Tuesday, August 31, 2010

ஐந்து அளவு முறை


உணவு சுவையாக உள்ளது என்று மேலே மேலே சாப்பிட்டு கொண்டே போனால் இன்றைக்கு வயிற்று வலி, நாளைக்கு வயிற்றுப்போக்கு என்றாகும். மருத்துவரிடம் போனால், நோய்க்கு மருந்து கொடுப்பார். குணமான மறுதினமே மீண்டும் அளவுக்கு அதிகமான உணவை நாடி போனால், வாழ் நாள் முழுவதும் மருத்துவர் - மருந்து - வயிற்று போக்கு என்ற நிலை எற்பட்டால் வாழ்கை என்ன ஆகும்?  வேறு எந்த காரியத்தை நீங்கள் கவனிக்க முடியும்? சாப்பிடுவதை ஒரு உதாரணமாக எடுத்துக் கொள்ளவும். அதே போல் எந்த காரியத்தை எடுத்துக் கொண்டாலும் அளவுக்கு அதிகமாக ஈடுப்பட்டால் உடல் வலுவிழந்து போகிறது: உடல் கெட்டால், மனம் கெட்டால், வாழ்வும் சீர்ரழிகிறது.  நாம் கெடுகிறோம், குடும்பம் பாதிக்க படுகிறது, சமுதாயமும் தப்புவதில்லை.

ஐயுணர்வோடு, மெய்யுணர்வு இணைந்து வரும்போது உங்களுக்கு என்ன திடம் வருகிறது என்றால், உறவிலேயே ஒரு தெளிவு. அதாவது Detachment  in attachment வருகிறது. இதுதான் உறவிலே துறவு நிலை.  இது அல்லாது துறவு நிலை என்று தனியாக ஒன்று இருக்கவே முடியாது. அப்படியே எல்லாவற்றையும் விட்டுவிட்டு போவது தான் துறவு என்றால் இறப்பவர்கள்தான் துறவு நிலைக்கு போகிறார்கள் என்று சொல்லாம்! நாம் வாழும் போதே வாழ்வு நலமாக, அமைதியாக, மகிழ்ச்சியாக அமைய வேண்டுமே தவிற, நாம் இறந்த பிறகு துறவானால், மேன்மையாக இருக்க வேண்டும் என்றால் ஒவ்வொரு அனுபோகத்திலும் எல்லை கட்டி கொள்ள வேண்டும்: 1. உணவு 2. உழைப்பு 3. உறக்கம் 4. உடலுறவு 5. எண்ணம் இவை அனைத்திலும் அளவு இட்டு எல்லையை நிர்ணையித்துக் கொள்ள வேண்டும்.

பி.கு: இது லதா படிக்கும் முதுகலை பட்டய படிப்பு “யோகாவும், மனித மாண்பும்” என்ற புத்தகத்தில் இருந்து தொல்லைபேசி வழியாக அவர் சொல்ல நான் ரைப் பண்ணது :)))

Monday, August 30, 2010

"குரு" வும் "வாழ்க வளமுடன்" வாழ்த்தின் பயனும்

குரு ஒரு வழிகாட்டி.  தவத்தை குரு மூலம்தான் பெற்று பழகுதல் வேண்டும், என்றாலும் குரு என்பவர் எங்கிருந்தோ வருகிறார் என எண்ண வேண்டாம்.  அது உங்களுடைய வினையின் பதிவுதான், நீங்கள் செய்த கருமத்தின் மூலமாக, வினையின் பயனாக நல்லதை பெற வேண்டும் என்ற உங்களது எண்ணம் ஓங்க ஓங்க உங்களது மனதின் ஊடே உள்ள அந்த சக்தியானது தானாகவே வழிகாட்டுகிறது.  அந்த நேரத்திற்கு வருபவரை குரு என கொள்கிறீர்கள்.

”வாழ்க வளமுடன்” 

மிகவும் நுண்ணிய இயக்கத்திற்கு மனம் வந்தால் அன்றி வாழ்த்தவே முடியாது, அந்த அளவு நுண்ணிய இயக்கத்திற்கு மாறும் போது மனதுக்கு ஒரு  வலுவு, ஒரு தெளிவு, அந்த அமைதி நிலை, அதை ஒட்டி நம்முடைய வியாபகம் விரிந்து பலரோடு ஊடுறுவி நிறைந்து அந்த உயிர்கலப்பு ஏற்படகூடிய நிலை, இவை எல்லாம் அதிகம் ஆகும்.


அந்த நுண்ணிய நிலையில் நாம் வாழ்த்து கூறும் போது அவர்களுக்கும் நமக்கும் தெரியாமலேயே இரண்டு பேருடைய அடித்தளமான அந்த உயிர் நிலையில் ஒரு பரஸ்பர ஓட்டம் (Interaction) ஏற்படுகின்றது; ஊடுறுவி பாய்ந்து நிற்கின்றோம். இரண்டு தடவை, நாலுதடவை, செய்ய செய்ய நமக்கும் அவர்களுக்கும் ஒரு தொடர் இயக்கம் வந்து விட்டதானால் அது எப்போழுதும் நமக்கு அலைவீசிக் கொண்டு இருக்கும், அந்த அலை நாம் நினைத்தாலும், நினைக்காவிட்டாலும் முன்பே ஏற்படுத்திவிட்ட தொடர்பு படி வந்து கொண்டும் போய் கொண்டும் இருக்கும்; அந்த் தொடர் அறுபடாது இருக்கும். அதனால் அவருக்கு வேண்டியதை நாம் செய்ய வேண்டும் என்று நினைப்பது, நமக்கு வேண்டியதை அவர்கள் செய்ய வேண்டி நினைப்பது, அவர்கள் நன்மைக்கா நாம் எண்ணுவது இவை எல்லாம் சாதாரண நிகழ்ச்சியாக மாறிவிடும். அப்படி வாழ்த்தி எப்பேர்பட்டவர்களையும் கூட நண்பர்களாக மாற்றி விட முடியும்; அவர்களுடைய செயல்களை திருத்தி விடமுடியும்; எண்ணங்களை எல்லாம் ஒழுங்கு படுத்தி விட முடியும்; நல்லவர்களாக மாற்றி விட முடியும்.


தவம் முடித்ததும் வாழ்த்த வேண்டும்.  தவத்தில் இருக்கும் போதே நாம் சாதாரணமாக நுண்ணிய நிலையில் ”அல்ஃபா அலை” அதிர்வுக்கு வந்து விடுகிறோம், அந்த நிலையில் நுண்ணிய செல்கள் (subtle cells) எல்லாம் மூளையில் இயக்கத்திற்கு வந்து விடும். அந்த இடத்தோடு அங்கே இருந்து அந்த அலையை நாம் வீசுகிறோம்.


வாழ்க வளமுடன்” எனற எண்ணத்திற்கு வலுவு அதிகம். உதாரணமாக ஒரு வில் இருக்கிறது. அம்பு இருக்கிறது. அடுதது அம்பு எய்வதற்கு ஒரளவு நாணை பின்னுக்கு இழுத்து விடுவது ஒன்று, கடைசி வரைக்கும் நாணை இழுத்து அம்பு விடுவது என்பது வேறு. எவ்வளவு தூரம் நாணை இழுக்கிறோமோ அந்த அளவுக்கு அம்புக்கு வேகம்; அதே போன்று நாம் எவ்வளவு அமைதிக்கு அறிவை, மனதை கொண்டு வருகிறோமோ அங்கே இருந்து கொடுக்க கூடிய வாழ்த்துக்கோ, அல்லது சாபத்திற்கோ கூட வேகம் அதிகம், செய்லபடும் வேகமும் அதிகம். ஆகவே நாம் தவம் செய்யும் போது இன்னும் நுண்ணிய நிலையில் இருந்து அந்த வேகத்தில் நாம் சொல்ல கூடிய சொல்லுக்கு, எண்ணக்கூடிய எண்ணத்திற்கு வலுவு அதிகம்;  சீக்கிரமாக செயலுக்கும் வந்து விடும்.  நமக்காக என்னென்ன வேண்டுமோ அதை செயல் படுத்துவதற்கு சில நாட்களானாலும் சரி, பிறகுக்காக நாம் வேண்டுதல் வெகு சீக்கிரமாக அதிக பயன் விளைவிக்கும்.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Fixing the Mind in the Void created by the encircling of the Thumb and the Index finger

On the margin you find the picture of three hands with a little circles formed by the index finger. In the second you find ‘Ka’ the first letter of the Tamil equivalent of ‘shopping’. When it crawls out the navel, close your eyes and, through introspection, fix your attention on the letter ‘Ka’ in the region of the navel and peremptorily say ‘Stop', you I mind I where do you try to stroll?’ and immediately you will find that the mind stops short. The eye, for instance, will not perceive an object except for sun light in the day or lamp light at night. This means that the light in the eye should mix with the light of the sun or lamp before perception could ensue. In the same fashion will the light in the mental eye coming with that in the Chidakasa referred to with the result that the light of all lights – the sole Truth (the Noumenon) – will shine forth supreme and all phenomena vanish. We depend for this statement on the Siva Prakasa and Vasishtham.

When what strikes the mind as lovely is given up resolutely, it is as good as having killed the mind and Ignorance. When the mind runs after sense objects, it naturally gets done up and feels miserable. But when it is set at rest, the pain and unhappiness cease. You should all therefore see to it that you deliberately fix your attention on the first letter which issues forth prior to the rise of the thought wave and thereby suppress the latter. When this is done the form of the letter will vanish, yielding place to the empty Void (as in the third hand) and in due time, both the mind and the sight will merge in the infinite space and become one with it thus leading to the realization of Absolute Oneness.

Give up your love for the perishable finite things and you will be able to comprehend the infinite. The mind is that which plays like mirage between the eternally existent Brahman (the Noumenon) and the unreal phenomenon of the universe. With the mind on it appears as the universe of objects, and when it is extinguished, it is knowledge, true and absolute. The mind is thus the mischief maker, the cause of all evil sensations and Relativity. Those who grasp this secret doctrine and practice it sedulously need go through no Vedic books nor need hear sermons and lectures on Religion. Kill out the mind and real bliss results. Pray acquire and enjoy such bliss. Those who practice the methods taught in this book will be able to control all mental activity as easily and effectively as a fast running mail train is when the vacuum brake is applied.

Focussing the mind in the Chidakasa of the hand

Shut your eyes, mentally post up the above illustration between your eye brows and fix your attention on it. The mind will easily settle on it. See that it is not distracted from the circular void in the hand; in a few minutes the fingers will slip away from your mental vision and you will forget yourself. This sort of forgetting is called in Yogic parlance ‘sleep in wakefulness’ or ‘bliss in sleepless sleep’.

For those who find this too difficult, we shall in next chapter suggest another method with the aid of a picture of the open mouth. Please try it. We feel sure that every reader will succeed in any one of these three ways and thereby get full control over the fleeting mind. We have given out these simple methods purely from our own experience and yogic skill attained through constant practice. Practice this with perseverance and your mind will stop working, sooner or later. There need be no despair. With the cessation of the mind will assuredly accrue true divine bliss. For a full size photo of the author witness mouth open, you may apply to the firm in which this book is available for sale. With that photo before you may try and regulate your posture and other details and take up to the practice of controlling the mind.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

EXPERIENCES IN MEDITATION

EXPERIENCES IN MEDITATION


a. Divine lights in the form of shining sun or full moon appear. Tiny shining points the size of mustards or your Guru or Deity appears inside the shining sun or moon in the region of Trikuti. The flashing lights will last only for a few minutes. These lights disappear gradually and you should proceed your meditation. When you see your  Guru or Deity, pray to them and in return they will encourage you to further your meditation.

b. You will see the five colours of five elements :-

    i.   Earth in Light Yellow
    ii.  Water in White
    iii. Fire in Red
    iv. Wind in Green
    v.  Ether in Blue

c. When your body becomes lighter than air, you will not feel the physical body and the mind is fully merged in your Guru or Deity. The consciousness of the body is lost. At this time of deep meditation, you will have an experience of traveling to the astral world. Equanimity of mind is attained.
d. Sometimes in deep meditation, your body becomes larger and it occupies the whole room where you are meditating.

e. You can experience the smell of flowers such as jasmine and roses, incense sticks, camphore and benzoin.

Monday, August 23, 2010

TIME FOR CONCENTRATION AND MEDITATION

TIME FOR CONCENTRATION AND MEDITATION

Three best periods for concentration and meditation are dawn, noon and sunset. A person should concentrate and meditate regularly at a particular time.

Dawn
Early morning from 4.00a.m. to 6.00a.m. This is the most suitable time and highly favourable for meditation because it is called "BRAHMAMUHURTA" or the "DIVINE MOMENT". The atmosphere is charged with pure vibrations. The body is relaxed and the mind is serene and calm after a nightís sleep.

Noon
Noon from 12.00 to 1.00p.m. Those people who are free to pray or do concentration and meditation can also choose this time.

Sunset
Evening from 5.00p.m. to 6.30p.m. This is another suitable time for concentration and meditation to overcome stress and tension and to relax the body after the day's tired work.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

What is meditation?

MEDITATION


The continuation of twelve concentrations or twelve Dharanas on any object or on the appearance of your Deity or Guru with closed eyes in Trukuti is called Dhyana or MEDITATION. You chant mantras while meditating. Twelve concentrations equal 144 seconds. (2 minutes and 24 seconds).

There are two types of meditation :

a. SUGUNA Meditation - Meditation on god or Goddess or Guru with form.
b. NIRGUNA Meditation - Meditation without any form.

Meditation acts a bridge to establish a connection between the individual soul (Jivatma) and the supreme soul (Paramathma).
MEDITATION derived from the latin word "Meditari" which means "to heal". Meditation means act of healing.
Meditation is the flow of continuous thought on one idea to get one pointedness of mind

Concentration, Meditation and Samadhi are Internal Sadhanas

OBSTACLES TO MEDITATION

  • Lust

  • Anger

  • Greed

  • Jealousy

  • Hatred

  • Laziness

  • Doubt

  • Lethargy

  • Physical And Mental Illness

  • Bad Friendship
SINGING DEVOTIONAL SONGS / CHANTING MANTRAS DURING MEDITATION

There are three types of singing of holy songs or chanting of mantras (repetition of mantras) namely VERBAL, SEMI-VERBAL and MENTAL.

Verbal - Singing of songs or repetition of mantras several times so that other devotees and disciples can hear is called Verbal.

Semi Verbal - In this type, others cannot hear what you are singing or chanting. Movements of lips are seen.

Mental - Close the eyes and fix the mind at Trikuti (Trikuti is the space or point between the two eyebrows). Gazing at Trikuti is called Bhrumadhya Drishti. Then sing devotional songs or repeat mantras several times mentally is called Mental.This is the best type.

RAJA YOGI
A Raja Yogi practises the following daily in the morning and evening. A Raja Yogi slowly ascends the yogic ladder along the eight steps namely Yama., Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara,Dharana, Dhyana or Meditation and finally Samadhi. He purifies himself by the practice of Yama and Niyama. He practises Pranayama to purify his nadis (Nadi purification) and mind and Pratyahara, Dharana and Dhyana. Finally he attains Samadhi.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

மறுபிறவி, 7 ஜென்ம தொடர்...10 (Rebirth)

DEGREES OF ATTAINMENT

Having now grasped the main outlines of the steady progress of the life-streams, rising at the average rate of one kingdom in each chain-period, we may now introduce the important modifying factor, which was mentioned in Chapter VIII.

Again we may employ the analogy of a batch of students at a university. It is a practically universal experience that, in every group of students, there will be a small minority who shoot ahead of the others, either because they have exceptional ability or because they apply themselves more whole-heartedly to their studies. This is the class that obtains ”honours” degrees.

After them comes the main body of the students, who succeed in passing their examinations and who obtain an ordinary ”degree.” After them again comes another minority-the ”tail” of the class. These students” either on account of their lesser abilities or through their lack of industry and application, fail to pass out” and therefore will have to return to the university for another term, or portion of a term, in order to secure their
degrees.

Precisely the same thing happens with each of the life streams in each kingdom. There is always a small minority who run far in advance of the remainder and attain the ”goal” before the appointed time. Next comes the great majority of the entities” who fulfil the task set” and attain the level required at the time appointed. After them again comes the ”tail" another minority, though larger than the former minority, who fall behind, having failed to attain the level required.

Diagram XVII illustrates the process. Three kingdoms, A, B and C, are shown, and two periods, I and II. Of kingdom B, in period I, a tiny minority shoots ahead of the rest, reaches the goal set, and passes into kingdom A in the same period. The bulk of kingdom B passes into kingdom A in period II, in the normal routine manner.

The remainder of kingdom B, a minority larger than the former minority, fails to qualify for kingdom A and so continues in kingdom B in period II.

But, having already had some experience in kingdom B, whereas the remainder of kingdom B in period II,
having only just come from kingdom C in period I, will be only I commencing its evolution in kingdom B, this laggard  minority is able to take the lead in. period II. It is therefore shown in the diagram as entering
kingdom B in period II at the head of that kingdom.

We may now reconstruct our diagram of the progress of the kingdoms, so as to show these complications in detail. Diagram XVIII is such a reconstruction. It may be explained as follows: Let us take, for example, the vegetable kingdom in chain I. The backward portion of this kingdom enters chain II, and there leads the evolution of the vegetable kingdom. The bulk of the vegetable kingdom from chain I passes into the animal kingdom in chain II. A tiny minority of the vegetable kingdom in chain I succeeds in attaining to the level of animals in chain I, and therefore joins the animal kingdom in chain I.

Following the progress of the main body of the animal kingdom of chain II, the process repeats itself. The laggard animals join the animal kingdom in chain III and lead that kingdom. The bulk becomes human in chain III; the small vanguard joins the human kingdom in chain II.

In chain III the laggard humans resume their human evolution in chain IV, where they lead the humanity of that chain. The bulk of the human entities attain their goal in chain III, and pass on to further fields of evolution and service, along one or other of the seven lines, as shown in the diagram by the ascending, diverging lines at the head of the kingdom.

Again a small minority succeeds in advance of the rest, and is shown in the diagram by the small spire rising from the centre of the kingdom. This group, of course, also has seven choices before it, as indicated by the seven radiating lines emerging from its head.
In view of the fact, already stated, that the degrees of success attained by the members of each kingdom vary considerably, we should regard each of the life-streams as breaking up into smaller streamlets some of which join the preceding or succeeding streams, though the majority move steadily forward along the appointed course.

We may mention here an important principle, affecting the progress of the various streams of life and their innumerable sub-divisions, of which we shall find many particular examples in the later portions of our study. It is the general rule that those who have attained the highest possible in any chain, round, globe or race, are not born again into the beginning of the next chain, round, globe or race, respectively.

The earlier stages are always for the backward entities, the youngest” and only when they have already passed through a good deal of evolution” and are beginning to approach the level of those who had done better, do those others descend into incarnation and join them once more.

That is to say, almost the earlier half of any period of evolution, whether it be a race, a globe, a round or a chain, seems to be devoted to bringing the backward people up to nearly the level of those who have got on better. Then these latter-who in the meantime have been resting in the mental world, in devachan-descend into incarnation along with the others, and they all then proceed together along their path of progress.

Thus, for example, as we shall see in detail later on, the most developed from the third or Moon Chain do not enter the first round of the fourth or Earth Chain, but come in only in the middle of the fourth round. Also the egos who incarnate in the first Root-Race of a planet are those who have not progressed beyond the middle of the evolution of the preceding planet.

Using once more our analogy of students at a university, we may imagine that the more backward students return to their colleges, after their vacation, sooner than the more advanced students. They then have an opportunity of catching up approximately to the level of the more advanced students, who remain still on vacation. When they have done this, the more advanced students then return to their colleges, and all of them then resume their studies side by side.

The student should bear in mind this important principle because, as just said, he will presently find many examples of its workings, the rationale of which becomes perfectly clear when once the main principle is clearly grasped.

Further study of the degrees of attainment of the various kingdoms leads us to a consideration of a most interesting and important part of the general plan of evolution, viz., that of the ”Days of Judgement.” With this we shall deal in a separate chapter, but, as it involves references to the races of mankind, we will first explain the division of the human kingdom into these races and sub-races.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

மறுபிறவி, 7 ஜென்ம தொடர்...9 (Rebirth)

THE GOALS OF OUR SEVEN CHAINS

WE have already seen that each life-stream climbs steadily up the kingdoms, at the average rate of one kingdom in each chain, until it reaches the human kingdom. Continuing to evolve through the human kingdom, it eventually rises out of ordinary humanity, as we know it, enters the super-human kingdom, and passes along one or other of seven possible paths of future progress and service. We shall enumerate and describe these seven possible paths presently.

But the stage at which human entities emerge from the ordinary human evolution, and enter the superhuman kingdom, varies considerably, according to the chain in which the emergence takes place. Thus the level reached by the most advanced humanity in the fourth chain is a great deal higher than that attained in the first chain: the level that will be reached in the seventh chain will be a still higher one.

There is, in fact, what may be called a ”goal” set for humanity in each chain. This goal we may compare with the passing-out examination at an educational establishment. But, to complete the analogy, we must conceive of a certain class of students who pass out of the university after, say, only one year of tuition. They have reached a certain standard of education and, as the world needs all grades of workers, they may be considered qualified to perform certain grades of tasks in the outer world.

At the end of the second year of tuition, another group of students passes out: they will obviously have been able to reach a st andard higher than that attained by the first-year students, and consequently will be qualified to fill posts of greater responsibility in the outer world.

Similarly, after three years at the university, a third group of students passes out, again at a higher level, having
qualified themselves for posts of still greater responsibility, and needing more knowledge and experience. The process may be considered as continuing for seven years, until the seventh batch of students passes out, having attained a very high level and having learnt, perhaps, practically all that the university can teach them.

The university is then closed for a long vacation: or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is broken up, the buildings demolished, and the teaching staff dispersed. Such students who have not passed out of the university will resume their education in some future university, with a fresh staff of instructors, and an entirely new set of buildings. Returning from this analogy to our own seven chains in our Scheme, the goals, or
qualifying ”passing-out” examinations, are as follows:

For the First Chain . The First Initiation.
For the Second Chain . The Third Initiation.
For the Third Chain . The Fourth Initiation (that of the Arhat).
For the Fourth Chain . The Fifth Initiation (that of the Asekha Adept).

No definite information is available regarding the goals set for the fifth, sixth and seventh chains. We may, however, indulge in a few cautious speculations. It is well known that, whilst in the very early stages of evolution, progress is almost inconceivably slow, as we measure time, yet in the later stages it becomes almost equally incredibly swift. The Master Kûthhûmi has stated that ”when once a person enters upon the Path, if he converges all his energies upon it [we have ventured to italicise this qualification], his progress will be neither by arithmetical nor geometrical progression, but by powers.”

That is to say, it would not be in the ratio 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. (arithmetical progression), nor in the ratio 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. (geometrical progression), but in the ratio 2, 4, 10, 256, 65,536, 4,294,907,296, etc. Thus a rate of progress expressed by 2, becomes, four stages later, one expressed by a figure exceeding 4,000 millions. With such vast figures does nature achieve her immense purposes.

We may therefore legitimately assume that the progress made in the fifth, sixth and seventh chains will be enormously greater than that achieved in the first four chains. That this must be so is clear from the fact that the level of Arhat, reached at the end of the third chain, may be considered as halfway to that of the Adept, reached at the end of the fourth chain. Thus the fourth chain seems to afford as much progress as the three first chains.

It is stated in The Secret Doctrine (I, 228) that the Perfected Men of the Seventh Round of our chain will be ”but one remove from the Root-Race of their Hierarchy, the highest on Earth and our Terrestrial Chain.” That is to say, the perfected men of our humanity, after three-and-a-half more rounds of evolution, will arrive one stage below that at which now stands the ,”Lord of the World,” an Entity who will be described in Chapter XIX.

There are, moreover, a number of considerations which indicate a very high level of attainment for humanity at the end of our seventh chain. Thus, for example, even the buddhic consciousness gives a man his first touch of unity with the Logos. The Asekha Adept strives to raise the consciousness of His Monad into the consciousness of the Logos. The Monads are projected from the Logos in order that they may eventually return to Him as great and glorious suns, each capable of giving life and light to a magnificent system, through which and by means of which millions of other Monads may in turn develop. Each Monad has come, into manifestation through one of the Planetary Chain Logoi, and will eventually become part of a Heavenly Man, these Heaven-born Men being the true inhabitants of the solar system, the mind-born sons of the Planetary Logoi, destined themselves to be the Planetary Logoi of the future. We may therefore surmise that, at the end of the seventh chain, when our Scheme of Evolution is completed, the level we shall have reached will be,
shall we say, something commensurate with that of a Planetary Logos.

Diagram XVI may perhaps assist the student to memorise the goals set for our chains. In the diagram, the  seven chains are arranged concentrically, the first being the innermost, the seventh the outermost. The wave of life which passes round the chains enters the first chain, and may be conceived as swinging round the globes and then, much as a stone is propelled when released from a whirling sling, projecting the most advanced
humanity up to a certain level, viz., that of the First Initiation.

The remainder of the life-wave enters the second chain, swings round its globes and, in so doing, this being on a larger circle in the diagram, attains a higher velocity, precisely as would happen to a stone when whirled in a larger circle, this higher velocity enabling it to project its most advanced humanity to a higher level, viz., that of the Third Initiation. Similarly with each of the succeeding chains, the velocity of evolution becoming greater and greater as the circles become larger, until the seventh circuit is able to project its most advanced members to a very high, but as yet unknown, level.

We have just seen that when an entity has achieved the level set for humanity in any given chain, he  commences his superhuman evolution, and there open before him seven paths, of which he may choose one. The seven paths are as follows:

(1) He may enter Nirvâna, to become perhaps in some future world an Avatâra, or divine Incarnation. This is  sometimes called ”taking the Dharmakâya vesture,” the Dharmakâya  keeping nothing below the Monad.
(2) He may enter on the ”Spiritual Period,” a path which includes that of ”taking the Sambhogakâya vesture”; he then retains his manifestation as a triple spirit and can probably show himself in a temporary Augoeides.
(3) He may ”take the Nirmânakâya vesture,” retaining his causal body and all his permanent atoms.
(4) He may remain a member of the Occult Hierarchy.
(5) He may pass to the next chain, to help building its forms.
(6) He may join the Deva evolution.
(7) He may join the ”Staff” of the Logos. For further details of these seven paths the student is referred to
The Causal Body, p.321.

Friday, August 13, 2010

மறுபிறவி, 7 ஜென்ம தொடர்...8 (Rebirth)

THE LIFE-STREAMS

WE have now completed the first portion of our study, on the field of evolution, having outlined the planes and places in which the evolution of life takes place. We may perhaps liken this to a description of the buildings of a university, with its colleges, lecture-halls and class-rooms. Our next step will be to study the streams of life which pour into the vast and complex structure of our solar system, just as streams or ”batches” of students pour into a university, passing through various courses of study, eventually obtaining their degrees, and passing out into the world, there to fulfil such functions as their tastes and qualifications permit. Instead of a university, however, it would be more appropriate to use the illustration of a vast educational establishment, comprising every degree of education, from the nurseries and kindergarten of infants, to the most advanced honours course of a university.

We shall commence with the larger units, the vast streams or waves of life, and trace them through the various kingdoms of nature, subdividing as they go, until eventually we reach the races and sub-races of humanity, and individual men in those races, who climb steadily through the higher levels of the human kingdom until they pass into the superhuman levels of attainment.

In modern Theosophical literature the term ”life-waves” has been employed in three distinct senses:

First. To represent the three great Outpourings(as they are more usually and perhaps more appropriately called) of Divine Life, from the three Persons of the Trinity, by means of which the solar system came into existence, and by which it is nourished and sustained.

Second. To describe the successive impulsions, or streams of life, of which the Second Outpouring is formed. It is these with which we are dealing in this chapter, and which we shall usually denote, for the sake of clarity, as streams of life, or lifestreams.

Third. To signify the transference of life from one planet of a chain to another planet, in the course of the various ”rounds.” This we shall deal with in detail at a later stage of our study, when it will be seen that this kind of life-wave differs considerably from what we have called a life-stream.

Confining ourselves to our human line of evolution - ignoring for the moment the deva line of evolution, and other lines which may exist, but of which we know as yet little or nothing - we note that there are seven main kingdoms of life evolving side by side through our earth Scheme. Whether the same method is followed in the other nine Schemes or not, we do not at present know for certain, though there appear to be indications that this is probably substantially the case.

The seven kingdoms are:

The First Elemental Kingdom.
The Second Elemental Kingdom.
The Third Elemental Kingdom.
The Mineral Kingdom.
The Vegetable Kingdom.
The Animal Kingdom.
The Human Kingdom.

All seven of these kingdoms are manifestations or expressions of the same life, the one life of the Logos, manifesting in that Second great Outpouring, which comes from the Second Aspect of the Trinity, after the primitive matter has been prepared for its reception by the action of the First Outpouring, which comes from the Third Aspect of the Trinity. (For fuller explanation of the Three Outpourings, and their work, vide The Causal Body, pp. 13, 14, 70).

The Second Outpouring comes forth in a series of successive waves, following one another like waves of the sea. It is the history of the progress of these waves of life - which we have decided to call Life-streams - that will be traced in this and subsequent chapters. The first three of the seven kingdoms are on the downward arc of evolution, i.e., the life in them is plunging deeper and deeper into matter. The First Elemental Kingdom, in fact, does not descend below the higher mental plane; the Second Elemental Kingdom does not descend below the lower mental plane; and the Third Elemental Kingdom comes down only as far as the astral plane.

The Mineral Kingdom represents the turning point, where the life reaches the lowest point of its descent into matter, and commences to ascend again through the planes. This phenomenon of descent into materiality and re-ascent into spirituality is one which constantly recurs in many ways, and will be dealt with more fully later on.

The Vegetable, Animal and Human Kingdoms are definitely occupied in rising steadily through the planes.

We may therefore arrange the kingdoms thus:

The Second Outpouring (from the Second Logos) consists, as said above, of streams of life; in our line of evolution there are seven of these streams, composed of the seven kingdoms enumerated, and these are poured into the first chain of our Scheme.


The general plan is that each stream shall animate a kingdom for a whole chain-period, passing on into the next higher kingdom in the next chain, i.e., it takes a whole chain-period for any given kingdom to evolve to such a point that it becomes fit to pass into the kingdom succeeding it in the scale of progress.

That, as said, is the general principle: but there is an important modification with which we shall deal presently. It is omitted now, with so much else, in order to avoid introducing complications at too early a stage of our study.

From this it will be seen that, as the First Elemental Kingdom passes on into the Second Elemental Kingdom, there would be a gap caused in the position vacated by the kingdom which had passed on. This gap is filled by an entirely fresh life-stream, which pours forth from the Logos, and thus makes a new First Elemental Kingdom.

As this must take place in each of the seven chains, we perceive that there are altogether thirteen life-streams in our Scheme. These consist of the seven streams-one for each kingdom - which entered the first chain, and six entirely new streams, one of which entered each of the succeeding six chains, in order to provide, as explained, a new First Elemental Kingdom.

The progress of the kingdoms through the seven chains of our Scheme is illustrated in Diagram XIV.

The student is asked kindly to note the system adopted to indicate the various kingdoms, as it is one which will be followed in a number of subsequent diagrams. The First Elemental Kingdom is shown by one vertical line; the Second Elemental Kingdom by two vertical lines; the Third Elemental Kingdom by one inclined line; the Mineral by crossed vertical and horizontal lines; the Vegetable by inclined lines making a V . the Animal by an A; the Human by an H. It will be noticed that these indications have some relationship to the markings adopted for the matter of the planes, which makes them easier to remember.

The student will notice also that throughout the diagrams, whilst globes and rounds are indicated by circles, kingdoms of life and groups of entities are indicated by squares or rectangles.

From Diagram XIV it will be seen that the life which is now being expressed in our present humanity came up through the Animal Kingdom in the third (Moon) chain, through the Vegetable Kingdom in the second chain, and through the Mineral Kingdom in the first chain. Now, as each kingdom must pass through all the kingdoms that precede it, it is clear that the life-stream, out of which our present humanity has emerged, must have passed through the three Elemental Kingdoms in some previous chains, in some previous Scheme.

A similar consideration of course applies to all but the lowest life-stream which entered our first chain, i.e., they must have passed through previous chains in some previous Scheme. Of such previous chains and Schemes we have no direct knowledge as yet, though we can clearly deduce the fact that they must have existed.
Diagram XV is an attempt to illustrate the progress of the life-streams through successive Schemes.

The meaning of the seven radiating lines in Diagrams XIV and XV, at the head of the Human Kingdom, is that human entities pass out of the Human Kingdom into the superhuman, along one of seven possible paths of future progress. The full explanation of this we must once more postpone till a little later.
If we look at Diagram XIV we perceive that the only life stream which runs through the whole seven kingdoms in our Scheme of seven chains is that which entered the first chain as the First Elemental Kingdom (No. 7 in the Diagram). Climbing steadily, one kingdom in each chain, this life-stream eventually reaches the Human Kingdom, and passes out of it, in the seventh and last chain of our Scheme.

The other six kingdoms of the first chain, as already said, must have commenced their evolution in earlier chains, whilst the six life-streams which emerge from the Logos and enter the six chains after the first will have to continue and complete their evolution in chains subsequent to the seventh and last chain of our Scheme.

These considerations impress upon us the fact that, whilst our Scheme of Evolution is a complete and more or less self contained field of evolution, having a definite beginning and a definite ending, yet it forms one in a larger series of successive Schemes. From this we may deduce that even the solar system as a whole follows the general principle which we find operating elsewhere in so many other directions, and is but one incarnation in some gigantic series. Anything in the nature of ultimate finality seems therefore-as we might have expected-to be utterly beyond the furthest horizon to which we can stretch our imaginations.

We have seen that the life-streams evolve through the various chains, passing through the whole of the seven globes in each round. Now it is very difficult for us to grasp with our physical consciousness what can be the condition of the life of the lower kingdoms on the higher planes; the idea of the evolution of a mineral, for example, on the mental plane, suggests nothing readily comprehensible to the ordinary mind. It would correspond to our thought of a mineral. Yet we should not assume that such a thought-form as we could make of a mineral would be its only representation on that level. The thought-form which exists there is that of the Manu, moulded by a power altogether beyond comparison with that of our mentality.

It may also help us to an understanding if we recollect that every mineral has its astral and mental counterparts, and it must be on these higher correspondences of the minerals that are produced certain effects which constitute their evolution.

Further, the special types of matter which form the counterparts are also on their respective planes manifestations of the mineral monad, and we may suppose that through such manifestations that monad is evolving during its existence on these loftier levels.

The essential fact to bear in mind seems to be that the whole process is the bringing down of the mind-energies flowing from the Logos - from His cosmic mental plane to that prakritic mental which is our mental plane. It is His idea of a mineral, materialised as far down as our thought of the etheric body of a mineral.

The Group-Soul also must always contain within itself latent possibilities connected with the higher planes through which it has descended; and it may be that in those stages of evolution these potentialities are being developed by some method quite outside those with which we are familiar.

Without the unfolding of psychic faculties we cannot expect to understand in detail the hidden growth in these exalted spheres of finer matter; the important point is that we should realise that the life-streams are evolving in some way during the periods spent on all the globes, useful progress being made in every part of the chain.

It has already been mentioned that, besides the line of evolution which we are pursuing, there are also other lines which may be considered as running parallel with our own. For the divine life is pressing upwards through several streams, of which ours is but one, and numerically by no means the most important. We should bear in mind that physical humanity occupies only a small part of the surface of the earth, whilst entities at a corresponding level on other lines of evolution not only crowd the earth far more thickly than man, but at the same time populate the enormous plains of the sea and the fields of the air.

The table of the evolution of life, appended here, shows the streams as flowing side by side as far as the mineral kingdom, but as soon as the upward arc is begun, they diverge. The streams re-unite at the Solar Spirits level. The table must not be considered as in any way exhaustive, as there are no doubt other lines which have not yet been observed, and there are also certainly all kinds of variations and possibilities of crossing at different levels from one line to another. The table is designed merely to give a broad outline of the scheme.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

மறுபிறவி, 7 ஜென்ம தொடர்...7 (Rebirth)

THE SOLAR LOGOS AND THE PLANETARY LOGOI

WE have mentioned, in the preceding chapters, the Solar Logos. It will now be fitting to consider Him, in His relation to the solar system, and also His principal Ministers, Who are often called the Planetary Logoi, though a more accurate name is the Planetary
Chain Logoi.

In the Logos of our solar system we have as near an approach to a personal - it would be better to say an individual - God as any reasonable man can desire - For of Him is true everything good that has ever been predicated of a personal deity. Such attributes as partiality, injustice, jealousy, anger, cruelty, etc., we can, of course, set aside once and for all as being impossible for any deity worthy of the name, and as belonging merely to human imaginings. So far as His system is concerned, He possesses omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. The love, the power, the wisdom, the glory, all are there in fullest measure.

Yet He is a mighty Individual - a trinity in unity, and God in very truth, though removed by we know not how many stages from the Absolute, the Unknowable, before which even solar systems are but as specks of cosmic dust.

It is probable that we cannot image Him at all; hence many devout people prefer not even to try to make any image of Him, but simply to contemplate Him as pervading all things, so that we ourselves are also He, all other men are He, and in truth there is nothing but God.

The Sun is His chief manifestation on the physical plane, and that may help us a little to realise some of His qualities, and to see how everything comes from Him. It may be regarded as the lens through which His power shines forth.

We may note here that every fixed star is also a sun like our own, each one being a partial expression of a Logos. The physical Sun may be considered as a sort of chakram or force-centre in Him, corresponding to the heart of man, the outer manifestation of the principal centre in His body. Although the whole solar system is His physical body, yet His activities outside of it are enormously greater than those within it. This solar system, which seems so stupendous to us, is to Him but a little thing; for, though He is all this, yet outside it and above it all He exists in a glory and a splendour of which we know nothing as yet. Thus, though we can agree with the pantheist that all is God, we yet go very much further than he does, because we realise that He has a far greater existence above and beyond His universe. ”Having pervaded this whole universe with one fragment of Myself, I remain” (Bhagavad Gita, X, 42).

He thus exists far above His system: upon it He sits as on a lotus throne. He is, as it were, the apotheosis of humanity, yet infinitely greater than humanity. We might think of the Augoeides (vide The Causal Body, p. 101) carried up higher and higher, and to infinity. Whether that form is permanent, or whether it can be seen at a certain level only - who shall say ?

Hence the rationale of the well-known symbol of the ”Great Bird,” which is used to denote the Deity in the act of hovering over His universe, brooding over the waters of space, or darting onward along the line of His evolution. To repose between the wings of the Great Bird means so to meditate as to realise union with the Logos: and it is said that the man who reaches that level may rest there for untold years.

It is probably beyond the power of words to express the method of union of humanity with Him. We human beings may, in one sense, be as cells in His body, but we are certainly very much more than that For His life and power are manifested through us in a way out of all proportion to that which would be a parallel relationship at a lower level, viz., that of the cells in our own physical bodies to ourselves as spiritual entities.

In His manifestation on the lowest cosmic plane, we may take it that His First Aspect is on the highest level - that of Âdi - the Second on the Anupâdaka or Monadic plane, and the Third in the higher part of the Âtmic plane.

Hence, as an Adept, in the course of his development, gradually raises His consciousness plane by plane, he comes first to the Third Aspect, and realises his unity with that, moving on only after long intervals to full union with the Second and the First Aspects.

In the Ancient Mysteries of Greece, the Logos was symbolised by the child Bacchus, who was represented as playing with certain toys. One of these was dice, consisting of the five platonic solids. These are:

The Tetrahedron, bounded by 4 equilateral triangles;
The Cube, bounded by 6 squares;
The Octahedron, bounded by 8 equilateral triangles;
The Dodecahedron, bounded by 12 regular pentagons;
The Icosahedron, bounded by 20 equilateral triangles.

Adding to these at one end the point, and at the other end the sphere, we have a set of 7 figures, which correspond to the 7 planes of our solar system. Each of them indicates, not the form of the atoms of the different planes, but the lines along which works the power which surrounds those atoms.

This throws some light on the well-known saying of Plato that ”God geometrises.” It seems that the ancients studied the geometry of Euclid, not as we do, for itself, but as a guide to something higher.

Another of the toys of Bacchus was the top, a symbol of the whirling atom.

A third toy was a ball, representing the Earth, that particular globe of the chain to which the thought of the Logos is specially directed at the present time.

A fourth toy was a mirror, which has always been a symbol of the astral light, in which the archetypal ideas (of which we shall speak later) are reflected and then materialised.

Whilst the child Bacchus - the Logos - plays with his toys, he is seized by the Titans and torn to pieces. Later these pieces are put together and built into a whole. This allegory of course represents the descending of the One to become the many, and the reunion of the many in the One, through suffering and sacrifice.

The Hindus have, of course, long held that the Deity plays, and they have called the great work of evolution the Lîlâ, or play of Shrî Krishna.

The whole of our solar system is a manifestation of its Logos, and every particle in it is definitely part of His vehicles. All the physical matter of the solar system taken as a totality constitutes His physical body; all the astral matter within it constitutes His astral body; all the mental matter, His mental body, and so on. From the Solar Logos comes forth all life in the successive Outpourings (vide The Causal Body, pp. 13, 14, 70). The First Outpouring comes from His Third Aspect, giving to previously existing atoms the power to aggregate themselves into the chemical elements the action described in the Christian scriptures as the Spirit of God moving over the waters of space.

When, at a later stage, the kingdoms of nature are definitely established, there comes the Second Outpouring, from His Second Aspect, which forms group-souls for minerals, plants and animals, this being the descent into matter of the Christ principle, which alone renders possible our very existence. In the human kingdom, the ego himself is a manifestation of the Third Outpouring, which comes from His First Aspect, the eternal and all-loving Father.

Before the solar system was brought into manifestation, the Logos formed the entire scheme of it in His mind, and by doing so brought it all simultaneously into existence upon His mental plane. He has thus thought it out, not only as it is now, but as it has been at every moment in the past, and as it will be at every moment in the future.

At what level His mental plane may be we cannot tell; it may be what we call the cosmic mental plane, or it may be higher still. The cosmic mental plane is two whole sets of planes above our set of seven.

To the cosmic mental plane H. P. Blavatsky gave the name the ”archetypal world”; the Greeks seem to have called it the ”intelligible world.” All that has been written and said about an ”instantaneous” creation of the whole system out of nothing refers to this formation of cosmic thought-forms.

Thus we may say that on that cosmic plane the whole of the System was called into existence simultaneously by His thought -an act of special creation; and it must all be now simultaneously present to Him. It may well be that His mighty consciousness to some extent reflects itself even on very much lower levels, so that men may occasionally catch faint glimpses of those reflections. This is one explanation of clairvoyants being sometimes able to foresee the future accurately, as unquestionably has been done, from time to time.

The Logos thinks out what He intends each of the Planetary Chains to do. He comes down to smaller, details, for He thinks of the type of man for every Root-Race and sub-race, from the beginning of all, through, for example, the Lemurian, the Atlantean, the Âryan and the succeeding Races. We shall deal later with certain of the Officials - if we may employ that term - Who are in charge of, directing and controlling the evolution taking place in the solar system: but we may mention here that there is in charge of each scheme of evolution an Entity known as a Planetary Logos: a more accurate name is a Planetary Chain Logos, for He is in charge of the whole series of 7 chains in a scheme of evolution.

These 7 subsidiary Logoi are great individual entities: and yet at the same time they are aspects of the Solar Logos, forcecentres, or chakrams, as it were, in His body.

Their relation to Him is like that of the ganglia or the nerve-centres to the brain. All evolution which comes forth from Him comes through one or other of Them.

Each of these centres has His special location or major focus within the body of the Sun, and also a minor focus which is always exterior to the Sun. The position of this minor focus is always indicated by a physical planet. Diagram XII is an attempt to illustrate the idea.

The exact relation, however, can hardly be made clear in our three dimensional phraseology. But we may say that each centre has a field of influence practically co-extensive with the solar system. If a section of this field were taken, it would be found to be elliptical: one of the foci of each ellipse would always be in the Sun, and the other would be the special planet ruled by that subsidiary Logos.

All the physical planets are included within that portion of the system which is common to all the ovoids, so that each revolving ovoid must have its projecting segment. Hence the system as a whole has been compared with a flower with many petals.

There is, however, another reason for this comparison with a lotus. Although the planets appear to us as separate globes, there is in reality a connection between them in a manner of which some idea may perhaps be gained by those who have trained themselves to a conception of four dimensions of space.

An analogy may be of some assistance. If the hand be held, with the palm upwards, so as to form a kind of cup, but with the fingers separated, and then a sheet of paper be laid on the tips of the fingers, the circles at the points of contact between the fingers and the paper would represent the physical planets, apparently quite isolated from one another.

These circles are, however, all connected together in another direction, as parts of the hand, although the idea of the hand would be quite beyond the comprehension of a two-dimensional being living only in the plane of the circles.

Similarly, in a higher dimension, all the physical planets are connected together into one whole, being from this higher point of view but the points of petals which are part of one great flower. The heart of that flower throws up a central pistil which appears to us as the physical sun.

Diagram XIII is an attempt to portray the idea. Normally, neither the physical, astral nor mental planes of one of our planets communicate with the corresponding planes of another planet. On the buddhic plane, however, there is a condition common to, at any rate, all the planets of our chain.

Notwithstanding the above, there is a condition of the atomic matter of each of the planes which is cosmic in extent, the 7 atomic sub-planes of our system, taken apart from the rest, constituting one cosmic plane - the lowest, sometimes called the cosmic-prakritic.

From one point of view it seems as though we were in truth an expression of the Planetary Logos Himself, and as though the evolution were taking place within His body, the globes being centres in that body, or rather, not the globes that we see, but the spirit of them-their higher principles.

From this point of view Globe A would be the expression of His brain or mental body, and all these forms would exist in His mind. For our mental plane is not only the third sub-division of the lowest cosmic plane; it is also at the same time the lowest sub-division of an aspect or manifestation of the Logos.

We may take it that He manifests Himself along seven lines or through seven aspects, and that each of these that we call planes is the lowest form of one of these aspects, so that the atomic part of our mental plane is really the lowest sub-plane of the mental body of the Planetary Logos.

The willow-leaves of the Sun are manifestations upon the physical plane maintained by Devas for a special purpose, at the cost of a certain sacrifice or limitation of their activities on the higher levels which are their normal habitat. Recollecting that it is through the willow-leaves that the light, heat and vitality of the Sun come to us, we may readily see that the object of their sacrifice is to bring down to the physical plane certain forces which would otherwise remain unmanifested, and that these great Devas are acting as channels, reflectors, or specialisers of divine power working at cosmic levels for the benefit of our solar system.