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345. Every human being, on attainment of a certain stage in his spiritnal development, begins to shed on the world "a living moral energy, whereby a fresh influx of spiritual life is developed," and for this, passage into Nirvana (in the sense in which she understands it) is not necessary. The Paraclete that descends has nothing to do with the Dhyan Chohans, who are not Monads in the Nirvanic condition, contemplated above. When Videha Kaivalyam (the union of the disembodied Monad with the absolute Parabrahman) is reached by any Monad, the sum total of its Karma goes to enrich the Universal Mind, wherein lie the archetype of all that is, was, or will be. The fresh influx of realised ideas thus brought in, is showered by the Cosmic energy, called Fohat by Buddhist Occultists and the Initiates. This is how the Paraclete (or the manifested Buddhi) is made to descend, in the true Esoteric doctrine. But the Dhyan Chohans are not in that state of Nirvana from which the Buddhi or the Pragna (the Sophia of the Gnostics, or again the Christian Paraclete) descends. As all Eastern Occultists know, there are fourteen gradations in Nirvana, exclusive of two others (which are but one, the manifested and the unmanifested), some of which, in truth nine, are attained by the adepts even while alive, and others reached only when in the Dhyan Chohanic state, and so on. This explanation will clearly show that the doctrine of Dhyan Chohans, whether repugnant or not to Mrs. Kingsford's "common sense," is certainly not what she takes it to be.

I shall now pass to Mr. Maitland's objections on this head. The first exception that he takes is, that the presence of the Dhyan Chohans interferes with the freedom of the human will. The subject of free-will and predestination is one which has been a bone of contention among Western theologians and metaphysicians, time out of mind, and as such, no doubt, possesses a peculiar charm for the Western intellect; but it must not be forgotten that the metaphysical problem of free-will and predestination has very little importance outside of a religious system which rests upon an almighty and omniscient 44