Part 5 (2/2)
”From time immemorial,” says Mr Sinnett's Guru, ”there has been a certain region in Thibet, which to this day is quite unknown to and unapproachable by any but initiated persons, and inaccessible to the ordinary people of the country, as to any others, in which adepts have always congregated. But the country generally was not in Buddha's time, as it has since become, the chosen habitation of the great brotherhood. Much more than they are at present, were the _mahatmas_ in former times distributed throughout the world.
”The progress of civilisation engendering the magnetism they find so trying, had, however, by the date with which we are now dealing--the fourteenth century--already given rise to a very general movement towards Thibet on the part of the previously dissociated occultists.
Far more widely than was held to be consistent with the safety of mankind was occult knowledge and power then found to be disseminated.
To the task of putting it under a rigid system of rule and law did Tsong-kha-pa address himself.”
Of course, before transferring my material body to this region, I was perfectly familiar with it by reason of the faculty which, as Mr Sinnett very truly tells us, is common to all adepts, of being able to flit about the world at will in your astral body; and here I would remark parenthetically, that I shall use the term ”astral body” to save confusion, though, as Mr Sinnett again properly says, it is not strictly accurate under the circ.u.mstances. In order to make this clear, I will quote his very lucid observations on the subject:--
”During the last year or two, while hints and sc.r.a.ps of occult science have been finding their way out into the world, the expression 'astral body' has been applied to a certain semblance of the human form, fully inhabited by its higher principles, which can migrate to any distance from the physical body--projected consciously and with exact intention by a living adept, or unintentionally by the accidental application of certain mental forces to his loosened principles by any person at the moment of death. For ordinary purposes, there is no practical inconvenience in using the expression 'astral body' for the appearance so projected--indeed any more strictly accurate expression, as will be seen directly, would be c.u.mbersome, and we must go on using the phrase in both meanings. No confusion need arise; but strictly speaking, the _linga sharira_, or third principle, is the astral body, and that cannot be sent about as the vehicle of the higher principles.”
As, however, ”no confusion need arise” from my describing how I went about in my _linga sharira_, I will continue to use it as the term for my vehicle of transportation. Nor need there be any difficulty about my being in two places at once. I have the authority of Mr Sinnett's Guru for this statement, and it is fully confirmed by my own experience. For what says the Guru?--”The individual consciousness, it is argued, cannot be in two places at once. But first of all, to a certain extent it can.”
It is unnecessary for me to add a word to this positive and most correct statement; but what the Guru has not told us is, that there is a certain discomfort attending the process. Whenever I went with my astral body, or _linga sharira_, into the mysterious region of Thibet already alluded to, leaving my _rupa_, or natural body, in Khatmandhu, I was always conscious of a feeling of rawness; while the necessity of looking after my _rupa_--of keeping, so to speak, my astral eye upon it, lest some accident should befall it, which might prevent my getting back to it, and so prematurely terminate my physical or objective existence--was a constant source of anxiety to me. Some idea of the danger which attends this process may be gathered from the risks incidental to a much more difficult operation which I once attempted, and succeeded, after incredible effort, in accomplis.h.i.+ng; this was the pa.s.sage of my fifth principle, or ego-spirit, into the ineffable condition of _nirvana_.
”Let it not be supposed,” says Mr Sinnett,--for it is not his Guru who is now speaking,--”that for any adept such a pa.s.sage can be lightly undertaken. Only stray hints about the nature of this great mystery have reached me; but, putting these together, I believe I am right in saying that the achievement in question is one which only some of the high initiates are qualified to attempt, which exacts a total suspension of animation in the body for periods of time compared to which the longest cataleptic trances known to ordinary science are insignificant; the protection of the physical frame from natural decay during this period by means which the resources of occult science are strained to accomplish; and withal it is a process involving a double risk to the continued earthly life of the person who undertakes it.
One of these risks is the doubt whether, when once _nirvana_ is attained, the ego will be willing to return. That the return will be a terrible effort and sacrifice is certain, and will only be prompted by the most devoted attachment, on the part of the spiritual traveller, to the idea of duty in its purest abstraction. The second great risk is that of allowing the sense of duty to predominate over the temptation to stay--a temptation, be it remembered, that is not weakened by the motive that any conceivable penalty can attach to it.
Even then it is always doubtful whether the traveller will be able to return.”
All this is exactly as Mr Sinnett has described it. I shall never forget the struggle that I had with my ego when, ignoring ”the idea of duty in its purest abstraction,” it refused to abandon the bliss of _nirvana_ for the troubles of this mundane life; or the anxiety both of my _manas_, or human soul, and my _buddhi_, or spiritual soul, lest, after by our combined efforts we had overcome our ego, we should not be able to do our duty by our _rupa_, or natural body, and get back into it.
Of course, my migrations to the _mahatma_ region of Thibet were accompanied by no such difficulty as this--as, to go with your _linga sharira_, or astral body, to another country, is a very different and much more simple process than it is to go with your _manas_, or human soul, into _nirvana_. Still it was a decided relief to find myself comfortably installed with my material body, or _rupa_, in the house of a Thibetan brother on that sacred soil which has for so many centuries remained unpolluted by a profane foot.
Here I pa.s.sed a tranquil and contemplative existence for some years, broken only by such incidents as my pa.s.sage into _nirvana_, and disturbed only by a certain subjective sensation of aching or void, by which I was occasionally attacked, and which I was finally compelled to attribute, much to my mortification, to the absence of women. In the whole of this sacred region, the name of which I am compelled to withhold, there was not a single female. Everybody in it was given up to contemplation and ascetic absorption; and it is well known that profound contemplation, for any length of time, and the presence of the fair s.e.x, are incompatible. I was much troubled by this vacuous sensation, which I felt to be in the highest degree derogatory to my fifth principle, and the secret of which I discovered, during a trance-condition which lasted for several months, to arise from a subtle magnetism, to which, owing to my peculiar organic condition, I was especially sensitive, and which penetrated the _mahatma_ region from a tract of country almost immediately contiguous to it in the Karakorum Mountains, which was as jealously guarded from foreign intrusion as our own, and which was occupied by the ”Thibetan Sisters,” a body of female occultists of whom the Brothers never spoke except in terms of loathing and contempt. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that no mention is made either of them, or the lovely highland district they occupy, in Mr Sinnett's book. The attraction of this feminine sphere became at last so overpowering, that I determined to visit it in my astral body; and now occurred the first of many most remarkable experiences which were to follow. It is well known to the initiated, though difficult to explain to those who are not, that in a sense s.p.a.ce ceases to exist for the astral body. When you get out of your _rupa_, you are out of s.p.a.ce as ordinary persons understand it, though it continues to have a certain subjective existence.
I was in this condition, and travelling rapidly in the desired direction, when I became conscious of the presence of the most exquisitely lovely female astral body which the imagination of man could conceive; and here I may incidentally remark, that no conception can be formed of the beauty to which woman can attain by those who have only seen her in her _rupa_--or, in other words, in the flesh. Woman's real charm consists in her _linga sharira_--that ethereal duplicate of the physical body which guides _jiva_, or the second principle, in its work on the physical particles, and causes it to build up the shape which these a.s.sume in the material. Sometimes it makes rather a failure of it, so far as the _rupa_ is concerned, but it always retains its own fascinating contour and deliciously diaphanous composition undisturbed. When my gaze fell upon this most enchanting object, or rather subject--for I was in a subjective condition at the time--I felt all the senses appertaining to my third principle thrill with emotion; but it seemed impossible--which will readily be understood by the initiated--to convey to her any clear idea of the admiration she excited, from the fact that we were neither of us in natural s.p.a.ce. Still the sympathy between our _linga shariras_ was so intense, that I perceived that I had only to go back for my _rupa_, and travel in it to the region of the sisterhood, to recognise her in her _rupa_ at once.
Every _chela_ even knows how impossible it is to make love satisfactorily in nothing but your _linga sharira_. It is quite different after you are dead, and have gone in your fourth principle, or _kama rupa_, which is often translated ”body of desire,” into _devachan_; for, as Mr Sinnett most correctly remarks, ”The purely sensual feelings and tastes of the late personality will drop off from it in _devachan_; but it does not follow that nothing is preservable in that state, except feelings and thoughts having a direct reference to religion or spiritual philosophy.
On the contrary, all the superior phases, even of sensuous emotion, find their appropriate sphere of development in _devachan_.” Until you are obliged to go to _devachan_--which, in ordinary parlance, is the place good men go to when they die--my advice is, stick to your _rupa_; and indeed it is the instinct of everybody who is not a _mahatma_ to do this.
I admit--though in making this confession I am aware that I shall incur the contempt of all _mahatmas_--that on this occasion I found my _rupa_ a distinct convenience, and was not sorry that it was still in existence.
In it I crossed the neutral zone still inhabited by ordinary Thibetans, and after a few days' travel, found myself on the frontiers of ”the Sisters'” territory. The question which now presented itself was how to get in. To my surprise, I found the entrances guarded not by women, as I expected, but by men. These were for the most part young and handsome.
”So you imagined,” said one, who advanced to meet me with an engaging air, ”that you could slip into our territory in your astral body; but you found that all the entrances _in vacuo_”--I use this word for convenience--”are as well guarded as those in s.p.a.ce. See, here is the Sister past whom you attempted to force your way: we look after the physical frontier, and leave the astral or spiritual to the ladies,”--saying which he politely drew back, and the apparition whose astral form I knew so well, now approached in her substantial _rupa_--in fact, she was a good deal stouter than I expected to find her; but I was agreeably surprised by her complexion, which was much fairer than is usual among Thibetans--indeed her whole type of countenance was Caucasian, which was not to be wondered at, considering, as I afterwards discovered, that she was by birth a Georgian. She greeted me, in the language common to all Thibetan occultists, as an old acquaintance, and one whose arrival was evidently expected--indeed she pointed laughingly to a bevy of damsels whom I now saw trooping towards us, some carrying garlands, some playing upon musical instruments, some dancing in lively measures, and singing their songs of welcome as they drew near. Then Ushas--for that was the name (signifying ”The Dawn”) of the illuminata whose acquaintance I had first made _in vacuo_--taking me by the hand, led me to them, and said--
”Rejoice, O my sisters, at the long-antic.i.p.ated arrival of the Western _arhat_, who, in spite of the eminence which he has attained in the mysteries of Esoteric Buddhism, and his intimate connection during so many years with the Thibetan fraternity, has yet retained enough of his original organic conditions to render him, even in the isolation of (here she mentioned the region I had come from) susceptible to the higher influence of the occult sisterhood. Receive him in your midst as the _chela_ of a new avatar which will be unfolded to him under your tender guidance. Take him in your arms, O my sisters, and comfort him with the doctrines of Ila, the Divine, the Beautiful.”
Taking me in their arms, I now found, was a mere formula or figure of speech, and consisted only in throwing garlands over me. Still I was much comforted, not merely by the grace and cordiality of their welcome, but by the mention of Ila, whose name will doubtless be familiar to my readers as occurring in a Sanscrit poem of the age immediately following the Vedic period, called the Satapathabrahmana, when Manu was saved from the flood, and offered the sacrifice ”to be the model of future generations.” By this sacrifice he obtained a daughter named Ila, who became supernaturally the mother of humanity, and who, I had always felt, has been treated with too little consideration by the _mahatmas_--indeed her name is not so much as even mentioned in Mr Sinnett's book. Of course it was rather a shock to my spiritual pride, that I, a _mahatma_ of eminence myself, should be told that I was to be adopted as a mere _chela_ by these ladies; but I remembered those beautiful lines of Buddha's--I quote from memory--and I hesitated no longer:--
”To be long-suffering and meek, To a.s.sociate with the tranquil, Religious talk at due seasons; This is the greatest blessing.”
”To be long-suffering”--this was a virtue I should probably have a splendid opportunity of displaying under the circ.u.mstances,--”and meek”; what greater proof of meekness could I give than by becoming the _chela_ of women? ”To a.s.sociate with the tranquil.” I should certainly obey this precept, and select the most tranquil as my a.s.sociates, and with them look forward to enjoying ”religious talk at due seasons.” Thus fortified by the precepts of the greatest of all teachers, my mind was at once made up, and, lifting up my voice, I chanted, in the language of the occult, some beautiful stanzas announcing my acceptance of their invitation, which evidently thrilled my hearers with delight. In order to save unnecessary fatigue, we now transferred ourselves through s.p.a.ce, and, in the twinkling of an eye, I found myself in the enchanting abode which they called their home, or _dama_. Here a group of young male _chelas_ were in waiting to attend to our wants; and the remarkable fact now struck me, that not only were all the women lovely and the men handsome, but that no trace of age was visible on any of them. Ushas smiled as she saw what was pa.s.sing in my mind, and said, without using any spoken words, for language had already become unnecessary between us, ”This is one of the mysteries which will be explained to you when you have reposed after the fatigues of your journey; in the meantime Asvin,”--and she pointed out a _chela_ whose name signified ”Twilight,”--”will show you to your room.” I would gladly linger, did my s.p.a.ce allow, over the delights of this enchanting region, and the marvellously complete and well-organised system which prevailed in its curiously composed society. Suffice it to say, that in the fairy-like pavilion which was my home, dwelt twenty-four lovely Sisters and their twenty-three _chelas_--I was to make the twenty-fourth--in the most complete and absolute harmony, and that their lives presented the most charming combination of active industry, harmless gaiety, and innocent pleasures. By a proper distribution of work and proportionment of labour, in which all took part, the cultivation of the land, the tending of the exquisite gardens, with their plas.h.i.+ng fountains, fragrant flowers, and inviting arbours, the herding of the cattle, and the heavier part of various handicrafts, fell upon the men; while the women looked after the domestic arrangements--cooked, made or mended and washed the _chelas_' clothes and their own (both men and women were dressed according to the purest principles of aesthetic taste), looked after the dairy, and helped the men in the lighter parts of their industries.
Various inventions, known only to the occult sisterhood by means of their studies in the esoteric science of mechanics, contributed to shorten these labours to an extent which would be scarcely credited by the uninitiated; but some idea of their nature may be formed from the fact that methods of storing and applying electricity, unknown as yet in the West, have here been in operation for many centuries, while telephones, flying-machines, and many other contrivances still in their infancy with us, are carried to a high pitch of perfection. In a word, what struck me at once as the fundamental difference between this sisterhood and the fraternity of adepts with which I had been a.s.sociated, was that the former turned all their occult experiences to practical account in their daily life in this world, instead of reserving them solely for the subjective conditions which are supposed by _mahatmas_ to attach exclusively to another state of existence.
Owing to these appliances the heavy work of the day was got through usually in time for a late breakfast, the plates and dishes being washed up and the knives cleaned by a mechanical process scarcely occupying two minutes; and the afternoon was usually devoted to the instruction of _chelas_ in esoteric branches of learning, and their practical application to mundane affairs, until the cool of the evening, when parties would be made up either for playing out-of-door games, in the less violent of which the women took part, or in riding the beautiful horses of the country, or in flying swiftly over its richly cultivated and variegated surface, paying visits to other _damas_ or homes, each of which was occupied on the same scale and in the same manner as our own.
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