The Key to Theosophy
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The Key to Theosophy
By
A Few Words About the
Skandhas
Q. What
becomes of the other, the lower Skandhas of the personality, after the
death of the body? Are they quite destroyed?
A. They are and
yet they are not-a fresh metaphysical and occult mystery for you. They are
destroyed as the working stock in hand of the personality; they remain as
Karmic effects, as germs, hanging in the atmosphere of the terrestrial plane,
ready to come to life, as so many avenging fiends, to attach themselves to the
new personality of the Ego when it reincarnates.
Q. This
really passes my comprehension, and is very difficult to understand.
A. Not once
that you have assimilated all the details. For then you will see that for
logic, consistency, profound philosophy, divine mercy and equity, this doctrine
of Reincarnation has not its equal on earth. It is a belief in a perpetual
progress for each incarnating Ego, or divine soul, in an evolution from the
outward into the inward, from the material to the Spiritual, arriving at the
end of each stage at absolute unity with the divine Principle. 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 Savior in each world and incarnation.
Q. But
Christianity teaches the same. It also preaches progression.
A. Yes, only
with the addition of something else. It tells us of the
impossibilityof attaining Salvation without the aid of a
miraculous Savior, and therefore dooms to perdition all those who will not
accept the dogma. This is just the difference between Christian theology and Theosophy.
The former enforces belief in the Descent of the Spiritual Ego into the Lower
Self; the latter inculcates the necessity of endeavoring to elevate oneself to
the Christos, or Buddhi state.
Q. By teaching the annihilation of consciousness in case of failure,
however, don't you think that it amounts to the annihilation of Self, a
in the opinion of the non-metaphysical?
A. From the
standpoint of those who believe in the resurrection of the body literally,and insist that every
bone, every artery and atom of flesh will be raised bodily on the Judgment
Day-of course it does. If you still insist that it is the perishable form and
finite qualities that make up immortal man, then we shall hardly understand
each other. And if you do not understand that, by limiting the existence of
every Ego to one life on earth, you make of Deity an ever-drunken Indra of the Pur ic dead letter, a cruel Moloch, a god who makes an
inextricable mess on Earth, and yet claims thanks for it, then the sooner we
drop the conversation the better.
Q. But let us return, now that the subject of the Skandhas is
disposed of, to the question of the consciousness which survives death. This is
the point which interests most people. Do we possess more knowledge in Devachan
than we do in earthlife?
A. In one
sense, we can acquire more knowledge; that is, we can develop further any
faculty which we loved and strove after during life, provided it is concerned
with abstract and ideal things, such as music, painting, poetry, etc., since
Devachan is merely an idealized and subjective continuation of earth-life.
Q. But if in Devachan the Spirit is free from matter, why
should it not possess all knowledge?
A. Because,
as I told you, the Ego is, so to say, wedded to the memory of its last
incarnation. Thus, if you think over what I have said, and string all the facts
together, you will realize that the Devachanic state is not one of omniscience,
but a transcendental continuation of the personal life just
terminated. It is the rest of the soul from the toils of
life.
Q. But the
scientific materialists assert that after the death of man nothing remains;
that the human body simply disintegrates into its component elements; and that
what we call soul is merely a temporary self-consciousness produced as a byproduct
of organic action, which will evaporate like steam. Is not theirs a strange
state of mind?
A. Not
strange at all, that I see. If they say that
self-consciousness ceases with the body, then in their case they simply utter
an unconscious prophecy, for once they are firmly convinced of what they
assert, no conscious after-life is possible for them. For
there are exceptions to every rule.
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