STU D I ES I N B HAGAVA D GiTA: By f T H E D REAM ER. ‘ ctbi rb S eri es. T HE P TH OF A INITIATION . LONDON ' T i m THEOS OPHXCA L P U BL I S HI N G Soc mr v . e v Ac a w s mxs o . L11 PERCY LON D . H uu m C , 1 , A E N ORNE R E C . 3 . M C , NEW YORK : JOHN LA N E . CHI CAGO T HE THE OS OPHICAL Boon CONCERN FORTHCOMING O F THE CENTRES ' T RI PL ICITY O F THE CE NT RE S P RAVRI T T I MARGA L QUALIFICATION S FO R. DI SCIP ESHIP T HE REASO NS FOR THE QUALIFICATIO NS I NIT I Ar toNs T H E YOGA O F W I SDOM ' ‘ T HE O O F A VAT ARA VII I . D CTRI NE DI VIN E MANI FESTATION T H E E N D OF OCCU LTISM S T U D I E S I N T H E B' HAGAVA D i TA G . CHAPTER I . T HE F C N ORTH OMING OF THE CE TRES . EFORE we enter further into the subj e c t of the qualifications for discipleship and the unification c s of the entres of consciousness in man , we mu t try to understand the nature an d potentialities of these n h c * centres themselves , the ce tres w i h , as we have seen, uni fy harmoniously the experien ces of di fie re n t planes di and form therefore the con tions of the manifesting life. Pu ru h The three Logoi , the three s as, as they are called in the Hindu Shastras, are the manifestations of the One el s c S f, and They may be regarded p ychologi ally, in the an as s l guage of metaphysics , succe sive modifications in l . s l i the One Life of the Se f E oterical y v ewed , They appeared as three distinct persons , and are regarde d as sid separate . Let us try to con er Them from the stand f s t point o consciousne s , and see if, hus viewed , They supply us with an analogy to un derstan d the human s centres . There are two ways of de cribing a thing, one an d from the standpoint of form and manifestation , the other from the standpoint of the i n ne r life and accord ing as the one or the other view preponderates, our i s conception of things also changes . It only when we look to the formal eleme nt in things an d ignore the underlyi ng li fe that we are la nded in differences . i a n i 10 Studi es in the Bhaga vad G t . 2 d Ser es . p . 4. 8 STUDIES IN THE B HAGAVAD GI TA . * Turning to the S ri ma d-Bhaga va d we read Before l h s the creation, the Maya of the Se f being indrawn , t i manifested universe was then of the n atur e of the n n o one see a n thi n Self, the there was to nor y g to be see n . The Self only was there but though the Seer se e of things , yet there being then nothing to . It thought e n ot ul as if It xisted ; yet being conscious , It co d not ' S a ktz think that It existed n ot a bsolu tely. The ff of Ishvara having the qualities both of cause and e ect , l Hi s e and inking Ishvara, the Seer, to fi ld, is called c Maya . After thi s Maya is a ted upon by al d Kala (time) , so the energy of Ishvara, and ma e objective unto Himself, then there is a reflection from Ishvara on it producing the Cosmic pri nciple known as M aha t. M a ha t n This , bei g transformed by Aha mkar a the action of the Self , evolves out of it , f i s which mani ests and the substratum of the Actor, the modi fic a fiec t . Action , and the E The Tamasic tions of this Ahamkara produce succe ssively the Tan ma tra s and the Bhuta s from the Raj asic modi fications of the same , evolve the organs , and from the Sattvic come out the powers known as the Mind and the Intel lect The above gives in an abridged form the stages f s of the involution of the Sel , whereby through uccessive i n lim tations and inhibitions of Its powers , the pri ciples Man . in and Cosmos arise The state of consciousness , viewing the whole problem from wi thi n rather than from without , manifested in the state described , when Maya was not , because of the absence of the principle of relation of the Self to Its field, is what is known in s r Pa rabrahm an the Theo ophical literatu e as , Brahman t unrelated to any hing, the Brahman outside manifesta ” a c tion, the Etern l Parent of the Se ret Doctrine . Cf 2 a e " III ., v. 4 , s q. T HE O O F FORTHC MING THE CENTRES . 9 Indrawing Its life within Itself, It exists , the One Root less Root , the One Sat (Reality), yet called sometimes s - i e the A at , the Non ex st nce , because transcending all finite limited existence . Time there was not, for everything was indrawn into the bosom of Eternal ” Duration . Naught was . The next stage in manifestation is c haracteri sed by the action of Time synthesising the residual traces of M i ldi the Divine emory , the Div ne Ideation, and ho ng i . them up, as it were , before the Div ne gaze So we read ” c in the Secret Doctrine , how at the lose of the Seven Eternities in which the Self remai ned in the apparent - s an d - a non being of inwardne s non m nifestation, the s hour struck . The seeds or re idual traces of Divine ideation and memory thus rendered objective as the i r th n veil of the abstract memo y of the Divine , mani oi fest now as the field consciousness and ideation, u s known as the Chi tta . Let take an analogy on the lower plane consciousness to understand di mly what takes place in the Cosmic plan es . While we are in deep n sleep , the resisti g principle of consciousness being if indrawn by the Ego, we feel as we exist not , and yet , at the same time, we cannot say we do not exist . As a x matter of fact , the Ego e ists and is conscious , but there being nothing to limit and measure its existence and consciousness , to the concrete memory this state appears - as one of darkness and non being . Let us conceive that i s we are suddenly roused from th state . What takes u nn s place The Ego nable , by the very sudde e s of l the shock whic h brings it down to the physica , to adjust i l . itself to the new state of th ngs , cannot define itse f u di It may see the physical s rroun ngs , the panorama of memory m a y flit before its eyes , yet it is unable to predicate any of these changes to itself, and hence, xo STUDIES IN THE B HAGAVAD GI TA. wn though fully conscious on its o plane, though knowing ” s ni it elf as the I , it is incapable of further defi tion , of further li mitation . It knows the memory pictures , e i s it se s them with accuracy, it ex ts in fact as their su s i b tratum, yet it is not defined and l mited by any i e hi . hi o t ng In the Cosmic plane , t s state the S lf is i techni cally known as the Vasudeva principle, of wh ch the Gi ta speaks as *enveloping everythi n g and as being everything . In human evolution , this stage corresponds in An u a a k a n all- n s it s to the Monad the T p d pla e , co sciou in c . own nature , but unconscious like a hild as to its bearings The ch aracteristic of consciousness at this stage i s graphically described in the Sri ma d - Bha ga v a d thus I “ Thi s Mahat contains in Itself the possibili ty of fi in nite manifestation of the universe , and is constant , e fie c ts La a being above the of y (dissolution and nescience) , n and Vi kshepa (refraction a d outwa rdness) . It is that whi c h mani fests in a subtle form the universe that is to be wn r , and with Its o splendour d ives away the non Prala a . In i ts al the being of y materi side , as the h field of abstract memory, as C itta , It has the quality ” of reflecting the image of the Self . It is in short that stage of the I where It is not limited and indivi dual e in h e s s is d, and w ich the r lics of consciou ne s and memory e fi are h ld together, without de ning or circumscribing - the I .