The Secret Doctrine, page 281
A. No; the umbilical cord joining the astral to the physical body is a real thing. Antahkarana is imaginary, a figure of speech, and is only the bridging over from the Higher to the Lower Manas. Antahkarana only exists when you commence to “throw your thought upwards and downwards.” The Mâyâvi Rûpa, or Mânasic body, has no material connection with the physical body, no umbilical cord. It is spiritual and ethereal, and passes everywhere without let or hindrance. It entirely differs from the astral body, which, if injured, acts by repercussion on the physical body. The Devachanic entity, even previous to birth, can be affected by the Skandhas, but these have nothing to do with the Antahkarana. It is affected, e.g., by the desire for reincarnation.
Q. We are told in The Voice of the Silence that we have to become “the path itself,” and in another passage that Antahkarana is that path. Does this mean anything more than that we have to bridge over the gap between the consciousness of the Lower and the Higher Egos?
A. That is all.
Q. We are told that there are seven portals on the Path: is there then a sevenfold division of Antahkarana? Also, is Antahkarana the battlefield?
A. It is the battlefield. There are seven divisions in the Antahkarana. As you pass from each to the next you approach the Higher Manas. When you have bridged the fourth you may consider yourself fortunate.
Miscellaneous.
Q. We are told that Aum “should be practised physically.” Does this mean that, colour being more differentiated than sound, it is only through the colours that we shall get at the real sound of each of us? and that Aum can only have its Spiritual and Occult signification when turned to the tmâ-Buddhi-Manas of each person?
A. Aum means good action, not merely lip-sound. You must say it in deeds.
Q. With reference to the triangle, is not the tmâ-Buddhi-Manas different for each entity, according to the plane on which he is?
A. Each Principle is on a different plane. The Chelâ must rise to one after the other, assimilating each, until the three are one. This is the real root of the Trinity.
Q. In The Secret Doctrine we are told that kâsha is the same as Pradhâna. kâsha is the Auric Egg of the earth, and yet kâsha is Mahat. What that is the relation of Manas to the Auric Egg?
A. Mûlaprakriti is the same as kâsha (seven degrees). Mahat is the positive aspect of kâsha, and is the Manas of the Kosmic Body. Mahat is to kâsha as Manas is to Buddhi, and Pradhâna is but another name for Mûlaprakriti.
The Auric Egg is kâsha and has seven degrees. Being pure abstract substance, it reflects abstract ideas, but also reflects lower concrete things.
The Third Logos and Mahat are one, and are the same as the Universal Mind, Alaya.
The Tetraktys is the Chatur Vidyâ, or the fourfold knowledge in one, the four-faced Brahmâ.
Nâdis.
Q. Have the Nâdîs any fixed relationship to the vertebræ; can they be located opposite to or between any vertebræ? can they be regarded as occupying each a given and fixed extent in the cord? Do they correspond to the divisions of the cord known to Anatomists?
A. H. P. B. believed that the Nâdîs corresponded to regions of the spinal cord known to Anatomists. There are thus six or seven Nâdîs or plexuses along the spinal cord. The term, however, is not technical but general, and applies to any knot, centre, ganglion, etc. The sacred Nâdîs are those which run along or above Sushumnâ. Six are known to Science, and one (near the atlas) unknown. Even the Târaka Râja Yogîs speak only of six, and will not mention the sacred seventh.
Idâ and Pingalâ play along the curved wall of the cord in which is Sushumnâ. They are semi-material, positive and negative, sun and moon, and start into action the free and spiritual current of Sushumnâ. They have distinct paths of their own, otherwise they would radiate all over the body. By concentration on Idâ and Pingalâ is generated the “sacred fire.”
Another name for Shiva's Vînâ (sympathetic system) is Kâlî's Vînâ.
The sympathetic cords and Idâ and Pingalâ start from a sacred spot above the medulla oblongata, called Triveni. This is one of the sacred centres, another of which is Brahmarandra, which is, if you like, the grey matter of the brain. It is also the anterior fontanelle in the new-born child.
The spinal column is called Brahmadanda, the stick of Brahmâ. This is again symbolized by the bamboo rod carried by Ascetics. The Yogîs on the other sides of the Himâlayas, who assemble regularly at Lake Mânsarovara, carry a triple knotted bamboo stick, and are called Tridandins. This has the same signification as the Brâhmanical cord, which has many other meanings besides the three vital airs: e.g., it symbolizes the three initiations of a Brâhman, taking place: (a) at birth, when he receives his mystery name from the family Astrologer, who is supposed to have received it from the Devas (he is also thus said to be initiated by the Devas); a Hindu will sooner die than reveal this name; (b) at seven, when he receives the cord; and (c) at eleven or twelve, when he is initiated into his caste.
Q. If it is right to study the body and its organs, with their correspondences, will you give the main outline of these in connection with the Nâdîs and with the diagram of the orifices.
A. The Spleen corresponds to the Linga Sharîra
The Liver to Kâma
The Heart to Prâna
The Corpora-quadrigemina to Kâma-Manas
The Pituitary body to Manas-Antahkarana
The Pineal gland to Manas
until it is touched by the vibrating light of Kundalinî, which proceeds from Buddhi, when it becomes Buddhi-Manas.
The pineal gland corresponds with Divine Thought. The pituitary body is the organ of the Psychic Plane. Psychic vision is caused by the molecular motion of this body, which is directly connected with the optic nerve, and thus affects the sight and gives rise to hallucinations. Its motion may readily cause flashes of light, such as may be obtained by pressing the eyeballs. Drunkenness and fever produce illusions of sight and hearing by the action of the pituitary body. This body is sometimes so affected by drunkenness that it is paralyzed. If an influence on the optic nerve is thus produced and the current thus reversed, the colour will probably be complementary.
Sevens.
Q. If the physical body is no part of the real human septenary, is the physical material world one of the seven planes of the Kosmic septenary?
A. It is. The body is not a Principle in Esoteric parlance, because the body and the Linga are both on the same plane; then the Auric Egg makes the seventh. The body is an Upâdhi rather than a Principle. The earth and its astral light are as closely related to each other as the body and its Linga, the earth being the Upâdhi. Our plane in its lowest division is the earth, in its highest the astral. The terrestrial astral light should of course not be confounded with the universal Astral Light.
Q. A physical object was spoken of as a septenary on the physical plane, inasmuch as we could (1) directly contact it; (2) retinally reproduce it; (3) remember it; (4) dream of it; (5) view it atomically; (6) view it disintegrated; (7)—What is the seventh?
These are seven ways in which we view it: the septenary is our way of seeing one thing. Is it objectively septenary?
A. The seventh bridges across from one plane to another. The last is the idea, the privation of matter, and carries you to the next plane. The highest of one plane touches the lowest of the next. Seven is a factor in nature, as in colours and sounds. There are seven degrees in the same piece of wood, each perceived by one of the seven senses. In wood the smell is the most material degree, while in other substances it may be the sixth. Substances are septenary apart from the consciousness of the viewer.
The psychometer, seeing a morsel, say of a table a thousand years hence, would see the whole; for every atom reflects the whole body to which it belongs, just as with the Monads of Leibnitz.
After the seven material subdivisions are the seven divisions of the Astral, which is its second Principle. The disintegrated matter—the highest of the material subdivisions—is the privation of the idea of it—the fourth.
The number fourteen is the first step between seven and forty-nine. Each septenary is really a fourteen, because each of the seven has its two aspects. Thus fourteen signifies the inter-relation of two planes in its turn. The septenary is to be clearly traced in the lunar months, fevers, gestations, etc. On it is based the week of the Jews and the septenary Hierarchies of the Lord of Hosts.
Sounds.
Q. Sound is an attribute of kâsha; but we cannot cognize anything on the kâshic plane; on what plane then do we recognize sound? On what plane is sound produced by the physical contact of bodies? Is there sound on seven planes, and is the physical plane one of them?
A. The physical plane is one of them. You cannot see kâsha, but you can sense it from the Fourth Path. You may not be fully conscious of it, and yet you may sense it. kâsha is at the root of the manifestation of all sounds. Sound is the expression and manifestation of that which is behind it, and which is the parent of many correlations. All Nature is a sounding-board; or rather kâsha is the sounding-board of Nature. It is the Deity, the one Life, the one Existence. (Hearing is the vibration of molecular particles; the order is seen in the sentence, “The disciple feels, hears, sees.”)
Sound can have no end. H. P. B. remarked with regard to a tap made by a pencil on the table: “By this time it has affected the whole universe. The particle which has had its wear and tear destroys something which passes into something else. It is eternal in the Nidânas it produces.” A sound, if not previously produced on the Astral Plane, and before that on the kâshic, could not be produced at all. kâsha is the bridge between nerve cells and mental powers.
Q. “Colours are psychic, and sounds are spiritual.” What, assuming that these are vibrations, is the successive order (these corresponding to sight and hearing) of the other senses?
A. This phrase was not to be taken out of its context, otherwise confusion would arise. All are on all planes. The First Race had touch all over like a sounding board; this touch differentiated into the other senses, which developed with the Races. The “sense” of the First Race was that of touch, meaning the power of their atoms to vibrate in unison with external atoms. The “touch” would be almost the same as sympathy.
The senses were on a different plane with each Race; e.g., the Fourth Race had very much more developed senses than ourselves, but on another plane. It was also a very material Race. The sixth and seventh senses will merge into the kâshic Sound. “It depends to what degree of matter the sense of touch relates itself as to what we call it.”
Prâna.
Q. Is Prâna the production of the countless “lives” of the human body, and therefore, to some extent, of the congeries of the cells or atoms of the body?
A. No; Prâna is the parent of the “lives.” As an example, a sponge may be immersed in an ocean. The water in the sponge's interior may be compared to Prâna; outside is Jîva. Prâna is the motor-principle in life. The “lives” leave Prâna; Prâna does not leave them. Take out the sponge from the water, and it becomes dry, thus symbolizing death. Every principle is a differentiation of Jîva, but the life-motion in each is Prâna, the “breath of life.” Kâma depends on Prâna, without which there would be no Kâma. Prâna wakes the Kâmic germs to life; it makes all desires vital and living.
The Second Spinal Cord.
Q. With reference to the answer to the question on the second cord, what is it that will become a second spinal cord in the Sixth Race? Will Idâ and Pingalâ have separate physical ducts?
A. It is the sympathetic cords which will grow together and form another spinal cord. Idâ and Pingalâ will be joined with Sushumnâ, and they will become one. Idâ is on the left side of the cord, and Pingalâ on the right.
Initiates.
Pythagoras was an Initiate, one of the grandest of Scientists. His disciple, Archytas, was marvellously apt in applied Science. Plato and Euclid were Initiates, but not Socrates. No real Initiates were married. Euclid learned his Geometry in the Mysteries. Modern men of Science only rediscover the old truths.
Kosmic Consciousness.
H. P. B. proceeded to explain Kosmic Consciousness, which is, like all else, on seven planes, of which three are inconceivable, and four are cognizable by the highest Adept.
Taking the lowest only, the Terrestrial (it was afterwards decided to call this plane Prâkritic), it is divisible, into seven planes, and these again into seven, making the forty-nine.
She then took the lowest plane of Prâkriti, or the true Terrestrial.
Its objective or sensuous plane is that which is sensed by the five physical senses.
On its second plane things are reversed.
Its third plane is psychic: here is the instinct which prevents a kitten going into the water and getting drowned.
Then objective consciousness was given.
The three lower Prâkritic are related to the three lower of the Astral Plane immediately succeeding.
With regard to the first division of the second plane, H. P. B. reminded her pupils that all seen on it must be reversed in translating it, e.g., with numbers which appeared backwards. The Astral Objective corresponds in everything to the Terrestrial Objective.
The second division corresponds to the second of the lower plane, but the objects are of extreme tenuity, an astralized Astral. This plane is the limit of the ordinary medium, beyond which he cannot go. A non-mediumistic person to reach it must be asleep or in a trance, or under the influence of laughing-gas; or in ordinary delirium people pass on to this plane.
The third, the Prânic, is of an intensely vivid nature. Extreme delirium carries the patient to this plane. In delirium tremens the sufferer passes to this and to the one above it. Lunatics are often conscious on this plane, where they see terrible visions. It runs into the—
Fourth division, the worst of the astral planes, Kâmic and terrible. Hence come the images that tempt; images of drunkards in Kâma Loka impelling others to drink; images of all vices inoculating men with the desire to commit crimes. The weak imitate these images in a kind of monkeyish fashion, so falling beneath their influence. This is also the cause of epidemics of vices, and cycles of disaster, of accidents of all kinds coming in groups. Extreme delirium tremens is on this plane.
The fifth division is that of premonitions in dreams, of reflections from the lower mentality, glimpses into the past and future, the plane of things mental and not spiritual. The mesmerized clairvoyant can reach this plane, and even, if good, may go higher.
The sixth is the plane from which come all beautiful inspirations of art, poetry, and music; high types of dreams, flashes of genius. Here we have glimpses of past incarnations, without being able to locate or analyze them.
We are on the seventh plane at the moment of death or in exceptional visions. The drowning man is here when he remembers his past life. The memory of events of this plane must be centred in the heart, “the seat of Buddha.” There it will remain, but impressions from this plane are not made on the physical brain.
General Notes.
The two planes above dealt with are the only two used in the Hatha Yoga.
Prâna and the Auric Envelope are essentially the same, and again, as Jîva, it is the same as the Universal Deity. This, in its Fifth Principle, is Mahat, in its Sixth, Alaya. (The Universal Life is also seven-principled.) Mahat is the highest Entity in Kosmos; beyond this is no diviner Entity; it is of subtlest matter, Sûkshma. In us this is Manas, and the very Logoi are less high, not having gained experience. The Mânasic Entity will not be destroyed, even at the end of the Mahâmanvantara, when all the Gods are absorbed, but will re-emerge from Parabrâhmic latency.
Consciousness is the Kosmic seed of superkosmic omniscience. It has the potentiality of budding into the Divine Consciousness.
Rude physical health is a drawback to seership. This was the case with Swedenborg.
Fohat is everywhere: it runs like a thread through all, and has its own seven divisions.
Auric Envelope or tmic Elements of Manifested Kosmos.
Alaya. Buddhi.
Mahat. Manas.
Fohat. Kâma-Manas.
Jîva. Kâma-Prana.
Astral. Linga.
Prâkriti. Body.
In the Kosmic Auric Envelope is all the Karma of the manifesting Universe. This is the Hiranyagarbha. Jîva is everywhere, and so with the other Principles.
The above diagram represents the type of all the Solar Systems.
Mahat, single before informing the Universe, differentiates when informing it, as does Manas in man.
Taking this figure to represent the human Principles and planes of consciousness, then 7, 6, 5 represent respectively, Shiva, Vishnu, Brahmâ, Brahmâ being the lowest.
Shiva is the four-faced Brahmâ; the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer, and Regenerator.
Between 5 and 4 comes the Antahkarana. The triangle represents the Christos, the Sacrificial Victim crucified between the thieves: this is the double-faced entity. The Vedântins make this a quaternary for a blind: Antahkarana, Chit, Buddhi, and Manas.
Manvantaric Aspect of Parabrahman and Mûlaprakriti.
(N.B.—The number of Rays is arbitrary and without significance.)
Perceptive life begins with the Astral: it is not our physical atoms which see, etc.
Consciousness proper begins between Kâma and Manas. tmâ-Buddhi acts more in the atoms of the body, in the bacilli, microbes, etc., than in Man himself.
Objective Consciousness.
Sensuous objective consciousness includes all that pertains to the five physical senses in man, and rules in animals, birds, fishes and some insects. Here are the “Lives”; their consciousness is in tmâ-Buddhi; these are entirely without Manas.
