cal
world.

When the man dies, his three lower principles leave him for
ever; _i.e._, body, life, and the vehicle of the latter, the
etheric body, or the double of the living man. And then his
four principles--the central or middle principle (the animal
soul or Kama Rupa, with what it has assimilated from the
lower Manas) and the higher Triad--find themselves in
Kamaloka.[20]

This desire body undergoes a marked change soon after death. The
different densities of the astral matter of which it is composed
arrange themselves in a series of shells or envelopes, the densest
being outside, shutting the consciousness away from all but very
limited contact and expression. The consciousness turns in on itself,
if left undisturbed, and prepares itself for the next step onwards,
while the desire body gradually disintegrates, shell after shell.

Up to the point of this re-arrangement of the matter of the desire
body, the post-mortem experience of all is much the same; it is a
"dreamy, peaceful semi-consciousness," as before said, and this, in
the happiest cases, passes without vivid awakening into the deeper
"pre-devachanic unconsciousness" which ends with the blissful wakening
in Devachan, for the period of repose that intervenes between two
incarnations. But as, at this point, different possibilities arise,
let us trace a normal uninterrupted progression in Kamaloka, up to the
threshold of Devachan, and then we can return to consider other
classes of circumstances.

If a person has led a pure life, and has steadfastly striven to rise
and to identify himself with the higher rather than the lower parts of
his nature, after shaking off the dense body and the etheric double,
and after Prana has re-mingled with the ocean of Life, and he is
clothed only with the Kama Rupa, the passional elements in him, being
but weak and accustomed to comparatively little activity, will not be
able to assert themselves strongly in Kamaloka. Now during earth-life
Kama and the Lower Manas are strongly united and interwoven with each
other; in the case we are considering Kama is weak, and the Lower
Manas has purified Kama to a great extent. The mind, woven with the
passions, emotions, and desires, has purified them, and has
assimilated their pure part, absorbed it into itself, so that all that
is left of Kama is a mere residue, easily to be gotten rid of, from
which the Immortal Triad can readily free itself. Slowly thi