Stanza VII
1. Behold the beginings of sentient formless life. First the Divine, the one from the Mother-Spirit; then the Spiritual; the three from the one, the four from the one, and the five from which the three, the five, and the seven. These are the three-fold, the four-fold downward; the “mind-born” sons of the first Lord; the shining seven. It is they who are thou, me, him, oh Lanoo. They, who watch over thee, and thy mother earth.
2. The one ray multiplies the smaller rays. Life precedes form, and lfe survives the last atom of form. Through the countless rays proceeds the life-ray, the one, like a thread through many jewels.
3. When the one becomes two, the threefold appears, and the three are one; and it is our thread, oh Lanoo, the heart of the man-plant called Saptaparna.
Mr. Old: In reading through The Secret Doctrine I have been led to conclude that Jiva was always used in the sense of the individual life principle.
Mme. Blavatsky: You must pay attention to what part of the book it is used in, and when. For instance, if you see that I quote something there from some sectarian book, then it will be a different thing; or if I quote Leibniz, I will say the “Monads”; but I don’t think you will find that it is used simply when I speak from my own philosophy, that I mix them up, because it is impossible to mix up the two.
Mr. Old: May we conclude, then, that Jiva is the individual expression, and Prana the universal?
Mme. Blavatsky: Prana is simply physical life, that in which animals and men and all the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom are; but Jiva can only be applied to the one universal principle, that is to say, the unknowable Parabrahm.
Prana is the Sanskrit for the life principle. There are no “Pranas”, for you cannot use it in the plural. Life is indivisible; but it is used sometimes as a synonym for Jiva, when Jiva is applied to the one life or the universal living essence – another term for the unknowable, yet self-manifesting and evident principle, the first emanation, or that which you ordinarily call the first Logos – not the second, the manifestation from the one universal.
Mr. Kingsland: Are not the Jivas synonymous with what are called the “Devourers”, later on in the stanza?
Mme. Blavatsky: Every life has a Jiva in it. Every little insect has a Jiva. Every microbe, every speck of dust will have its Jiva, but that is a different thing. “Jivas” mean “the lives”.
Mr. Kingsland: That is identical with Leibniz’ idea of the Monads.
Mme. Blavatsky: Yes, well, but it is not that. It can be called the same. The Monads of Leibniz are quite a different thing. In one sense it is, because Leibniz calls the Monads, every atom; so there is a great difference.
Mr. Old: Whether your Monad has intelligence or not, of course it has a sentient intelligence of its own, peculiar to its degree.
Mme. Blavatsky: There is a great difference between Monad, a unit, like an atom, and a Monad which is an intelligent Monad. Such a one as reflects the whole universe is the Monad of Leibniz. One is of the plane of manifestation, and of gross matter, and the other is on the plane of pure spirituality.
The two planes are quite different. You take the two, and one end of the pole is pure spirit and at the other pole there is gross matter. So you see you cannot mix it up. You must always see in what sense it is used. One is the Unknowable, and as I say, and the other is what I have said. This is a mistake which is very often made.”
H. P Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 