Antahkarana

In Hindu philosophy, the

antahkarana

(Skt.) refers to thehighest, i.e. most abstract, part of the mind, and it may includethe concrete part of the mind (manas). In the consciousnesslevel classification

karanopadhi

it is regarded as separate fromthe emotional part of the mind, which in another classification(that of planes) is regarded as being on the same level of mind.Antahkarana is higher than that level because a lower upadhi thankaranaincludes the emotions. Antahkarana is called thelink between the higher mind and the enclosing soul ( buddhi)consciousness, the latter of which is 'thoughtful consciousnessthat can think of the mind' (some would call this 'higher mind').In Dharma (Sanatana,etc.) the antahkarana is described as thereincarnating part of the mind, so it has a special link with thesoul.The concept has been compared to that of Nous, which when capitalized includes the human monad (or jivatman) and beyond, i.e. it is the higher manaswithin the jive/jivatma(monad), which links its own part of the jivatma with therupaor arupamanas above the separatekama-manas.

The science of the Antahkarana

- by Benjamin CremeA discussion of the "rainbow bridge" built by the man/woman in incarnation between the lower and higher self as part of personal spiritual evolution.The science of the Antahkarana is probably the most important science of the coming time but this talk will not claim to cover the whole subject of the Antahkarana or the science of its use. This is a sciencewhich is, as yet, unknown to humanity but it will be the coming science of mind of the New Age, thescience of building the bridge between lower and higher man, and also a number of other bridges: betweenthe members of the human race as a whole; between one Center, Humanity, and another, Hierarchy; betweenHierarchy and Shamballa; between Humanity, through Hierarchy, and Shamballa; and between this planetand other planets, this solar system and other solar systems. All these bridges and connections are the resultof the correct use of the science of the Antahkarana, which will be the major educational field for humanityin this coming age.The best way to study the Antahkarana is to read the Alice Bailey Teachings, in particular the book Education in the New Age, and further references in The Rays and Initiations. You will not get from thistalk, or from the Alice Bailey Teachings, the technique of the science of the Antahkarana. That is somethingwhich, as far as humanity as a whole is concerned, lies well in the future. It is a gradual process of enlightenment for humanity, but it will become the major science the science of evolving as a race andmaking the inner connections (which of course already exist but which have to be consciously built by theman or woman in incarnation), to weave the thread of return to the source from which we have originallycome. It is really the science of the Path of Return.

For long ages, the soul on its own plane looks down at its reflection, the man or woman on the physical plane, and sees no way to interfere with its development. There is very little the soul can do except create a body, give it its various physical, astral and mental make-up, and leave it to get on with the job of evolution.Eventually, there comes a life a series of lives in fact in which the soul sees that its reflection, the man or woman, is beginning to respond to the influence of the energy which connects the soul to its reflection, andthe process of 'ensouling' begins.Each individual is really threefold: the Monad, or spark of God, the impersonal Self which reflects itself on the soul plane as the individualized human soul or ego. The soul, again, reflects itself on the dense physical plane as the man or woman in incarnation.That is the 'way down', the process by which spirit involves itself in its polar opposite, substance. Whenthe spirit, or life, aspect and the matter aspect come together, a third, the consciousness aspect, is born. "TheAntahkarana" is, above all, the thread of consciousness. It is the result of the interaction of the life with theform, with substance, with matter; that produces something entirely different. We call it "consciousness".We can also call it "the Christ Principle". It is the process of evolution itself.Those who study anthropology, the history of evolution on the physical plane the evolution of formsknow that in the beginning there were great oceans, teaming with life, nothing on the land, and thengradually some of the more evolved animals: fish, reptiles of all kinds came on to the land and became theearly reptiles and mammals. Gradually, there evolved a prehuman type which eventually became early,animal man, separating itself from the animal kingdom. With the germ of mind which could become thenucleus of a mental body at last formed, the human race began. This is denied by Christian fundamentalistsand other orthodox religious groups who deny the reality of Darwin's theory of evolution, but esotericist'saccept it as a more-or-less accurate account of the growth of the form, the evolution of form, on this planet.We are not concerned with that; we are concerned, as human beings evolving back to our source, with theevolution not of form, which has come more or less to perfection (though there are some minor adjustmentsand improvements still to be made), but rather with the evolution of consciousness. The evolution of consciousness is the basis of how we become aware of ourselves and our environment, and create together the evolution of the human race.The descent from Monad to soul and from soul to personality has to be re-enacted in reverse order. Thethreefold man physical, astral and mental has to find his way back by a process of at-one-ment, first with thesoul and then, through the spiritual triad, the reflection of the Monad, with the Monad itself: the threefoldmonadic Being. That return journey, or the process by which that return journey is made, is through thecreation, the gradual evolvement and building, of the Antahkarana. This is a conscious process and onlyoccurs in stages. As the process downward has been slow, over millions of years, so the process back can bea long, drawn-out process, and for the vast majority of humanity so it is.We are in the second of a threefold solar system. In other words, this solar system is the secondembodiment or manifestation of the great Heavenly Man we call the Solar Logos Who has a Plan for theevolution of all the forms in the solar system.The first solar system expressed through matter, substance, the quality of active intelligence. It wasconcerned mainly with the intelligent creation of forms. We are in the second of this threefold expression inwhich the soul quality the love or consciousness aspect of the Logos is in process of being expressed. TheSolar Antahkarana is being built by the Solar Logos and by all the forms, whether they know it or not, whohave evolved from the first solar system and are now creating the bridge between that system and this one,and, eventually, between this system and the next. The next solar system will be concerned with the Will

aspect, the Monadic aspect, of the Solar Logos. When the correct bridge between these three expressions is built, the Solar Antahkarana is in place. This will lead to the culmination of the Plan of our Solar Logos inits threefold expression.Each solar system creates a body of expression at a higher level than the one before. The first that to dowith form, with substance is, of course, preparatory to the expression of the soul. It is the soul, in all forms,which incarnates. By descending into form, the soul actually the Monad, the spirit aspect, through the soul begins a process of redemption of the soul in form. It begins to spiritualize substance; the underlying purpose of our incarnational experience is, precisely, to spiritualize the substance of this particular solar system. When we have taken the substance the forms created in the previous solar system and energized itwith the energy of the soul, the consciousness aspect, in this solar system, we will raise it, redeem it,heighten its vibration and bring it up to the level at which the Will, the Purpose aspect of God (in terms of our Solar Logos), can be expressed.In this present solar system God is Love, Love is the aspect of the soul, Will of the Atmic level of being.In the next solar system God will be Will and Purpose. We are, all of us, as microcosms, evolving in precisely the same way as the macrocosm, our Solar Logos, through its threefold expression, works out itsPlan of evolution in every kingdom and in every planet.In coming into incarnation, therefore, we are doing something quite extraordinary, something far greater than we as individual human beings possibly realize. But as soon as we do realize the interconnectedness of the microcosm with the macrocosm it deepens our sense of purpose the sense of reality in life, and it is alsoa stimulus to concentrate more, and to build a direct line of ascent between this low-level (for that is what itis) expression of Deity and bring it into line with the underlying purpose of Deity for its perfectionment.The energy of each solar system is raised and becomes the basis for the new system, just as in our incarnational experience every incarnation creates an expression through the vehicles up to a certainvibration. That vibration is held exactly at the point we have reached when we die.There are three 'permanent atoms' around which the new bodies, physical, astral and mental, are formed.These permanent atoms vibrate at exactly the frequency reached in that particular life, and we canunderstand, therefore, how the vibrational rate reached is the degree to which we have perfected, or spiritualized, matter. The soul infuses the matter of the three bodies with its energy and in this way salvages,redeems that matter. It raises their vibration onto an ever-higher level until the point is reached when thesoul is reflecting itself, without resistance, directly, through the personality. That is how we become divine.We do so by raising the vibrational rate of the substance of these three bodies to a point where the DivineMan, the soul on its own plane, can reflect itself relatively purely through its reflection, the man or womanon the physical plane. That is the evolutionary, the return process; the technique of it is the science of theAntahkarana.

Sutratma

There are two major threads which connect the Monad, through the soul, with the man or woman inincarnation. One the Sutratma, the thread of life, is anchored in the heart. It comes directly from the Monad,reflected through the soul, and is fixed in the heart center at the right-hand side of the body. It is reflectedthrough that etheric center to the physical heart and into the bloodstream, which, as you know, is the purifying stream which carries the energy of life to every part of the body. While the lifeblood is pumpedcorrectly through the body and is kept free of poisons, the physical body displays all its ability and accuracyof movement and expression. So, too, the connecting body, the astral-emotional body and the mental bodyare dependent on the life thread, the Sutratma, for their existence and correct function.