the Aitareya Brahmaṇam that Prajâpati—the Divine Male—is the year. He is Animisha, the Sleepless God, and starts at the end of February—a month whose symbol is quadruple. In all the old creeds this early god was quadruple. Bhîma and the Twins and Arjuna (the bow) die, or are passed in the zodiac before Yudhishṭhira, whose symbol is the Man with the vase of Ichor, dominates. He stands alone with Yama's dog. Madame Blavatsky gives seven stages of spiritual progress which mortals after thousands and thousands of re-births will successively reach.
- The body (Rupa).
- Vitality (Jiva).
- Astral body (Linga śarira).
- Animal soul (Kâma rupa).
- Human soul (Manas).
- Spiritual soul (Buddhi).
- Spirit (Atma).
This, by many theosophists who have lost faith in the Russian lady, is still thought to be the esoteric doctrine of India, disclosed by Mr. Subba Row. I must acquit that Hindoo of any such complicity. These stages, if taken litcrally, and that we may take them literally Mr. Sinnett gives the Sanskrit words, are pure nonsense. Body, vitality, animalism, soul, and spirit (five of the stages), must be acquired simultaneously with individuality. But the hand of a Western is patent. All Easterns know that the liṇga śaira is the envelope of the soul from the moment of its existence, and in a re-birth may have been in existence fifty thousand years before the body then assumed.[1] The teachings of Madame Blavatsky were thus condensed in an article in the Saturday Review which criticised my "Koot Hoomi Unveiled"—
- There is no God.
- The great secret of magic is to perform miracles with his "ineffable name."
- Annihilation is the reward of the just.
- Annihilation is the punishment of the wicked.
- ↑ Colebrooke's "Essays," vol. i. p. 245
