minus quantities assume a reality which would not otherwise be apparent. It also illustrates our theme in this way:

On one side we have positive numeration marked off by a number of digits proceeding from left to right; so: 1.000, the assertive digit of positive number leading. On the other side we have negative numeration or minus quantity; thus: 0.001. It will be noted that the point which affects numeration in either positive or negative quantity is the decimal point. This is in reality no number, yet it has the power of ten, the perfect number, as its name implies, which is again the one and the nought conjoined. Dwelling upon the decimal point you will find it is not limited to the power of ten, but is co-extensive with all numeration. It marks off quantity, whether positive or negative, in completenesses, tens, hundreds, thousands; always in multiples of ten.

There is but one other factor in the make-up of objective things -motion. Everything, it is said, exists by reason of vibration. I would rather say by motion, regarding vibration as the mode of motion necessary as a media for perception, through response. I would divide motion into three manifested aspects, viz. rotary (Fohat digs holes in space), translatory and vibratory; or to give them their characteristics: assertive, mediative and responsive.

The fourth here is again the transcending through the between, the mediative, or translatory of all motion to No-motion, Absolute Motion or Eternal Rest.

The Pendulum of Life swinging in the vault of Time and Space is ever marking" the beating of the karmic heart." It finds its points of struggle midway between the limits of its stroke; and only when it ceases to oscillate between the two extremes and is freed from the pairs of opposites is this point of struggle found to be also the Point of Perfect Rest. The Christ as mediator between God and man has said:"Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

SYDNEY H. OLD.

OCCULTISH

THE LIFE FLUID.

The Theosophical Review for October, 1907, has an article reproducing some published views of Dr. R. Steiner. It opens up a new line of thought in a very suggestive fashion. The main idea, supported in a scientific manner, is that, in the course of evolution, blood appeared in the physiological construction of the body (animal and human) at the same time with the appearance of egoism, ahamkāra, I-ness, in the psychological constitution of the mind occupying the body, This is a very inviting line of thought and may yield useful results if followed out carefully. It may be noted, however, that too much stress should not be laid on the 'peculiarity' of this fluid, or any idea of exclusive relationship between egoism and blood. Naturally, every new idea comes with an overpowering force to him to whom it is new, and in the earliest days of its promulgation tends to be exaggerated. But the law of analogy, symmetry, "as above so below," "as the infinitesimal so the infinite" holds sway over all such-for the reason that everything is in the One and the

One is in everything, in the small as in the large. On the larger scale, we find, e.g., the ocean and river-systems of the Earth-globe corresponding very closely with the blood-circulation of the animal body. They serve the double purpose of vitalising irrigation as well as purifying and cleansing drainage, in the same way as the veins, arteries and heart of man do with their continuous flow of blood. The tides are the heart-beats. The atmosphere, through which the waters pass as vapor and rain, purified and oxygenated by the solar prāna, is the lungs. The tirthas, holy places, are the important nervous and other centres. For ought we know, the river-systems and the oceans were formed in the earth's constitution by 'the descent of Ganga' from the clouds and gases of heaven to the solidifying earth, in the remote geological ages, about the same time as man's formerly more plastic and gigantic body of the Satya Yuga also solidified more into something like its present form, with a system of blood-irrigation and drainage. And there is good reason to believe that this watersystem is not confined to the surface only of the earth but extends into its depths. At least the Purāņas say that one stream of the 'Ganga' (which means the "Ever-goer" and typifies all rivers) went right into Pāṭāla. And even as the veins carry the impure blood and the arteries the pure, so are certain rivers, Gangā, Narmaḍā and some others, specially 'sacred' and healthful, and others, like the Karmanāshā, impure and dangerous and poisonous, physically and superphysically. And so on.

Thus we see that the 'peculiarity' mentioned is discernible in the apas-taṭṭva generally, for that is the 'living' biogenetic fluid, par excellence, of our present human race, in this particular cycle, as stated in Manusmṛți.

We may also note that in the human body itself there are other 'systems,' in terms of other taṭṭvas than the fluid ṭaṭṭva, which serve more or less similar functions, and in this sense too the 'peculiarity' is shared by them. Indeed from works on Tantra it appears that there is no part of the human body which is not peculiar ! A very important piece of work has yet to be done in the way of co-ordinating the ancient Indian system of Anatomy and Physiology (as e.g., described in Sushruta) with its three main constituents,' seven main 'tissues,' seven main continuous membranes,' various 'systems (osseous, vascular, nervous, arterio-venous, etc.,) etc., with modern

scientific knowledge on the subject, and systematising the facts of the latter under the principles set forth by the former. When this work has been done, then we shall understand these things better. The bony frame-work may be regarded more or less as something apart from the man himself, in the same way as the blood is apart from him. So the epidermic tissue. So the hairy system. So the lymphatic ducts. So the alimentary canal and its contents. So the layers of fat everywhere. So the air-passages of the lungs and the other parts. In the strict sense of living, z.e., ' sensitive,' perhaps only the nervous system is the true physical web of life, and is the man proper, that is that which he regards as 'himself 'the rest being more or less non-living,' and as apart from himself. But in the general sense and for purposes of massive prāņic feel of life, it is these very so-called ' non-living' masses of matter that constitute the 'sharira' of man, which is the container' and' support' of his sensory and motor organs, indriyas, which is 'himself' as distinguished from 'his instruments '-speaking of course from the standpoint of the physical plane.

On further investigation, Dr. Steiner may be able to discover that, as (by his views) blood corresponds to the etheric double and is the means of the development of egoism, so the other constituents of the body correspond to other constituents of the psychic side of man. This would be only a further illustration of the law of endless sub-divisions and mutual reflexions which is so prominent in theosophical literature. The Hindu religious tradition—that the depositing of the bones or ashes of the dead in special rivers, or performing shraddhas for them in special places, has special effects on post mortem well-being-seems to base on the fact that as the parts and organs of a human being's small body correspond with parts and 'systems' of the Earth's giant body, so these again correspond with parts of the astral sphere and of astral small bodies, etc. Dr. Steiner's investigations may help to justify these traditions.

BHAGAVAN DAS.

(Continued from p. 153.)

[INTRODUCTION TO 10TH SUTRA.]

When he is not always in equilibrium, to him who, though wise, is proud of his equilibrium,

faunderè agerraugeiaq || 20 ||

X. When knowledge is destroyed, the vision of dream born therefrom.

On the destruction, i e., sinking of shuddhavidya, already described, and consisting in extensive wisdom, the relics of that wisdom is gradually destroyed and there results svapna, visions, i.e., manifestation of illusory worlds full of differentiation. In the Mālinīvijaya, in the passage beginning with: "When Shankara is not graceful, he (the guru) does not teach this; if he should teach at all, its fruit is not produced," it is said that, even if the fruit (of that teaching) is acquired, the vīnāyakas make one who is careless become addicted to evanescent pleasures.

In the Spanda, the same is said in (35) :“ Otherwise, from its own nature, creation starts of itself, as in the case of the worldly in the states of Jāgrața and Svapna." It is thus taught that the Yogi should be always bent on shuddhavidyā. As said in the Shri Purva: "One should (fix) his desire on the Supreme and not be attached to these." Also in the Spanda (21): "Hence, always endeavoring to discriminate the spanḍataṭṭva, being always conscious, he soon reaches the truth."

[CONCLUSION OF II UNMESHA.]

Thus from Sūtra II. i'Chiṭṭam Mantram' having investigated the Shakṭopaya whose chief (characteristic) is the acquisition of Manţravirya and Mudrāvīrya, and which is described in the Agama as : "Thinking, with the mind, of the thing which cannot be named, what stage he reaches, that is called Shākta," and having ended it with the Sūtra: "When wisdom is destroyed, the sight of dream born therefrom" (II. ix), with regard to one who is proud of having reached equilibrium, he has opened the way for the Aṇavopāya, related to it.

Thus, in the vritți called Shiva-suṭravimarshini, the second ummeşha called 'exposition of shakṭopāya.'