Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/82

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anything further about this subject here as it has been already fully discussed in the columns of the Theosophist.

Mr. Oxley objects to my statement that "the human spirit (7th principle) has a dignity, power, and sacredness which cannot be claimed by any other God, Deva or Angel of the Hindu Pantheon". Although I had taken care to inform my readers that by human spirit, I meant the immortal and unborn 7th principle or Atma in man, he construed the expression to mean the spirit or life principle in the human degree of his peculiar classification. It would have been better if he had taken the pains to understand my language before venturing to assert that my statement was against the doctrine taught by Krishna. So far as I can see, his notions about the seven principles in man so often mentioned in this journal are utterly confused and incorrect. As the English language is deficient in the technical phraseology required for expressing the truths of Aryan philosophy and science, I am obliged to use such English words as can be got to convey my meaning more or less approximately. But to preclude the possibility of any misunderstanding on the part of my readers I clearly intimated in the passage in question that by human spirit I meant the 7th principle in man. This principle, I beg to submit, is not derived from any angel (not even from Busiris) in the universe. It is unborn and eternal according to the Buddhist and Hindu philosophers. The knowledge of its own Sicarupam is the highest knowledge of self: and according to the doctrines of the Adwaita school of Aryan philosophy, to which I have the honor to belong, there is in reality no difference between this principle and Paramatma.

Mr. Oxley believes that the claims of the Spiritualists have virtually been admitted by the Theosophists, inasmuch as in the opinion of the latter "communications may be established with other spirits." But the learned author fails to percieve that by the word "Spirit" Theosophists mean something quite different from the so-called "disembodied spirits" of the Spiritualists. The belief in question does not therefore