IT is important to understand very clearly what is the personal responsibility for the key to which the Self responds. When this is comprehended and kept in mind, the frequent objections to the public teaching of these Truths of Beingwhich hastens the evolution of the Soul as nothing else can and the periodical alarm cries concerning the dangers attending the practice of Yoga breathing exercises will entirely cease, for they will be recognized as baseless, the utterance either of ignorance or misdirected caution; both of which retard the advancement of the race.
In a very learned work, Phenomena in Spiritual Being, translated from the Tamil by Sri Râmanâthan, it is stated : ” Not until ` the day of the flesh ‘ the days during which love of sensuous enjoyment prevails has completely passed will Tirodhâna Shakti [veiling power] manifest Itself as Para Shakti” [all-illumining power]. But it depends upon ourselves upon our desires and the thoughts we permit to cherish and nourish these how long ” the day of the flesh ” shall endure !
Further, ’tis said: ” The Giver of all know-ledge, the great Teacher of the Universe, there-fore withholds knowledge till the time of maturity arrives “– Yes; but we hasten or retard that time by every thought and act ! To know the responsibility is to know the penalty for disregarding it. Evasion is utterly impossible. Here is the safe-guard against misuse of power.
In the Upanishads we read that the human body made by the gods (Sephiroth) is the divine lute; that made by man himself is an imitation of it. The fingers of the divine lute correspond with the strings of the man-made ; and we tighten or loosen them, we tune them to harmony or leave them to jangle ourselves. Discords are self-made.
Remember that the individual key and color depend upon the predominant sheaths, or Principles. While the strongest influence upon this is the composition of the Pranic currents at the hour of birth (that is, the exact hue or tint of the Hierarchy ruling the moment; the Tattvic state of the currents in the Hierarchy and flowing thence determining this), you have learned that the dominant thoughts of the mind and the consequent activities of the life have an overwhelming influence in modifying and changing these. There is no evil which has not its opposite good, and every key can be transmuted into good. Misuse and ignorance create all evil.
Irritability in the temperament makes a scarlet cloud in the Kâma rupa (frequently alluded to as the astral body) which is the plane of vivid emotions and passions; and every outburst of temper suffuses the whole sheath. When the tempest of passion dies away, the color fades out, but ever leaves a little more, a larger cloud of the passion-taint; and all the atoms of that Principle are more susceptible to greater heat and excitement upon the next occasion of loss of self-control. All actions, both good and bad, are thus received by the various vehicles and reflected in them, changing the hue of the color from moment to moment; and thus man forms his habits and from them builds his character; live, sentient atoms, pulsing with his thought, being the bricks and mortar of his structure.
Very fortunately the Causal body rejects all evil, which stamps itself only upon the lower and less permanent sheaths, the matter of which has greater affinity for evil. All good and uplifting influences are steadily stored up in the Causal body, making it stronger and more powerful to overcome, and thus the evolution of the soul goes on in spite of man’s waywardness.
So the tones and consequently the colors of the human lute are irrefutable manifestations of what the Self is making and moulding out of the opportunities of this life, for they indicate his varied states, physical, mental, and spiritual. Thus the tone- and color-body of man reflects the man him-self as in a mirror. This is the unvarying law of color, which ever and always betrays the media through which it flows, and the substance whence it emanates. And according to the prevalent color of the individual is that individual played upon and affected by the color in the external world; for color produces sound and sound produces color, the interaction of the two being invariable.
The quality of a Principle is, of course, conditioned by the elements which compose it, and these give it a distinguishing color. But the shade or hue and character and disposition depend much upon this is determined by the number of its atoms, not considered in multiple or quantity, but in grade from one to seven, degrees of subtlety or density; for every Principle has its septenary divisions of Tattvic permutations, and this varies the order of the colors. The physiological effect of the excess or deficiency of the normal color of a Principle is profound, and every disturbance of a Tattva causes exactly such disorder.
The difference in the effect of such disturbance upon different persons brings out in strong relief the planetary influences which determine temperament and characteristics; for every Principle, simply reflecting the power of its ruling Hierarchy and Tattva, which works always in the matter of that sheath, has its special seat of influence in the human body, and exactly according to the so-called accidents of birth ” (there is no ” chance,” all is the effect of a given cause), primarily is a man prone to disorders of the head or feet, the heart or lungs, the stomach or liver, etc. But all these so-called ” heriditary ” weaknesses can be overcome by healthful living and more healthful thinking; thought being preeminently the moulding power of evolution, as it was in the beginning of involution. Voltaire said, as the sum of forty years’ searching for truth: ” Chance is a word void of sense. The world is arranged according to mathematical laws.”
Every organ in the body is the center of a certain power, and it is upon the perfection of its function and the harmonious co-operation of all these powers, that the well-being and usefulness of the individual, his growth and development to high purpose, depends. We are held ” Under the Law ” (Karma) by evil, not by good. In the life of the spirit we are freed and make laws for ourselves. The purity of soul-vibrations soul-power applied to the regeneration of the body has power to expel many seemingly malignant disorders.
Two facts must ever be kept in mind: The duality in all existence, manifested and unmanifested, it is the coexistence of spirit-matter; and that all development proceeds primarily by the triadic process. According to the stage of the process, from the creation of a universe to the birth of a human being and the thoughts of his mind (upon which his evolution depends), the color corresponds with and indicates the period, in varying grades marking the ” critical ” state, or merging together of positive and negative phases which produce secondary colors, from red through yellow to blue. But, never forget, above these and penetrating and modifying all is a spiritual force, without which they could not exist, which emanates as violet and indigo, for these are its garments. This spirit-force, the lowest form of spirit, manifests on the material plane as electricity and magnetism, and is to be identified as a ray from “The Light of the Logos.” Akâsha, limiting its form, ” introducing the principle of division into the one,” says Mrs. Besant, ” veils the Light, and by limiting the ray, makes separation, where, essentially, separation there is none.”
It is these varying phases and Tattvic combinations in every Hierarchy, planet, element, and cor-responding human principle, that account for the discrepancies in the many schemes of correspondences between planets, Tattvas, elements, and Principles. The so-called ” secondary ” colors, which are ” critical ” states and triadic, are some-times called ” neutral points in progression, but they also have their dual phases; thus violet which comes forth from the mingling of positive red with negative blue, is the negative ” neutral,” and yellow, which occupies the middle ground between red and blue, is the positive ” neutral.” These two colors represent the corresponding phases of Mercury, and they are preeminent in the aura of an Adept during the state of Samâdhi when the Kundaliniopop has risen in the Sushumnâ. Violet really veils the heat and light of the spiritual flame, and derives its potency and delicacy from the exquisitely subtle refinement of this electric fire, which is beyond the comprehension of our finite senses.
It is ultra-violet, of course, to which this refers; but all violet is intrinsically the same in nature and in influence, though lowered in degree of power as it is coarsened in descent through lower octaves to visibility.
Mme. Blavatsky declares numbers in connection with Principles ” are purely arbitrary, changing with every school. Some count three, some four, some six, and some seven.” She further explains that they do not follow in regular sequence, and that every student is left by his Guru ” to work out for himself the number appropriate to each of his Principles.” In a certain sense this is true; yet there are correspondences of tone, color, and Principle which, however they may vary individually, are best comprehended by assuming a normal or-der.
If we hold in mind the fact that all evolution, all progression, is cyclic, or spiral, it will help to a clearer comprehension of some puzzling statements; for degree and number must depend upon the gradethe height on the spiral of the color and key.