Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/290

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animal or physical intelligence of man not far removed from "reason instinct, memory, imagination, &c.," of the brute creation. No part of it was then allowed to go to Devachan. It was simply a part of the animal soul which was ultimately dissolved in Kamaloka (See Fragments, pp. 18, 19 and 20). The real ego of man—the permanent element in him which runs through the various incarnations,—had not its basis in this principle originally or any part of it. The "Elixir of Life" assigns to it more or less the same position as the following passage shows:—"Each of these (seven principles) has in turn to survive the preceding and more dense one and then die. The exception is the 6th when absorbed into and blended with the 7th." It is partly mixed up with Ananda-Maya Kosa and partly with Vignanamaya Kosa according to the "Septenary Principle" (p. 197, Five Years of Theosophy), these two Kosas being described as the "illusion of supreme bliss" and the "envelope of self-delusion" respectively. It is also to be inferred from the "Replies to an English F. T.S." (p. 274, "Five Years of Theosophy") that it is not the ego or the human monad. It is further declared in the Transmigrarion of Life-atoms (p. 539, "Five Years of Theosophy") that the particles composing this principle disperse after death and "reform after going through various transmigrations to constitute over again" the fifth principle of the next incarnation. The nature of this principle has gradually changed. Though originally it was but the animal consciousness of man, it has subsequently been represented as the fully developed human mind. The whole of it used to perish originally, but subsequently a part of it has been allowed to remain in existence. The whole of it was originally destined for Kamaloka, but a portion has been subsequently lifted up to Devachan. In this connection it must be noticed that it has not up to this time been explained whether after death this principle is physically split up into two parts, or whether the principle merely leaves impressions of its mental activity on the fourth principle taking its physical constitution to Devachan, or whether the sixth principle in conjunction with