used on the four lower or rupa divisions of the devachanic
plane by those capable of functioning there during earth-life, and is
formed out of the substance of the mind-body. The pupil is at first
unable to construct this for himself, and has therefore to be content
with his ordinary astral body composed of the less refined matter of
the kamic aura; but at a certain stage of his progress the Master
Himself forms his Mayavirupa for him for the first time, and
afterwards instructs and assists him until he can make it for himself
easily and expeditiously. When this facility is attained this vehicle
is habitually used in place of the grosser astral body, since it
permits of instant passage from the astral to the devachanic plane and
back again at will, and allows of the use at all times of the higher
powers belonging to its own plane. It must be noted, however, that a
person travelling in the Mayavirupa is not perceptible to merely
astral vision unless he chooses to make himself so by gathering around
him particles of astral matter and so creating for himself a temporary
body suitable to that plane, though such a temporary creation would
resemble the ordinary astral body only as a materialization resembles
the physical body; in each case it is a manifestation of a higher
entity on a lower plane in order to make himself visible to those
whose senses cannot yet transcend that plane. But whether he be in the
Mayavirupa or the astral body, the pupil who is introduced to the
astral plane under the guidance of a competent teacher has always the
fullest possible consciousness there, and is in fact himself, exactly
as his friends know him on earth, minus only the four lower principles
in the former case and the three lower in the latter, and plus the
additional powers and faculties of this higher condition, which enable
him to carry on far more easily and far more efficiently on that plane
during sleep the Theosophical work which occupies so much of his
thought in his waking hours. Whether he will remember fully and
accurately on the physical plane what he has done or learnt on the
other depends largely, as before stated, upon whether he is able to
carry his consciousness without intermission from the one state to the
other.

2. _The Psychically-developed Person who is not under the guidance of
a Master._ Such a person may or may not be spiritually developed, for
the two forms of advancement do not necessarily go together, and when