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5 Planes of Existence
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Five Planes of Manifestation
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BIBLE VERSES
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GILGAMES AND EA-BANI
Symbols of the Incarnate Self or Individuality
and the lower mind or Personality.
"The Epic begins with a description of his (Gilgames) rule at Erech,
the seat of his power. Between him and the inhabitants of the city
there seems to have been little goodwill. He had not left, they
complained, the son to his father or the wife to her husband." -
SAYCE, Rel. of Anc. Egypt. and Babyl., p. 432.
The Self seated on the lower planes (Erech) brings dissension among
the lower qualities (people) by his operations. The activities of
the indwelling Self are opposed to the lower emotions and desires.
The Self sets the more progressed quality (son) at variance with the
less progressed (father), and the mind (husband) in conflict with
the lower emotion (wife).
"The gods, we are told, heard the cry of the people, and Aruru was
instructed to create a rival to Gilgames, who might overcome him in
the contest of strength. The goddess accordingly kneaded clay with
her hands, and made it in the form of Ea-bani, half man and half
beast. His body was covered with hair; he knew neither kin nor
country; 'with the gazelles he ate the grass of the field and
satisfied his thirst with the cattle.'" - Ibid., p. 433.
Through buddhi (Aruru) as for the natural order, the personality is
developed and the lower mind (Ea-bani) is embodied in matter (clay),
that is, mind is endowed with a body on the astral plane of desire
(beast). Thus the lower mind becomes kama-manasic, half mind and
half desire-nature. The lower mind at first obeyed the intuitions
(hair), but recognised neither higher nor lower qualities. He just
accepted the higher qualities (gazelles) as means of growth (grass,
milk). Afterwards, being attracted by love of form-life, he fell
from his pristine purity to the lower planes (Erech).
"When once more he turned back to his gazelles and cattle, they fled
from him in terror; he had become a man, knowing good and evil." -
Ibid.
When the lower mind had identified itself with the desires and
sensations, the divine intuitions became obscured, and the higher
qualities (gazelles, etc.) were no longer perceived by the
consciousness. The Personality having within him the nascent mind
and the germ of Spirit, began his career as a responsible being, but
immersed in ignorance and the illusion of separateness. But deep
within him was the Incarnate Self (Gilgames), who was "his fast
friend and ally." It is through the alliance of the Individuality
with the Personality, and their concerted operations, that the soul
progresses on its upward path.
The Epic of Gilgames, like the Iliad, cannot be taken as sequential
in its arrangement; it gives instruction about the Divine scheme
from various points of view, without order as to time and space. It
is scrappy, no doubt by reason of many inspirations put together, as
was the Kalevala in the 19th century.
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