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A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga848
the idea of Metempsychosis, under the name of Re-incarnation, by means
of the great volume of literature issued by The Theosophical Society and
its allied following. No longer is the thought a novelty to the Western
thinker, and many have found within themselves a corroborative sense of
its truth. In fact, to many the mere mention of the idea has been sufficient to
awaken faint shadowy memories of past lives, and, to such, many heretofore
unaccountable traits of character, tastes, inclinations, sympathies, dislikes,
etc., have been explained.
The Western world has been made familiar with the idea of the re-birth
of souls into new bodies, under the term of “Re-incarnation,” which means “a
re-entry into flesh,” the word “incarnate” being derived from the words “in,”
and “carnis,” meaning flesh—the English word meaning “to clothe with flesh,”
etc. The word Metempsychosis, which we use in this lesson, is concerned
rather with the “passage of the soul” from one tenement to another, the
“fleshly” idea being merely incidental.
The doctrine of Metempsychosis, or Re-incarnation, together with its
accompanying doctrine, Karma, or Spiritual Cause and Effect, is one of
the great foundation stones of the Yogi Philosophy, as indeed it is of the
entire system of systems of Oriental Philosophy and Thought. Unless one
understands Metempsychosis he will never be able to understand the
Eastern Teachings, for he will be without the Key. You who have read the
Bhagavad Gita, that wonderful Hindu Epic, will remember how the thread
of Re-Birth runs through it all. You remember the words of Krishna to
Arjuna: “As the soul, wearing this material body, experienceth the stages of
infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, even so shall it, in due time, pass
on to another body, and in other incarnations shall it again live, and move
and play its part.” “These bodies, which act as enveloping coverings for the
souls occupying them, are but finite things—things of the moment—and
not the Real Man at all. They perish as all finite things perish—let them
perish.” “As a man throweth away his old garments, replacing them with new
and brighter ones, even so the Dweller of the body, having quitted its old