Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

The answer is simple. Because they have the psychic vehicles, the five cognizing senses, by which to convey the sensation of the external stimulus to the mind, and therefore they need no physical brain or nerve. Only, having no physical openings, they cannot manifest the effect of those sensations outside themselves, as animals do; and only an instrument, like the galvanometer, is able to detect the sensations and indicate them by the deflection of its needle. Mineral and vegetable matter having all the twenty-four principles in them, have the mind and the senses, too. Only, they are in a shut-up, undeveloped state, and perform their undeveloped, crude functions like an unconscious mechanism.

It is through the senses that sensations are perceived; and had not the senses been present within a piece of metal or a vegetable, there would be no sensation in it, and therefore the galvanometer would have been useless in its application and results, because, there being no sensation, there would be no deflection of the needle. Professor Bose's experiments conclusively prove not only the unity, but the uniform composition and construction of the whole universe; that all its composing principles are present everywhere; that in some phases they are in a latent and in others in manifest state. The tests of the galvanometer also prove that what is true of the whole universe is true of a particle of earth; that the whole universe is one whole living mass, like a single living being, and that every molecule of its composition is a universe in embryo; because every molecule is instinct with all the forces and properties of the twenty-four principles, which are the materials as well as the attributes of the cosmos.

SECTION XVI. PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL BODIES.

It is the ignorance of the knowledge of the constitution of the universal and human bodies that forms one of the chief obstacles of a correct study of the laws operating behind external Nature, It is the general belief of modern humanity that the human body is made up of flesh and blood alone. This is true so far as the physical body is concerned. But there is another body within us finer than the physical which is the real body and of which the physical body is the outer encasement. This real body is called the Astral Body. The whole human body is like a clock of which the physical covering is its case and the astral body its works. As the mechanical part of a clock is the real clock and its case with its dial and hands forms its covering by which it indicates its working, so the astral body is the mechanical part of the human body and the physical is its case through which it indicates its operations. Though far from perfect, the analogy is very suggestive. For instance, the mechanical part of the clock cannot serve its purpose without the aid of the case, dial and hands. The astral body likewise cannot be of any use without the co-operation of the physical body.

The mechanism of the astral body is composed of eighteen Principles, viz., Consciousness (Intellect), Ego, Mind, the Ten Senses: the Powers of Seeing, Hearing, Smelling. Tasting, Feeling, Speaking, Holding, Moving, Excreting and Generating; and the five attributes of the Elements: Sound, Touch, Form, Taste and Smell. These Principles work through their counterpart-organs of the physical body which is composed of the five remaining Principles, viz., the Five Elements—Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth.

Now let us see how the physical body is composed of the five Elements. The vigor of our father and the blood of our mother, of which our physical body is made, are formations of assimilated food. Every kind of foodstuff, vegetable or animal, is but condensed form of earth's juice; earth-juice is earth. Now Earth is composed only of its five attributes: Sound, Touch, Form, Taste and Smell, the first four of which compose Water, the first three compose Fire, the first two Air, and the first, Sound, is the Attribute of Ether (Akās). Therefore the other four Elements are present in earth on account of their respective attributes being contained in it. Our physical body, therefore, being made of formations of Earth, is composed of the Five Elements.

The material of the physical body is supplied by our parents and the astral body we supply ourselves. The astral body is our permanent body. It puts on new flesh-garments from time to time. When it slips into a new flesh-garment it is called birth; when it slips out of it, it is called death. But really the astral body lives on forever and ever and never ceases to exist unless we find the means and take measures to destroy it. The extinction the astral body is brought about by the mind's absolute dissociation from the bondage and influence of matter and material ideas, and absorption into the Divine Essence, Mukti.

The earth and the visible sky form the physical body of the Universe and the upper six spheres form its astral body which includes still subtler bodies. This means that both the universal and the human bodies are constructed on the same principle. Both are formed of seven bodies, encased like a sheath within a sheath. These are called the Food-made (physical) body, the Vital body, the Mental (or Astral) body, the Psychic body, the Wisdom (or Causal) body, the Blissful body and the Soul body.

SECTION XVII. KARMA.

The Universe is one whole manifestation of Cause and Effect. All Nature is manifested and materialized forces of Action and Reaction. The Doctrine of Karma is based upon the natural law by which action produces reaction, the law of cause and effect. It holds that every action is the cause of every reaction as well as the effect of the action which is its producing cause. The doctrine of Reincarnation specifies the different physical forms in which groups of accumulated causes of reaction manifest themselves in Nature. The laws of Karma are the regulated blendings of the subtle forces of the finer principles of Nature which, operating from within, shape these outer physical forms.