Theos-Talk Archives (July 2005 Message tt00004)

June 30 2005

Dear K:

Perhaps this may answer:  

Theosophy teaches:



DEVACHAN


A LETTER to the editor from Holland upon this subject deserves reply, as is
must give utterance to the questions of many other students.

The complaint in this letter is that when one goes to Devachan much time is
lost away from earth life, where otherwise unselfish work for others might
be continued by instantly returning to it after death. The reason given is
that Devachan is an illusion, while the so-called illusions of earthly
existence are in such a sense real that they are preferable to those of
Devachan. In illustration of this, the supposed case is given of a parent in
Devachan imagining that the beloved child is also there, when, in fact, the
child not yet physically dead remains on earth perhaps in misery or leading
a life of vice. This is the root of the objection - the supposed illusionary
character of Devachan as compared to earth-life.

Now these feelings are always due to the thirst for life in the form which
presently is most known to us, - that is, in a physical body. We cannot
argue Devachan away any more than we can the necessity of incarnation upon
this earth; the one is as philosophically necessary as is the other. 

A very easy way out of the difficulty - which arises almost wholly from our
feelings - would be to calmly accept the law as it stands, being willing to
take whatever may be our fate, whether that be in Devachan or in this
earth-life. 

Our likes and dislikes can have no effect on the course of nature, but they
may have an effect on ourselves which will be far from beneficial. For the
dwelling upon pleasure or the constant desire to fly from "pain not yet
come" will inevitably create Karmic causes which we would wish to avoid.

But perhaps there are some considerations on the subject of Devachan which
may be of use. In the first place, I have never believed that the period
given by Mr. Sinnett in Esoteric Buddhism of fifteen hundred years for the
stay in that state was a fixed fact in nature. It might be fifteen minutes
as well as fifteen hundred years. But it is quite likely that for the
majority of those who so constantly wish for a release and for an enjoyment
of heaven, the period would be more than fifteen hundred years. Indeed, the
Hindu Scriptures give many special ceremonies for the attainment of heaven,
or the regions of Indra, which is Devachan; and those ceremonies or
practices are said to cause a stay in Indraloka "for years of infinite
number."

The first question, however, must be "What is the cause for passing into
Devachan?" Some have said that it is good Karma or good acts that take us
and keep us there, but this is a very incomplete reply. Of course, in the
sense that it is happiness to go into that state, it may be called good
Karma. But it does not follow that the man whose life is good, passed in
constant unselfish work for others without repining, and free from desire to
have somewhere his reward, will go to Devachan. Yet his Karma must be good;
it must act on him, however, in other lives, for the earth-life is the place
where such Karma has its operation. But if at the same time that he is thus
working for others he wishes for release or for some place or time when and
where he may have rest, then, of course, he must go to Devachan for a period
which will be in proportion to the intensity of those desires.

Again, it should not be forgotten that the soul must have some rest. Were
it, before becoming bright as the diamond, hard as adamant, and strong as
steel, to go on working, working through earth-life after earth-life without
a break between, it must at last succumb to the strain and come to nothing.
Nature therefore has provided for it a place of rest -- in Devachan; and
that we should thankfully accept if it falls to our lot. 

But does Devachan suffer in the comparison made between it and this life on
earth? To me it seems not. Human life is as great an illusion as any. To the
sage Ribhu, Vishnu said it was the longest-lived reign of fancy. To say that
it is a terrible thing to think of a mother in Devachan enjoying its bliss
while the child is suffering on earth, is to prefer one illusion over
another, to hug a philosophical error to the breast. Both states are out of
the true, while the Ego, who is the real witness, sees the lower personality
struggling with these phantoms while it, whether the body be living or its
other parts be in Devachan, enjoys eternal felicity. It sits on high
unmoved, immovable. 

The great verse in the Isa-Upanishad settles this matter for me in these
words: "What room is there for sorrow and what for doubt in him who knows
that all spiritual beings are the same in kind, though differing in degree."


Therefore if I believe this, I must also know that, no matter whether I and
my best beloved are in Devachan or on earth, they and I must forever partake
of the highest development attained by the greatest of sages, for, as they
and I are spiritual beings, we must have communion forever on the higher
planes of our being.

Then, again, the fact seems to be lost sight of that each night we go into a
sort of Devachan - the dream state or sleep without dream. The loving
mother, no matter how unfortunate or evil her child, must sleep, and in that
state she may have dreams of her loved ones around her in just the very
condition of mind and body she would have them enjoy. If Devachan be
objectionable, why not also rebel against our necessary sleep which acts on
our physical frame to give it rest, as Devachan does upon our more ethereal
parts?

Lying unnoticed at the foot of this matter is the question of time. It goes
to the very root of the objection, for the aversion to the stay in Devachan
is based upon the conception of a period of time. This period - given or
supposed as 1,500 years - is another great illusion which can be easily
proved to be so. What we call time, measured by our seconds and minutes and
hours, is not necessarily actual time itself. It is not the ultimate
precedence and succession of moments in the abstract. For us it depends on
and flows from the revolutions of our solar orb, and even with that standard
it can be shown that we do not apprehend it correctly.

We speak of seconds, but those are such as our watchmakers give us in the
watch. They might be made longer or shorter. They are arrived at through a
division of a diurnal solar revolution, the observation of which not
necessarily mathematically accurate. If we lived on Mercury - where we must
believe intelligent beings live - our conception of time would be different.
>From our childhood's experience we know that even in this life our
appreciation of the passage of time rises and falls, for in early youth the
12 months from one Christmas to another seemed very, very long, while now
they pass all too quickly. 

And from watching the mental processes in dreams we know that, in the space
of time taken for a bell to drop from the table to the floor, one may dream
through a whole lifetime, with all the incidents of each day and hour packed
into such a limited period. Who can tell but that in a Devachanic state of
three months the person may go through experiences that seem to cover
thousands of years? If so, why not say for him - since time as we know it is
an illusion - that he was in Devachan for those thousands?

Devachan, however, is not a meaningless or useless state. In it we are
rested; that part of us which could not bloom under the chilling skies of
earth-life bursts forth into flower and goes back with us to another life
stronger and more a part of our nature than before; our strength is revived
for another journey between deaths. Why shall we repine that nature kindly
aids us in the interminable struggle; why thus ever keep the mind revolving
about this petty personality and its good or evil fortune? 

W.Q.J. Path, September, 1890
 





Dallas
 

-----Original Message-----
From: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com [mailto:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Konstantin Zaitzev
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 12:53 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Theos-World Friends in Mental Plane

>> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Frank Reitemeyer" wrote:

> What is that for an idiotic poppycock?
> Fairy tales for hysterical, non-thinking male and female aunts.

It doesn't look like valueable kind of refutation.
Though HPB gave no such teaching, yet the idea about ego acting 
through the thoughtforms doesn't contradict it and may be taken as a 
hypothesis, untill it shall be replaced by a better one.

HPB wrote: "The Devachanee lives its intermediate cycle between two 
incarnations surrounded by everything it had aspired to in vain, and 
in the companionship of everyone it loved on earth. ...
Q. But this is more than simple delusion, it is an existence of insane 
hallucinations!
A. From your standpoint it may be, not so from that of philosophy. 
Besides which, is not our whole terrestrial life filled with such 
delusions?" (Key to Theosophy)

Devachanic existence really is no more an illusion than our earthly 
existence, but most of us would agree that the latter gives us the 
useful experience needed for our evolution.
Now, as according to HPB average devachanic state lasts more that 1000 
years and we pass most of our time there, it is impossible that we 
passed all that time quite in vain. There should be no obsolete parts 
in nature, and devachanees and their thoughtforms, (for the quotation 
suggests the idea of thoughtforms), seem to be exactly such obsolete 
and idle parts, unless we admit that they undergo some evolution.
The proposed idea with ego acting in thoughtform as far as the 
perfectness of the form permits it seems quite reasonable for it 
provides fastest possible evolution for all egos involved, and also 
explains HOW the devachan is not more illusion than a physical life.
Wee see the thoughtforms of our friends according to our ideas about 
them, and their egos can act through them while it conforms our 
notions about them, so they cannot hurt us, yet they can do for us 
anything good that we permit.
The ego in devachan cannot communicate with the earth plane, as HPB 
rightly remarks, but it doesn't interfere it to communicate on its own 
plane - in that extent which its own illusions permit. The 
thoughtforms seem to be the natural filter for this action. We have 
such a filter on the physical plane, it's our body imposed by our 
physical karma, so why there can't be a similar filter created by 
other kind of our karma?

There are no proof for this theory, yet it seems to me quite plausible 
untill the better one will be proposed.




 
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