From the foregoing table it will be seen that the third principle in the Buddhist classification is not separately mentioned in the Vedantic division, as it is merely the vehicle of Prana.
It will also be seen that the Fourth principle is included in the third Kosa (Sheath), as the same principle is but the vehicle of will-power, which is but an energy of the mind.
It must also be noticed that the Vignanamaya Kosa is considered to be distinct from the Manomaya Kosa, as a division is made after death between the lower part of the mind, as it were, which has a closer affinity with the fourth principle than with the sixth; and its higher part, which attaches itself to the latter, and which is, in fact, the basis for the higher spiritual individuality of man.
We may also here point out to our readers that the classification mentioned in the last column is, for all practical purposes, connected with Raja Yoga, the best and simplest.
Though there are seven principles in man, there are but three distinct Upadhis (bases), in each of which his Atma may work independently of the rest.
These three Upadhis can be separated by an Adept without killing himself.
He cannot separate the seven principles from each other without destroying his constitution." The student will now be better prepared to see that between the three Upadhis of the Raja Yoga and its Atma, and our three Upadhis, Atma, and the additional three divisions, there is in reality but very little difference.
Moreover, as every adept in cis-Himalayan or trans-Himalayan India, of the Patanjali, the Aryasanga or the Mahayana schools, has to become a Raja Yogi, he must, therefore, accept the Taraka Raja classification in principle and theory whatever classification he resorts to for practical and occult purposes.
Thus, it matters very little whether one speaks of the three Upadhis with their three aspects and Atma, the eternal and immortal synthesis, or calls them the "seven principles." For the benefit of those who may not have read, or, if they have, may not have clearly understood, in Theosophical writings, the doctrine of the septenary chains of worlds in the Solar Kosmos, the teaching is briefly thus: -- 1.
Everything in the metaphysical as in the physical Universe is septenary.
Hence every sidereal body, every planet, whether visible [[Vol.
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or invisible, is credited with six companion globes.
(See Diagram No.
3, after verse 6 of this commentary.) The evolution of life proceeds on these seven globes or bodies from the 1st to the 7th in Seven R OUNDS or Seven Cycles.
2.
These globes are formed by a process which the Occultists call the "rebirth of planetary chains (or rings)." When the seventh and last Round of one of such rings has been entered upon, the highest or first globe "A," followed by all the others down to the last, instead of entering upon a certain time of rest -- or "obscuration," as in their previous Rounds -- begins to die out.
The "planetary" dissolution ( pralaya ) is at hand, and its hour has struck; each globe has to transfer its life and energy to another planet.
(See diagram No.
2 infra , "The Moon and the Earth.") 3.
Our Earth, as the visible representative of its invisible superior fellow globes, its "lords" or "principles" (see diagram No.
1), has to live, as have the others, through seven Rounds.
During the first three, it forms and consolidates; during the fourth it settles and hardens; during the last three it gradually returns to its first ethereal form: it is spiritualised, so to say.
4.
Its Humanity develops fully only in the Fourth -- our present Round.
Up to this fourth Life-Cycle, it is referred to as "humanity" only for lack of a more appropriate term.
Like the grub which becomes chrysalis and butterfly, Man, or rather that which becomes man, passes through all the forms and kingdoms during the first Round and through all the human shapes during the two following Rounds.
Arrived on our Earth at the commencement of the Fourth in the present series of life-cycles and races, MAN is the first form that appears thereon, being preceded only by the mineral and vegetable kingdoms -- even the latter having to develop and continue its further evolution through man.
This will be explained in Book II.
During the three Rounds to come, Humanity, like the globe on which it lives, will be ever tending to reassume its primeval form, that of a Dhyan Chohanic Host.
Man tends to become a God and then -- G OD, like every other atom in the Universe.
"Beginning so early as with the 2nd round, Evolution proceeds already on quite a different plan.
It is only during the 1st round that (heavenly) man becomes a human being on globe A (rebecomes) a mineral, a plant, an animal, on globe B and C, etc.
The process changes [[Vol.
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entirely from the second round -- but you have learned prudence .
.
.
and I advise you to say nothing before the time for saying it has come.
.
." (Extract from the Teacher's letters on various topics.) 5.
Every life-cycle on Globe D (our Earth)* is composed of seven root-races.
They commence with the Ethereal and end with the spiritual on the double line of physical and moral evolution -- from the beginning of the terrestrial round to its close.
(One is a "planetary round" from Globe A to Globe G, the seventh; the other, the "globe round," or the terrestrial ) .
This is very well described in "Esoteric Buddhism" and needs no further elucidation for the time being.
6.
The first root-race, i.e.
, the first "men" on earth (irrespective of form) were the progeny of the "celestial men," called rightly in Indian philosophy the "Lunar Ancestors" or the Pitris, of which there are seven classes or Hierarchies.
As all this will be sufficiently explained in the following sections and in Book II., no more need be said of it here.
But the two works already mentioned, both of which treat of subjects from the occult doctrine, need particular notice.
"Esoteric Buddhism" is too well known in Theosophical circles, and even to the outside world, for it to be necessary to enter at length upon its merits here.
It is an excellent book, and has done still more excellent work.
But this does not alter the fact that it contains some mistaken notions, and that it has led many Theosophists and lay-readers to form an erroneous conception of the Secret Eastern Doctrines.
Moreover it seems, perhaps, a little too materialistic.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The passage describes the globe and humanity tending to 'reassume its primeval form' and the cyclical return of the planetary chain to its first ethereal state after seven rounds.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage maps the three Upadhis of Raja Yoga onto the seven principles, and correlates Buddhist, Vedantic, and Raja Yoga classifications, showing structural reflection across systems.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the formation of planetary chains through 'rebirth of planetary chains' and describes how Earth formed and consolidated through its first three rounds.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The reference to 'the Teacher's letters on various topics' implies a chain of transmission from a master to the author, credentialing the teaching through a historical lineage.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The quoted Teacher's letter includes the instruction 'you have learned prudence... and I advise you to say nothing before the time for saying it has come,' indicating esoteric teaching reserved for those ready.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
The Solar Kosmos is described as containing septenary chains of worlds with multiple visible and invisible globes, suggesting a vast populated cosmos.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage explicitly describes invisible companion globes, the metaphysical universe, and invisible superior fellow globes that are the 'lords' or 'principles' of the visible Earth.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage describes the directional descent of celestial beings (Lunar Ancestors) into progressively denser forms through successive rounds and globes, from ethereal to material and back, a structured descent of spirit into matter.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The passage explicitly states 'Everything in the metaphysical as in the physical Universe is septenary' and maps the seven principles in man onto the septenary structure of planetary chains and rounds.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Atma is described as 'the eternal and immortal synthesis' that works independently within each Upadhi, functioning as an undivided first principle within the human constitution.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage states that Humanity will be 'ever tending to reassume its primeval form, that of a Dhyan Chohanic Host' and that the globe returns to its first ethereal form, describing the soul's journey back to its divine origin.
The chapter is titled 'The Transmigrations of the Ego' and the passage describes life proceeding through seven globes and seven rounds, with the ego transmuting across forms and kingdoms.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The passage explicitly states 'Man tends to become a God and then — GOD, like every other atom in the Universe,' which is a direct statement of deification as the ultimate destiny of all beings.