different
name and is independent of the material body. After death, when the
earthly vital principle disintegrates, together with the material body,
all these interior bodies join together, and either advance on the way
to Moksha, and are called Deva (divine), though it still has to pass
many stadia before the final liberation, or is left on earth, to wander
and to suffer in the invisible world, and, in this case, is called
bhuta. But a Deva has no tangible intercourse with the living. Its only
link with the earth is its posthumous affection for those it loved in
its lifetime, and the power of protecting and influencing them. Love
outlives every earthly feeling, and a Deva can appear to the beloved
ones only in their dreams--unless it be as an illusion, which cannot
last, because the body of a Deva undergoes a series of gradual changes
from the moment it is freed from its earthly bonds; and, with every
change, it grows more intangible, losing every time something of its
objective nature. It is reborn; it lives and dies in new Lokas or
spheres, which gradually become purer and more subjective. At last,
having got rid of every shadow of earthly thoughts and desires, it
becomes nothing from a material point of view. It is extinguished like
a flame, and, having become one with Parabrahm, it lives the life of
spirit, of which neither our material conception nor our language can
give any idea. But the eternity of Parabrahm is not the eternity of the
soul. The latter, according to a Vedanta expression, is an eternity in
eternity. However holy, the life of a soul had its beginning and its
end, and, consequently, no sins and no good actions can be punished
or rewarded in the eternity of Parabrahm. This would be contrary to
justice, disproportionate, to use an expression of Vedanta philosophy.
Spirit alone lives in eternity, and has neither beginning nor end,
neither limits nor central point. The Deva lives in Parabrahm, as a
drop lives in the ocean, till the next regeneration of the universe
from Pralaya; a periodical chaos, a disappearance of the worlds from the
region of objectivity. With every new Maha-yuga (great cycle) the
Deva separates from that which is eternal, attracted by existence in
objective worlds, like a drop of water first drawn up by the sun,
then starting again downwards, passing from one region to another, and
returning at last to the dirt of our planet. Then, having dwelt there
whilst a small cycle lasted, i