English
They will be conscious and intelligent agents engaged in working out this design, and as regards their own ulterior progress they will themselves select from many various lines of ulterior evolution open to them, those along which they will best be able to con- duce to the complete fulfilment of even loftier designs than that with which our Manvantara is directly related, and may either continue to guide and direct the progress of the succeeding Manvantaras associated with this chain of existences, or may pass away into other regions of cosmic activity, already representative, as it were, of the final achievement to which this chain of Manvantaras is subservient, in connexion with still vaster processes lying within the immeasurable economy of Nature. Those who, while still belonging to the great three-fifths, have not at the close of this Manvantara actually attained the maximum perfection which lies within its possibilities, but are nevertheless in sight, as it were, of that perfection, will be the vanguard of human life in the next Manvantara when that has been prepared for their reception by the earlier activities of the less advanced two-fifths during the first three and a half of its rounds. As for the nature of the pro- gress on which they will then set out it is hardly necessary for us at this stage of our development to attempt any definite conception. One idea, however, should be borne in mind in con- nexion with all attempts to realise, however imperfectly, the colossal proportion and constitution of this system 320 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. to which we belong. We must not think of the worlds of the system as existing wholly and solely for the sake of the evolution of the human family, on which so far our attention has been chiefly concentrated. Just as the world around us is the theatre of a great many forms of physical life, destined perhaps in the progress of time to merge one into the other, but for the time being. on widely different levels, so the whole chain of worlds is the theatre of many evolutions which, during this Manvantara, are not destined to blend one into the other. There are more of such evolutions in progress around us, indeed, than Theosophical students can at present expect to know much about, but we know at all events something about some of them. There are some processes of evolution going forward which have to do entirely with elemental consciousness, not yet, so to speak, projected from the infinite far down enough into the possibilities of manifestation to have shared the lessons derivable from the school of physical exist- ence. At the other end of the scale, and transcending the conditions of our own life, we know something at all events of one great system of evolution which may distinctly be regarded as superior to that of humanity, although this earth is, to some extent, the fulcrum or a part of the fulcrum on which it rests. The great ‘“ Deva”’ evolution has to do with a vast field of con- sciousness that has, so to speak, got beyond the necessity of physical manifestation. On the whole scale of com- parison the earlier elemental evolutions just referred to may be thought of as belonging to the downward limb of a vast cyclic scale or series of evolutions. Humanity THE SYSTEM TO WHICH WE BELONG. 321 is still largely dependent for its growth on a physical fulcrum that would be at the turning point of such a scale. The Deva evolution is on the upward limb beyond it. For this Deva evolution, so far as we are able to appreciate its constitution at present, the whole seven chains of the solar system are the field of its activities. To the Deva evolution our planetary chain thus plays the same part that one globe of that chain plays to the human evolution. It would be futile and unnecessary here to attempt a more exact appreciation of the mighty ulterior design with which this lofty evolution is concerned, but it has seemed desirable to refer to it for two reasons; firstly, because within the various alternatives lying before those members of the human family who attain the summit levels of evolution during this Manvantara, one of the choices open to them has to do with this great evolution of which we speak. From the summit level of our progress we shall be enabled, if we think fit, to pass into the Deva evolu- tion, and thenceforward pursue its destinies. The second reason for mentioning it has to do with the great importance of always keeping before the mind the fact that humanity constitutes one wheel, as it were, in the stupendous mechanism of the whole cosmos, and is not by any means the vaison d’ etre of the under- taking. Crude conceptions concerning the place of humanity in the cosmos are apt to render people at the same time too humble and too arrogant concerning their place in Nature. Conventional teaching entirely underrates the dignity and splendour of the altitude to which it is possible for a human being to ascend, and 322 THE GROWTH OF. THE SOUL. very often as ludicrously misconceives the stupendous proportions of the cosmos, by regarding the interests of humanity as something like the sole concern of its presiding Divinity. With this very general sketch of the system to which we belong it will now be convenient to pass on to an explanation of the methods open to us for the ascent to its summit levels at an earlier period than that con- templated by the design of the scheme as a whole, and when we have realised more exactly the phases of spiritual achievement constituting the steps on the great path that leads to the highest attainable Adept- ship, we shall be in a better position to forecast with exactitude the ultimate stratification of the human family at the close of this Manvantara. THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. 323 CHAPTER XI. THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. WE should never have been in a position to acquire the knowledge we now possess of the great evolutionary schemes of this planetary system, had it not been possible for individual units of the human family to outstrip the normal course of evolution, and attain at a relatively early period the spiritual faculties belong- ing to the higher levels of progress to which the race, as a whole, can only ascend at a very remote period in the future. We must endeavour now to realise more clearly than before, what is meant by outstripping normal evolution, to work out in detail considerations which show that-.in doing this, those of us who may find it possible, are not setting the programme of normal evolution at defiance in any way, but, on the contrary, are endeavouring at the earliest possible moment to unite our individual efforts, however humble these may be in the beginning, with the purpose of nature on the grandest scale—to fulfil, so to speak, at the earliest possible moment as regards ourselves, the design which Providence has in view, and in doing this, to assist in the realisation of the whole programme as regards the majority in a way which really, when pro- perly understood, will be seen to enter into the normal 324 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL, scheme. For the teaching which enables those, who are properly qualified to appreciate it, to accelerate the course of their evolution, is really accessible to all alike, and though with each single item of humanity it is a matter of choice whether his forces are trained into the work of promoting the spiritual evolution of the whole, or exerted to put impediments in the way, it is mathematically certain that amongst the enormous multitude of individualities which constitute humanity, some will take the loftiest view of their destinies and opportunities, and will play that part in the whole undertaking which it is absolutely necessary that some should play in order that the undertaking may prosper. For a long time now, looking back on the course which human history has taken for the last few hundred thousand years, some few have appreciated their opportunities, have availed themselves of the interior enlightenment which their own aspirations attracted, and have worked their way upward until they have come to occupy a place in Nature from which the ordinary course of human evolution, as it has been traced in preceding chapters, may be looked down upon as from a height. The potentialities of human faculty are such that at certain stages of human progress, incarnate man becomes invested with a sight, with a prospective vision which ranges all through these planes of Nature on which normal evolution is being accom- plished, as the process has already been described, and, indeed, considerably beyond them to higher altitudes of spiritual condition, from which all the work that has been accomplished so far, can be surveyed as the glance THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. 325 is extended backward, and from which the future course and ultimate goal of human progress are no less plainly visible. Nothing concerning the past history of this earth, for example, not to speak of other globes con- nected with the planetary chain to which we belong, is obscure to the vision of a soul, whether in or out of the body, which can function on the Manasic plane, not to speak even of those still more exalted realms to which reference has just been made. There are methods by which it is possible so to stimulate spiritual growth, that incarnate inan is enabled to exercise vision even on these, and by degrees, as I have prepared the way for making the situation intelligible by other explana- tions, it will be possible to indicate with a considerable degree of exactitude, the manner in which such heights are reached, and to show some of the responsibilities which attach theinselves to the abnormal advancement in Nature thus accomplished.