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c) The third stage is the withdrawal of the life force from so that it disintegrates in a similar manner and the life is centralized within the Astral permanent atom. It has gained an increase of vitality through Physical plane existence, and added color through Astral experience.
d) The final stage for the human atom is its withdrawal from the mental vehicle. The life forces after this fourfold abstraction are centralized entirely within the Egoic sphere; contact with the three lower planes is still inherently possible by means of the permanent atoms, the force centers of the three personality aspects. In each incarnation the life forces have gained through the utilization of the vehicles;
These are wrought into faculty in Devachan, which refers to a state of consciousness, reflecting, in the life of the Personality, that higher state which we call nirvanic consciousness, and which is brought about by Egoic action. It is but a dim reflection in the separated units (and therefore tinged with selfishness and separative pleasure) of the group condition called nirvanic. In this high state of consciousness each separate identity, though self-realizing, shares in the group realization, and therein lies bliss for the unit. Separation is no longer felt, only unity and essential oneness is known.
Sutratma: The "silver thread" which incarnates from the beginning of a period of manifestation until the end, stringing upon itself the pearls of human existence. It is the line of energy which connects the lower personal man with his Father in Heaven via the Ego, the mediating middle principle. Upon it are found those focal points of energy we call the permanent atoms.
2) The period between Egoic Cycles
Herein is hid the mystery of the 777 incarnations and concerns the relation of the unit to his group on the Egoic plane, prior to the unfoldment of the fifth petal. It concerns man in the period between the savage stage and that of the disciple, when he is an average man but still in the two Halls. The mystery of all root races lies here, and the Egoic cycles coincide with the building of racial forms, and civilizations. A man will reincarnate again and again in the various subraces of a root race until a certain cycle has been covered; then he may undergo a pralayic condition until in a later (and sometimes much later) root race he will respond to its vibratory call, and the Egoic impulse to incarnate will again be felt.
3) Next comes the period wherein the man has attained freedom.
A man has at this stage succeeded, under law, in "abstracting" himself, the freed Soul, from out of the matter of the three worlds. He has used and worked with Deva substance and has gained all the vibratory contact possible, and has secured all the intended "realizations" and "revelations"; he can no longer be held imprisoned by the Devas. He is free until, consciously and willingly, and in another round, he can return as a member of a Hierarchy to continue His work of service for the little evolved humanity of that distant time. As this concerns the seven paths of opportunity for a Master we will not deal with it here. This is the great human pralaya.
4) Planetary Pralaya
Man, after these cyclic happenings, is now a conscious part of his group, and a vibrant point in a center in the body of a Heavenly Man, consciously alive and consciously aware of his place in the great whole. This involves a realization as to the center of which he is a point of energy, a knowledge of the type of force he is to transmit, and to manipulate from cosmic levels, and a conscious relation with the six other centers in the planetary Life with which he is associated.
This period of conscious activity in Etheric substance (of which the planetary body is formed) persists according to the karma of the planetary Lord, for the unit is now consciously associated with planetary karma, and is a participant in the working out of the will and purpose of the Lord of His Ray. On the higher planes of the system, this stage persists for the length of the life of a scheme; to which a period of pralaya succeeds that has its beginning towards the end of the seventh round in any scheme or of the fifth if the Law of Persistence of a scheme is working out through cycles of five.
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