Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/56

32 other classes are no doubt Devas strictly so-called. But Yakshas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras and several other Ganams must be included amongst the beings that exist in the plane of the astral light.

These beings that inhabit the astral plane are called by the general name of elementals in our Theosophical writings. But besides elementals, properly so-called, there are still higher beings, and it is to these latter that the name Deva is strictly applicable. Do not make the mistake of thinking that the word Deva means a god, and that because we have thirty-three crores of Devas, we therefore worship thirty-three crores of gods. This is an unfortunate blunder generally committed by Europeans. Deva is a kind of spiritual being, and because the same word is used in ordinary parlance to mean god, it by no means follows that we have and worship thirty-three crores of gods. These beings, as may be naturally inferred, have a certain affinity with one of the three component upadhis into which we have divided man.

One organism has always a certain affinity with another organism composed of the same materials and existing on the same plane. As may naturally be expected, the astral body of man has affinity with the elementals, and the so-called karana sharira of man with the Devas. The ancient writers on Hindu philosophy have divided the cosmos into three lokas. The first is bhuloka, the second bhuvarloka, and the third suvarloka. Bhuloka is the physical plane with