Friday, May 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
BHARTRINATH (VICHARNATH)
ADESH ADESH
Raja Bharthari is the direct disciple of Guru Gorakhnath.
Immortal Yogis: King Bhartrihari (Bharthari)
Out of twelve sub-sects of the Natha Sampradya, one is associated with the name of Bhartri, known as Bhartṛhari Bāirāg.It is said, traces its original from Raja of Ujjain Bhartrihari by name, who was historical personality and was disciple of Guru Goraksh nath. He was a king who abandoned his throne to became a wondering yogi. He was highly educated person of his time, and known also as author at least of tree books: first called Vairāgya śataka, or hundred verses on renunciation; second is Śṛngāra śataka or hundred verses on beauty of love; and third is Nīti śataka or hundred verses on art of politics. All three of them counted as classics of Indian literature. There exist three different stories about how and why he renounced his throne and became wondering yogi under influence of Guru Goraksh Nath (in one legend without it). He is known also as one of Nath siddhas, under name Siddh Vichar nath.
Goraksh Nath was performing his sadhana on the top of Toraṇmal mountain. At the same time Raja Bartrihari went in the same area of jungle for hunting. There he has killed male deer near the place where the yogi was sitting, and Goraksh Nath saw happened. The male deer killed by the king was accompanied by the female deer, and when Raja wanted to carry off his hunt and tight it to his horse, she was sorrowfully watching this from some distance.
The yogi rebuked Raja for done by him and told him that he has no right to kill the deer because he was unable to make him alive. On listening this, annoyed raja has stared argumentation with the yogi, and as its conclusion Goraksh Nath has made the deer alive again, and he run away to the jungle.
Raja Bhartrihari has became impressed by such development of events, and expressed his desire to renounce the world, and asked the yogi to make him his disciple. Goraks Nath has answered that before it he should go to the palace and ask from his wife permission to do it. On this both separated and went to their places, Goraksh Nath returned to the top of mountain and Raja Bhartrihari went to his capital
One more variation of the same events
Raja Bhartari was the son of Raja Bhoj, king of Dharanagar. He had 71 ranis, of whom one, by name Pingla, was a disciple of Gorakh (47) who gave her a flower saying it would remain ever fresh as long as her husband was alive. One day to test Pingla’s love Bhartari went a-hunting and sent back his blood-stained clothes and horse with the news that he had been killed, but the rani, seeing the flower still fresh knew that the Raja only doubted her love for him and in grief at his mistrust killed herself. When she was carried out to the burning-ground the Raja evinced great grief and Gorakh appeared. Breaking his chipi (48), the saint walked round it, weeping and Bhartari asked him why he grieved. Gorakh answered that he could get the Raja a thousand queens, but never a vessel like the one he had just broken, and he showed him a hundred ranis as fair as Pingla, but each of them said: ‘Hold aloof! Art thou mad? No one knows how often we have been thy mothers or sisters or wives.’ Hearing these words Bhartari’s grief was moderated and he made Gorakh his guru, but did not abandon his kingdom. Still when he returned to his kingdom the loss of Pingla troubled him and his other queens bade him seek distraction in hunting. In great pomp he marched forth, and the dust darkened the sun. On the banks of the Samru he saw a herd of deer, 70 hinds with a single stag. He failed to kill the stag, and one of the hinds besought him to kill one of them instead, since the stag was as dear to them as he was to his queens, but the Raja said he, a Kshatriya, could not kill a hind. So the hind who had spoken bade the stag meet the Raja’s arrow, and as he fell he said: ‘Give my feet to the thief that he may escape with his life; my horns to a Jogi that he may use them as his nad; my skin to an ascetic that he may worship on it; my eyes to a fair woman that she may be called mirga-naini, (49); and eat my flesh thyself.’ And to this day these things are used as the dying stag desired.
Raja Bhartrihari
The name of Raja Bhartrihari (or Bhartri) is widely known in India, as the name of the king who has renounced his throne, to become an ascetic. The dramatic story of his renunciation traditionally was one of the favorite themes of the ballads sung by the wondering minstrels and performed by the folk theaters all over India.
Prior to his renunciation, he was the king of the Malva Kingdom with its capital in Avantikā (modern Ujjain). He had younger brother Vikramaditya (Chandragupta second), who uled after he renounced his trone since 1076 till 1126? However, there were two kings known as Vikramāditya in the Indian history, which were separated from each other by the period of one thousand years, one was legendary king Vikramāditya, by whom the Vikram Samwat (the calendar established from the time of his reign) was stared, and other known as Chandragupta second.
In accordance with some legends circulating amongst Nathas, Raja Bhartrihari was also the brother of the queen Menaavanti, who was the mother of another legendary personage of the Natha tradition Raja Gopichand. It is said that Raja Bhartrihari had many wifes, but his most favorite and famous wife was Rani (queen) Pingala.
The king was excessively educated person who wrote few books in Sanskrit, which counted as the master pieces of the Indian literature. The three most famous of them called , Nīti śataka and Shringara śataka and when united into one volume called some researches believing that the work on grammar Vākyapadīya is one more of his books. There are also few compositions in old Indian dialects, which are ascribed to his authorship.
ADESH ADESH
1- BHARTRIHARINATH GUFA- UJAIN -MADHYAM PRADESH- INDIA
2- BHARTRIHARINATH - RATADUNDA -RAJASTHAN-INDIA
3- BHARTRINATH DHAAM - ALWAR -RAJASTHAN-INDIA
ADESH ADESH
1- BHARTRIHARINATH GUFA- UJAIN -MADHYAM PRADESH- INDIA
2- BHARTRIHARINATH - RATADUNDA -RAJASTHAN-INDIA
3- BHARTRINATH DHAAM - ALWAR -RAJASTHAN-INDIA
Bhartrihari ka niti-shatak -book
Bhartrihari Ka Shringhar-Shatak-book
Bhartrihari ka vairagya-shatak-booK
GORAKHNATH NAD BHARTRIHARINATH -BOOK
Mandir Shri Bhartrihari Dhaam-Alwar.Rajasthan
BHARTHHARINATH GUFA-UJJAIN(M.P.)PHOTO
BHARTHAINATH GUFA -UJJAIN (M.P)
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monadic Body
Sanskrit Name = anama (nameless) 4 Also called Vishnuloka
The information available on the subject of the Monad is necessarily scanty. We are not at present in a position to supplement it to any great extent; but a statement of the case, as far as it is at present comprehended, may save students some misapprehensions.
That many misconceptions should exist on such a subject is inevitable, because we are trying to understand with the physical brain what can by no possibility be expressed in terms intelligible to that brain.
The Monad inhabits the second plane of our set of planes [ see 7 Planes chart ] - that which used to be called the paranirvanic or the anupadaka.
It is not easy to attach in the mind any definite meaning to the word plane or world [or body] at such an altitude as this, because any attempt even to symbolise the relation of planes or worlds to one another demands a stupendous effort of the imagination in a direction with which we are wholly unfamiliar. Let us try to imagine what the consciousness of the Divine must be - the consciousness of the Solar Deity altogether outside any of the worlds or planes or levels which we ever conceived. We can only vaguely think of some sort of transcendent Consciousness for which space no longer exists, to which everything (at least in the Solar System) is simultaneously present, not only in its actual condition, but at every stage of its evolution from beginning to end. We must think of that Divine Consciousness as creating for Its use these worlds of various types of matter, and then voluntarily veiling Itself within that matter, and thereby greatly limiting Itself. By taking upon Itself a garment of the matter of even the highest of these worlds, It has clearly already imposed upon Itself a certain limitation; and, equally clearly, each additional garment assumed, as It involves Itself more and more deeply in matter, must increase the limitation.
One way of attempting to symbolise this is to try to think of it in connection with what we call dimensions of space. If we may suppose an infinite number of these dimensions, it may be suggested that each descent, from a higher level to a lower, removes the consciousness of one of these dimensions, until, when we reach the mental plane or world, the power of observing but five of them is all that is left to us. The descent to the astral level takes away one more, and the further descent to the physical leaves us with the three which are familiar to us
In order [for us to] even to get an idea of what this loss of additional dimensions means, we have to suppose the existence of a creature whose senses are capable of comprehending only two dimensions. Then we must reason in what respect the consciousness of that creature would differ from ours, and thus try to image to ourselves what it would mean to lose a dimension from our consciousness. Such an exercise of the imagination will speedily convince us that the two-dimensional creature could never obtain any adequate conception of our life at all; he could be conscious of it only in sections, and his idea of even those sections must be entirely misleading. This enables us to see how inadequate must be our conception even of the plane or world next above us; and we at once perceive the hopelessness of expecting fully to understand the Monad, which is raised by many of these planes or worlds above the point from which we are trying to regard it. 19
For the time [being], at least, the Monad is our personal God, the God within us, that which produces us down here as a manifestation of him on all these all but infinitely lower levels. What his consciousness is on his own plane we cannot pretend to say, nor can we fully understand it even when he has put upon himself the first veil, and become the triple Spirit [the Atmic level]. The only way to understand such things is to rise to their level, and to become one with them. When we do that we shall comprehend, but even then we shall be utterly unable to explain to anyone else what we know. It is at that stage, the stage of the triple Spirit, that we who investigate can first see the Monad, and he is then a triple light of blinding glory, yet possessing even at that stage certain qualities by which one Monad is somehow distinct from another.
Often a student asks: “But what have we to do with it while we are down here - this unknown glory so far above us?” It is a natural question, yet in reality it is the reverse of what should be; for the true man is the Monad and we should rather say: “What can I, the Monad, do with my Ego, and through it with my personality?” This would be the correct attitude, for this would express the actual facts; but we cannot truthfully take it, because we cannot realise this. Yet we can say to ourselves: “I know that I am that Monad, though as yet I cannot express it; I know that I am the Ego, a mere fraction of that Monad, but still out of all proportion greater than what I know of myself in the personality down here. More and more I will try to realise myself as that higher and greater being; more and more will I try to make this lower presentation of myself worthy of its true destiny; more and more will I see to it that this lower self is ever ready to catch the sightest hint or whisper from above - to follow the suggestions from the Ego which we call intuitions - to distinguish the Voice of the Silence and to obey it.”
It is well that we should learn to distinguish this voice - this voice which speaks from above and yet from within; for sometimes other voices speak, and their counsel is not always wise. A medium finds this, for if he has not trained himself to distinguish, he often thinks that every voice coming from the astral [emotion/desire] plane must necessarily be all but divine, and therefore to be followed unquestionably. Therefore discrimination is necessary, as well as watchfulness and obedience.
Does the Monad, in the case of the ordinary man, ever do anything which affects or can affect his personality down here? I think we may say that such interference is most unusual. the Ego is trying, on behalf of the Monad, to obtain perfect control of the personality and to use it as an instrument; and because that object is not fully achieved, the Monad may well feel that the time has not yet come to interfere from his own level, and to bring the whole of his force to bear, when that which is already in action is more than strong enough for the required purpose. But when the Ego is already beginning to succeed in his effort to manage his lower vehicles, the real man in the background does sometimes intervene. 19
Of the condition of consciousness of the Solar Deity outside the planes of His system, we can form no true conception. He has been spoken of as the Divine Fire; and if for a moment we adopt that time-honoured symbolism, we may imagine that Sparks from that Fire fall into the matter of our planes - Sparks which are of the essence of that Fire, but are yet in appearance temporarily separated from it. The analogy cannot be pushed too far, because all sparks of which we know anything are thrown out from their parent fire and gradually fade and die; whereas these Sparks develop by slow evolution into Flames, and return to the Parent Fire. This development and this return are apparently the objects for which the Sparks come forth; and the process of the development is that which we are at the present moment concerned to try to understand.
It seems that the Spark, as such, cannot in its entirety veil itself beyond a certain extent; it cannot descend beyond what we call the second plane, and yet retain its unity. One difficulty with which we are confronted in trying to form any ideas upon this matter is that, as yet, none of us who investigate are able to raise our consciousness to this second plane; in the nomenclature recently adopted [1920's] we give to it the name of monadic because it is the home of the Monad, but none of us have yet been able to realise that Monad in his own habitation, but only to see him when he has descended one stage to the plane or level or world below his own, in which he shows himself as the triple Spirit, which in our earlier books we call the Atma in man. Even already he is incomprehensible, for he has three aspects which are quite distinct and apparently separate, and yet they are all fundamentally one and the same. 19
The information available on the subject of the Monad is necessarily scanty. We are not at present in a position to supplement it to any great extent; but a statement of the case, as far as it is at present comprehended, may save students some misapprehensions.
That many misconceptions should exist on such a subject is inevitable, because we are trying to understand with the physical brain what can by no possibility be expressed in terms intelligible to that brain.
The Monad inhabits the second plane of our set of planes [ see 7 Planes chart ] - that which used to be called the paranirvanic or the anupadaka.
It is not easy to attach in the mind any definite meaning to the word plane or world [or body] at such an altitude as this, because any attempt even to symbolise the relation of planes or worlds to one another demands a stupendous effort of the imagination in a direction with which we are wholly unfamiliar. Let us try to imagine what the consciousness of the Divine must be - the consciousness of the Solar Deity altogether outside any of the worlds or planes or levels which we ever conceived. We can only vaguely think of some sort of transcendent Consciousness for which space no longer exists, to which everything (at least in the Solar System) is simultaneously present, not only in its actual condition, but at every stage of its evolution from beginning to end. We must think of that Divine Consciousness as creating for Its use these worlds of various types of matter, and then voluntarily veiling Itself within that matter, and thereby greatly limiting Itself. By taking upon Itself a garment of the matter of even the highest of these worlds, It has clearly already imposed upon Itself a certain limitation; and, equally clearly, each additional garment assumed, as It involves Itself more and more deeply in matter, must increase the limitation.One way of attempting to symbolise this is to try to think of it in connection with what we call dimensions of space. If we may suppose an infinite number of these dimensions, it may be suggested that each descent, from a higher level to a lower, removes the consciousness of one of these dimensions, until, when we reach the mental plane or world, the power of observing but five of them is all that is left to us. The descent to the astral level takes away one more, and the further descent to the physical leaves us with the three which are familiar to us
In order [for us to] even to get an idea of what this loss of additional dimensions means, we have to suppose the existence of a creature whose senses are capable of comprehending only two dimensions. Then we must reason in what respect the consciousness of that creature would differ from ours, and thus try to image to ourselves what it would mean to lose a dimension from our consciousness. Such an exercise of the imagination will speedily convince us that the two-dimensional creature could never obtain any adequate conception of our life at all; he could be conscious of it only in sections, and his idea of even those sections must be entirely misleading. This enables us to see how inadequate must be our conception even of the plane or world next above us; and we at once perceive the hopelessness of expecting fully to understand the Monad, which is raised by many of these planes or worlds above the point from which we are trying to regard it. 19
For the time [being], at least, the Monad is our personal God, the God within us, that which produces us down here as a manifestation of him on all these all but infinitely lower levels. What his consciousness is on his own plane we cannot pretend to say, nor can we fully understand it even when he has put upon himself the first veil, and become the triple Spirit [the Atmic level]. The only way to understand such things is to rise to their level, and to become one with them. When we do that we shall comprehend, but even then we shall be utterly unable to explain to anyone else what we know. It is at that stage, the stage of the triple Spirit, that we who investigate can first see the Monad, and he is then a triple light of blinding glory, yet possessing even at that stage certain qualities by which one Monad is somehow distinct from another.
Often a student asks: “But what have we to do with it while we are down here - this unknown glory so far above us?” It is a natural question, yet in reality it is the reverse of what should be; for the true man is the Monad and we should rather say: “What can I, the Monad, do with my Ego, and through it with my personality?” This would be the correct attitude, for this would express the actual facts; but we cannot truthfully take it, because we cannot realise this. Yet we can say to ourselves: “I know that I am that Monad, though as yet I cannot express it; I know that I am the Ego, a mere fraction of that Monad, but still out of all proportion greater than what I know of myself in the personality down here. More and more I will try to realise myself as that higher and greater being; more and more will I try to make this lower presentation of myself worthy of its true destiny; more and more will I see to it that this lower self is ever ready to catch the sightest hint or whisper from above - to follow the suggestions from the Ego which we call intuitions - to distinguish the Voice of the Silence and to obey it.”
It is well that we should learn to distinguish this voice - this voice which speaks from above and yet from within; for sometimes other voices speak, and their counsel is not always wise. A medium finds this, for if he has not trained himself to distinguish, he often thinks that every voice coming from the astral [emotion/desire] plane must necessarily be all but divine, and therefore to be followed unquestionably. Therefore discrimination is necessary, as well as watchfulness and obedience.
Does the Monad, in the case of the ordinary man, ever do anything which affects or can affect his personality down here? I think we may say that such interference is most unusual. the Ego is trying, on behalf of the Monad, to obtain perfect control of the personality and to use it as an instrument; and because that object is not fully achieved, the Monad may well feel that the time has not yet come to interfere from his own level, and to bring the whole of his force to bear, when that which is already in action is more than strong enough for the required purpose. But when the Ego is already beginning to succeed in his effort to manage his lower vehicles, the real man in the background does sometimes intervene. 19
Of the condition of consciousness of the Solar Deity outside the planes of His system, we can form no true conception. He has been spoken of as the Divine Fire; and if for a moment we adopt that time-honoured symbolism, we may imagine that Sparks from that Fire fall into the matter of our planes - Sparks which are of the essence of that Fire, but are yet in appearance temporarily separated from it. The analogy cannot be pushed too far, because all sparks of which we know anything are thrown out from their parent fire and gradually fade and die; whereas these Sparks develop by slow evolution into Flames, and return to the Parent Fire. This development and this return are apparently the objects for which the Sparks come forth; and the process of the development is that which we are at the present moment concerned to try to understand.
It seems that the Spark, as such, cannot in its entirety veil itself beyond a certain extent; it cannot descend beyond what we call the second plane, and yet retain its unity. One difficulty with which we are confronted in trying to form any ideas upon this matter is that, as yet, none of us who investigate are able to raise our consciousness to this second plane; in the nomenclature recently adopted [1920's] we give to it the name of monadic because it is the home of the Monad, but none of us have yet been able to realise that Monad in his own habitation, but only to see him when he has descended one stage to the plane or level or world below his own, in which he shows himself as the triple Spirit, which in our earlier books we call the Atma in man. Even already he is incomprehensible, for he has three aspects which are quite distinct and apparently separate, and yet they are all fundamentally one and the same. 19
Etheric-Pranic Body
We shall find that the 'Etheric Double', while necessary to the life of the physical body, is not, properly speaking, a separate vehicle of consciousness: it receives and distributes the vital force which emanates from the Sun and is thus intimately connected with the physical health. 5 Physical matter exists in seven grades or orders of density;
1. Atomic: The medium of the transmission of thought from brain to brain.
2. Sub-Atomic: The medium of the "finer forms of electricity."
3. Super-Etheric: The medium of light.
4. Etheric: The medium of ordinary current electricity, and of sound.
5. Gaseous
6. Liquid
7. Solid
Every solid, liquid and gaseous particle of the physical body is surrounded with an etheric envelope: hence the etheric double, as its name implies, is a perfect duplicate of the dense form. In size it projects about one quarter of an inch beyond the skin. The etheric aura however, or Health aura, as it is frequently called, projects normally several inches beyond the skin. 5 In appearance the Etheric Double is a pale violet-grey, faintly luminous, and coarse or fine in texture according as the dense physical body is coarse or fine. The Etheric double has two main functions. Firstly, it absorbs Prana, or Vitality, and distributes this to the whole physical body. Secondly, it acts as an intermediary or bridge between the dense physical body and the astral/emotional body, transmitting the consciousness of physical sense-contacts through the etheric brain to the astral body, and also transmitting consciousness from the astral and higher levels down into the physical brain and nervous system.5 It is important to recognise that the Etheric Double, being merely a part of the physical body, is not normally capable of acting as a separate vehicle of consciousness, in which a man can live or function. It has only a diffused consciousness belonging to its parts, and has no mentality, nor does it serve as a medium of mentality, when disjoined from the dense counterpart. As it is a vehicle, not of mental consciousness, but of Prana or Vitality, its dislocation from the dense particles to which it conveys the life-currents is disturbing and unhealthy.
The Double may be separated from the dense physical body by accident, death, anaesthetics, mesmerism. The Double being the connecting link between the brain and the higher consciousness, the forcible extrusion of it from the dense physical body by anaesthetics necessarily produces anaesthesia.
Further than this, the etheric matter thus forced out usually wraps itself round the astral and dulls the consciousness of that vehicle also: hence after the effects of the anaesthetics have worn off, there is usually no memory in the brain consciousness of the time spent in the astral vehicle.
In conditions of weak health or nervous excitement, the Etheric Double may also in great part be extruded from its dense counterpart: the latter then becomes very dully conscious, or entranced, according to the lesser or greater amount of the etheric matter extruded.
Separation of the Double from the dense body is generally accompanied by a decrease of vitality in the latter, the double becoming more vitalised as the energy in the dense body diminishes.
It must also be borne in mind that etheric matter, though invisible to ordinary sight, is still purely physical, and can therefore be affected by cold and heat, and also by powerful acids.
Persons who have lost a limb sometimes complain that they can feel pain at the extremities of the amputated limb ie., at the place where the limb used to be. This is due to the fact that the etheric portion of the limb is not removed with the dense physical portion, and therefore, under suitable stimulus, sensations can be aroused in this etheric limb and transmitted to the consciousness.5
Translated into more Western terms, yogic Prana, [Chinese Ch'i or Japanese Ki ] on the physical plane, is best described as Vitality, as the integrating energy that coordinates the physical molecules, cells etc., and holds them together as a definite organism. It is the life-breath within the organism, the portion of the universal Life-Breath, appropriated by a given organism during the period of bodily existence that we speak of as 'a life'. were it not for the presence of Prana, there could be no physical body as an integral whole, working as one entity; without Prana the body would be nothing more than a collection of independent cells. Prana links up and connects these into one complex whole, playing along the branches and meshes of the 'life-web', that shimmering golden web of inconceivable fineness and delicate beauty, formed out of a single thread of buddhic matter, a prolongation of the Sutratma, within the meshes of which the coarser atoms are built together.
Prana is absorbed by all living organisms, a sufficient supply of it seeming to be a necessity of their existence. It is not, therefore, in any sense a product of life, but the living animal, plant etc., are its products. Too great an exuberance of it in the nervous system may lead to disease and death, just as too little leads to exhaustion and untimely death.
HP Blavatsky 15 compares Prana, the active power producing all vital phenomena, to oxygen, the supporter of combustion, the life-giving gas, the active chemical agent in all organic life. A comparison is also drawn between the Etheric Double, the inert vehicle of life, and nitrogen, an inert gas with which oxygen is mixed to adapt the latter for animal respiration, and which also enters largely into all organic substances.On the physical plane prana builds up all minerals, and is the controlling agent in the chemico-physiological changes in protoplasm, which lead to differentiation and the building of the various tissues of the bodies of plants, animals and men. They show its presence by the power of responding to stimuli.
The blending of astral with physical prana creates nerve-matter, which is fundamentally the cell, and which gives the power to feel pleasure and pain. The cells develop into fibres, as the result of thought, the prana pulsating along those fibres being composed of physical, astral and mental prana.
The Secret Doctrine 16 speaks of Prana as the 'invisible' or 'fiery' lives which supply microbes with 'vital constructive energy,' thus enabling them to build the physical cells, the size of the smallest bacterium relatively to that of a 'fiery life' (being as that of an elephant to the tiniest infusoria [single-celled organisms]. 'Every visible thing in this universe was built by such lives, from conscious and divine primordial man, down to the unconscious agents that construct matter.' 'By the manifestation of Prana, the spirit which is speechless appears as the speaker.' The whole of constructive vitality, in the universe and man, is thus summed up as Prana.5
It is important to note that although the nerves are in the physical body, it is not the physical body, as such, which has the power of feeling. As a sheath the physical body does not feel: it is a receiver of impressions only. The outer body receives the impact, but in its own cells does not lie the power of feeling pleasure or pain, except in a very vague, dull and 'massive' way, giving rise to vague, diffused feelings, such as those of general fatigue, for example.
The physical contacts are transmitted inwards by prana, and these are acute, sharp, keen, specific, quite different from the heavy, diffused sensations deriving from the cells themselves. It is thus in every case prana which gives the sense-activity to the physical organs, and which transmits the outer vibration to the sense-centres, which is situated in kama, in the sheath which is next to that of prana, the Manomayakosha [emotion body ??]. It is by means of the Etheric Double that prana runs along the nerves of the body and thus enables them to act not only as the carriers of external impacts but also of motor force, originated from within.
The student must carefully note that the prana which courses along the nerves is quite separate and distinct from what is called a man's magnetism, or nerve-fluid, which is generated within his own body. This nerve-fluid or magnetism keeps the etheric matter circulating along the nerves, or, more accurately, along a coating of ether which surrounds each nerve, much as the blood circulates through the veins. And just as the blood carries oxygen to the body, so does the nerve-fluid convey prana.
Furthermore, just as the particles of the dense physical body are constantly changing and being replaced by fresh particles derived from food, water and air, so are the particles of the etheric body being constantly changed and replaced by fresh etheric particles, these being taken into the body along with the food eaten, with the air breathed, and with prana, in the form known as the Vitality Globule. [to be expanded upon].
Prana, or vitality, exists on all the planes - physical, astral, mental, etc. Prana, the One Life, is 'the nave to which are attached the seven spokes of the universal wheel' (Hymn to Prana, Atharva Veda, XI., 4). We are here, however, concerned only with its appearance and methods of work in the lowest, the physical plane.
It must also be noted that prana on the physical plane is sevenfold ie., there are seven varieties of it.
Prana is quite separate and distinct from light, heat, etc., but nevertheless its manifestation on the physical plan appears to depend on sunlight: for when sunlight is abundant, prana also appears in abundance, and where sunlight is absent, prana also is deficient. 5
The 'vitality globule', though inconceivably minute, is so brilliant that it is often seen even by those who are not in the ordinary sense clairvoyant. Many a man, looking out towards the distant horizon, especially over the sea on a sunny day, will notice against the sky a number of the tiniest possible points dashing about in all directions with amazing rapidity. These are vitality globules, each consisting of seven physical atoms - the Fiery Lives, specks charged with that force [called] Prana. The best way to see them is to face directly away from the sun and focus the eyes a few feet away with a clear sky as background. Brilliant as the globule is, it is almost colourless, and may be compared to white or a slightly golden light.
It has been remarked that although the force which vivifies these globules is quite different from light, it nevertheless appears to depend upon light for its power of manifestation. In brilliant sunshine this vitality is constantly welling-up afresh, and the globules are generated in incredible numbers; but in cloudy weather there is a great diminution in the number of globules formed, and during the night the operation appears to be entirely suspended. During the night therefore, we may be said to be living on the stock manufactured during the previous day, and although it appears practically impossible that it should ever be entirely exhausted, that stock evidently does run low when there is a long succession of cloudy days.
But as soon as it is drawn into the vortex of the force-centre at the spleen it is decomposed and breaks up into streams of different colours, though it does not follow exactly our division of the spectrum. As its component atoms are whirled around the vortex, each of the six spokes seizes upon one of them, so that all the atoms charged with yellow flow along one, and all those charged with green along another, and so on, whilst the seventh disappears through the centre of the vortex - through the hub of the wheel, as it were.
These rays then pass off in different directions, each to do its special work in the vitalization of the body.
See adjacent plate.
The colours of the divisions of prana are not exactly those which we ordinarily use in the solar spectrum, but rather resemble the arrangement of colours which we see on higher levels in the causal, mental and astral bodies.
Vitality is thus sevenfold, but it flows through the body in five main streams, for after issuing from the splenic [sacral] centre the blue and violet join into one ray, and so do the orange and the dark red.
The violet-blue ray flashes upwards to the throat, where it seems to divide itself, the light blue remaining to course through and quicken the throat centre, while the dark blue and violet pass on into the brain. The dark blue expends itself in the lower and central parts of the brain, while the violet floods the upper part, and appears to give special vigour to the force centre at the top of the head, diffusing itself chiefly through the 960 petals of the outer part of that centre.
The yellow ray is directed to the heart, but after doing its work there part of it also passes on to the brain and permeates it, directing itself principally to the twelve-petalled flower in the midst of the highest force centre.
The green ray floods the abdomen, and while centring especially in the solar plexus, evidently vivifies the liver, kidneys and intestines, and the digestive apparatus generally.
The rose-coloured ray runs all over the body along the nerves, and is clearly the life of the nervous system. This is the specialized vitality which one man may readily pour into another in whom it is deficient. If the nerves are not fully supplied with this rosy light they become sensitive and intensely irritable, so that the patient finds it almost impossible to remain in one position, and yet gains but little ease when he moves to another. The least noise or touch is agony to him, and he is in a condition of acute misery. The flooding of his nerves with specialized prana by some healthy person brings instant relief, and a feeling of healing and peace descends upon him. A man in robust health usually absorbs and specializes so much more of this vitality than is actually needed by his own body that he is constantly radiating a torrent of rose-coloured atoms, and so unconsciously pours strength upon his weaker fellows without losing anything himself; or by an effort of his will he can gather together this superfluous energy and aim it intentionally at one whom he wishes to help.5
As to our senses. Let us take the sense of sight for example, and see how remarkably imperfect it is. Our physical world consists of seven sub-planes or degrees of density of matter, but our sight enables us to perceive only two of these with anything approaching perfection. We can usually see solid matter, if it is not too finely sub-divided; we can see a liquid that is not absolutely clear; but we cannot see gaseous matter at all under ordinary conditions, except in the rare instances in which it has an especially brilliant colour (as in the case of chlorine) or when it happens to be dense, to be much compressed, or to be moving in a particular way - as in the case of the air which may be seen rising from a heated road. Of the four etheric sub-divisions of physical matter we remain absolutely unconscious so far as sight is concerned, although it is by means of the vibration of some of these ethers, that what we call light is conveyed to the eye. Let us then commence the imaginary process of removing our limitations by considering what would be the effect if we really possessed fully the sight of the physical world. I am not taking into consideration the possibility in the increase in power of our sight, though no doubt that will come in due course, so that we shall be able so to alter the focus of the eye as to make it practically a telescope or microscope at will. I am thinking for the moment only of the additional objects that would come into our view if our sight were perfected. Nothing would any longer be opaque to us, so that we could see through a wall almost as though it were not there, and could examine the contents of a closed room or of a locked box with the greatest ease. I do not mean that by etheric sight a man could see through a mountain, or look straight through the earth to the other side of it; but he could see a good way into the rock, and he could see down to a considerable depth in the earth, much as we can now see through many feet of water to the bottom of a clear pool. One can readily see a score of ways in which the possession of such a faculty would be practically valuable, and it would manifestly add to our knowledge in many directions. All surgical work could be performed with an ease and certainty of which at present we have no conception, and there would be fewer cases of inaccurate diagnosis. We could see the etheric bodies of our friends, and so we should be able to indicate unfailingly the source and cause of any nervous affection. A whole fresh world would come under the observation of the chemist, for he would then be able to deal with ethers as he now deals with gases. Our sight would instantly inform us as to the healthiness or otherwise of our surroundings, just as even now our noses warn us of the presence of certain forms of putrefaction. We could see at once if we were in the presence of undesirable germs or impurities of any kind, and could take our precautions accordingly. But remember that even this would not take us beyond the physical world; it would simply enable us to see that world more fully. We should still be liable to deception, we should still be capable of error with regard to the thoughts and feelings of others. We should still be blind to all the most beautiful part of the life which surrounds us, even though we should see so much more of it than we do now.19
Emotional/Desire Body
Historically the Emotional Body has been known in the West as the Astral Body, due to its starry, shimmering, scintillating appearance. Therefore a lot of references will contain the word 'Astral'. Sanskrit name - linga-sarira.1 Briefly, the astral body is a vehicle, to 'clairvoyant' sight not unlike the physical body, surrounded by an 'aura' of flashing colours, composed of matter of an order of fineness higher than that of physical matter, in which feelings, passions, desires and emotions are expressed and which acts as a bridge or medium of transmission between the physical brain and the mind, the latter operating in the still higher vehicle - the mind-body. 6
Astral matter exists in 7 grades or orders of fineness, corresponding to the 7 grades of physical matter, which are solid, liquid, gaseous, 'etheric', 'super-etheric', 'sub-atomic' and 'atomic'.No names for these 'astral' states have yet been devised, so it is usual to describe them, either by the grade or sub-plane; the finest being Number 1, the coarsest Number 7, or by the corresponding physical grade. eg., we speak of astral solid matter, meaning thereby the 7th or lowest variety: astral etheric matter, meaning the 4th from the finest, and so on. 6 [This] body of man thus being composed of matter of all seven grades, it is possible for him to experience all varieties of desire to the fullest possible extent, the highest as well as the lowest. It is the peculiar type of response posessed by astral matter which enables the astral matter to serve as the sheath in which the Self can gain experience of sensation. 6 Astral matter,being much finer than physical matter, interpenetrates it. Every physical 'atom', therefore floats in a sea of astral matter, which surrounds it and fills every interstice in physical matter. It is well known that even in the hardest substance no two atoms touch one another, the space between two adjacent atoms being in fact enormously larger than the atoms themselves. 6 {like a solar system!}.
To 'clairvoyant' sight one of the principal features of an astral body consists of the colours which are constantly playing through it, these colours corresponding to, and being the expression in astral matter of feelings, passions and emotions. All known colours, and many which are at present unknown to us, exist upon the higher planes of nature, but as we rise from one stage to another they become more delicate and more luminous, so that they may be described as higher octaves of colour.
As it is not possible to portray these octaves physically on paper, the above facts should be borne in mind when considering the coloured 'illustrations' of the astral body referred to below.
the following is a list of the principal colours and the emotions of which they are an expression:-
Black: in thick clouds: hatred and malice.Red: deep red flashes, usually on a black background: anger.
A scarlet cloud: irritability.
Brilliant scarlet: on the ordinary background of the aura: noble indignation.
Lurid and sanguinary red: unmistakeable, though not easy to describe, sensuality.
Brown-grey: dull hard brown-grey: selfishness: one of the most common colours in the astral body.
Brown-red: dull, almost rust colour: avarice, usually arranged in parallel bars across the astral body.
Greenish-brown: lit up by deep red or scarlet flashes: jealousy. In the case of an ordinary man there is usually much of this colour present when he is 'in love'.
Grey: heavy leaden: depression. Like the brown-red of avarice, arranged in parallel lines, conveying the impression of a cage.
Grey, livid: a hideous and frightful hue: fear.
Crimson: dull and heavy: selfish love.
Rose colour: unselfish love. When exceptionally brilliant, tinged with lilac: spiritual love for humanity.
Orange: pride or ambition. Often found with irritability.
Yellow: intellect: varies from a deep and dull tint, through brilliant gold to clear and luminous lemon or primrose yellow. Dull yellow ochre implies the direction of faculty to selfish purposes: Clear gamboge indicates a distinctly higher type; Primrose yellow denotes intellect devoted to spiritual ends; Gold indicates pure intellect applied to philosophy or mathematics.
Green: in general, varies greatly in its significance, and needs study to be interpreted correctly: mostly it indicates adaptability. Grey-green slimy in appearance: deceit and cunning. Emerald green: versatility, ingenuity and resourcefulness, applied unselfishly. Pale luminous blue-green: deep sympathy and compassion, with the power of perfect adaptability which only they can give. Bright apple-green seems always to accompany strong vitality.
Blue: dark and clear: religious feeling. It is liable to be tinted by many other qualities, thus becoming any shade from indigo or a rich deep violet to muddy grey-blue. Light blue such as ultramarine or cobalt: devotion to a noble spiritual ideal. Luminous lilac-blue, usually accompanied by sparkling golden stars: the higher spirituality, with lofty aspirations.
Ultra-violet: higher and purer developments of the psychic faculties.
Ultra-red: lower psychic faculties of one who dabbles in evil and selfish forms of magic.
Joy shows itself in a general brightening and radiancy of both mental and astral bodies, and in a peculiar rippling of the surface of the body. Cheerfulness shows itself in a modified bubbling of this, and also in a steady serenity.Surprise is shown by a sharp constriction of the mental body, usually communicated to both the astral and physical bodies, accompanied by an increased glow of the band of affection if the surprise is a pleasant one, and by an increase of brown and grey if the surprise is an unpleasant one. The constriction often causes unpleasant feelings, affecting sometimes the solar plexus, resulting in sinking and sickness, and sometimes the heart centre, causing palpitation and even death.
It will be understood that, as human emotions are hardly ever unmixed, so these colours are seldom perfectly pure, but more usually mixtures. Thus the purity of many colours is dimmed by the hard brown-grey ofselfishness, or tinged with the deep orange of pride. The yellow of intellect, the rose of affection, and the blue of devotion are always found in the upper part of the astral body: the colours of selfishness, avarice, deceit and hatred are in the lower part: the mass of sensual feeling floats usually between the two.
Each quality, expressed as a colour, has its own special type of astral matter, and the average position of these colours depends upon the specific gravity of the respective grades of matter.
In order to realise the appearance of the astral body, it must be borne on mind that the particles of which it is composed are always in rapid motion: in the vast majority of cases the clouds of colour melt into one another and are all the while rolling over one another, appearing and disappearing as they roll, the surface of the luminous mist resembling somewhat the surface of violently boiling water. The various colours therefore, by no means retain the same positions, though there is a normal position to which they tend to return. 6
Undeveloped man. - A very large proportion of sensuality: deceit, selfishness and greed are conspicuous: fierce anger is implied by smears and blots of dull scarlet: very little affection appears, and such intellect and religious feeling as exist are of the lowest possible kind. The outline is irregular and the colours blurred, thick and heavy. The whole body is evidently ill-regulated, confused and uncontrolled.
Average man. - Sensuality is much less though still prominent and there is some capability of deceit for personal ends, though the green is beginning to divide into two distinct qualities, showing that cunning is gradually becoming adaptability. Anger is still marked: affection, intellect and devotion are more prominent and of a higher quality. The colours as a whole are more clearly defined and distinctly brighter, though none of them are perfectly clear. The outline of the body is more defined and regular.
Developed man. - Undesirable qualities have almost entirely disappeared: across the top of the body there is a strip of lilac, indicating spiritual aspiration: above and enveloping the head there is a cloud of the brilliant yellow of intellect: below that there is a broad belt of the blue of devotion: then across the trunk there is a still wider belt of the rose of affection, and in the lower part of the body a large amount of the green of adaptability and sympathy finds its place. The colours are bright, luminous, in clearly marked bands, the outline is well-defined, and the whole astral body conveys the impresssion of being orderly and under perfect control. 6
The functions of the astral body may be roughly grouped under three headings:-
1. To make sensation possible.
2. To serve as a bridge between mind and physical matter.
3. To act as an independent vehicle of consciousness and action.
When man is analysed into "principles" ie. into modes of manifesting life, the four lower principles, sometimes termed the "Lower Quaternary" [they] are:-
1. Physical Body -2. Etheric Body -3. Prana, or Vitality - 4. Kama (Sanskrit), or Desire
The fourth principle, Kama, is the life manifesting in the astral body and [is] conditioned by it: its characteristic is the attribute of feeling, which in rudimentary form is sensation, and in complex form emotion, with many grades in between these two. This is sometimes summed up as desire, that which is attracted or repelled by objects, according as they give pleasure or pain.
Kama thus includes feelings of every kind, and might be described as the passional and emotional nature. It comprises all animal appetites, such as hunger, thirst, sexual desire: all passions, such as the lower forms of love, hatred, envy, jealousy; it is the desire for sentient existence, for experience of material joys.
Kama is the brute in us, the force which most avails to keep us bound to earth and to stifle in us all higher longings by the illusions of sense.
For our purposes desire and emotion are frequently used as practically synonymous: strictly, however, emotion is the product of desire and intellect.
Passing now to the second function of the astral body - to act as a bridge between mind and physical matter - we note that an impact on the physical senses is transmitted inwards by Prana, [and] becomes a sensation by the action of the sense-centres, which are situated in [the astral body], and is perceived then by Manas, or Mind. Thus without the general action through the astral body there would be no connection between the external world and the mind of man, no connection between physical impacts and the perception of them by the mind.
Whenever we think, we set in motion the mental matter within us; the vibrations thus generated are transferred to the matter of our astral body, the astral matter affects the etheric matter, this in turn, acting on the dense physical matter, the grey matter of the brain.
The astral body is thus a bridge between our physical and our mental life, serving as a transmitter of vibrations both from physical to mental and from mental to physical, and is, in fact, principally developed by this constant passage of vibrations to and fro. 6
>The mental and astral bodies are those chiefly concerned with the production of what are called thought-forms. The term thought- form is not wholly accurate, because the forms produced may be composed of mental matter, or, in the vast majority of cases, of both astral and mental matter.
A purely intellectually and impersonal thought - such as one concerned with algebra or geometry - would be confined to mental matter. If, on the other hand, the thought has in it something of selfish or personal desire, it will draw round itself astral matter in addition to the mental. If, furthermore, the thought be of a spiritual nature, if it be tinged with love and aspiration, or deep and unselfish feeling, then there may also enter in some of the splendour and glory of the buddhic plane.
Every definite thought produces two effects: first, a radiating vibration: second, a floating form.
The vibration set up in and radiating from the mental body is accompanied with a play of colour which has been described as like that in the spray of a waterfall as the sunlight strikes it, raised to the nth degree of colour and delicacy.
This radiating vibration tends to reproduce its own rate of motion in any mental body on which it may impinge: ie to produce thoughts of the same type as those from which the vibration originated. It should be noted that the radiating vibration carries, not the subject of the thought, but its character.
The power of the vibration to produce such effects depends principally upon the clearness and definiteness of the thought-emotion, as well, of course, as upon the amount of force put into it.
The distance to which a thought-wave can radiate effectively also depends upon the opposition with which it meets. Waves in the lower types of astral matter are usually soon deflected or overwhelmed by a multitude of other vibrations at the same level, just as a soft sound is drowned in the roar of a city.
If made of the finer kinds of matter, it will be of great power and energy, and may be used as a most potent agent when directed by a strong and steady will.
A young child has a white or comparatively colourless aura, the colours beginning to show only as the qualities develop. The astral body of a child is often a most beautiful object - pure and bright in its colours, free from the stains of sensuality, avarice, ill-will and selfishness. In the case of intense anger, the ordinary background of the astral body is obscured by coils or vortices of heavy, thunderous masses of sooty blackness, lit up from within by the lurid glare of active hatred. Wisps of the same dark cloud are to be seen defiling the whole astral body, while the fiery arrows of uncontrolled anger shoot among them like flashes of lightning. These terrible flashes are capable of penetrating other astral bodies like swords and thus inflicting injury upon other people. A sudden shock of terror will in an instant suffuse the whole body with a curious livid grey mist, while horizontal lines of the same hue appear, but vibrating with such violence as to be hardly recognisable as separate lines. The result is indescribably ghastly: all light fades out for the time from the body and the whole grey mass quivers like a jelly. (A flood of emotion does not greatly affect the mental body, though for a time it may render it almost impossible for any activity from the mental body to come through into the physical brain, because the astral body, which acts as a bridge between the mental body and the brain, is vibrating so entirely at one rate as to be incapable of conveying any undulation which is not in harmony with it.) When an ordinary man falls 'in love', the astral body is so completely transformed as to make it scarcely recognisable as belonging to the same person. Selfishness, deceit and avarice vanish, and the lowest part of the oval is filled with a large development of animal passions. The green of adaptability has been replaced by the peculiar brownish-green of jealousy, and the extreme activity of this feeling is shown by bright scarlet flashes of anger, which permeate it. But the undesirable changes are more than counterbalanced by the splendid band of crimson which fills so large a part of the oval. This is for the time, a dominant characteristic, and the whole astral body glows with its light. Under its influence the general muddiness of the ordinary astral body has disappeared, and the hues are all brilliant and clearly marked, good and bad alike. It is an intensification of the life in various directions. The blue of devotion is also distinctly improved, and even a touch of pale violet appears at the summit of the ovoid, indicating a capacity of response to a really high and unselfish ideal. The yellow of intellect, however, has entirely vanished for the time - a fact which the cynical might consider as characteristic of the condition ! The astral body of an irritable man usually shows a broad band of scarlet as a prominent feature and, in addition, the whole astral body is covered with floating flecks of scarlet. In the case of a miser; avarice, selfishness, deceit and adaptability are naturally intensified, but sensuality is diminished. The most remarkable change, however, is the curious series of parallel lines across the oval, giving the impression of a cage. The bars are a deep brown in colour, almost burnt sienna. Deep depression produces an effect in grey, instead of brown, very similar to that of the miser. The result is indescribably gloomy and depressing to the observer. No emotional condition is more infectious than the feeling of depression. In the case of a non-intellectual man who is definitely religious, the astral body assumes a characteristic appearance. A touch of violet suggests the possibility of response to a high ideal. The blue of devotion is unusually well-developed, but the yellow of intellect is scanty. There is a fair proportion of affection and adaptability, but more than the average of sensuality, and deceit and selfishness are also prominent. The colours are irregularly distributed, melting into one another, and the outline is vague, indicating the vagueness of the devotional man's conceptions.
Extreme sensuality and the devotional temperament are frequently seen in association: perhaps because these types of men live chiefly in their feelings, being governed by them instead of trying to control them by reason. A great contrast is shown by a man of a scientific type. Devotion is entirely absent, sensuality is much below the average, but the intellect is developed to an abnormal degree. Affection and adapability are small in quantity and poor in quality. A good deal of selfishness and avarice is present and also some jealousy. A huge cone of bright orange in the midst of the golden yellow of intellect indicates pride and ambition in the knowledge that has been acquired. The scientific and orderly habit of mind causes the arrangement of the colours to fall into regular bands, the lines of demarcation being quite definite and clearly marked. 6
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