“2. THE ONE RAY MULTIPLIES THE SMALLER RAYS.
LIFE PRECEDES FORM, AND LIFE SURVIVES THE LAST ATOM (OF FORM, STHULASARIRA, EXTERNAL BODY).
THROUGH THE COUNTLESS RAYS THE LIFE-RAY, THE ONE, LIKE A THREAD THROUGH MANY BEADS (PEARLS).
This sloka expresses the conception – a purely Vedantic one – of a life-thread, Sutratma, running through successive generations.
Mankind in its first prototypal, shadowy form, is the offspring of the Elohim of Life (or Pitris);
in its qualitative and physical aspect it is the direct progeny of the “Ancestors”, the lowest Dhyanis, or Spirits of the Earth;
for its moral, psychic, and spiritual nature, it is indebted to a group of divine Beings, the name and characteristics of which will be given in part II.
Collectively, men are the handiwork of hosts of various spirits; distributively, the tabernacles of those hosts; and occasionally and singly, the vehicles of some of them.”
H. P. Blavatsky