This will as yet prove an insoluble mystery to the student, but in the significance of numbers much can be discovered. This angle of the matter should be studied in order to bring out the true meaning of this sixth order of devas, whose symbol is the six-pointed Star set at a particular angle and in full manifestation. The six-pointed star is the sign that a "Son of Necessity" [670] (no matter whether God or man) has sought physical incarnation. The devas of the sixth order, the Agnisuryans, are a prime factor in bringing this about. In the sixth round these devas will begin to make their presence felt more and more potently, but the strength of their vibration will be very gradually turned upwards, and not downwards into the physical plane. This will involve the transmutation of desire into aspiration, and will produce eventually the liberation of the planetary Logos, and bring a manvantara (or His cycle of physical incarnation) to a close. Withdrawal of the force of desire results likewise in the cessation of man's physical existence. The old Commentary expresses this truth in the following words:

"The Sixth retire within themselves; they turn towards the Fifth, leaving the Seventh alone."

1. Their rate of vibration.
2. Their stage of development. [671]
3. Consciousness.
4. Fohatic, magnetic and dynamic force.

When this is not done, a wrong and narrow idea is the result. In future time, as may be seen from a study of the Secret Doctrine, (See S. D., I, 288; II, 179, 187.) the Logos in His septenary Nature will be seen as the Macrocosm for Man, whilst the Microcosm, Man himself, will be seen also as the Macrocosm for the three lower kingdoms. This is simply one way of studying the evolution of the conscious Entity - God, Man, or lesser life - by means of deva substance; it involves the study of the positive and negative interaction. As says the old Commentary again:

"When Father approaches Mother, that which will be taketh form. The union of the two concealeth the true mystery of Being.

When the two great devas seek each other, when they meet and merge, the promise of life is fulfiled.

When the one who sees and knows stands midway between his parents, then can be seen the fruition of knowledge, and all is known upon the planes of consciousness.

When Anu, the infinitesimal, is seen to contain Ishvara in His potency, when the lesser spheres and cycles expand into the [672] circle of the Heavens, then shall the essential Unity be cognized and manifested fully.

When the One that holds the life becomes the three behind which that life is hidden; when the three by revolution become the seven and the ten; when the thirty million crores of deva lives repeat the revolution; when the central point is reached and reveals the three, the nine, and the inner blazing JEWEL, then is the circle of manifestation consummated, and the One again becomes the ten, the seven, the three and the point."

We must ever keep clearly in mind that we are dealing in this section with the evolutionary devas who are the positive Life animating involutionary matter or deva substance. Consequently, the correspondence of the mystic marriage of Spirit and matter can be seen working out also in deva substance itself, through the interaction of negative and positive deva lives. Substance itself represents essential duality; forms repeat the same duality, and when we arrive at man himself again, we have duality plus a third factor. These three orders of deva substance - the lower fifth, the sixth and seventh - are a very mysterious group as far as man is concerned. ¹⁷ [673]

17 Sankaracharya and Buddha. The great sage Sankaracharya who is known to us all as the leading head of the adwaitic movement that was set on foot subsequent to the time of the equally great Sage known as Gautama Buddha, the head of the doctrine of Buddhi or Buddhism. Both are great Masters of compassion and may be conceived as the two hemispheres of the burning globe of light that is placed on the central mental mount to impart light to the East and the West. The two great Masters are mystically connected, if you will listen to H. P. B., and to understand the natures of these two beings is to understand the nature of the entire cosmos divisible as two hemispheres, the one being the land of the sunrise of thought eternal and the other being "the Pillar to the West upon whose face the rising sun of thought eternal poureth forth its most glorious waves." They are representatives for us (the poor children of the dust of the ground) of the two great powers known in the Puranas as Shiva and Vishnu, the universal sower and reaper, who by their interaction are said to support the universe of progress. - Some Thoughts on the Gita, pp. 92-3.