Life after Death
The Theosophical teachings propose that there is Life after Death, and consists of several stages. In the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and the Mahatmas the most frequent description include: a) physical death, b) kāmaloka, c) gestation, d) devachan, and e) reincarnation.
General description
Soul being a generic term, there are in men three aspects of Soul - the terrestrial, or animal; the Human Soul; and the Spiritual Soul; these, strictly speaking, are one Soul in its three aspects. Now of the first aspect nothing remains after death; of the second (nous or Manas) only its divine essence if left unsoiled survives, while the third in addition to being immortal becomes consciously divine, by the assimilation of the higher Manas.[1]
Is there consciousness before Devachan?
In the early Theosophical literature there are several statements suggesting consciousness only "begins after the struggle in Kama-Loka at the door of Devachan, and only after the 'gestation period'":[2]
Every just disembodied four-fold entity — whether it died a natural or violent death, from suicide or accident, mentally sane or insane, young or old, good, bad, or indifferent — loses at the instant of death all recollection, it is mentally — annihilated; it sleeps it’s akasic sleep in the Kama-loka. This state lasts from a few hours, (rarely less) days, weeks, months — sometimes to several years. All this according to the entity, to its mental status at the moment of death, to the character of its death, etc. That remembrance will return slowly and gradually toward the end of the gestation (to the entity or Ego), still more slowly but far more imperfectly and incompletely to the shell, and fully to the Ego at the moment of its entrance into the Devachan.[3]
However, there are some statements that open the possibility of consciousness before devachan. For example, Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
A “spirit,” or the spiritual Ego, cannot descend to the medium, but it can attract the spirit of the latter to itself, and it can do this only during the two intervals—before and after its “gestation period.” Interval the first is that period between the physical death and the merging of the spiritual Ego into that state which is known in the Arhat esoteric doctrine as “Bar-do.” We have translated this as the “gestation” period, and it lasts from a few days to several years, according to the evidence of the adepts. Interval the second lasts so long as the merits of the old Ego entitle the being to reap the fruit of its reward in its new regenerated Egoship. It occurs after the gestation period is over, and the new spiritual Ego is reborn—like the fabled Phœnix from its ashes—from the old one. The locality, which the former inhabits, is called by the northern Buddhist Occultists “Deva-chan”. . .[4]
As can be seen, she describes here the following sequence:
1- Physical death.
2- First interval.
3- Gestation.
4- Second interval (Devachan).
She mentions that the Spiritual Ego can attract to its own sphere the spirit of the medium in either of the intervals, which suggests there can be consciousness before the period of gestation.
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, "The Key to Theosophy" (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1972), 121-122.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 104 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 362.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 85-B (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), ???.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. IV (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1991), 120-121.
Further reading
- Death and After-Death States at Theosopedia