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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga624
to master him instead of serving him as they should, considering his present
stage of development.
In this consideration of the several mental planes we shall not confine
ourselves to the technical occult terms given to these several planes, but will
place them in general groups and describe the features and characteristics
of each, rather than branch off into long explanations of the growth and
reason of the several planes, which would take us far away from the practical
consideration of the subject.
Beginning at the lowest point of the scale we see that man has a body.
The body is composed of minute cells of protoplasm. These cells are built
up of countless molecules, atoms and particles of matter—precisely the
same matter that composes the rocks, trees, air, etc., around him. The Yogi
philosophy tells us that even the atoms of matter have life and an elementary
manifestation of mind, which causes them to group together according to
the law of attraction, forming different elements, combinations, etc. This law
of attraction is a mental operation, and is the first evidence of mental choice,
action and response. Below this is Prana or Force, which, strictly speaking, is
also a manifestation of mind, although for convenience we designate it as a
separate manifestation of the Absolute.
And therefore we find that this law of attraction between the atoms and
particles of matter is a mental action, and that it belongs to man’s mental
kingdom, because he has a body and this mental action is continually going
on in his body. So therefore this is the lowest mental plane to be considered
in the make-up of the man. This plane is, of course, far sunken beneath the
plane of consciousness, and is scarcely identified with the personality of the
man at all, but rather belongs to the life of the whole, manifest in the rock as
well as in the man.
But after these atoms have been grouped by the law of attraction and
have formed molecules of matter, they are taken possession of by a higher
mental activity and built up into cells by the mental action of the plant. The
life impulse of the plant begins by drawing to it certain particles of inorganic