THE WEB OF BEING.

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STANZA III.-Continued.

10. FATHER-MOTHER SPIN A WEB WHOSE UPPER END IS 'FASTENED TO SPIRIT (Purusha), The Light Of The One Darkness, And The Lower One To Matter (Prakriti) Its (the Spirit's) Shadowy End; And This Web is The Universe Spun Out Of The Two Substances Made In One, WHICH IS SWABHAVAT (a).

(a) In the Mandukya (Mundaka) Upanishad it is written, " As a spider throws out and retracts its web, as herbs spring up in the ground. so is the Universe derived from the undecaying one" (I. i. 7). Brahma, as "the germ of unknown Darkness," is the material from which all evolves and develops as the web from the spider, as foam from the water," etc. This is only graphic and true, if Brahmâ the "Creator" is, as a term, derived from the root brik, to increase or expand. Brahma "expands" and becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance.

The same idea has been beautifully expressed by Goethe, who says: "Thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply,

And weave for God the garment thou see'st Him by."

STANZA III.—Continued.

11. It (the Web) Expands When The Breath Of Fire (the Father) is UPON IT; IT CONTRACTS WHEN THE BREATH OF THE MOTHER (the root of Matter) Touches It. Then The Sons (the Elements with their respective Powers, or Intelligences) DISSOCIATE AND SCATTER, TO RETURN INTO THEIR MOTHER'S BOSOM AT THE END OF THE "GREAT DAY" AND REBECOME ONE WITH HER (a). When It (the Web) is Cooling, It Becomes Radiant, Its

SONS EXPAND AND CONTRACT THROUGH THEIR OWN SELVES AND HEARTS;

THEY EMBRACE INFINITUDE, (b)

The expanding of the Universe under the breath of Fire is very suggestive in the light of the "Fire mist" period of which modern science speaks so much, and knows in reality so little.

Great heat breaks up the compound elements and resolves the

heavenly bodies into their primeval one element, explains the commentary. "Once disintegrated into its primal constituent by getting within the attraction and reach of a focus, or centre of heat (energy), of which many are carried about to and fro in space, a body, whether alive or dead, will be vapourised and held in "the bosom of the Mother" until Fohat, gathering a few of the clusters of Cosmic matter (nebula) will, by giving it an impulse, set it in motion anew, develop the required heat, and then leave it to follow its own new growth.

The expanding and contracting of the Web—i.e., the world stuff or atoms—expresses here the pulsatory movement; for it is the regular contraction and expansion of the infinite and shoreless Ocean of that which we may call the noumenon of matter emanated by Swabhavat, which causes the universal vibration of atoms. But it is also suggestive of something else. It shows that the ancients were acquainted with that which is now the puzzle of many scientists and especially of astronomers: the cause of the first ignition of matter or the world-stuff, the paradox of the heat produced by the refrigerative contraction and other such Cosmic riddles. For it points unmistakeably to a knowledge by the ancients of such phenomena. "There is heat internal and heat external in every atom," say the manuscript Commentaries, to which the writer has had access; "the breath of the Father (or Spirit) and the breath (or heat) of the Mother (matter) ;" and they give explanations which show that the modern theory of the extinction of the solar fires by loss ot heat through radiation, is erroneous. The assumption is false even on the Scientists' own admission. For as Professor Newcomb points out (Popular Astronomy, pp. 506-508), "by losing heat, a gaseous body contracts, and the heat generated by the contraction exceeds that which it had to lose in order to produce the contraction." This paradox, that a body gets hotter as the shrinking produced by its getting colder is greater, led to long disputes. The surplus of heat, it was argued, was lost by radiation, and to assume that the temperature is not lowered part passu with a decrease of volume under a constant pressure, is to set at nought the law of Charles (Nebular Theory, Winchell). Contraction develops heat, it is true; but contraction (from cooling) is incapable of developing the whole amount of heat at any time existing in the mass, or even of maintaining a body at a constant temperature, etc. Professor Winchell tries to reconcile the paradox—only a seeming one in fact, as

CONSCIOUS ELECTRICITY.

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Homer Lanes proved, by suggesting "something besides heat." "May it not be," he asks, “simply a repulsion among the molecules, which varies according to some law of the distance?" But even this will be found irreconcileable, unless this "something besides heat" is ticketed "Causeless Heat," the "Breath of Fire," the all-creative Force plus Absolute Intelligence, which physical science is not likely to accept.

However it may be, the reading of this Stanza shows it, notwithstanding its archaic phraseology, to be more scientific than even modern science.

STANZA III.—Continued.

12. Then Svabhavat Sends Fohat To Harden The Atoms. Each (of these) is A Part Of The Web (Universe). Reflecting The "SELFEXISTENT LORD" (Primeval Light) Like A Mirror, Each Becomes In TURN A WORLD.*

"Fohat hardens the atoms"; i.e., by infusing energy into them: he scatters the atoms or primordial matter. "He scatters himself while scattering matter into atoms" (MSS. Commentaries.)

It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter. Some faint idea of the nature of Fohat may be gathered from the appellation "Cosmic Electricity" sometimes applied to it; but to the commonly known properties of electricity must, in this case, be added others, including intelligence. It is of interest to note that modern science has come to the conclusion, that all cerebration and brain-activity are attended by electrical phenomena. (For further details as to "Fohat" See Stanza V. and Comments.")

This is said in the sense that the flame from a fire is endless, and that the lights of the whole Universe could be lit at one simple rush-light without diminishing its flame.

STANZA IV.

COMMENTARY.

i. Listen, Ye Sons Of The Earth, To Your Instructors—The Sons Of The Fire (a). Learn There is Neither First Nor Last; For All is ONE NUMBER, ISSUED FROM NO NUMBER (6).

(a) These terms, the "Sons of the Fire," the "Sons of the FireMist," and the like, require explanation. They are connected with a great primordial and universal mystery, and it is not easy to make it clear. There is a passage in the Bhagavatglta (ch. viii.) wherein Krishna, speaking symbolically and esoterically, says: "I will state the times (conditions) . . . at which devotees departing (from this life) do so never to return (be reborn), or to return (to incarnate again). The Fire, the Flame, the day, the bright (lucky) fortnight, the six months of the Northern solstice, departing (dying) in these, those who know the Brahman (Yogis) go to the Brahman. Smoke, night, the dark (unlucky) fortnight, the six months of the Southern solstice, (dying) in these, the devotee goes to the lunar light (or mansion the astral light also) and returns (is reborn). These two paths, bright and dark, are said to be eternal in this world (or great kalpa, Age')• By the one a man goes never to come back, by the other he returns." Now these names, "Fire," "Flame," "Day," the "bright fortnight," etc., as "Smoke," "Night," and so on, leading only to the end of the lunar path are incomprehensible without a knowledge of Esotericism. These are all names of various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic Powers. We often speak of the Hierarchy of "Flames" (see Book II.), of the "Sons of Fire," etc. Sankaracharya the greatest of the Esoteric masters of India, says that fire means a deity which presides over Time (kala). The able translator of Bhagavatgita, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, M.A., of Bombay, confesses he has "no clear notion of the meaning of these verses " (p. 81, footnote). It seems quite clear, on the contrary, to him who knows the occult doctrine. With these verses the mystic sense of the solar and lunar symbols are connected: the Pitris are lunar deities and our ancestors, because they created the physical man.

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The Agnishwatha, the Kumara (the seven mystic sages), are solar deities, though the former are Pitris also; and these are the "fashioners of the Inner Man." (See Book II.) They are:

.

"The Sons of Fire"—because they are the first Beings (in the Secret Doctrine they are called "Minds"), evolved from Primordial Fire. "The Lord is a consuming Fire" (Deuteronomy iv. 24): "The Lord (Christos) shall be revealed with his mighty angels in flaming fire" (2 Thessal. i. 7, 8). The Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles like "cloven tongues of fire," (Acts ii. v. 3); Vishnu will return on Kalki, the White Horse, as the last Avatar amid fire and flames; and Sosiosh will be brought down equally on a White Horse in a "tornado of fire." "And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he lhat sat upon him. . is called the Word of God," (Rev. xix. 13) amid flaming Fire. Fire is Ether in its purest form, and hence is not regarded as matter, but it is the unity of Ether—the second manifested deity—in its universality. But there are two "Fires" and a distinction is made between them in the Occult teachings. The first, or the purely Formless and invisible Fire concealed in the Central Spiritual Sim, is spoken of as "triple" (metaphysically); while the Fire of the manifested Kosmos is Septenary, throughout both the Universe and our Solar System. "The fire or knowledge burns up all action on the plane of illusion," says the commentary. "Therefore, those who have acquired it and are emancipated, are called 'Fires.'" Speaking of the seven senses symbolised as Hotris, priests, the Bnihmana says in Anugitâ : "Thus these seven (senses, smell and taste, and colour, and sound, etc., etc.) are the causes of emancipation;" and the commentator adds: "It is from these seven from which the Self is to be emancipated. 'I'(am here devoid of qualities) must mean the Self, not the Brahmana who speaks." ("Sacred Books of the East,," ed. by Max Muller, Vol. VIII., 278.)

(b) The expression "All is One Number, issued from No Number" relates again to that universal and philosophical tenet just explained in Stanza III. (Comm. 4). That which is absolute is of course No Number; but in its later significance it has an application in Space as in Time. It means that not only every increment of time is part of a larger increment, up to the most indefinitely prolonged duration conceivable by the human intellect, but also that no manifested thing can