Devas D 129
a host of nature spirits throughout the valley. Elves and brownies, says
Hodson, could feel this control as a sudden exaltation, the source of
which they could not fully comprehend, though they recognized it as
a constant feature of their lives.
Hodson says he savored the deva's combination of a sense of free-
dom from all limitations with a humanlike capacity for tenderness,
deep concern for others, even 1ove.Among its functions appeared to be
that of guiding humans who had just died to a place of peace.
Thereafter, throughout his life, wherever he traveled, Hodson de-
scribed encountering great devas with whom he was able to commu-
nicate. During a lecture tour in Java in 1933, on a visit to the great
Buddhist shrine known as Borobudur, Hodson realized he was in the
presence of the presiding deva, "distinctly masculine and Indo-
Aryan, with the golden light of Buddha shining all about him, glow-
ing through successive spheres of soft rose, soft green, and a dazzling
white aura." Here, says Hodson, was the head of devic life on the island
as well as in the surrounding seas, a veritable deva king, who advised
Hodson "to live intensely in the fullness of the eternal now," explain-
ing that to a consciousness beyond time and space "all exists at once in
its fully developed state."
Shortly after arriving in Australia, Hodson says he experienced an-
other of those welcoming greetings from the local devas. In Perth, on
an eminence in King's Park overloolung the broad Swan River, from
where he could see the whole city and, beyond it, the Darling Range
and the vast expanse of Australia, he says he was greeted by a large
number of great golden devas.
The relation between devas and humans, says Gardner, is mutually
beneficial, for the deva also learns from people. It is therefore up to hu-
manlund to strengthen the relationship.
William Bloom says that to work cooperatively with devic life, ac-
curacy and roo percent clarity of perception are not required. All that
is needed is the right personality attitude. And then, over time, greater
certainty and greater clarity of perception will develop.
From deva to angel, the shading appears to be of the finest. Gelda
van Doren in The Real World of Fairy describes the matter of which an
angel's body is made as being very much finer than that of a fairy, so fine