mbersome, and we must go on using the phrase
in both meanings. No confusion need arise; but strictly speaking, the
_linga sharira_, or third principle, is the astral body, and that
cannot be sent about as the vehicle of the higher principles."

As, however, "no confusion need arise" from my describing how I went
about in my _linga sharira_, I will continue to use it as the term for my
vehicle of transportation. Nor need there be any difficulty about my
being in two places at once. I have the authority of Mr Sinnett's Guru
for this statement, and it is fully confirmed by my own experience. For
what says the Guru?--"The individual consciousness, it is argued, cannot
be in two places at once. But first of all, to a certain extent it can."
It is unnecessary for me to add a word to this positive and most correct
statement; but what the Guru has not told us is, that there is a certain
discomfort attending the process. Whenever I went with my astral body,
or _linga sharira_, into the mysterious region of Thibet already alluded
to, leaving my _rupa_, or natural body, in Khatmandhu, I was always
conscious of a feeling of rawness; while the necessity of looking after
my _rupa_--of keeping, so to speak, my astral eye upon it, lest some
accident should befall it, which might prevent my getting back to it, and
so prematurely terminate my physical or objective existence--was a
constant source of anxiety to me. Some idea of the danger which attends
this process may be gathered from the risks incidental to a much more
difficult operation which I once attempted, and succeeded, after
incredible effort, in accomplishing; this was the passage of my fifth
principle, or ego-spirit, into the ineffable condition of _nirvana_.

"Let it not be supposed," says Mr Sinnett,--for it is not his Guru who
is now speaking,--"that for any adept such a passage can be lightly
undertaken. Only stray hints about the nature of this great mystery
have reached me; but, putting these together, I believe I am right in
saying that the achievement in question is one which only some of the
high initiates are qualified to attempt, which exacts a total
suspension of animation in the body for periods of time compared to
which the longest cataleptic trances known to ordinary science are
insignificant; the protection of the physical frame from natural decay
during this period by means which the resources of occult science are