37: The Solar Lord, the Divine Ego.  Of the two courses of soul development referred to by H. P. B. in her "Voice of the Silence" as the path of "Dhyana" and "Dharma" or the "Paramitas," Ramayana is based upon the latter.  The "Seven Portals," referred to in the book of the same name, correspond very probably to the seven cantos of this sacred poem.  But I have read only the first canto, and I shall give you the analysis of it, so far as I know.  Excluding the preface to the poem, the first thing, in the first canto, is a description of the peculiar circumstances that attended Rama's birth in Dasaratha's family.  Dasaratha is, as you all know, a descendant of solar kings, who began to rule over this earth from the time of Manu the Vyvaswatha.  As his name implies, he is a king whose car can travel in ten directions, or taking the occult microcosmic sense he is king of the human body, which has ten senses of action and perception that connect it with the ten directions.  You are thoroughly familiar with the idea that our ancient philosophers used to describe the body as a town with nine gates.  The nine gates are, as you know, the nine orifices of the human body.  If you add to the nine one more for the orifice known as the Brahma-rundra or the door of Brahma, you get ten gates corresponding to the ten directions.  The word "Dasaratha" indicates the consciousness connected with our senses, which consciousness is inferior to the consciousness which we call mind.—The Theosophist, Vol. XIII, p. 340.