His mistake is that he believes a long time must be devoted to the ruin of the solar system: we are told that it occurs in the twinkling of an eye but not without many preliminary warnings. Another error is the supposition that the earth will fall into the sun. The sun itself is first to disintegrate at the solar pralaya.
. . . Fathom the nature and essence of the sixth principle of the universe and man and you will have fathomed the greatest mystery in this our world — and why not — are you not surrounded by it? What are its familiar manifestations, mesmerism, Od force, etc. — all different aspects of one force capable of good and evil applications.
The degrees of an Adept's initiation mark the seven stages at which he discovers the secret of the sevenfold principles in nature and man and awakens his dormant powers.
Letter No. 68150 (ML-16) Rec. July 1882
This letter contains questions by Sinnett and answers by the Mahatma K.H. It is called the "Devachan Letter" as it is principally concerned with that state into which the human enters between incarnations.
The letter begins with a reference to a letter in "the last Theosophist." This was the June 1882 issue. pp. 225-6. It was signed "A Caledonian Theosophist." This was probably a man by the name of Davidson, or Davison, a scientific ornithologist who at one time worked for Hume in connection with his bird hobby, serving in the capacity of a private secretary. The letter was headed "Seeming Discrepancies." The writer was concerned with what he considered some differences between statements in one of the articles in the series "Fragments of Occult Truth," written at that time, by Hume and later by Sinnett, and certain passages in Isis Unveiled, H.P.B.'s first book. The so-called discrepancies had to do with spiritualistic phenomena. He also questioned the meaning of the word "Devachan."
(1) The remarks appended to a letter in the last Theosophist, page 226, col. 1, strike me as very important and as qualifying — I do not say contradicting — a good deal of what we have hitherto been told in re Spiritualism.
We had heard already of a spiritual condition of life in which the redeveloped Ego enjoyed a conscious existence for a time before reincarnation in another world; but that branch of the subject has hitherto been slurred over. Now some explicit statements are made about it; and these suggest further enquiries.
In the Devachan (I have lent my Theosophist to a friend; and have not got it at hand to refer to but that, if I remember rightly is the name given to the state of spiritual beatitude described) the new Ego retains complete recollection of his life on earth, apparently. Is that so or is there any misunderstanding on that point on my part?
(1) The Devachan, or land of "Sukhavati," is allegorically described by our Lord Buddha himself. What he said may be found in the Shan-Mun-yih-Tung. Says Tathgata: —
"Many thousand myriads of systems of worlds beyond this (ours) there is a region of Bliss called Sukhavati. . . . This region is encircled with seven rows of railings, seven rows of vast curtains, seven rows of waving trees; this holy abode of Arahats is governed by the Thatâgatas (Dhyan Chohans) and is possessed by the Bodhisatwas. It hath seven precious lakes, in the midst of which flow crystaline waters having 'seven and one' properties, or distinctive qualities (the 7 principles emanating from the ONE). This, O Sariputra is the 'Devachan.' Its divine Udumbara flower casts a root in the shadow of every earth, and blossoms for all those who reach it. Those born in the blessed region are truly felicitous, there are no more griefs or sorrows in that cycle for them. . . . Myriads of Spirits (Lha) resort there for rest and then return to their own regions.151 Again, O, Sariputra, in that land of joy many who are born in it are Avaivartyas152 . . ." etc., etc.
(2) Now except in the fact that the duration of existence in the Devachan is limited, there is a very close resemblance between that condition and the Heaven of ordinary religion (omitting anthropomorphic ideas of God).
(2) Certainly the new Ego, once it is reborn, retains for a certain time —proportionate to its Earth-life, a "complete recollection of his life on earth."153 (See your preceding query). But it can never return on earth, from the Devachan, nor has the latter — even omitting all "anthropomorphic ideas of God" — any resemblance to the paradise or heaven of any religion, and it is H.P.B.'s literary fancy that suggested to her the wonderful comparison.
(3) Now the question of importance is who goes to Heaven — or Devachan? Is this condition only attained by the few who are very good, or by the many who are not very bad, — after the lapse in their case of a longer unconscious incubation or gestation?
(3) "Who goes to Devachan?" The personal Ego of course, but beatified, purified, holy. Every Ego — the combination of the sixth and seventh principles — which, after the period of unconscious gestation is reborn into the Devachan, is of necessity as innocent and pure as a new-born babe. The fact of his being reborn at all, shows the preponderance of good over evil in his old personality. And while the Karma (of evil) steps aside for the time being to follow him in his future earth-reincarnation, he brings along with him but the Karma of his good deeds, words, and thoughts into this Devachan. "Bad" is a relative term for us — as you were told more than once before, — and the Law of Retribution is the only law that never errs. Hence all those who have not slipped down into the mire of unredeemable sin and bestiality — go to the Devachan. They will have to pay for their sins, voluntary and involuntary, later on. Meanwhile, they are rewarded; receive the effects of the causes produced by them.
Of course it is a state, one, so to say, of intense selfishness, during which an Ego reaps the reward of his unselfishness on earth. He is completely engrossed in the bliss of all his personal earthly affections, preferences and thoughts, and gathers in the fruit of his meritorious actions. No pain, no grief nor even the shadow of a sorrow comes to darken the bright horizon of his unalloyed happiness: for, it is a state of perpetual "Maya." . . Since the conscious perception of one's personality on earth is but an evanescent dream, that sense will be equally that of a dream in the Devachan — only a hundred fold intensified. So much so, indeed, that the happy Ego is unable to see through the veil the evils, sorrows and woes to which those it loved on earth may be subjected. It lives in that sweet dream with its loved ones — whether gone before, or yet remaining on earth; it has them near itself, as happy, as blissful and as innocent as the disembodied dreamer himself; and yet, apart from rare visions, the denizens of our gross planet feel it not. It is in this, during such a condition of complete Maya that the Souls or astral Egos of pure, loving sensitives, labouring under the same illusion, think their loved ones come down to them on earth, while it is their own Spirits that are raised towards those in the Devachan. Many of the subjective spiritual communications — most of them when the sensitives are pure minded — are real; but it is most difficult for the uninitiated medium to fix in his mind the true and correct pictures of what he sees and hears. Some of the phenomena called psychography (though more rarely) are also real. The spirit of the sensitive getting odylised, so to say, by the aura of the Spirit in the Devachan, becomes for a few minutes that departed personality, and writes in the hand writing of the latter, in his language and in his thoughts, as they were during his life time. The two spirits become blended in one; and, the preponderance of one over the other during such phenomena determines the preponderance of personality in the characteristics exhibited in such writings, and "trance speaking." What you call "rapport" is in plain fact an identity of molecular vibration between the astral part of the incarnate medium and the astral part of the disincarnate personality. I have just noticed an article on smell by some English Professor (which I will cause to be reviewed in the Theosophist and say a few words), and find in it something that applies to our case. As, in music, two different sounds may be in accord and separately distinguishable, and this harmony or discord depends upon the synchronous vibrations and complementary periods; so there is rapport between medium and "control" when their astral molecules move in accord. And the question whether the communication shall reflect more of the one personal idiosyncracy, or the other, is determined by the relative intensity of the two sets of vibrations in the compound wave of Akasa. The less identical the vibratory impulses the more mediumistic and less spiritual will be the message. So then, measure your medium's moral state by that of the alleged "controlling" Intelligence, and your tests of genuineness leave nothing to be desired.