annie besant - the birth and evolution of the soul

7/30/2019 Annie Besant - The Birth and Evolution of the Soul

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AND EvolutionOF THE Soul

ANNIE Besant


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Chicago. \jMRg.I.\f.jA('i;80N

THE LIBRARYOFTHE UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIALOS ANGELES


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THE BIRTH AND EVOLUTIONOF THE SOUL.


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THE BIRTH ANDEVOLUTION OFTHE SOUL

BYANNIE BESANT

TWO LECTURESSECOND EDITION

LONDON:THE050PHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIErV.City Agents :PERCY LUND, HUMPHRIES & CO., LTD.,

3, Amen Corner, LONDON, E.C.903.


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mjt Wnth $^ (^bolntion of tlje ^oul

PART I.THESE two lectures might better perhaps be

described as one lecture in two parts, for I amreally going to try and give you in the two

a connected tracing of the progress of the soul.There is so much confusion in thought as to theorigin of the individual, as to what the individualreally means, as to how he is developed, and whatis to be his ultimate destiny, that I thought I couldtake no better subject for a Lodge, which ought tobe a Lodge of students, than to trace out somewhatin detail this most important matter in the light ofTheosophy. Important, because on it turns yourwhole view of the purpose of the Universe ; and ifthe growth of the Soul were better understood thanit is, we should not hear the continual questionsasked as to why there should be a Universe at all,and why there should be manifestation ; why, ifeverything comes out of One and goes back to One

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again, why this intermediate condition of multi-pHcity should occur. The whole of these questionsreally turn on misunderstanding, or on lack ofaccurate knowledge, and it is to the clearing up ofthat misunderstanding that I am going to addressmyself to-night and this night week.

In order to make the origin of the individualclear, I must ask you to come back with me to thetime when the human race was evolving, but whenas yet the individual had not come into existence.Come back to what you know, in Theosophical litera-ture, as the first Race of man. You may rememberthataccording to the teachings which you find inThe Secret Doctrine and in the great Scriptures of theworldyou may remember that the first Race hadits bodies built up, as it were, round a form that issaid to have been derived from the Moon. ThePitris, or ancestors, who afforded the first matrix forhumanity, who give the first ethereal form throughand by the help of which the physical in man wasto evolvethose are spoken of as the Lunar Pitrisbecause of their connection with the Moon. Intothat connection I have not time to go in detail, butthe traces of it are around you on every side at thepresent time. You must be perfectly well awarethat the effect of the Moon upon the Earth ismarked and constant ; and, above all, you may


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notice that it is the measure in time of all greatphysiological periods. The fact that you still findthat to be the case after so many millions of yearsshould make it at least not surprising to you whenyou read in ancient books that there is a causalrelation between the Moon and the Earth, andbetween the ancestors of humanity and forms ofliving beings who existed on the lunar globe in agesgone by.Now, these Lunar Pitris that came and projected

their astral forms, as it is said, in order that the firstRace of man might develop, came to the Earth, thisEarth on which we are now, which is the centralglobe in the ring of globes, and they came to itsofar as we need trouble about it to-nightfor theFourth Round ; of course not for the first time, butI am ignoring the first three Rounds. When theyarrived at this globe for the Fourth Round theythrew out these shadowsethereal bodies, as theyare called. The reasonand I may as well mentionit in passingwhy an ethereal body, or body ofastral matter, should in point of time come beforethe physical body that we know, is that you cannothave any vital energies at work, you cannot haveany electrical or magnetic currents, or any of thosecurrents which have to do with the various pheno-mena of life and of chemical action, without the


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presence of ether. So that it is not possible to drawtogether physical molecules for the making of adense body unless you have what we may call amatrix of ether through which these forces are ableto arct, and so to draw together, and hold togetherafter they are drawn, the physical molecules. Infact, every physical molecule has its envelope ofether, and is permeated therewith, and it is bymeans of this ethereal envelope of the molecule thatthese life-forces are able to draw and hold thephysical body together.

During the first and second Races of man thisphysical body was built up by the action of what arecalled Nature-Spirits, who made this outer clothingof man, the tabernacle of flesh, as it is sometimesentitled. Out of the first Race evolved the second,and out of the second evolved the third. No break,nothing that would be called a new creation, butdefinite and sequential evolution. The materialsused in these bodies had been worked up in previousages through mineral and vegetable and animal, andso had taken on, as far as their atoms were con-cerned, an internal differentiation, which is of enor-mous importance when they enter into the body ofthe higher animals and of man.

Man, again, is nearly the first being that appearson this globe at the stage of evolution that we are


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9considering. Pass, then, from the first and secondRaces to the third. When the third Race wasevolving, slowly and gradually through almost in-calculable periods of time, the animal developmenttook place ; that is, the development of the physicaland astral bodies went on during the first and secondRaces, and in the third that of the body of sensation,as you know it in yourselves and in the loweranimals, the body which receives and translates intofeeling all impressions from without. Your outsidebody receives contacts from the external universe,and certain parts of it are modified to answer tothose contacts ; these modified parts we call thesense-organs. But you are aware that the sense-organ in the body, while it answers by way of vibra-tion to any vibration of its own particular class thatcomes to it from without, is not that which feels orperceives. This vibration has to be transmittedinwards in a very real sense, and not only inwardsto the sense-centres, as they are called, in the brain,but inwards from this again by way of the astralbodyand this action shows itself always by thepassing of electrical and magnetic currentsintothis third body that I am now speaking of, the bodyof sensation. You may have a break between theouter impact and what we call feeling, between theouter vibrations of the ether on the retina of the eye


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and what we call sight. The power of sight, thepower of tasting, of smelling, of hearing, of feeling,all these powers reside in this body of sensation, andthat is, of course, why it has that particular name.Now, the lower animals have this body as well aswe. You find it in the animals with which you arefamiliar around you. They feel, and not only dothey feel, but they show emotions, passions andappetites. You will see the passion of anger insome animals ; you will see sex passion, you will findhunger, thirstall these things are present in thelower animals, and we may group them all together,in order that a single phrase may describe theseactivities as the "body of sensation" or, as it isoften called, the " body of desire."As you are a Lodge of students, I may venture to

use a Sanskrit word, the word Kama. This bodyis spoken of as the Kama body, Kama Rupa, whichis only the Sanskrit for " desire body ; " and I usethe name because I want in a moment to quote aphrase in which that word Kama occurs. In theanimal it is developed. Now, it is part of the truthof evolution that every stage of an evolving organismcontains within itself in germ the next stage bywhich evolution is to proceed. Take what stage ofevolution you like in the outer world, and you willalways find that at any stage there is a germ which,


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if it proceeds, will develop into a new individual.This is characteristic of all forms of living things,and b)^ the improvement from the germ evolutionproceeds. You may take vegetable, you may takeanimal, you may take man, take what you likealways you will find that, if an individual is to beproduced, a germ will be present which is to formpart-helper of his growth. Part helper only; andthis is always present in what is called the passiveside of Nature.You remember that if you go right back almost to

the beginning of things you find what are called the" pairs of opposites," and the first appearance ofthese in the Second Logos is often spoken of asbeing Spirit-Matter, in order to give the two greatpoles of existence between which all organizationtakes place. Two characteristics mark those twopoles. One of them is active, and the other ispassive; one of them is positive, the other is nega-tive ; one of them is that which gives impulse, theother is that which gives form ; and these two arepresent everywhere, inseparable in Nature. Rightthrough Nature, not only in physical Nature, butthrough all realms of Nature, you will find thisdiversity ; and without the union of these twotogether you will find nowhere fresh growth, pro-gress in evolution. There must always be the


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stimulating force, and there must be the form thatdevelops. You may call them, if you like, male andfemale, as in physical Nature; you may call them,if you Hke, Father and Mother; but keep the ideaplainly in mind, because on this the understandingof the origin of the individual soul depends.Now, let me remind you of the line of evolution,

which is the line of form, which comes from theMoon originally, and evolves downwards to Kama.This, I say, is found in the animal just as it is inman, and you need to keep that in mind. In thatKama or desirewhich builds a body with thepower of sensation, the power of not only answer-ing to outside impact, but of translating it intofeelinglies the root of self-consciousness. Con-sciousness in germ is simply the power to respondto a vibration that comes from outside ; and whento that power of response there is added feeling, thenyou get what we may call the " germ of mind "not mind, but its germ, the negative side of mind inwhich and by means of which mind may evolve.

If for a moment you will look at the lower animalsyou will see a startling difference between the wildand the domesticated. You will find in the domesti-cated animal very much more of what you wouldcall mind than you find in the wild animal ; and fora very simple reason that you will see as we go on.


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13If you take the wild animal that has never comeacross man at all, you will find in it plenty ofresponse to the impacts of the external world ; butyou will find in it comparatively little reasoning,little judgment, little linking together of inner sensa-tion and outer object, unless the object be present,or unless some craving of the organism gives animpulse to action. Food, for instance, being withinthe sight of an animal, even if it is not very hungry,will cause movement towards the food, or thecraving of the organism for sustenance will make itseek for food. But you do not get in the wildanimal much of what you may call " ideal action,"action without an impulse which comes from bodilynecessities, or from the presence of an externalobject ; that is, you have not there present much ofwhat we know as mind, of which the lowest andearliest manifestations are the connection betweenan outer object and an inner sensation and thepower of recalling that connection and acting uponit without the object being presentthe qualitieswhich technically arc called perception and recol-lection.

At this stage, then, of this single line that I havebrought down thus we have got as far as thedevelopment of Kama, in w'hich is the germ of mind,the stage in which, if there is to be a higher


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Hevolution, some impulse from without must be given.The passive side of Nature, brooded over by theDivine Spirit, could not by itself get any further thanthis stagethe development of a germ ; and whenyou have the body of desire present, that containsin it this germ of mind; think of it now, if youlike, as the female or mother side of Nature.Now, for a moment leaving this altogether, take

an analogy from lower Nature. Let me ask any ofyou who happen to be botanistsand probably allof you know enough of botany to follow the illus-trationto take what is called the ovule of a plant,that which develops into a seed ; left to itself thatovule which is in the female organ will never be any-thing more than an ovule: it will simply wither upand perish. But it contains within it all the nourish-ment by means of which a new plant will grow ; ithas stored up, as it were, a stock of food, if any newlife, an individual, should there begin. But an indi-vidual cannot begin there simply by the action ofthe ovule itself; it needs a stimulus which comesfrom the contents of the male organ of the plant,the pollen, and if that pollen throws out a minutecell which enters the ovule and comes into contactwith the germ cell within the ovule, then there willbe an interaction between these two microscopiccells, and by the union of the two a new impulse


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will be given, and an individual will result v/hichwill develop for a time within this ovule which hasnow become the seed, and after a time will showmarks characteristic of its parents ; but it will sepa-rate itself from the parents and carry on life on itsown account, having its own root, its own stem, andits own leaves. The starting-point of that is thejunction of the two microscopic cells, differing intheir naturethe one positive, impulse-giving, fer-tilizing ; the other receptive, passive, nutrientshowing the characteristics of the two sides ofNature. Now we have here got the passive, nutrientside developed along this line which I characterizedas lunarcoming from the moon. It is the side ofform, and it may perhaps interest you to notice thatit is the side that receives from outside, the passiveside again, and that all these emotions and every-thing else in it are set up in answer to this impulsefrom without, thus showing its characteristic as thereceptive or female side.Now, in past Universes a process of development

has gone on similar to that which is going on in thepresent world to-day; in those past Universes mindswere developed as we develop minds now, and theirprocess of development will be clearer when youfollow the process of development amongst ourselves.The minds that developed in those preceding Uni-


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i6verses, that passed into Nirvana, that passed out ofNirvana again at the beginning of the present age,have many names both in The Secret Doctrine and inother books. Let us take the name of " Sons ofMind," because it describes their most saHentcharacteristic. They are sometimes spoken of underthe name of Kumaras, which means " youths,"sometimes they are called Solar Pitris ; but I preferto take the name most often used in The SecretDoctrine, where, of course, you get it in the Sanskritform, Manasa Putra ; we will take it in English as" Sons of the Mind." They have developed Intelli-gence. Now, what is Intelligence ? Intelligence isthe result of vital activity working in a particularform of matter, and developing connecting linksbetween the external Universe and itself. It^ is athing of slow growth ; it is made by experience ; itis evolved, it does not come into existence suddenly.Intelligence is the outcome of these repeated con-tacts, and of the working of life on the contactsso that you never can get Intelhgence apart fromorganism. You have something which may be calledthe Supreme Life, but it is a mistake to speak of Itthen as Intelligence; It is higher and deeper andsublimer than anything we know as Intelligence,and Its processes are far beyond and above every-thing that we call thought. Thought always consists


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17in this linking togetlier of the external and theinternal, of making ideal links between the two, andhence imagesideas, as we call them ; and Intelli-gence is only developed by the Supreme Lifemanifesting Itself as what we, for want of a betterword, are obliged to call Spirit in the EnglishtongueAtma is the familiar name in our ownphilosophyby thus manifesting Itself in thesubtlest form, and then gradually working throughmatter and thereby evolving what we call Intelli-gencethat is, all these connecting links that go tobuild mental faculties.

This process, then, had gone on in a past age sofar as these great Sons of Mind are concerned;these mighty Spiritual Intelligences had accom-plished what we are aiming at now. They are thesuccessful men of past ages, who have developedinto perfect men, perfect Intelligences, and now are,so to speak, co-operating in the building of a newrace, co-operating in the production of a newhumanity. But up to the point at which we arethey had taken no part in this evolution that hadbeen going onthe physical side, the evolution ofform. Now, from These is to come a second line,from the Sons of Mind, Lords of Light, They arecalled sometimes Pillars of Light, and so on ; These,coming down to the Earth when the Tabernacles


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were ready to receive Them, came to give the neces-sary impulse in order that at this point of junctiona new individual might arise, and afforded the active,impelling, positive energy.You remember at the beginning of the second

volume of The Secret Doctrine, those Stanzas called theStanzas of Dzyan, which deal with the Evolution ofMan. They have been said lately by Mr. Colemanto be purely modern productions ; but they werenever found out in modern writings until MadameBlavatsky found them. But leave that to return tothis. You will find it said that when these Sons ofMind came down, " from their own Rupa they filledthe Kama." That is why I was obliged to troubleyou with this word, because I wanted to quote thatparticular Stanza : " From their own Rupa theyfilled the Kama." Coming down to animal-manthey threw part of Their own nature into him,filling the Kama wherein the germ of sensation andfeeling had been evolved, and They contributed tothat the spark of intelligence. And so again in oneof those same Stanzas it is said : " Some projecteda spajrk." The more careful readers amongst youmay remember it is said : " Some entered. . . .Those who entered became Arhats." Those are thegreat Teachers of Humanity in the earlier days ofour Racethe fourth and the fifth Races, and the


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19third and a half. The Great TeachersThose whotook this infant Humanity under their care, andtrained it, Those who absokitely entered intothese bodies that were prepared, with Their highlydeveloped Intelligencieswere the mighty Adeptsof the past ; They formed what were called thenurseries of Adepts for the present age ; the GreatTeachers who came in order that this infantHumanity might be guarded and protected andhelped in its earlier stages. With Them, so far asordinary Humanity is concerned, we need not dealThey entered in and took these bodies as Theirvehicles. But They also, some of Them, projectedthe spark which fell into the kamic receptacle: Theiressence filled it. Now the individual begins wherethat union takes place. Before that there is no Egoin man ; before that there is no soul in man in thefull sense of the term, although the word AnimalSoul is occasionally used for the feelings, emotions,and so on. The lower Soul this is often called, orthe Animal Soul ; but the true Ego, that which iscapable of achieving immortality, is not there.Remember how that phrase is used sometimes ; ithas not necessarily immortality in itself, although ithas in it the power of achieving immortality, byvirtue of its connection with these immortal Sonsof Mind, Who have already achieved. Man may


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20become immortal "if he will." That was a phraseused, you may remember, in one of the letters fromMaster K. H. to Mr. Sinnett, published in The OccultWorld ; part of the work of the Society was theresaid to be to teach man that he may becomeimmortal if he will, not that he necessarily is im-mortal, but that he may achieve immortality.Immortal in the essence of the Soul ? Yes ; butnot in its developed self-conscious intelligence. Forintelligence has to be worked out and built up byslow degrees ; intelligence has to be evolved by thisspark, working through the matter into which it hascome, and unless it works successfully, acquiresexperience slowly, and gradually builds it up intofaculty in the course of that pilgrimage of the Soulthat lies in front of our thought, immortality willnot be achieved. For it is necessary, in order thatimmortality may be achieved, that this which isto acquire experience and build up accumulatedexperiences shall regain unity. That which iscompounded does not last ; that which is com-pounded will be at some time disintegrated : onlythe unit persists. The individual begins at thispoint, and he is a compound. He will weave intohis own existence all these endless experiences, andwill become, so to speak, more and more compound,a more and more complex combination. But this


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has in itself the seed of destruction ; everything thatthus goes on combining has in it the conditions ofdisintegration, and the compound disintegrates.How then can this compound achieve immortahty ?By a process of unification that will form the laststages of its pilgrimage ; by that Yoga, or union,which will make it again the One. Having achievedindividuality by many, many incarnations, throughwhich this individuality will be built up, it thenunifies all these experiences, and by a subtle alchemyextracts as it were a unit experience out of themultiplicity, and in a way beyond wordsbeyondwords because it is beyond brain-experience andthought, but which is not beyond the "sensing" ofsome who have at least begun the processthisindividual evolves into a unity higher than its owncombined nature ; and while it may be said to loseindividuality as we know it, it gains somethingwhich is far greater. Without losing the essence ofindividuality, it re-becomes a unit consciousness, andby that becomes incapable of disintegration andachieves its final immortality. But here is thebeginning pointand on that I want to lay a gooddeal of stressthat it begins then, that before thatthe Ego which is now in each of you was not inexistence as Ego, any more than the plant whichwill develop from a germ, if the germ be fertilised, is


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22in existence before that fertilisation takes place.True, that which will form it exists, because thereis no increase either of energy or of matter ; but thecombination which makes the new individual doesnot exist until the junction has taken place, and theEgo does not exist before this union has taken place.It is there that originates the individual. You willforgive me for repeating that so often. But this isthe point where the mistake comes in, and wherethere is so much confusion in thought ; and it isbecause of that that I am laying stress upon it, inorder that you may have clearly in your minds thisfact ; that individuals begin in each Manvantaraor Age, that the purpose of each Universe is theevolution of individuals, that the Universe comesinto existence in order that individuals may beborn, that it is maintained in existence in orderthat individuals may be evolved, that when it passesout of manifestation its harvest is the perfected in-dividuals who regain unity and outlast the Universe,passing into what is called Nirvana, to re-emergefor a new Universe as Sons of Mind, if in theformer Universe they have been completely success-ful. There are other intermediate stages, pointswhere failure may come in, and where evolution mayhave to be taken up again as it were midway, pointsof failure in one Universe that do not throw back the


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fallen, as Master K. H. pointed out, to the beginningof things again, but are such as to allow them totake up their evolution at the point where it ceased.The failures of one age become, so to speak, thepioneers of another. But leaving those complica-tions out of consideration, the harvest of everyUniverse is these triumphant individuals, who haveevolved unity out of diversity, and thus haveachieved their immortality.

Realizing that, then, let us take our individualand see what kind of an entity this is at its origin.And I think I will throw in here a very, very briefdigression, which will make it a more living thing toyou. Take one of the lower animals. Now we willcome to the domesticated. I mentioned that withregard to the wild animal there is the germ of mind,but very little that you can really call mind. Supposeyou take an animal and domesticate it, and supposeyou domesticate it for generations, you will havehanded on in the three bodies of that animalthephysical, the astral, and the kamicyou will havehanded on a very definite heredity ; and if theseindividuals are domesticated time after time you willfind greater and greater intelligence, as it may becalled, evolving.Now, supposing that you take a puppy, andsupposing that from that puppy's birth you keep it


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Hcontinually with yourselves, and you do not permitit to associate with the lower creatures, but you keepit \\ith 3^ourselves. Some lonely person, for instance,takes a pupp}', and it is always with him or her; whatis the result ? The result is that in that puppy, as itgrows up, there is developed a startling amount ofsome quality that you are forced to call Intelligence.You will develop in it a limited reason ; you willdevelop in it a limited memory ; you will develop init a limited judgment. Now, these are qualities ofthe mind, not qualities of Kama. How is it that inthis lower animal these qualities are developed ?They are developed artificially by the playing uponit of the human intelligence. To that animal themind in you to some extent plays the part which theSon of Mind plays to Humanity; and thrown outfrom the comparatively developed Intelligence inman, these rays, these energetic raj'S of mentalinfluence, vitalize the germ in the Kama of theanimal and so produce artificially, as it were, annfant mind.Now I say that, in order that you may realise

more clearl}^ perhaps than otherwise you would, thefirst slow stages of the growth of mind. Let mesay that this process is not good for the animal, andit is not good for the human being who does it.Neither the one nor the other is the better for the


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25process, in fact very often both are exceedingly theworse, and it is not a wholesome practicethis over-stimulation of the domesticated animal and thisartificial forcing of a mental life for which the animalbody is not yet fitted, for which the animal nervoussystem has not yet developed the proper naturalbasis, and in which it is really forced, in a kind ofartificial hot-house, to the detriment of the creature,and probably to its retardation in a later stage of itsexistence.But it is well to remember that there is no such

thing as a break in nature ; every evolution issequential, and it is therefore possible to forceevolution in this way, although it be unwise.*Coming back from my little digression, let me

take up again my infant Soul, to whom I will givethe name of the baby Ego, and he is very much, asregards his mental capacities, what the new-born

* It is with much inner pleasure that I find that a statementcurrent in Theosophical circles, and repeated by me above, is in-correct in fact. It seems, with regard to some animals at leastasthe dog and the catthat the development caused " by the playingupon it of the human intelligence" is well caused, and lifts theanimal forward, so that the germinating individuality does notreturn to animal incarnation, but awaits elsewhere the period atwhich its further development shall become possible. The"forcing" is therefore helpful and beneficial, not harmful, and wemay rid ourselves of the incongruous idea that, in a universe builton and permeated by Love, the out-welling of compassion and loveto our younger relatives is injurious to them. There are a goodmany Theosophists, I think, who will share ray pleasure in gettingrid of a view against which one's instinct secretly rebelled.


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baby is as regards his power of manifesting thesefaculties. Of course, the new-born bab}' has mentalfaculties which very soon force the brain to prepareitself for their manifestation, so that there is not areal analogy between the two. The want of know-ledge, so to speak, in the new-born baby is simplydue to the clumsiness of the instrument ; the brainis new, and it takes some little time for the links tobe set up between the instrument and the player.But the player is there, when you are dealing withour race at the present time, and therefore we havenot really the condition in which the Ego itself is inthe state of babyhood.Now this entity which has thus been formed atthis junction of the two lines, and which I call thebaby Ego, is absolutely ignorant. It has no mind,it has no thought, it has nothing more than thesensations it gets from Kama at present, except thepower of evolving which it has received from thestimulating spark of the Son of Mind. Sensationsare there ; it has to make the link which we callperception. How will that link be made ? Thesensation will be caused by way of the body throughwhich it has come into contact with some externalobject. Let us say that the body, by the mouth,comes upon an external object which gives rise to apleasant sensation of tastesomething which is


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sweet. The animal of course has developed thisalready, and in the body it will be a habit that whenit sees this thing, or feels hunger, it will go towardsit. The baby Ego will experience the sensationwhich is pleasurable, but it will only be a momentarysensation and at first apparently nothing morelittle impact on this germ of mind ; over and overagain such an impact will take place. At last thereis set up in this baby Ego by this repetition a con-necting link between the external object that givesrise to a pleasant sensation and the pleasant sen-sation, and it will thus make its first thought. Thisconnecting link between the external and the in-ternal, between the contact which comes from anoutside object and the pleasure which that contactgives, will be what is called a " percept," and youhave in perception the first activity of the mindwhen this perception has been repeated over andover and over and over again, it will be remembered,and conscious memory begins.

Built up in this baby by these repeated contacts,and repeated pleasurable sensations, and repealedconnections between the object and the sensation,at last memory will develop, which is the idealcontact ; the idea is built out of a number of thesesensations. And that faculty of memorj' will be afaculty of the baby Ego which will be evolved by


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these constant experiences ; and it will take a longtime evolvingperhaps a whole life, or part of a life.I cannot measure it off; but I want you to realisethat it is a thing which will take a considerabletime, that the memory will be a thing which willneed much experience at this early stage, before itwill really become recognisable and workable.There are human beings even at the present timein which this faculty of the Soul is so little developedthat it will not last over even twelve hours, and inwhich their view of the world is quite different inthe morning and in the evening. Some of thelowest aborigines in Australia in whom the sparkhas burned very low, in whom it has not developedand grown, are on record as having so little memorythat they cannot remember through the course of awhole day, and blankets given away in the eveningwill be clung to because the night has begun and thenight is cold. But when the next morning comesround and the immediate use for the blanket is over,and while they do not want the blanket they do wantfoodthe food is an immediate want, but the blanketwon't be wanted till eveningsome of them have notsufficiently developed what we should call the ideaof invariable sequence in their minds to rememberthat night will come back again after the day isover, and that the blanket which they do not want


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while the sun is out they will want when the sun hasset. The sunset of yesterday is, so to speak, a pastincarnation to them, and they do not carry on thememory through the night ; therefore, they willpart with their blanket for a mere trifle in themorning, although they will not part with it in theeveninga most striking illustration of the babysense, if I may so call it, of the Ego which isincarnated in these aborigines. They are dying offvery fast, and no English government will be able tokeep them alive, because their work is done. Arace dies when it is of no more use to the Soul ; itbecomes sterile when its purpose in the evolution ofthe Soul is over. For as the Universe only existsfor the sake of the Soul, so all these stages in theUniverse exist for the Soul, and when there are nomore Souls so little developed that such a race is ofany use to them, it becomes sterile and graduallydisappears. I do not mean when it is helped todisappear by the superior races, though that is oftenthe case ; but even if they do not help it to dis-appear rapidly, it will inevitably disappear slowlyon its own account, by the barrenness which fallsupon it. It is of no more use, therefore it does notcontinue.That illustration may give you some idea of what

the spark is like in its early stages, as you find it in


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30these sparks that have burned low and not developed.Memory will be very, very slowly developed, but whenit is developed, even in a limited way, you will atonce see that an element is present conducing tomore rapid growth, because the moment that thisbaby remembers past experiences it is then begin-ning to accumulate a little store which will impel itto action without impulse from without. It wallhave an impulse beginning from within which willlead it to seek experiences. Farther, not until it hasmemory can it distinguish, in their absence, betweenpleasurable and painful experiences, good and evil,as it will call them, and so begin to develop in itselfa power of comparison and selection, i.e., of judg-ment, which will serve as a guide for action. Letme take the case of taste, which I chose before. Itwas pleasurable. Of course, some tastes will beunpleasant, and those will be marked off as painful,to be avoided. So that the Ego will get, as itbegins to remember, two classes of things in theouter world; one labelled in its own mind if I maycall it mind at this stage: "pleasure; to be sought,to be followed " ; and the other labelled : " painfulto be avoided, to be run away from, to be escaped."And at this stage the Universe, so to speak, willdivide itself into two for this baby Ego, things to berun after and things to be run away from. It will


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31not have gone any further than that. Going outinto an unknown world where it comes into contactwith objects, the first great division will be thingsthat it wants, and things that it does not want ; andthe wanting or the not wanting will depend onwhether it meets something which it desires torepeat because it gives it pleasure, or somethingwhich it desires to avoid repeating because it givesit pain. This is the beginning of experience.

In this way it will begin, as it accumulates theseexperiences of pleasure and of pain, to learn some-thing more ; it will begin to learn that this worldthat it has come into is a very definite kind of thing,and that it has got to accommodate itself to it ; itwill find some things in it that do not give way, andthat if it runs up against those things certain un-pleasant results always follow. Memory of courseis wanted for this, to notice that always thesame thing comes from the same object under thesame circumstances ; and when sufficient of thesesensations have been accumulated to give rise to thedefinite idea that doing a particular thing will causepain, there is the first glimpse of law, of somethingexternal to itself which it cannot overcome, whichthrows it back, as it were, and gives what it feels aspain, something repellent when it comes against it.So the idea begins to arise that not only are some


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32things to be followed and others to be avoided, butthat these things which are to be followed, andwhich are pleasure-giving, are things which are" good "which only means at first harmoniousthat others are inharmonious and unpleasant, andtherefore "evil"; that there is a law of pleasure andof pain to which it must adapt itself if it wants tolive in comfort, that nothing that it can do willbreak this law, and that, therefore, it will be wise toaccommodate itself to the law. This observation ofsequence will be made by our baby Ego and willgive rise to the idea of Law, and of the need toadapt itself to these laws if it is to live at all com-fortably. And then a little more will come as theexperience goes on ; that sometimes a thing beginsby giving pleasure and goes on by giving painmost confusing experience. Let us cling to ourtaste. The body of our baby Ego eats and pleasureis felt ; because of this it makes the body go oneating till it eats too much. It then finds that byrepeating this gratification pain has come wherethere was pleasure. It makes its body ill ; and itgets a new view of the outside Universethat thegratification of this which began by being pleasur-able works out into pain, and that the pleasurewhich began in flavour may end in most uncomfort-able aches ; and not only so, but, persisted in, may


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33cause perennial aches which later on it will know asdisease. This very much emphasises its idea of law,and it begins to accumulate now a sequential ex-perience of different pleasures and pains, and torealise that it bears a certain relationship to theseoutside contacts ; it learns that it is not the outsideobject in itself which is pleasure-giving or pain-giving, but some relation that arises between itselfand the outside objecta great advanceand thatthese outside objects are neither pleasure-giving norpain-giving in themselves, but only in relation to itself,the same thing sometimes giving the one and some-times giving the other. So that the idt-a of pleasureand pain, in this further experience of our baby Ego,will go on into the relationships that itself sets upwith the outer world, and that change the characterof the outside impact from pleasurable to painful.And then the law will begin to take on, as it were, acompelling power, and it will realise that it canadapt itself to this strange external apparent change,and that by adapting itself it can persist in pleasureor persist in pain, and that the pleasure and painwill depend on its attitude to the outer world. Andso this next lesson of experience will be learned.And there I must leave my baby Ego for to-night,having reached as far as the recognition of an outerworld, the receiving of pleasure and of pain, the


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34recognition of relations, therefrom evolution ofmemory, evolution of judgmentwhich recognizesthe relationship as having in itself this difference ofpleasure and painso that we have the beginningsof perception, memory, judgmentthree things thatare wanting for what we call reason of an elementarykind. Reason only exists in the baby Ego as amere germ ; and we will leave him as he passesthrough death, carrying with him these germinalmental faculties which he has evolved. We cannotsay how much progress would be made in one ofthese early lives ; probably many lives would beneeded to arrive at the stage just described. Inorder to make our study complete in outline, let ustake him at the end of his first life, to see theprinciple underlying post-mortem evolution. Let ussee him having begun his pilgrimage and passing forthe first time through the gate of death. On theother side of that we will leave him to take him upagain next week.


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35

PART II.YOU will remember that last week we left what

I called the baby Ego having passed throughthe gateway of death. Now I spoke of his

passing for the first time through the gateway ofdeath, because I wanted to take up for a fewmoments the posi-morteui states in order that wemight have as it were before us for the rest of thestudy of the pilgrimage this complete cycle : the lifeupon earth, the life in the transition state beyonddeath, the life in the Devachanic statethe life ofthe Soul properly so-called, the intellectual andintelligent life. Those three stages, being the threedivisions of the pilgrimage completing a singleperiod, are repeated over and over and over again,succeeding each other in this definite way, all bearingto each other a definite relation, so that unless weunderstand each of the three we shall not be ableto follow with an\' intelligence the pilgrimage of theSoul or the growth of the Ego.


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36When, however, this germinal Ego that I spoke

of last week passes for the first time through thegateway of death, it has exceedingly little materialfor these stages that lie on the other side of thatgateway. The first stage is that which may becalledtranslating the termthe Land of Desire.You will remember that desire is Kama, and Loka isplace ; so that this land or place of desire is called,in Theosophical books, Kama Loka ; that is, a placeinhabited by Souls still clad in the desire or sensationbody that we studied last week. The Ego in thisbody dwells there for a timebut not only the Egoof man. It is the place where these bodies of sen-sation and desire survive the physical and the astralbodies ; so that you have there these desire orsensation bodies of the lower animals as well asthose which are inhabited by the Human Soul.Now, when our baby Ego is at this very early

stage of his life there will be in him a great deal ofthe lower element of Kama or desire, and scarcelyanything at all of the higher element of Mind. Hisstay then in this Kama Loka will be for a con-siderable period, and all that he will do there isto experience pleasant or painful results accordingas the life which has been led on the physicalplanewhich has been led upon earthhas been inaccordance with law or discordant with law. The


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37life there is exceedingly limited, and is simply aresult from the life upon earth. Nothing new isintroduced into it ; it is a life in which there is agreat deal of repetition, in which an experience isrepeated over and over and over again. And thisautomatic action, as we may call it, is one of thegreat characteristics of this Kamic body, or bodyof sensation. You know how easily habits are setuphabits of the physical body, especially habitswhich are connected with the passions and with theemotions. The great root of these habits lies in thebody of sensation with its peculiarly strong auto-matic tendencies. Those are impressed on the outerbody, although, of course, the habit of repetition inthe physical body will also come in to some extent.When the Soul has passed out of this transitional

state it leaves behind it this body of desire, just asin leaving the earth it left the physical body. Thebodies belong to certain definite stages in the Universe,and the Soul cannot carry on any body with whichit has been clothed further than the stage in theUniverse to which that body belongs. It cannotcarry the physical body away from the physicalplane ; it cannot carry the astral body out of thelower astral world ; it cannot carry this body ofsensation out of the transitional state, known asthe land of sensation or desire. And when it


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38has worn it out sufficiently to allow it to escapewhen it has exhausted, so to speak, this body ofdesire, which has been nourished in the sensationallife of earththen it passes on into a higher con-dition, into a higher sphere, where the whole of itswork is the work of the mind, all higher aspirations,all thoughts which are devoid of passion and ofappetite, everything which is intellectual as distin-guished from what is passional, all the higheremotions which have in them this element of mindas well as the lower element of passionthese,purified from passion, will be carried on into thishigher world. And the length of the stay of theSoul in that world depends on the amount whichduring its earth-life it has accumulated of mentalexperiences, and of experiences of the higher emo-tions, of the artistic faculties, and so oneverything,in fact, which has to do with the mind. Under-standing that, you will see at once that when theSoul first passes through the gateway of death therewill be scarcely anything for it to carry on into thishigher condition, hardly any experiences which itcan use for the development, as it were, of mentalfaculty. Still, the very few experiences that it hasacquired during its first life in the body, which arenot kamic, will be carried on. What will be itswork, then, in this higher world ? It will be to


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39extract from these separated mental experiencestheir 'essence, and to transmute that essence byworking upon it with this energy of the Soul, trans-mute that essence into mental faculty, or mentalability. The work that the Soul accomplishes whenit is out of the body, when it can no longer gatherfresh experiences, when it has lost the three bodiesthrough which experiences can alone be collected,the work of the Soul is then to take up the mentalimages remaining from these experiences, and, work-ing on them, to take out of them their essence. Justin the same way that a chemist might take a numberof chemical elements, might throw them into acrucible, and then, purifying them from dross, mightextract the elements themselves and combine themin the crucible ; so does this chemist, as it werethe Soulby the alchemy of its own mental ability,the thought power which it has developed, workingon these accumulated and separated experiences,throwing them into the crucible of the mind, extractfrom them their essence, and then taking thatessence it assimilates it, makes it part of itself, worksit into its own nature, orto use the phrase that Iused two or three times last weekweaves theseseparated experiences into itself, and so begins tomake a real garment of the Soul, which is thecharacter of the Soul, and which will reappear as


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40character when it comes back to earth. Ever3'thingthat the Soul brings with it of mental faculty, every-thing that is born, as we say, with the child, thepowers of the mind which the child showsthewhole of these are brought back by the Soul as theresult of its workings on past experiences while it isliving in the world of the Soul, the world that wecall Devachan in our Theosophical literature, whichsimply means the land of bliss. As I say, then,in these early experiences there will be very littlefor the Soul to work upon in this blissful land ; butwhen it comes back, even after this first period iscompleted, and comes to be born for the second timeupon earth, it will have what it did not have at thebeginnmga little germ of mental faculty. That isthe small result in faculty which it has brought backby working on the few experiences that it accumu-lated during its previous life. It will start, then, ata certain advantage in this second period of itspilgrimage ; it will start with certain tools, as itwere, ready made to its hand, which it has fashionedfor itself during this interlude in the world of theSoul ; it will come back with a nascent memory, witha nascent power of comparison, very, very small cer-tainly, but still, so to speak, better than none ; and itwill work through that on the new experiences thatcome to it by way of sensation from the outer world.


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41Through this life, then, again it will pass, having

this advantage now, that it has a little mental facultyto go upon which it can increase. As it goes onexperiences increase, its power to receive the experi-ences being greater, and this mental element mixingitself up with the emotional and the passional nature.So that we now speak of the mind, or, as we call it,Manasthe word from which our own word man isderived, and which really means the thinker, thegreat characteristic of the man being that he thinks.This Manas, then, now coming back, small as itspowers are, will modify and change the whole of thekamic nature, the passional nature; and all that thisEgo now experiences will have in it the two ele-mentsthe element of passion which belongs to itspassional nature, and the element which comes fromthis mind which is developing, which tends graduallymore and more to observe, and to compare, and tomake record of its experiences, and to store them upin order that it may direct its action by them. Atfirst all the actions will grow from outer attractionpresently against the outer attraction there will beworking the images of past experiences. So that, to takeup the illustration that I used last week of taste, whenthere is a strong attraction from without of a tastewhich it knows will be pleasurable, excess will beguarded against b}' the mental image which has been


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42

preserved of the pains that in previous experienceswere the result of over-gratification of taste. Sothat now you will have this double element. Andremember that the element of the mind is increasing,while the other element is more or less stationary.As the Soul passes from life to life, and in each lifeaccumulates experiences, in each transitional stageafter death suffers from the animal appetites whichhold it prisoner from going on into the happierworld, and then in that happier world works uponthe experiences and changes them into faculties, itwill always have an accumulating stock of faculty,an accumulating store of memories, while the outerattractions will remain comparatively the same, andaction will be more and more directed by reason andless and less directed by appetite.Now, understanding that you will be fairly able,

I think, to trace, so to speak, the stages of thispilgrimage of the Soul : you see the elements thatenter into the pilgrimage ; you see the tools withwhich the Soul will have to work improvements if ituses its experiences well in the successive incarna-tions ; and you will also understand that on theaccumulation of these experiences, and the workingupon those experiences in the blissful land, willdepend the more rapid or the slower growth of thefaculties of the Soulthat is, whether it will grow


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43rapidly, or will grow slowly or moderately, whetherthe pilgrimage shall be comparatively swift or verymuch delayed. You will see also how the Soul mayoften be thrown back, how a very strong attractionfrom without may overbear, say, a comparativelysmall store of accumulated experiences ; and thenthe Soul will make a mistake, will go against thelaw, and will suffer.How should we regard such an experience when

we are studying this pilgrimage of the Soul ? Is ita matter for very great regret ? Is it a matter forextreme grief and sorrow ?Think it out for yourselves, and you will see theway in which this wider view of life will regard any

mistake, any blunder, any fall, any sin. Sin is dis-harmony with law. So long as the law is notunderstood desire will constantly be drawing theSoul outw'ard without regard to this law of which itknows nothing, and striking on the law it will feelpain. Suppose, then, that it has not accumulated asufficient store of these painful experiences to makeit realize the presence of the law ; or suppose that,having accumulated sufficient experience to recognisethe presence of the law, it has not accumulated suffi-cient to overbear the strong drawing of attraction tothe external object ; then the very experience ofwrong-doing is a necessary stage in its education.


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44

For the pain that results from the wrong-doing willadd to the store of experience that the Soul isgradually accumulating, and will make it strongeragainst the temptation in the future by this newsuffering which it has found must inevitably resultfrom coming into conflict with the law. So thatinstead of being heart-broken over a failure, thosewho see from life to life and look on the pilgrimageof the Soul as a great whole, and not simply in thefragments that ordinary persons see in looking at it,they can see with calmness these blunders that theSoul makes, knowing that they are the result ofinsufficient experience, and that the very fall willsupply an added experience which will help the Soulto stand when it comes into a similar position in thefuture. And there is no more reason for extremesorrow over these blunders of the growing Soul than,to use a simile that I have often used before, thereis reason for the mother to break her heart becausethe child may stumble when it is learning to walk.If the child is hurt she may feel sorrow for thechild's pain, but she certainly will not go into a stateof frantic despair about it. She will know that thesetumbles are a necessary part of the education of thechild in gaining equilibrium, and will know thatevery tumble it has will make the tumbles of thefuture less likely to occur.


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45Now, that is not a callous way of looking at things;

it is a wise way ; and as knowledge grows wisdomgives balance to contemplate calmly many thingsthat otherwise would be distressing and disturbingin the very highest degree. Calmness, which is acharacteristic of wisdom, comes from this widervision which is able to understand causes as well assee effects, and which understands how that whichto-day seems sad will work out for good in days tocome.One other distinction that we want to realise as

to the principles at work in this pilgrimage of theSoul is that the kamic element with which the Egois encircled, constantly giving rise to desire, is thatwhich is always making links which bring it back tobirth. Every desire that you have for somethingdown here survives death, remains behind you in thetransition state until you return for re-incarnation,and draws you back to re-birth as soon as you haveexhausted in the blissful land the accumulated ex-periences of the mind whieh you work upon in thatregion of the Universe. So to speak, when the bodydrops from it the Ego, having accumulated sufficientmaterials for its work, has the tendency to leave theEarth and assimilate what it has gained throughthese agencies which exist in the desire body. Itleaves earth behind, being drawn by the stronger


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46rrif.^ntal forces onward, where it has to work in theregion of ideas. When its store is exhausted, thenthe desire hnks re-assert their power, and the Egohaving finished, having got through all the mentalexperiences in the blissful land, feels again theselinks of desire reasserting their power, and it isdrawn back by them to re-incarnation, and attachedby those links of desire to all the objects of desirewith which they are connected.Now, the especial reason why I mention this is

that I hear so many people when they are dealingwith re-incarnation say, " I don't want to comeback." It is of no use having a theory that you donot want to come back, if you are making thesedesire links to things on the physical and on thekamic planes. So long as you want anything whichthe world can give you your Ego does want to comeback, and must come back whether you think youwant it or not. The fact that it desires somethinghere shows this fundamental craving for return, andthe mere feeling of weariness, which is the outcomeof a tired brain and of a consciousness working inthat tired brain, has absolutely nothing to do withthe inevitable destiny of the Ego. The brain whichis tired certainly will not come back ; it will go topieces on the earth to which it belongs, and thetiredness which makes people say, " I don't want


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47to come back," is the tiredness of this outside body,the desire to escape from the painful things thathave made an impression upon it, and so on. Thereal desire is shown by the attachment to the thingsof earth, by the wish for one thing or another, thewish for ease, the wish for pleasure, the wish forsocial consideration, the wish for the praise of men,the wish for everything with which men's andwomen's lives are filled well-nigh to the brim at thepresent time. For persons who are full of desire inthis way to say, " I don't want to come back," issimply to show a lack of understanding. Theymust come back until there is nothing here whichhas the slightest attraction for them. When nothinghere attracts them, when praise and blame areexactly the same to them, when they do not mindwhether in the outside world they are rich or poor,when they do not mind whether they are whatpeople call happy or unhappy, when the whole out-side life is an absolute matter of indifference, whennothing can shake their peace or bring the slightestruffle of any kind over the emotional nature, thenthat Soul is ready to go on ; but so long as any ofthese things have the slightest influence, so longthese links are being made and must draw the Soulback to fresh experiences of earth.Manas itself does not make these links ; it makes


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48them through Kama, and it makes them where thedesire even for intellectual things comes in, but notby pure abstract thinking, which is its own specialworkthat is to say, it is Manas pure and simplewhich makes links bringing us back to re-birth, it isKama-Manas, which is the form of Manas workingamongst the great masses of people to-day. Manasitself, which comes out now and again in absolutelyabstract thinking, does not make links which drawto re-birth. But inasmuch as almost all intellectualeffort here is very largely carried on with the kamicelement, and has worked through the brain, which isthe vehicle of Kama-Manas, most intellectual effortwill have in it the desire element, and so will bringthe Soul back for fresh experiences upon the earth.As to the way in which it works : it works by

what we may call the creative power of thought.The whole world is the outcome of the DivineThought. Everything which we know as pheno-menal is the mere outside appearance which has init the inner and living reality of thought. All outsideappearance is but the form which the thought takesfor expression on these lower planes; and the wholeUniverse is nothing more than a Divine Thought inmanifestation. That Divine, that God-like elementis in man, and it works through Manas and is thecreative elem.ent. The more of that there is in the


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49activity of a person the more is he a creative energyin the world.

Every thought makes to itself a form. Everytime that you think a form is made in your mentalatmosphere. A passing thought will only have avery transitory form ; a thought which is constantlyrepeated will have a form which by these repetitionsbecomes stronger and stronger and more and morepermanent, so that according to the fixity and themotives of your thoughts will be the life of thethought-forms that you are continually generatingaround you.

If you refer to a letter in The Occult WorU, writtenby Master K. H. to Mr. Sinnett, you will see that hepoints out that when a thought goes out and takesform it is vivified or entered into by an Elemental,and the character of the Elemental will be accordingto the character of the thought, and according to themotive that has inspird the thought. If the thoughtbe a good onefor instance, directed to humanservice with a desire to servethen it will be helpedfrom outside by this Elemental, which is of a goodand a pure type, and the thought will be a force forgood, reacting on the person who has thought it,and reacting on all those who come \\ithin thesphere of his influence. So that every thought


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50which is loving and helpful lives in the world ofthought as a useful influence. And supposing thatthese good thoughts are directed towards people,then they go to the people to whom the will directsthem and, so to speak, encircle them with a pro-tective and aiding power. And it is a real thingthat every good and kind thought that you have ofa person, every wish for their benefit, every desirefor their happiness, is an actual living thing thatgoes to that person as a living entity, and lives, as itwere, in connection with the person towards whomyou have directed it as a protective agency, wardingoff danger and drawing good towards that personto whom you have sent this angel of your thought.

So, again, with all evil thoughts, thoughts whichhave in them the element of hate, of revenge, ofpassionthose draw to themselves from the outerworld Elementals which increase this energy. Sothat an evil thought directed against a person is anabsolutely mischievous agent, which may injure himeither in physical health, in the astral body, or inany part of his body or mind. Suppose the personhas nothing in him which in any sense forms a linkwith this thought of yours, then the thought will bethrown back, and will return to yourself and strikeyou to your own injury. Suppose, however, thatthe person has, what most people have, some little


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51fault in himself which may make a link with thisthought of yours, then the evil thought attachesitself to the person and injures that person in somepart of his nature. Therefore is it that everythingwhich is of the nature of evil thought consciouslydirected towards a person has been called, andrightly called. Black Magic. A thought of revengeor of anger which is directed towards any personwith a view to injure him is essentially of the natureof Black Magic. And the greater the power of theperson who does it, and the greater the knowledgeof the person who does it, the greater is their crimefor which they have to answer to the Law. In thisway, then, the Soul works by these thought-forms.First these thought-forms, then their Elementals,working back upon the Soul that generates them, aswell as working in the outer world ; these go onwith the Soul into Devachan, so far as they are purein their nature, and make the faculty of which Ispoke, being, as it were, moulded into faculty ; andthen, coming back, the physical body is moulded byway of the astral to manifest this character, whichhas taken to itself, by means of these thought-forms,certain definite shapes. So that it is perfectly truethat the outer body of a person will show somethingof his character. That body is physically built onthe aggregated thought-forms which have been


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52transformed by the alchemy that I spoke of intodefinite faculties, and these, having their character-istic forms, will mould the shaping of the outer body.And it is perfectly true that when you are dealingwith the general shape of the brain you will havethat brain developed in certain regions, according tothe character of the Ego that inhabits it. Themistake is to suppose that it is the tabernacle whichmakes the tenant ; it is the tenant who builds thetabernacle. So that while you have the two cor-related the one to the other we must not begin atthe wrong end, and believe that the master-builderis made by his house ; he builds himself the dwellingin which, in his coming incarnation, he will have tolive.One other point as regards our back-coming Ego.

You will notice I am not tracing him life by life. Iam giving you general principles which will workthrough large numbers of lives. These stages beingpassed through, what circumstances will our Egocome back into ? That will depend upon thecircumstances that during his past life he causedupon earth ; according to the happiness or miseryhe caused upon earth in a past incarnation, so willbe the circumstances in which he will find himselfwhen he comes back to earth.

Suppose, for instance, that a man whose influence


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53extends over large numbers of people spreads happi-ness around him on every side. That is a distincteffect that he has worked, and it will govern thecondition in which he will be born in his next life.This happiness that he spreads amongst large num-bers of his fellows is a seed which will spring up ashappy circumstances for his next incarnation. Sow-ing happiness he will reap happiness ; sowing painhe will reap pain. If he causes a great deal ofphysical suffering in his life, he will reap muchphysical misery in some following incarnation. Ifhe spreads around him much mental distress andtrouble, he will reap mental distress and trouble inthe circumstances that come in his way. Mind,these are things he cannot alter. They are fixedfuture events, so to speak, when he leaves the earth.These are the things that can be predicted of himwith fair certainty, because these are seeds that areleft which have to grow up each after its own kind.Over these he has no power ; they are there, and hehas got to live amongst them.Now, you may have a man who is not a good man

morally, but who has yet spread a very large amountof happiness amongst people, say, of a physical kind;he will reap physical happiness in his next incarna-tion. You may find a good man who by lack ofknowledge has spread a great deal of misery, and he


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54will reap physical suffering in his next incarnation.You have to distinguish, if you want to understand,between these different agencies of the Soul. Accord-ing to his desires and his will, so will be his facultieshis own personal possessions, or individual posses-sions rather, if I may call them so ; according towhat he has sown upon earth will be his harvestupon earth when he returns. So that all thesecircumstances of happiness or of misery will be theresult of the happiness or the misery that he hasspread in previous incarnations : they will come backto him as environment, as circumstances.Now I come to my next point. You must remem-ber the pilgrimage of the Soul is very long, and a

lecture is very short, so that I am obliged to runsomewhat rapidly from one subject to another. Thenext point at which I must make a moment's pauseis on our Ego when he has become more experienced.He is no longer a baby, nor even a child, nor even ayouth ; he is a mature Ego and he is becoming wise.With this wisdom of his he is bringing back moreand more faculty, he is bringing back more and morememory, he will make for himself instruments whichwill be able to express greater and greater capacity,and a time will come in this pilgrimage of his inwhich his constant efforts to impress on these lowertabernacles his own ever-lengthening memory of past


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55experiences will become more and more successful.His will having grown very strong, will tell con-siderably upon his lower nature. What we call thevoice of conscience will begin to make itself heardwith more imperative force. Now, conscience isthis memory of the Soul expressing itself in thelower nature ; it comes with authority, and the lowernature feels the authoritative sound in it : " Youought to do this; you ought not to do that." Andsometimes the lower nature will challenge it, notbeing able to undestand where this authority comesfrom. The authority lies in the Soul, which is tryingto make the lower nature go its way ; it is using itsown past experience to prevent the lower naturebeing led astray by the outside objects, by its mis-taken deductions, by its very incomplete experiences.And it is speaking constantly to this lower nature,and constantly the lower nature does not hear. Inall the clatter and jangle of the body in which it isliving it finds it is very difficult to make its voiceheard coming from the higher planes. But the voiceof the conscience is always this voice of the Soul,speaking out of its memory. And if you think thatout at your leisure you will see how it is that con-science will sometimes speak wrongly as to choice ofaction, but always with the sense of, "You ought todo." The reason that it sometimes speaks wrongly


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56as to action is because the experience is still a limitedexperience. The reason why it is always imperativeis because that limited experience is the only guidewhich Manas has, and it is the best guide eventhough it be imperfect. A man therefore does wiselyalways to obey his conscience. It is the best decisionwhich experience enables the Soul to make, and ifit be faulty, it is faulty because of the want of expe-rience. If you obey it, when it blunders you willgain the lacking experience ; and you will suffermore if you do not obey it. By following someother rule which is not the rule of your own innerSelf, speaking from its own experience, you will beobeying an external law, which, speaking fromwithout, is not to be relied upon to develop yourSoul. The Soul is developed by experience, not bycompulsion ; and an outer law, however good it maybe, does not, being a compulsory power, add to theinner forces of the Soul ; therefore is it of compara-tively small value in evolution, far less than the voiceof conscience, even when the conscience is faulty.Now taking that, let us come back from that slight

digression to our Ego. It has become comparativelymature, it is getting wiser. Getting wiser it wantsto escape from this constant succession of births andof deaths of which it is beginning to get a little tired.It has gone through it so often that it has accumu-


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57lated a great deal of experience, and many thingsin the world no longer attract it. Everything theycan give it, it has gathered ; why should it want torepeat its experience of them ? The taste has dis-appeared because the experience has been obtained ;and as this Soul comes back there will be a numberof things in the outer world that will no longerattract, and that it will turn aside from with a senseof weariness and disgust. These things will first bethe things of the senses, which are the soonest wornout, and it will go more and more towards the thingsof the mind, more and more towards the things ofthe intellect, accumulating a larger and larger storefor its Devachanic life, a greater and greater accumu-lation on which it is going to work. So that the lifein Devachan will be longer and longer, the Soulworking out these greater stores which it carrieswith it from this earthly life. Coming back thenagain, having had these long Devachanic inter-ludes, it comes back with this ever - increasingdistaste for the lower desires, and the links withobjects of the sense become feebler and feebler. Itsknowledge enables it to recognise the transitory andillusory character of earthly things, and it breaks thelinks of desire by knowledge; knowing that theypass, it refuses to be attached to them, and soexhausts these links which inevitably draw it back


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58to earth so long as they last. Instead of setting upgreat numbers of these, it creates only thought-forms of the pure intellect, and the pure reason, andthe pure thought, which do not tie it to thesetransitory things of the earth. And it may breakthese links in two waysby knowledge in the waythat I described ; or also it may break them bycatching glimpses of higher and greater realitiesthe spiritual realities as we sayand that mightierattraction, overbearing the attraction to earth, willdraw the desires upwards, purifying them as theyascend. So that at last all the lower element ofdesire which is for the lower self will be got ridof, and there will be present only the desire to workbecause the work is useful, to work because the workis duty, to work because others need the service,and so on.You may thus get rid of the personal element in

desire, which is the binding element for return, andin one of two ways : either by a distinctly intellectualrecognition of the transitory character of the objectsand the exhausting of desire by knowledge, or bythe burning up of desire by devotion, and thedeliberate sacrifice of everything to the higher idealof life which is to become its compelling power.The time will come in the growth of this Ego when

it will realize then that the lower earth has nothing


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which is worth having. By knowledge, by devotion,or by both it has broken these Hnks. What then willbe the nature of the life to be lived, when it is estab-lishing no new links to bring it back to birth ? It maybe a very active life, employed constantly in workingamongst men ; for it is not action that binds men tobirth, but the desire which causes action. In desire,and not in act, lies this link which draws the Egoback to birth. Suppose then that during a life ofvery great activity there is no desire ; suppose everyaction that is performed is performed because it isright to be done ; suppose that when it is performed,the Ego concerns itself no more about it ; suppose ithas no wish for the result of that action, either good,or bad, or indifferent ; suppose that when the actionis performed there is no link which binds the Soul toit in any way, that it remains absolutely indifferentto the fruit of action, as it is technically called, andworks, not because it wants to gain anything, butbecause it wants to serve and because it recognisesthat it is one with the All, and therefore mustdischarge perfectly everything which the law de-mands of it in the particular place in the world inwhich it may be. Freedom of the Soul, then,depends on whether you want to bring about a resultby your action, because the result is desirable, ormerely because you want to be in harmony with


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law, beeause you recognise yourself as part of theAll, because you recognise yourself as a channel ofthe law. If you are nothing more than that, if every-thing that you do is done because it is duty, if youact neither for pleasure nor pain, neither from lovenor hatred, neither from attraction nor repulsion,neither for gain nor loss, then, there being no desire,no link is made ; in the doing of the action you arepart of the One and the All ; and That cannot bebound by these links to rebirth, so that the questionof outer activity does not affect in itself the freedomof the Soul. I grant, of course, to the full thatpeople need the stimulus of desire in order to makethem act, until they have reached this higher stagewhere action is perfectly performed for duty's sake.It cannot be reached at a bound, it cannot bereached by its intellectual recognition, it cannot bereached even by saying that it is desirable ; it canonly be reached by the inner growth of the Ego,which makes it really fundamentally indifferent toall the things which attract the masses of mankind.So long as there is attraction, that is needed for theperformance of duty. It is only when the lowernature is entirely the instrument of the higher that aman will lead a life of great activity without thesmallest wish to see anything which may flow fromhis acts ; and when that point is reached, he has


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achieved his freedom, when that is done, Karma forhimsave the great Karma of the Universeis atan end. Individual Karma for him is burnt up,burnt up in these fires of knowledge and of devotionwhich prevent him establishing any links with theearth, and he therefore makes no fetters which bindhim to the wheel of birth and of death. Theburning up of Karma in this fire of devotion meansthat you throw into the fire every action of your life,and like a sacrifice it is burnt up and changed.

Let me give you one illustration only to show youhow this change may occur in the higher spirituallife.There may be a thing which will bring suffering.The Soul which is nearing its liberation is willing toaccept that suffering which still it feels; it throws thesuffering on to the altar of devotion ; the fire of devo-tion burns up the suffering, and the Soul feels joy inits gift. But that suffering is not lost ; it is changedin the fire, and it becomes spiritual energy, whichthe Great Lodge can use for the helping of manthe voluntary acceptance of pain as a sacrifice to theMasters is changed by that fire of devotion intospiritual energy for the helping of the world. Thereis the underlying truth of the doctrine of what iscalled vicarious atonement ; not the legal thing thatthe Churches have sometimes taught, but the


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62sacrifice of a j^reat Soul, which bears suffering andoffers it for the spiritual life of the world, so that itshall be changed in the fire of love and come backas spiritual energy to be spread over the whole ofthe world for the raising and the helping of man.The Soul, then, thus achieving liberation, comes

to the period of choice of which you hear so much.Being free it has a right to choose, and it may eitherpass onwards into higher types of life, or it mayelect to remain within the sphere of earth in orderthat it may directly help in the freeing of otherSouls. That is, of course, the Great Renunciationof which every now and then you catch glimpses inthe Theosophical writings ; that is the choice of theliberated Soul ; it is free, but it remains within thesphere of earth in order to help. It may choosethat, by renunciation of its right to go on. It is notbound to earth, but by a voluntary renunciation itremains there with some of the disadvantages, so tospeak, which belong to the material existence, forthe sake of helping others and carrying on thisevolution of the Race.Where a Soul has thus accomplished its pilgrimage,

where stage after stage it has developed mind, wherestage after stage it has purified intellect, when it hasgot rid of desire, when it has become a liberated


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63Soul, when it has renounced the going onward for thesake of humanity, when it has remained within thissphere of earth for helping man until the cycle ofhumanity is completed, then, entering into Nirvana,there comes the state of All-consciousness, of blisswhich no words are able to describe. And thenwhen the time comes for a new manifestation, whenthe beginning of a new Manvantara approaches, thenthis Soul which had achieved its liberation comesforth as a Son of Mind, in order in due time togenerate mind in a new humanity, to be the Teacherof that humanity in its infancy, its guide in itsmaturity, rising Manvantara after Manvantara higherand higher. For the pilgrim Soul which began inthe germ-union that I described, which went on byaccumulating experiences, which then from theseexperiences extracted their essence, which then gotrid of the desires which made it separate, and whichunified itself once more, becoming a unit conscious-ness in a mysterious way which can not even besensed until at least the lower grades of the higherconsciousness have been experienced during earth-life by rising out of the body and learning what itis to be an Intelligence working without the shacklesof the brainsuch a Soul thus having workedthrough its pilgrimage and regained unity, shakes offthe compound individuality, retaining the essence of


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64it which it extracts ; being a unit it is incapable ofdisintegration, it is for ever immortalthe Soul hasachieved its immortality, and through all Universesto come it is one of the Workers, one of theBuilders, one with God in work for the worlds.

Printed by Percy Lund, Humphries & Co., The Country Press,Bradford; and 3, Amen Corner, London, E.C.


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annie besant - the birth and evolution of the soul

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