Sree Krishna the Lord of Love

Transcriber's Note

This book was transcribed from scans of the original found at the Internet Archive. The page scans were done by Google. The original book used accents (á) but I have replaced these with macrons (ā) as this would be considered a more correct way to spell the names in question. Variant spellings in the text have been left alone.

SREE KRISHNA THE LORD OF LOVE PART I.

SREE KRISHNA

THE LORD OF LOVE

Bābā Premānand Bhārati

PUBLISHED BY

The Krishna Samāj

NEW YORK

BĀBĀ PREMĀNAND BHĀRATI

[Total number of pages 650]

S. L. PARSONS & CO., PRINTERS, NEW YORK

BRAHMĀNAND BHĀRATI

MY GOOROO

To Whom

My Soul Mind and Body

ARE

IRREVOCABLY SOLD

In Payment of

THE GRACE OF HIS ILLUMINATION

WHICH LIGHTED MY PATH

THE LOTUS FEET

KRISHNA MY BELOVED

PREFACE

I beg to present this my humble work to the English reader. It is the history of the Universe from its birth to its dissolution. I have explained the science of creation, its making and its mechanism. In doing so I have drawn my information from the recorded facts in the Sacred Books of the Root-Race of mankind. Some facts and explanations are herein furnished for the first time in any modern language. This book embodies true Hinduism.

If read with an open mind, it will serve the reader with illumination and solve many a riddle of life, untie many a tangle of thought. I have spoken throughout from out of the depths of the ages. I have thought absolutely in Sanscrit and expressed myself in English, an imperfect medium for expressing Sanscrit, ideas. My object has been to impress my readers with the substance of Hindoo thought in all its purity. This has not been done before even by Hindoo writers on Hindoo religion and philosophy. They have cared to humor the Western readers, by putting in a mixture of Western thought and dressing it up in Western ways of expression. I have not done so, because I know that in reading an Eastern book the Western mind wants purely Eastern thought in pure Eastern dress.

This will afford all soul-hungry readers with enough healthy food and drink. The first part of the book contains the food, the Kernel of the Soul-cocoanut; the second part, its Sweet Milk. The third part is from Krishna Himself. It is the purest Nectar of Spiritual Love. Let the reader open his heart to it, and I am sure it will fill it with ecstasy. The soulful reader will thrill with the joyous vibrations of every sentence of the "Messages and Revelations."

The belief that our life begins with the birth of this physical body and ends with its death is the worst superstition, because it is the worst obstacle in the way of our soul's unfoldment. This life has sprung from Eternity; it draws its breath in Eternity, and is finally absorbed by Eternity which is Absolute Love. To know that we, human beings, were never blessed with greater powers than we possess in this age is the saddest of mistakes. To believe that we were once as great and powerful as divine beings and that we can recover that greatness and those powers, is to believe in the actual potentialities of the human mind. This life can be made one long ecstatic song; this life can, if we take the trouble to make it, be made the source of joy to ourselves as well as to all around us forever and ever; it can even attain to the Essence of Godhood, from which it has sprung, by developing uninterrupted God-Consciousness.

We all are idolators. Some of us worship idols of Divinity, others worship idols of Matter. Some of us worship the Spirit through suggestive signs and symbols, others worship Flesh, mere forms of animated flesh. Since our mind wants idols for worship, just as our body wants food for sustenance, let us all worship idols of Spirit in Form. Through its concrete Form-Centre we can enter into the Abstract Spirit of Love—Love which is our one object and goal in life. This Love is Krishna and the universe and we, its parts, are the materialized manifestation of that Love.

PREMĀNAND BHĀRATI.

The Alpine, 55 West 33d Street,

New York, July 7, 1904.

INTRODUCTORY.

LIFE'S SOURCE AND SEARCH.

Beloved! I wish to call you "my beloved," whoever you are who have taken up this my love-message to read, for you are the beloved of my Beloved—Krishna. I may not know you, nor you me, and yet we have been together times without number: yet we have loved each other with the truest, the purest, the sweetest love again and again, when we lived in Love, when we had our being in the Ocean of Love, when we were awake in the consciousness of the One Essence which ever pervades us all—Love.

Beloved! That state, that realm, in which we lived and knew and loved each other, we have forgotten, and this forgetfulness is the cause of our separateness, our non-recognition, our want of sympathy, our troubles and quarrels. Going into the depth of Silence—Silence within and without us—I have discovered its Secret which is also the Secret of our forgotten Love-Existence. And this my message to you is the revelation of that mystery which our strayed soul is trying to solve through every effort of the life we are living now.

Beloved! I humbly lay before you this message to read—to help you to recognize your true self, to help you to find your true goal in this life's race. This message is a magic mirror in which, maybe, you will catch the reflection of your soul's All-Beautiful Image.

You are now engaged, my beloved, in reading this message with the same object for which every one of us is just now engaged in doing various things. It is life's one common object for us all—Pleasure. That is the one all-absorbing quest of humanity, nay, of all living creatures, of all creation. We are ever striving, all of us, every minute, to find that one blessing which ever eludes our grasp, ever misses our ken, ever deludes us like the will-o'-the-wisp—the one object of our desire, of predominant, spontaneous, practical, natural interest—Unmixed, Unbroken Happiness.

Not only is this quest for happiness ever present within mankind, but also in lower animals, and even in every phase of Nature, more or less pronounced or discernible. Every manifestation of Nature, man or beast, bird or tree or plant, is ever endeavoring to adjust a state of internal disorder and disturbance—I mean ever endeavoring to bring about a sense or instinct of that harmonious equilibrium, which we call Full Satisfaction, Complete Contentment, Absolute Happiness.

Now the question may be asked: Why is this universal quest for happiness? How is it that every man or woman or child is every minute seeking some sort of happiness or other? The Hindoo sages have answered this question to the satisfaction of all intelligent human beings. Why is this eternal search for happiness?

That answer is: Because the whole universe, of which we are parts, has come out of that Eternal Abode of Happiness, called Bliss, where it had dwelt before creation, like a tree in a seed, and the memory of which dwells still in the inner consciousness of all created beings, though it has dropped out of their outer consciousness.

That abode of happiness is called the Abode of Absolute Love; the Hindoo calls it Krishna. The word Krishna, in Sanscrit, comes from the root "karsha"—to draw. Krishna means that which draws us to Itself; and what in the world draws us all more powerfully than Love? It is the "gravitation" of the modern scientist. It is the one source and substance of all magnetism, of all attraction; and when that love is absolutely pure, its power to draw is absolute, too.

In seeking even material Pleasure or happiness through life we are ever seeking this Absolute Bliss, only most of us do not know it. The man who devotes his heart and soul to acquiring wealth is, in fact, but striving to attain this blissful state. For what does the would-be millionaire work to make the million but to secure pleasure, the pleasure of good eating, good drinking, good living, good enjoyment—to be happy? He makes the million; but the happiness which he secures, by securing the means of pleasure and by enjoying the pleasures themselves, is not complete. He still feels some void in that happiness, something still wanting in those pleasures to make him fully happy. He therefore piles up more millions, he plunges into newer pleasures, he leaves no stone unturned to find the material objects which will add to his pleasure; and when he has secured all these objects and enjoyed them, he finds himself exactly at the same place where he was before—there is something still wanting to make him completely happy. Finding no newer objects which are likely to add to his happiness, he occupies himself by enjoying what he has already enjoyed over and over again; that is to say, he goes over again the same round of pleasures to delude himself into the belief that that is the best happiness allowed to mortal man.

But the delusion is temporary and far from complete. The longing, the search for something still wanting, is present all through that delusion—something unknown, but which he thinks he might know and recognize, if he once found it. But, alas, he does not!

Poor Man! He does not know the secret of true happiness, the happiness which is complete in itself, which never ends, which, once secured, never falls short or vanishes, which flows from within the heart through all the channels of the body, out through the pores of it in a continual stream of ecstasy. He does not know that this thing, this unending happiness, is not to be found in material objects; that it cannot be secured by the means or by the instincts of the physical senses, which cognize only material objects.

And why? Why is it that material objects fail to give us that true and absolute happiness, fail to satisfy the hunger of the yearning human heart for that unknown something which it feels somehow must exist, but which ever eludes its ken and quest, and which, alas! it does not realize that it once knew, that it once owned by right of heritage?

The answer is simple, and ought to be convincing to every thoughtful mind. The answer is: Because material objects are changeful in their nature and principle; because, being nothing but forms of changefulness, they do not possess this permanent, this unchangeable happiness, to give it to those who seek to derive it from them. An object whose very principle is changefulness can afford nothing which is not changeful in its nature. All the pleasures, therefore, that we derive from material objects must necessarily be changeful, which means short-lived, pleasures of short duration, broken pleasure, distinguished by the Hindoos from unbroken pleasure, which, because of its unbrokenness and ecstatic taste, ceases to be called pleasure and assumes the name of Bliss.

The question now arises, where is this true happiness to be found, if it cannot be found in material objects? Some modern scientists call this unbroken happiness a delusion and a snare of credulous humanity. Modern science has done much, has done wonders in this Western world. None but a fool will deny the glory of its brilliant achievements. But even among those who admire the wonderful progress of modern science, if there be one who fails to find anything in these products of science which is in any way likely to contribute towards the attainment of contentment by the human mind, that person need not necessarily be a fool. Modern science has excited our wonder, but has failed to make us either contented or happy—contentment and happiness, which are our eternal quest, the one object of our life, the one goal to which all creation is running in a blindfolded race. It should rather be claimed for modern science that it has made its followers outward-looking. It has produced conveniences and comforts of life, which have made all people hanker for them; and many, failing to secure them, make themselves discontented and unhappy. Modern science, in a word, has served only to put obstacles in the way of our attempt to realize that one object of our existence—contentment, which affords true happiness.

This leads me to repeat what I have just said, that no true or all-satisfying permanent happiness can be found in material objects, and hence the failure of material scientists to make humanity either contented or happy.

Where is, then, this happiness to be found?

The answer is: Within ourselves. It cannot be found in anything outside of ourselves. This continual stream of happiness is flowing at all times from our heart of hearts all through our body, but we cannot perceive it, or feel it, because our mind has been covered by the clouds formed out of our hankerings for material objects. Our desire for material pleasures is the only veil that shrouds this fountain of true happiness from our mental vision.

But if our desires for material enjoyments be carefully and intelligently analyzed, we can arrive at only one conclusion, and that is that in hankering for material pleasures we are in fact practically hunting for that happiness which, once attained, is ever full, ever satisfying; which, once enjoyed, lays all hankerings for material enjoyments forever at rest. The fact of our material possessions and enjoyments ever leaving within us a wish, more or less pronounced, for something still more enjoyable, still more pleasurable, is the most indirectly direct proof that we are in quest of something which material objects cannot supply; and the fact of this quest being present in all human souls, in all their thoughts and actions at all times forces us to the irresistible conclusion that we once knew or had a taste of the thing we all are eternally searching for; and that, having lost it, we are ever endeavoring to regain it, its absence having rendered us as unhappy and restless as a fish out of its element.

This lost object, this once enjoyed state of the human soul, now absent but ever longed for, is—Krishna.

It is Krishna—Perfect State of Love or Bliss—that is ever drawing us to Itself. This Krishna was once our home, when this creation, of which we form but atoms, slept for aeons unnumbered in the bosom of Krishna, forming but a part of His will. When those unnumbered aeons were numbered, after these atoms of creation had slept for enough time to rest themselves in that bosom of Absolute Bliss, they were thrust out of that realm into space, to form a universe.

They first manifested themselves as Universal Consciousness, which, wanting to be conscious of something, developed into Ego, and Ego developed into the Mind, as no Ego is possible without the faculty of thought, which is the Mind's function. And as thoughts are not possible without objects to think upon, the five fine objects, namely: Sound, Touch, Form, Taste and Smell, came into existence, along with their gross counterparts and compounds, I mean the five elements, namely, Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth; while the Mind's channels of communication with these fine and gross forms of matter were developed simultaneously, namely, the five Cognizing Senses: Power of Seeing, (eye), Power of Hearing (ear), Power of Smelling (nose), Power of Tasting (tongue), Power of Feeling (skin), with the five Working Senses, namely, Power of Speaking (vocal organs), Power of Holding (hands), Power of Moving (feet). Power of Excreting and Power of Generating.

Thus from Krishna to earth, Krishna's Will took twenty-four steps to assume the form of the universe, and myriad steps more to divide the universe into earth, heaven, stars, planets, sun and moon, man and beast and bird; trees and shrubs and grass; mountains and rivers, which go to make it up.

But every particle of this cosmos is conscious, directly or indirectly, in every point, of the home that it has left, the absolute state of Bliss it once has soaked in, the incomparable nectar which it has once tasted. Yes, that memory endures; the memory of that Love Absolute is the cause of all discontent, of all dissatisfaction, of all strife and effort, of all ambition and achievement. It is the cause as well of every philosophy and transcendental thought, of moral and spiritual uplifting, and of developing the human into the Divine.

From Krishna have we all come and Krishnaward are we all tending. And all our actions, good, bad or indifferent, are but the feeble steps with which we are all endeavoring to cover the journey back to Krishna—our Home, Sweet Home!—our ever-loved Home, from which we have come away as sorry truants and to which the needle of our soul ever trembles, pointing to us the forgotten path, by which we fled from and by which we are again to return to that Home—Sree Krishna!

GOD IS FORMLESS AND HAS A FORM.

Thus Krishna is the object we are all seeking through every wish and every act; every moment of our existence we are seeking Krishna. He is the interest which makes life interesting, the one interest which makes life worth living. He is the element of sweetness in the grossest pleasure. He is the highest beatitude which the purest souls attain to. The lover of good eating cannot keep on eating forever to sustain the pleasure that good eating produces; if he did, he would die. The sensation of eating endures as long as the food is on the palate; but the mind alone is the enjoyer of that sensation. The mind alone, likewise, enjoys the pleasure of intoxication, which the dryest and highest priced champagne can afford. A little while and the pleasure of the daintiest of food and the most delicious of drinks is over, giving place to the pain of its loss and the restlessness in the search again for such pleasure!

The man who has solved the mystery of true pleasure that needs no re-eating and re-drinking to keep itself up, does not seek to find it in any food, or in any drink, or in any form or means of material enjoyments, knowing that it is the mind alone, affected by material objects, that cognizes pleasure or pain. The pleasure or pain which the mind feels on being brought into contact with the thought or influence of material objects is derived from those objects themselves; and so long as the mind is habituated to draw pleasure from such objects it cannot but come in for some sorrow, too, for objective pleasure is short-lived, and its cessation is sorrow in the least pronounced sense.

But we all want only pleasure or happiness; we hate pain or sorrow in any shape. If that is true, and nobody can say it is not, then what we practically want is eternal, unending pleasure; but we seek to find it in objects whose very constituents partake of changeful materials born more of pain than of pleasure.

If we can make the mind dwell upon some object which is eternally lovely and lovable, nay, even if we can imagine such an object, mentally create such an ideal object, and concentrate our mind exclusively upon it, then we can have a taste of that unending happiness which we all are seeking in vain to find in material objects. Then, dwelling on this Changeless Idea, the restless mind becomes fixed and calm; and calmness of mind being happiness, the mind is thus made happy by itself. Then it has known that happiness lies within itself, and within means independent of any concern with outside objects; then it finds that the coarsest meal gives as much pleasure as the daintiest of dinners, and that Adam's Ale is a more delicious drink than the highest-priced champagne. It has then learned to drink the champagne of the soul, the least taste of which makes one think the taste of the most delicious wine and food to be all tasteless.

But from such transcendental nonsense, as the materialist would call it, let us come down for awhile to analyze matter, the God of the materialist. Let us for awhile examine the making and the mechanism of the universe, and try to trace in the grossest matter the existence of this Perfect Love or Happiness.

I have already told you of the making of the universe, that it is made up of twenty-four principles; namely, Love, Universal Consciousness, Ego, Mind, the Ten Senses, the Five Objects and the Five Elements. I have also told you very briefly the process of creation from Love to earth. I need now tell you that every succeeding principle, as it is developed, contains the preceding principle or principles. A grain or earth therefore is as good as the whole universe in regard to its composition. There is but this difference between the universe and an atom of it, that in the universe all the passages of its twenty-four principles are fully opened, while in the atom all these passages are closed. But motion is the principal law of creation, of all creation, as every particle of it is ever moving in the form of change. The atom of earth, which is the smallest form of moving manifestation of Love through finer and grosser matter, moves backward now through grosser and then through finer forms of love-manifestations into the Ocean of Love again, from which it had originally started.

The process of this backward motion of material atom is the opening of the passages of its composing principles through repeated reincarnations. To develop from a grain of earth into a blade of grass is the first step, in which only one passage, that of Feeling, is opened. The blade of grass draws by the opening of this passage juice from the earth for its sustenance. Upward through myriad forms of life—shrubs, plants, vegetables, trees, lower animals, etc.—that atom travels, to develop into the first savage man, in whom the principle called Mind is for the first time opened, and along with it are opened the passages of Ego and Intelligence (called Intellect in individual souls); for all these three principles are close co-workers.

The most important stage of evolution is man himself, for in man alone are the passages of all these twenty-four principles more or less open. And hence it is that man is called the miniature universe. From savage man to civilized man, from civilized man to religious man, from religious man to spiritual man, from spiritual man to perfect, all loveful man, the process involves again innumerable incarnations. It is the perfect, all-loveful man, that reaches the original starting point and merges in the Ocean of Love called Krishna.

I am now about to put before you a proposition which at first sight may perhaps shock you; but I assure you that, if you can manage to get over the first shock, by the aid of an open mind and calm consideration, you may find that proposition to contain the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. My proposition is this: If this "formful" universe—if that word may be allowed—formful in every detail, has come out of God, or Krishna, or Love, can it be possible that that Source of the universe is perfectly formless? If formless, whence have these form-manifestations of that formless Deity come? How can forms come out of anything void of all forms? That is a hard nut to crack for Western theologians; while material scientists do not care to call that a nut at all, for they have learned to see nothing beyond matter.

I want you to think over this question with a view to draw the right deduction. Meanwhile, I beg to submit a few suggestions which may be of help in drawing these deductions. Forms coming out of anything formless is as absurd to common sense as it is to higher, otherwise called divine, or spiritual science. Therefore the producing cause of the universe, the first principle, is not formless, but has a Form. It has even a form like the form of a man, a form most perfect in every feature, a form of which the most exquisitely beautiful and divine human form is but a coarse, crude counterpart. Man has been made after the image of his Maker, says the Bible. The idea has been borrowed from the Hindoo scriptures, which in their principles are nothing if not scientific in propounding principles.

The Veda says that the Supreme Deity is both formless and with form at the same time. Just as the sun in its orb is the concrete centre of its abstract, infinite self in its manifestation of light and heat, so is the Supreme Deity, of which the sun is but a physical reflection, the Concrete Centre of His Abstract Infinite Self of His Effulgence, called Love, which pervades the whole universe and all space, as the basic principle of all Existence.

As the sun (the orb) taken together with its light and heat should be called the sun, and not the mere orb should be called the sun; so Krishna, the Supreme Deity, should be taken together with His Central Form and His All-Pervading Effulgence— Love—to be called Krishna. It will be as wrong to regard the orb only as the sun, that is, the orb minus its effulgence and heat, to be the sun, as to regard this Form of Krishna (the Centre of Himself) minus the effulgence—all-pervading Love—to be Krishna. Thus Krishna, like His physical light-reflection, the sun, is Infinite, even though He has a finite-looking Form-Centre.

The fear entertained by most people in the West, that the form carries with it an idea of finiteness, is not true in regard to Krishna's Form. Not only is Krishna Infinite in His effulgence, but the Image of his Central Form dwells in every particle of that effulgence, called Love. Besides, nothing in this universe is finite.

I shall, in succeeding pages, try to prove to you the fact that the Supreme Being has a concrete-looking Form-Centre, for two reasons. One is to support the proposition that no form can come out of anything formless, and the other is that all forms in creation, from a blade of grass to a divine man, are more or less imperfect manifestations of the Central Form from which they have sprung. From the blade of grass upward, the process of evolution discovers more and more outward resemblance and inward affinity to the Form and attributes of the Author of the universe. Hence it is true that man is made in the Image of his Maker.

In the upward evolution of the man-form, the refinement of mental, moral, intellectual and spiritual attributes contributes more and more towards the man-form being made a more and more perfect image of his Maker, both externally and internally.

Krishna in Form and in Love-Effulgence is present as much in a grain of earth, in a blade of grass, in a beast, as in man. Only that Form is more or less covered in the lower life-forms, on account of many of the composing principles of their bodies being unopened; while in the man, all the principles being opened, the man-form looks more like the form of God. Some people refuse to believe that the Supreme Deity has a form like that of man, because God, with a human form would be lowered in their estimation. These devout people forget that the human form is but an imperfect picture of God's form, instead of God's form being a copy of the human form. So God need not take the trouble of assuming an imperfect reflection of His own Perfect Form.

Dear Reader! Some of you may say that it is foolishness and temerity on my part to try to prove that God has a Form before people who are in the vanguard of civilization, and many of whom think that the very idea of God is but a diseased fancy of weak humanity. Yet, for all that, I do preach a Form-God along with a Formless God with all the boldness my ancient, truly scientific conviction commands, because that boldness is backed by truth, the only Truth.

You here in this country are all of you great lovers and admirers of science; you want everything to be scientific in order to be acceptable. The food you eat, the air you breathe, the medicine you use, must be scientifically supplied and applied. But if you want science in everything, why do you not demand science in religion? Why is your religion so unscientific? Forms coming out of a formless God is the most unscientific assertion imaginable.

The root of this belief in forms coming out of the formless is buried in the conceit which the new civilization has developed in its average votary. People here do not care to bow in reverence to anything that has a form, hence is a formless Deity so readily believed in. If God had a form, they say, He would be human, and therefore not worth worshiping. Nor do they believe in making an image of God or bowing to it. They will bow to man; they will idolize man, but not God. Every man here idolizes his lady-love, and every lady idolizes her lover, with more or less abject worship. They will worship the picture of a lover or a lady-love day and night, but they will not worship the image of God, even in a picture. They will pay homage to a moving form of Wealth or Physical Beauty or Sensuality, but hate to think of, much less worship, an Image of God. They are worse idolaters than the Hindoos whom they affect to hate as "heathens." They worship idols of money and human flesh; the Hindoos worship idols of God. They worship material forms of mere matter; the Hindoos worship Sanctified Forms of the Divine Spirit or Its Attributes. Let them raise their standards of idol-worship first in order to be worthy to talk of the purely transcendental idolatry of the Hindoos.

The Hindoos rarely paint a picture or carve an image of a human being; a human being is not worthy of it, except a Saint or a Gooroo (spiritual guide); but they paint their God and make His Image, and worship it with all internal and external homage.

We are all denounced as idolaters; but we are idolaters to-day, in spite of all the influence of civilization and Christian bigotry brought to bear upon us, as good idolaters today as we were ten thousand years ago. The idols and idolatry of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt have been swept away; but the idols of the Hindoo-God still flourish and will flourish to the end of time, as they flourished time out of mind.

What is the reason? Whence is this extraordinary vitality of Hindoo idolatry? Because it is not idolatry in the sense it is understood by "civilized" Westerners. We worship the images of the attribute-manifestations of the ONE God, of the ONE Deity, of the ONE Supreme Being, who pervades the universe, who originally is with Form and Formless at the same time. We worship Krishna, above all, in His Image as He manifested Himself and walked on earth among men 5,000 years ago; Krishna, whose miraculous deeds of love, power and valor no incarnation, either in the West or in the East, ever could enact or even imitate, before His time or even after His ascension to Heaven, up to to-day. We love this Krishna, the Seed and Soul of the Universe, the Basic Principle of creation; we believe in Him and in the potency of His Name.

Love Him, dear Reader, because He loves you more than anyone you meet here on earth.

My Krishna bless you all!

Contents

[SREE KRISHNA THE LORD OF LOVE PART I.]
[SREE KRISHNA THE LORD OF LOVE PART II.]
[Messages and Revelations from Sree Krishna]

SECTION I. THE CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT GOD.

See you that sun, Beloved Reader, shining radiant in the blue space above? Ancients worshipped it as a god, and the Hindoos, the most ancient of all peoples, worship the sun as a god still. With joined hands filled with flowers and water and trembling with homage, the Hindoos daily pray to this "Outer Eye of the Deity," this parent of all light and Nature. "O Thou Parent of the Three Worlds! I meditate upon thy power divine which directs my intelligence!" prays the Brāhman morning, noon and evening, as he bows in all reverence.

This sun is the physical expression of the Spiritual Sun, Krishna. As the sun (the orb) is the concrete centre of its abstract self, in its diffused manifestation of light and heat which pervades the universe, so this, the Spiritual Sun, Krishna, the Source of the sun, is the concrete centre of the diffused effulgence of His Body which pervades even the sunlight and its heat. Krishna has a Form, a Form of which the most exquisite human form is but a crude counterpart. The effulgence of Krishna's Body is the substance of all space and creation. This Effulgence-Krishna, with Form-Krishna for its centre, from which it radiates—is Love.

As the physical sun's effulgence embodies or is co-existent with heat, so the Spiritual Sun's effulgence embodies and is co-existent with Intelligence. This co-existent Absolute Love and Absolute Intelligence forms the Being of this Creation. Krishna is, therefore, called the embodiment of Being, Intelligence and Bliss, or Life, Truth and Love. Every particle of this radiance of Krishna's Form-Body is not only instinct with these three attributes in one, but has within it the germ of Krishna's Form and Power.

The belief that the First Cause of the universe has no form, is based partly on error of its conception and upon ignorance of the laws of Nature. It is a delusion to think that all forms are human, material, and finite, and that to acknowledge that this Supreme Being has a form is to take away from Him His absolute divinity, spirituality and infinity.

That which is not in the seed cannot appear in the tree which comes out of it, says an aphorism of the Vedānta philosophy. This being an undeniable truth, even from a common sense standpoint, it may be asked: If God is formless, and if that formless, abstract God be the source from which the universe has come, then how can that creation contain any form? If man's creator is formless, to put the question in another way, wherefrom has He His form? If God has no form, then He can have no idea of form, and having no idea of form, how can He then create form, for creation is but expansion of Idea.

Creation has sprung from God's will, says the Holy Bible, as also the Veda. These tell us—and both the Christians and the Hindoos are agreed on this point—that God has a Will. What is will? It is but the function or attribute of the mind. Just as where there is no fire there can be no smoke, so where there is no mind there can be no will. Once we admit that God has a will, we cannot escape admitting that He has a mind, the function of which—will—He exercised in order to create the universe.

Now then, it being established that God has a mind, the question may be asked: Is that mind encased in a body? If so, what sort of a body is it? Is it physical; that is to say, is it formed of the same material of which the human body is made? Or is it a body made of abstract spirit? This is not possible, for mind is defined by the Vedas to be that principle within us which has the power of willing and non-willing. Scientists and modern philosophers define mind with practically the same purport. This vibration of the mind, willing and non-willing, is brought about or induced by the reflections cast upon if by external or internal objects, through its channels of communication, the five cognizing senses, the physical counterparts of which are the Eye, the Ear, the Nose, the Palate and the Skin, which cognize respectively Form, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch, under which five heads the Vedas have classified all forms of matter or objects. A mind without these five channels cannot exist, for, having no channels, it receives no impressions of objects, and has therefore no chance of either willing or non-willing, which is its attribute and its only substance and composition.

Once we acknowledge that God has a mind, we cannot help acknowledging these channels of that mind, the five senses. God has therefore not only a mind, but the Power of Seeing (eye), the Power of Hearing (ear), the Power of Smelling (nose), the Power of Tasting (palate), and the Power of Feeling (skin). The mind has also five other powers called its working senses; viz., the Power of Speaking, the Power of Holding, the Power of Moving, the Power of Excreting and the Power of Generating, otherwise called the vocal organs, the hands, the feet, the excretory organ and the generating organ. Thus God, possessing a mind, is bound to possess the ten senses, without which the mind cannot act, and inaction of the mind is its destruction or non-existence. God, having a mind, has to have an Ego, too, for mind is but a product or channel of the Ego, which means I-ness or Self-Consciousness. So that God has all the principles of which man is formed, once it is admitted that God has a mind. And there is no sane man who can deny to God the possession of a mind of which the universe is the design and creation of which man is but a tiny part.

The Christian Bible says that God has made man in His own image, which means that man is the reflection, more or less imperfect, of God. Is it then possible that what is not in the original is present in the reflection? If the human soul, according to this scriptural saying, is a reflection (image) of the Deity, has not that Deity a mind and body, as Its reflection, the human soul, has?

The answer is: It has, only the Divine Mind, being consummately pure in its state and perfect in its working, is absolutely powerful to create, preserve and destroy; and the Body in which the Divine Mind is encased is composed of a substance not of any material make.

But what does this Body of God look like? Is it like a human body? The answer is: Yes, but of a perfection of shape, symmetry and beauty, with which no human body can be compared; it is the Original Body, of which the human body is a poor imitation.

The question will be asked: Has God then as good a finite body as any of us? The answer is; NO, in capital letters. God's Body is no more finite than the human body is. There is nothing in Nature which is finite, not even a blade of grass, or the tiniest speck of earth.

All is infinite—all that you see around you, or perceive within you. There is no such word as finite in the dictionary of Nature, in the lexicon of Creation. All, all that looks ever so small and circumscribed to the fleshly eye of ignorance, is vast and endless to the eye of spiritual wisdom. All that to the physical sight is limited in shape and life is before the vision of the soulful student of Creation's mysterious laws limitless beyond grasp.

Take a grain of earth, and try to trace its origin by the light of the discoveries made by sages who probed into the inmost depths of Nature with the needle of pure spiritual concentration, and you will find that that grain of earth has sprung from Water, Water from Fire, Fire from Air, Air from Ether, and Ether from Sound, Sound from Mind in its effort to cognize outside of it objects projecting from within itself, Mind from Ego, Ego from Consciousness, and Consciousness from the Infinite Love-ocean, the basic principle of Creation.

Can you call this grain of earth finite by any means or chance, especially when you come to know the mysterious laws by which that grain of earth develops into a blade of grass, and then, through myriads of reincarnations of different life-forms, goes back and merges into the Ocean of Love, from which it had originally sprung?

From Love to earth and from earth to Love, thus is made up the circle of creation, and every point in its circumference is but a moving phase of the Infinite in manifestation, Man being but a stage in the upward evolution of the atom or a particle of earth, and his soul being a part of the Universal Soul—a wavelet of the Love-Ocean—he is as immense in every way as the universe itself, as infinite as the Essense of Infinity. His form is but the centre of his abstract Self, called Soul. This form is concrete-looking, but it is so only to the circumscribed vision of the fleshly eye of ignorance.

The body of the Supreme Deity, Krishna's Body, is concrete-looking like man's, but infinite in the expansion of its Radiance or Real Self, just as, to repeat the simile, the orb of the sun is the concrete-looking centre of its abstract Self in the manifestation of its light and heat. The orb, its radiance and its heat must altogether be called the sun, and not the orb alone. Krishna, the spiritual Soul of the sun as well as of the Universe, has likewise a Form-centre, from which radiates to limitless Infinity His effulgence called Absolute Love, which pervades all creation and space.

This body of Krishna, the Parent Cause of the universe, is made up of concentrated Absolute Love, and is the Home of the Very Finest Ideas (potencies) of the sense-principles and the Ego, Mind and Intellect, which form the main factors of Creation.

The Beauty of the Body of Krishna changes, like the shifting colors in a kaleidoscope, into more and more soul-entrancing loveliness at every second, for it reflects the concentrated Beauty and Sweetness of the whole universe, charms warring with charms for supremacy—bubbling foam and froth of the Sweetness of the Nectar of Love.

SECTION II. THE SCIENCE OF CREATION.

It is an intelligent conclusion to draw that the imperfect form-creations of the Creator reach a perfect stage, or centre, towards which all imperfections converge in order to reach perfection. That centre does exist, that stage is the stage by the standard of which all imperfections of things and phases in Nature are known and judged. That centre is the Supreme God Himself—Krishna.

Krishna, both Concrete and Abstract, has three main spiritual attributes: Love, Intelligence and Life. Love is the first attribute and the cause of the two others. As the sun (the orb) and its effulgence, to once more repeat the analogy, are one and the same thing, as the flame and its light are one and the same thing, as without the sun there can be no sunshine, as without the flame there can be no light; in other words, as light is inseparable from both the sun and the flame, so Krishna, though He has a form as finite-looking as a human form, is not only infinite in His All-pervading Radiance, but that Radiance is inseparable from his finite-looking Form-Centre. As sunshine, again, is inseparable from heat, so the effulgence of Krishna's Central Self is inseparable from Intelligence. This Universal All-pervading Intelligence, again, is inseparable from Existence or Being, otherwise called Life. These three Absolute Spiritual Attributes form Krishna's body, both Concrete and Abstract.

Thus both the Concrete and the Abstract Krishna are the embodiment of Bliss, Intelligence and Being, which are co-existent and inter-penetrating. Before Creation, then, there was nothing but this Krishna—the three Absolute Spiritual Attributes in one substance, so to speak; for Krishna or Para-Brahm cannot be called substance, and yet there is no word to indicate it. As mosses formed out of water float on the surface of that water, soaking in it, so does Creation, springing out of this Bliss, Intelligence and Being (the All-pervading Abstract Self of Krishna), float, soaking in it.

Let us try to understand the mystery of the birth of this ever-changeful, material Creation from its eternally Unchangeable Parent, the Concrete and Infinite Krishna. I have already said how every atom of this Creation is composed of all the twenty-four principles, and how in its backward motion to return to the First or Primal Principle—that atom opens one by one the passages of these principles; and how, when it develops into man-stage after passing through innumerable life-forms in the course of its evolution, it opens the passages of all the principles more or less. It is the opening of these passages of all of its composing principles, in the man-stage of the atom, that makes it fit to be called a miniature universe; for through these openings it communicates more or less freely with the all-pervading principles of the universe. The more developed this man-stage becomes (that is to say, the clearer the openings of these passages), the more correct an index it is of the inner laws and workings of the great universe.

Because man has the whole universe within himself just as an acorn has the whole oak tree in potency dwelling within it, therefore he can, by diving deep within himself, find out the mysteries of the producing Source, Being and Processes of working of the universe.

If we think on the process of the development of a tree from a seed, we will find that process as marvelous as the most marvelous phenomena of nature. Indeed, this process of the birth of a tree out of a seed is the process, in miniature, of the birth of the universe out of Krishna-Love. This process of Creation is being repeated every moment throughout Creation itself. The laws of production and destruction, formation and disintegration are the same in scientific exactitude as those which produce and form, and destroy and disintegrate the universe. The operation of these laws is going on as much in the inner as in this outer world of ours—as constantly on the mental plane as on the physical. The law which brings forth a tree out of a seed is exactly the same as that which, in a finer manifestation, operates through the birth of a thought in our mind. The rooting, the shooting, the growing, the flowering and the fruiting of a tree is but a gross reproduction of the process by which a thought awakes, develops and takes shape and action within us. The stages of a thought's birth can be clearly perceived when the mind is calm; at first there is an Unknown Feeling, then an Indefinite Vibration, which develops into Abstract Idea. Idea develops into Thought, and Thought becomes action.

Out of Krishna (Love) Creation springs into existence like a thought. Thought exists in our mind like a seed, in the shape of previous impressions of objects and ideas; so the seed of creation lies in the bosom of Krishna, in the shape of impressions of ideas of previous Creations. This seed or germ is made up of three attributes, called Sattwa (Illumination), Rāja (Activity or Motion), and Tama (Obscuration or Darkness). So long as these three attributes, forming the essence of the germ, are in equilibrium, that is to say, are of equal degree or force or intensity, Creation remains in the germ-state in the bosom of its First Cause (Krishna). But the moment there is the least tendency of any of these attributes of this germ-essence to fall out of equilibrium with the other two, that is to say, when one becomes more powerful than the others, then they start out of the Central Self—Krishna, encased in another form, almost like unto the Krishna-Form, a state which is analogous to the Unknown-Feeling state in the development of human thought.

This state is called Vāsudeva, which again has a form-centre of its abstract self-radiance, pervading all space. It is the least pronounced state or stage of differentiation induced by the tendency of loss of equilibrium in the even forces of the three Cardinal Attributes (Gunas), illumination, motion and obscuration. The second stage, called Sankarsana, analogous to the Indefinite-Vibration stage of the development of thought, has again a form-centre of its all-pervading abstract self-radiance. This Sankarsana is the Unconscious Cause of Creation. The third stage, called Pradyumna, analogous to the Abstract-Idea stage of thought, has likewise a form-centre of its all-pervading abstract Self-radiance. This is the Semi-Conscious Cause of Creation; and from this develops the fourth stage, called Aniruddha, which is analogous to the full-developed Thought-stage and is the Full Conscious Cause of Creation. This Aniruddha is called Vishnoo or Nārāyan, from nār (water), and ayan (bed), because he floats on his back on the water of Love-life, while out of his navel springs a gigantic lotus—a figurative expression, meaning the Universe in bud—in which is encased the sleeping Brahmā, the operating Creator, with the germ of Creation dwelling within his mind and about to shoot forth.

In Aniruddha the real stage of inequilibrium of the Attributes (Gunas) develops, and in Brahmā it assumes full development. With the opening of the petals of the Mystic Love-lotus, Brahmā awakes from his sleep (deep trance state), and, unable for a moment to understand the meaning of the Lotus-bed or the Water of Life around (just as a man suddenly roused out of sleep is dazed and forgets to think and therefore feels stupid for the moment), he goes down through the hollow of the Lotus-stalk in order to find out the bottom of the Lotus. He goes down, down, down, and at last finds its depths unending, bottomless. He therefore comes up to the surface again and sits down mystified, when he suddenly hears a voice from the water, as it were, saying: "Tapa, tapa, tapa!" which means, "Meditate, meditate, meditate!" With the sound of that word the meaning becomes apparent to Brahmā. It means: "Why art thou looking outward? Look inward and thou shalt know." Whereupon his eyes involuntarily close, and his mind becomes concentrated inward. Then he sees before his mental vision Aniruddha (Vishnoo) appear and say: "O Awakened One! know and remember that thou art Brahmā, the Creator." At the very suggestion he finds out his own self and exclaims: "Oh, yes! I am Brahmā." Then Vishnoo again says: "Thou hast now to create the universe."

"Oh, yes!" he exclaims, as the memory of his function springs within him, "I am to create the universe; but how?"

"By meditating upon the former creation. As the memory of past creation, which dwells within thee, shall awake, creation will begin."

With hearing begins action; and as Brahmā concentrates his mind upon his former creation, its memory in time flashes through him, and with the flashing of that memory creation manifests itself, in the shape of earth, and sky, and trees, and grass, and ocean, and rivers, and in time beast, and bird, and man, all complete. Just as a master painter first designs a picture in his mind and reproduces that design upon the canvas, even so is the picture of creation produced upon the canvas of Love-life. Only the painter Brahmā paints with the brush of his all-powerful mind-force, which, the moment the design forms in his mind, is materialized into living substance.

SECTION III. THE STEPS OF CREATION.

The Veda says that the universe is like a tree; that is to say, it is a tree, the roots of which are embedded in the unmanifested First Cause—Krishna. Aniruddha is the seed, and Brahmā is the first sprout. This analogy between the seed and the sprout, between Aniruddha (also called Vishnoo and Nārāyan) and Brahmā seems so perfect that it justifies the conclusion that the process of the birth of a plant is only an imitation of the process through which the universe springs into being.

As in the germination of a seed two lobes, called cotyledons, which form part of the seed, come out prior to the appearance of the stem which shoots forth between them, so out of the navel of Nārāyan (Aniruddha) first appear two cotyledons, called "Lotus" in the figurative language of the Veda, and between the cotyledons, sprouts forth the stem in the shape of Brahmā, who is the miniature embodiment of the universe.

Before Brahmā was born, Nārāyan created Universal Consciousness, which was but the manifestation of his own Consciousness (called Mahat, which means Immeasureable). Out of Consciousness sprang Ego (Ahankāra). Out of Ego sprang Mind. Out of Mind sprang Ether (Akasha). From Ether sprang Water. Out of the friction of Ether and Water sprang Air. This Air, rising up from the ocean of Water with great noise, created, by its friction with Water, flames of Fire, illumining all space. This Fire became mixed up, by the cohesive attribute of Air, with Water and Ether, and all four elements became one thickened, molten mass; and as it rose upward the liquid substance which issued from it became solidified and cooled in process of time and formed into Earth.

Then the Lotus (cotyledons) sprang forth from the navel (Sanscrit, Nāvee, middle) of Nārāyan, and within them Brahmā (the stem) shot forth. His body was made of the Five Elements and Consciousness, Mind and Ego. He is also said to be the central form-embodiment of Ego (Ahankāra).

Brahmā is but the creative form-potency of Nārāyan. When Nārāyan bade him to meditate upon his former creation, and told him also that the moment that memory of former creation would awake within him creation would begin, Brahmā meditated as he was told, and creation began as that memory of the past creation flashed within him.

Thus it will be seen that Nārāyan (Aniruddha) is the real Creator. He creates at first the eight main, abstract and concrete principles; viz., Consciousness, Ego, Mind, and the five elements—Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth, After the creation of these was created the first concrete form, Brahmā, who was to create the details of Creation. But even these creations were not the product of the arbitrary will of Nārāyan, though their expressions were subject to his will or mediumship. The seed-bud of creation dwelt in the most mysteriously abstract state within Krishna (Absolute Love), a state so similar to that First Principle that it would enter and merge itself in it If we cut a seed in halves, we find in it not even a suggestion of the tree of which it is the seed; but if we plant it in the soil, the rudimentary form of the tree's organism, called the germ, asserts itself and creates its state of differentiation from its original state of homogeneity. So from the tendency of the least inequilibrium of the forces of the three Cardinal Attributes, Sattwa, Rāja, Tama (which, having formerly attained equality of force, have lost their different individualities and have become merged and transformed into Pure Sattwa—Illumination) springs the germ-state of Creation, and, passing through its three stages; viz., Vāsudeva, Sankarsana and Pradyumna, reaches its fourth stage, called Aniruddha, where, having attained further development, it sprouts forth into Brahmā, the first visible miniature embodiment of the universe.

As out of the tiny but potent shoot of the plant from the seed, the details of the tree, viz., trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit, spring forth to attain its full-grown state, so out of its minute but potent shoot, the details of the universe, viz., earth, heaven, sun, moon, stars, day, night, mountains, rivers, vegetation, spiritual beings, animals, men, etc., spring forth to attain its complete form.

The manifestation of Universal Consciousness (Mahat) is called the First Step of Creation. The birth of Ego (Ahankāra) out of Consciousness is called the Second Step of Creation; that of Mind from Ego is the Third Step; that of the Five Elements—Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth from Mind is the Fourth Step; that of the Five Attributes of the Elements—Sound, Touch, Form, Taste and Smell—from the Elements is the Fifth Step; that of the Five Cognizing Senses—Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, Feeling—out of these Five Attributes (also called Objects) is the Sixth Step; that of the Five Working Senses—Speaking, Holding, Moving, Excreting, Generating—from the Five Elements is the Seventh Step; that of gods and aerial, invisible beings is the Eighth Step; that of trees and plants and shrubs and grass and all other vegetation, as also that of the wild animals and birds, is the Ninth Step; that of domestic animals and men and women is the Tenth Step.

These steps or series of Creation have developed between long intervals. These are called purely Natural Creations through the instrumentality of the mind-force of Aniruddha (Nārāyan) and Brahmā.

SECTION IV. THE CYCLIC MOTION OF CHANGES.

The Veda says that when the three Cardinal Attributes, by losing this equipoise of force, sprang into being, and leaving the bosom of Krishna (Absolute Love) passed through the three stages of their development, viz., Vāsudeva, Sankarsana and Pradyumna, they brought with them a vibration from Krishna which found expression in Aniruddha, who exclaimed as he awoke from trance-sleep, as it were: "I am One, I wish to be the Many." This Divine Will manifested itself into the Universe in the manner described in the previous section.

From the One—Love—the motion of manifestation of Creation has therefore been towards manifoldness. From One—Love—the Principles sprang one by one, and where there was only One, there were twenty-four. The details of Creation sustained this process of manifoldness, and motion gradually increased in speed, manifesting varieties, until now that increased motion manifests that Will in millions of phases within every second of time.

This motion of manifestations or changes is like the surface of a troubled ocean, where heaving billows innumerable, crested with foam, cover countless living beings. The current of creative changes is mixed with and fed by, and dashes against, the opposite current of involutionary changes. The moment the last Principle of the Universe—Earth—was created, it had the tendency to go back to the First Source of Creation. But, unable to force its way back through the channel by which it sprang, owing to the rush of creative current, it found a circuitous channel by which its composing molecules started on their way back. As has already been said, and will be fully explained in detail in a separate section, the molecules have a tendency to open the passage of their composing principles, and thus to journey back by myriads of reincarnations through different and higher and higher life-forms to the First Parent Principle: The current of Creation which began with the manifestation of Universal Consciousness is still moving on, and will move on in the shape of changes until universal disintegration and dissolution take place. This current of creative changes is mixed up and swelled by the opposite current of involution, also in the shape of changes. These warring waves of action and reaction make up the Cosmos-Ocean.

Nārāyan (Aniruddha) is the Seed-Manifestation (Will) of Krishna (the Supreme Deity); the Universe is the Physical Manifestation (Materialized Will-Force) of Krishna; Time is the Motion Manifestation (Process of Working of the Will-Force) of Krishna; and the Veda is the Sound-Manifestation (Sound-Expression of the Laws of the Will-Force) of Krishna.

It has been shown how Nārāyan is the Seed-Manifestation and how the Universe is the materialized Will-Force of Nārāyan and Brahmā. I will now deal with this Motion-Manifestation—Time.

"I am One, and I wish to be the Many." The Lord was One, and the moment He wished to appear to be the Many, then this wonderful creation of vastness and variety sprang into existence. From the moment of the rise of that Will in the Divine Mind down to this moment, that Will is undergoing the process of its execution. It is a rush from the One towards manifoldness. This process of that manifoldness is called Creation, and the rhythm of its motion is called Time. The whole Creation is nothing but motion of Changes. Time is nothing but the cognition by our mind of events and ideas which are phases of changes in internal and external Nature. If we had no notion of events and never had an idea within ourselves, we would be in Eternity. So long as we are conscious of the kaleidoscopic changes in us and Nature or are conscious of their impressions on our mind, we live in Time. And the moment all impressions of the mind are obliterated and we become, through any process, unconscious of human and natural events, we lose all consciousness of existence; that is to say, we go behind the veil which enshrouds these physical phenomena, and we enter the realm which is an undisturbed calm of Absolute Life, Light and Bliss, the Trinity which is Eternity.

These changes in Nature and human society, starting from the beginning of Creation, move in cycles; that is to say, they have a cyclical process of motion. In other words, some events, natural and human, that occur within a certain period of time, are reproduced in their principal features in the next period of time of the same length. Creation proceeds towards ever manifold variety at this cyclic pace.

The smallest appreciable Cycle of Nature's change-process is the Day. Twenty-four hours, called one day, are divided into two parts, called day and night.

One Day is a Cycle embodying natural and human events which are reproduced in the following day, and so on. So that every day and night, in their principal features, are but a reproduction of the previous day and night. One day, therefore, is the smallest cycle of time or events, for events are but the phases of natural changes, and time is but the cognition or consciousness thereof.

The next cycle of time or events is the Month, in which two events which occur within twenty-eight lunar days are reproduced in the next twenty-eight lunar days. These two events are the fourteen days of waxing and waning moon, and the bright fortnight is the day and the dark fortnight is the night of the month.

The next larger cycle is the Year, in which the four seasons mark the principal divisions of events and are reproduced in all years in the self-same order, their uniform changes of weather and Nature bringing forth fruit and crops.

In the same way these events, called Time, develop larger cycles in which some event or other, or a series of events, are reproduced in the -next equal length of time. There are cycles, for instance, of from 500 to 100,000 years, the phenomena of which are reproduced in the next period of their respective proportions. But the most pronounced cycle is called the Divine Cycle. The Sanscrit word "Diva" is the root of the word "Divine," and "Yuga" is the original of which the word "Age" is a corrupted form.

This Divine Age (Daiva-Yuga) is divided into four Human Ages, called Satya, Tretā, Dwāpar and Kali. The span of this Divine Cycle is composed of 12,000 Divine Years, and each Divine Year is equal to 360 human years, so that 12,000 years multiplied by 360 gives us 4,320,000 human years, which is the length of a Divine Cycle. The next bigger cycle is called the Manwantara, which is made up of 71 Divine Cycles and is wound up with a Deluge, in which the whole world, including the highest peaks of the Himalayas, becomes immersed in water and remains so for the period of 71 Divine Ages. The next larger cycle is the Kalpa, which is made up of 14 Manwantaras, or 1,000 Divine Ages. The next cycle and the largest is called Mahā-Pralaya, in which the whole universe is destroyed totally, Krishna alone remaining with His Radiance, filling all space, and 36,000 Kalpas bring about this Universal Dissolution.

Since the beginning of this Kalpa creation, six Manwantaras (Deluges) have passed away. Since the last Deluge 27 Divine Cycles have rolled away. This is the twenty-eighth Divine Cycle of which the first three sections, viz., the Golden Age, the Silver Age and the Copper Age have passed away. We are just now in the early part of the fourth section, the Kali or Iron (Dark) Age.

SECTION V. THE GOLDEN AGE.

Creation begins with the dawn of the Satya Yuga, which is also called the Golden Age. It is the first part and the longest section of the Divine Age. The span of this age is 4,800 Divine years, which being multiplied by 360 gives us 1,728,000 human years. It is the most spiritual age, because, of the three Cardinal Attributes—Sattwa, Rāja and Tama—which govern, and are the parents of, the composing principles of the Universe, the Sattwa is predominant in its influence. The Sattwa is that attribute which uncovers the true state of things without and within us and in Nature, hence it may be called the attribute of Illumination. Rāja is the attribute of Activity (motion of change), and Tama is the very reverse attribute of Sattwa. It is that attribute within us and Nature which covers the true State of things, hence it may be called the Obscuring, darkening attribute, the Attribute of Darkness.

The Satya Yuga is called the Golden Age, because gold is very abundant in this age of utmost spirituality, and gold is the purest and most spiritual of all metals. The Illumination of predominant Sattwa pervades all Nature in this age. Nature, inside and out, is full of light, almost transparent with light—spiritual through and through. So is man, her best product. Men and women in this age attain a spiritual depth and height which no other age can develop. This spiritual height manifests itself In their physical body, while the depth of their inward spirituality shows itself in their outer life and actions. The Gulden Age men are twenty-one cubits, or thirty-one and a half feet, in height. This may strike us, diminutive mortals of this Kali Yuga or Iron Age, as absurd or improbable, but it need not do so if we remember how long ago the last Golden Age was—nearly three million years. Moreover, as they are all of the same height, they do not think they are abnormally tall.

These men and women, owing to their high degree of spirituality, have a perfectly healthy, harmonious and beautiful body, for spirituality is health, harmony and beauty. They have their inner vision fully opened and see more through their ensouled mind's eyes than through their physical ones. They, therefore, see through Nature as through a glass. All Nature stands revealed to them to her inmost depth wherein they see the One Essence which pervades it, the One Spirit of which all things within and on the surface of Nature are but different phases of its manifestation. And in it all they find themselves as part of the same phases, living, moving and having their being sustained by that One Spirit which is both life and light—the One Omnipresent Spirit, the one All-Pervading Essence—Love.

The Golden Age men and women have no garments to cover their entirely bare body, nor do they need any. We clothe our bodies for two reasons:' First, out of our sense of delicacy and shame because of our dark thoughts born of improper and unnatural (sinful) actions, and secondly, to protect our body and health from the attacks of the sun, the rain and the changes of weather and climate. The Golden Age men have no such reason for wearing any clothes. Their perfect spirituality admits of no dark thought to touch their mind, for all is illumination within and without them, while their actions are all in perfect consonance with the purest laws of Nature, in rhythmic motion with the music of the Infinite whose song they hear in their soul. They may be called moving Vedas—walking wisdom and spirituality. The laws of the Veda form the mechanism of their mind, and it is these Vedic laws that move their limbs and prompt their words and actions. Their perfect spiritual health is proof against the hardships of weather, or rather there is no hardship of weather at all. The spirit of the Age pervades all Nature, of which the weather a phase. Even Nature's forces are in perfect harmony with one another, for harmony is the very keynote of the Age. It is Spring, sweetest Spring season, all the year round, during night and during day; warm enough without heat, cool enough without being cold, breezy enough without being windy—man and beast and bird and tree and earth and weather all are in harmony. Harmony, harmony, all is harmony in this Blessed Age.

Man and woman have no need at all for sex life in the Golden Age. The ecstasy of the soul with which their body and being are filled renders it impossible for even any thought of gross fleshly pleasures to enter their mind. The very drawing of breath is to them a pure delight which any fleshly or objective pleasure of our day cannot dream of approaching. Life is lived then in its veriest depth—deep down through the mind, deeper down through the heart, deepest down in the depth of the soul. And when life is lived in such depth, its surface is not heeded or cared for. Such a life does not require much material nutrition—it is nourished by the souls all-nourishing nectar.

These men and women eat very little food—fruits and roots only, and drink milk and water, and these between long intervals. They feel very little hunger and that little on far-between occasions. We feel hungry because of our mind contemplating matter. All matter is changeful—matter is nothing but collected forms of change. Its seeming substance embodies but motion of change, so that its inmost attribute is changefulness. Our mind concentrating on material objects absorbs its attribute—changefulness—and is affected by it forthwith; it becomes changeful in its turn, that is, it is rendered restless, flitting quickly from one object to another. This changefulness of the mind is in turn absorbed by our body, which suffers from its effects in the shape of loss of tissue. And this loss of tissue we have to supply by food and drink and rest and sleep. The Golden Age people do not suffer from this loss of tissue, because their minds are always concentrated on the One Changeless Substance, the very reflection of which through the changeful forms of matter makes them seem steady and substantial. The little wear and tear they suffer from, owing to looking now and then on the surface of things, causes some little need of nutrition, which their occasional fruit and milk meals supply.

If they need little food they also need little rest. And when they need it, they just lie down on the cool carpet of the fragrant grass, for they have no other bed than this, because in the Golden Age there are no houses whatever on the face of the earth. We build houses for the same reasons that we wear clothes, and these reasons are absent in the lives of the Golden Age people. Their bodies need no protection from the weather, nor do they need external comforts, for they think more of their soul than of their body.

Their home is wherever they live and rest, its roof is the high vault of Heaven with its azure canopy, Mother Earth the floor, the trees its walls; Nature's bowers are their boudoirs. All created beings are their family, the whole earth their country. And the whole earth is one large, beautiful garden, the richest and most beautiful garden of flowers and fruits and songbirds. But more beautiful than the garden are the divine men and women who sanctify its soil by their walking, at whose approach near them the trees worship them with showers of flowers and offers of their fruits as love-gifts.

This is the long-forgotten, and now misunderstood, misinterpreted Earth-Garden of the Golden Age called in the Old Testament the Garden of Eden. They are all now trying to locate it, some people in Syria, others in Egypt, others elsewhere, ignorant of the fact that the Garden of Eden was located upon the whole earth. The word "Eden" even is the corruption of the Sanscrit word "ādhān" (Home). The whole earth becomes this "Adhān"—the Home of all humanity, of mortal souls, the Pleasure-Garden for angels on earth to roam about and sport in. This Garden is the physical manifestation of a higher plane, created as the abiding place of mortal man in temporary state of spiritual perfection. They live a perfectly natural life, feeling themselves as parts of Nature, breathing in unison with the breath of sky and air and tree and grass and beast and bird, their souls in tune with the souls of gods and angels and Infinity Itself.

Among themselves they feel a Oneness which only the most sublimated souls, who have realized their at oneness with the all-pervading Spirit, can feel. All humanity feels as one man, and the only distinction they find in this Oneness is in the little difference in the formation of the male and female bodies, although this outward perception of this external difference in some details of the physical structure does not influence the feeling of unity within. Still the difference creates this much distinction that the women and men sec and feel that they are the complements of each other and the difference in bodily structure expresses this fact. All men feel all women are as one and all women feel all men are as one, so that, such is the feeling of unity which pervades the Golden Age people of the earth that all men and women of that age can be called as One Man and One Woman. This is the state of the human society indicated by the story of Adam and Eve. Adam is the typical man and Eve the typical woman of the Golden Age. Even the names bear testimony to this fact. The word Adam is a corruption of the Sanscrit word "Adim" which means primeval, so that Adam means primeval man. The word Eve likewise is a corruption of the Sanskrit word "Hevā" or primeval woman. "Hevā" means life and love—mother of creation. From Mother Nature all things evolve, through the mother all things come to life, therefore is mother "life." The life of all things is motherhood—Life and Love combined is Mother. Mother! It is the music of the spheres—Life and Love—the grandest sound, the music of the Creator, one grand chord in the Music of the Universe. Love and Life—O Blessed sound, the Lord's Own Music—sweet, profound!

The spiritual beauty of these primeval people—the Adams and Eves—shows itself in their physical forms. Their physical forms, symmetry and expressions are ideally beautiful; these fashion and shine forth the spirit of harmony which dwells within them. It may be in truth said of them that they are made in the Image of God, and the truth of this statement grows upon us when we remember that they live and feel that they live in the Essence of Love—live and breathe and have their being moved spontaneously by the Spirit which is the inmost life and force of all Existence.

This is living on the Tree of Life and eating the fruit thereof mentioned metaphorically in the Old Testament. Love, Universal Love, unmixed, Absolute Love is the only Life. When we lose sight of this Ideal, this substance of life, we fall. So long as our minds are filled from within with this Love, this Radiance of God, and we think, move and act by its influence and promptings, so long do we really live the Life which is our real heritage from God. The Golden Age people live this life moved by the Spirit within them, the Spirit-Life that makes life an ecstasy unto itself. This Life of Joy Absolute is illumined by its own Light by the aid of which they sec all Nature as through a transparent glass, they see everything with the ensouled mind's eye— not by the physical eye—for they live within that ensouled mind and rarely come out to the surface called the physical plane. When they do, they feel as if the experiences of that physical plane are, as it were, the experiences of a dream, while the experiences of the ensouled mind they feel as the Reality, the only Reality.

I have already said that the three Cardinal Attributes, (Sattwa, Rāja and Tama) Illumination, Activity and Darkness, are the joint parents of the Principles which compose all creation. When the forces of these Attributes fall into equilibrium, the dissolution of the universe takes place and the equalized Attributes merge into one another and become transformed into a substance quite different from their own. That substance is called Shuddha Sattwa—Pure Illumination. In Sattwa there is a mixture of some Rāja and Tama; in Rāja there is a mixture of some Sattwa and Tama: similarly, in Tama, there is some mixture of Sattwa and Rāja. In Shuddha Sattwa, the Sattwa is free from the other two attributes. Krishna (Absolute Love) is Purest Sattwa. The equalizing of the forces of the Attributes transforms them into Pure Illumination no doubt, but the transformation is temporary. Krishna (Absolute Love) is Permanent Purest Illumination. But even the temporary attainment, by the Attributes, of the Shuddha Sattwa state makes them for the time being the same substance as this First Principle and brings about their absorption into it as long as they keep in that state. This is almost exactly as the germ of a tree remains merged in and becomes part and parcel of the kernel of its seed. And as when the seed is put into the soil, the action of germination separates from that kernel the germ which then grows into a tree, so when in time the forces of the merged Attributes fall out of equilibrium by Rāja (Activity) asserting itself, they get separated and manifest themselves into the Universe. At first the activity of Rāja is feeble and Sattwa predominates. Out of predominant Sattwa springs the Mind, Rāja brings forth the Ten Senses and Tama the Five Essences and the Five Gross Forms of matter. And all objects and animals and men and gods and earth and heaven are but different degrees of blendings of the Three Attributes.

The Satya Yuga (Golden Age) at the beginning of creation is so full of Sattwa (Illumination) that all Nature is made of materials almost transparent as ether. The matter of this first Golden Age is so fine that it would be invisible to the eye of our gross flesh of this distant Kali (Iron Age). Even in the last Golden Age, Nature was made up of such fine matter that it would look, to our gross vision of this day, as pictures of light.

Why is Nature in the Golden Age so ethereal? Because the Attribute of Illumination is predominant in that cycle. All is Illumination, within and without. Through this illumination the Golden Age people see the Steady, Changeless substance which is the Life and Light of which the outer universe is but the shadow. And with the spirit of this Changeless Love and Life and Light in One before their mind's vision, they cannot but feel that its distorted, changeful manifestations called objects are made of fabrics of which dreams are made of. Even they themselves are etheric and irridescent, not visible to the physical eye of the Dark Age, but always visible to the inner eye of men of any age—to the eye of the highly evolved man whose sight is more spiritual than physical. Ether is cognized through etheric vibrations—light alone recognizes light.

For the First Quarter of the Satya Yuga or Golden Age (One Thousand Divine Years) this perfect state of Universal Holiness prevails on earth and among mankind. This is the original of the recorded vision said to have been seen by St. John the Divine as embodied in Chapters 20, 21 and 22 of his Revelations. This is the Millennium spoken of in the Holy Bible when Satan (Sin—Tama—Darkness), it is said, will be bound and cast into a bottomless pit, shut up and set a seal upon, and holiness will become triumphant throughout the world. This means the predominance of Sattwa (Illumination) in man and Nature and Tama (darkness) will be drowned under it. The people will live on the fruits of the Tree of Life—in the Essence of Love. They will live face to face with God, that is, in perfect realization of His Spirit—Love. This Millennium will begin with the First Quarter of the coming Satya Yuga (Golden Age), the New Divine cycle which will be ushered in after the expiration of the Kali Yuga (also called Iron or Dark Age) we are now living in. That time is far away yet, how far I shall in a succeeding Section attempt to indicate.

As already suggested, the Golden Age conditions of Nature are the physical manifestation of a higher sphere. According to the Hindoo Scriptures there are Seven Spheres (Lokas) or Heavens. People in the West speak of the Seventh Heaven. Few know where the expression has come from, fewer that it has come from the Hindoos who believe in the Seven Heavens. The first is the Earth. (Bhur) which is counted as a heaven because heavenly joys can be tasted on the earth plane. Above the Earth is the Bhuba Sphere, the Second Heaven. Above Bhuba is Swar the Third; above Swar is Mahar the Fourth; above Mahar is Jana the Fifth; above Jana is Tapa the Sixth, and above Tapa is the Satya Loka (Seventh). The Golden Age state of the earth is but a reflection of this Satya Sphere on it's Sattwa (Transparently Illuminated) surface. The men and women are angels on earth meet and have communications with gods and angels; and at times even Brahmā, the Shiva, the Destroyer, and Vishnoo the preserver, come down on earth and hold converse with these perfectly pure human beings. Earth then is "Heaven Below," and it is hard to tell, when men mingle with the gods and angels when the latter come down to meet them, which are the gods and angels and which are the men.

Saint John's Revelation 21 in the Holy Bible attempts to give some glimpse of this picture of the Golden Age:

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

"2. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

"3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

"4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

What St. John describes as "a new heaven and a new earth" is the illuminated heaven and earth—illuminated by Sattwa, which destroys the darkness (Tama) of the preceding Kali (Iron) Age which pervades Nature during its sway. The "holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven," is the reflection of the Satya Loka (the Heaven of Truth), which comes down as it were and mirrors itself on earth. The Golden Age earth is really a bride adorned for her husband, God, for, in the Hindoo Scriptures, Earth has been called the Bride of Vishnoo (God). The meaning of the third verse can be more easily understood as it speaks of the spiritual condition of the Golden Age I have described already.

The fourth verse supports the fact of the unbroken peace and happiness which dwells on earth during the Golden Age. Men know no sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. They are happy and are ever filled with joy. "And there shall be no more death"—this is very important testimony to the one statement in the Hindoo Scriptures about the Golden Age men and women which is more apt to be discredited than any other. In them it is said that in the Golden Age men and women can live for one hundred thousand years and die at will, which is corroborated by St. John, who says, "and there shall be no more death." Life in the Golden Age, say the Hindoo Books, is sustained by the marrow of the bones; man lives as long as there is marrow in his bones. Death and disease are caused by accumulation of sin, which is the result of improper, unnatural living, living, that is, in violation of Nature's spiritual laws. The Golden Age men live in absolute harmony with these laws, and are therefore liable neither to death nor to disease. Men are filled, in this age, "in full measure of virtue" and sin has no place in it, not a trace of it anywhere.

This is the state of Nature and human society which is reproduced in the beginning and first quarter of every Golden Age, which forms the first largest section of every Divine Cycle. This is real Universal Brotherhood, the union of soul to soul being brought about by the general recognition of the One Spirit which is the root, sustenance and life of all manifestations in Nature. Spirit only makes man brotherly, and the feeling of the One and the Same spirit is the source of true brotherhood, and until One Love is for all, souls shall be separated and countries will war with countries. Every one in the Golden Age looks upon every one else as himself, as it were. It is more than Ideal Brotherhood in this state of society; it is real, practical, spontaneous brotherhood, brought about by the Attribute of Illumination having full play within all created matter, objects and beings. They are united from within, not through outside forces, and so close and natural is the union that they do not realize that it is anything unusual at all, even in the deep demonstrations of spontaneous love which they feel for one another.

If such is the high state of perfection which men attain in the Golden Age, the animal and the vegetable kingdoms also share the benefit of the predominance of illumination in Nature, of which men and animals and vegetation are but different phases of manifestations. We have read in the so-called fables and fairy-books of a time in which animals were wont to speak, and as in our day they do not speak at all, we regard such statements and stories as myths. But they are not myths, however absurd they may strike us, viewed from our practical experiences of animals in our Kali Age life. If the animals of this Kali (Dark) Age cannot speak, that is no reason why animals of an enlightened age should not be able to speak. But this is what forms the chief difficulty in the way of our believing in such stories. We have been hypnotized by our conceit into believing that ours is the most enlightened age and that we are far ahead in enlightenment and advancement of intellect of our remote ancestors of, what we complacently term, the "primitive" ages, meaning thereby ages in which men were either savages or half-savages. If this were true, the animals of those ages could be imagined as worse in habits, powers and instincts than those of our "advanced" age. Alas, however, it is not true! Our remotest ancestors, whom we, in our dense ignorance of facts of that remote past, love to call savages, were such giants in intellect, spirituality and moral force that our average best spiritual, intellectual and moral men cannot be compared with them. We are indeed fast losing our moral depth which was the sheet-anchor of their character. Why? Because our minds are getting more and more dense than those of even the near past, not to speak of those of the remote ages. Why? Because Nature herself is getting denser and denser every day with the growing influence of Tama (Darkness) which is the ruling attribute of this Iron Age. We are the products of Nature—we all, men and beasts and trees and grass. Our density is to be traced to our parent—Dame Nature. This growing density which pervades our minds is daily making us less spiritual and intellectual than our forefathers. No wonder it has affected the body and senses of animals as well.

Illuminated Nature illuminates animals as well in the Satya Yuga. Animals then have more intelligence, better perception and keener instincts than now, and share the love-spirit of which all earth is full. They talk like man, although not in the same clear and sweet voice as man. They roam about with men and love one another as men do. There are no domestic animals in this part of the Golden Age, for man has no home or house. There are no wild animals, for all animals are tame, tamed by the spirit of harmony within and without them. The cow roams about free, giving milk to whoever will drink it out of her udder.

The trees in the Satya Yuga are large and tall in proportion to the height of men, which is 21 cubits. They are overladen with sweetest and juiciest fruits. All kinds of corn grow wild and abundantly without any tending or cultivation. The whole earth is a natural garden, orchard and granary for all created beings to enjoy and draw sustenance from when needed. Here I quote a poem written under inspiration after seeing a trance-vision of the Golden Age, by one of my students, Miss Rose R. Anthon:

Palpitating with love, Like a mother's breast, As she views her babe

As it sinks to rest.

In the citied hive.

Unfolded to me.

The heart did meet.

The skies did ring!

Of haunting woe!

With the lion bold.

Suckled one breast.

Like outspread wings.

The perfumed air.

'Neath feet the dew.

The moon did view.

By sin's hot hand.

Disturbed the mind.

Entered one fold.

Filched beauty's grace.

Was panting sigh.

Had Hope entoned.

SECTION VI. THE SILVER AGE.

Thus, during the first quarter of the Golden Age, covering 1,000 divine years, which are equal to 360,000 lunar years, its predominant spirituality sustains itself in its full vigor. The next quarter is almost equally powerful in spirituality. But after the middle is passed, a little decline is perceptible, not so much in spirituality as in the outward habits of the people. During this period the Vedic truths reveal themselves through the mediums of the entranced minds of some of the highly illuminated men. Now, what is a Vedic truth? It is an expression in sound-form of one of the inmost laws of Nature. Before this period the Golden Age people breathe, move and have their being in these laws—as sensitive embodiments of these laws. They are, as it were, moving Vedas—human flesh-vehicles moved and manipulated from within by the basic laws of all Existence. The predominant Sattwa in its extreme purity, which is the essence of physical Nature in the Golden Age, blends with these laws so harmoniously that they form the self-acting mechanism of all motion of its materialized counterpart. So long as these people are in perfect unison with these inner laws, vibrating spontaneously with their vibrations, they are quite unconscious of the operations of these laws, or even of the laws themselves within them: so long they live as unconscious moving manifestations of the laws. But the moment they become conscious of them, then that consciousness expresses itself in the form of thoughts, and these thoughts find expression in words through the medium of some entranced minds. These are called the Eternal Truths of the Veda, truths which are the foundations and sources of all truths promulgated by the illumined sages of all climes and times ever afterwards.

Just as, so long as we are perfectly healthy, we remain unconscious of our health and enjoy the blessing of health most; but when some disorder creeps into our system, we become conscious of it and feel indisposed and try to adjust its lost equilibrium. Towards the end of the third quarter of the Golden Age, a slight disorder is felt in the spiritual health of the people. Then a readjustment of the slight loss of the equilibrium is made with the aid of contemplation of the meaning of these Vedic truths which are revealed through the still perfectly spiritual souls. Before this time all of them live the truths unconsciously; now they live the truths consciously. This indicates their fall from their absolutely healthy state of spirituality. The degeneration increases with time at a very slow rate, however, for Sattwa is still predominant, although Rāja (Activity) has begun to assert itself more and more until the end of the Golden Age is reached, when the action of Rāja becomes fully perceptible.

This pronounced assertion of Rāja within all Nature is betrayed by outward signs and symptoms. Distinct changes are observable in the thoughts and actions of men, while there is decrease in the wild natural growth and products of edible fruits, roots and corn. These main features of change mark the end of Satya Yuga (Golden Age) and the beginning of the Tretā Yuga (Silver Age).

From natural all-absorbing, inward concentration upon the basic principle of the Universe—Love—and drawing absolute never-failing happiness therefrom, most people now begin to look outwards for happiness, trying to draw it from the enjoyment of material objects. A small portion, however, still retains the same inward look and enjoys the primeval ecstatic condition of the mind. These still live in the Tree of Life. But those who look outwards and try to draw happiness from without, eat tor the first time of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, as indicated by the figurative language of the Christian Bible. So long as they do not look outwards, they do not know of material pleasure, pleasure which is mixed with pain, Rājasic pleasure, pleasure which lasts for only a short while, pleasure which has reaction of pain or cessation.

This knowledge of material pleasure and hankering for securing them is the fall of humanity. The cause of this outward-looking is to be traced to the assertion of the Cardinal Attribute of Activity (Rāja) within Nature rather than to any fault in her products themselves. Predominant Sattwa (Illumination) maintains the harmony in the mind induced by calm concentration upon one object and that object a steady, Changeless one. Predominant Rāja (Activity) destroys this harmony and calmness by making the mind active with thoughts of many objects. This state of activity itself turns the point of the mind's ken outwards and disturbs its harmony. The mind is active only when it has to deal with the impressions of more than one object. When the surface of a mirror is turned towards the sky, it reflects only that one blue sky. When it is turned towards the earth it reflects many objects. Such is the case with the mirror of the mind. When it is turned inwards to the soul, it reflects its one all-pervading, colorless radiance and is therefore tranquil and happy. When it is turned outwards, it reflects the many-colored objects and is disturbed by their conflicting attributes.

All through the Golden Age the mirror of the human mind is kept turned inwards to the soul and reflects nothing but the soul of things. At the end of that blessed period, the natural assertion of Rāja turns it outwards to external objects which at once reflect themselves in it. From this time people begin to take serious cognizance of their surroundings and privileges, and to think of material enjoyment, to taste material pleasures. Living the natural Love-Life of the Golden Age is living on the fruit of the Tree of Life. Love alone is life; it is the source of all life. The dawning of the knowledge of material pleasure is eating for the first time of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge—material knowledge. The first hankering for it is the persuasive voice of the Evil One, called in Sanscrit, Māyā. Māyā means illusion, that which is unsubstantial to the inner sight yet seems and looks substantial to our outer (material) sight. Good and evil may be called the equivalents of the two Sanscrit words "Sat" and "Asat." Good is "Sat" which means that which exists by itself, which has substance. Evil is "Asat" which means non-existent, which has no existence (substance) of its own. Good is God (Love). Evil is that which partakes of, or is related to, the phases of unsubstantial (changeful) manifestations which form the shroud of the only Reality—Love. To have our minds vision turned from this Reality to its Unreal Shroud and mistaking it as the Real, constitutes our fall—the Fall of Mankind spoken of in the Bible. As long as we know nothing but the Truth and live absolutely in that Truth, we have no idea of the False (evil), the deceptive real-looking Unreal. But the moment we are attracted by the Unreal and live in it, we begin to have knowledge of both Good (the Real) and Evil (the Unreal). We become so attached to the Unreal that we cannot leave it, although we know it to be Unreal (evil). Here is born what is called "conscience," which is the Warner of sin—this living in the Unreal though we know it is so and that we should not live in it.

This is the state of mind of the major portion of the Silver Age people. With this outward-looking of their mind begins the hunting for Absolute Happiness on the surface of life, instead of in its deepest depth where it dwells. This search for it through material pleasures ends in this real object of that search being lost from their view and the pleasures themselves taking its place. This last stage of mental degradation is not true, however, of all the people of the age. A small portion still retain much of the high spirituality of the Golden Age. Some are swayed by predominant Rāja, others are ruled by Rāja and Tama, while others are covered almost entirely by Tama. This leads to the division of the people into castes. Those who are uninfluenced by the assertive Rāja are called Brāhmans; those swayed by Rāja are called Kshatriyas; those by Rāja and Tama are called Vaishyas; those mostly ruled by Tama are called Sudras. I have treated the caste system at some length in the next section.

Tastes for material comforts involve housekeeping, and housekeeping is impracticable without a house. The people therefore build houses to live in for the first time in the Degeneration period of the Satya Yuga. The Tretā is called the Silver Age because gold, the spiritual metal, becomes less abundant with the decrease in spirituality in Nature, and silver is found in abundance. People in the Satya Yuga use gold for household utensils, hence the Satya Yuga is called the Golden Age. The period in which gold plates come into use does not belong to the Golden Age proper. It is used in what is called the Degeneration (Sandhyāngsa) period of the Golden Age. Every Age has a Junction period and a Degeneration period, called in the Hindoo Scriptures, the Twilight Periods. These periods are of equal length. The morning Twilight period of the Satya Yuga is 400 divine years, equal to 144,000 lunar years. Of the same length is its evening Twilight period. The morning Twilight period represents the Junction period, the junction between the previous Kali and the Satya Yugas. The evening Twilight period may be called the degeneration of the Satya Yuga. It is in this degeneration period covering 144,000 years, that Rāja asserts itself and people begin to turn to material pleasures, build houses, wear clothes, take to housekeeping, eat cooked food and generally use gold plates, gold being abundant and on account of its possessing pure (spiritual) magnetism, purer than that of other metals.

The average human height in the Silver Age is 14 cubit or 21 feet, average longevity of human life is 10,000 years; human vitality is centered in the strength of the bones; man lives as long as his bones sustain their strength. In the Golden Age men enjoy full measure of spirituality. Virtue resides in them, in the language of the Shāstras, in full four quarters. In the Tretā, owing to the decrease of spirituality, virtue loses one-quarter and retains three. In the Golden Age, they are natural embodiments of Vedic wisdom. In the Tretā, they have to study that wisdom, as it expresses itself through entranced Sages, to keep up spirituality. And as the Silver Age advances, the increased influence of more and more assertive Rāja within them makes it more and more imperative on all religious teachers and kings to direct people's attention to the necessity of wider and deeper study and practice of Vedic truths.

As I have said, in the Golden Age there are no carnal relations between man and woman, so is there none in the Silver Age, although man and woman as husband and wife live together in houses, have housekeeping and enjoy material comforts. Yet, strange as it will strike most of us here at this distance of time, the Golden Age and Silver Age women bear and give birth to children. The child is born in the womb of its mother at the wish and command of the husband. The wife asks her husband for a child, and the husband of the Golden Age, who is a miniature creator in the potency of his mind-force, says, "So be it," and the wife at once conceives. But she has no pain of child-bearing or child-birth to suffer from. The child is born soon after, and, at times, almost immediately. In the Tretā Yuga, the conception takes place in some cases in the same manner, and, in most cases, through the eating by the wife of "charoo," a mixture of boiled rice, milk, sugar and butter—magnetized by mystic words or the will-force of a psychic husband or a saint or a Brāhman—a magnetism which draws into the preparation a disembodied spirit who passes into the body of the wife through the food.

The difficulty in believing this process of child conception lies in the ignorance which now prevails in the minds of most people of the modern world, especially in those of Westerners, as to the origin of conception, as to how conception takes place. The prevailing idea, formed from the teachings of imperfect modern science, is that it is the male seed itself planted in the female soil that begets and develops into the child. No greater fallacy can exist than this idea. Modern science is progressive, and in the process of time that progress will surely open its eyes to the true fact in regard to this matter. It will then find that it is the invisible germ hidden inside the seed, the subtle form of organism encased in the thickened juice of the tree which the seed is, that develops into the shoot and the tree and not merely the juice itself. This subtle organism enters into the forming bud from outside. Without this incoming subtle organism no seed can germinate, neither does a seed germinate, as is well known, of which the germ has been destroyed. Similarly, no conception can take place without a disembodied soul—a human germ—entering the human seed when planted in the human soil. The juice of the seed and the juice of the soil form but the physical body of the child. The astral body, which is encased in this physical body, comes from without to dwell in that seed and leaves the developed physical body at death, which is nothing but the total disorganization of the physical body. The astral body never dies unless it is destroyed by bringing about absolute equilibrium of the three Cardinal Attributes, which form the Ego of man, through spiritual development. I have treated this subject more fully under the heading of "Reincarnation."

The length of the Silver Age proper is 3,000 divine years, equal to 1,080,000 human (lunar) years with the two Twilight (the Junction and the Degeneration) Periods, of 108.000 years each, in addition.

SECTION VII. THE CASTE SYSTEM.

I have said that at the end of the Golden Age and during its degeneration period, people's minds lose their tranquil equilibrium and look outwards for happiness. At this stage of the disturbance within Nature and humanity occasioned by the assertion of the Rāja attribute, the caste system comes into existence. The object of the caste system is to preserve as much order and harmony in human society as possible and prevent its disruption into individual units. In the Golden Age all the people are as one family, in the Silver Age they are divided into four families, divided according to their inclinations, habits and actions, and harmonious relations being established with one another through laws and interdependence. Those who still retain their perfected spirituality by subduing the influence of Rāja are called Brāhmans which means those who know or still dwell in Brahm—the Spirit of God. They are considered the head of the other castes because they are the embodiments of spiritual wisdom which is the chiefest requisite in the building of character and the higher development of the human soul. Some of them still retain their Golden Age habits of life, others clothe themselves with the barks of trees and live on fruits and nuts and roots in the forests, in huts made of tree-trunks and leaves. They pass their days and nights in contemplation of the Deity, the Divine Spirit and its Laws operating within Nature and inculcate these truths into the minds of the other classes of people.

Those who, being unable to subdue the influence of Rāja, are swayed by passions and become bold, spirited and filled with material desires are called Kshatriyas. They become rulers of the other two castes. These are the first Kings and Rulers of men. But they rule according to the injunctions of inspired Codes of laws, laws which are propounded with the object of the highest good of humanity in view, as well as the propagation of peace and goodwill among all classes of people.

According to these laws the King's first duty is to look to the material welfare of his subjects; the second is to protect them from injustice and aggression; the third is to help their moral and spiritual development; in short, the King's duty is to treat his subjects as his children. If any King fail to perform these duties to the satisfaction of his subjects or become aggressive towards them, he is immediately removed from his throne by the Brāhmans (Rishis), the all-powerful Brāhmans, who always have the welfare of God's creatures at heart, and whose spiritual powers are mightier than kingly weapons and might. The Brāhmans are called the "gods of earth" (Bhudevas) on account of their disinterested love of humanity and self-sacrificing devotion for its welfare and their irresistible spiritual and psychical powers to carry their objects for the good of humanity into action.

Those among the Golden Age people in whom excessive action of Rāja develops some Tama as well, and partly covers the Sattwa Attribute, form yet another distinct caste. They are called Vaishyas. While the Kshatriyas occupy themselves in taking over the control and government of countries and peoples, the Vaishyas take to the occupation of agriculture, commerce and raising of cattle, as much in their own individual material interests as in the interests of all humanity. In the Golden Age, owing to the fulness of spirituality within Nature, all kinds of grains grow wild and abundant. With the decrease of that spirituality towards its end, these natural products of the earth diminish in quality and quantity, while the growing material instincts in people bring about their larger consumption, thereby creating greater demand for them. This increased demand is supplied by cultivation by the Vaishyas.

Those, again, among the Golden Age people who, owing to the predominance of the Tama Attribute in them, are filled with envy and greed, and become untruthful and devoid of clean habits of life and take to all sorts of low means and ways for their living are classed as Sudras. The Kshatriya rulers compel these Sudras for their own good as well as the good of all other classes of people to take service under the three upper castes as domestic servants, so that by contact and association with their masters and by the examples of their purer ideas and habits of life they may be elevated in morals and conduct.

The science and wisdom which are the foundation of the caste system of the Silver Age people and which still form the backbone of the degenerate remnants of these primeval people, now known as Hindoos, are worthy of study of all civilized mankind of the present day. It is the scientific law of the caste system which has preserved the indestructible individuality of the Hindoos as a race; it is the chief source of strength which has supplied their inexhaustible vitality as a nation; the never failing force which has insured the permanency of their existence on the face of the globe. It is a system, the absence of which in the organization of all other human societies, modern and ancient, has been the cause of their decay and death. The Hindoo caste system is based upon laws of the inmost science of life, the laws which modern scientists are trying so hard and yet so hopelessly to discover and understand through wrong processes of investigation. Modern scientists are boastful of their achievements in the field of discovery of Nature's laws and imagine they have learned almost all of Nature's secrets, while in truth they know but a few of her surface-laws the mainsprings of which are to be found deep down in the mental and spiritual strata of which they even dream not of—a realm which must ever remain closed to purely objective investigation.

It is as wrong to try to study Nature from the operations of her physical laws as to govern and guide human beings by the aid of the deceptive light of those laws. The physical is the manifestation of the mental plane, as the mental is the manifestation of the spiritual plane, as I have shown in previous Sections. The phenomena of the physical plane of Nature are deceptive to the purely physical vision because they are the product of Tama—darkened Rāja. Deceptive also are the phenomena of the mental plane—though not as deceptive as those of the physical—to a mental vision the light of which is not derived from the spiritual plane—the mysterious machine room which alone supplies the life-substance and springy of action to the mental and physical planes. The student of physical and mental Nature who is not provided with the microscope of spiritual insight is apt almost invariably to read her in both these aspects incorrectly. He should not, therefore, be considered a safe guide for the healthy and harmonious development of human character, which is but a part and phase of one whole Nature called the Universe.

The laws operating in the deepest depth of Nature can only be seen and studied by the illumination of the soul, the Radiance of Krishna's Body. These the Brāhmans, the portion of the Golden Age people who still retain their high state of spirituality, study and learn and utilize in codifying principles and rules for regulating the daily life of the rest of the people. The conception of the caste system betrays their intimate knowledge of these inner natural laws upon which it is based and the profound wisdom with which its organization to the minutest details is arranged. The organization of the caste system is, in fact, devised after the organization of the human body—after the inner and the outer human body. The entire caste system is like a huge living human body—living with its organs and senses in harmonious working order and its mind contributing to and enjoying the effect of that harmony and feeling the higher planes to which the effect of that harmony elevates.

What is the most needed essential for the healthy, harmonious and useful conduct of human life? Love, Intelligence and Wisdom. I had almost said Love or Wisdom, for Intelligence and Wisdom are but manifestations of Love. Intelligence is the light of Love, and wisdom is but its reflection on its own enlightened shadow—the mind. Wisdom likewise embodies both Love and its light. Without wisdom a human being is like a wayward, mischievous animal. Our wisdom (intelligence and thought) inspire and guide our actions. Good thoughts lead us to good actions, bad thoughts lead us to bad actions. We are nothing but our mind and our mind is nothing but our thoughts—commingled effects of the reflections upon the mind of external objects and internal impressions of previous reflections of objects, called Ideas. Thoughts that lead us to bad actions, that is to say, actions which hurt others and us too, which bring inharmony to others and finally to our own mind, are neither beneficial nor useful to our life; they are injurious to its best interests. Wisdom (harmonious, useful thoughts) is therefore the most essential requisite of human life. Without it power and wealthy are apt always to be misused and misdirected, resulting in loss of harmony. And harmony is happiness, happiness which is the goal of all our quests and efforts in life.

Thus the Brāhmans, who devote themselves absolutely to acquiring wisdom by communing with the Soul of Nature and its finest and purest attributes, and to supplying them to those who do not any more enjoy that advantage and privilege, naturally form the head —the seat of wisdom and intelligence—of the social organization, called the four-castes. The lower three castes are indebted to the Brāhmans for wisdom which they receive from them in the form of lessons and codified laws of life which guide their daily existence, just as every one of us is indebted to our intelligence and wisdom for performing the functions of life to our own and our neighbors' benefit. Hence the Brāhmans, who supply the most important essential of life, are protected, provided for and paid utmost homage to, by all the other castes.

Next to wisdom comes strength, physical and mental, another greatly needed requisite of human life. A man needs mind-force to rule his own mind and body as well as those of others to whom he is related, in order to maintain harmony within and without. He needs also physical strength to defend himself and others against attacks and aggressions and prevent encroachments by others upon his property and interests. The Kshatriyas (Kings) form and supply this requisite to the four-caste organism. They form the arms of the Caste-Body, arms being symbolical of strength and ruling power. Without a powerful, noble ruler, all communities of men are liable to find themselves in disorder and inharmony and to suffer from lawlessness and injustice, just as a man who has no strength to defend himself from aggression is liable to be robbed of his possessions and be miserable.

More important than the duty of protecting the life and property of his subjects is the King's duty to help their moral and spiritual well-being. And this the king does by enforcing the performance of the religious duties appertaining to each of the three castes as enjoined in the Vedic laws, discovered and enunciated by the holy ones. Those who do not perform these duties and practices are punished by temporary excommunication and, if still persistent in disobeying the injunctions, by absolute banishment from all societies. These early sages have always held that prevention is better and easier than cure of diseases, physical, mental or spiritual. Regular spiritual practices, performed daily, form habits, and spiritual habits cleanse the impurities of the mind which then becomes fit to reflect the highest spiritual truths by the light of which man witnesses the unity of all Nature, feels the ecstasy of the One Essence which pervades it and stands face to face with his Maker.

The next essential of harmonious human life is food. Most people of our day will say that food is rather the first essential of life. We, in this degenerate age, have indeed come to think so. But the Silver Age people, as well as all really thoughtful people amongst us, do not think so. Food does sustain life, no doubt, but that life, if void of wisdom and force of mind, is not worth living. It is the life of an animal or a vegetable. Food is essential to life; so are wisdom and mental force. Is our life sustained by food alone? I should think not, unless it be the life of a man who is but a little removed from a beast. Happy thoughts furnish the chief support of our life. Our life depends more upon happy and harmonious thoughts than food. If our thoughts are sad and gloomy, we do not enjoy life at all or feel that we are living, although we may eat the daintiest food, be surrounded by luxuries and have plenty of the world's goods. Many of us destroy this food-sustained life suffering from the pangs of miserable thoughts, many die of broken heart and other diseases brought on by the continued pressure of sad thoughts, although well fed and well clothed and well supplied with money and other material comforts of life.

The Vaishyas represent the vital vigor of the Four-Caste organism, and as, according to the Shāstras, the seat of the vital vigor is the loins, the Vaishyas form the loins of that body. The Silver Age Vaishyas take to cultivation of the soil, raising of cattle and trade more for the weal of all mankind than for their own personal aggrandizement.

The Sudras are the feet of the Four-Caste organism, very important members of the body too. They represent devotion through service. Indeed, devotion is the training which each caste passes through while fulfilling the duties of its profession. The Brāhmans are to practise meditation on God and study the Veda; the object is devotion to the Supreme Being. The Kshatriyas are to rule the other two castes with the aid of the Brāhmans, with love, justice and fatherly care according to inspired laws; the object is to acquire devotion to the Supreme Being. The Vaishyas are to till the land and raise cattle only to serve God's creatures; the object is to cultivate devotion to the Supreme Being thereby. The Sudras must serve the three pure and spiritual upper castes for the purpose of absorbing their spiritual magnetism through association and examples; the object is the same, cultivating devotion to the Supreme Being by loving service rendered to His devotees.

Thus the Caste system, though worked by human agency, is founded upon natural laws. As originally created in the Silver Age, its object is to form people into groups according to the similarity of their natural casts of mind, according to their natural instincts and dispositions, with the view of uniting them by the bonds of their common as well as mutual interests, with the view of helping them to material, moral and spiritual elevation by compelling them to discharge their respective duties according to the injunctions of inspired codes of laws furnished by illumined Sages whose very pure, unselfish, spiritual and self-sacrificing life is the best guarantee of the wisdom, efficacy and usefulness of their advices and teachings. The relation of interdependence which these caste laws consolidate is in itself one of the grandest achievements of the caste system for the good of the human family. It is the most practical means of preserving unity and a natural preventive of the disintegration of the whole mass of humanity into individual units than which no greater calamity can happen to the general as well as individual weal of human beings. Yet, alas, among non-caste races this is happening, especially in the Western countries of the world, at the present time!

Look at the state of the human society at this moment, particularly that portion of it which is governed by the ideas of what is boastfully called "civilization"! Look at the external results of the internal influence of this civilization! Material comfort and pleasure has become the very ideal of life for its average votary. All, almost all are ever rushing on the path of securing the means for that one end. And in that mad rush they are jostling, hustling, hating, abusing, cheating, killing, and destroying one another physically and morally. In that mad rush for that one goal, in that selfish fight and quarrel, out of the exhaustion brought on by the efforts of that bustling and hustling, they have no time or opportunity or inclination to think of anything which has no immediate concern with that utterly material aim of life. They have no time to think of their mind, much less of their soul, which most of them have abolished as a delusion and an obstacle in the way of material success. They have even no time to look up into the blue heavens during night or during day, to look at the beauties of the stars and the moon, much less to think of what they are and if they have any relation with them. Material interests are fast taking the place of natural love and affection. Husbands and wives are fighting with each other; sons and daughters are ignoring and disobeying their parents; masters and servants have no other regard for each other than that inspired by personal gain; they are always trying to cheat instead of helping each other. Members of communities are divided against each other and only seemingly united for the sake of selfish ends. Society exists only in name. Envy, malice, greed, selfishness, conceit having gained predominance in all, have split society into units.

This chaotic state of modern human "society" in most parts of the world, the truth of which will be generally acknowledged, ought to convince all thoughtful people as to the wisdom and vital necessity of the caste system. Even now where the four-caste system still exists, it does serve to keep the communities within its rule as one compact body to a great extent, through the influence of its laws of interdependence and mutual harmonious relations. Thanks to Caste, even the degenerating Hindoos of to-day have not yet been split into units. This remnant race, a race which has still retained some of the instincts of the original human family of the Silver Age, is being more and more divided and subdivided, no doubt, at the present day. But these divisions and subdivisions are large coherent parts, linked together into one great whole. The entire race is divided into four castes; the castes are divided into sub-castes, the sub-castes again into communities, the communities into rural societies, the rural societies into large patriarchal joint-families. The members of families are ruled by the patriarchs, the patriarchs by the headmen of caste communities, the caste communities by the spiritual (Brāhman) guides, through the enforcement of the salutary Scriptural injunctions, the infringement of which is punished, in minor cases, by expiations involving physical hardships and spiritual austerities and purifying ceremonies, and, in serious cases, by expulsion from caste, which, in India, is a greater disaster than natural or material calamities. And all these rulers and ruled are related to one another by more or less natural love and affection or respect and sense of duty born in their blood through thousands of generations of hereditary habits of thought and life; all are inspired to command and obey by the spirit of the Veda which their mind absorbs through the performance of their respective spiritual, social, physical duties as enjoined by the later Scriptures—the Shāstras, which are modified embodiments of the revealed laws of the Basic Spirit of All Life, the all-cementing Spirit of Nature—Love.

SECTION VIII. THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE.

Simultaneously with the introduction of the Caste System in the Silver Age are instituted the Four Stages of Life, the object of which is to help the lower state of human consciousness to gradually attain to the highest spiritual realization. They are graduated processes of mental and physical application and discipline by the practice of which individuals are to recover the absolute illumination, being and bliss enjoyed by all human souls in the Golden Ago. They impart a scientific training to the human mind in order to enable it to subdue its Rājasic (active) and Tāmasic (darkening) attributes by developing the Sāttwic (illuminating) attribute through concentration upon the Basic Principles of Life—the Centre and Essence of Absolute Purity and Illumination.

The first stage is called Brahmacharjya or spiritual Pupilage. The second stage is called Grihastha or Householdership. The third stage is called Vānaprastha or Asceticism, The fourth stage is called the Bhikshu or Wandering Friarship. The first, third and fourth stages are enjoined for the three twice-born castes and the third and fourth are open even to a Sudra if he is found worthy of adopting them. The Brāhman, Kshatriya and Vaishya are called twice-born; the first birth is the physical birth, the second is the spiritual birth through the investiture of the holy thread from which begins the performance of daily spiritual duties and practices.

The first stage of life begins, soon after this spiritual initiation, at the age of twelve, when the boy goes to reside with the Gooroo (spiritual guide) for studying the Veda and for undergoing spiritual, mental and physical discipline. The Gooroo is an illuminated Brāhman sage whose love and affection for the pupils in his charge and anxious care and efforts for the unfoldment of their souls are not equalled by those of even their parents. He feeds, clothes and lodges them in his own abode free of any charge or consideration whatever. His one thought and concern is to help them to realize the Truth, to be freed from the bondage of matter and thus enter the Absolute Realm of Eternal Love and Happiness.

While every student has to perform the same regular spiritual rites and practices and to say the prayers daily after physical purification, the method of training adopted by the Gooroo for developing their soul is not the same in each case. To some he explains the truths of the Veda and asks them to meditate on their meanings. Others, who show natural instincts of devotion, he trains into practical realization of the same truths without teaching them a single word of the Veda.

The chief method of a Gooroo's teaching is to draw the student's mind away from worldly attractions and turn the direction of the mind's vision inwards into the soul. Devotion is the principal aim, for devotion means concentration and when that concentration is fixed upon the contemplation of the Essence of things which pervades them all and yet is unmixed with the outer substance and attributes of their manifested forms, the mind absorbs the perfect purity of that Essence and is filled with the serenity and the inexpressible joy born of absolute freedom from the influence of matter.

If the student obtains this practical realization of the Essence of Existence, he remains for the rest of his life in this stage of spiritual pupilage. But he is no more a pupil; he becomes a teacher of pupils—a Gooroo. It is this practical realization that invests a student of wisdom with the magnetic power of awakening that realization in others.

A spiritual student's training is essentially based upon a life of purest mental and physical chastity; the student is not allowed by the teacher to mix or talk with worldly men or to discuss temporal subjects among themselves. When the practical realization of the Truth is attained, life's one object is attained. If, however, after staying and studying with the Gooroo for twelve years, the student fails to have this practical grasp of the soul of wisdom, he leaves the Gooroo and with his permission returns to his family, takes unto himself a good-tempered, virtuous and spiritually-inclined wife and enters into the life of a householder. But the principal object of this second stage of life is the same as in the first-realization of the Truth. The practice for physical and mental purity is continued, the Veda is studied daily, diligently and devotedly, and the meanings of its truths and principles contemplated with calmness and concentration, comparing their lessons in the light of the experiences of worldly life. The obligations of household life are greater than those of pupilage. Life must be sustained on simple and sparing meals; the means of living must be honestly earned, the hungry or needy beggar must be satisfied according to means and ability; the pleasures and comforts of household existence must be enjoyed moderately and with discrimination; parents, wife, members of the family, poor relatives and dependents and devoted servants must be supported, loved and made happy. All legitimate wishes and wants of the wife must be satisfied, she must be cherished with affection and respect and regarded as the presiding deity of household harmony. If during this household life the truth is realized, the householder remains at home during the rest of his earthly days; he has no need to go into the third stage of life, for, as I have said, realization of the Truth is the end and aim of life in all its stages. If, however, this main object is not obtained, the householder, after twenty-four years of family life, must enter the third stage, that of the ascetic. He must leave his home with his wife and retire from worldly life and interests and live in some secluded forest place near his home and practise austerities, physical and mental, in order to purge the mind of all its material inclinations for a period of twelve years. If during that time the realization is obtained, he remains in that stage for the rest of his life, imparting the realized knowledge and wisdom to all who may come to him.

If, however, he fails in his search for it, even in this ascetic stage, he returns to his home with his wife, and if he has a son to protect and support her, he leaves his home and family, with the permission of his parents and his wife, and enters into the fourth stage, that of the holy wanderer, to tread the path to Freedom and Truth all alone, sundering all ties of worldly life and surrendering himself—body, mind and soul—to that search. He must not occupy his mind with any other but that one thought; he must live on one simple, spare meal a day, enough to sufficiently satisfy his hunger; he must dress himself in scant saffron-colored clothes, the color of Love and Wisdom. He must ever be wandering, never entering a human home, and rest under trees; but must not sleep under one tree or on the same spot or place for three successive nights, Never talk with people on any other subject than that of his search, and discuss it with humble spirit of inquiry with illuminated sages he comes across on his journeyings.

This all-absorbing meditation does help to awaken in him at last the light of the Truth, and blessed with that light he is filled with joy and feels himself the happiest mortal, in touch and tune with the purest spirit of the Universe, the Infinity which is the parent of the Finite. With the first flush of this realization he changes the color of his clothes from saffron to while, the color of Illumination (Sattwa), and as he wanders still, in the ecstasy of the bliss of Truth within his soul, gradually the objective phenomena around him seem unsubstantial and finally grow dim and shadowy, while the realized spirit in which his mind lives immersed, he perceives to be the only substance of those shadows. Then, as he roams along, laughing and sporting like a little boy in the fulness of the glee within, he becomes in time almost unconscious of anything outside of his soul. His very sight is a blessing to all beholders, a blessing which fills them temporarily with the delight of his intoxication. He has no count of time or notion of the phases of time—whether it is morning, noon or night. He lives henceforth in Infinity and views all Nature as dwelling within him and anon views himself as a wavelet in the infinite ocean of its Essence. He does not feel any hunger, for with the satisfaction of his spiritual hunger all hunger has been satisfied forever. He is the embodiment of ecstasy, uncovered ecstasy, and even his physical cover, the white cloth, has fallen from his body. He stands naked as naked Nature's most natural man. He is clothed with the illumination of his soul, like the Golden Age man.

SECTION IX. THE COPPER AGE.

The Divine Cycle of time can be likened to a fruit. Like the ripening and rottening of a fruit, the Divine Cycle develops and degenerates into rottenness. The Golden Age is its ripening stage. At the end of that age, it is fully ripe. The Silver Age is its overripe stage. The Copper Age marks the stage of its rottenness and the Iron Age is its fully rotten stage. At the end of the Iron Age, it is reduced to its seed out of which springs the sprout of the Golden Age. And during the junction period of the Golden Age, covering 144,000 human years, the sprout grows into a flowering tree which bears fruit with the commencement of the Golden Age proper.

The length of the Copper Age is 2,000 divine years, equal to 720,000 human years, while its Twilight periods are 72,000 years each. Men in this age are seven cubits or ten and a half feet high. Virtue lives in it in two quarters, the other two being filled by vice. Vitality is rooted in the blood; men live as long as there is blood in their body. Gold and silver leaving become dearer the metal generally used in making household utensils is copper which is found abundantly, whence the age derives its name. The intensity of accelerated Rāja within Nature helps the assertion of Tama in all her manifest phases, although Sattwa still has some influence. The trees become less in height, less fruitful and the fruits less sweet; crops less abundant despite the best efforts of cultivation. Cows give less milk than in the Silver Age, while wild animals become more ferocious. Most animals can speak in the Silver Age, but now only some of them, the higher ones, are blessed with that power during the major portion of it.

People in the Copper Age become more and more outward-looking generally, especially the Sudras, some of whom having become filled with dense Tama, revolt against all laws and discipline and turn into thieves and robbers. These latter are expelled from their caste and banished out of civilized centres of population the world over by the kings. They are called by the common name of robbers and specific names of Yavans and Mlechhas which means men who are wild, barbarous and unclean by nature and habits. These Yavans and Allechhas come into existence towards the end of the Silver Age and rapidly increase in number during the Dwāpar (Copper Age), towards the end of which they form the majority of the world's population and are known by different names according to the localities of their habitation, different shades of their dark attributes, and the callings they pursue: Yavan, Kirāt (hunters), Gāndhār, Cheen (Chinese), Shabar, Barbar (barbarian), Shak, Tungār, Kanka, Palhab, Ramat and Kambhoj. The kings in the Copper Age have a hard time to protect their subjects and their territories from the depredations of these wild characters and robbers. The king's first duty is to preserve peace in his kingdom so that his subjects may not be disturbed in the performance of their religious duties, may apply themselves to the study of the Veda and the contemplation of the Supreme Deity and tread the path of virtue without annoyance.

The king's chief duty being to insure the material welfare of his subjects with the sole view of helping their spiritual welfare, the punishment for the infringement of caste and religious rules is made severe and swiftly administered. At the same time the spirit of the times is taken into consideration and many rigid rules are relaxed and minor faults are pardoned. The four castes are subdivided into sub-castes according to the different callings that the Vaishyas and Sudras show preference in their inclinations to follow. Those who take to agriculture are classed as cultivators, those who rear cattle and sell milk and butter are called milkmen, while those who take to trade and commerce are called traders and merchants and so on. All these form into different sub-castes under the general caste of Vaishya. Similarly the Sudras are subdivided according to their respective callings; viz., blacksmiths, potters, carpenters, masons, etc., all under the general caste of Sudra. The chief object of these sub-castes is to save human society from disintegration as much as possible, to preserve the masses of men in as large coherent sections as practicable linked to one another through spiritual, moral and material relations.

Another, and almost equally important, object of the caste and sub-caste systems in the Copper Age is to conserve the heredity of their different intellectualities, talents, healthy characteristics, and instincts. This becomes all the more necessary owing to the fact that it is in the Dwāpar Yuga that husbands and wives begin to have carnal relations. During the Golden Age and the greater portion of the Silver Age all men and women are, what Christians call, virgin-born. The fuss that is made about this immaculate conception succeeds only to excite a smile of pity in the Shastra-enlightened Hindoo—a smile of pity for the ignorance of the facts in the past history of the human race of which they seem to know so little and care less to know more. This fact about the Golden and Silver Ages, this generally prevailing immaculate child-conception, ought to open their eyes. If they require any authority for this statement, I refer them to the study of the Shānti Parva of the Mahābhārata.

The Yoga-power of the Golden Age men draw disembodied souls from the Bhuba sphere and spiritual souls from higher spheres to enter into a woman's womb and be born on the earth plane. The will-force of these men supplies these incoming souls with the material of a physical body. In the Silver Age the higher illuminated Brāhmans and Saints can bring about conception in the same way, while others bring it about by making the women eat magnetized "charoo," which not only draws these spirits to the womb, but supplies the material for the physical body. In the Copper Age, however, the decrease of spirituality takes away the power, and so the material of the physical body has to be supplied by the physical vigor of the father and the blood of the mother to enable a disembodied spirit to enter the womb and grow into a child.

This degenerated process of procreation coming into vogue in the Copper Age renders it necessary to fuse higher magnetism into the lower castes, as well as to preserve the magnetism of each caste from deterioration. The means adapted for securing these ends is to allow the two higher castes men to marry girls of the lower castes, and towards the latter end of the Copper Age even Vaishyas are permitted to marry Sudra girls. The lower caste men, however, are never allowed to marry higher caste women, as it degenerates the breed, the seed being a far more potent factor in producing excellence of growth than the soil. The offsprings of these intermarriages form into castes distinct from those of their fathers and mothers, lower than their father's and higher than their mother's.

In order to preserve the magnetism and the hereditary talent and instincts from deteriorating, the castes are divided into sub-castes according to their general proclivities and professions of livelihood. Each sub-caste must marry within its own circle, and must eat food cooked by the hands of its own members. Heredity is now being believed in by the materealistic people of the modern world, and when that belief in heredity will have grown stronger in their minds, they will then take practical measures to preserve the good qualities of heredity from being spoilt by coming in contact with the bad magnetism of its lower traits.

This human magnetism is a subject which is worthy of the study of modern scientists. If they can find out what it is, ascertain its properties, power for good and evil, and how good magnetism can be conserved and transmitted and how bad magnetism can be purified, they will do humanity greater good than they have done by the discovery of steam and electricity, which, judged from the standpoint of the highest good, ought to be considered as very doubtful boons. Magnetism is not useful magnetism if it is purely physical. It is not worth preserving, it is injurious, and its contact ought to be avoided.

It is spiritual magnetism which is worth preserving. It is spirituality which is the medium which transmits good heredity from parent to progeny. The mind is the storehouse and battery of all human magnetism. The vibrations of the mind pervade every atom of the body and the mind's vibrations are generated by its principal and most powerful thoughts and sentiments. These vibrations are the essence of these thoughts and sentiments, and magnetism is that subtle essence impregnated with the potencies of the mind mixed with the subtle forces of the physical body.

Marrying, cooking and eating within the caste helps to conserve in the individual members thereof the spiritual and mental magnetism, generated by the performances of the religious duties and ceremonies and spiritual incantations which form the daily routine of household life enjoined by the Scriptures.

Thus wisdom, talent, traits, instincts are all ingrained in and transmitted through the blood from generation to generation of each caste. The caste is like a university, each home a school, and the instincts and talents, brought into being with the birth of each member, are the implanted principles of the knowledge of each profession of which it is the caste. A carpenter's caste is a guild for carpentry, a carpenter's home is a technical school for carpentry where the natural talent and love for the art are partly imbibed by the instincts of heredity and partly by observation which is the best system of training.

With these tendencies of material arts are born in the blood of the child the germs of the moral and spiritual culture of the parents. These germs shoot forth into healthy growth under the fostering care of the child's guardians, aided by the religious, social and domestic duties the growing child has to perform daily. The carpenter is as much a useful member of the four-caste society as the Brāhman. The householder Brāhman can no more do without a carpenter than a carpenter can do without a Brāhman. But the value of the Brāhman's help to the carpenter being more important to the development of his soul, which is the true aim and goal of earthly life, the obligations of the other castes to the Brāhman are greater and deeper than those of the Brāhman to the Sudra. The question may now be asked, has that carpenter no chance of becoming the equal of the Brāhman through spiritual culture? Yes and no. Yes, because Brāhmanhood is nobody's monopoly. Brāhmanhood is but a state of the human mind—the ensouled state of the human mind, and anybody who develops this state of mind, even though he be encased within a Pariah's flesh, lays legitimate claim to Brahmanhood. Only he must make that ensouled mental state perfect, only he must enter the fold of Brāhmanhood through the door of Nature, through the ingress of Rebirth. The maturity of a material or mental condition is best known to Nature. A mass of animal flesh, lying on the surface of Mother Earth, undergoes all the processes of disintegration and putrefaction, and when that disintegration is complete, Earth assimilates and absorbs it again; it becomes a part of her body, it becomes earth itself. What is true of material plane of Nature is true as well of her mental and spiritual planes. When a carpenter has developed full Brāhman consciousness, Nature opens to him wide the portals of the spiritual caste which had looked down upon him in his carpenter birth. Even in his carpenter birth, he does not go unrewarded. The case of the carpenter Rishi, called Suta, is a luminous instance in point. His spiritual culture was so great that the highest illuminated sages (Rishis) learned from him the lessons of the Purānas which he preached to them, sitting on a raised platform with their reverential permission. He was considered a knower of Brahm and so enjoyed the respect paid to the highest spiritual beings. A Sudra may not become a Brāhman, but may become through practical spiritual culture a higher being than a Brāhman even in his Sudra birth, and be born into a highly spiritual Brāhman family, by sheer dint of merit, the merit of developing spiritual consciousness—in the next birth. Similarly a Brāhman, born in the highest family of his clan, will, by developing Pariah qualities, be outclassed in his Brāhman birth and enter through the door of Nature into a Pariah family in a subsequent birth.

The above facts and truths are known to a child even of every caste. Even a child knows, either in the Copper Age or to-day among the four-caste people, that a caste-birth is dependent upon Karma (actions). A Sudra, therefore, takes the very fact of his birth as sufficient reason for his being placed in the lowest caste. He is reconciled to his fate, a fate with the potentialities of his actions in previous existences. And the little gloom of sadness that his lowly station of life casts upon his mind is illumined now and again by the silver lining of the consolation that it is in his power, if he so wills it, to be a high Brāhman in the next incarnation, if he succeeds in developing his higher soul-consciousness.

The Veda in the Copper Age has for the first time to be studied and its truths practised in two parts—the philosophical and the ceremonial parts. Men generally are degenerated so much in this age that they can no longer grasp the truths of the Upanishads without first purifying their body and through the purified body the mind. The Vedas are divided into Upanishads (Eternal Spiritual Truths) and the Mantras (incantations, hymns and ceremonies, the practice of which cleanses the impurities of the mind and body). In the Dwāpar Yuga, therefore, the performance of the ceremonials of the Veda is much in vogue. When the body and mind are purified, they are made fit for grasping the meanings of the higher philosophy of life and become receptive to the influences of the subtlest spiritual vibrations.

SECTION X. THE IRON AGE.

But even these attempts and safeguards for keeping up the higher individuality of the human race fail to retard the course of the degeneration which Nature herself undergoes in the process of time. The fruit of Divine Cycle, spoken of in the beginning of the last Section, reaches an advanced stage of rottenness which marks the commencement of the Twilight Period of the Kali, called also Tamas or the Dark Age. The characteristics of Kali are symptoms of Nature filled with denser gloom than heretofore.

The usual Kali, the last section of every Divine Cycle, is much more dense with Tama (darkness) than the one in which we are living now. The reason is that at the junction of the last Dwāpar and the present Kali, the fullest incarnation of the Supreme Deity, Sri Krishna himself, came on earth to dwell among men for a period of a hundred years. This Avatār and source of all Avatārs, this central Form-Point of All-Pervading Brahm, this Embodiment of Para-Brahm, is gracious enough to come and dwell among men on earth only once in 71 Divine cycles. We, the degenerated mortals of this Dark Age, are more fortunate than even humanity of many a Golden or Silver Age. The Supreme Lord sanctifies the soil of the earth-plane of every universe with the all-purifying touch of His Lotus-Feet by turns. The countless universes that spring out of Him and return in germ-form again into Him have the grace of His personal touch and supervision at appointed times. When Krishna comes to live in any of the universes, Nature therein is turned inside out, so that the inmost essence of it may flow over its surface and wash off all the causes of pollution. It has been recorded by the contemporary sages of Krishna-Leelā, the all-knowing sages who came down to earth from higher planes to act as scribes of the Lord's deeds, that by the coming of Krishna not only the 36,000 years, forming the junction period of Kali, was destroyed, but also almost half of the age of Kali proper, while the Lord's Rash-Dance with the Gopis absorbed a whole Kalpa covering 36,000 Divine cycles out of the age of Brahmā.

The age of Brahmā is the age of the universe, that is to say, the age of Brahmā is equal to the duration of creation. Brahmā lives for 100 Brāhmic years and one Brāhmic year is made up of 360 Brāhmic days. One day of Brahmā is equal to one Kalpa, so is his night. A Kalpa is equal to 12,000,000 divine years. One night of Brahmā covers the same period of time so that one day and one night of Brahmā covers 24,000,000 divine years. Multiplying these figures by 360 we get 8,640,000,000 divine years, which is the span of one year of Brahmā. Multiplying these figures by 100 we get the span of Brahmā's age, 864,000,000,000 divine years, which being multiplied by 360 we get 311,040,000,000,000 human (lunar) years, the age of Brahmā, the duration of creation.

Thus the night of the Rash-Dance not only absorbed one Kalpa equal to 4,320,000,000 lunar years out of the duration of creation, but also 36,000 years which form the junction of Dwāpar and Kali, as also about half the span of the Kali proper. About this last there is no authoritative statement in the Shāstras, but it has been stated therein that when Krishna left the earth and went up to His Abode, the forces of "advanced Kali" overtook humanity. Now, according to the Hindoo almanacs, about 5,000 years only have passed since Krishna's departure, which would mean that it is now but the beginning of Kali proper, the span of which is 360,000 years. But the signs and symptoms of the times already visible are unmistakably of the middle Kali, detailed descriptive features of which are to be found in the Mahābhārata as also in all the Purānas. This being so, it is not a wrong supposition that we are already in the middle Kali and that Krishna-Leelā has also taken away half the age of Kali proper.

Nor is it necessary that the Kali has to pass through the conventional figures of its duration given in the Shāstras. What is true of individual humanity is true also of the whole mass of humanity which represents Kali. Kali is nothing else but the forms of Nature's changes of the latter end of a Divine cycle. We, men and beasts and trees and grass, productions of Nature, represent the phases and features of Kali. Dense Tama working within Nature brings out the characteristics of this dark age to the surface of the earth. Man being the most highly organized product and the most powerful medium of her attributes, the thoughts and actions of men are most affected by it. The dark thoughts and actions, called sin in common parlance of humanity, form the sins of Kali which represents the spirit of human conduct and characteristics in the Dark Age. We see that people, who are naturally healthy and robust, shorten their longevity by over-indulging in vice. Thus a life of vice or sin, that is, life lived in violation of Nature's laws, begets diseases of the body which bring about early destruction. A man for instance, who, according to his natural state of health, ought to live for one hundred years, is often found to die at the age of thirty, a victim of dissipated life. This rule applies to Kali. All our accumulated sins form Kali's sins. And these accumulated sins are begetting diseases in the body and mind of humanity from which Kali must die an early death.

This Kali, therefore, with its rapidly increasing accumulation of sin, may come to an end in less than 10,000 years, its conventional period of existence, 360,000 years, being condensed into that short space of time. Judging from the signs of an advanced state of rottenness, already developed, it would seem as if the worst features which hasten its end may manifest themselves in less than a few hundred years. But, like wheels within wheels, the Satya, Tretā and Dwāpar cycles have their sway through its duration by turns. By this I mean that during the course of Kali (Iron Age) features and characteristics of the Golden, Silver and Copper Ages manifest themselves by turns all through it. Indeed, the spirit and attributes of these four cycles weigh the moral and physical atmosphere of each day and night. Supposing the average day begin at 6 A.M., the influence and the attributes of the Golden Age prevail from 6 A.M. to 3:36 P.M.; those of the Silver Age prevail from 3:36 P.M. to 10:48 P.M.; those of the Copper Age from 10:48 P.M. to 3:36 A.M., and those of the Iron Age from 3:36 A.M. to 6 A.M. Illumination and comparative calmness dwell within and without us from morning tip to high noon owing to the predominance of Sattwa, the predominant attribute of the Golden Age. From noon activity (Rāja) asserts itself, and by about 3 o'clock in the afternoon it gains full force when light (inside and out of us) is on the decline and calmness is disturbed, introducing the influence of the Silver Age, which lasts until about 11 at night, when Tama (Darkness) begins its reign and, combined with Rāja, holds the rule of the Copper Age. The signs of Tama are laziness, inaction, sleep, etc. We begin to experience these from it o'clock at night and until three in the morning slumber and gloom envelop us and Nature. But sleep and darkness are deepest from three to five in the morning, these hours are ruled by Kali, the Dark Age.

Thus cycles revolve within cycles as they revolve even within the smallest cycle, called Throughout the Iron Age, the conditions of the first three cycles prevail one after the other, and when this influence of the Copper Age conditions in the Kali Age spends itself, conditions of darker Kali prevail for a time: Then again signs are visible of Golden Age influence and after a time degenerate into Silver Age phases, then into Copper Age mixed light, then again into the deep gloom of Kali within Kali, and so on. As Kali advances more and more the successive, rotatory influences of the other three cycles become feebler and feebler, and at last under the deepest gloom of Kali gaining fullest power, their influences are kept down absolutely. Here begins the end of the Kali period. Soon after the signs of the coming Golden Age are visible. These ever recurring conditions of the Golden and Silver Ages, though feeble in their influence, counteract the destructive influences of vice and sin and thus help to save the life of Kali from coming to an end all too soon.

The Kali Yuga is called the Iron Age, because gold, silver and copper becoming scarcer, people use all sorts of mixed metals, but chiefly iron, in making household utensils, iron being found in great abundance. The average stature of mankind is three and a half cubits or 5 feet 9 inches. Virtue is reduced to one-quarter, the other three-quarters being made up by vice. With the decrease of spirituality ill every succeeding age, the root of vitality has been transferred from marrow to bone, from bone to blood. Now, in the Kali that root of life is destroyed. Life in this age is generally sustained by food alone. The effect of constant concentration upon changeful, external objects rebounds upon the body, causing loss of tissue greater than that in the former ages, which men still have their minds turned inwards, between whiles, to have a dip in the source of All-Life—the soul.

The Vedas in the Iron Age are no more understandable to the people in their original sound-embodiments except to a small portion of spiritual Brāhmans. They are therefore presented to the people in general in the form of Shāstras and Purānas. These embody the Vedic truths, principles and ideas in easy constructions and simple language, illustrated by examples and stories drawn from facts in life of the past ages. The Shāstras are, therefore, nothing but the Vedas, simplified, explained and illustrated, with the object of enabling the deteriorated intellect of the Iron Age man to grasp the light and the spirit of the Storehouse of Revealed Wisdom. The ceremonial parts of the Vedas are likewise modified and rendered easier for practice in the form of Smritis (forms of spiritual duties and sacrifices) the daily performance of which is enjoined upon the four-caste people.

Yet for all that, despite all these strenuous efforts of the small spiritual portion of the people to save the souls of their brethren from succumbing to the dark forces of the age and the allurements of a material life of undisciplined liberty and license, human society falls into a mental and material state of chaos, typical of the stage of complete rottenness of a fruit. As many grains of wheat when ground in a mill look like one substance, called flour, which means so many separate grains of wheat have been divided into such minute parts that they appear as one substance; so, in this most advanced stage of decomposition of human society, its various and separate composing parts and phases—religious, racial and material—will be divided into one whole-looking mass of separate minute units. People's minds, at this latter end of the age, will be so far removed from the idea and notion of God and the soul that the Vedas, the Bible and all other religious books and philosophies that are now extant will disappear, and even the fact that they had at any time existed will be completely forgotten. Churches and temples, mosques and synagogues will no more be seen on the face of the earth, humanity will live for life itself—the grossest material life. Each individual will differ from the other on all imaginable points of view on all subjects. Every man and woman will be his or her own God or ideal. There will be no sympathy between them, each one asserting his or her independence over all of his or her fellow creatures. They will think, act, move, eat, sleep as their own wild, wilful dispositions will prompt causing quarrels and fighting between another. Selfishness and aggression will the keynote of their character, the number of Mlechhas and Yavans and outcasted people increases out of all proportion to the number of the four-caste people who may now be called the Root Race of the earth. In the process of time this Root Race of people will cling round the centre of the earth to save their spiritual instincts, pure ways of living, customs and habits from being contaminated by association with the strayed portion of humanity who now form the greatest majority. As, when in the throes of death, through disease, the only visible action of life is centered in the heart, while all other parts are numb and comparatively lifeless, so with the advance of Kali, the spiritual life becomes centered in the heart of the earth. This heart of the earth is called in the ancient Scriptures the Sea-Girt Isle or peninsula, the Belt of the Earth's Body—now called India. In this heart only of the earth live the original four-caste people, while the rest, broken away and divorced from the parent stock and religion, are scattered all over the rest of her body.

The signs of advanced Kali are already visible all over the earth at the present moment, nay, even of its most degenerated stage, especially in the West—signs and symptoms which are manifesting themselves here and there even in men of the Root Race. What a horrid state of affairs the closing period of Kali will bring about may be judged from the prophesies made five thousand years ago by the illuminated sages of this Root Race, prophesies which are correct in startling exactitude and some of which are on all fours with the signs and characteristics of our present period, as will be seen from a few extracts from them given below.

The conditions of the different stages of Kali have been described in all the eighteen Purānas, and the Mahābhārata which embody the history of the human race from creation to destruction—the past, present and future phases of human society of all times and of all climes. The following few details translated from a minute description of the early, middle and final stages of the Kali, given by the Mārkandeya, in reply to questions put in to Kali by King Yudhisthira in an assemblage of saints, kings and nobles, inspired by incarnated Krishna, who was present in person, will be of interest to most of my readers:

Raja Yudhisthira, Emperorer of Bhārat-varsha, the central of the seven continents of the ancient world (now known as all the world), during his sojourn among the Rishis (saints) of Kāmyak Forest, with a view to ascertain the future state of the world, asked the immortal saint (Brahmarshi) Mārkandeya, "Holy one! After having beard your wonderful accounts of the creation and the destruction of the universe, we have become anxious to hear about Kali Yuga, and we beg you to describe this age in detail to us. What results will be produced by the destruction of the Root Religion? What will the valor, strength, food, behavior, costume and longevity of the human race he like? And how long after will commence the Satya Yuga (Golden Age) again?"

Saint Mārkandeya answered: "O King! In the Satya Yuga, virtue being void of the least touch of greed, deception and other evil qualities of the mind, was like a full four-footed bull. In the Tretā, it lost one and in the Dwāpar two feet. In the Dark Age it will be only one-footed, the other three feet being destroyed by vice.

"The longevity, heroism, intelligence, strength and mind-force of mankind are gradually decreasing age by age; they will decrease still more in the Kali. The Kings, Brāhmans, Vaishyas and Sudras will practice false piety, and this false piety will be turned into a means for cheating others. Love of truth will decline in men; decline in love of truth will cause shortness of life; shortness of life will prevent the proper cultivation of wisdom, Little wisdom will beget ignorance, ignorance will beget greed, greed anger, anger delusion. And swayed by greed, anger, delusion and sensuality, they will be envious of and antagonistic to each other.

"The twice-born castes will become void of truth and holy meditation. The mean Chandals (pariahs) will behave like Kshatriyas and Kshatriyas will imitate the ways of the Chandals. Husbands will become extremely henpecked; feed upon fish, flesh and milk of goat and sheep. Man will aggress upon and develop an irreligious, atheistic and thievish nature.

"People will not discriminate about the eatableness or uneatableness of any food. Brāhmans will cease performing spiritual practices, will denounce the Vedas, and being deluded by false discussion give up holy ceremonials and engage themselves in mean actions. Father and son will feel no compunction in killing each other, but will rather feel delighted at the deed and call it an act of God.

"The whole world will become Mlechha (unclean and barbarous) void of religious performances and ceremonials, gladness and festivities. Almost all people will be miserly, defame their friends and defraud and steal the money of poor unprotected widows. They will possess little strength and no energy, yet be greedy and filled with material, sensual attachments; will gladly listen to the advices of well-known bad persons and accept charity by false pretences.

"Conceited yet illiterate kings will challenge one another to fight, will try to kill one another, and will be like thorns in the sides of their subjects. Setting at naught their duties of protecting the people, they will, swayed by greed and pride, be ever anxious to rob and punish them, and, prompted by their cruel heart, they will snatch away the property and wives of honest and pious men.

"None will ask a father for his daughter to marry, and no father will offer his daughter in marriage. The daughters will choose and marry their own choice without consulting anybody or going through any ceremonials.

"Brother will cheat brother. Even learned persons will lose love of truth and be addicted to telling lies; the old will act like boys, boys like old people. Cowards will brag of their bravery and brave men will act like cowards. All will eat the same kinds of food and be tilled with selfishness and delusion. No one will trust another.

"Brāhmans, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas will cease to restrain and rule the Sudras or even each other. All castes will be levelled and become one—unclean and barbarous. Fathers will not pardon sons, nor sons pardon their fathers. Wives will cease from attending upon their husbands; men and women will all be self-willed and envious of each other. People will not perform any good works or ceremonies to satisfy the gods. They will not listen to each other; there will be no gooroo (teacher) or chelā (pupil), all will be filled with the darkness of ignorance. At Kali-end. their longevity will be sixteen years; most will die immediately after that age is reached. Women will give birth to children at the age of seven or eight, and, in some cases, even at five or six; men will beget children at the age of ten or twelve; in some cases, even at the age of seven or eight. No husband will be satisfied with his wife, no wife satisfied with her husband. They will have very little wealth, and even those who will have no wealth whatever will wear the false marks of wealth. Envy will be predominant in every mind, hunger ever burning in every stomach. Cross-road and streets will be thronged by wantons and libertines. Women, forsaking shame, will bear spite and grudge for their husbands. Men will be all of unclean habits, manners and customs, cat anything and everything and will be terrible in every way and action. They will cheat all in buying and selling of goods, out of sheer greed.

"None will care to acquire spiritual wisdom, yet all will be busied in performing spiritual ceremonies for form's sake and be naturally addicted to crooked acts. They will show the faults of each other. People will live in constant fear of losing their lives as victims of their own greed and envy. The Sudras will kill Brāhmans and rob them of their property, and the Brāhmans being thus oppressed will cry out in agony and out of fear will roam unprotected on the surface of the earth. Some of them will take refuge in lonely spots on river banks, in mountains and in dangerous places to save their lives; others being oppressed by the grinding taxes of unjust kings, will lose all patience, and taking to the services of Sudras, will perform forbidden acts.

"The generality of people will become fierce and of murderous propensities. The Sudras will become spiritual preceptors and Brāhmans will listen to them, believing their wrong precepts to be demonstrated facts. The low will be high and the high low: all conditions will be reversed. All, all people will forsake God and worship Mammon. The Sudras will cease from serving Brāhmans. The Earth will no longer be adorned by the temples of God. All mankind will be impious and develop frightful characters. Meat will be their food, liquor their drink. The one object of life will be to increase flesh and blood. The rain-clouds towards the close of Kali will pour down rains out of season so that, overwhelmed by incessant and untimely rain, people will subsist on fruit and roots. Pupils will not care for the lessons of their teachers, temporal or other, and will act against their wishes. The poverty-stricken Gooroos (spiritual teachers) will curse their disciples. There will not be the least trace of respect left in the world. The relations of friends and kiths and kins will depend upon obligations of money.

"At the close of the cycle flowers will grow upon flowers, fruits upon fruits, and, owing to the rains not falling in season, there will grow but scanty crops, so that famine-stricken populations of the earth will cry out in hunger and roam upon her surface. Fragrant things will lose their odor, sweet juices will lose their sweetness, seeds will not germinate properly.

"Women will transfer their love from husbands to servants. All women, including wives of heroes, will prefer somebody else to their husbands for lovers. Pious men will be in mean stations, short-lived and poor; vicious men will occupy high positions, have long life and prosperity. There will be constant breaking out of fires all over the land. Tired and hungry wayfarers will ask for food and refuge from householders in vain, and out of despair rest and sleep upon the road. Crows and other birds, snakes and beasts will make unearthly noises."

When Nature and human society will be thus revolutionized, reaction will naturally set ill. When the fruit of Divine Cycle will thus reach its extreme stage of rottenness, out of its seed will spring forth a shoot which will grow into a fresh tree. That tree, in turn, will bear fresh fruit—a fresh Divine Cycle. In this state of the darkest gloom, faint streaks of russet light will be visible which will grow bright anon and give birth to the dawn of the Golden Age again.

Reaction is the law of Nature, reaction is the result of every phase of action. When vice has its full run on the face of the globe, when it has reached its lowest depth and wildest reign, it spends its force, becomes weakened, allowing virtue to lift its head once more and build its palace of light upon its ruins. Vice is born of Tama, and virtue of Sattwa and the active force of both is Rāja. Time is the self-manifesting kaleidoscopic revolution of color-pictures on the transparent canvas of ether. After the deepest shades of dark colors are exhausted, there is a reaction of lighter colors. When Tama has exhausted its force, Sattwa asserts itself by natural law.

This healthy reaction growing stronger will gradually evolve some order out of the chaos of the closing Kali. A portion of the people will get disgusted with the reign of utmost licence and inharmony, and, endowed with strong mental force to resist the influence of the age, will pierce the veil of darkness enveloping everything and see the light that dwells within. These will stimulate this reaction, and spread the discovered light among others groping in the darkness for that light.

The four castes will be gradually established once more in some fashion.

At this stage will be born in the village of Sambhalpur in India a Brāhman of great spiritual force, named Vishnujashā, and in time will become the father of the coming Incarnation of Vishnoo, one of the most powerful incarnations—Kalki. The Lord Kalki will rapidly grow into youth and spiritual power. At his mere mental call will come to him countless vehicles, armours, all kinds of weapons of war and soldiers. He will then lead them to battle against all the Mlechhas, robbers and tyrants, all over the world, who will fall shouting in agony before his mammoth sword. After extirpating them all, the hold will establish once again perfect order and harmony on the surface of the earth. After ruling the world as Emperor and infusing into humanity the spirit of highest spirituality, Kalki will make over the charge of the earth to the Brāhmans and disappear after entering a most beautiful forest.

Here will commence the Junction period of coming Golden Age. During this period, covering 144,000 lunar years, all germs of vice, crime and sin will be destroyed and men will become engaged in spiritual practices and ceremonials. The earth will be adorned with beautiful forests and gardens, buildings, lakes, reservoirs, and temples of God and many are the sacred ceremonies that will be constantly performed on her surface. Everywhere will be visible holy Brāhmans, saints and anchorites. The four stages of life which before were filled with rogues will now be filled by pious, honest and truthful men. The deep-rooted bad instincts and associations will then be driven out of the minds of all people. All the crops will grow plentifully in their proper seasons. All people will be employed in charitable acts, religious sacrifices, and in performing spiritual duties. The Brāhmans will again be absorbed in holy meditations, satisfied and serene; the Kshatriyas will exhibit their valor; the kings rule the world with justice and mercy; the Vaishyas carry on trade and agriculture; the Sudras serve the three upper castes with loving service.

This purifying process of humanity will be carried on all through the 144,000 years bringing about the highest spiritual, mental and physical development. From the shortest stature to which the human body will be decreased, it will gradually, through this long process of time and culture, be increased once again to the height of 21 cubits or 31 1/2 feet. With the height of the body will be reached the height of spiritual perfection. All, all men and women will once again enjoy the blessings of predominant Sattwa within Nature and roam upon the earth in the Garden of Eden with their vision turned inwards into the soul of things, their body clad with the sky, their hearts filled with ecstasy, their thoughts centered upon God. We all who are now walking the earth, had walked in the last Golden Ago and formed members of that godly fraternity of Adams and Eves and shall do so in the coming Golden Age, unless we develop higher soul-consciousness and, before the end of the present Kali, transfer ourselves to any the upper four spheres or to the highest beyond the universe—Golaka—the abode of Absolute Love, to dwell with our only Lover and Beloved—Krishna.

SECTION XI. MANWANTARA OR THE DELUGE.

The next larger cycle of time is called the Manwantara or the Deluge. When the Divine Cycle has revolved 71 times it brings about a cataclysm. The oceans surge up and cover the entire earth with its waters, even the highest peaks of the Himalayas being submerged, and remain so for the period of 71 Divine Cycles. This world-wide natural catastrophy occurs periodically, owing to more and more increased accumulation of the sins of humanity, who, along with all living beings and vegetation are thus destroyed by submersion. The only man saved is the most virtuous and spiritual man of the time, who becomes the Manoo elect, that is, the spiritual governor of the next Cycle which extends between the time of the reappearance of land after the Deluge to the next Deluge. This period is called Manwantara, the period between two Manoos. The account of the Deluge as given in the Old Testament of the Bible has been taken from minute accounts recorded in the Alatsya (Fish) Purana and the condensed facts about them given in all the Purānas as well as the Mahābhārata. Only, the Bible version is distorted in some particulars.

Since the beginning of the present Kalpa creation, six Manwantaras, each ending with the Deluge, have passed away. We are just now living in the seventh of which twenty-seven Divine Cycles have rolled away and we are now living in the Iron Age of the twenty-eighth. Many millions of years therefore have gone by since the last Flood. Towards the end of the Kali Yuga of the last Manwantara, mankind became filled with the utmost corruption. But there was, according to the Mahābhārata and the Bhāgavat Purana, one man, by the name of King Satyavrata, whom this spirit of corruption failed to touch. He was almost as pure and spiritually powerful as Brahmā, the Creator, while he was possessed of uncommon physical beauty. He was engaged in spiritual austerities and meditation in a holy forest on the top of the Himalayan mountains for many hundred years. One day, while he was sitting in contemplation on the bank of the river Cheerinee, a little fish leapt out of the water into his hands. He threw it back into the river but the fish, to his surprise, spoke and begged the king to protect him from a large fish coming to devour him. Satyavrata out of compassion took the fish into his hands again, went home and placed it in a water-pot. He tended him as his own offspring. The fish gradually grew so big that he had to be taken to a large pond, but after a few years the pond could no more hold the fish, so large had it become. The King wondering at this unprecedented growth suspected the fish to be Vishnoo Himself. The fish begged Satyavrata to put him into the holy Ganges which he did by his Yoga power. In time, however, the fish growing still larger, he had to be taken to the ocean. The King exhibited his yoga-power again by carrying that huge fish to the ocean.

As soon as he was thrown into the sea, the phenomenal Fish smiled and thus addressed the King, "O thou kind one! Thou hast saved and protected me in every way, but I will leave nothing undone to return this kindness. Now, listen! The time has come for one of the great events of the world. The destruction of the earth is at hand. On the seventh day from this, the earth shall be swallowed up by the waters, from which thou canst not be saved except through me. A large ark shall come to thee into which thou must get with the seven Rishis (Illumined Beings) of the Great Bear who shall help and bear you company. Take thou also all kinds of seeds of all trees, plants, shrubs and creepers, as also pairs of all animals and creeping things on this boat and wait for me. I will soon appear there, bedecked with horns. Do not doubt my words, but do as I tell thee."

The strange Fish then disappeared as Satyavrata said, "So shall it be." He then did just as the Fish had told him. When the ark came, he went aboard with the Seven Rishis of the Great Bear and seeds and animals and waited in anxious contemplation of the Divine Fish which soon appeared as he had promised, bedecked with horns and high as a hillock. He made salutation to him and tied the ark to his horns with a strong heavy rope, whereupon the Fish pulled the ark with great speed and began to play upon the bosom of the ocean.

Then the ocean heaved with huge waves and the waters roared. It all looked as if the ocean was performing a wild dance. The ark was then tossed and whirled about with great force, and soon not a trace of land or sign of any direction was visible. Earth and sky seemed one vast expanse of water under which all men and beasts and birds and vegetation were drowned and destroyed. The Fish and the ark and Satyavrata with the Seven Rishis and the seeds and animals alone existed. The Divine Fish drew and preserved the ark for many years on the surface of the deep.

Long, long time after, when the waters subsided and the highest peak of the Himalayas made itself visible, the Fish drew the ark to it and said in a pleasant voice, addressing the Rishis, "O ye illumined ones! Bind the boat for a while to this mountain-peak," which the Rishis did. In commemoration of this event, this peak of the Himalayas is still called the "Boat-Binding Peak."

Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love