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ascent could not commence without preparation. That preparation
was made in the Chakshusha Manvantara or during the latter half
of the Third Round.
Sri or Lakshmi is the Satvic energy of preservation. This
energy was so much overpowered by Materiality, that she was not
to be found in Triloki. The spiritual forces, the Devas, lost life and
energy. The Asuras were at the height of their power. But as the
ascending arc was near at hand, the Devas were promised Amrita i. c.
immortality for the remaining part of the Kalpa. But that Amrita
was to be obtained, the arc of spiritual evolution was to be raised by
the churning of the ocean of Milk.
The ocean of Milk does not appertain to Jambu Dvvipa, but
it is the ocean of Saka Dwipa. The seven oceans are transformations
of Prakriti, differing in the admixture of Satva, Rajas and Tamas and
determining the character of the globe they surround. Vishnu, as the
Third Purusha, is the divine source of evolution in every Jiva. The
seat of that Vishnu is the ocean of Milk, the ocean where Satva
prevails.
It is Vishnu who from His seat in the Ocean of Milk sends
down Prdnic Energy and the mineral becomes a vegetable. He
sends down the power of perception and then the power of concep-
tion and the vegetable becomes an animal and at last a man.
Throughout this course of evolution, there is a development of the
self element in us. There is no idea of self in the mineral or in the
vegetable. It faintly asserts itself or rather makes an effort to assert
itself in the animal kingdom. The early history of humanity is the
development of the selfish element in him. The Jiva has two sides
in himself and non-self. The self side is caused by limitation due
to his own senses They put him in contact with the outside world,
and make him a centre of sense perceptions. He becomes lost
entirely in the sense products, which form a world by themselves.
The non-self side of a Jiva, is his spiritual nature. He begins with
this spiritual nature. But the development of selfishness eclipses
this nature, the true, the real nature of Jiva, and he identifies himself
entirely with the acquired and false nature.
Then comes a crisis in the evolution of Jivas. Were men to
be lost for ever to their spiritual, their real nature? Were they to be
tempted away by the senses, which had done their work of training,
past all chance of return?
Vishnu, the God of human evolution, willed otherwise.^;He
caused a re-adjustment of the Daivic and Asuric forces, and the Devas
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