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DEVACHAN
From the
writings of William Quan Judge, a pioneering Theosophist and
co-founder
of the orginal Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875
William Quan
Judge
1851 - 1896
Devachan
A
LETTER to the editor from Holland upon this subject deserves reply, as is must
give utterance to the questions of many other students.
The
complaint in this letter is that when one goes to Devachan much time is lost
away from earth life, where otherwise unselfish work for others might be
continued by instantly returning to it after death. The reason given is that
Devachan is an illusion, while the so-called illusions of earthly existence are
in such a sense real that they are preferable to those of Devachan. In
illustration of this, the supposed case is given of a parent in Devachan
imagining that the beloved child is also there, when, in fact, the child not
yet physically dead remains on earth perhaps in misery or leading a life of
vice. This is the root of the objection - the supposed illusionary character of
Devachan as compared to earth-life.
Now
these feelings are always due to the thirst for life in the form which
presently is most known to us, - that is, in a physical body. We cannot argue
Devachan away any more than we can the necessity of incarnation upon this
earth; the one is as philosophically necessary as is the other. A very easy way
out of the difficulty - which arises almost wholly from our feelings - would be
to calmly accept the law as it stands, being willing to take whatever may be
our fate, whether that be in Devachan or in this earth-life. Our likes and
dislikes can have no effect on the course of nature, but they may have an
effect on ourselves which will be far from beneficial. For the dwelling upon
pleasure or the constant desire to fly from "pain not yet come" will
inevitably create Karmic causes which we would wish to avoid.
But
perhaps there are some considerations on the subject of Devachan which may be
of use. In the first place, I have never believed that the period given by Mr.
Sinnett in Esoteric Buddhism of fifteen hundred years for the stay in that
state was a fixed fact in nature. It might be fifteen minutes as well as
fifteen hundred years. But it is quite likely that for the majority of those
who so constantly wish for a release and for an enjoyment of heaven, the period
would be more than fifteen hundred years. Indeed, the Hindu Scriptures give
many special ceremonies for the attainment of heaven, or the regions of Indra,
which is Devachan; and those ceremonies or practices are said to cause a stay
in Indra-loka "for years of infinite number."
The
first question, however, must be "What is the cause for passing into
Devachan?" Some have said that it is good Karma or good acts that take us
and keep us there, but this is a very incomplete reply. Of course, in the sense
that it is happiness to go into that state, it may be called good Karma. But it
does not follow that the man whose life is good, passed in constant unselfish
work for others without repining, and free from desire to have somewhere his
reward, will go to Devachan. Yet his Karma must be good; it must act on him,
however, in other lives, for the earth-life is the place where such Karma has
its operation. But if at the same time that he is thus working for others he
wishes for release or for some place or time when and where he may have rest,
then, of course, he must go to Devachan for a period which will be in
proportion to the intensity of those desires.
Again,
it should not be forgotten that the soul must have some rest. Were it, before
becoming bright as the diamond, hard as adamant, and strong as steel, to go on
working, working through earth-life after earth-life without a break between,
it must at last succumb to the strain and come to nothing. Nature therefore has
provided for it a place of rest - in Devachan; and that we should thankfully
accept if it falls to our lot.
But
does Devachan suffer in the comparison made between it and this life on earth?
To me it seems not. Human life is as great an illusion as any. To the sage
Ribhu, Vishnu said it was the longest-lived reign of fancy. To say that it is a
terrible thing to think of a mother in Devachan enjoying its bliss while the
child is suffering on earth, is to prefer one illusion over another, to hug a
philosophical error to the breast. Both states are out of the true, while the
Ego, who is the real witness, sees the lower personality struggling with these
phantoms while it, whether the body be living or its other parts be in
Devachan, enjoys eternal felicity. It sits on high unmoved, immovable. The
great verse in the Isa-Upanishad settles this matter for me in these words:
"What room is there for sorrow and what for doubt in him who knows that
all spiritual beings are the same in kind, though differing in degree."
Therefore if I believe this, I must also know that, no matter whether I and my
best beloved are in Devachan or on earth, they and I must forever partake of
the highest development attained by the greatest of sages, for, as they and I
are spiritual beings, we must have communion forever on the higher planes of
our being.
Then,
again, the fact seems to be lost sight of that each night we go into a sort of
Devachan - the dream state or sleep without dream. The loving mother, no matter
how unfortunate or evil her child, must sleep, and in that state she may have
dreams of her loved ones around her in just the very condition of mind and body
she would have them enjoy. If Devachan be objectionable, why not also rebel
against our necessary sleep which acts on our physical frame to give it rest,
as Devachan does upon our more ethereal parts?
Lying
unnoticed at the foot of this matter is the question of time. It goes to the
very root of the objection, for the aversion to the stay in Devachan is based
upon the conception of a period of time. This period - given or supposed as
1,500 years - is another great illusion which can be easily proved to be so.
What we call time, measured by our seconds and minutes and hours, is not
necessarily actual time itself. It is not the ultimate precedence and
succession of moments in the abstract. For us it depends on and flows from the
revolutions of our solar orb, and even with that standard it can be shown that we
do not apprehend it correctly. We speak of seconds, but those are such as our
watchmakers give us in the watch. They might be made longer or shorter. They
are arrived at through a division of a diurnal solar revolution, the
observation of which not necessarily mathematically accurate. If we lived on
Mercury - where we must believe intelligent beings live - our conception of
time would be different. From our childhood's experience we know that even in
this life our appreciation of the passage of time rises and falls, for in early
youth the 12 months from one Christmas to another seemed very, very long, while
now they pass all too quickly. And from watching the mental processes in dreams
we know that, in the space of time taken for a bell to drop from the table to
the floor, one may dream through a whole lifetime, with all the incidents of
each day and hour packed into such a limited period. Who can tell but that in a
Devachanic state of three months the person may go through experiences that
seem to cover thousands of years? If so, why not say for him - since time as we
know it is an illusion - that he was in Devachan for those thousands?
Devachan,
however, is not a meaningless or useless state. In it we are rested; that part
of us which could not bloom under the chilling skies of earth-life bursts forth
into flower and goes back with us to another life stronger and more a part of
our nature than before; our strength is revived for another journey between
deaths. Why shall we repine that nature kindly aids us in the interminable
struggle; why thus ever keep the mind revolving about this petty personality
and its good or evil fortune?
W.Q.J.
Path,
September, 1890
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