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At the outset, it is necessary to apprehend correctly Mr. Oxley's opinions about the constitution of man and the progress of what the learned author is pleased to call "life-principle" after death. The author recognizes the trinity of man, and names the three entities that constitute him—body, spirit and soul. He calls "Soul" the "inmost of all," "eternal, incorruptible, unchangeable and inseparable from the grand Life, called God," while describing "Spirit" as the "inner or intermediate active agent which guides, propels and uses as its instrument the body, or that covering which is exterior to itself" (p. 221). From these explanations it is apparent that the author means by "soul" and "spirit" the same entities as are denoted by the two Sanskrit terms Atma (7th principle) and Sookshmasariram, or Lingasariram, respectively. The author is at liberty to attach any connotations he pleases to these words, as no definite meaning has yet been attached to them by English writers. But I do not think he has used the word Spirit in the sense above indicated throughout his book; for, he further says that there are 12 degrees or stages of ascent (p. 40), which the life-principle in man has to pass through in its spiritual progress; and we are also informed that, on reaching the 12th stage, man becomes an angel. Further progress from angel-hood upwards or inwards is admitted, though the author does not undertake to describe it. He farther proceeds to say (pp. 53, 56, 181, &c.,) that particular individuals are in some mysterious way connected with particular spiritual communities "receiving their life-influx" from them and imbibing their influence. And every human being will, in the course of his progress, become an angel of some particular description or other.
Now I beg to submit, with all due respect to the author's guru, that these views do not harmonize with the teachings of Vyasa and the other Rishis of ancient Aryavarta. The difference between the doctrines of the ancient Aryan esoteric science and the propositions above laid down, will not be properly appreciated unless the meaning attached by the author
