Devachan

The first, second, and third subdivisions seem much further removed from this physical world, and correspondingly less material.

Entities inhabiting these levels lose sight of the earth and its belongings; they are usually deeply self-absorbed, and to a large extent create their own surroundings, though these are not purely subjective, as in the Devachan, but, on the contrary, sufficiently objective to be perceptible to other entities, and also to clairvoyant vision.

This region is beyond doubt the summer-land of which we hear so much at spiritualistic séances; and the entities who descend from and describe it are probably often speaking the truth as far as their knowledge extends.

It is on these planes that spirits call into temporary existence their houses, schools, and cities; for these objects are often real enough for the time, though to a clearer sight they may sometimes be pitiably unlike what their delighted creators suppose them to be.

Many members of the class we are considering do not really attain an intelligent appreciation of this fact at all.

but drift through their astral interlude in the same aimless manner in which they have spent the physical portion of their lives thus in kamaloka exactly as on earth there are the few who comprehend something of their position and know how to make the best of it and many who have not yet acquired that knowledge and there just as here the ignorant are rarely ready to profit by the advice or example of the wise but of whatever grade the entity's intellect may be it is always a fluctuating and on the whole a gradually diminishing quantity for the lower manas is being drawn in opposite directions by the higher triad which acts on it from above its level and the kama which operates from below and therefore it oscillates between the two attractions with an ever-increasing tendency toward the former as the kamic forces wear themselves out and here comes in the evil of what is called at seances the development of a spirit through a medium a process the object of which is to intensify the downward pull of the kama to awaken the lower portion of the entity that being all that can be reached from the natural and desirable unconsciousness into which it is passing and thus to prolong unnaturally its existence in the kamaloka the peculiar danger of this will be seen when it is recollected that the real man is all the while steadily withdrawing into himself and is therefore as time goes on less and less able to influence or guide this lower portion which nevertheless until the separation is complete has the power to generate karma and under the circumstances is obviously far more likely to add evil than good to its record thus the harm done is threefold first the retardation of the separation between manas and kama and the consequent waste of time and prolongation of the interval between two incarnations secondly the extreme probability almost amounting to a certainty that a large addition will be made to the individual's evil karma which will have to be worked out in future births thirdly the terrible danger that this abnormal intensification of the force of kama may eventually enable the latter to entangle the whole of the lower manas inextricably and so cause the entire loss of an incarnation though such a result as this last mentioned is happily uncommon it is a thing that has happened more than once and in very many cases where the evil has fallen short of this ultimate possibility the individual has nevertheless lost much more of his lower manas by this additional entanglement with kama than he would have done if left to withdraw into himself quietly as nature intended it is not to be denied that a certain amount of good may occasionally be done to very degraded entities at spiritualistic circles but the intention of nature obviously is that such assistance should be given as it frequently is by occult students who are able to visit the astral plane during earth life and have been trained by competent teachers to deal by whatever methods may be most helpful with the various cases which they encounter it will be readily seen that such a scheme of help carrying with it as it does the possibility of instant reference to higher authorities in any doubtful case is infinitely safer than any casual assistance obtained through a medium who may be and generally is entirely ignorant of the laws governing spiritual evolution and who is as liable to the domination of evil or mischievous influences as of good ones apart altogether from any question of development through a medium there is another and much more frequently exercised influence which may seriously retard a disembodied entity on his way to devachan and that is the intense and uncontrolled grief of his surviving friends or relatives it is one among many melancholy results of the terribly inaccurate and even irreligious view that we in the west have for centuries been taking of death that we not only cause ourselves an immense amount of wholly unnecessary pain over this temporary parting from our loved ones but we often do serious injury to those for whom we bear so deep an affection by means of this very regret which we feel so acutely as one of our ablest writers has recently told us when our departed brother is sinking peacefully and naturally into pre-devachanic unconsciousness quote an awakening may be caused by the passionate sorrow and desires of friends left on earth and these violently vibrating the comic elements in the disembodied persons may set up vibrations in the kama rupa of the disembodied and so reach and rouse the lower manas not yet withdrawn to and reunited with its parent the spiritual intelligence thus it may be roused from its dreamy state to a vivid remembrance of the earth life it so lately left this awakening is often accompanied by acute suffering and even if this be avoided the natural process of the triad freeing itself is rudely disturbed and the completion of its freedom is delayed end quote It would be well if those whose loved ones have passed on before them would learn from these undoubted facts the duty of restraining for the sake of those dear ones a grief which, however natural it may be, is yet in its essence selfish.

Not that occult teaching counsels forgetfulness of the dead, far from it, but it does suggest that a man's affectionate remembrance of his departed friend is a force which, if properly directed into the channel of earnest good wishes for his progress towards Devachan and his quiet passage through Kamaloka, might be of real value to him, whereas when wasted in mourning for him and longing to have him back again is not only useless but harmful.

It is with a true instinct that the Hindu religion prescribes its Sharadha ceremonies and the Catholic Church its prayers for the dead.

C. W. Leadbeater.

Page 2425. all the mental images formed from the passions and appetites are subjected to the process above described to be remanifested by the ego on its return to earth life and as the writer of the astral plane says the lapica the great karmic deities of the cosmos weigh the deeds of each personality when the final separation of its principles takes place in kamaloka and give as it were the moulds of the linga sharira exactly suitable to its karma for the man's next birth Freed for the time from these lower elements, the soul passes on into Devachan, where it spends a time proportionate to the wealth or poverty of its mental images, pure enough to be carried into that region.

Here it finds again every one of its loftier efforts, however brief it may have been, however fleeting, and here it works upon them, building out of these materials powers for its coming lives.

The devachanic life is one of assimilation.

For instance, a man has formed many mental images out of aspirations for knowledge and efforts to understand subtle and lofty reasonings.

he casts off his body his mental powers being of only average kind in his devachan he works on all these mental images and evolves them into capacity so that his soul returns to earth with a higher mental apparatus than it before possessed with much increased intellectual powers able to achieve tasks for which before it was utterly inadequate this is the transformation of the mental images by which as mental images they cease to exist if in later lives the soul would seek to see again these as they were it must seek them in the karmic records where they remain for ever as akashic images by this transformation they cease to be mental images created and worked on by the soul and become powers of the soul part of its very nature if then a man desires to possess higher mental faculties than he at present enjoys he can ensure their development by deliberately willing to acquire them persistently keeping their acquirement in view for desire and aspiration in one life become faculty in another and the will to perform becomes the capacity to achieve but it must be remembered that the faculty thus builded is strictly limited by the materials supplied to the architect.

There is no creation out of nothing, and if the soul on earth fails to exercise its powers by sowing the seed of aspiration and desire, the soul in Devachan will have but scanty harvest.

Mental images which have been constantly repeated, but are not of the aspiring character of the longing to achieve more than the feeble powers of the soul permit, become tendencies of thought, grooves into which mental energy runs easily and readily.

This is the true astral body.

Behind that, and consisting of a finer grade of matter, that of the rupa levels of Devachan, lies the Devachanic body or aura of the lower manas, whose colors, changing only by slow degrees as the man lives his life, show the disposition and character of the personality.

While still higher and infinitely more beautiful, where it's all clearly developed, is the living light of the karana sharira, the aura or vehicle of the higher manas, which shows the stage of development of the real ego in its passage from birth to birth.

But to see these, the pupil must have developed something more than mere astral vision.

It will save the student much trouble if he learns at once to regard these auras not as mere emanations, but as the actual manifestation of the ego on their respective planes, if he understands that it is the auric egg which is the real man, not the physical body, which on this plane crystallizes in the middle of it.

So long as the reincarnating ego remains upon the plane, which is his true home in the arupa levels of Devachan, the body which he inhabits is the karana sharira.

But when he descends into the rupa levels, he must, in order to be able to function upon them, clothe himself in their matter, and the matter that he thus attracts to himself furnishes his Devachanic or mind body.

Similarly, descending into the astral plane, he forms his astral or karmic body out of its matter, though of course still retaining all the other bodies.