The Complete Works of Yogy Ramacharaka. William Walker Atkinson
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sheds upon the lower mental faculties. The intellect may arrange the facts, and deduce a course of action from them, but the soul is satisfied only with the teachings of the Spirit, and until it receives them must feel that unrest and uncertainty that comes when the intellect unfolds and asks that mighty question "Why?" which it by itself cannot answer.
The only answer to the query "Is rebirth a fact," is "Does your soul recognize it as such?" Until the soul feels of itself that the theory is true - because it coincides with that inner conviction, there is no use in arguing the matter. The soul must recognize it for itself - must answer its own question. It is true that the presentation of the theory (we call it a "theory" although the Yogis know it is a fact) will awaken memories in the mind of some - may give them the courage to consider as reasonable the half-formed thoughts and queries which had floated around in their minds for years - but that is all it can do. Until the soul grasps and "feels" the truth of rebirth, it must wander around working on the subconscious plane of life, having rebirth forced upon it by its own desires and longings, losing consciousness to a great extent. But after the soul has begun to "feel" the truth, it is never the same, it carries with it memories of the past, sometimes faint and sometimes clear - and it begins to manifest a conscious choice in the matter of rebirth. Just as does the plant work on the sub-conscious plane, and the animal on a semi-conscious plane and the man on the gradually increasing planes of consciousness, so does man gradually evolve from the sub-conscious stage of rebirth, on to the semiconscious plane, and then on and on, increasing his consciousness from time to time, until he lives on the conscious plane, both in his physical life, and during the rest period, and in the new birth. There are men among us today (few, it is true, but many more than most people imagine) who are fully conscious of the past existences, and who have been so since early childhood, only that their days of infancy were passed in a dreamlike state, until their physical brains were sufficiently developed to enable the soul to think clearly. In fact, many children seem to have a dim consciousness of the past, but fearing the comments of their elders, learn to stifle these bits of remembrance until they fail to evoke them.
Those who have not awakened to the truth of rebirth, cannot have it forced upon them by argument, and those who "feel" the truth of it do not need the argument. So we have not attempted to argue the matter in this short presentation of the theory. Those who are reading this lesson are attracted toward the subject by reason of interest awakened in some past life, and they really feel that there must be some truth in it, although they may not as yet have arrived at a point where they can fully assimilate it.
Many of those upon whom the truth of the proposition is borne home by their inmost feelings or fragmentary recollections evince a disinclination to fully accept it. They fear the idea of being reborn without their consent or knowledge. But as we have stated to them, this is a groundless fear, for, if they are really beginning to "feel" the truth of rebirth, their period of sub-conscious manifestation on that plane is passing away.
Many say that they have no desire to live again, but they really mean that they would not like to live just the same life that they have - of course not, they do not want the same experiences over again - but if there is a single thing in life that they would like; a single position they would like to fill; a single desire that they feel needs to be satisfied in order to make them happy, then they do really want to live again to secure the missing thing. They are here because they wanted to be here - or had desires which cried for satisfaction - and they will live again in just the circumstances needed to gratify their desires or wishes, or that are likely to give them the necessary experience for higher spiritual growth.
To the student of this subject of Spiritual Evolution, a great world of interesting facts open itself. Light is thrown upon history and the progress of mankind, and a most fascinating field of research is presented. We must resist the temptation to go into this branch of the subject, as it would lead us in attractive paths which we are forbidden to take up in these elementary lessons owing to the lack of space. We may find room, however, to say a little about these matters.
The earth is one of a chain of planets, belonging to our solar system, all of which are intimately connected with the others in this great law of Spiritual Evolution. Great waves of life sweep over the chain, carrying race after race along the chain, from one planet to another. Each race stays on each planet for a certain period, and then having developed, passes on to the planet next highest in the scale of evolution, finding there conditions best suited for its development. But this progress from planet to planet is not circular it resembles a spiral, circling round and round and yet rising higher with each curve.
Let us suppose a soul dwelling upon any of the planets of our planetary chain, in a comparatively undeveloped state of spiritual growth - occupying a low place in the scale of evolution. The soul gains the experiences coming to it in that stage, in a number of incarnations, and then is swept away toward the next highest planet in the chain, together with the rest of its particular race, and is reincarnated there. In this new home it occupies a plane distinctly in advance of the one occupied in the last one - its entire race forming the nucleus of a new race there, some being pioneers while the others follow after. But still this advanced stage (as compared with its stage on the planet just left behind it) may be much lower in the scale of progress than other races dwelling on the same planet with it. Some of the races, lowest in the point of evolution on this earth, may have been much nearer the highest stage of development on the last planet inhabited by them, and still they have progressed greatly by the change - the highest on a lower planet perhaps being less highly developed than the lowest on one farther along the planetary chain. Many of the races that formerly inhabited the Earth, traces of whom we occasionally find, have passed on to a higher stage of development. History shows us that race after race came to the front in the earth's development played their part upon the stage of action - and then passed on where? The occult philosophies furnish the missing link of explanation. And our race has grown from the stone - age stage - and still further back - and will continue to progress - and will then pass on, making way for some newer race which may be even now sending out pioneers from some other planet.
This does not mean, necessarily, that each race that history tells us of has passed from the earth. On the contrary, occultists know that some, and in fact most of the races known to history, have incarnated in some of the races today. The confusion is explained by the fact that each race has several sub-races, which really belong to the main race. For instance, occultists know that the ancient Egyptians - he Romans - the Greeks - the Atlanteans - the ancient Persians, etc., etc., are now living on this earth - that is the souls which formerly incarnated in these races, are now incarnated in some of the modern races. But there are other races - prehistoric races - which have passed away from the earth's attraction entirely, and have gone on to the higher planes of action in the higher planets. There are a number of planets lower in the scale of progress than our earth, and there are several higher, toward which we are moving. There are of course, other solar systems - other chains of suns - other sub-Universes (if we may be pardoned for using the term), and all this is ahead of every soul, no matter how lowly or how humble.
Our race, at present, is going through a most important period of evolution. It is passing from the unconscious stage of spiritual development, into the conscious stage. Many have already attained their conscious stage, and many more are awakening to it. The whole race will ultimately have it, this being precedent to their moving on. This gradual awakening to spiritual consciousness, is what is causing all this unrest in the world of thought, this breaking away from old ideals and forms - this hunger for the truth this running to and fro after new truths, and old truths restated. It is a critical period in the history of the race, and many hold that it implies a possible division of the race into two sub-races, one of whom will be possessed of spiritual consciousness, and will move on ahead of the remaining sub-race of slower brothers, who must work up by degrees. But the race will again be united, before it finally passes on from the earth, as it is bound together by the Law of Spiritual Cause and Effect. We are all interested in each other's progress - not only because we are brothers but because our own soul must wait until the whole race develops. Of course the more rapidly developed soul does not have to be reincarnated simply because its slower brother has to do so. On the contrary the highly developed soul spends a long period of waiting on the higher planes of the Astral World while its slower brother works out his evolution in repeated births, the sojourn in the higher planes giving