Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00223)

Konstantin,

You wrote in part:

"According to the 'classical' theosophy, we drop 
astral shells and PROCEED RIGHT TO devachan, 
while real man cannot communicate from the astral 
plane, but the empty shells only. It's strange why 
we have so different laws for different
planes, and why we don't drop empty mental shell AT ONCE."

"The newer theory seems to me somewhat better, for it sets
the same course for different planes. . . . Obviously, 
it's logical for any average man to live for several 
years on the astral plane, and on the contrary, it 
would be inexplicable why should he dissociate from 
his desire principle SO FAST."

I have put in caps several of your words. 

PROCEED RIGHT TO.....AT ONCE....SO FAST...

In the Mahatma Letters, K.H. writes:

"Every just disembodied four-fold entity [i.e. the middle duad (Kama-
Manas) and the two highest principles (Atma, Buddhi)] - whether it 
died a natural or a violent death, from suicide or accident, 
mentally sane or insane, young or old, good, bad, or indifferent - 
loses at the instant of death all recollection, it is mentally 
annihilated; it sleeps its akasic sleep in the Kama Loka. This state 
lasts from a few hours (rarely less), days, weeks, months - 
sometimes to several years. All this according to the entity, to its 
mental status at the moment of death, to the character of its death, 
etc."

See chapter on the Gestation period at:

http://www.theosophical.ca/WhenWeDie.htm#struggle

It seems to me that you may be assuming something that is not
necessarily true or valid:

"The newer theory seems to me somewhat better, for it sets
the same course for different planes...."

Why assume that there is a need for "the SAME course for
different planes"? or that such a course is "better"?

A careful reading of the Mahatma Letters on this subject shows a 
natural process that proceeds as aptly described by HPB:

"Kama-loka may be compared to the dressing-room of an actor, in 
which he divests himself of the costume of the last part he played 
before rebecoming himself properly - the immortal Ego or the Pilgrim 
cycling in his Round of Incarnations. The Eternal Ego being stripped 
in Kama-loka of its lower terrestrial principles, with their 
passions and desires, it enters into the state of Devachan. And 
therefore it is said that only the purely spiritual, the non-
material emotions, affections and aspirations accompany the Ego into 
that state of Bliss. But the process of stripping off the lower, the 
fourth and part of the fifth principles is an unconscious one in 
all normal human beings. It is only in very exceptional cases that 
there is a slight return to consciousness in Kama-loka: and this is 
the case of very materialistic unspiritual personalities, who, 
devoid of the conditions requisite, cannot enter the state of 
absolute Rest and Bliss." [C.W.IX, 164]

Some food for thought.....

Daniel
http://hpb.cc