Page 39 (part 3)

. ." We fail to see it, and we know it is not so. Pantheism may be "physically rediscovered. " It was known, seen, and felt by the whole of antiquity. Pantheism manifests itself in the vast expanse of the starry heavens, in the breathing of the seas and oceans and the quiver of life of the smallest blade of grass. Philosophy rejects one finite and imperfect God in the universe, as the anthropomorphic deity of the monotheist is represented by his followers. It repudiates in its name of Philo - Theo - Sophia the grotesque idea that Infinite, Absolute Deity should, or rather could , have any, whether direct or indirect, relation to finite illusive evolutions of matter, and therefore cannot imagine a universe outside that Deity, or the latter absent from the smallest speck of animate or inanimate substance.* Why either the Ether of Space, or "nervous Ether" should "destroy the individuality of every sense" seems incomprehensible for one acquainted with the real nature of that "nervous ether" under its Sanskrit, or rather esoteric and Kabalistic name. Dr. Richardson agrees that -- "If we did not individually produce the medium of communication between ourselves and the outer world, if it were produced from without and adapted to one kind of vibration alone , there were fewer senses required than we possess: for, taking two illustrations only -- ether of light is not adapted for sound, and yet we hear as well as see; while air, the medium of motion of sound, is not the medium of light, and yet we see and hear." This is not so. The opinion that "Pantheism fails to be true because it would destroy the individuality of every individual sense" shows that all the conclusions of the learned doctor are based on the modern physical theories, though he would fain reform them. But he will find it impossible to do this unless he allows the existence of spiritual senses to replace the gradual atrophy of the physical. "We see and hear," in accordance (of course in Dr. Richardson's mind) with the explanations of the phenomena of sight and hearing, by that same materialistic [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * This does not mean that every bush, tree or stone is God or a god; but only that every speck of the manifested material of Kosmos belongs to and is the substance of "God," however low it may have fallen in its cyclic gyration through the Eternities of the ever becoming,; and also that every such speck individually, and Kosmos collectively, is an aspect and a reminder of that universal One Soul -- which philosophy refuses to call God, thus limiting the eternal and ever-present root and essence. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 534 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. science which postulates that we cannot see and hear otherwise. The Occultists and mystics know better. The Vedic Aryans were as familiar with the mysteries of sound and colour as our physiologists are on the physical plane, but they had mastered the secrets of both on planes inaccessible to the materialist. They knew of a double set of senses; spiritual and material. In a man who is deprived of one or more senses, the remaining become the more developed: e.g ., the blind man will recover his sight through the senses of touch, of hearing, etc., and he who is deaf will be able to hear through sight, by seeing audibly the words uttered by the lips and mouth of the speaker. But these are cases that belong to the world of matter still. The spiritual senses, those that act on a higher plane of consciousness are rejected a priori by physiology because the latter is ignorant of the sacred science. It limits the action of ether to vibrations, and, dividing it from air -- though air is simply differentiated and compound ether -- makes it assume functions to fit in with the special theories of the physiologist. But there is more real science in the teachings of the Upanishads when these are correctly understood, than the Orientalists, who do not understand them at all, are ready to admit. Mental as well as physical correlations of the seven senses (seven on the physical and seven on the mental planes) are clearly explained and defined in the Vedas, and especially in the Upanishad called Anugita: "The indestructible and the destructible, such is the double manifestation of the Self. Of these the indestructible is the existent (the true essence or nature of Self, the underlying principles). The manifestation as an individual (or entity) is called the destructible." Thus speaks the A SCETIC in Anugita; and also: "Every one who is twice-born (initiated) knows such is the teaching of the ancients. . . . . Space is the first entity. . . . . Now Space ( Akasa , or the noumenon of Ether) has one quality . . . and that is sound only . . . and the qualities of sound are Shadga, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, and beyond these five Nishada and Dhaivata"; (the Hindu gamut). These seven notes of the scale are the principles of sound. ( Vide ch. xxxvi. of Anugita. ) The qualities of every Element, as of every sense, are septenary, and to judge and dogmatize on them from their manifestation (likewise sevenfold in itself) on the material or objective plane above is quite arbitrary. For it is only by the S ELF emancipating itself from these (seven) causes of illusion that one acquires the knowledge (secret wisdom) of the qualities of objects of sense on their dual plane of manifestation -- the visible and the invisible. Thus it is said: -- "State this wonderful mystery . . . . . Hear the assignment of causes exhaustively. The nose, and the tongue, and the eye, and the [[Vol. 1, Page]] 535 THE SEVEN PHYSICAL SENSES. skin, and the ear as the fifth (organ of sense) Mind and Understanding,* these seven (senses) should be understood to be the causes of (the knowledge of their) qualities. Smell, and taste, and colour, sound, and touch as the fifth, the object of the mental operation, and the object of the Understanding (the highest spiritual sense or perception), these seven are causes of action. He who smells, he who eats, he who sees, he who speaks, and he who hears as the fifth, he who thinks, and he who understands, these seven should be regarded as the causes of the agents .** These (the agents) being possessed of qualities ( sattwa , rajas , tamas ), enjoy their own qualities, agreeable and disagreeable" ( Anugita ) . Then one reads in the Bhagavadgita (chap. vii.) the Deity (or Krishna) saying: -- ". . . . Only some know me truly.