formerly, in the beginning of the Kalpas, was
meditating on creation, there appeared a creation beginning
with ignorance and consisting of darkness.... Brahma,
beholding that it was defective, designed another; and whilst
he thus meditated, the animal creation was manifested....
Beholding this creation also imperfect, Brahma again
meditated, and a third creation appeared, abounding with the
quality of goodness.[33]

The objective manifestation follows the mental meditation; first idea,
then form. Hence it will be seen that the notion current among many
Theosophists that Devachan is waste time, is but one of the illusions
due to the gross matter that blinds them, and that their impatience of
the idea of Devachan arises from the delusion that fussing about in
gross matter is the only real activity. Whereas, in truth, all
effective action has its source in deep meditation, and out of the
Silence comes ever the creative Word. Action on this plane would be
less feeble and inefficient if it were the mere blossom of the
profound root of meditation, and if the Soul embodied passed oftener
out of the body into Devachan during earth-life, there would be less
foolish action and consequent waste of time. For Devachan is a state
of consciousness, the consciousness of the Soul escaped for awhile
from the net of gross matter, and may be entered at any time by one
who has learned to withdraw his Soul from the senses as the tortoise
withdraws itself within its shell. And then, coming forth once more,
action is prompt, direct, purposeful, and the time "wasted" in
meditation is more than saved by the directness and strength of the
mind-engendered act.

Devachan is the sphere of the mind, as said, it is the land of the
Gods, or the Souls. In the before quoted "Notes on Devachan" we read:

_There are two fields of causal manifestations: the objective
and the subjective. The grosser energies find their outcome
in the new personality of each birth in the cycle of
evoluting individuality. The moral and spiritual activities
find their sphere of effects in Devachan._

As the moral and spiritual activities are the most important, and as
on the development of these depends the growth of the true Man, and
therefore the accomplishing of "the object of creation, the liberation
of Soul", we may begin to understand something of the vast importance
of the devachanic state.

THE DEVACHANI.

When