118 SKETCHES OF GREAT TRUTHS

Man is, therefore, in essence a spark of
the Divine Fire. This Divine Spark has
been called by several names, Inner Ruler,
the God Within, Conscience, the Monad,
Spirit of God within you, the Voice -within,
etc., etc. All these names describe it. It is
for the purpose of human evolution that the
Monad manifests itself in the lower worlds
and takes a human form. It has been said
that man has seven bodies. It is true, but the
title is misleading, and yet it is difficult to call
them by any other name than body. The
following is a very simple illustration. It was
a helpful one to me. If you throw a stone into
a pond, it will cause a succession of ripples on
the surface of water, let us say, seven, this
suggested to me the seven bodies; the centre,
let us imagine where the stone is dropped, is the
Monad and the ripple or response sends a
message outwards to the seven bodies or vehicles,
the physical being the outside one. Another
illustration can be given by a toy which is very
often seen, a succession of wooden eggs each
fitted within the other, getting, of course, small-
er and smaller in size, until within the last or
smallest you may find the jewel, the pearl of
great price. These bodies interpenetrate. They
arpcd-ae-p^ in one sense, but not to be approached