RECENT scientific discoveries which have tumbled century-honored theories from their pedestals to an abyss where we are hastening to bury them in that oblivion of disuse which the world heaps upon its recognized errors, make it important to the student that a little more space be given to pointing out the interesting corroboration of the Tattvic Law which we can find in all of these wonders.
The greatest bar to scientific progress is stated in this trenchant form by Mme. Blavatsky :
” Pure force is nothing in the world of physics; it is ALL in the domain of Spirit ! ” Now, notice this particularly. It is the world of force which the modern scientist is beginning to penetrate; a world of such stupendous forces as astounds him, and at every step he is coming nearer to the Tattvic Law.
The ” Forty-nine Fires ” of the Vedas are the seven permutations of the Tattvas and the two forces, hidden as yet and undefined, behind the positive and negative currents of Prâna (7 X 7 = 49). Every one of these has well-determined chemical and physical potencies in contact with terrestrial matter, and a distinct function in the physical and spiritual worlds, with a corresponding relation to a human psychic faculty. To the ancient Hindu adept all these hidden forces were as an open book, and years ago India’s initiates accurately predicted all the amazing discoveries and inventions of recent years, which have furnished new foundations for science and kept the world marvelling.
Out of the invisible, Sir William Crookes, with his ” radiant matter,” and Roentgen, with his X-ray, lured two of these ” Forty-nine Fires.” With the X-ray, the principle of radio-activity which revolutionized science was established; and it paved the way for the discovery of the twentieth-century marvel, radium, which disclosed radio-activity as an actual property of matter. No one conversant with the Tattvic Law can doubt that radium and all the radio-active substances can be properly classified among the ” Forty-nine Fires ” of the Vedas.
In all these progressions and permutations, the higher, more subtle plane, or state, of matter is positive to the next lower, and every lower one is the result of the interaction of the positive and negative phases of the next higher state.
Radium furnishes us with invaluable data corroborating the Tattvic Law. But in order to comprehend the velocity of these vibrations (which are ceaselessly bombarding us) and the intricacy of the Tattvic permutations, a few words concerning the nature of atoms will be helpful. The word atom is still defined in standard dictionaries, and in text-books upon physics published within the present decade, as that ultimate particle of a molecule which is indivisible. In a very slipshod fashion, atom has also been defined as interchange-able with molecule, and, therefore, it has crept into very general usage in the same sense. Al-though a molecule is described as ” The smallest portion of any substance in which its properties re-side,” it is possible, by means of heat or some other chemical agent, to separate a molecule into two or more particles, called atoms, ” and these can-not be further divided ” was the ultimatum of Natural Philosophy. Until quite recently, the hydrogen atom was the smallest mass of matter known to science, and, therefore, the accepted unit of atomic weight.
But what says Prof. George Darwin as to this? ” It has been proved that the simplest of all atoms namely, that of hydrogen consists of eight hundred separate parts, while the number of atoms in the denser metals must be counted by tens of thousands. These separate parts have been called corpuscles, or electrons, and may be described as particles of negative electricity. It is paradoxical, yet true, that the physicist knows more about these ultra-atomic corpuscles and can more easily count them than is the case with the atom of which they form the parts.”
Some of these corpuscles move at a speed of 200,000 miles a second, and the unscientific reader will get a clearer idea of their minuteness if told that the molecule, of which they are parts, is so small as to be invisible even under the most powerful microscope. Sir William Thompson made this graphic comparison: If a drop of water as large as a pea were magnified to the size of the earth, the molecule would appear scarcely larger than the original drop.”
Radium gives off three kinds of rays which have been named respectively alpha, beta, and gamma. The alpha rays are compared to the ” ions,” or tiny particles, which fly from red-hot metals. They are positively electrified, and the particles are about twice the mass of the hydrogen atom. These rays have a velocity of 20,000 miles a second, and are constantly emitted from radium in its natural state without perceptible loss to its sub-stance any more than the exhalation of its odor changes a flower. The beta rays are negatively charged corpuscles, about one two-thousandth the size of those making up the alpha rays; and, save for their greater velocity circa 100,000 miles a second are said to exactly resemble the cathode rays produced by an electric discharge inside a Crooke’s tube.
The gamma rays are not so well understood as the two others, but are believed to be identical with X-rays. Are they not the union of the alpha and beta rays after passing through the Akâshic state forming a Tattvic permutation? A spectrum analysis of the rays should determine this. The spectrum of every substance and element reveals its Tattvic nature by means of the prevalent color, or colors; and the greater the heat to which the matter is subjected the nearer it approaches its solar, instead of terrestrial, state.
Akâsha is well-named the ” all-pervading Tattva.” In chemical changes of one state of matter into another, you have been shown in these illustrations not only that Akâsha intervenes, but how it acts; that it is the substratum, or base (in all phenomena or paradoxes) which baffles the scientist. As in things external, so it is within; and your observation of natural phenomena will aid vastly in the understanding of your own microcosm, wherein the Tattvic Law comes under the influence of your thoughts and will-power, and the currents of Prâna may thereby be thrown entirely out of rhythmic balance.
In consequence of its universal prevalence normally, it is not surprising to learn that the excess of Akâsha is disastrous, and according to the phase of its activity causes discomfort or misfortune. Among the traits and emotions which give evidence of this predominance or excess are forget-fulness, covetousness, and obstinacy (headiness), and blindness and unreason in matters concerning the affections. Emotions of repulsion, shame, and fear are due to the same source; and the tremor which shakes fear-stricken people comes from hollows in the veins caused by Akâshic vibrations in excess. To this effect is due the physical and mental tension which so unnerve the victim.
” The remedy,” do you ask? What is free will for, if not to give us power to choose our thoughts and the deeds resulting therefrom? The ” bliss ” of ignorance is that we are not to blame if we do not know the error of certain thoughts and actions. Invariably we must suffer both mentally and physically for such error; but only knowledge, bringing power, brings also responsibility. Never forget that it is the form of motion that causes the state, and that form can therefore change it.
A caution is necessary here: It is impossible to energize the nerves when they are strained by constant tension. Paradoxical as it is these two conditions are often confounded, but there is a marked distinction between tensing and energizing the nerves. The accepted theory of tension considered mechanically as of a wire or rope is to put all the strain upon it that it will bear. Nerve- and muscle-tension wears people tremendously because it is a stretching, straining, and sundering of atoms one from another which breaks down structure physiologically. In concentration of energy as in the Held-breath exercise the reverse is the condition. The atoms are compasted closer and closer together, and thrill with the force of unison and the harmony of synchronous motion. Thus the most delicate and finest nerve is raised to the power of a larger one; and the increase of energy throughout the nervous system corresponds.
Face every mental or physical crisis first, by taking a few deep, full inspirations to change the air and thus the vibrations, that is, the form of action in the lungs; and follow this with eight or ten repetitions of the nerve-purifying and nerve strengthening alternate breathing, as directed in Chapter IV. While thus breathing, look within, and seek that heart-silence which carries you to the radiant center of your being, and laps you in poise and confidence.
You will thus raise your vibrations to a higher plane, and in doing this you not only lift yourself into a state in sympathy with higher influences and draw them to you, but above conditions where unwholesome vibrations and thoughts (similar to those you may desire to expel) reach you. You are making for yourself a protecting sheath against demoralizing mundane influences of that earth, earthy character which feeds material-ism. Sympathetic vibrations are the wires upon which epidemics spread from victim to victim, and commonly that sympathy is fear. But courage and confidence can be made equally contagious. Happy, courageous thoughts draw the vibrations of happiness and courage; and, steadfastly maintained, will spread a contagion of health and happiness round about you.