____________
THE
OF
THEOSOPHY
A
Definitive Work on Theosophy
By
William
Quan Judge
CHAPTER 13
Devachan
Having shown
that just beyond the threshold of human life there is a place of separation
wherein the better part of man is divided from his lower and brute elements, we
come to consider what is the state after death of the real being, the immortal
who travels from life to life. Struggling out of the body the entire man goes
into kama loka, to purgatory, where he again struggles and
loosens
himself from the lower skandhas; this period of birth over, the higher
principles, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, begin to think in a manner different from that
which the body and brain permitted in life. This is the state of Devachan, a
Sanskrit word meaning literally "the place of the gods," where the
soul enjoys
felicity; but
as the gods have no such bodies as ours, the Self in devachan is devoid of a
mortal body. In the ancient books it is said that this state lasts "for years
of infinite number," or "for a period proportionate to the merit of
the being"; and when the mental forces peculiar to the state are
exhausted, "the being is drawn down again to be reborn in the world of
mortals."
Devachan is therefore an
interlude between births in the world. The law of karma which forces us all to
enter the world, being ceaseless in its operation and also universal in scope,
acts also on the being in devachan, for only by the force or operation of Karma
are we taken out of devachan. It is something like the
pressure of
atmosphere which, being continuous and uniform, will push out or crush that
which is subjected to it unless there be a compensating quantity of atmosphere
to counteract the pressure. In the present case the karma of the being is the
atmosphere always pressing the being on or out from state to state; the
counteracting quantity of atmosphere is the force of the being's own
life-thoughts and aspirations which prevent his coming out of devachan until
that force is exhausted, but which being spent has no more power to hold back
the decree of our self-made mortal destiny.
The necessity
for this state after death is one of the necessities of evolution growing out
of the nature of mind and soul. The very nature of manas requires a devachanic
state as soon as the body is lost, and it is simply the effect of loosening the
bonds placed upon the mind by its physical and astral encasement.
In life we
can but to a fractional extent act out the thoughts we have each moment; and
still less can we exhaust the psychic energies engendered by each day's
aspirations and dreams. The energy thus engendered is not lost or annihilated,
but is stored in Manas, but the body, brain, and astral body permit no full
development of the force. Hence, held latent until death, it bursts then from
the weakened bonds and plunges Manas, the thinker, into the expansion, use, and
development of the thought-force set up in life.
The
impossibility of escaping this necessary state lies in man's ignorance of his
own powers and faculties. From this ignorance delusion arises, and Manas not
being wholly free is carried by its own force into the thinking of devachan.
But while ignorance
is the cause
for going into this state the whole process is remedial, restful, and
beneficial. For if the average man returned at once to another body in the same
civilization he had just quitted, his soul would be completely tired out and
deprived of the needed opportunity for the development of the higher part of
his nature.
Now the Ego
being minus mortal body and kama, clothes itself in devachan with a vesture
which cannot be called body but may be styled means or vehicle, and in that it
functions in the devachanic state entirely on the plane of mind and soul.
Everything is as real then to the being as this world seems to be to us.
It simply now
has gotten the opportunity to make its own world for itself unhampered by the
clogs of physical life. Its state may be compared to that of the poet or artist
who, rapt in ecstacy of composition or arrangement of color, cares not for and
knows not of either time or objects of the world.
We are making
causes every moment, and but two fields exist for the manifestation in effect of
those causes. These are, the objective as this world is called, and the
subjective which is both here and after we have left this life. The objective
field relates to earth life and the grosser part of man, to his bodily acts and
his brain thoughts, as also sometimes to his astral body.
The
subjective has to do with his higher and spiritual parts. In the objective
field the psychic impulses cannot work out, nor can the high leanings and
aspirations of his soul; hence these must be the basis, cause, substratum, and
support for the state of devachan. What then is the time, measured by mortal
years, that
one will stay in devachan?
This question
while dealing with what earth-men call time does not, of course, touch the real
meaning of time itself, that is, of what may be in fact for this solar system
the ultimate order, precedence, succession, and length of moments.
It is a
question which may be answered in respect to our time, but not certainly in
respect to the time on the planet Mercury, for instance, where time is not the
same as ours, nor, indeed, in respect to time as conceived by the soul. As to
the latter any man can see that after many years have slipped away he has no
direct
perception of the time just passed, but is able only to pick out some of the
incidents which marked its passage, and as to some poignant or happy instants
or hours he seems to feel them as but of yesterday. And thus it is for the
being in devachan. No time is there. The soul has all the benefit of what goes
on within itself in that state, but it indulges in no speculations as to the
lapse of moments; all is made up of events, while all the time the solar orb is
marking off the years for us on the earth plane.
This cannot
be regarded as an impossibility if we will remember how, as is well known in
life, events, pictures, thoughts, argument, introspective feeling will all
sweep over us in perfect detail in an instant, or, as is known of those who
have been drowning, the events of a whole life time pass in a flash before the
eye of the mind. But the Ego remains as said in devachan for a time exactly
proportioned to the psychic impulses generated during life. Now this being a
matter which deals with the mathematics of the soul, no one but a Master can
tell what the time would be for the average man of this century in every land.
Hence we have to depend on the Masters of wisdom for that average, as it must
be based upon a calculation.
They have said,
as is well put by Mr. A. P. Sinnett in his Esoteric Buddhism, that the period
is fifteen hundred years in general. From a reading of his book, which was made
up from letters from the Masters, it is to be inferred he desires it to be
understood that the devachanic period is in each and every case fifteen
centuries; but to do away with that misapprehension his informants wrote at a
later date that that is the average period and not a fixed one.
Such must be
the truth, for as we see that men differ in respect to the periods of time they
remain in any state of mind in life due to the varying intensities of their
thoughts, so it must be in
devachan where thought has
a greater force though always due to the being who had the thoughts.
What the
Master did say on this is as follows: "The 'dream of devachan' lasts until
karma is satisfied in that direction. In devachan there is a
gradual exhaustion of force. The stay in devachan is proportionate to the
unexhausted psychic impulses originated in earth life. Those whose actions were
preponderatingly
material will be sooner brought back into rebirth by the force of Tanha."
Tanha is the thirst for life. He therefore who has not in life originated many
psychic impulses will have but little basis or force in his essential nature to
keep his higher principles in devachan.
About all he
will have are those originated in childhood before he began to fix his thoughts
on materialistic thinking. The thirst for life expressed by the word Tanha is
the pulling or magnetic force lodged in the skandhas inherent in all beings. In
such
a case as
this the average rule does not apply, since the whole effect either way is due
to a balancing of forces and is the outcome of action and reaction.
And this sort
of materialistic thinker may emerge out of devachan into another body
here in a month, allowing for the unexpended psychic forces originated in early
life. But as every one of such persons varies as to class, intensity and
quantity of thought and psychic impulse, each may vary in respect to the time
of stay in devachan.
Desperately materialistic thinkers will remain in the devachanic condition
stupefied or asleep, as it were, as they have no forces in them appropriate to
that state save in a very vague fashion, and for them it can be very truly said
that there is no state after death so far as mind is
concerned;
they are torpid for a while, and then they live again on earth. This general
average of the stay in devachan gives us the length of a very important human
cycle, the Cycle of Reincarnation. For under that law national development will
be found to repeat itself, and the times that are past will be found to come
again.
The last
series of powerful and deeply imprinted thoughts are those which give color and
trend to the whole life in devachan. The last moment will color each subsequent
moment. On those the soul and mind fix themselves and weave of them a whole set
of events and experiences, expanding them to their highest limit, carrying out
all that was not possible in life. Thus expanding and weaving these thoughts
the entity has its youth and growth and growing old, that is, the uprush of the
force, its expansion, and its dying down to final exhaustion.
If the person
has led a colourless life the devachan will be colourless; if a rich life, then
it will be rich in variety and effect. Existence there is not a dream save in a
conventional sense, for it is a stage of the life of man, and when we are there
this present life is a dream. It is not in any sense monotonous. We are too
prone to measure all possible states of life and places for experience by our
present earthly one and to imagine it to be reality.
But the life
of the soul is endless and not to be stopped for one instant. Leaving our
physical body is but a transition to another place or plane for living in. But
as the ethereal garments of devachan are more lasting than those we wear here,
the spiritual,
moral, and
psychic causes use more time in expanding and exhausting in that state than
they do on earth. If the molecules that form the physical body were not subject
to the general chemical laws that govern physical earth, then we should live as
long in these bodies as we do in the devachanic state. But such a
life of endless
strain and suffering would be enough to blast the soul compelled to undergo it.
Pleasure would then be pain, and surfeit would end but in an immortal insanity.
Nature, always kind, leads us soon again into heaven for a rest, for the
flowering of the best and highest in our natures.
Devachan is then neither
meaningless nor useless. "In it we are rested; that part of us which could
not bloom under the chilling skies of earth-life bursts forth into flower and
goes back with us to earth-life stronger and more a part of our nature than
before. Why should we repine that Nature kindly aids us in the interminable
struggle, why keep the mind revolving about the present petty personality and
its good and evil fortunes? " (Letter from Mahatma K. H. See Path p. 191,
Vol. 5.)
But it is
sometimes asked, what of those we have left behind: do we see them there? We do
not see them there in fact, but we make to ourselves their images as full,
complete, and objective as in life, and devoid of all that we then thought was
a blemish. We live with them and see them grow great and good instead of mean
or bad. The mother who has left a drunken son behind finds him before her in
devachan a sober, good man, and likewise through all possible cases, parent,
child, husband, and wife have their loved ones there perfect and full of
knowledge. This is for the benefit of the soul. You may call it a delusion if
you will, but the illusion is necessary to happiness just as it often is in
life. And as it is the mind that makes the illusion, it is no cheat.
Certainly the
idea of a heaven built over the verge of hell where you must know, if any
brains or memory are left to you under the modern orthodox scheme, that your
erring friends and relatives are suffering eternal torture, will bear no
comparison with the doctrine of devachan. But entities in devachan are not
wholly devoid
of power to help those left on earth. Love, the master of life, if real, pure,
and deep, will sometimes cause the happy Ego in devachan to affect those left
on earth for their good, not only in the moral field but also in that of
material circumstance. This is possible under a law of the occult universe
which cannot be
explained now with profit, but the fact may be stated. It has been given out
before this by H. P. Blavatsky, without, however, much attention being drawn to
it.
The last
question to consider is whether we here can reach those in devachan or do they come
here. We cannot reach them nor affect them unless we are Adepts.
The claim of
mediums to hold communion with the spirits of the dead is baseless, and still less
valid is the claim of ability to help those who have gone to devachan. The Mahatma, a
being who has developed all his powers and is free from illusion, can go into
the devachanic state and then communicate with the Egos there.
Such is one
of their functions, and that is the only school of the Apostles after death.
They deal with certain entities in devachan for the purpose of getting them out
of the state so as to return to earth for the benefit of the race. The Egos
they thus deal with are those whose nature is great and deep but who are not
wise enough to be able to overcome the natural illusions of devachan.
Sometimes
also the hypersensitive and pure medium goes
into this
state and then holds communication with the Egos there, but it is rare, and
certainly will not take place with the general run of mediums who trade for
money. But the soul never descends here to the medium. And the gulf between the
consciousness of devachan
and that of earth is so deep and wide that it is but seldom the medium can
remember upon returning to recollection here what or whom it met or saw or
heard in devachan. This gulf is similar to that which separates devachan from
rebirth; it is one in which all memory of what preceded it is blotted out.
The whole
period allotted by the soul's forces being ended in devachan, the magnetic
threads which bind it to earth begin to assert their power. The Self wakes from
the dream, it is borne swiftly off to a new body, and then, just before birth,
it sees for a moment all the causes that led it to devachan and back to the
life it is about to begin, and knowing it to be all just, to be the
result of its
own past life, it repines not but takes up the cross again -- and another soul
has come back to earth.
ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING REINCARNATION
DIFFERENTIATION
OF SPECIES MISSING LINKS
PSYCHIC LAWS, FORCES, AND PHENOMENA
PSYCHIC
PHENOMENA AND SPIRITUALISM
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THE BUDDHIC AND NIRVANIC PLANES
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An Outstanding
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From A Textbook
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How We Remember our Past Lives
Life after Death & Reincarnation
The
Slaughter of the
a great
demand by the public for lectures on Reincarnation
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
Quotes from
the Writings of
Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 2, Page 100
It is only by
the attractive force of the contrasts that the two opposites — Spirit and Matter — can be cemented
together on Earth, and, smelted in the fire of self-conscious experience and suffering, find
themselves wedded in Eternity.
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 2, Page 108
It is the
motive, and the motive alone, which makes any exercise of power become black, malignant, or white,
beneficent Magic. It is impossible to employ spiritual forces if there is the
slightest tinge of selfishness remaining in the operator .... The powers and
forces of animal nature can equally be used by the selfish and revengeful, as
by the unselfish and the all-forgiving; the powers and forces of spirit lend
themselves only to the perfectly pure in heart — and this is Divine Magic.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 36
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 3, Page 14
Even ignorance is better than
Head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide it.
The Voice of the Silence, Page 43
Annotation - The
Path, May, 1888
The Secret
Doctrine , Proem [Volume 1], Page 35
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 210
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 1, Page 134
incarnation of
his God; and when the sense of personal responsibility will be so
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 2, Page 374
It is the
motive, and the motive alone, which makes any exercise of power become
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 2, Page 498
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 36
From strength to
strength, from the beauty and perfection of one plane to the
greater beauty
and perfection of another, with accessions of new glory, of fresh
knowledge and
power in each cycle, such is the destiny of every Ego, which thus
becomes its own
saviour in each world and incarnation.
The Key to
Theosophy, Page 105
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 1, Page 69
The mind
receives indelible impressions even from chance acquaintance or persons
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 311
The Key to Theosophy, Page 228
An
Outline of Theosophy
Charles
Webster Leadbeater
Theosophy - What it is How is it Known? The Method of Observation
General Principles The Three Great Truths The Deity
Advantage Gained from this
Knowledge The Divine Scheme
The Constitution of Man The True Man Reincarnation
The Wider Outlook Death Man’s Past and Future
Cause and Effect What Theosophy does for us
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