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The Vishnu aspect, that in which the love-wisdom aspect gradually predominates and emerges through the medium of the Brahma aspect. It covers the final two stages of the human personality life, and that period of Egoic growth which embraces the final two Initiations:
This is the temporary consummation, but just as in the animal kingdom, the human mind was latent and instinctive, and just as in the human kingdom the Buddhic aspect is latent and instinctive, so during the final cycle of human endeavor, the Atma, or highest aspect of the Monad, is also latent and instinctive. This must produce later stages of development.
There are no gaps in evolution, and no periods wherein there is total absence of any one aspect; all are ever present but they "show forth" in alternation. Only when the fires of matter are blazing brightly, and become radiatory, does it become possible for the fire of mind to show forth, even though ever inherently present. Only when these two fires of matter and of mind have reached a stage of energetic heat and light, can the Electric Fire of Spirit show forth in its glory. Only again when these three are unitedly burning does the fire of matter die down for lack of that which it may consume, and only when that occurs is it possible for the fires of mind (on mental levels) to burn up that which it has hitherto animated.
When this is accomplished, the fire of pure Spirit (increased and intensified by the gaseous essence of the fire of matter, or "Fire by Friction," and colored, and rendered radiatory by the fire of mind) blazes forth in perfected glory, so that naught is seen save one vibrant flame. This idea can be extended away from Man to a Heavenly Man, and again to the Logos in His cosmic relationship.
THE NATURE OF PRALAYA
We can view pralaya as the work of "abstraction," and as the method which brings the form under the Destroyer aspect of Spirit, working ever under the Law of Attraction, of which the Law of Synthesis is but a branch. The basic law of the system is that which governs the relation of all atoms to the aggregate of atoms, and of the Self to the Not-self. By an act of will the planetary schemes persist, by an act of will the system is; by an act of the Egoic will man appears. When the Will of the Logos, of the Heavenly Man, and of the human divine Ego is turned to other ends, the substance of Their vehicles is affected, and disintegration sets in. The five types of pralaya which concern the human unit are as follows:
1) The period of pralaya between two incarnations
This is of a triple nature and affects the substance of the three vehicles, physical, Astral and mental, reducing the form to its primitive substance and dissipating its atomic structure. The energy of the second aspect, the form-builder, is withdrawn by the will of the Ego, and the atoms composing the form become dissociated from each other. This condition is brought about in gradual stages:
a) The withdrawal of the life force in the Etheric vehicle from the threefold (dense, liquid and gaseous) dense physical body and the consequent "falling into corruption," and becoming "scattered to the elements." Objective man fades out, and is no more seen by the physical eye, though still in his Etheric body. When Etheric vision is developed, the thought of death will assume very different proportions. When a man can be seen functioning in his Etheric physical body by the majority of the race, the dropping of the dense body will be considered just a "release."
b) The next stage is the withdrawal of the life force from the Etheric body or coil, and its devitalization. The Etheric coil is but an extension of one aspect of the Sutratma or thread, and this thread is spun by the Ego from within the Causal body much as a spider spins a thread. It can be shortened or extended at will, and when the period of pralaya has been decided upon, this thread of light, or of Solar Fire (note the word "solar") is withdrawn, and gathered back to the atomic subplane where it will still vitalize the permanent atom and hold it connected within the Causal body. The life impulses are then - as far as the Physical plane is concerned - centralized within the atomic sphere.
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