CHAPTER V

THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN
The Seventh Round of a Chain differs from the preceding Rounds in that its globes, one by one, pass into quiescence on the way to disintegration, as their inhabitants leave them for the last time. When the period arrives for this final departure from each globe, such of its inhabitants as are capable of further evolution on the Chain pass on, as in earlier Rounds, to the next globe ; while the others, for whom the conditions of the later globes are unsuitable, leave the Chain altogether when they leave the globe, and remain in a state hereafter to be described, awaiting re-embodiment on the next Chain. Thus the stream of departures from each globe on this Round — leaving out any who may have attained the Arhat level — divides into two, some going on as usual to the globe next in succession, while others take ship to sail over an ocean, the further shore of which is the next Chain.
Normally, a man is free to leave a Chain — unless dropped out as temporarily hopeless — only when he has reached the level appointed for the humanity evolved on the Chain. That level in the Moon Chain, we have already seen, was equivalent
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 57
to that which we now call the fourth, or Arhat, Initiation. But we found, much to our surprise, that, on the seventh Round, groups of emigrants departed from globes A, B and C, while the huge mass of the population of globe D left the Moon Chain finally as the life-wave quitted that globe to roll onwards to globe E. Only a comparatively small number remained behind to carry on their evolution on the three remaining globes, and of these some departed finally from the Chain as each globe dropped into inactivity.
It appears that, in a seventh Round, the mighty Being to whom has been given the title of the 4 Seed-Manu of a Chain 5 takes into His charge the humanity and lower forms of living beings which have been evolving thereon. A Chain Seed-Manu gathers up into Himself, takes within His mighty far-reaching aura, all these results of the evolutions on the Chain, transporting them into the Inter-Chain sphere, the Nirvana for the inhabitants of the dying Chain, nourishing them within Himself, and finally handing them over at the appointed time to the Root-Manu of the next Chain, who, following out the plan of the Seed- Manu, determines the times and places of their introduction into His kingdom.
The Seed-Manu of the Moon Chain appeared to have a vast plan, according to which he grouped the Moon-creatures, dividing them, after their last deaths, into classes, and sub-classes, and sub-sub-
i
classes, in a quite definite way, apparently by some kind of magnetisation ; this set up particular rates •of vibration, and the people who could work best
9
58 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
at one such rate were grouped together, and those who worked best at another rate were similarly grouped, and so on, when He was dealing with huge multitudes, as on globe D. These groups appeared to form themselves automatically in the heaven-world of globe D, as figures on a vibrating disc form themselves under the impact of a musical note ; but on the three earlier globes more easily distinguished lines of cleavage appeared, and people were sent off by a great Official, evidently working on a definite plan. The Seed-Manu was aided in His gigantic task by many great Beings, who carried out His directions, and the whole vast plan was worked out with an order and an inevitableness which were unspeakably impressive. He appeared, among other things, to be choosing out the Officials for the next Chain, those who, in the long course of evolution, would pass ahead of their fellows, and become Masters, Manus, Bodhi- sattvas, in the various Rounds and Races. He evidently selected many more than would be needed, as a gardener chooses out many plants for special culture, out of which a later selection may be made. Most, if not all, of this choosing was done on globe D, and we shall return to it when we reach that world. Meanwhile we will consider globes A, B and C.
On globe A of the Moon Chain, we see that a part of the humanity is not taken on to globe B, but is compelled to leave the Chain because it can make no further progress on it. The great Official who has charge of the globe has not been able to evolve some of the people in the way He
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 59 desired— has, in fact, found some of the human
t
material too rigid for further evolution, and so He ships it off when the life of the globe is over. This boat-load, as we call it, for the number is not large, consists of our friends with the orange-hued auras, who have brought their mental bodies to a point beyond which they cannot develop on the Moon Chain, except mischievously ; they have so shut themselves into their mental shell, and have so starved the germs of their emotional bodies, that they cannot safely descend any further ; moreover they are far too proud to wish to do so. The causal bodies are a rigid shell, not a living expanding form, and to let them pass on into globe B would only mean a fatal hardening of the lower mental. They are very clever, but quite selfish, and have cut themselves off from further progress for the time, save a progress which would be harmful. The Official is clearly dissatisfied with these orange-hued people, and does His best for them by shipping them off ; glancing forward, we see that we shall meet some of these again in Atlantis, as Lords of the Dark Face, priests of the Dark Worship, leaders against the White Emperor, and so on. Meanwhile, they will rest in the Inter-Chain sphere, self-centred as ever.
The group of people before-mentioned, whose auras showed the golden-yellow of disciplined intellect, together with the rest of the inhabitants of the Chain, passed on to globe B, including some who had reached the Arhat level on globe A, and who on globe B became Adepts. From globe B the golden-yellow group was shipped off, for they
60 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
also had not sufficiently nourished the emotional side to make the formation of a fairly developed emotional body possible for them on globe C. Their willingness to obey shaped for them a fairer future than that of the orange people, and we meet them again in Atlantis as priests of the White temples, gradual¬ ly forming emotional bodies of a good type. Both these first boat-loads enter on the terrene evolution at its fourth Round, being too advanced to take part in its earlier stages. It seems that it is necessary on each globe to develop the qualities which will need for their full expression a body of the material of the next ; so our yellow people could go no further, but had to be shipped off to the Inter-Chain sphere. \
From globe C went off a small number who had reached the Arhat level, who had developed to a lofty point both intellect and emotion, and who needed no further evolution on the Moon Chain ; they therefore left it by any one of the usual seven Paths. One group of these is specially interesting to us, because they formed part of one division of the c Lords of the Moon ’ — the group
called Barhishad Pitrs in The Secret Doctrine —
• • • •
who superintended the evolution of forms on our Earth Chain. On leaving globe C, they went to¬ wards the region where the Earth Chain was building, to be joined later by a number of others who also gave themselves to this work. Globe A of the terrene Chain began to form as the life- wave left globe A of the lunar Chain. The Spirit of a globe, when its life is over, takes a new incarnation, and, as it were, transfers the life
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 61
with himself to the corresponding globe of the next Chain. The inhabitants, after leaving the Chain, have long to wait ere their new home is ready for them, but the preparation of that home begins when the Spirit of the first globe leaves it and it becomes a dead body, while he enters on a new cycle of life and a new globe begins to form round him. Molecules are built up under the direction of Devas, humanity not being at all involved. The Spirit of a globe is probably on the line of this class of Devas, and members of it perform the work of building globes all through the system. A great wave of life from the LOGOS builds up atoms in a system by the intermediary of such a Deva ; then molecules are built, then cells, and so on. Living creatures are like parasites on the surface of the Spirit of the earth, and he does not concern himself with them, and is probably not normally conscious of their existence, though he may feel them slightly when they make very deep mines. The Arhats who, leaving globe C of the Moon Chain, selected the path which leads to the Earth Chain, passed, as said, to the region where globe A of the Earth Chain was forming ; it commenced with the first Elemental Kingdom, which flowed upwards from the middle of the globe — the workshop of the Third LOGOS — as water wells up in an artesian boring, and flows over the edge on all sides. It came from the heart of the Lotus, as sap comes up into a leaf. These Lords of the Moon took no active part at this stage, but seemed to be looking on at the building of a world-to-be. iEons later they were joined by
62
MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
some of the Lords of the Moon from globe G of the lunar Chain, and these made the original forms on globe A — giving their Chhayas, or Shadows, to make these, as The Secret Doctrine phrases it — and then the Lives came and occupied the forms in succession. Globes B and C were similarly built up round their respective Spirits, as the latter left their lunar predecessors. Our physical Earth was formed when the inhabitants left globe D of the Moon Chain ; the Spirit of the globe left the Moon, and the Moon then began to disintegrate, a very large part of its substance passing over to build up the Earth. When the inhabitants began to leave the Moon finally, globes A, B and C of the terrene Chain were already formed, but globe D, our Earth, could not go far in its forma¬ tion till its congener, globe D of the lunar Chain, the Moon, had died.
The groups — which were, as said, small in number — which left the Chain from globes A and B were, as we have seen, people who had shot on ahead intellectually, but who had been individualised in the fifth Round. The Arhats who left globe C had been individualised in the fourth Round among a city population, and thus were brought into a civilisation where the pressure quickened their evolution ; sur¬ rounded by more highly advanced people, they were stimulated into more rapid growth. To be ready to take advantage of these conditions it is evident that their development as animals on the previous Chain must have reached a higher point than that of those who individualised in the same Chain in primitive country districts. It seems as though
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 63
the humanity of a Chain can only advance to¬ wards and enter the Path, when the individualising of animals on that Chain has practically ceased, and when only exceptional cases of individualisation will occur in the future. When the door of the human kingdom is shut against animals, then the door to the Path is opened to humanity.
As said, the groups which left the Chain from globes A, B and C, were small in number, the mass of the population on each globe passing on to the next in the usual way. But on globe D, things became very different ; there the immense majority of the population, when the period for the death of the globe was approaching, after leaving their physical bodies for the last time, were not prepared for transference to globe E, but were shipped off to the Inter-Chain sphere, the lunar Nirvana, to await their transference to the new Chain prepar¬ ing for them. If we compare the other groups launched on the ocean of space to boat-loads, we have now a huge fleet of ships launched on that same ocean. The general fleet leaves the Moon ; only a small population is left, set aside for reasons which will presently appear, and these leave globes E, F and G in small groups, boat-loads only — to keep up our metaphor.
The group of egos that we have been follow¬ ing as samples of the lower humanity of the Moon shows marks of distinct improvement on globe D ; the causal body is well marked, the intelligence is more developed, and the affection for their superiors has deepened and intensified ; instead of a passion, it has now become a settled emotion, and is their
64 MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
most distinguishing characteristic. To this group may be given the name of Servers — for although the instinct is still blind and half-conscious, yet to serve and please the higher people to whom they have devoted themselves is now the dominating motive in their lives ; looking forward, we see that this remains their characteristic through the long series of lives to come on earth, and they do much rough pioneer work in the future. They love their superiors and are ready to obey them, “ without cavil or delay”. A marked change has come over their physical bodies in this Round; they are now bright blue, instead of being muddy brown as before. They are brought together physically during their last incarnations on the Moon, and much arranging is going on for a considerable time before this : the strengthening of ties between groups of egos is brought about by guiding them to re-birth in com¬ munities, and a very large number, indeed most, of the characters in Rents in the Veil of Time appear here; and it seems likely that the remainder, were we able to recognise them, would be among friends of later days, for these are all Servers, ready to do whatever they are told, to go whither¬ soever they are sent. They are marked out by a slight downpour of the higher life, which causes a little expansion of a thread of intuitional matter, connecting the intuitional and mental permanent atoms, and makes it a little broader above than below, like a small funnel ; large numbers of people far more intelligent than they are do not show this, and it is connected with the germinal desire to serve, absent in those otherwise
\
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 65
more advanced people. The group includes many types, and does not consist, as might be expect¬ ed, of people of one Ray, or temperament ; there are persons who became individualised in any one of the three Right Ways, through the aspects of Will, Wisdom, and active Intellect,1 each stim¬ ulated into action by devotion to a superior. The method of individualisation comes in only as a cause of subdivision within the group, and affects the length of the interval between death and re¬ birth, but does not affect the characteristic of serviceableness. It affects the rate of vibration of the causal body, which is formed in the several cases by an endeavour to serve : (1) by an act of devotion ; (2) by a great outburst of pure devotion ; and (3) by devotion causing an effort to understand and appreciate. The actual formation of the causal body is always sudden ; it comes into existence as by a flash ; but the preceding circumstances differ and affect the rate of vibration of the body thus formed. An act of sacrifice in the physical body calls on the Will, and there is a pulsation in spiritual matter ; devotion, working in the emotional body 2 calls on Wisdom, and there is a pulsation in intuitional matter ; activity in the lower mind calls on the Active Intellect, and there is a pulsa¬ tion in higher mental matter. We shall presently find our group of Servers subdivided into two by these differences, the first two forming a sub-group, with intervals of an average of seven hundred years between births, and the third forming a second group
1 Atma, Buddhi, Manas.
• * • • *
3 The vehicle of desire, Kama.
10
66
MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
with intervals of an average of one thousand two hun¬ dred years. This difference will come out on the Earth Chain at a more advanced stage of evolution, and
the two sub-groups reach the Earth in the fourth Round with an interval of 400,000 years between them, apparently planned to bring them to birth together at a certain period, when their joint services would all be required ; so minute in its details is the Great Plan. This division does not
affect the relation between Masters and disciples, as pupils of each of the two Masters who are
to be the Manu and Bodhisattva of the sixth
• • •
Root Race, were found in both sub-groups. Thus the germinal desire to serve, seen by the higher Authorities, is the mark of this whole group, and the differences in individualisation, affecting the interval between death and re-birth, subdivide the group into two.1
At the head of this group stand many whom we know as Masters now, and high above them
are many who were already Arhafs, who transmit to those below them the orders received from far mightier Beings. The Manu of the Race — it is the seventh Race of the globe — is in charge, and He is obeying the orders, carrying out the plan, of the Seed-Manu, who directs all the preparations
1 It will, of course, be understood that the seven hundred and one thousand two hundred years’ intervals are ‘ averages,’ and the ‘ exact ’ length of each interval will depend on the length and conditions of the preceding life. There is this marked difference between the sub-groups, as though the members of the one lived with greater intensity than the other in the heaven-world, and thus crowded a similar amount into a briefer time.
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 67
for the transfer of the huge population. Some of the advanced people know vaguely that some great changes are impending, but these changes, though far-reaching, are too slow to draw much attention ; some co-operate, unconsciously but effectively, while thinking that they are carrying out great schemes of their own. There is one man, for instance,
i
who has an ideal community in his mind, and who gathers together a number of people in order to form it ; he is trying to please a Master who is an Arhat of the Moon, and people are at¬ tracted by him and collect round him, forming a definite group with a common aim, thus sub¬ serving the Great Plan. We, at our low level, look up to the Arhats and higher people as Gods, and try, in our very humble way, to fall in with any indications of their wishes that we can catch.
This group of Servers, as its numbers die out for the last time, having reached the required level on globe D, is regathered on the mental plane, the heavenly world, and its members remain there for an enormous time, having always before them the images of those they love, notably of the more advanced egos to whom they are especially devoted. It is this rapt devotion which so much helps their development, and brings out their higher qualities, so that later on they are more receptive to the influences which play upon them in the Inter-Chain sphere. They are included in the general mass of the egos called by H. P. Blavatsky 4 Solar Pitrs, 5 and by A. P. Sinnett 4 First-class Pitrs \ Other huge multitudes are also reaching the mental world — none being re-born who have reached an
68 MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
appointed level, which appears to be the posses¬ sion of a fully formed causal body — and are falling into great groups under the play of the powerful magnetic force before mentioned, rayed down upon them by the Seed-Manu. As strings at different ten¬ sions answer to different notes, so do the causal bodies of these people — and none, as just said, are here except those whose causal bodies are fully formed — answer to the chord He strikes, and they are thus separated off. People who come forth through the same Planetary Ruler are drafted into different groups ; friends fall into different groups ; none of the ordinary ties seem to count. The egos are automatically sorted out and wait on in their own places, as a crowd, in continental countries, is sorted off into waiting-rooms, to await the arrival of their own particular train — in this case, to use our former image, to await their own ship.
We noticed especially two of the ship-loads, because we ourselves formed part of them ; one included the coming Manu and Bodhisattva, those who are now Chohans and Masters, together with many of the Servers who are now disciples, or approaching that level. These all apparently belonged to the sub-group with the seven hundred years’ average between earth-lives. Another included many who are now Masters and disciples, with perhaps half the persons mentioned in the Rents in the Veil of Time , all belonging to the sub-group with the one thousand two hundred years5 average. These two ship-loads contained many, if not all, of those who are to form the Heavenly Man, and they were then divided into the two sub-groups.
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 69
Vaivasvata Manu and the present Bodhisattva were seen together on globe D, but they passed on to the higher globes of the Moon Chain.
This great mass includes : (1) the Servers
aforesaid, a very mixed lot of many grades, united by one common characteristic. Then (2) there is a large group of highly developed egos who are ap¬ proaching the Path — on the line of Service, there¬ fore, but too far ahead of the former group to be classed with it — and who are yet not near enough to the Path to reach it within the remaining life of the Chain. Then (3) a huge group of very good people, but people who have no wish to serve, and are not therefore yet turned towards the Path, and who will form the bulk of the population of Atlantis during its good period. (4) A .small but striking group of egos, united by the common characteristic of highly developed intellectual power, future geniuses, varied as to character and morals, a group manifestly destined to leadership in the future, but not dedicating themselves to Service, nor turning their faces to the Path. Then three very large groups: (5) good, and often religious, people — merchants, soldiers, etc., fairly clever, self-centred, thinking mainly of their own development and advancement, knowing nothing of the Path, and therefore with no wish to enter it ; (6) bourgeois- commonplace-weak, a very large group of the type described by the naming ; (7) undeveloped, well-
meaning, uneducated folk, the lowest class who have the causal body fully formed.
These are all in the heaven-world of the Moon, awaiting their despatch to the Inter-Chain sphere.
70 MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
I /
As convulsions begin to rend the Moon, prepara¬ tory to the disruption of its crust, other types pass also into this world ; a very considerable number of the Solar Pitrs, or First-class Pitrs — who are capable of making further progress on the remaining globes of the Chain, where we shall meet them again — come on into the heaven-world to await transference in due course to globe E.
Below these first-class Pitrs comes an immense class of egos who have not fully formed the causal body, Mr. Sinnett’s 4 Second-class Pitrs 5 ; a net¬ work has formed itself, connecting the ego and the lower mind, and, from the appearance of this, the name of 4 Basket-works 5 has been given to them. The mass of these, when the Moon begins to approach dissolution, pass out of the body for the last time on the Moon Chain, and are gathered together in the emotional world. There they fall asleep, for they cannot function therein ; when this emotional world of the Moon becomes uninhabitable, they lose their emotional bodies, and remain inward-turned, like bulbs await¬ ing shipment to another land, to be in due course shipped off to the Inter-Chain sphere, to sleep through ages, until the third Round of the Earth Chain offers a suitable field for their growth. There are some Basket-works, however, who show a capacity for further evolution on the Moon Chain, and they will pass on to the higher globes when these come into activity, and there form the causal body, re-inforcing the Solar, or First-class Pitrs.
The last class above the animals are the Animal-Men, Madame Blavatsky’s 4 First-class Lunar
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 71
Pitrs,’ Mr. Sinnett’s ‘ Third-class Pitrs These are distinguishable by delicate lines of matter which link the germinal ego to the dawning lower mind. They are gathered up, like the Basket-works, in the emotional world, when they pass out of the body for the last time on the Moon, and remain un¬ conscious in the mental world ; they are in due time shipped off, and sleep away aeons of time, and finally reach the Earth Chain and begin the long work of building on globe A, working through all the kingdoms up to the human, and then remaining human through the succeeding globes of the Round, and through the following Rounds. Some of these 4 Lines,’ as we may name them for distinc¬ tion, are also held back when the mass is shipped off, and are sent on to globe E for further evolution, and become Basket-works, joining thus the class which was above them.
So far we have followed the fate of the varied classes of lunar Humanity. Some part of it dropped out, the failures, in the sixth Round, and were 4 hung-up ’ until the next Chain gave a suitable field for further evolution. Some, the orange-hued, left globe A in the seventh Round. Some, the golden-yellow, left globe B. Some Arhats left from globes A, B, and C, and some of them went over to the forming Earth Chain from globe C. Then we have the classes that left globe D ; those with fully formed causal bodies, those with basket-work, those with lines. Those that remained passed on to globes E, F, and G, some leaving each globe, when they had made all the progress of which they were capable ; some Basket-works, higher-class
72 MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
Pitrs and Arhats thus went away from each globe. Most of the animals went off to the Inter-Chain Nirvana — a regular Noah’s Ark ; a few, who were capable of becoming Animal-men, were taken on to the later globes.
The determining cause of these different causal bodies lies in the stage at which individualisation occurred. In the lower parts of the animal kingdom very many animals are attached to a single group- soul, and the number diminishes as they climb towards humanity, till in the higher class of animals there are but ten or twenty attached to a group- soul. Contact with man may bring about individ¬ ualisation at a comparatively low stage ; if the animal, say a dog, has been for a long time in contact with man, and is one of a small group of ten or twenty, then, on individualising, a complete causal body is formed. If there are about one hundred in the group — the sheep-dog stage — a basket- work causal body would be formed ; if there were several hundreds — pariah dogs, as in Constantinople or India — he would have the indication of the causal body made by the connecting lines.
These stages remind us of somewhat similar differences in the vegetable kingdom ; the more highly developed members of the vegetable world pass directly into the mammalian animal kingdom. The decent gentle animal does not become a cruel and brutal savage, but only a pleasantly primitive man. The kingdoms overlap, and a really nice animal may be a more agreeable companion than some human beings.
An entity may stop for a shorter time in the animal stage and a longer time in the human,
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 73
or vice versa . It does not seem really to matter, as it always 4 gets there 5 in the end, just as longer or shorter times in the heaven-world work out to the same stage of progress among men. It is probably a mere human folly which makes one feel that it is pleasanter to be the best of
one’s kind at the time, and that one would rather have been a banyan-tree or an oak-tree than a flight of mosquitoes, a splendid mastiff than a clay-eating or man-eating savage.
To return. Globes E, F, and G seem to have been used as a kind of forcing-houses for special cultures, for enabling some to reach the Path, or attain Arhafship, who could not accomplish it on globe D, although in a fair way towards it, and to permit some, who were approaching a higher stage, to enter it. They were centres more than globes. Their population was small, since the bulk of human and animal kind had been shipped off from globe D, and was further diminished
by the sending off successively of a boat-load
from each globe as it passed into quiescence. The boat-load from globe E consisted of some who
were already on the Path and who had there become Arhats, some Basket-works who had com¬ pleted the causal body, and some Lines who had become Basket-works. When these left globe E, the remaining population, consisting of those below the Arhat level who could bear the strain of fur¬ ther forcing, were carried over into globe F. Those who left passed into the Inter-Chain Nirvana, and were there sorted out into the classes they had attained, as late letters with an extra
li
74 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
stamp are sorted into the heaps to which they belong.
A similar process went on upon globe F, and it was deeply interesting to notice that the Lord Gautama Buddha and the Lord Maitreya were among those who passed onwards, both from globe E and globe F, and reached the first great Initiation on globe G. They had dropped out in the seventh round of the second Chain, not being able to bear the forcing process on globes E, F, and G of that Chain, the conditions being too strenuous, and only suitable for those who could attain the prescribed level of success for that Chain, or could pass from the class they were in to the class above. They entered globe D of the Moon Chain in the fourth Round as primitive men, with the animals of the second Chain who were nearly ready for individualisation.
They took together, on globe F, their vow to become Buddhas, but the arrangements were not the same as on our earth. There was a kind of Heavenly Council in a heavenly world — the Buddhist Sukha- vati — and the great Being to whom they made their vow and who, as the acting Buddha, accepted it, was He who is called Dlpankara in the books. They reached Arhatship on globe G, ere leaving the Chain.
The Lord Buddha Dlpankara came from the fourth Chain of the Venus Scheme; the physical globe of that Chain was the Moon of Venus, which was seen by Herschel but which has disappeared since his time. He was one of the members of the General Staff, spoken of on p. 13, who may be sent to any Chain needing help. The Lord Dlpankara
THE SEVENTH ROUND ON THE MOON CHAIN 75
was followed in the great office of the Buddha by the Buddhas of the Earth Chain ; we know of the Lord Kashyapa, for instance, the Bodhisattva of the third Root Race, taking Buddhahood in the fourth ; and the Lord Gautama Himself, the Bodhi¬ sattva of the fourth Root Race, taking Buddhahood in the fifth. He was succeeded by the Lord Maifreya, the Bodhisattva of the fifth Root Race,
who will take Buddhahood in the sixth. He will
• •
be followed by the coming Bodhisattva of the sixth Root Race — now known as the Master K. H. — who will take Buddhahood in the seventh.
It must be remembered that a Buddha is an r Official who has to superintend much more than a humanity; He is the Teacher of Devas, Angels, as well as of men, so the fact that a given humanity may be at a very low stage of evolution does not do away with the need for that high office.
We noted also the Master Jupiter among those who entered the Path on globe G.
The Inter-Chain Nirvana
i
The human mind reels before the enormous periods of time concerned in evolution, and one takes refuge in the old — and modern — idea that time has no fixed existence, but is long or short according to the working of the consciousness of the being concerned.1 In the Inter-Chain Nirvana the really working consciousnesses were those of the Seed-Manu of the lunar Chain and the Root-Manu
1 See the suggestive little book, Two New Worlds, by E. E. Fournier d’Albe.
76 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
of the terrene. What time may be to Their con¬ sciousnesses who may pretend to guess ?
The Great Plan is in the mind of the Seed- Manu, and the Root-Manu receives it from Him and works it out in the new Chain over which He presides. The results of the evolution in the Chain whose life is over are gathered up within the aura of the Seed-Manu, and are arranged, tabu¬ lated, filed — if one may use terms drawn from our common life — in perfect order. On these intelli¬ gences of many grades, inward-turned, living a strange slow subjective life, without idea of time, He pours intermittent streams of His stimulating magnetism. A continuous stream would break them into pieces, so it plays on them and stops, and they doze on for perhaps a million years, slowly assimilating it ; and then another stream plays on them, and so on and on, for millions upon millions of years. As we watched that strange scene, many analogies rose up in our minds ; bulbs laid carefully on shelves, inspected from time to time by a gardener ; cots in a hospital, visited day by day by a physician. The time drew nearer and nearer when the great Gardener was to give out His bulbs for the planting, and the planting ground was the Earth Chain and the bulbs were living souls.