228. The Light Of The Soul - 04. BOOK I - THE PROBLEM OF UNION - Part 2 - A. BAILEY

BOOK I - THE PROBLEM OF UNION - Part 2

The word "traditional" carries the student's thought away from that which is usually regarded as the object of sensuous perception into the world of thought forms, into that "forest of delusion" which is constructed of men's ideas about God, heaven or hell.  The sublimation of all this and its highest expression in the three worlds is that "devachan" which is the goal of the majority of the sons of men.  Devachanic experience must, however, be transformed eventually into nirvanic realization.  It may be of value to the student to remember that heaven, the object of aspirational desire, which is the outcome of traditional teaching, and of all formulations of doctrinal faiths has several meanings to the occultist.  For the purpose of a clearer understanding the following may be found to be of use:

1. Heaven, that state of consciousness upon the astral plane which is the concretion of the longing and desire of the aspirant for rest, peace and happiness.  It is based upon the "forms of joy."  It is a condition of sensuous enjoyment, and being constructed for himself by each individual is as varied as there are people participating in it.  Non-attachment has to be achieved with respect to heaven.  It is realized as enjoyed by the lower self, and by the man when bereft only of his physical body, prior to passing out of the astral body on to the mental plane.

2. Devachan, that state of consciousness upon the mental plane into which the soul passes when deprived of its astral body and functioning in, or limited by, its mental body.  It is of a higher [31] order than the ordinary heaven and the bliss enjoyed is more mental than we ordinarily understand by the word, yet nevertheless it is still within the lower world of form and will be transcended when non-attachment is known.

3. Nirvana, that condition into which the adept passes when the three lower worlds are no longer "attached" to him through his inclinations or karma, and which he experiences after he has:

a. Taken certain initiations,

b. Freed himself from the three worlds,

c. Organized his Christ body.

Strictly speaking those adepts who have achieved non-attachment but who have chosen to sacrifice themselves and abide with the sons of men in order to serve and help them are not technically Nirvanis.  They are Lords of Compassion pledged to "suffer" with, and to be governed by, certain conditions analogous to (though not identical with) the conditions governing men who are still attached to the world of form.

16. The consummation of this non-attachment results in an exact knowledge of the spiritual man when liberated from the qualities or gunas.

Certain points should be remembered by the student when considering this sutra:

1. That the spiritual man is the monad,

2. That the evolutionary process when carried to its climax produces not only the freeing of the soul from the limitations of the three worlds, but the freeing of the spiritual man from [32] all limitations, even that of the soul itself.  The goal is formlessness or freedom from objective and tangible manifestation, and the true significance of this becomes apparent as the student remembers the oneness of spirit and matter when in manifestation; i. e. our seven planes are the seven subplanes of the lowest cosmic plane, the physical.  Consequently only "the time of the end" and the dissolution of a solar system will reveal the true meaning of formlessness.

3. The gunas are the three qualities of matter, the three effects produced when macrocosmic energy, the life of God which persists independently of form-taking, actuates or energizes substance.  The three gunas are:

1. Sattva	Energy of Spirit	Monad	Father	rhythm or harmonious vibration
2. Rajas	Energy of Soul	Ego	Son	mobility or activity
3. Tamas	Energy of Matter	Personality	Holy Ghost	inertia.

These three correspond to the quality of each of the three aspects which express the one Life.

In such a brief commentary as this perforce must be it is not possible to enlarge to any extent upon this subject, but some idea can be gained as to what is meant by the consummation of non-attachment when applied to the macrocosm or the microcosm.  The three gunas have all been used, full experience through the use of form has been acquired, consciousness, perception or awareness through attachment to an object or to a form has been developed, all resources have been utilised, [33] and the spiritual man (logoic or human) has no further use or need for them.  He is therefore freed from the gunas, released from form taking as the result of attachment, and enters into a new state of consciousness upon which it is useless for us to speculate.

17. The consciousness of an object is attained by concentration on its fourfold nature: the form, through examination;  the quality (or guna), through discriminative participation; the purpose, through inspiration (or bliss) and the soul, through identification.

It will be apparent therefore that the statement "as a man thinketh so is he" (Prov. 23:7) is based on occult facts.  Every form of any kind has a soul, and that soul or conscious principle is identical with that in the human form; identical in its nature though not in its scope of development, or its degree.  This is equally true of the great Lives or superhuman Existences in which man himself "lives and moves and has his being" (Acts 17: 28) and to Whose state of development he aspires.

As the aspirant chooses with care the "objects" upon which he will meditate, he through these objects, builds himself a ladder by means of which he arrives eventually at the objectless.  As his mind assumes increasingly the meditative attitude of the soul, the brain becomes also increasingly subjugated to the mind as the mind is to the soul.  Thus is the lower man gradually identified with the spiritual man who is omniscient and omnipresent.  This meditative attitude is assumed through a fourfold process:—

1. Meditation on the nature of a particular form, realising, as the form is pondered upon, that it is but a symbol of an inner reality, our whole tangible objective world being built up of form, of some kind (human, subhuman and superhuman), which expresses the life of hosts of sentient beings.

2. Meditation upon the quality of any particular form, so that an appreciation of its subjective energy may be gained.  It should be borne in mind that the energy of an object may be regarded as the colour of that object, and hence the words of Patanjali IV, 17 become illuminating in this connection and serve as a commentary upon this second point.  This is called "discriminative participation," and through it the student arrives at that knowledge of energy in himself which is one with the object of his meditation.

3. Meditation upon the purpose of any particular form.  This involves consideration of the idea back of or underlying any form manifestation and its display of energy.  This realisation carries the aspirant onward to a knowledge of that part in the plan or purpose of the All which is the motivating factor in the form's activity.  Thus through the part, the Whole is contacted and an expansion of consciousness takes place, involving bliss or joy.  Beatitude always follows upon realisation of the unity of the part with the Whole.  From meditation upon the tattvas, the energies or principles, or upon the tanmatras or [35] elements composing spirit-matter, a knowledge of the purpose or plan for the microcosmic or macrocosmic manifestations eventuates and with this knowledge comes bliss.

In these three are to be found correspondences to the three aspects, spirit, soul and body, and an illuminating study for the earnest student.

4. Meditation upon the soul, upon the One who uses the form, who energises it into activity and who is working in line with the plan.  This soul, being one with all souls and with the Oversoul subserves the one plan and is group-conscious.

Thus through these four stages of meditation upon an object, the aspirant arrives at his goal, knowledge of the soul, and of the soul powers.  He becomes consciously identified with the one reality, and this in his physical brain.  He finds that truth which is himself and which is the truth hidden in every form and in every kingdom of nature.  Thus he will eventually arrive (when knowledge of the soul itself is gained) at a knowledge of the All-Soul and become one with it.

18. A further stage of samadhi is achieved when through one-pointed thought, the outer activity is quieted.  In this stage the chitta is responsive only to subjective impressions.

The word "samadhi" is subject to various interpretations, and is applied to different stages of yogi achievement.  This makes it somewhat difficult for the average student when studying the various commentaries.  Perhaps one of the easiest ways to realise its meaning is to remember that [36] the word "Sama" has reference to the faculty of the mind-stuff (or chitta) to take form or to modify itself according to the external impressions.  These external impressions reach the mind via the senses.  When the aspirant to yoga can control his organs of sense-perception so that they no longer telegraph to the mind their reactions to that which is perceived, two things are brought about:

a. The physical brain becomes quiet and still,

b. The mind stuff or the mental body, the chitta, ceases to assume the various modifications and becomes equally still.

This is one of the early stages of samadhi but is not the samadhi of the adept.  It is a condition of intense internal activity instead of external; it is an attitude of one-pointed concentration.  The aspirant is, however, responsive to impressions from the subtler realms and to modifications arising from those perceptions which are still more subjective.  He becomes aware of a new field of knowledge, though as yet he knows not what it is.  He ascertains that there is a world which cannot be known through the medium of the five senses but which the right use of the organ of the mind will reveal.  He gets a perception of what may lie back of the words found in a later sutra as translated by Charles Johnston, which expresses this thought in particularly clear terms:

"The seer is pure vision  .  .  .  he looks out through the vesture of the mind."  (Book II.  Sutra 20.)

The preceding sutra dealt with what may be called meditation with seed or with an object; this sutra suggests the next stage, meditation without seed or without that which the physical brain would recognise as an object.

It might be of value here if the six stages of meditation dealt with by Patanjali are mentioned as they give a clue to the entire process of unfoldment dealt with in this book:

1. Aspiration,

2. Concentration,

3. Meditation,

4. Contemplation,

5. Illumination,

6. Inspiration.

It is of value here to note that the student begins by aspiring to that which lies beyond his ken and ends by beinginspired by that which he has sought to know.  Concentration (or intense focussing) results in meditation and meditation flowers forth as contemplation.

19. The samadhi just described passes not beyond the bounds of the phenomenal world; it passes not beyond the Gods and those concerned with the concrete world.

It should be noted here that the results achieved in the processes dealt with in sutras seventeen and eighteen only carry the aspirant to the edge of the realm of the soul, to the new field of knowledge of which he has become aware.  He is still confined to the three worlds.  All that he has succeeded in doing is stilling the modifications of the mental body so that for the first time the man (on the physical plane and in his physical brain) becomes cognisant of what lies beyond those three worlds—that is, the soul, its range of vision and its knowledge.  He has yet to strengthen his link with the soul (dealt with in sutras twenty-three to twenty-eight) and then having transferred his consciousness into that of the real or spiritual man, he must begin working from that new stand-point or vantage point.

The idea has been expressed by some translators as the condition in which the aspirant becomes aware "of the rain cloud of knowable things."  The raincloud has not precipitated sufficiently for the rain to fall from heavenly heights onto the physical plane or for the "knowable things" to become known to the physical brain.  The cloud is perceived as the result of intense concentration and the stilling of the lower modifications, but until the soul or Master has assumed control the knowledge of the soul cannot be poured into the physical brain via the sixth sense, the mind.

The science of yoga is a real science and only as students approach it by the correct stages and employ the scientific methods, will the true samadhi or realization be achieved.

20. Other yogins achieve samadhi and arrive at a discrimination of pure spirit through belief, followed by energy, memory, meditation and right perception.

In the previous groups of yogins dealt with, perception was limited to the phenomenal world, [39] though we must understand by that only the three worlds of mental perception, astral perception and of the physical senses.  The energies producing concretion and the motive power of thought as it produces effects on the physical plane are contacted and known.  Here however the yogin translates himself into more spiritual and subtler realms and becomes aware of that which the self (in its true nature) perceives and knows.  He enters into the world of causes.  The first group might be regarded as comprising all who are treading the path of discipleship, and covers the time from their entrance upon the Probationary Path until they have taken the second Initiation.  The second group is comprised of those higher disciples who—having controlled and transmuted the entire lower nature—make a contact with their monad, spirit or "Father in Heaven" and discern what that monad perceives.

The first form of realisation comes to those who are in process of synthesising the six lower centres into the head centre, through the transmutation of the lower four into the higher three, and then of the heart and throat into the head.  The second group—through a knowledge of the law—works with all the transmuted and purified centres.  They know how to achieve the real samadhi or state of occult abstraction through their ability to withdraw the energies into the thousand petalled lotus of the head, and from thence to abstract them through the other two subtler bodies until all is centred and focussed in the causal vehicle, the karana sarira, the egoic lotus.  We are told by [40] Patanjali that this is produced by the following five stages.  Students should bear in mind that these stages relate to soul activities, to egoic realisation and not to the reactions of the lower man and the physical brain.

1. Belief.  On his own plane the soul rehearses a condition analogous to the belief of the aspirant in the soul or Christ aspect, only in this case the objective is the realisation of that which the Christ or soul is seeking to reveal, the spirit or Father in Heaven.  First the disciple arrives at a realisation of the angel of His Presence, the solar angel, ego or soul.  This is the achievement of the previous group.  Then the Presence itself is later contacted and that Presence is pure spirit, the absolute, the Father of Being.  The self and the not-self have been known by this group of initiates.  Now the vision of the not-self dims and passes away and only spirit is known.  Belief must ever be the first stage.  First the theory, then the experiment, and lastly realisation.

2. Energy.  When the theory is grasped, when the goal is perceived, then activity ensues—that right activity and that correct use of force which will bring the goal nearer and make theory fact.

3. Memory, or right mindfulness.  This is an interesting factor in the process as it involves right forgetfulness, or the elimination out of the consciousness of the ego of all those forms which have hitherto veiled the Real.  These forms are either self-chosen or self-created.  This leads to a condition of true apprehension or the ability to register correctly that which the soul has perceived, [41] and the power to transfer that correct perception to the brain of the physical man.  This is the memory referred to here.  It does not refer so specifically to recollection of the things of the past, but covers the point of realisation and the transference of that realisation to the brain where it must be registered and eventually recollected at will.

4. Meditation.  That which has been seen and registered in the brain and which has emanated from the soul must be meditated upon and thus woven into the fabric of the life.  It is through this meditation that the soul-perceptions become real to the man upon the physical plane.  This meditation therefore is of a very high order as it follows upon the contemplative stage and is soul-meditation with the object of illuminating the vehicle upon the physical plane.

5. Right perception.  The experience of the soul, and the knowledge of the spirit or Father aspect begins to form part of the brain content of the Adept or Master.  He knows the plan as it is to be found on the highest levels and is in touch with the Archetype.  It is, if I might illustrate in this way, that this class of yogins have reached the point where they can perceive the plan as it exists in the mind of the "Grand Architect of the Universe."  They are now en rapport with Him.  In the other class of Yogins, the point reached is that in which they are able to study the blue-prints of the great plan and thus can intelligently co-operate in the building of the Temple of the Lord.  The perception referred to here is of such a high [42] order as to be almost inconceivable to any but advanced disciples, but in an appreciation of the stages and grades there comes to the aspirant, not only an understanding of what is his immediate problem and of where he stands, but also an appreciation of the beauty of the entire scheme.

21. The attainment of this stage (spiritual consciousness) is rapid for those whose will is intensely alive.

This would naturally be so.  As the will, reflected in the mind, becomes dominant in the disciple, he has awakened that aspect of himself which is en rapport with the will aspect of the Logos, the first or Father aspect.  The lines of contact are as follows:

1. Monad or the Father in Heaven, the will aspect,

2. Atma or spiritual will, the highest aspect of the soul,

3. The mental body or intelligent Will, the highest aspect of the personality,

4. The head centre.

This is the line followed by the raja-yogins and it brings them to a realisation of the spirit and to adeptship.  There is yet another line:

1. Monad,

2. The Son or Christ aspect,

3. The love aspect, or wisdom aspect,

4. Buddhi or spiritual love, the second aspect of the soul,

5. The emotional body, the second aspect of the personality,

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6. The heart centre.

This is the line followed by the bhakti, the devotee and the saint and brings him to a knowledge of the soul and of sainthood.  The former line is that to be followed by our Aryan race.  This second line was the path of attainment for the Atlanteans.

If students would follow these tabulations with care much light would come.  The necessity for a strong energetic will becomes apparent if the path of Initiation is studied.  Only an iron will, and a steady, strong, unswerving endurance will carry the aspirant along this path and out into the clear light of day.

22. Those who employ the will likewise differ, for its use may be intense, moderate or gentle.  In respect to the attainment of true spiritual consciousness there is yet another way.

It would be wise here to make clear the two ways whereby men reach the goal,—knowledge of the spiritual life, and emancipation.  There is the way of Yoga as outlined by Patanjali whereby, through the use of the will, discrimination between the self and the not-self is achieved and pure spirit is arrived at.  This is the way for the fifth or Aryan race, for those whose function it is to develop the fifth principle or mind and thus become true sons of mind.  It is their part to become the five-pointed star, the star of the perfected man, in all his glory.  Through following this way the five planes of human and superhuman evolution are dominated and atma (or the [44] will of God, the Father aspect) stand revealed through the medium of buddhi (or the Christ consciousness), having for its vehicle, manas or higher mind.

The other way is the Way of pure devotion.  Through intense adoration and entire consecration the aspirant arrives at a knowledge of the reality of spirit.  This is the way of least resistance for many; it was the method of attainment for the race preceding the Aryan.  It largely ignores the fifth principle and is the sublimation of sensuous perception, being the way of intense feeling.  Through following this method the four planes are dominated and buddhi (or the Christ) stands revealed.  Students should differentiate clearly between these two ways, remembering that the white occultist blends the two and if in this life he follows the way of Raja Yoga with fervour and love it will be because in other lives he set his foot upon the way of devotion and found the Christ, the Buddhi within.  In this life he will recapitulate his experience, plus the intense exercise of the will and control of the mind which will eventually reveal to him his Father in Heaven, the point of pure spirit.

Commentators upon this sutra point out that those who follow the method of Raja Yoga and use the will are divided into three main groups.  These can correspondingly be divided into nine.  There are those who use the will with such intensity that exceedingly rapid results are achieved, attended however with certain dangers and risks.  There is the risk of uneven development, [45] of a negation of the heart side of nature, and of certain destructions which will later have to be remedied.  Then there are those aspirants whose progress is less rapid, and who are exponents of the middle path.  They proceed steadily and moderately and are called the "discriminative adepts" as they permit no excesses of any kind.  Their method is to be recommended to men in this particular cycle.  Again there are those gentle souls whose will may be regarded as characterised by an imperturbable pertinacity and who go steadily, undeviatingly forward, eventually arriving at their goal.  They are distinguished by intense tenacity.  Their progress is slow.  They are the "tortoises" of the Path just as the first group are the "hares."

In some of the old books there are detailed accounts of these three groups of aspirants and they are portrayed under three symbols:

1. The intense group are depicted as goats, and aspirants of this type are frequently found in incarnation under the sign Capricorn,

2. The moderate group are depicted by a fish, and many born under the sign Pisces are found in this category,

3. The gentle or slow group are pictured as crabs and often come into incarnation under the sign Cancer.

In these three groups are to be found various subdivisions and it is interesting to note that in the archives of the Lords of Karma, the majority of these three groups pass into the sign of Libra (or the balances) towards the close of their endeavour.  [46] When in incarnation under this sign they balance the pairs of opposites with care, they equalise their one-sided development, modifying the unevenness of their efforts hitherto, and begin to "set an even pace."  They frequently then enter the sign of Aquarius and become bearers of water, having to carry "on their heads the bowl of living water."  Thus the rapidity of their climb up the mount of initiation has to be modified, or "the water will be spilt and the bowl be shattered."  Because the water is intended to slake the thirst of the masses, they must hasten their progress for the need is great.  Thus the "first shall be last and the last shall be first" and the hare and the tortoise meet at the goal.

23. By intense devotion to Ishvara, knowledge of Ishvara is gained.

Ishvara is the son in manifestation through the sun.  This is the macrocosmic aspect.  Ishvara is the son of God, the cosmic Christ, resplendent in the heart of each of us.  The word "heart" is here used in its occult connotation.  The following correspondences may be found illuminating and should be studied with care.

Aspect			Quality	Centre	Macrocosm
Spirit	Father	Monad	Will	Head	Central spiritual sun.
Soul	Son	Ego	Love	Heart	Heart of the sun.
Body	Holy Spirit	Personality	Active Intelligence	Throat	Physical sun.

Ishvara is the second aspect, and therefore the real meaning of this sutra is that through intense devotion to, and love of Ishvara, the Christ in manifestation, that Christ or soul may be contacted or known.  Ishvara is God in the heart of every child of God; He is to be found in the cave of the heart; He is to be reached through pure love and devoted service, and when reached He will be seen seated upon the twelve petalled lotus of the heart, holding in his hands the "jewel in the lotus."  Thus the devotee finds Ishvara.  When the devotee becomes the raja yogin then Ishvara will reveal to him the secret of the jewel.  When Christ is known as king upon the throne of the heart, then He will reveal the Father to His devotee.  But the devotee has to tread the Path of Raja Yoga, and combine intellectual knowledge, mental control and discipline before the revelation can be truly made.  The mystic must eventually become the occultist:  the head qualities and the heart qualities must be equally developed, for both are equally divine.

24. This Ishvara is the Soul, untouched by limitation, free from karma and desire.

Here we have the picture of the spiritual man as he is in reality.  His relation to the three worlds is shown.  This is the state of the master or the adept, of the soul who has come into its birthright, and is no longer under control of the forces and energies of the lower nature.  There is given in this and the following three sutras, a picture of the liberated man who has passed through the cycle of incarnation and through [48] struggle and experience has found the true self.  Here is depicted the nature of the solar angel, the son of God, the ego or the higher self.  He is stated to be

1. Untouched by limitation.  He is no longer "cribbed, cabined and confined" by the lower quaternary.  He is no longer crucified upon the cross of matter.  The four lower sheaths—dense, etheric, emotional and mental—are no longer his prison.  They are but instruments which he can use or vacate at will.  His will functions freely and if he stays within the realm of the three worlds, it is of his own choice, and his self-imposed limitation can be terminated at will.  He is master in the three worlds, a son of God dominating and controlling the lower creations.

2. Free from Karma.  Through knowledge of the law he has adjusted all his karma, paid all his debts, cancelled all his obligations, settled all claims against him, and through his subjective realisation has entered consciously into the world of causes.  The world of effects is left behind, in so far as the three worlds are concerned.  Thus he no longer (blindly and through ignorance) sets in motion conditions which must produce evil effects.  He works ever with the law and every demonstration of energy (the spoken word and the initiated action) is undertaken with a full knowledge of the result to be attained.  Thus nothing he does produces evil results and no karma is thereby entailed.  Average men deal with effects and blindly work their way through them.  The Master deals with causes, and the effects He [49] produces, through the wielding of the law, do not limit or hold him.

3. Free from desire.  No longer do the things of sensuous perception on any of the three planes attract or allure Him.  His consciousness is inward and upward.  It is no longer downward and outgoing.  He is at the centre and the periphery no longer attracts him.  The longing for experience, the craving for physical plane existence, and the desire for the form aspect in its many variations has for him no appeal.  He has experienced, He knows, He has suffered, and He has been forced into incarnation through His longing for the not-self.  Now all that is ended and He is the freed soul.

25. In Ishvara, the Gurudeva, the germ of all knowledge expands into infinity.

In the macrocosmic sense God is the Master of all and He is the sum total of omniscience, being (as is easily seen) the sum total of all states of consciousness.  He is the soul of all things, and the soul of the atom of matter as well as the souls of men are a part of His infinite realisation.  The soul of the human being is potentially the same, and as soon as the consciousness ceases to identify itself with its vehicles or organs, the germ of all knowledge begins to expand.  In the disciple, the adept, Master or Mahatma, in the Christ, the Buddha, and in the Lord of the World, Who is mentioned in the Bible as the Ancient of Days, this "germ of all knowledge" can be seen at differing stages of unfoldment.  God consciousness [50] is theirs, and they pass from one initiation to another.  At each stage a man is a master but ever beyond the point attained another possible expansion becomes apparent and ever the process is the same.  This process may be summed up in the following statements:

1. An urge, or determination to achieve the new knowledge,

2. The holding of the consciousness already unfolded and its utilisation, and from the point achieved working forward towards further realisation,

3. The overcoming of the difficulties incident to the limitations of the vehicles of consciousness and to karma,

4. The occult tests which are imposed upon the pupil when he shows ability,

5. The triumph of the pupil,

6. The recognition of his triumph and attainment by the guides of the race, the planetary Hierarchy,

7.  The vision of what lies ahead.

Thus does the unfoldment proceed and in each cycle of endeavor the evolving son of God comes into his birthright and takes the position of a knower, "One who has heard the tradition, experienced the dissolution of that hitherto held, seen that which is hidden from those who abide by the tradition, substituted that which is newly seen, donated the acquired possession to those who hold out empty hands, and passed on to inner halls of learning."  Students would do well in studying these few [51] sutras relating to Ishvara to bear in mind that they have reference to the son of God, the second person of the Trinity as He manifests through the medium of the solar system, to the macrocosmic soul.  The secondary meaning has reference also to the divine son of God, the second aspect monadic, as He manifests through the medium of a human being.  This is the microcosmic soul.  The following synonyms of the Ishvara aspect may be found of value.

	The Macrocosm.
Ishvara, the second aspect	Whose nature is love.
The Son of God	The revealer of the Father.
The cosmic Christ	God in incarnation.
Vishnu	Second person of the Hindu Trimurti.
The soul of all things	Atoms and souls are synonymous terms.
The All-Self	The sum total of all selves.
I am That	Group consciousness.
AUM	Word of Revelation.
The Word	God in the Flesh.
The Gurudeva	The Master of all.
The light of the world	Shining in darkness.

	The Microcosm.
The second aspect	Love wisdom.
The son of the Father	The revealer of the Monad.
The Christ	Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The Soul	Consciousness.
The higher Self	The Lord of the bodies.
The Ego	The Self-realizing Identity.
The Word	God in incarnation.
AUM	The Word of revelation.
The Master	The self on the throne.
The radiant Augoeidas	The light within.
The spiritual Man	Utilizing the lower man.

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26. Ishvara (the Gurudeva), being unlimited by time condition, is the teacher of the primeval Lords.

Since the conditions of time and space existed there have been those who have achieved omniscience, those whose germ of knowledge has been subjected to proper culture and thus developed, until it flowered forth into the full glory of the liberated soul.  This condition became possible through certain factors:

1. The identity of each individual soul with the Oversoul.

2. The attractive force of that Oversoul as it drew the separated soul of all things gradually back into Itself.  This is the force of evolution itself, the great attractive agent which recalls the outgoing points of divine Life, the units of consciousness, back to their source.  It involves the response of the individual soul to cosmic soul force.

3. The intensive training given towards the climax by the occult Hierarchy whereby souls receive a stimulation and vitalisation which enables them to make more rapid progress.

The occult student must remember that this process has gone on in the wheels and cycles preceding our planet Earth.  The primeval Lords, or Sages, are those great Adepts Who—having "tasted experience" under the Law of Rebirth, were initiated into the mysteries by the one Initiator, the representative in our planet of the [53] Oversoul.  They in their turn became teachers and initiators into the mysteries.

The one Master is found within; it is the soul, the inner ruler, the thinker on his own plane.  This one Master is a corporate part of the Whole, of the All-Soul.  Each expansion of consciousness which a man undergoes fits him to be a Master to those who have not taken a similar expansion.  Therefore—mastery being achieved—there is nothing (speaking in terms of the human kingdom) to be found except Masters who are likewise disciples.  All are learners and all are teachers, differing only in degree of realisation.  For instance:

a. Aspirants to the Path are disciples of lesser disciples,

b. Probationers on the Path are disciples of higher ones,

c. Accepted disciples are the disciples of an adept and of a Master,

d. An adept is the disciple of a Master,

e. A Master is the disciple of a Mahatma,

f. The Mahatmas are the disciples of still higher initiates,

g. These in turn are the disciples of the Christ or of that official who is at the head of the teaching department,

h. The head of the teaching department is a disciple of the Lord of the World,

i. The Lord of the World is the disciple of one of the three planetary spirits who represent the three major aspects,

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j. These are again disciples of the solar Logos.

It will be apparent therefore to the careful student how interdependent all are and how the achievement of one will profoundly affect the entire body.  Discipleship can be regarded as a generic term covering all those states or conditions of being in the fourth and fifth kingdoms (human and spiritual) wherein certain expansions of consciousness are brought about through specific training.

27. The Word of Ishvara is AUM (or OM).  This is the Pranava.  (See Book I.  Sutra 1.)

Students should remember that there are three basic Words or sounds in manifestation.  This is the case as far as the human kingdom is concerned.  They are:

I. The Word, or note of Nature.  This is the Word or the sound of all forms existing in physical plane substance, and as is usually known, it is sounded on the fundamental note "FA."  It is a note with which the white occultist has nothing to do, for his work is concerned not with the increase of tangibility but with the demonstration of the subjective or the intangible.  This is the Word of the third aspect, the Brahma or Holy Ghost aspect.