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A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga904
and places of ill-repute, influencing the sodden brains of living persons to
participate in the illicit gratifications of the lower sensual nature.
Souls on the higher planes are not bound by these earthly and material
attractions, and take advantage of their opportunities to improve themselves
and develop spiritually. It is a rule of the Astral World that the higher the
plane occupied by a soul, the longer the sojourn there between incarnations.
A soul on the lowest planes may reincarnate in a very short time, while on
the higher planes hundreds and even thousands of years may elapse before
the soul is called upon to experience re-birth. But re-birth comes to all who
have not passed on to other spheres of life. Sooner or later the soul feels that
inward urge toward re-birth and further experience, and becomes drowsy
and falls into a state resembling sleep, when it is caught up in the current
that is sweeping on toward re-birth, and is gradually carried on to re-birth
in conditions chosen by its desires and characteristics, in connection with
the operation of the laws of Karma. From the soul-slumber it passes through
what may be called a “death” on the Astral plane, when it is re-born on the
earth plane. But, remember this, the soul, when it is re-born on earth, does
not fully awaken from its Astral sleep. In infancy and in early childhood the
soul is but slowly awakening, gradually from year to year, the brain being
built to accommodate this growth. The rare instances of precocious children,
and infant genius are cases in which the awakening has been more rapid
than ordinary. On the other hand, cases are known where the soul does
not awaken as rapidly as the average, and the result is that the person does
not show signs of full intellectual activity until nearly middle age. Cases are
known when men seemed to “wake up” when they were forty years of age,
or even later in life, and would then take on a freshened activity and energy,
surprising those who had known them before.
On some of the planes of the Astral world the souls dwelling there do
not seem to realize that they are “dead,” but act and live as if they were in
the flesh.