Observing
the Cycles of
Cosmic and Planetary Life
Cosmic and Planetary Life
A
Master of the Wisdom
From the English language edition of the book
“La Fin du Monde” by Camille Flammarion (see page 47)
“La Fin du Monde” by Camille Flammarion (see page 47)
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Three Kinds of Pralayas
A Master of the Wisdom
…The completion of the so-called mineral cycle is
immeasurably longer than that of any other kingdom. As you may infer by analogy
every globe before it reaches its adult period, has to pass through a formation
period - also septenary.
Law in Nature is uniform and the conception, formation,
birth, progress and development of the child differs from those of the globe
only in magnitude. The globe has two periods of teething and of capillature -
its first rocks which it also sheds to make room for new - and its ferns and
mosses before it gets forest.
As the atoms in the body change [every] seven years so
does the globe renew its strata every seven cycles. A section of a part of Cape
Breton coalfields shows seven ancient soils with remains of as many forests,
and could one dig as deep once more seven other sections would be found
following. (…..)
There are three kinds of pralayas and manvantara: -
1. The universal or Maha pralaya and manvantara.
2. The solar pralaya and manvantara.
3. The minor pralaya and manvantara.
When the pralaya No. 1 is finished the universal manvantara
begins. Then the whole universe must be re-evoluted de novo. When the pralaya of a solar system comes it affects that
solar system only. A solar pralaya = 7 minor pralayas. The minor pralayas of
No. 3 concern but our little string of globes, whether man-bearing or not. To
such a string our Earth belongs.
Besides this within a minor pralaya there is a
condition of planetary rest or as the
astronomers say “death”, like that of our present moon - in which the rocky body
of the planet survives but the life impulse has passed out. For example. Let us
imagine that our earth is one of a group of seven planets or man-bearing worlds
more or less eliptically arranged. Our earth being at the exact lower central
point of the orbit of evolution, viz., half way round - we will call the first
globe A, the last Z. After each solar pralaya there is a complete destruction of our system and after each solar pralaya
begins the absolute objective reformation of our system and each time
everything is more perfect than before.
Now the life impulse reaches “A” or rather that which
is destined to become “A” and which so far is but cosmic dust. A centre is
formed in the nebulous matter of the condensation of the solar dust
disseminated through space and a series of three evolutions invisible to the
eye of flesh occur in succession, viz., three kingdoms of elementals or nature
forces are evoluted: in other words the animal soul of the future globe is
formed; or as a Kabalist will express it, the gnomes, the salamanders, and the
undines are created.
The correspondence between a mother-globe and her
child-man may be thus worked out. Both have their seven principles. In the
Globe, the elementals (of which there are in all seven species) form (a) a
gross body, (b) her fluidic double (linga
shariram), (c) her life principle (jiva); (d) her fourth principle kama rupa is
formed by her creative impulse working from centre to circumference; (e) her
fifth principle (animal soul or Manas,
physical intelligence) is embodied in the vegetable (in germ) and animal
kingdoms; (f) her sixth principle (or spiritual soul, Buddhi) is man (g) and
her seventh principle (atma) is in a film of spiritualized akasha that
surrounds her.
The three evolutions completed: palpable globe begins
to form. The mineral kingdom fourth in the whole series, but first in this
stage leads the way. Its deposits are at first vaporous soft and plastic, only
becoming hard and concrete in the seventh ring. When this ring is completed it projects
its essence to globe B - which is already passing through the preliminary
stages of formation and mineral evolution begins on that globe. At this
juncture the evolution of the vegetable kingdom commences on globe A. When the
latter has made its seventh ring its essence passes on to globe B. At that time
the mineral essence moves to globe C and the germs of the animal kingdom enter
A. When the animal has seven rings there, its life principle goes to globe B,
and the essences of vegetable and mineral move on. Then comes man on A, an
ethereal foreshadowing of the compact being he is destined to become on our
earth. Evolving seven parent races with many offshoots of sub-races, he, like
the preceding kingdoms completes his seven rings and is then transferred
successively to each of the globes onward to Z.
From the first man has all the seven principles
included in him in germ but none are developed. If we compare him to a baby we
will be right; no one has ever, in the thousands of ghost stories current, seen
the ghost of an infant, though the imagination of a loving mother may have
suggested to her the picture of her lost babe in dreams. And this is very
suggestive. In each of the rounds he makes one of the principles develop fully.
In the first round his consciousness on our earth is dull and but feeble and
shadowy, something like that of an infant. When he reaches our earth in the
second round he has become responsible in a degree, in the third he becomes so
entirely. At every stage and every round his development keeps pace, with the
globe on which he is.
The descending arc from A to our earth is called the
shadowy, the ascending to Z the “luminous” (…..). We men of the fourth round
are already reaching the latter half of the fifth race of our fourth round
humanity, while the men (the few earlier comers) of the fifth round, though
only in their first race (or rather class), are yet immeasurably higher than we
are - spiritually if not intellectually; since with the completion or full
development of this fifth principle (intellectual soul) they have come nearer
than we have, are closer in contact with their sixth principle Buddhi. Of
course many are the differentiated individuals even in the fourth round as
germs of principles are not equally developed in all, but such is the rule.
… Man comes on globe “A” after the other kingdoms have
gone on. (Dividing our kingdoms into seven, the last four are what exoteric
science divides into three. To this we add the kingdom of man or the Deva
kingdom. The respective entities of these we divide into germinal, instinctive,
semi-conscious, and fully conscious). (…..) When all kingdoms have reached
globe Z they will not move forward to re-enter A in precedence of man, but
under a law of retardation operative from the central point - or earth - to Z
and which equilibrates a principle of acceleration in the descending arc - they
will have just finished their respective evolution of genera and species, when
man reaches his highest development on globe Z - in this or any round.
The reason for it is found in the enormously greater
time required by them to develop their infinite varieties as compared with man;
the relative speed of development in the
rings therefore naturally increases as we go up the scale from the mineral.
But these different rates are so adjusted by man stopping longer in the
inter-planetary spheres of rest, for weal or woe - that all kingdoms finish
their work simultaneously on the planet Z. For example, on our globe we see the
equilibrating law manifesting. From the first appearance of man whether
speechless or not to his present one as a fourth and the coming fifth round
being the structural intention of his organization has not radically changed.
Ethnological characteristics however varied, affecting in no way man as a human being. The fossil of man or his
skeleton whether of the period of that mammalian branch of which he forms the
crown, whether cyclop or dwarf can be still recognised at a glance as a relic
of man. Plants and animals meanwhile have become more and more unlike what they
were. (…..) The scheme with its septenary details would be incomprehensible to
man had he not the power as the higher Adepts have proved of prematurely
developing his 6th and 7th senses - those which will be the natural endowment
of all in the corresponding rounds. Our Lord Buddha - a 6th round man - would
not have appeared in our epoch, great as were his accumulated merits in
previous rebirths but for a mystery. (…..)
Individuals cannot outstrip the humanity of their round any further than by one
remove, for it is mathematically impossible - you say (in effect): if the
fountain of life flows ceaselessly there should be men of all rounds on the
earth at all times, etc. The hint about planetary rest may dispel the misconception
on this head.
When man is perfected qua a given round on Globe A he disappears thence (as had certain
vegetables and animals). By degrees this Globe loses its vitality and finally
reaches the moon stage, i.e., death, and so remains while man is making his
seven rings on Z and passing his inter-cyclic period before starting on his
next round. So with each Globe in turn.
And now as man when completing his seventh ring upon A
has but begun his first on Z and as A dies when he leaves it for B, etc., and
as he must also remain in the inter-cyclic sphere after Z, as he has between
every two planets, until the impulse again thrills the chain, clearly no one
can be more than one round ahead of his kind. And Buddha only forms an
exception by virtue of the mystery.
We have fifth round men among us because we are in the latter half of our
septenary earth ring. In the first half this could not have happened. The
countless myriads of our fourth round humanity who have outrun us and completed
their seven rings on Z, have had time to pass their inter-cyclic period begin
their new round and work on to globe D (ours). But how can there be men of the
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th rounds? We represent the first three and the sixth
can only come at rare intervals and prematurely like Buddhas (only under
prepared conditions) and that the last-named the seventh are not yet evolved!
We have traced man out of a round into the Nirvanic state between Z and A. A
was left in the last round dead. As the new round begins it catches the new
influx of life, reawakens to vitality and begets all its kingdoms of a superior
order to the last. After this has been repeated seven times comes a minor
pralaya; the chain of globes are not destroyed by disintegration and dispersion
of their particles but pass in abscondito.
From this they will re-emerge in their turn during the next septenary period.
Within one solar period (of a pralaya and manvantara) occur seven such minor
periods, in an ascending scale of progressive development. To recapitulate there
are in the round seven planetary or earth rings for each kingdom and one
obscuration of each planet. The minor manvantara is composed of seven rounds,
49 rings and 7 obscurations, the solar period of 49 rounds, etc.
The periods with pralaya and manvantara are called by
Dikshita “Surya manvantaras and pralayas”. Thought is baffled in speculating
how many of our solar pralayas must come before the great Cosmic night - but
that will come.
… In the minor pralayas there is no starting de novo - only resumption of arrested
activity. The vegetable and animal kingdoms which at the end of the minor manvantara
had reached only a partial development are not destroyed. Their life or vital
entities, call some of them nati if
you will - find also their corresponding night and rest - they also have a
Nirvana of their own. And why should they not, these foetal and infant
entities. They are all like ourselves begotten of the one element. (…..) As we
have our Dyan Chohans so have they in their several kingdoms elemental
guardians and are as well taken care of in the mass as is humanity in the mass.
The one element not only fills space and is
space, but interpenetrates every atom of cosmic matter.
When strikes the hour of the solar pralaya - though
the process of man’s advance on his last seventh round is precisely the same,
each planet instead of merely passing out of the visible into the invisible as
he quits it in turn is annihilated. With the beginning of the seventh Round of
the seventh minor manvantara, every kingdom having now reached its last cycle,
there remains on each planet after the exit of man but the maya of once living
and existing forms. With every step he takes on the descending and ascending
arcs as he moves on from Globe to Globe the planet left behind becomes an empty
chrysaloidal case. At his departure there is an outflow from every kingdom of
its entities. Waiting to pass into higher forms in due time they are
nevertheless liberated: for to the day of that evolution they will rest in
their lethargic sleep in space until again energized into life in the new solar
manvantara. The old elementals - will rest until they are called to become in
their turn the bodies of mineral, vegetable and animal entities (on another and
a higher string of globes) on their way to become human entities (see Isis)
while the germinal entities of the lowest forms, and in that time of general
perfection there will remain but few of such - will hang in space like drops of
water suddenly turned to icicles. They will thaw at the first hot breath of a
solar manvantara and form the soul of the future globes. (…..) The slow
development of the vegetable kingdom provided for by the longer inter-planetary
rest of man. (…..)
When the solar pralaya comes the whole purified
humanity merges into Nirvana and from that inter-solar Nirvana will be reborn
in higher systems. The string of worlds is destroyed and vanishes like a shadow
from the wall in the extinguishment of light. We have every indication that at
this very moment such a solar pralaya is taking place while there are two minor
ones ending somewhere.
At the beginning of the solar manvantara the hitherto
subjective elements of the material world now scattered in cosmic dust -
receiving their impulse from the new Dyan Chohans of the new solar system (the
highest of the old ones having gone higher) - will form into primordial ripples
of life and separating into differentiating centres of activity combine in a
graduated scale of seven stages of evolution. Like every other orb of space our
Earth has before obtaining its ultimate materiality - and nothing now in this
world can give you an idea of what this state of matter is - to pass through a
gamut of seven stages of density. I say gamut advisedly since the diatonic
scale best affords an illustration of the perpetual rythmic motion of the
descending and ascending cycle of Swabhavat - graduated as it is by tones and
semi-tones.
You have among the learned members of your society one
Theosophist who without familiarity with our occult doctrine, has yet
intuitively grasped from scientific data the idea of a solar pralaya and its
manvantara in their beginnings. I mean the celebrated French astronomer
Flammarion - “La Résurrection et la Fin des Mondes” (Chapter 4 res.).[4]
He speaks like a true seer. The facts are as he
surmises with slight modifications. In consequence of the secular refrigeration
(old age rather and loss of vital power), solidification and desiccation of the
globes, the earth arrives at a point when it begins to be a relaxed
conglomerate. The period of child-bearing is gone by. The progeny are all
nurtured, its term of life is finished. Hence “its constituent masses cease to
obey those laws of cohesion and aggregation which held them together.” And
becoming like a cadaver which abandoned to the work of destruction would leave
each molecule composing it free to separate itself from the body for ever to
obey in future the sway of new influences. The attraction of the moon (would
that he could know the full extent of its pernicious influence) would itself
undertake the task of demolition by producing a tidal wave of earth particles
instead of an aqueous tide.
His mistake is that he believes a long time must be
devoted to the ruin of the solar system: we are told that it occurs in the
twinkling of an eye but not without many preliminary warnings. Another error is
the supposition that the earth will fall into the sun. The sun itself is first
to disintegrate at the solar pralaya.
… Fathom the nature and essence of the sixth principle
of the universe and man and you will have fathomed the greatest mystery in this
our world - and why not - are you not surrounded by it? What are its familiar
manifestations, mesmerism, Od force, etc. - all different aspects of one force
capable of good and evil applications.
The degrees of an Adept’s initiation mark the seven
stages at which he discovers the secret of the sevenfold principles in nature
and man and awakens his dormant powers.
Read More:
* “A Glance at the Future”
* “A Personal Commitment to Life”
* “Visualizing the Future of Mankind”
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Helena Blavatsky
(photo) wrote these words: “Deserve,
then desire”.
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2. The solar pralaya and manvantara.
3. The minor pralaya and manvantara.
NOTES:
[1] Source: “The Mahatma Letters”, pages
93-99. The letter is dated July 1882.
[2] See the article “The Cosmic Creation in Every Foetus”.
[3] Examine “The Process Between Two Lives”.
[4] We did not obtain a book with the specific
indications given by the Mahatma. Camille Flammarion discusses the birth and
death of worlds in several texts and books, including “Astronomie Populaire” (1880), pp. 89-104, and pp. 383-384,
footnote. It is worthwhile reading the whole chapter “Les Destinées du Soleil”, pp. 371-387. One of the main texts by
Flammarion which express the ideas discussed by the Master is available in the
associated websites: “L’Origine et la Fin des Mondes”.
Flammarion further developed his theosophical approach to the process of
Pralaya in his 1893-1894 novel “La Fin
du Monde” (Paris, 385 pp.). An English language edition of the book was
published in New York in 1894 by the Cosmopolitan Publishing Company, with
copyright by J. B. Walker. It has 287 pages. Its title is “Omega: the last days of the world”. From this edition we reproduced the image
illustrating the present article. In 1999, the University of Nebraska Press,
USA, published a facsimile reproduction of “Omega: the last days of the world”.
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The above article was
published at the associated websites on 25 December 2020.
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On Pralayas, see
also “The Secret Doctrine”, vol. I, pp. 370-374 and the article “L’Origine et la Fin
des Mondes”, by Camille
Flammarion.
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* “A Personal Commitment to Life”
* “Visualizing the Future of Mankind”
