Section 4

It is from the Mental Images of experiences, and more especially from those which tell how suffering has been caused by ignorance of Law, that Con- science is born and is developed. The Soul during its successive earth-lives is constantly led by Desire to rush headlong after some attractive object ; in its pur- suit it dashes itself against Law, and falls, bruised and bleeding. Many such experiences teach it that gratifications sought against Law are but wombs of pain, and when in some new earth-life the desire- body would fain carry the Soul into enjoyment which
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is evil, the memory of past experiences asserts itself as Conscience, and cries aloud its forbiddance, and reins in the hurrjdng horses of the senses that would plunge heedlessly after the objects of desire. At the present stage of evolution all but the most backward Souls have passed through sufficient experiences to recognize the broad outlines of ' ' right ' ' and ' ' wrong, ' ' i.e., of harmony with the Divine Nature, and of dis- cord, and on these main questions of ethics a wide and long experience enables the Soul to speak clearly and definitely. But on many higher and subtler questions, belonging to the present stage of evolution and not to the stages that lie behind us, experience is still so restricted and insufficient that it has not yet been worked up into Conscience, and the Soul may err in its decision, however well-intentioned its effort to see clearly and to act rightly. Here its will to ohey sets it in line with the Divine Nature on the higher planes, and its failure to see how to obey on the lower plane will be remedied for the future by the pain it feels as it blunders up against the Law: the suffering will teach it what before it knew not, and its sorrowful experiences will be worked into Conscience, to preserve it from similar pain in the future, to give it the joy of fuller knowledge of God in Nature, of self-conscious accord with the Law of Life, of self-conscious co-operation in the work of evo- lution.
Thus far we see as definite principles of karmic Law, working with Mental Images as Causes, that:
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Asi^irations and Desires hecome Capacities.
Kepeatecl Thoughts " Tendencies
Wills to perform " Actions.
Experiences ' ' Wisdom.
Painful Experiences " Conscience.
Karmic Law working Avith Astro-mental Images seems better considered under the head of the work- ing out of Karma, to which we will now turn.
The Working out of Karma.
When the Soul has lived out its devachanic life, and has assimilated all that it can of the material gathered during its last period on earth, it begins to be drawn again towards earth by the links of Desire that bind it to material existence. The last stage of its life-period now lies before it, the stage during which it re-clothes itself for another experience of earthly life, the stage that is closed by the Gateway of Birth.
The Soul steps over the threshold of Devachan into what has been called the plane of Re-incarnation, bringing with it the results, small or great, of its devachanic work. If it be but a young Soul, it will have gained but little ; progress in the early stages of Soul-Evolution is slow to an extent scarcely realized by most students, and during the babyhood of the Soul life-da}^ succeeds life-day in wearjdng succession, each earth-life sowing but little seed, each Devachan ripening but little fruit. As faculties develop, growth
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quickens at an ever-increasing rate, and the Soul that enters Devachan with a large store of material comes out of it with a large increase of faculty, worked out under the general laws before stated. It issues from Devachan clothed only in that body of the Soul that endures and grows throughout the Manvantara, sur- rounded by the aura that belongs to it as an individ- ual, more or less glorious, many-hued, luminous, defi- nite, and extensive, according to the stage of evolu- tion reached by the Soul. It has been wrought in the heavenly fire and comes forth as King Soma.*
Passing on to the astral plane on its earthward journey, it clothes itself anew in a Body of Desire, the first result of the workings out of its past Karma. The Mental Images formed during the past "from materials supplied by the desire-nature, that had be- come latent in consciousness, or what H. P. Blavatsky used to call ' privations of matter, ' capable of existing, but out of material manifestation," are now thrown outwards by the Soul, and immediately attract to themselves from the matter of the astral plane the kamic elements congenial to their natures, and "be- come the appetites, passions, and lower emotions of his [the Ego's] desire-body for his new incarna- tions."! When this work is accomplished — a work sometimes very brief, sometimes one that causes long delay — the Ego stands in the karmic vesture he has
* A mystic name, full of meaniug to the student, who under- stands the part played by Soma in some ancient mysteries. t Ante, p, 35,
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prepared for himself, ready to be ''clothed upon," to receive from the hands of the agents of the Great Lords of Karma the etlieric double* built for him ac- cording to the elements he has himself provided, after which shall be shaped his physical body, the house which he must inhabit during his coming physical life. The individual and the personal Ego are thus immediately self -built, as it were — what he thought on, that he has become; his qualities, his "natural gifts, ' ' all these appertain to him as the direct results of his thinkings ; the Man is in very truth self-created, responsible, in the fullest sense of the word, for all that he is.
But this man is to have a physical and etheric body that will largely condition the exercise of his faculties; he is to live in some environment, and ac- cording to this will be his outward circumstances ; he is to tread a path marked out by the causes he has set going, other than those which appear as effects in his faculties; he has to meet events joyful and sorrowful, resulting from the forces he has generated. Something more than the individual and personal na- ture seems here to be needed; how is the field to be provided for its energies? How are the conditioning instruments and the re-acting circumstances to be found and adapted?
We approach a regioif whereof little may be fitly said, in that it is the region of mighty Spiritual In-
* Hitherto called the Linga Sharira, a name that has given rise to much confusion.
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telligences Whose nature is far beyond the scope of our very limited faculties, Whose existence may in- deed be known and Whose workings may be traced, but toAvards Whom we stand mmjh in the position occupied by one of the least intelligent lower animals towards ourselves, in that it may know that we exist but can have no conception of the scope and work- ings of cur consciousness. These Great Ones are spoken of as the Lipika and the Four Maharajahs. How little we can know of the Lipika may be seen from the following :
The Lipika, a description of whom is given in Commentary
6 of Stanza IV., are the- Spirits of the Universe
[They J belong to the most 'Occult portion of eosmogenesis, which cannot be given here. Whether the Adepts — even the highest — know this angelic order in the completeness of its triple degrees, or only the lower one connected with the records of our world, is something which the writer is unprepared to say, and she would rather incline to the latter supposition. Of its highest grade one thing only is taught, the Lipika are con- nected with Karma — being its direct Recorders.*
They are the "Second-Seven," and They keep the Astral Records, filled with the Akashic Images before spoken of.t They are connected
With the destiny of every man, and the birth of every child. t
They give "the mould of the Linga Sharira," ^which will serve as the type of the physical body suited for the expression of the m-ental and passional
* Secret Doctrine, i., 158. t Ante, p. 27. X Secret Doctrine, i., 131. 1| Ante, p. 36.
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faculties evolved by the Ego that is to dwell therein, and They give it to "The Four'' — to the Maharajahs, Who
Are the protectors of mankind aud also the agents of Karma on Earth.* 0
Of these H. P. Blavatsky writes further, quoting the Fifth Stanza of the Book of Dzyan :
Four ' ' Winged Wheels at each corner . . . for the Four Holy Ones and Their Armies (Hosts)." These are the ''Four Maharajahs/' or Great Kings of the Dhyan Chohans, the Devas, Who preside over each of the four cardinal points : . . These Beings are also connected with Karma as the latter needs physical and material agents to carry out its decrees, t
t
Receiving the mould — once more the "privation of matter" — from the Lipika, the Maharajahs choose for the composition of the etheric double the elements suited to the qualities that are to be expressed through it, and this etheric double thus becomes a fitting kar- mic instrument for the Ego, giving it alike the basis for expression of the faculties it has evolved, and the limitations imposed upon it by its own past failures and wasted opportunities. This mould is guided by the Maharajahs to the country, the I'ace, the family, the social surroundings, which afford the most suitable field for the working out of the Karma allotted to the particular life-span in question, that which the Hindu calls the Prarabdha, or beginning. Karma; i.e., that which is to be worked out in the opening life-period.
* Secret Doctrine, i., 151. t Secret Doctrine, i., 147.
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In no one life can the accumulated Karma of the past be worked out — no one instrument could be formed, no surroundings could be found, suitable for the ex- pression of all the slowly evolved faculties of the Ego, nor affording all the circumstances necessary for reaping all the harvests sown in the past, for discharg- ing all the obligations contracted towards other Egos with whom the incarnating Soul has come into con- tact in the course of its long evolution. So much then of the total Karma as can be arranged for in one life-period has a suitable etheric double provided for it, the mould of that double being guided to a suitable field. It is placed where the Ego may come into relations with some of such Egos, with whom it has been related in its past, as are present in, or are coming into, incarnation during its own life-period. A country is chosen where the religious, political and social conditions can be found which are suitable to some of its capacities, and afford the field for the oc- curance of some of the effects it has generated. A race is selected — subject of course to the wider laws affecting incarnation in races, into which we cannot here enter — of which the characteristics resemble some of the faculties which are ripe for exercise, of which the type befits the in^^oming Soul. A family is found in which physical hredity has evolved the kind of phj^sical materials which, built into the etheric double, will adapt themselves to its constitution; a family of which the general or special physical organization will afford play to the mental and passional natures
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of the Ego. Out of the manifold qualities existing in the Soul, and out of the manifold physical types existing in the world, such can be selected as are adapted to each other, a suitable casing can be built for the waiting Ego, an instrument and a field in which some of his Karma can be out-worked. Fathom- less to our short plummet lines as may be the know- ledge and the power required for such adaptations, we can yet dimly see that the adaptations can be made, and that perfect Justice can be done ; the web of a man's destiny may indeed be composed of threads that to us are innumerable, and that may need to be woven into a pattern of to us inconceivable com- plexity: a thread may disappear — it has only passed to the under side to come to the surface again pres- ently; a thread may suddenly appear — it has only re-emerged on the upper side after a long transit underneath; seeing but a fragment of the web, the pattern may to our short sight be indistinguishable. But as was written by the sage lamblichus :
What appears to us to be an accurate definition of justice does not also appear to be so to the Gods. For we, looking to that which is most brief, direct our attention to things present-, and to this momentary life, and the manner in which it subsists. But the Powers that are superior to us know the whole life of the soul, and all its former lives.*
This assurance that "perfect Justice rules the world" finds support from the increasing knowledge
* On the Mysteries, iv., 4. See new edition of Thomas Taylor's translation published by the T. P. S., pp. 209, 210.
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of the evolving Soul; for as it advances and begins to see on higher planes and to transmit its knowledge to the waking consciousness, we learn with ever-grow- ing certainty and therefore with ever-increasing joy, that the Good Law is working with undeviating accu- racy, that its Agents apply it everywhere with unerr- ing insight, with unfailing strength, and that all is therefore very well with the world and with its strug- gling Souls. Through the darkness rings out the cry, "All is well," from the watchmen Souls, who carry the lamp of Divine Wisdom through the murky ways of our human city.
Some of the principles of the working out of the Law we can see, and a knowledge of these will help us in the tracing out of causes, the understanding of effects.
We have already seen that Thoughts huild Char- acter; let us next realize that Actions make Enveiron- ment.
Here we have to do with a general principle of far-reaching effect, and it will be well to work it out a little into detail. By his actions man affects his neighbors on the physical plane ; he spreads happi- ness around him, or he causes distress, increasing or diminishing the sum of human welfare. This in- crease or diminution of happiness may be due to very different motives — good, bad or mixed. A man may do an act that gives wide-spread enjoyment from sheer benevolence, from a longing to give happiness to his fellow-creatures; let us say that from such a motive
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he presents a park to a town, for the free use of its inhabitants; another may do a similar act from mere ostentation, from desire to attract attention from those who can bestow social honors (say, he might give it as purchase money for a title) ; a third may give a park from mixed motives, partly unselfish, partly selfish. The motives will severally affect these three men's characters in their future incarnations, for improvement, for degradation, for small results. But the effect of the action in causing happiness to large numbers of people does not depend on the mo- tive of the giver; the people enjoy the park equally, no matter what may have prompted its gift, and this enjoyment, due to the action of the giver, establishes for him a karmic claim on Nature, a debt due to him that will be scrupulously paid. He will receive a physically comfortable or luxurious environment, and his sacrifice of physical wealth will bring him his due reward, the karmic fruit of his action. This is his right; but the use he makes of his position, the hap- piness he derives from his wealth and his surround- ings, will depend chiefly on his character, and here again the just reward accrues to him, each seed bear- ing its appropriate harvest.
Service rendered to the full measure of opportu- nity in one life will produce,, as effect, enlarged op- portunities of service in another; thus one who in a very limited sphere helped each who came in the way, would in a future life be born into a position
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where openings for giving effective help were many and far-reaching.
Again, wasted opportunities re-appear transmuted as limitations of the instrument, and as misfortunes in tlie environment. For instance, the brain of the etheric double will be built defectively, thus bringing about a defective physical brain; the Ego will plan, but will find itself lacking in executive ability, or will grasp an idea, but be unable to impress it dis- tinctly on the brain. The wasted opportunities are transformed " into frustrated longings, into desires which fail to find expression, into yearnings to help blocked by the absence of power to render it, whether from defective capacity or from lack of occasion.
This same principle is often at work in the cutting away from tender care of some well-loved child or idolized youth. If an Ego treats unkindly or neglects one to whom he owes affectionate duty and protection, or service of any kind, he will but too likely again find himself born in close relationship with the neg- lected one, and perhaps tenderly attached to him, only for early death to snatch him away from the encircling arms; the despised poor relation may re- appear as the much-honored heir, the only son, and when the parents find their house left unto them desolate, marvel at the ''unequal way of Providence" that deprive them of their only one, on whom all their hopes have been set, and leave untouched the many children of their neighbor. Yet are the ways