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The nadis in the physical body correspond to the life or Spirit aspect; the nerves are the correspondence to the Soul or quality aspect. That which demonstrates as their united externalisation is the endocrine system which corresponds to the form or matter aspect. These three—the nadis, the nervous system and the glands—are the material correspondences to the three divine aspects; they are esoterically responsive to these three aspects and they make the man upon the Physical plane what he is.
These three groups are themselves conditioned (via the seven centers, as we have earlier seen) by the Astral or mental vehicles, or by the integrated personality, or by the Soul which begins to use the personality as a transmitting and transmuting agency, and—at the close of the Path of Discipleship—by the Monad, via the Antahkarana, using that self-created path as a direct channel of communication to the seven centers and from there to the threefold system of nadis, nerves and glands.
These three major systems within the human being express through the medium of the physical body the condition or the state of development of the centers. The life, the quality and the energy which they represent are conveyed to every part of the physical vehicle via the blood stream.
Today as there is uneven development, with some centers unawakened, others overstimulated, and with the centers below the diaphragm overactive, you have consequently, whole areas of the body where the nadis are in an embryonic state, other areas where they are highly energised but with their flow arrested because some center along the path of their activity is still unawakened or—if awakened—is still non-radiatory. These uneven conditions produce potent effects upon the nervous system and upon the glands, leading to overstimulation in some cases, subnormal conditions in others, lack of vitality, overactivity, and other undesirable reactions which inevitably produce disease.
Effects of Under-Stimulation and Over-Stimulation of the Centers
We might consequently lay down the premise (one which the medical profession will later accept in its entirety) that diseases which are self-engendered, and which are not the result of contagion or infection or of accidents, are caused by the failure, the limitation, the deficiency or the excess, and by the overdevelopment or the underdevelopment, of the endocrine system. This ductless glandular system, via the hormones, affects every part of the physical organism—via the blood stream—and it may therefore be truly posited that when the ductless glands are perfectly balanced and functioning correctly, there will be no diseased areas in the body. The blood stream will then be kept also in perfect condition.
The clue to perfect physical health as it is expressed by a Master of the Wisdom can consequently be directly traced to His full control of the centers, to their balanced state of energy reception and distribution, and to the effect which they produce upon the entire ductless glandular system. By this means every area of the body is properly supplied with the needed forces and is thus kept in perfect condition.
Coming midway between the centers and the corresponding endocrine glands, and acting as the agent for the distribution of energy, is the nervous system. Here, however, difficulty is usually to be found. There is a lack of adequate flow of energy; the energy distributed by its means to the body, via the centers, is unevenly distributed; some centers receive an undue supply; others receive an inadequate amount; some centers are still unawakened, and therefore are nonreceptive; others are prematurely developed and transmit too much force to the areas they govern.
In esoteric medicine and its philosophical interpretation (which is the effective and practical application of the known facts) it is the cerebro-spinal aspect which conditions and governs the entire nervous system, for it is by means of this aspect and through its agency that the centers work and affect the bodily organism, supplying the body with the needed vital energy; thus the nervous system becomes eventually responsive, via the seven centers, to the seven major energies or the seven Ray forces.
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