IV. Arahat (the venerable, the perfect). On attaining this level the aspirant constantly enjoys the consciousness of the buddhic plane, and is able to use its powers and faculties while still in the physical body; and when he leaves that body in sleep or trance he passes at once into the unutterable glory of the nirvâṇic plane. In this stage the occultist must cast off the last remnants of the five remaining fetters, which are: 6. Rûparâga--desire for beauty of form or for physical existence in a form, even including that in the heaven-world. 7. Arûparâga--desire for formless life. 8. Mâno--pride. 9. Uddhachcha--agitation or irritability. 10. Avijjâ--ignorance. On this we may remark that the casting off of Rûparâga involves not only getting rid of desire for earthly life, however grand or noble that life may be, and astral or devachanic life, however glorious, but also of all liability to be unduly influenced or repelled by the external beauty or ugliness of any person or thing. Arûparâga--desire for life either in the highest and formless planes of the heaven-world or in the still more exalted buddhic plane--would be merely a higher and less sensual form of selfishness, and must be cast off just as much as the lower. Uddhachcha really means “liability to be disturbed in mind,” and a man who had finally cast off this fetter would be absolutely unruffled by anything whatever that might happen to him--perfectly impervious to any kind of attack upon his dignified serenity. The getting rid of ignorance of course implies the acquisition of perfect knowledge--practical omniscience as regards our planetary chain. When all the fetters are finally cast off the advancing ego reaches the fifth stage--the stage of full adeptship--and becomes V. Asekha, “the one who has no more to learn,” again as regards our planetary chain. It is quite impossible for us to realize at our present level what this attainment means. All the splendor of the nirvâṇic plane lies open before the waking eyes of the adept, while when he chooses to leave his body he has the power to enter upon something higher still--a plane which to us is the merest name. As Professor Rhys Davids explains, “He is now free from all sin; he sees and values all things in this life at their true value; all evil being rooted from his mind, he experiences only righteous desires for himself, and tender pity and regard and exalted love for others.”