III.  For the purposes of d Taraka Yog or Pranava Yog.

  IV.  For the purposes of Sankhya Yog (where they are, as it were,
      the inherent attributes of Prakriti).

   V. For the purposes of Hata Yog.

  VI.  For the purposes of Koula Agama.

 VII.  For the purposes of Sakta Agama.

VIII.  For the purposes of Siva Aqama.

  IX.  For the purposes of Sreechakram (the Sreechakram referred
      to in “Isis Unveiled” is not the real esoteric Sreechakram
      of the ancient adepts of Aryavarta).*

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* Very true.  But who would be allowed to give out the “real” esoteric
one?—­Ed. Theos.
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   X. In Atharvena Veda, &c.

In all these classifications subdivisions have been multiplied indefinitely by conceiving new combinations of the Primary Powers in different proportions.  But I must now drop this subject, and proceed to consider the “Fragments of Occult Truth” (since embodied in “Esoteric Buddhism").

I have carefully examined it, and find that the results arrived at (in the Buddhist doctrine) do not differ much from the conclusions of our Aryan philosophy, though our mode of stating the arguments may differ in form.  I shall now discuss the question from my own standpoint, though, following, for facility of comparison and convenience of discussion, the sequence of classification of the sevenfold entities or principles constituting man which is adopted in the “Fragments.”  The questions raised for discussion are (1) whether the disembodied spirits of human beings (as they are called by Spiritualists) appear in the seance-rooms and elsewhere; and (2) whether the manifestations taking place are produced wholly or partly through their agency.

It is hardly possible to answer these two questions satisfactorily unless the meaning intended to be conveyed by the expression “disembodied spirits of human beings” be accurately defined.  The words spiritualism and spirit are very misleading.  Unless English writers in general, and Spiritualists in particular, first ascertain clearly the connotation they mean to assign to the word spirit, there will be no end of confusion, and the real nature of these so-called spiritualistic phenomena and their modus occurrendi can never be clearly defined.  Christian writers generally speak of only two entities in man—­the body, and the soul or spirit (both seeming to mean the same thing to them).  European philosophers generally speak of body and mind, and argue that soul or spirit cannot be anything else than mind.  They are of opinion that any belief in lingasariram* is entirely unphilosophical.  These views are certainly incorrect, and are based on unwarranted assumptions as to the possibilities of Nature, and on an imperfect understanding of its laws.  I shall now examine (from the standpoint of the Brahmanical esoteric doctrine) the spiritual constitution of man, the various entities or principles existing in him, and ascertain whether either of those entities entering into his composition can appear on earth after his death, and if so, what it is that so appears.