Correspondence by “Pilgrim” | Editor’s Note by H.P.B.
With reference to the recent discussion as to how much o f the personality, if any, accompanies the divine individuality in its passage from death to birth, the Bhagavad Gita speaks with no uncertain sound. The following is Mr. Subba Row’s reading of the 8th verse in chapter 15.
“When the lord Jiva quits one body and enters another, he carries with him the mind and the senses, as the wind carries the fragrance of flowers from their source.”
However necessary a fresh revelation may have been to bring before the Western mind in a definite form the truths we recognise under the name of the Occult Philosophy— and much that has been written on the subject, notably, the little book called “Light on the Path,” may be regarded as such a new revelation—yet nothing can take the place of the older scriptures, and among these none stand on such a supreme height as Bhagavad Gita, containing, as it does, in its instruction on the Sacred Science, the very essence of all the Vedas.
It may sometimes speak in mystic language not always fully interpretable by the Western scholar, but where it states a thing definitely, it may be said to settle the question— and the above would seem to be a case in point. There is not much room for difference of opinion as to what is meant by the mind and the senses. To the writer it seems that not only the “Manas,” but the Kamarupa is included in the totality of the entity that reincarnates (see Editors’ note), and this only bears out the logical conception that there are no great leaps in nature, and that the man or woman takes up at each re-birth the threads of his or her character—alteration of sex should there be such notwithstanding—pretty much where he or she left off. The occult law which teaches that before a man can attain knowledge he must have passed through all places, foul and clean alike, will thus have to be accounted for by the gradual alterations of character during each lifetime.
Pilgrim.
[Editor’s Note [H.P.B.]—Our correspondent is mistaken. Nothing of the “Kama-Rupa” reincarnates. As well imagine that a locket and chain we had worn all our life, or our reflexion in the mirror—reincarnates. Such is not the teaching we believe in. However similar, our philosophy is not that of the Vedanta.