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It is only for a short moment and after its self-revelation, it disappears. It being an eternal power it continues to assert itself. A struggle between the forces of light and darkness follows. The result is the conquest of light over darkness.. This is the history of the origin and evolution of spiritual life in man through different states.
In Buddhist literature, we find in different places brief accounts of this history of the origin and development of this spiritual life. The life-history of Gautama Buddha, studied from different angles and from different sources, will furnish an account of how illumination sets in. The past history from the life of Gautama shows that while he was in his prenatal existence, he was like other human beings-an ordinary human soul living in the lowest world of desires known as Kamadhātu. It is said that due to the virtuous deeds he was translated into highest heavens or Svarga as a deva in the world of desire. He took his birth thereafter in the human world and came to be known as Gautama. This birth marks the first important stage of the entire life of Gautama's soul because it was in this birth as a human being that he renounced the world and continued penances and yogic practices under well known masters or gurus, took his place in the worldly heaven of form as well as in the higher world of the formless. As a matter of fact he reached the farthest point of the universe first through meditation of form and ultimately of the formless in all its stages, but inspite of this great achievement he found to his surprise that he was not able to reach the realm of truth or he could not have a perma nent status in the realm of his realization and had to turn back to his original position. This revealed to him the great truth that inspite of his being able to soar into the utmost region of the formless he was really in a state of ignorance. This shows that inspite of these psychic or super psychic developments he was not awakened to the real truth. The awakening came later on and took him six long years to attain to its perfection.
