Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

INHABITANTS OF THE WORLDS
THE worlds are inhabited by countless grades of beings,
ranging from the highest Devas (of whom there are
many classes and degrees) to the lowest animal life.
The scale of beings runs from the shining manifestations
to the spirit of those in which it is so veiled that it
would seem almost to have disappeared in its material
covering. There is but one Light, one Spirit, whose manifestations
are many. A flame enclosed in a clear glass
loses but little of its brilliancy. If we substitute for the
glass, paper, or some other more opaque yet transparent
substance, the light is dimmer. A covering of metal may
be so dense as to exclude from sight the rays of light
which yet burns within with an equal brilliancy. As a
fact, all such veiling forms are māyā. They are none the
less true for those who live in and are themselves part of
the māyik world. Deva, or “heavenly and shining one”—
for spirit is light and self-manifestation—is applicable to
those descending yet high manifestations of the Brahman,
such as the seven Śivas, including the Trinity (trimūrti),
Brahma, Viṣṇ u, and Rudra. Devī again, is the
title of the Supreme Mother Herself, and is again
applied to the manifold forms assumed by the one only
Māyā, such as Kālī, Sarasvatī, Lakṣmī, Gaurī, Gāyatrī,
Saṃdhyā, and others. In the sense also in which it is
said, 1 “Verily, in the beginning there was the Brahman.
It created the Devas”; the latter term also includes lofty
intelligences belonging to the created world inter-
1 Bṛ hadāranyaka Up. (ix. 2-3-2).