PREFACE
This book is intended to place in the hands of the general
reader an epitome of theosophical teachings, sufficiently plain to serve
the elementary student, and sufficiently full to lay a sound foundation
for further knowledge.
Those who have learned a little of the Ancient Wisdom know
the illumination, the peace, the joy, the strength, its lessons have
brought into their lives. That this book may win some to con its
teachings, and to prove for themselves their value, is the prayer with
which it is sent forth into the world.
Annie Besant,
August 1897
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(NOTE- At the beginning of the original print, there is introduction
explaining the underlying unity of all religions. Many readers might
find it difficult to understand terms in various religions. So this
section is given at the end, in case anybody wants to read. So we start
here with first chapter The Physical Plane )
CHAPTER I
THE PHYSICAL PLANE
We have just seen that the source from which a universe
proceeds is a manifested Divine Being, to whom in the modern form of the
Ancient Wisdom the name LOGOS, or Word has been given. The name is drawn
from Greek Philosophy, but perfectly expresses the ancient idea, the
Word which emerges from the Silence, the Voice, the Sound, by which the
worlds come into being. We must now trace the evolution of spirit-
matter, in order that we may understand something of the nature of the
materials with which we have to deal on the physical plane, or physical
world. For it is in the potentialities wrapped up, involved, in the
spirit-matter of the physical world that lies the possibility of
evolution. The whole process is an unfolding, self-moved from within and
aided by intelligent beings without, who can retard or quicken
evolution, but cannot transcend the capacities inherent in the
materials. Some idea of these earliest stages of the world's "becoming"
is therefore necessary, although any attempt to go into minute details
would carry us far beyond the limits of such an elementary treatise as
the present. A very cursory sketch must suffice. (Page 41)
Coming forth from the depths of the One Existence, from the
ONE beyond all thought and all speech, a LOGOS, by imposing on Himself a
limit, circumscribing voluntarily the range of His own Being, becomes
the manifested God, and tracing the limiting sphere of His activity thus
outlines the area of His universe. Within that sphere the universe is
born, is evolved, and dies ; it lives, it moves, it has its being in Him
; its matter is His emanation ; its forces and energies are currents of
His Life ; He is immanent in every atom, all-pervading, all-sustaining,
all-evolving ; He is its source and its end, its cause and its object,
its centre and circumference ; it is built on Him as its sure
foundation, it breathes in Him as its encircling space ; He is in
everything and everything in Him. Thus have the sages of the Ancient
Wisdom taught us of the beginning of the manifested worlds.
From the same source we learn of the Self-unfolding of the
LOGOS into a threefold form ; the First LOGOS, the Root of all being ;
from Him the Second, manifesting the two aspects of Life and Form, the
primal duality, making the two poles of nature between which the web of
the universe is to be woven - Life-Form, Spirit-Matter, Positive-
Negative, Active-Receptive, Father-Mother of the worlds. Then the Third
LOGOS, the Universal Mind, that in which all archetypically exists, the
source of beings, the fount of fashioning energies, the treasure house
in which are stored up all the archetypal forms which are to be brought
forth and elaborated in lower kinds (Page 42) of matter during the
evolution of the universe. These are the fruits of past universes,
brought over as seeds for the present.
The phenomenal spirit and matter of any universe are finite in their
extent and transitory in their duration, but the roots of spirit and
matter are eternal. The root of matter (Mulâprakriti ) has been said by
a profound writer to be visible to the LOGOS as a veil thrown over the
One existence, the supreme Brahman (Parabrahman) -to use the ancient
name.
It is this "veil" which the LOGOS assumes for the purpose of
manifestation, using it for the self-imposed limit which makes activity
possible. From this He elaborates the matter of His universe, being
Himself its informing, guiding, and controlling life. ( Hence He is
called "The Lord of Mâyâ" in some Eastern Scriptures, Mâyâ, or illusion,
being the principle of form; form is regarded as illusory, from its
transitory nature and perpetual transformations, the life which
expresses itself under the veil of form being the reality).
Of what occurs on the two higher planes of the universe, the
seventh and sixth, we can form but the haziest conception. The energy of
the LOGOS as whirling motion of inconceivable rapidity "digs holes in
space" in this root matter, and this vortex of life encased in a film of
the root of matter is the primary atom; these and their aggregations,
spread throughout the universe, form all the subdivisions of spirit-
matter of the highest or seventh plane. The sixth plane is formed by
some of the (Page 43) countless myriads of these primary atoms, setting
up a vortex in the coarsest aggregations of their own plane, and this
primary atom en-walled with spiral strands of the coarsest combinations
of the seventh plane becomes the finest unit of spirit-matter, or atom
of the sixth plane. These sixth plane atoms and their endless
combinations form the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of the sixth
plane.
The sixth-plane-atom, in its turn, sets up a vortex in the
coarsest aggregations of its own plane, and, with these coarsest
aggregations as a limiting wall, becomes the finest unit of spirit-
matter, or atom, of the fifth plane. Again, these fifth-plane atoms, and
their combinations form the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of the
fifth plane. The process is repeated to form successively the spirit-
matter of the fourth, the third, the second, and the first planes. These
are the seven great regions of the universe, so far as their material
constituents are concerned. A clearer idea of them will be gained by
analogy when we come to master the modifications of the spirit-matter of
our own physical world.
(The student may find the conception clearer if he thinks of
the fifth plane atoms as ?tm? ; those of the fourth plane as ?tm?
enveloped in Buddhi-matter ; those of the third plane as ?tm? enveloped
in Buddhi and Manas-matter ; those of the second plane as ?tm? enveloped
in Buddhi-Manas- and K?ma-matter ; those of the lowest as ?tm? enveloped
in Buddhi-Manas-K?ma and Sthûla-matter. Only the outermost is active in
each, but the inner are there, though latent, ready to come into
activity on the upward arc of evolution).
The world "spirit-matter" is used designedly. (Page 44) At
implies the fact that there is no such thing as "dead" matter ; all
matter is living, the tiniest particles are lives. Science speaks truly
in affirming : "No force without matter, no matter without force." They
are wedded together in an indissoluble marriage throughout the ages of
the life of a universe, and none can wrench them apart. Matter is form,
and there is no form which does not express a life ; spirit is life, and
there is no life that is not limited by form. Even the LOGOS, the
Supreme Lord, has during manifestation the universe as His form, and so
down to the atom.
This involution of the life of the LOGOS as the ensouling
force in every particle, and its successive enwrapping in the spirit-
matter of every plane, so that the materials of each plane have within
them in a hidden, or latent condition, all the form and force
possibilities of all the planes above them as well as those of their own
- these two facts make evolution certain and give to the very lowest
particle the hidden potentialities which will render it fit - as they
become active powers - to
