"Spirit" is not a very appropriate word for the soul that has passed from the physical plane, and yet it is used to denote that, and it does to a certain extent convey the meaning. Really speaking, there is only one spirit, the Spirit of All, the Eternal Sun, the rays of which are all souls -- of angels, of djinns, of men. The word "spirit" is sometimes used even in speaking about angels or about djinns, and as the spirit of man could be called a spirit, the spirit of djinn and angel may as well be called by the same name. But, to distinguish my subject, I shall use the word "spirit" only for the souls that have passed from the physical plane. The word "spirit" no doubt teaches the idea of this spirit being a miniature of that spirit which is the Spirit of God.

We use the word "spirit" in speaking of extracts of flowers, and that suggests something too -- that spirit cannot be one single thing, pure in its essence, but one thing that has taken something from another thing. Fragrant air is air with fragrance. In the same way the spirit of everything has, naturally, the extract of that thing, but it has its own being in the first place and then another color put upon it. Black, or white, green, or red means not only the color but something else also that has taken that color upon itself. So the spirit of the human being consists of two things: one thing, what it was originally, a pure soul or divine ray, and then what it took and adorned itself with by manifesting itself into distinguishable planes. These two things together make a spirit. Hindus call it bhut, which means "who was before."

In spirit of camphor, one smells camphor but does not see any. So it is with the spirit; though camphor is material and is evident to the material sense, the spirit is spiritual; through the material sense one cannot witness it. Therefore the materialist denies its existence, whereas the mystic goes on in the constant pursuit after the life that is beneath and beyond, within and without the tangible and perceptible life. And it is this investigation of a finer and higher life that eventually brings the mystic to the realization of the spirit and the spirit-world.

The personality of man has five different aspects of its being: the food receptacle, air receptacle, knowledge receptacle, light receptacle, joy receptacle. Of these five, the first two depart from the personality, which gives the others the presumption of death and deludes the soul for a time by the impression of death. In the East they say that the third day after death the soul rises; in other words it may be said that it takes some little time for the soul to clear away from itself the impression of death. If the soul did not allow itself to be impressed with the thought of death, it would never die, since death is nothing but an illusion which lasts for some time. This illusion cannot last long, for how can the life continue to think, "I am dead," when it has every evidence of being alive?

There are two worlds open to the dead, one world within and one without. In the world within, he has all the impressions he has gathered through life, living still in a still more realistic form. The other world is the world of the dead, which is nearest, though the world of the living is not far from him. The sphere of the dead and of the living is the same. They seem different, for the vehicles such as body and mind make them appear so.

Death is a change which is mostly as an impression; in reality the life after death is the continuation of the same life. Harmony or inharmony, peace or restlessness, all is continued, with some little difference. Why death appears so frightening is, in the first place, because one knows that those who are dead have never appeared again, and one doubts whether they exist, and their absence makes him wonder if they really live after death.

Death is likened to a dream. We call it dream because we find ourselves in a new sphere, quite different from what we saw in the dream, but if there were no contrast of experiences, we should call it a continuation of our daily life. There is no more dream after death, because life itself is in that sphere which we now, in the physical sphere, call dream.

The question arises whether we exist as a body or mind, and that if we exist as mind, it would not be a life as on earth. The answer is that the soul exists in the sphere of dream also as a body, since in the dream we are not formless. If the organs of our physical body seem to be resting, a body is there which is not different from our physical body. All things that one does in the wakeful state one does in a dream also.

One could not do them if one had not a body to act as a vehicle in that sphere also. The body is fine and the exact counterpart of the physical body, though the conditions change more swiftly in the hereafter than on earth. The age at which one finds oneself in mostly that at which one dies; there are changes which make one younger rather than older. One lives much longer on the other side than on earth, and continues his life on the same lines that he has drawn in his life on earth.

In every religion there is an idea that spirits descend, and many people make offerings to their dead on certain days of the year, and they call it Mass, Shraddha, and Navaz. With the offerings in the form of food or drink, flowers or fragrance, the orthodox chant prayers. According to the philosophical point of view, it is often true that the dead receive offerings. A person may say, "How can the dead eat or drink things offered to them, or smell the perfume of incense, or hear the religious chant repeated for them?" The answer is that, as reflections of one mirror can fall on another mirror, so the reflections of one heart can fall on the heart of another.

In other words, the one who, with his faith and love makes an offering to the dead, his heart is first reflected with the offerings and their joy, and this impression is reflected again on the heart of the dead -- for the very reason that it is done with that thought. The Hindus make offerings and leave them at the river side, but among the Semitic people, the Israelites, Christians or Jews, the offerings are used by those who have offered them. And according to the philosophical view, this is more effective, because the one who offers has the concentration of the one to whom he offers, therefore he is more capable of reflecting that joy which he receives from food or drink, perfume or a chant.

There is no such thing as ascent or descent of the spirit, in reality. Any yet it can be called a descent, since the spirit is attracted to the physical spheres, whereas its natural progress would be towards the higher spheres. It is a question whether it is advisable so to attract the spirits towards the physical spheres; and yet it is allowable in this sense, that man has lived his life on earth depending on and desiring sympathy, welcome and hospitality from his people, and naturally that inclination remains. And by making an offering, one need not prevent the progress of the spirit upwards, since it is done once in a while as a religious ceremony. In order to avoid constant spirit communication, the Prophets have given a certain time in the year, a few days, when one could give his thought and time to the dead.

There is much discussion about the descent of the spirits, but in reality the natural tendency of the spirit is to ascend. The tendency of all things is to rise upwards. It may be called the desire of the wave to rise, and it is its failure when it falls. The tendency of the birds to fly upwards, and the tendency of the animals to stand on their hind legs, the tendency of the trees to grow and rise, all shows the tendency of the spirit behind it. And the constant effort of the spirit is to rise, and matter, so to speak, keeps it down. Therefore, the soul has greater freedom to follow its tendency after death, when it has got release from the material body and its weight has become light.

No doubt the goal of every soul is the origin of all souls. But it takes time for every soul to reach its goal, and this time is occupied by certain experiences, which may be likened to a journey. In the first place, all the ties of the earth -- the possessions, the collected wealth, friends, attachments, responsibilities, ambitions -- all drag the soul downward in its journey upwards. And it is weakness on the part of the spirit that allows it to descend, and it is strength of the spirit that allows it to go on in its journey.

There are experiences of the spirit-world where the spirit meets with other spirits, and sometimes he is helped toward his ascent, or sometimes he is induced to descend. Elements attract their like, and so, even in the spirit-world, spirits of various kinds are drawn toward their own element. No doubt, the variety of life, caused by physical and material distinctions and differences, is not the same after death, for the material differences do not exist except in their impressions.

Initiation among the Sufis has, for one of its many objects, to find a caravan in the hereafter that journeys to the desired goal. Therefore, by initiation it is meant that a Sufi prepares himself here on earth to be capable of appreciating the spiritual souls, and unites with them in the brotherhood of initiation on the Path, which may keep him connected with the caravan which is continually journeying toward the goal.

Element attracts element. Wise attracts wise, and foolish attracts foolish, and every soul is happy in its own element. The spirits are delighted to be among spirits, rather to be among men walking on earth. Spirits are held by each other in their progress in the life in the hereafter. They have their attachment and their detachment, attraction and repulsion, in the same way as among man on earth. The spirits group together, live together, like men on earth, in villages, towns, and cities. They leave their dwelling place and journey far from home, as men do on earth. There are stories suggesting this idea, of spirits dancing together, playing together; and even there are cases when the spirits have obsessed, of many spirits obsessing one person.

As spirits of every kind live mostly with their own kind, so the souls who have been in the path of illumination through life dwell in the hereafter among the illuminated spirits, where they are helped and guided by the advanced spirits towards a higher goal. It is this association of spirits which may be called the White Brotherhood, Masters, Murshids, or Prophets. When the Prophet was asked to tell something about his journey to the Heavens, he described how he met Abraham, Moses, Jesus, David, and Solomon. This explains both things; the one, that like attracts like; and the other, that the experience of the spirit-world is an experience on the path towards the final goal.

The progress of the spirit on earth, after having left the earthly spheres, is one of the most complicated subjects of metaphysics. Progress means a travelling on the path of motive to the destination which may be called its fulfillment. There is not a single thought or imagination -- speech or action apart -- which does not in time reach its destination, which may be called fulfillment. All hopes and desires in life which seem fallen-through are not dead in reality. No activity dies, though it seems dead at times. It works through different spheres in different guises, and fulfills the motive in some form or other. Man, not being conscious of it, calls it lost, but in reality nothing is lost. Every activity that is once set to run on its wheels goes on running. And we call it lost when it disappears from our sight. But sooner or later, in some form or other, it arrives at its destination. The spirits who had in their lives interest in some person on earth, or interest in some affair, interest in accomplishing something, for something, for some people, for humanity, after their death have not lost their hold on those affairs.

They are continuing them through sources that seem suitable, and so progress even as spirits, and bring about desired results in due course of time. Their desire in their lifetime to be rich, their desire to be famous, their longing to be serviceable, their hope to be useful, their yearning to accomplish something useful for themselves, for their friends, for humanity, they succeed in, in the end. For every desire is the desire of the Creator, and no desire must remain unfulfilled. It has its time for fulfillment, and if death came before it, it is accomplished in the hereafter.

When we understand the spirit to be the soul, we know that the spirit never comes back as an obsession or an incarnation; what comes back is a personality which is the inner garb of the soul. When we consider the body as the overcoat, the personality is the dress. But the person in the soul steadily progresses onward, unloading itself of all that it had on earth, or in other words, by uncovering itself from all the fine and gross garbs that it was clad in. And it is a question whether it is justifiable, in all cases, ever to try and communicate with the spirits which are journeying toward their real destination, for our changing fancies or for our curiosity.

The further the soul journeys, the less it feels inclined to come back to the world. A traveller who has long left his country forgets it in time and has no inclination to return. Then how can a soul, whose country by no means was the world it was visiting for a time and then left for its own land, long for the place? The comfort of that land to which the soul belongs is much greater than that it has experienced in the world; the freedom of its own spheres was much greater than that it had on earth; the peace of its original dwelling has never been experienced by it when on earth.