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Rebirth-A Philosophical Study
71
(1) Physical body (Rūpa) composed of matter in its grossest and most tangible form.
(2) Life principle (präna) - a form of force, indestructible.
(3) Astral body (Linga Sarira) - the Double or phantom body, composed of highly etherealised matter which is electrical and magnetic in its essence.
(4) Passions and desires (Kāma rūpa) - It is the centre of animal man.
(5) Mind (Manas) -- the intelligence which is the higher human mind, whose light or radiation links the Spiritual being to the moral man during life. It is the dual principle in its function.
(6) Spiritual Soul (Buddhi) - the vehicle of pure universal spirit.
(7) Spirit (Atma) - the universally diffused “divine principle".
Manas reincarnates and carries the results and values of all the different lives on earth. It uses the human brain to reason from premises to conclusion. Intellect is the lower aspect of man and intuition is the higher aspect. The Lower mind retains all impressions of a life-time and it is involved in the brain with memory and sensation. When man dies lower three principles (1) body (2) prāna (3) linga sarira leave him. The remaining principles - kāma, manas, buddhi and Atma - find themselves in an intermediate state called 'kāma loka'. It is there that the astrals of all being await second death or further dissolution of the elements. The natural
ration of the principles brought about by death would be in three parts (i) the visible body with all its elements is left to further disintegration on the earth plane.
(ii) The kāma rūpa, made up of the astral body and the passions and desires, begins to disintegrate on the astral plane.
(iii) The real man (the triad of Ātma-Buddhi-Manas) begins a period of assimilation of the experiences of the life last lived - in a purely subjective state analogous to dreaming 63
The soul may be detained in the kāma loka if the desires are unfulfilled. The principles will be soon separated if the man is pure. The higher principles then will go to the subjective state of Devachan which is a state of personal happiness in the real being. This will remain entirely on the plane of mind and soul. The state of Devachan would be proportionate to the unexhausted psychic impulses originating in earlier life. Those who were greatly attracted to material gains are drawn back to rebirth here.
63. States after Death, (Theosophy Co., California, U. S. A.), p. 14,
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