also called Brahmaloka, Nirvâna and the Triple Spirit
Even at the atmic level, there is a sheath of some sort for the spirit,
for in one sense it seems as though it were an atom, and yet in another it
seems to be the whole plane. the man feels as if he were everywhere, but
could focus anywhere within himself, and wherever for a moment the
outpouring of force diminishes, that is for him a body. The Master’s
nirvanic or atmic consciousness is a kind of point, which yet includes the
entire plane. He can bring that point down through several planes and
spread it out like a kind of bubble. On the outside of that huge sphere
are all the causal bodies, which He is trying to affect, and He, filling
the sphere, appears all in all to each individual.[13]
There are two kinds of time: our time and Gods time; two at least, but
probably many more; for while we know something of our own capacity, we
have no means of gauging the divine capacity. Our consciousness is a
point, moving ever from the past to the future, and we give the name of
“the present” to the dividing moment which divides the two; but this
present is an illusion; it is evanescent - a mere knife edge. Even while
we think of that moment, it has already become the past, and another
moment to us the present.
Our consciousness moves along a certain line - say, for the sake of
illustration, from south to north. Our memory includes more or less
accurately that part of the line over which we have already passed, but
not that which still lies before us; and we usually regard what we call
the past as irrevocable, whereas we recognise that we possess a certain
amount of power to mould our future. That is because we think that the
point which is our consciousness has already moved along a certain line
which cannot now be altered; but that its future movements may to some
extent be controlled, since to us it appears that the events of the future
have not yet happened. It is true that they have not yet happened to us;
perhaps it would be truer to say that we have not yet come to them. It
will help us if we can grasp the idea that we are not in reality that
point of consciousness - or rather we are much more than that. We are the
whole line, and the point of consciousness is passing from one part of
ourselves to another part which is equally ourselves. It is within our
possibilities to awaken the whole of ourselves, to be conscious of
ourselves as a line and not merely as a point; and when we have succeeded
in reaching that, we have transcended the delusion of our kind of time,
for the past and the future lie simultaneously before us.
Take the analogy of a railway train, which we may suppose to be running
from south to north. We move along that line and at any given moment we
see what is visible from the particular point at which we happen to be. We
remember as much as we have observed of the scenery through which we have
passed; but we are ignorant of the scenery which lies before us, if it is
our first journey along the line. We know , however, that the whole
railway exists all the time, and that objects which we see in succession
are really simultaneously in existence, and it is not difficult for us to
imagine a condition in which, by being simultaneously present at every
point, we could have the whole panorama before us at the same time. By
climbing a high mountain or ascending in balloon we could to some extent
realise this idea, except that in that case the point of view would be
entirely changed and so the analogy would be imperfect. But we still have
to realise that there is quite another motion going on - one of which we
are, normally, entirely unconscious. We may typify this by a lateral
motion of the line - say from west to east. So that if we suppose all this
motion to be taking place in a square, it would seem to us that our
evolution consisted in a northward movement in a line parallel to the side
of the square, and to attain the northern side would seem the end and the
object of that evolution. Yet the real goal is all the while, not the
northern side but the north-east corner, and there is another time moving
at right angles to our time, which carries our past and our future with it
just as surely as that fleeting illusion which we call our present. In the
analogy of the railway, this time is typified by the rotation of the
earth, which is all the while carrying the whole railway (with our train
upon it) from west to east, though of this we know nothing by our physical
sensations. That other time is Gods time; and in that time what we call
our past is not irrevocable, but is constantly changing, though always in
the direction of improvement, or evolution.It may be said that the events
of the past may not be changed; but that statement is after all an
assumption. The important events of the past are our contacts with other
egos, our relations with them; and these relations are being changed,
whether we know it or not; for they are in this direction at right angles
to what we call time, which at present we are unable to appreciate. But
just as it is now possible for us to become conscious all along our line
instead of only at one point of it, so will it in the far away future be
possible for us to acquire a consciousness which shall contain the whole
square - a consciousness equivalent to that which now seems to us the
Divine Consciousness. Probably then the whole process will be repeated,
and we shall find that the whole square is moving at right angles to
itself; but it is better to try to grasp one facet of the idea at a time.
In the same way as our railroad is not only being carried round from west
to east as the earth rotates upon its axis, but it is also being carried
through space at a far swifter rate as the earth revolves round the sun;
and it has yet again an additional and quite different motion as the whole
solar system revolves in its incalculable orbit round some far greater
central sun.[19]
