Evolution of Life and Form: Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898Besant, Annie
Religion
Evolution of Life and Form: Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898
Besant, Annie
Evolution; Life -- Origin; Theosophy
One by one are the Divine aspects unfolded as manifestation proceeds.
The lowest, if I may dare to use such a term, is the aspect which is
first brought into activity for the building of the universe. So also in
man the intelligence awakens and becomes active, the lowest aspect of
the human Self. That is the reflection of Brahmâ, of the Universal Mind,
the creative energy from which all comes forth; and you may find in
yourselves, as you evolve, that creative faculty of imagination which,
working at present in subtle matter, will, when man is perfect, work in
grosser matter as well; for the imaginative power in man is the
reflection of the power that in God created the universe. Brahmâ
meditated, and all forms came forth; and in the creative power of mind
lies every possibility of form. So in man is later evolved the next
aspect, that of A'nanda, where unity is recognised instead of diversity.
Chit, in man, is the intelligence that _knows_, that separates and
divides and analyses, and it has to do with the multiplicity of forms
and with their inter-relations; A'nanda is the wisdom that realises the
unity of all things, and that accomplishes union, thus finding the joy
that lies at the very heart of life; last of all in human evolution, is
developed the third and highest aspect of Deity, Self-Existence, the
Unity that lies beyond union, and this can be developed in man only
because man is one with the Eternal in his nature. By this evolution, in
ages to come, through the countless kalpas that lie in front, Íshvara
after Íshvara arises, each as the fruitage of a universe, to carry on
still more mightily the will of the "One without a second," and to
manifest something of that perfection to the whole of the then
manifested nature. Such, very roughly, is the course of human evolution
into divinity, and this is carried on by races succeeding one another;
as we come to the higher Root-races of man, to those that we speak of as
the Fifth, in which we are, the Sixth, that shall succeed us, and the
Seventh that finishes this cycle of human evolution, we learn that the
characteristic of each of these three Root-races is that each gradually
develops that aspect of God which belongs to it in the due sequence of
evolution. The Fifth is developing the aspect of Chit, Intelligence, the
mind is being evolved, and all the progress of modern science, so marked
in our own days, is but part of the fruitage of that evolution, of that
growth of intelligence which looks on the outer world as not itself--as
the Not-Self--and seeks to study and understand it. The characteristic
attributes belonging to the evolution of the two following races are
even now to be reached by special methods, by individuals who are
willing to take the pains to make the required sacrifices. That which we
know as Yoga is the method by which evolution is quickened in the
individual, and all the powers of the Self, up to the threshold of
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