After the soul has passed through the sphere of the jinns it arrives on the physical plane. What helps this soul to come on to the physical plane? What opens the way for this new-coming soul to enter physical existence? The coming soul enters the physical sphere by the channel of the breath. Breath is the power at the back of every action. It works as a battery which keeps the physical mechanism of the human body going. The secret of birth and death is to be found in the mystery of the breath. What is Cupid? It is the soul which is being born. Before it appears on the physical plane it is pictured by the wise as a cupid or angel; it is an angel, for the soul itself is the angel.

Duality in every aspect of life, and on whatever plane, is creative; and its issue is the purpose and the outcome of the dual aspect of nature. The affinity which brings about the fulfillment of the purpose is the power of Cupid; in reality it is the phenomenon of the soul.

When the soul is born on earth its first expression is a cry. Why does it cry? Because it finds itself in a new place which is all strange to it. It finds itself in captivity, which it has not experienced before. Every person, every object is new, and is something foreign to this soul; but soon this condition passes away. Soon the senses of the infant become acquainted with the outer life which so continually attracts its attention. It first becomes interested in breathing the air of the world, then in hearing the sounds, and then in seeing the objects before it; then in touching them, and then its taste develops. The more familiar the soul becomes with this physical world the more interested it becomes; though sometimes it shows homesickness in the fits of crying that it so often has during its infancy. It is not always illness; it is not always that it is crying for things outside. No doubt, as it grows it longs for things itself; but it often cries from the feeling of having been removed from a place which was more pleasant and comfortable, and having come to a foreign land of which it knows so little. It is this which causes the infant to have fits of crying.

The wisdom of nature is perfect; and there is no better vision of the. splendor of the divine wisdom for the thinker than a child in its early infancy. If the senses of an infant were developed, as are the senses of a grown-up person, it would lose its reason from the sudden pressure of the physical world falling instantly upon it. Its delicate senses would not have been able to stand the pressure of so many and various and intense activities of this world. How marvelously the wisdom behind it works, the wisdom which is the evidence of the divine Protector, Father, Mother, Creator, the support and protection of all; so that the senses of the child develop gradually as it becomes more familiar with life. The more it knows the more its mind expands; and it cannot know more than its mind can grasp. So that in every way an infant is protected in both mind and body.

When the soul comes into the physical world it receives an offering from the whole universe; and that offering is the body in which to function. It is not offered to the soul only by the parents, but by the ancestors, by the nation and race into which the soul is born, and by the whole human race. This body is not only an offering of the human race, but is an outcome of something that the whole world has produced for ages;

a clay which has been kneeded a thousand times over;
a clay which has been prepared so that in its very development it has become more intelligent, more radiant, and more living;
a clay which appeared first in the mineral kingdom, which developed in the vegetable kingdom, which then appeared as the animal, and which was finished in the making of that body which is offered to the new-coming human soul.

One may ask, "It is not true then, as some scientists say in their biological study, that man has risen from the animal kingdom?" Certainly it is true; but true in the sense explained above.

We need not understand by this that every rock turned into a plant, and every plant into an animal, and every animal into a man. The soul is direct from heaven; it functions in a body, and it is this body through which it experiences life on the earth more fully. Rocks, trees and animals, therefore, may not be considered as the ancestors of the soul. It is the body which is the outcome of the activity of all these different kingdoms, which are the development of one another. A question arises, "Why must a soul function in a human body? Why not in an animal, bird or insect?" The answer is that it does so function. Every soul is not the same ray, has not the same illumination, the same far-reaching power, or the same volume; and therefore it is true that souls do not only function in a human body, but in all forms, however insignificant and small.

What about rocks, mountains, seas and rivers? Are they not the outcome of the soul? Nature in general in its various aspects is the naturalization of that Light which is called divine Spirit; but not everything in nature has what man understands by soul, for he recognizes only that ray which functions in the human body as a soul. He does not recognize the ray which functions in the lower creation to be the same, although it comes from the same source. There are two things: there are the rays, and there is light from which they spring. If the rays are the source of the soul of human beings, then the light of that same divine Sun is the spirit of the whole of nature. It is the same light; but not divided, not distinct, as are the rays which we call souls.

Why has nature its different aspects? If the spirit behind it is one, why is everything in nature separate and different? Creation is a gradual evolution of that light which is the source and goal of all beings. For instance, plant-life is a development of the mineral kingdom, animal life of the vegetable kingdom, and human life the culmination of this evolution. But this culmination is only the finishing of the vehicle which the soul uses; by this evolution the soul is not evolved. This evolution only means that the soul has adopted a more finished instrument in order to experience life more fully. No doubt the better the instrument the greater the satisfaction of the soul. When one looks from this point of view at the whole creation one feels it to be the truth that not only man, but the whole of manifestation, was created in the image of God.

The soul which has already brought with it from the angelic heavens a luminous body, and from the sphere of the jinn a body full of impressions, functions in the end in the human body which the physical plane offers it; and it settles for some time in this abode. This completes what we understand by the word individuality.

These three planes, which are the principal planes of existence, are called in the terms of Vedanta: Bhu-loka, Deva-loka, Svar-loka, meaning three worlds: Bhu-bka the physical world, Deva-loka the world of the jinns, and Svar-loka the world of the angels. The human being therefore has all three beings in him, the angel, the jinn, and man.

What man acquires on the earth is the experience gained by the means of his senses, an experience which he himself goes through; and it is this experience which man collects in that accommodation within himself which he calls the heart. The surface of the heart, which is the collection of his knowledge, he calls the mind. This word comes from the sanskrit Manas, mind, and from this word "man" has come.

Man shows the signs of the angelic heavens and the sphere of the jinn by his tendencies; his tendency towards light, truth, love and righteousness; his love of God; his seeking for the truth of life. This all shows the angel in him.

In his longing for beauty, in his attraction towards art, in his love for music, in his appreciation of poetry, in his tendency to produce, to create, to express, he shows signs of the sphere of the jinn. And the impressions which constitute his being, which he has brought as a heritage from the sphere of the jinn, which have been imparted to him by the souls on their way back towards the goal, he shows as something peculiar and different from what his family possess.

No doubt it often happens that a child possesses qualities of his ancestors which were perhaps missing in his parents, or even two or three generations back; however, this is another heritage, a heritage which is known to us as such. I might express this by saying that a soul borrows a property from the spheres of the jinn, and a more concrete property from the physical world; and as it borrows this property, together with this transaction it takes upon itself the taxation and the obligations as well as the responsibilities, which are attached to the property. Very often the property is not in proper repair, and damage has been done to it, and it falls to his lot to repair it; and if there be a mortgage on that property that becomes his due. Together with the property he becomes the owner of the records and the contracts of the property which he owns. In this is to be found the secret of what is called Karma.

What makes the soul know of its own existence? Something with which it adorns itself, something which it adopts, possesses, owns and uses. For instance, what makes a king know that he is a king? His palace, his kingly environment, people standing before him in attendance; if all that were absent the soul would be no king. Therefore the king is a palace, and it is the consciousness of the environment which makes the soul feel, "I am so and so." What it adorns itself with makes it say, "I am this or that." Otherwise by origin it is something nameless, formless.

On the earth-plane the personality develops out of the individuality. The soul is an individual from the moment it is born upon the earth in the worldly sense of the word; but it becomes a person as it grows. For personality is the development of individuality, and in personality, which is formed by character-building, is born that spirit which is the re-birth of the soul. The first birth is the birth of man, the second birth is the birth of God.

The law that governs the soul's manifestation may be divided into three parts: that of the angelic heavens, that of the sphere of the jinn and that of the world of man, or the physical plane.

In the angelic heavens there are no distinct impressions; but there is a tuning. The soul is tuned to a certain pitch by the law of vibration, high or low according to the impression it receives from the souls coming back home. In this tuning it gets, so to speak, a tone and rhythm which directs its path towards the world of the jinn. Souls in themselves are not different in the angelic heavens, as they are immediately next to that of the divine Being. If there is a difference of souls in the angelic heavens, it is the difference of more or less radiance, and the longer or shorter scope of their range.

That which attracts souls from the sphere of the jinn to the human world is what they receive from the souls who are homeward bound. In accordance with this they take their direction towards the physical world. If I were to give this idea in a more expressive form, I would say it is like a person whose heart is tuned to love and light, and to the appreciation and admiration of beauty. He will certainly take a direction towards a greater beauty, and will seek such friends to be with and learn from as seem to him in some way similar to his nature or idea. This is an example of the soul which is attracted from the angelic heavens to the sphere of the jinn. A person who has studied music and practiced through his life will certainly seek the association of musical friends, artists, singers, composers and lovers of music. Among these he will find his friends, his comrades; and so a soul from the sphere of the jinn is directed according to its love for certain things on the physical plane. This shows that God does not thrust certain conditions upon the souls going towards manifestation, but in this manner they choose them.

A person may say, "But no soul can have chosen miserable conditions for itself!" The answer to this we find before us in this world. Many here cause their own miseries; they may not know it, they may not admit it; nevertheless many of man's joys and sorrows are caused by himself. This does not mean that this is the only law that governs life. This is a law which answers the question that rises out of common sense. But if one raised one's head from this world of illusion and looked up, and asked God, "Tell me the secret and the mystery of Thy creation," one would hear in answer that every thing and being is put in its own place, and each is busy carrying out that work which has to be done in the whole scheme of nature. Life is a symphony; and the action of every person in this symphony is the playing of his particular part in the music.

When the war was going on all people were called to arms, and were placed where they were needed regardless of their profession, qualifications or moral standard. The reason was that the "call of the purpose" was the first consideration. If there is anything which will bring peace to the thinker it is the understanding of this. The thought, "I am suffering now because of my sins in a past life", may bring an answer to the enquiring and reasoning mind and stop it from rebelling for the moment. But will this take away the irritation that the misery is causing in the heart? Will that mind ever excuse God for having so severely judged him? He may own his mistakes of the past, but will he ever believe in God as a God of love and compassion, as a God of mercy, or as a God of forgiveness?

The soul comes on earth rich or poor, ripened or unripened, through three phases where it has either enriched or lost its opportunity. It takes light from the angelic heavens, knowledge from the sphere of the jinn, and it inherits qualities from its parents and ancestors on the earth-plane.

Of the things which it has collected on its way to manifestation on the earth it has made that accommodation which is called the mind. The body in which the soul functions on the physical plane also contributes to the soul the properties of all the worlds to which it has belonged: the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms. It is for this reason that man is called a universe in himself; for man consists in himself of all that is in heaven and all that is on earth. The Qur'an tells how God made man His representative on earth, His chief in whose care the universe was given.

Man shows in his life traces of all the conditions through which the clay that makes his body has gone. There are atoms of his body which represent the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom; all these are represented in him. Not only his body but his mind shows the reflection of all the kingdoms through which it has passed. For the mind is the medium between heaven and earth. Man experiences heaven when conscious of his soul; he experiences the earth when conscious of his body. Man experiences that plane which is between heaven and earth when he is conscious of his mind. Man shows by his stupidity the mineral kingdom which is in him, thick and hard; he shows by his pliability the vegetable kingdom, by his productive and creative faculties which bring forth the flowers and fruits of his life from his thoughts and deeds.

Man shows the traces of the animal kingdom in him by his passions, emotions, and attachments, by his willingness for service and usefulness. And if one were to say what represents the human in him, the answer is all things, all the attributes of earth and heaven.

the stillness, hardness and strength of the stone;
the fighting nature, the tendency to attachment from the animals;
the fruitfulness and usefulness of the vegetable kingdom;
the inventive, artistic, poetical and musical genius of the sphere of the jinn;
the beauty, illumination, love, calm and peace of the angelic planes.

All these put together make man. The human soul consists of all, and thus culminates in that purpose for which the whole creation has taken place.

The soul manifested on the earth is not at all disconnected with the higher spheres. It lives in all spheres, but knows mostly one sphere, ignorant of the others, on which it turns its back. Thus the soul becomes deprived of the heavenly bliss, and conscious of the troubles and limitations of life on the earth. It is not the truth that Adam was put out of the Garden of Eden; he only turned his back on it, which made him an exile from heaven. The souls of seers, saints, masters and prophets are conscious of the different spheres. It is therefore that they are connected with the worlds of the angels and jinns, and with the Spirit of God.

The condition of the former is like that of a captive imprisoned on the ground floor of the house, he has no access to the other floors of the building wherever he may wish to dwell. The secret of life is that every soul by its nature is an Asman or Akasha, an accommodation, and has in it an appetite; and of all that it partakes it creates a cover which surrounds it as a shell, and the life of that shell becomes dependent upon the same substance of which it is made. Therefore the shell becomes susceptible to all influences, and subject to the laws of that sphere from which it seeks its sustenance; or rather, the sustenance of the shell. The soul cannot see itself; it sees what is round it, it sees that in which it functions; and so it enjoys the comforts of the shell which is around it, and experiences the pains and discomforts which belong to the shell. And in this way it becomes an exile from the land of its birth, which is the Being of God, which is divine Spirit; and it seeks consciously or unconsciously once again the peace and happiness of home. God therefore is not the goal but the abode of the soul, its real self, its true being.