To Netnews Homepage     Previous     Next           Table of Contents
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section One - Introductory Remarks - Fire in the Macrocosm
The Ray of intelligent activity. This is a ray of a very demonstrable glory, and of a higher point of development than the other two, being the product of an earlier mahakalpa, or a previous solar system.6 It embodies [40] the basic vibration of this solar system, and is its great internal fire, animating and vitalizing the whole, and penetrating from the center to the periphery. It is the cause of rotary motion, and therefore of the spheroidal form of all that exists.

The Ray of intelligent love. This is the ray which embodies the highest vibration of  which our solar Logos or Deity is capable in this present solar system. It is not yet vibrating adequately nor has it yet attained the peak of its activity. It is the basis of the cyclic spiral movement of the body logoic, and just as the Law of Economy is the law governing the internal fires of the system so the cosmic Law of Attraction and Repulsion is the basic law of this divine Ray.

The Ray of intelligent will. Little as yet can be said about this ray. It is the ray of cosmic mind and in its evolution parallels that of cosmic love, but as yet its vibration is slower and its development more retarded. This is definitely and deliberately so, and is due to the underlying purpose and choice of the solar Logos, Who seeks on His high level (just as do His reflections, the sons of men) to achieve a more rounded out development, [41] and He therefore concentrates on the development of cosmic love in this greater cycle.

This ray is governed by the Law of Synthesis, and is the basis of the systemic movement which may be best described as that of driving forward through space, or forward progression. Little can be predicated anent this ray and its expression. It controls the movements of the entire ring-pass-not in connection with its cosmic center.7
6 "One day out of this long life of Brahma is called Kalpa; and a Kalpa is that portion of time which intervenes between one conjunction of all the planets on the horizon of Lanka, at the first point of Aries, and a subsequent similar conjunction. A Kalpa embraces the reign of fourteen Manus, and their sandhis (intervals); each Manu lying between two sandhis. Every Manu's rule contains seventy-one Maha Yugas, - each Maha Yuga consists of four Yugas, viz., Krita, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali; and the length of each of these four Yugas is respectively as the numbers, 4, 3, 2 and 1.

The number of sidereal years embraced in the foregoing different periods are as follows:
Mortal years
360 days of mortals make a year 1
Krita Yuga contains 1,728,000
Treta Yuga contains 1,296,000
Dwapara Yuga contains 864,000
Kali Yuga contains 432,000
The total of the said four Yugas constitute a Maha Yuga 4,320,000
Seventy-one of such Maha Yugas form the period of the reign of one Manu 306,720,000
The reign of 14 Manus embraces the duration of 994 Maha Yugas, which is equal to 4,294,080,000
Add Sandhis, i.e., intervals between the reign of each Manu, which amount to 6 Maha Yugas, equal to 25,920,000
The total of these reigns and interregnums of 14 Manus, is 1,000 Maha Yugas, which constitute a Kalpa, i.e., one day of Brahma, equal to 4,320,000,000
As Brahma's night is of equal duration, one day and night of Brahma will contain 8,640,000,000
360 of such days and nights make one year of Brahma, equal to 3,110,400,000,000
100 of such years constitute the whole period of Brahma's age, ie., Maha Kalpa 311,040,000,000,000
That these figures are not fanciful, but are founded upon astronomical facts, has been demonstrated by Mr. Davis, in an essay in the Asiatic Researches; and this receives further corroboration from the geological investigations and calculations made by Dr. Hunt, formerly President of the Anthropological Society, and also in some respects from the researches made by Professor Huxley.

Great as the period of the Maha Kalpa seems to be, we are assured that thousands and thousands of millions of such Maha Kalpas have passed, and as many more are yet to come. (Vide Brahma-Vaivarta and Bhavishyre Puranas; and Linga Purana, ch. 171, verse 107, &c.) and this in plain language means that the Time past is infinite and the Time to come is equally infinite. The Universe is formed, dissolved, and reproduced, in an indeterminate succession (Bhagavad Gita, VIII, 19). - The Theosophist, Vol. VII, p. 11 15.

7 The term "ring-pass-not" is used in occult literature to denote the periphery of the sphere of influence of any central life force, and is applied equally to all atoms, from the atom of matter as dealt with by the physicist or chemist through the human and planetary atoms up to the great atom of a solar system. The ring-pass-not of the average human being is the spheroidal form of his mental body which extends considerably beyond the physical and enables him to function on the lower levels of the mental plane.
To Netnews Homepage     Previous     Next           Table of Contents