English
Moreover, the comprehension of the way the great race evolution has been, and is going on during this world period, will connect itself in a peculiarly interesting way with the general comprehension of the whole structure of the system. On the planet Mars, where humanity was last incar- nated before the world period of the earth began, humanity already inhabited physical bodies, and was endowed with sufficient human intelligence to carry out architectural and engineering works under the guidance of teachers belonging to a superior evolution. On completing its cycle on that planet mankind began its existence on this, under conditions which can hardly be thought of as physical. ‘The vehicles of their con- sciousness were of ethereal matter, insusceptible to heat or cold, not yet subject to laws connected with waste and replenishment, which operate in connexion with the more compact organisms of our time. The first and second great root races were of this order; in the course of the third, the condensation of the 314 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. physical vehicle of human consciousness was accom- plished, in the fourth root race man was in the beginning considerably bulkier than at present, was already designed on the physical pattern we are acquainted with, and divided into two sexes. The course of evolu- tion through preceding rounds was thus recapitulated in the course of the present world period in a way which bears some analogy to that curious recapitulation of physical existence which goes on at the present day in connexion with the birth of every fresh physical creature, as students of embryology are well aware. It must not be supposed, however, that the whole human family of this scheme evolved during the first half of the present Manvantara on precisely the saine plan. Our last Manvantara, the third or Lunar Man- vantara, so called because the present moon was then the physical planet of the chain, did not bring forward any entities to levels which correspond to what we think of as humanity to-day, but it afforded some scope for individual progress, and thus left the family at its close, on various levels of advancement. The varied requirements of the situation were pro- vided for in this way: the most developed entities did not come into incarnation in the earlier rounds of the present Manvantara. These earlier rounds afforded an appropriate field of activity on lower levels of existence for the less developed entities, and while these were enjoying a fresh opportunity of accomplishing the evolution they failed to realise properly during their last Manvantara, the highly developed entities of that Manvantara were passing through periods of spiritual THE SYSTEM TO WHICH WE BELONG. 315 existence to which those on the lower levels had no access. These spiritual periods were in the nature of supplementary rounds. I do not mean that they followed the course of evolution round the various planets of the chain, but they occupied periods of time corresponding to the round periods. In all they were three in number, so that while the undeveloped entities of the last Manvantara were, so to speak, bringing the next into a condition which once more would afford them an opportunity of making progress beyond even the possibility of the last Manvantara, they were at the same time rendering it suitable for the occupation of their elder brethren who had not only attained to the maximum possibilities of the previous Manvantara, but had spent time corresponding to the three first rounds of the next, in conditions of existence involving definite spiritual progress. Thus only on the conclusion of the three spiritual periods did the. most advanced entities of the last Manvantara come into incarnation in this. In the techinical language of modern occult study the most advanced entities are spoken of as the first class Lunar Pitris. The phrase is perfectly intelligible and significant, when we bear in mind the fact that Pitri comes from the same root as Father, and simply signifies ancestor. As a physical planet the moon is now but the dead body of the planet which once bore the mighty life- wave of the human family. It has shrunk to relatively small proportions, for not only have its subtle principles been Re-incarnated in the earth, but a good deal of its physical matter has actually been withdrawn from it 316 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. to the body of its offspring. The process by which this result was accomplished has been already described. So then, the most advanced representatives of the whole human family came into incarnation in this Manvantara at the middle period, that is to say, during the present period of the world’s activity, in a condition which represents the maximum development possible during the Lunar Manvantara, plus the further progress accomplished during the three spiritual periods. Thus the two classes who have been in incarnation during the earlier rounds of this Manvantara, have had an opportunity by this time of rising to nearly the same development of evolution, but are still in the rear of the foremost class, which, as the whole body continues to progress, may be thought of as still leading the van, and representing in our own time all those who are the flower of our own age, who are the exponents of its most advanced intellectual capacity, and especiaily those who at the earliest possible moment in the life of the world show aptitudes for spiritual progress, and most readily assimilate such teaching concerning the higher destinies of man as are involved in the noblest religious conceptions—especially in the occult philosophy which unites these loftiest aspirations with definite knowledge concerning superphysical states of existence. Not only all those who at the earliest possible date emerge from the ruck of humanity, and taking full advantage of the guidance received from those of a superior evolution, pass upward into the ranks of Adeptship, but all those who are in any sense their pupils, besides all those whose intellectual and moral THE SYSTEM TO WHICH WE BELONG. 317 development is of a kind which will render them avail- able as occult pupils in the course of a few more incarna- tions, may be thought of as belonging to the class spoken of as the first of the Lunar Pitris. This state- ment must not be taken as implying that it is impossible for entities belonging to the second class to attain spiritual exaltation, but at the present stage of evolu- tion the great majority of those who get on to the high levels are of the first Pitri class. As the mighty force of evolution sweeps upward during the successive rounds of the Manvantara, great numbers of those belonging to the second class will gradually attain levels of spiritual growth, from which they also will be capable of taking short cuts towards the summit levels possible in this Manvantara, but the first class of the Lunar Pitris ought to attain these summit levels at periods far in advance of the Manvantara’s close. At that remote period in the future it will be theoretically possible that all members of the human family, whose differentiation into specific entities had been accom- plished during the Lunar Manvantara, will be able to attain the summit level. Those only for whom this progress would be hardly practical in the time are those who have only emerged as definite entities from the animal kingdom during the earlier rounds of this Manvantara. The probabilities are—and taking into account the enormous numbers with which we have to deal, probabilities in such a matter amount to some- thing like certainty, over the whole area considered— the probabilities are, that of the whole number of entities constituting the human family at this time, including 318 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. those who have emerged during the first half of the Manvantara from the animal kingdom as well as those who have distinct Pitri ancestry, three-fifths will arrive in some degree of appropriate advancement at what I have called the summit levels of the Manvantara. The other two-fifths will in the next Manvantara play a part somewhat similar to that assigned at the beginning of our own to the lower classes of the Lunar Pitris, and will begin their work at the beginning of that stupendous undertaking. Of the three-fifths, something like half will actually have achieved the maximum progress this Manvantara is designed to effect. That progress will put each of such beings in a position so far transcending the condi- tions of humanity around us at the present day, that if we compare them with the ordinary humanity they will seem fairly God-like in their knowledge and power and capacity for cosmic service. They will have attained to a full and complete appreciation of all the powers and forces and Divine purposes of which this chain of worlds has been the stage. For them the whole chain of worlds, not merely in their most material manifesta- tions, but in all their astral and spiritual aspects as well, will constitute an absolutely familiar field of operations. They will be functioning in full conscious- ness on planes of Nature which embrace all these worlds. Every globe of the chain will be as accessible to them as the different rooms of a house in which he lives may be accessible to a human being of the present ordinary type. Their moral evolution corresponding with the growth of their knowledge and power will THE SYSTEM TO WHICH WE BELONG. 319 have brought them into perfect harmony with the whole Divine design of which the Manvantara has been the expression.