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vol. title: vol. period: 1876-1878 pages in vol.: 247 |
< Wanted – Works on Spiritism (continued from page 4-86) >
would be useful to a large number of readers, if placed on the shelves of a public library. You, gentlemen, and my honored friend, Madame Blavatsky, have already made such offerings. Mr. Charles Partridge has kindly promised some of the early numbers of the Spiritual Telegraph, which are of great value on account of their rarity. Cahagnet's Celestial Telegraph, for instance, would be very acceptable, if any one would favor us with a copy; also De Gasparin's Spiritualism versus Science, Leger's Animal Magnetism, and any other rare works on this subject. Judge Edmonds's Sacred Circle is out of print, and we have at present only a lent copy, which must be returned ere long. We should also appreciate a complete file of R. P. Ambler's Spiritual periodical, and a work entitled The Little Bouquet.
If you find it within your discretion to insert these few lines in the Banner of Light, and should they meet with any response, I shall be happy to take charge of any donations so received (which you will perhaps first allow to be deposited at your office), and an official receipt will be forwarded to the donors from London, besides being acknowledged in the columns of The Spiritualist newspaper.
New York City, Oct. 17th, 1877.
The Spiritual State
There has been no end of creeds, no end of ethics. Metaphysics have been principally directed to the study of the mind, and except the Aryas and Greeks no other ancient nation has thrown light on the soul. The Aryas did not believe in vicarious salvation, but looked upon the soul as the connecting link between God and man. The Rishis thought of nothing but God and soul. Many of them were clairvoyants, possessed psychological powers, and could predict events. The Rájás made it a rule to retire and live in the jungle with their wives, after they were fifty years of age, for the purpose of attaining the spiritual state. The love of Socrates and Plato for the essence and spirit is admirable. Ours is a materialistic age. We prosecute the study of physical sciences; we think of what pays well, but not of what pays well eventually. Talk of Spiritualism, and the remark instantly made is, that it is a delusion—all bosh. What becomes of us? "Let us not try to lift the veil which cannot be lifted." "We have all we require in the Bible." The general disposition not to go beyond the limited horizon of the mind is very great; prejudices, idols and dogmas are all against the prosecution of inquiry. This is characteristic of the age, but the pure light of God in the soul cannot be kept pent up; this is evidenced by the present spiritual movement, which must prosper in spite of the opposition of learned divines and physicists.
To give some idea of the spiritual state as known to the Aryas, I subjoin extracts from certain works on Yoga and Bhágavat Gitá. I am anxious that the knowledge of this state should be widely known, that Spiritualism may be fully appreciated and valued. It is absolutely necessary for preparing us for the world of essence, where we cannot progress if we do not live here looking upon our spiritual existence and God from the light of our souls. All honor then to my most esteemed friend, Andrew Jackson Davis, and to all other Spiritualists. The reward for revealing the divine truth is in the soul itself.
"No direction of sight, no bondage of the soul, no limit to time and space, no impediment from the organic life, no labor in the concentration of attention, no effort in contemplation, in possession of the endless horizon, not wakeful, nor in profound sleep, no consciousness of existence, nor of death, no twinkling in the eye, no desiring, no breathing, like a lamp undisturbed by wind.
"The soul then shows full will, is free, and sees all the worlds.
"The absorption in God comes on after extinction of the external knowledge, or knowledge through the mind and its sensuous organs.
"Internal consciousness and external vision without the twinkling of the eye.
"He is the Yogee who sees without effort, whose lower life ceases without his will, and whose inner life flows spontaneously. He is above all emotions, and above wakeful and dreaming states."
"As long as the outer life exists, the soul is helpless."
"The spiritual state is the constant thinking of the soul and of the souls of others.
"It is ignorance that fetters the soul. Wisdom liberates it. The sentient soul lies in the outer life. The real is in the internal tranquil state. He who passes through varied states does not attain the spiritual condition, which consists in one unchangeable state, seeing God everywhere.
"The Yogee having forsaken the cares, lives in the essence. The Vedas are no Vedas—the real Veda is in fixing our mind on God.
"The Yogee is impervious to vice and virtue, and becomes God-like."
"Absorption in God means the same state in pain or pleasure, in ardent hope or disappointment.
"He who has no ill feeling toward benefactors, friend, enemy, hermits, those who are deserving of censure, relatives, saints and sinners, or, in other words, looks upon them equally, is a Yogee.
"He who, knowing his soul, looks upon all beings in the same light, and does not wish for any one's evil but happiness, is a Yogee. The Yoga state means the absorption of the mind in the soul, which, being developed, finds enjoyment only in itself."
The spiritual state is for the world of essences and spirits with which it is en rapport. Ecstasy and trance are mixed states of brain and soul. Somnambulism and clairvoyance are all included in the spiritual state, which has a perpetual clear vision of the past, present and future; and the more absorbed it is in God, the more elevated it is in the spirit-world. This is our accountability, this is our moral responsibility, this is our reward. May we all worship the Great Power "in truth and spirit," for his spiritual revelation to us. All other revelation based on mythic evidence, and partaking of sensuous conception, is the work of the mind, but not of the soul—the essence and mirror of God.
Calcutta, October 24th, 1877.
Isis Unveiled
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Editor's notes