khanda

1-3.)

Here we have the whole story of the spiritual evolution in man. The darkness of the soul before

begins to long for final release, for

true wisdom.

The alchemical

separation

the subtle from the fixed, of the higher from the lower, of Spirit from Matter, and the birth of the unclouded Mind, the vSon of Righteousness.

Only when the Master

born do

all

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

158

the Powers rejoice and a mighty shout of glad-

Aye Him, heaven, earth and the interspace are woven, and the sensory with all the lifecurrents. Know Him alone as the Self; away with ness rends the universe.

" In

other words.

"There

[in

the Bridge to Immortality.

where the currents

the heart]

He moves

(Nadis) meet, like spokes in a nave.

about within, becoming manifold. Chanting the '

Om,' thus meditate on Him.

May all blessing

attend you to cross beyond the darkness " He the all-wise, the all-knowing, to is

all

the glory in the world.

whom

the Self,

established in the shining city of the Highest, in the quintessence [in the heart]

He is enshcathed

within the sensory,

ruler

of the envelope of the life-currents, and finally rests in [the outer sheath of] nutriment.

It is

by meditating on the heart, that the wise by their knowledge behold that Blessed Immortal Form which shines forth [to their sight]

"The

knot in the heart

are solved, and

man once

all

loosed,

all

doubts

deeds (Karma) perish, when

sees the vision of that

which

both high and low. " In the highest golden envelope dwells the

TRUE SELF-RELIANCE. passionless, partless one, the Highest.

the pure Light of

who know

all lights,

and that they

159

know

the Self.

" In that

[Light]

no sun shines, nor the

moon and

the stars, nor shine those flashings

over there,

much

less this earthly fire.

because of the shining of this Self that after

it,

its

shining that

all this is

" This, the immortal Highest,

Highest left,

It is

is verily all this.

The

shines

so bright.

before, the

behind, to the right hand and to the

The Highest

gone forth above and below.

opanishad,

all

Mundaka,

doctrine

ii,

the best

Khanda

" !

ii,

{Mundak-

5-11.)

mystic and mysterious, the

antipodes of the apparent clearness of modern scientific theories, " for the gods love mystery

and hate

familiarity,"

Rishi Yajnavalkya

And

says in the Brihaddranyaka.

more mysteriously than ever " There,

the

yet

again

quintessence, within

heart, dwells the [true]

Man

the

(Purusha), of the

nature of mind, immortal, resplendent hke gold.

"There, above the palate, like a breastnipple it hangs that is the Womb of Indra.^

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

The

"astral fire."

THE WORLD-MYSTERY.

i6o

" There, where the ends of the hair

having '

Bhuh,' he

Bhuvah,'

Sun

Water

chanting

;

Mahah,'

start,

chanting

skull,

supported in Fire

chanting

;

through the

passed

chanting

;

Suvah,' in the

in the Highest.

obtains kingship over himself, he obtains

He becomes

lordship over the mind.

lord of

speech, of sight, of hearing, of understanding.

"Thence he becomes body in

of blissful mind, immortal, in perfect

life,

peace."

vaka

whose

that Highest

quintessence, the true Self, that sports

{Taittinyakopanishad,

Valli

Anu-

vi, i, 2.)

And

yet once again, to finally remind us of

the nature of true Self-reliance, reliance on the

Selfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; that Self which " Does not age with the age of the body, nor :

That

killed is

with the wounding of the body.

the true

cit}'

of the Highest.

desires are contained. ageless,

deathless,

thirstless, willing the

It is

griefless,

it all

the Self, sinless,

hungerless

{Chhdnvogyopanishad, Prapathaka

Niii,

Khanda

i,5-)

Women's

and

True, desiring the True."

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