Patricia Heidt, PhD

In the Puranic Cosmology Mt Meru is the centre of the universe, which was not confined to material creation alone. It embraced subtle planes or dimensions primarily, lokas, since there were no empirical means to draw those planes onto and into the physical. Thus, the old cosmology was largely metaphoric, if you will. This fact alone makes it difficult to apply to it the term science. It has to be taken as a great symbol – but in my view it was a vision that transcended time and space.

The perspective was largely vertical: the subtle universe held to the axis that Mt Meru provided. Continental, geographical India may be identified in the Puranic vision as the continent at the centre of the perspective, but the way the vision has been formulated and as it has reached us today, its symbolism is its principal value.I would add something more which I believe has not been appreciated to date. Given the exercise of updating that has already taken place, Puranic Cosmology continues to be largely metaphorical, but at the same time it is prophetic in that its structure and the various components of the Symbol have been materialised today. Therefore, by this largely unappreciated quality, that great Symbol is in the act of becoming physical before our very eyes.

What was a postulation or an hypothesis in the Puranic Cosmology has become concretised in physical/geographical terms. This was not possible in the old cosmology, whereas it is the distinguishing feature of the new.I refer primarily to the temporal component of cosmology. In former times, before science had progressed to where it now stands and tools had been provided for this updating, even the Puranic flow of the Ages has to be understood as a symbol. When compared to the new cosmology it does not provide the distinguishing feature of our updated version: applicability.In this light we see a certain previsionary aspect to the Puranic model by a ‘densification’ of its symbolic postulation.

The ‘worlds’ of the Puranic when the Vedic Age had passed were subtle dimensions or occult planes of consciousness-being. On the other hand, the ‘worlds’ of the Veda, as in the Hymn quoted in Update 4 (RV, II. 24. 5.), cannot be said to be of a dimension in any way removed from the physicality of our Earth and its measurability. To render those ‘worlds’ material – or of our Earth earthly – the Rishis used the same ‘science’ we use for updating the Puranic Cosmology. It is the Science of Time. And the single factor that makes measurable the subtle nature of things temporal is the very essence and focus of the Veda – the Year.The Vedic Sacrifice unfolds on the backdrop of the Year, this none can dispute. That unfolding is what the Hymn describes: ‘…without effort one world moves into another’. And even more explicitly it is stated that entry into those ‘worlds’ is through the months and the years.

Further, there is a reason why the Rishi mentions specifically months and years only, a point that can easily be overlooked. In discovering the Rishi’s intent we learn that the Sacrificial Year was both the annual rotation of the Earth around the Sun, producing our 12 months of the year; and the larger ‘year’ with its cycles due to the Precession of the Equinoxes, composed of 25,920 years. The Rishi is explicit – annual and precessional. However, we do not recognise the reference perhaps because it is too simply put and ‘uncluttered’. Or else, if we assume a priori that the Rig Veda has no ‘science’ and that it represents a primitive society, then naturally these simple, straight forward declarations pass entirely undetected. And there are many spread throughout the Hymns.Thus Time, elusive as it is, was the altar of the Sacrifice, hence only vedi were required of precise geometric forms which could reproduce the ecliptic as backdrop/altar; and if we can further ‘materialise’ Time in this updating exercise, we bring ‘heaven’ down to Earth just as the individual realiser had done in that far-off Age. To reach this ‘kingdom’ we do not disregard or dismiss the component of Reality in this universal manifestation that can allow us to pass into and through those ‘worlds’ – i.e., the Soul; rather, we embrace the core-essence of life on Earth where the Soul serves precisely as the nexus between Time and Space, – indeed, our vahana.¹

Tradition holds that Time played a very important part in Puranic Cosmology. But its role was, I repeat again, almost entirely symbolic. It was utilised to illustrate the higher Cosmic Order of the universe as seen from Earth. However, that Order was not given a ‘body’ as it were, that could serve to materialise the Ideal, to bring it down from that subtle sphere and implant it here on Earth. For example, we are all familiar with the four Yugas of Puranic lore: Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali, which are given very precise figures. It is believed that we are in the Kaliyuga which is said to consist of 432,000 years, barely some 5000 of which have passed, leaving more or less 420,000 ahead!

The truth be told, if indeed Kaliyuga is synonymous with darkness and ignorance, we might be justified in seeking some form of escape from a seemingly endless entanglement with this darkness. In such a scenario, if it were indeed true, escape from this universal manifestation would be entirely justified, just as the Deluder suggested.If we refuse to succumb to the ‘ruse’, we attempt to cover up this incongruence by claiming that the figures for the Yugas should be read differently, as divine not human years. But such mental acrobatics are not acceptable. We are nailed to the Kaliyuga cross and the figure 432,000 regardless of how we try to fit it into our contemporary exigencies.Clearly a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years is not realistic, nor does it tally with the practical and pragmatic nature of Indian spirituality, particularly of the Vedic Age and early Puranic period. Therefore, it must be part of a symbolic representation, as indeed it was: the Yugas of the Puranas convey a sense of Order but not applicability.

They were never intended to be factual, as we demand today. Analysts of the last century have examined the Puranic Cosmology with a contemporary bias and have consequently missed the forest for the trees. To apply our temporal experience to the Yugas is to do great injustice to the seers whose intention was entirely in keeping with what was possible at that time, but with, I repeat, a prophetic component included. It was the same as the fourfold arrangement of the Chaturvarna; and both the Yugas and the caste divisions were taken from the same cosmic structure. We will deal with the latter further on.Mt Meru was truly the heart of that Order – ‘heavenly’ in nature, not Earthly. In the new cosmology these patterns are brought to Earth in both Time and Space and measurable today. They are no longer symbolic, as we understand the word – i.e., representing or standing for ‘something else’. It is rather a question of ‘the symbol being the thing symbolised’. To do so we may use the Capricorn hieroglyph, ruler of the subcontinent, as an illustration.

Here is the hieroglyph that has been a part of the Ancient Mysteries from time immemorial, uninterruptedly until today. Given its antiquity, are we not justified therefore in seeing this element as the legitimate ‘thread’ linking us to the ancient past? Notwithstanding the belief held by some Sanskritists and Indologists that it was a Babylonian formulation and was imported into India by the Greeks along with the other symbols that comprise the 12-part zodiac as we know it today, the Rig Veda proves otherwise; and we all agree it was penned long before the Greeks arrived in India. This will be the topic of Update 7 and need not detain us for the moment. What is of interest at this point is to see just how the Mountain 10th sign/month can be LOCATED on Earth, by which means the hieroglyph itself becomes a means to materialise the Symbol, to divest it of a ‘heavenly’ or ‘otherworldly’ significance, to actualise the symbol. We give a spatial ‘body’ to Capricorn which appears to have been known in a very ancient past but was then forgotten or rendered otherworldly; to such a degree that in the Puranic Age, when the goal of the Sacrifice became the Beyond, Mt Meru continued to stand for centrality and Bharat, but could do so only symbolically. Was this a part of the ‘ruse of the Supreme’, the magic of the great Deluder himself?

What is certain is that this direction beyond was POST-Vedic. Meru would have been an axis holding to itself in a vertical line the universe from subtle to dense. But Time gave it applicability then as it does today, always hinging on the 10th Month Victory, the supreme goal of the Warrior/Initiate. Time and Space converge when the symbol becomes the thing symbolised.

^1. The very advanced ‘science’ the Rishis employed in the construction of their vedi to allow them to BE that ecliptic, not merely a symbolic reproduction, has been reproduced in an enhanced form by the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. See www.matacom.com for a complete presentation of this revolutionary ‘science’; but again updated to suit the times.

A study of Update 4 may result in an assessment by some readers that this exercise is too ‘bare’, or too simplistic, and that by focussing on a single ‘thread’ from the Vedic Age through the Puranic and into the present, too much is left out that might contradict my thesis, i.e., that such a thread exists and can be located in space as well as in time. This assessment, if indeed it has arisen, leads to a truly important element in the study of cosmic harmonies. A careful observation of the condition of spirituality today is the best proof that ferreting out the Thread I have described is a fundamental first step if this updating is to succeed. The strategy in this Age has been to ‘confuse the issue’.

It was well-thought out and is confirmed by the Puranas themselves; once again in connection with the ‘backbone’ of the Veda, the Dasavataras.To illustrate, in these times of ‘updating’ we observe that the market is flooded with countless books on spirituality, many of which have no substance at all. It needs to be stated that discrimination in these arcane matters is almost impossible to acquire, given the ‘flood’ we are submerged in today.

To do so Knowledge is a prerequisite; but by this I do not mean book-learning. For true discrimination such as the Vedic Realisation demands, a long and arduous sadhana is required which very few are willing or able to undergo. To complicate matters even more, we live in an age of ‘instant enlightenment’ where matters of the spirit are concerned. On the other hand, this would never be allowed in the various fields of science and academic learning. There the tendency to speculate without substance or to demand only belief without empirical proof is checked by the rigours of the disciplines involved. However, with that safeguard, so necessary in the field of the material sciences, the intuitive and other higher ‘methods of enquiry’ have to be eliminated or at least held in abeyance. And yet these are the cornerstones of the true spiritual/supramental experience.

We live in a world that demands instant results; or else miracles, or a transmission of ‘power’ that overwhelms the individual and convinces him that he is in the presence of a true man or woman of the God of his imagination. Nothing further is demanded for adherence because the means to discriminate – that is, to know with precision where such ‘miracles’ or ‘powers’ actually come from or which forces are responsible for these displays – is not cultivated because in today’s spirituality there are no means for verification since the focus is away from material creation rather than an embracing of all its involved planes of being.

And this is the methodology required for the integral Knowledge that results in an immaculate discrimination.Unquestioning belief is precisely what is eliminated in the updating exercise of the new cosmology. To counter the strategy of hiding by submergence in an ocean of excess, the new cosmology provides proof of its postulations at every step of the way. This is what qualifies it to be considered science. However, it is a new science because it arises in the consciousness-being of an individual who has integrated all parts of the being by due processes of sadhana; for this, a very long period of one-pointed determination and intense tapasya are required.

Thus, the higher faculties referred to by Prof. Pandurangi (Update 3 – ‘superior methods of enquiry’) are never set aside in favour of scholarship; and in this I include the Sanskrit scholar who believes that higher levels of understanding can be reached by a focus on the word in its more literal sense.The discipline required today is sufficiently explained in the Rig Veda to provide certain keys of Knowledge that can serve as signposts to guide us along the way that now has been cluttered with useless baggage over the ages. In fact, the Rig Veda lays the entire map at our feet with full details of the yearly Sacrifice – the Journey, as it is called – both in its becoming and its being. That is, both the path and the destination; the latter being that ‘mountain’ of the 10th month. The Thread must therefore be found in the Veda and carried across the centuries in the same form.

Though appearing different, the tactic today is rather the same as in the ancient past for the preservation and protection of the Knowledge. At that time secrecy was demanded: the Knowledge was reserved for very few, for those who were willing and able to undergo the tapasya required. In the Vedic Age based on the then prevailing cosmic Order this was reserved for the Brahmin, not as a birthright but earned through realisation. In the Dark Age that followed, it was not so much that secrecy was demanded, since that was proving increasingly more difficult to maintain once the Vedic Initiation had fallen into oblivion.

The true and sincere seeker had to be tested, similar to the disciple in the Vedic Age; but in the midst of an effective method to preserve the Knowledge for future generations.We are given a clear example of how this strategy was implemented in the Puranas themselves in their inimitable style – for example, the inclusion of Gautam the Buddha as 9th Avatar of Vishnu.

Not only was this established some 2000 years before the Age of Vishnu had arrived – during which period alone do his Emanations descend to re-establish the Dharma and which in itself would exclude the Buddha from the Dasavataras – his inclusion was entirely incongruous given the Buddha’s dismissal of the very foundation of Vedic knowledge: the soul. But by doing this, incongruous as it was, wisemen of the day made the strategy clear; and this has been carefully preserved in the Puranic tales recounting the intercession of Vishnu to assist the Gods who were unable to conquer the Titans since they had been rendered invincible by their Vedic practices. To this effect, Vishnu made use of the Buddha to mislead the Asuras, to carry them off the Vedic path and therefore make them vulnerable. The argument/logic used by the commissioned Deluder could be identical to what we hear today in our world of Relativity:

‘…With many deductions, examples, and arguments…the magic deluder led the demons from the path of the Vedas: “This would be dharma, but it would not be dharma; this is, but it is not; this would give release, but it would not give release; this is the supreme object, but it is also not the supreme object; this is effect, but it is not effect…This is the dharma of those who are naked; this is the dharma of those who wear many clothes.” Thus the magic deluder taught a varying doctrine of more than one conclusion to the demons, who abandoned their own dharma…
‘When the magic deluder had caused the demons to abandon the dharma of the triple Vedas, they themselves became his disciples and persuaded others; and yet others were persuaded by these, and still others by those, and so in a few days most of the demons abandoned the three Vedas…’ [from the Vishnu Purana, presented in the ‘Penguin Classic’ edition of Hindu Myths, 1994, pages 233-4]

And so, the 9th was cleverly included in the Line of Ten, but to distract the demon-seekers.

Therefore, incongruous as it was, the Buddha has come down in the Puranic cosmology as the 9th, ‘the ruse of the Supreme’ to mislead the asuric seekers. Consequently we have the words of Aurobindavatar himself to the effect that Kalki comes to ‘correct the error of the Buddha’. In this series we will explore in depth just what that ‘error’ might be.Who were the demon-seekers?Asuras are those who distort the Truth, just as the above tale suggests. The asuric expression is through the mental instrument and faculties primarily; Rakshasas, on the other hand, operate from and through the vital-physical.

Thus, the mental ability to distort so effectively is why the Asuras had to be ‘misled’; it is their second nature and is therefore compulsive. But by far the most perplexing component in the ‘ruse’ is that today with the media at our disposal, with the possibility of flooding the world of spirituality by a mere click of a mouse indiscriminately, the Truth is hidden as effectively and securely as it was in the time of the Rishis; thereby again revealing a certain prophetic capacity in that a future play of circumstances was accommodated long before its onset. In the Vedic Age it was by an elitist approach – which we abhor today.

But the very same result is attained when the Flood overtakes us through overexposure and we are left afloat in a sea of falsehood, distortion, dissimulation, and indeed, as the Deluder informs us, carried away by this tactic into the world of confusion and ignorance.To escape this fate, to find a way out of this manipulation, a means must be inbuilt in the cosmology itself to assist sincere seekers who wish to be a part of the new creation that does not demand blind faith but is based on a new science, a third way. It is the hallmark of our times.

When all is said and done, when the chaff is separated from the wheat, when discrimination is honed through serious tapasya, then we can say a new world order is arising. The first step to reach that goal is to decipher just what that ‘thread’ is which has been carried over intact from ancient times into our 21st century. That elusive ‘secret’, which is not at all secret but is openly lauded in the Hymns and in every Hindu Temple, is Capricorn. How fitting that Capricorn should still be considered the ruler of India across the globe. Firstly, the sign’s own hieroglyph will therefore be our precious key as we set out on this voyage of discovery and updating that we are embarking on through this series.

But we must realise that it is the symbol describing Mahakala, the Great God of Time himself; therefore, truly a warrior’s temperament is required in this new era just as it had been required in the Vedic Age, if we are to be granted access to His chamber of coveted secrets.The Puranic Gods are not especially known for their valour since power, properly speaking, was the legitimate preserve of the Asuras whom they themselves had tricked into abandoning the field. Such being the case, when the moment of reckoning arrived they invariably rushed to Brahma to beg for his intersession. Brahma, in turn, accedes to their pleas and in the first instance he sends a WOMAN(!) to handle the mighty Mahishasura. When time moves on and another moment of reckoning is reached, again the Gods rush to Brahma; and since the message had not been grasped the first time around, he sends a mere boy to handle the mightiest Asura of them all, Tarak!

The truth be told, BOTH were left vulnerable – which goes to prove the need for an integral, all-inclusive Order.

How many messages do we need to show that indeed the Knowledge had to be hidden from those who would distort it by the well-documented ‘trickery’ of the Gods in the Puranic Age? Indeed, India suffered invasion upon invasion during that passage, attesting to the fact that the Gods could not handle the situation when deprived of the power the Titans possess! But a price must nonetheless be paid for subterfuges, as noble as they may seem. Consequently, we are left with the residue (some would call it karma) of that ‘trickery’, that ‘distortion’ as in the form of a ruse of the Supreme to ‘mislead’. This present exercise is part of the endeavour to clear that distorting residue away, to retrieve and to unveil the Vedas that had to be hidden by the Asura in the Ocean, as the Puranas record.

Again the Vedic/Puranic line of Dasavataras comes to our aid. Matsya is the sign of the Fish, Pisces. Therefore every time we move into and through the Age of Pisces the Fish, we must retrieve the Veda from the ocean where they were hidden by the Asura. To do so Matsyavatar was then sent by Vishnu, first of his Ten Avataric appearances.In Vettam Mani’s Puranic Encyclopaedia [Motilal Banarsidass Publisher,] this episode, under the heading ‘Avatara’ (Matsyavatar), is recorded thus: ‘Once while Brahma was reciting the Vedas Hayagriva, an asura, stole the Vedas of Brahma and with them he went under water to the bottom of the ocean and hid himself there. So Mahavishnu decided to take the form of a fish (matsya) to recover the Vedas.’

The question to ask is what is this ‘ocean’ and where is it? Clearly it is symbolic, but is there a way to materialise the symbol, to make fact out of fiction?

The meaning of ‘ocean’ is more than clear if we follow the map the Rig Veda provides – that Thread. This would be the map of the Journey through the 12 signs of the ecliptic just as in the days of old. In point of fact, the Puranas have given us very clear indications not only about the precise meaning of Matsya Avatar, but also when that stage of his appearance would be reached. The ‘submergence’, the ‘hiding’ began precisely when, through the Precession of the Equinox a certain alignment was reached in 234 BCE, or the beginning of the Age of Pisces the Fish (a Water sign). This period lasted up to 1926. The Age of Submergence is reached once in the 25,920 years of each precessional round, the very first Age.

In point of fact, Aurobindavatar considered the Dasavataras to be a ‘parable of evolution’, agreeing with the evolutionary meaning of each zodiacal Age. The first would set the tone for the rest and the task ahead. ‘Retrieval’ begins thereafter, in our very times. This would be the re-establishment of the Dharma.Without the Map provided by the Veda, the world does not present a very hopeful picture. But with this formidable key in hand, the path ahead is admittedly not entirely without hardships and obstructions, but at least these difficulties are faced with the clear and precise knowledge of where civilisation is moving and what that timeframe might be to fulfil the destiny of India and the Earth as written in the cosmic harmony.

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director
Aeon Centre of Cosmology

By far the most abiding symbol in Indian myth and cosmogony is the Mountain. It stretches back to the Vedic Age. In that remote period, however, we do not find the Vedic geometric altars (vedi) displaying the symbol of the Mountain as overtly as in the Hindu Temple of the Puranic period; rather, it was more cosmic and subtle. An initiation into the ancient mysteries was required (then and now) to appreciate the symbolism and its relevance and place in the yearly Sacrifice. This was understandably reserved for very few and required a special initiatic ‘journey’ which is the motif of the Sacrifice. During the Puranic Age that same symbol was rendered in stone and sculpture. Durability and preservation were the imperatives since a Dark Age had set in that required very different methods of transmission once the Vedic Way had been forced underground. The earlier initiation fell into oblivion.The Mountain in the Vedic Age was derived from the zodiacal symbolism of the 12-part division of the ecliptic through the sign Capricorn, precisely the Mountain. The 12 are the ‘eternal worlds’ in the following hymn:

     Certain eternal worlds are these which have come into being,
     their doors are shut to you (or opened) by the months and the       years;
     without effort one (world) moves in the other, and it is these that
     Brahmanaspati makes manifest to knowledge. (RV, II.24.5.)

So much emphasis was placed on this sacred symbol that the Rishis proclaimed the victory of the Aryan Warrior on the path of initiation to be precisely in the 10th month of the year after the March Equinox, the month/sign Capricorn. To this day throughout the world the tenth month/sign is considered to be the astrological ruler of India. On the subcontinent it is known as Makar, the Crocodile. This emphasis is carried over to the Hindu Temple where the Crocodile surfaces in a number of prominent places in the structures.In the Puranic Age the mountain symbol became less subtle, if you will. For example, every gopuram represents the Mountain, and by correspondence the tenth sign/month. It all stems from the Veda and from there it was passed on to the Puranic Mt Meru, axis of the world.

In all ancient cultures the axis mundi in one form or another played a prominent role; as Delphi in Ancient Greece, for example, considered to be the ‘navel (omphalos) of the world’. All cultures had their version of Axis/Navel which, in the main, epitomised the highest truth of the civilisation and the embodiment of its most cherished aspirations; certainly Delphi is an example. But nowhere has this special symbolism survived into the present as in India, both in the Hindu Temple as well as in the yearly celebration of Makar Sankranti, the Capricorn Gateway. But though the Mountain is portrayed in every temple in the initiatic language of sacred architecture, its cosmic connection has been lost today by the miscalculation of the actual corresponding sankranti which should coincide with the shortest day of the year. Presently it is wrongly established as 15 January, 23 days AFTER the astronomically verifiable Makar Sankranti.We will leave aside this aberration for the time being and concentrate on Capricorn, Makar, Mountain, Axis Mundi. Is there a means to update the Tradition in this essential aspect since it played such an important part in the evolution of Vedic civilisation? In this endeavour science will come to our aid. For example, the introduction of longitudes (and latitudes) encircling our globe has permitted us to bring that golden heavenly Mountain down to Earth and to locate it in India, thereby making the tenth month victory, culmination of the Vedic Sacrifice, a vibrant truth of our times.

Let us proceed step-by-step. The Hindu Temple is oriented to the four Cardinal Directions, the equinoxes and solstices which are the four pillars on which our solar system’s ecliptic rests – the pathway of all the planets as they travel around the Sun. The fourth, uttarayana, is Capricorn/Makar, the highest of the four and known in astrological tradition as the position of the Midday Sun (that casts no shadows). In the northern hemisphere this synchronicity with the shortest day of the year occurs unfailingly on 21-22 December each year. The Mountain (Capricorn) was thus the focus of the Vedic Sacrifice, providing a sense of stability and permanence; this was carried over to the Puranic Age in every Hindu Temple and continues to be immensely significant for contemporary society by the yearly solar celebration of Makar Sankranti. This would be the clearly discernible thread from ancient times to the present. The only problem, lamentably of a serious nature, is the fact that while the solstices of December and March are astronomical facts and easily calculated, with no scope for error, somehow the Vedic calendar and cosmic connection, based on this simple astronomy, was laid to rest during the second half of the Age of Pisces (234 BCE-1926 CE); the un-Vedic Nirayana system was introduced and remains in place until today, thereby uprooting the 10th month from its verifiable cosmic moorings. This simple factor, having no sanction in the Veda, removed the cosmic connection between the populace and the heavenly surround. It has therefore become the singlemost valid reason to label as mere superstition temple worship, myth and astrology. Without that cosmic Order as the backdrop for all observances, the result is, simply put, chaos.In the Vedic context by definition chaos is the peripheral play of the Becoming without the central point of Being; there is no ‘centre that holds’ and therefore the Becoming is deprived of knowledge, sense and purpose on which basis alone Being can ‘hold’. Consequently, the highest truth the world has ever known has gradually fallen into mere superstition born of ignorance. Sri Aurobindo understood the problem. He discovered that‘…for some two thousand years at least no Indian has really understood the Vedas…’. (‘Secret of the Veda’)To summarise, the Mountain was first established as the main gnostic symbol on the subcontinent in the Vedic Age. This was done through the tenth month, Capricorn, the ‘Mountain’ of the zodiac. At that time it did not stand openly for the axis mundi as we find in the Puranic Mt Meru; rather, as all things Vedic, that pole holding to itself all of creation became personified in the most important of all the Vedic Gods, Agni of the sacred fire, leader of the hosts – navel of the worlds.This symbolism was then carried over to the Puranic Age where we find the two, Mountain and axis mundi, joined in the mythic idiom of Mt Meru. This, in turn, is cemented in all Hindu Temples when preservation became an imperative in the period when the Tradition had to be safeguarded from complete obliteration. The connection with the ecliptic zodiac is still partially maintained with the orientation of all temples by their alignment to the four Cardinal Directions, though in day-to-day practices the timings for rituals and horoscopy are woefully inaccurate. Finally, in our 9th Manifestation which began in 234 BCE, embracing from that point onward the entire Age of Pisces and into our own Age of Aquarius, the two have been brought together in a single integrated symbol. We update precisely by re-establishing both the cosmic connection and the axis mundi through zodiacal Capricorn. In this manner we are actually closing the circle and returning to the Vedic source, while bringing into the circle of the millennia everything that has transpired in between. Nothing has been discarded or eliminated, but by a process of integration we bring the Veda into the present. That is, by putting each thing in its place in both time and space.Let us proceed now to observe how this is done and how updating therefore enhances the old cosmology and myth by a marriage of the Cosmic and Earthly. The issue is always the axis mundi and the Mountain, always Capricorn, always December Solstice and fourth Cardinal Pole, always Mt Meru located on Earth through the new cosmology.

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director
Aeon Centre of Cosmology

Certainly all is not gloom and doom however.

Renewal, re-establishment become possible only at certain precise moments, those times when a maturing takes place, a ripening of time and circumstance, as it were. This is because a contingency plan was devised long ago that would provide an anchor for the fledgling nation in troubled times when the Ignorance would seem to reign supreme. More precisely, it was not exactly an anchor but rather an axis. This Axis is like no other we have record of because its ‘material’ component is Time.

Before describing the nature of this magical Axis, I must explain certain features of the new cosmology that ought to bring joy to the hearts of all those who take the trouble to read these pages. Joy arises in our hearts from realising that our main objective in life is simply a question of removing veils, one after another. Truth is as eternal as it is infinite; indeed, these divine qualities are expressed in our material universe as time and space. Therefore, they are everywhere part of us, our world. To deny their validity is to deny life itself, creation itself. The Eternal and the Infinite are right there before our eyes – if we but make the small effort to remove the veils. Then veils do fall away almost on their own. I am reminded of a wonderful Hindu temple in the hills of central Sri Lanka, Katharagama. The icon is Kartikeya in the form of Guha, the hidden One. He is nestled in a cave, as one would expect of Guha – he who resides in the ‘cave of one’s heart’. The special ritual to this Godhead at a specific time of the year consists of removing veils that cover the deity, many, one after another during the full period of the ritual. Finally the last uncovers the One.

This sacred temple ritual encapsulates the reason why we take birth, and at the same time it discloses the special property of this third planet from the Sun: to discover that One, to uncover the point we harbour deep in the cave of the soul: Guha, the centre of the Centre itself. This is the supreme secret of his unveiling.

The whole of creation is a display of the magic of the One. There is the Transcendent Divine, the Cosmic, and the Individual. But the soul each individual carries within – indeed our vahana – contains that One. We are never without it, never alone, we need only look deeply within and in the process remove one by one those coverings. For the One embodies purpose, the reason for birth; the reason for life itself; the reason for a universal manifestation at all. Always it is the same hidden ‘secret’. And all our struggles and successes are impelled from within by this sacred One. In India he is known by many names – Guha, Murugan, Shanmugan, Kartikeya, Shiva’s son Skanda, and above all Agni of the Vedic Fire, progenitor of them all.

The new India inscribes this secret for all times because her independence came through the ‘axis’ composed of a time formula in four stages, the trinity plus one. The last, the fourth is that Godhead/principle.

It is evident that what I am presenting in this brief study is, quite literally, as old as the hills, the favourite abode of the One. However, though Bharat has nurtured the Formula across the ages through myths of the Vedic and Puranic periods, and finally preserved in each Hindu temple regardless of how elaborate or how modest, the very special quality of this Age of the Supermind lies in the fact that we have reached the culmination of a long collective journey, just as it was described for the Initiate in the Rig Veda. The final stage of that journey, Vishnu’s highest ‘stride’, is precisely our present Aquarian Age which astrological tradition knows as the sign of the Friend, Mitra, just as the Veda indicate. The hymns also sing praises of the quality of Bliss that this highest passage brings. The reason for this ananda is that while the former strides were consecutive, culmination in this Age of Mitra brings what was formerly a linear progression into the wholeness, the integrality, the oneness of the circle. And its centremost Centre holds the divine Purpose, Guha in the cave of the heart. Once uncovered he can no longer be suppressed, ignored. He is the Immanent One, the Transcendent who takes birth in the human heart and at the centre of every created thing. Such is the magic of the soul.

Everything I have described in these pages has been known in India almost forever. For example, the core revelation of the gunaic harmony superimposed on the Indian landmass is not an entirely new discovery. Several years ago I came across a treatise on the Hindu Temple by the remarkable scholar Stella Kramrisch. She has brought together an amazing collection of data on sacred architecture from many sources. In Part VII, Volume 1 (The Hindu Temple, Motilal Banarsidas Publishers), we find the application of the gunas to sections of Indian geography somewhat similar to the Capricorn symbol-map I have presented. There are certain styles of temples which were considered appropriate to each of the gunaic divisions of the landmass: broadly, Nagara, Dravida, and Vesara. The ancient treatises explaining these designations and allocations are extremely complex. Obviously, they cannot be discussed in this short space. What I do wish to emphasise is that while there was an understanding of the landmass having a certain relation to the Gunas, it is significant that this understanding was preserved in temple knowledge. I have always contended that the entire store of Vedic Wisdom was passed over to the temple as a means of preservation when the dark age had set in. Page after page of Kramrisch’s study proves the point. The only complaint I have is that we have a fine collection of data, but no thread weaving through the texts to form a cohesive whole, an integrated body of higher knowledge that can be applied today, or at any time. This brings me to the notable difference between our age and the centuries during which the acts of preservation were undertaken. It would seem as if cramming sessions were in vogue with the purpose of preserving for a future age a vast, complex and highly sophisticated body of Knowledge, in attendance of Vishnu’s last ‘stride’ to make a greater sense of it all.

The division of the landmass in earlier times was horizontal. Moreover, there was no application of any formula on this basis, as, for example, the manner in which contemporary history can confirm the relationship between the land and the historic developments that occurred in each segment to provide a key to the eternal principles these gunas embody. Indeed the crux of the issue is a cosmology that is applicable. This can only come about when India adds the special ingredient that can cement this applicability for now and all times to come. We shall see just how this is done via the supramental Formula which Aurobindavatar himself has revealed. It is written in the heart of his own symbol, known as the Lotus of the Avatar.

The petals of the Lotus are 9 and 6 in number; then, after a gap there are leaves 3 in number. These 9, 6, 3 in a vertical descent come to rest on horizontal waves numbering 7 – a combination of 5 and 2, the full number-powers of the 9^th and 10^th Avatars of Vishnu’s Line. This, in brief, is the Formula: 9/6/3 which is compacted into the Zero and which, in turn, gives forth the One. Thus, 9/6/3–0/1 is its complete form. Out of the 3 comes the One from the compressed Zero. The significant point to note is the direction the above symbol indicates: vertical through the numbers 9, 6, 3, then shifting to horizontal. The 3 leaves are the ‘bridge’ to the horizontal.

This directional positioning is also described as involution (descending/vertical) and evolution (horizontal); or else contraction and expansion – depending on the application. The theoretical physicist David Bohm uses the terms implicate and explicate for his model, possibly inspired by Sri Aurobindo’s work.

The Earth could not house a play in time of this Formula before certain key elements had taken shape in the evolutionary process. These elements made the shift possible from linear to spherical, without which there cannot be applicability. We may once again use geography to illustrate the shift. I stated that the gunaic formulation in Hindu temple architecture confirmed a linear sectioning of the gunas/temple-styles horizontally up through the Mother’s Body. Today’s application is different based on the singular revelation of the Capricorn hieroglyph over Bharat which, as discussed, does ‘contain’ the triad, Rajas, Sattva, Tamas. But they move across the Body in an eastward progression along longitude coordinates. Succinctly, this is the distinction to be made. It reveals the enormous difference between now and then. Longitude is the key. Without this addition to divide the planet in bands of 30º, there would have been no possibility of applying the Formula to current affairs in time according to our universal calendar. Simplistic as it may seem, this discovery created the environment required for the Supramental Manifestation to take place after which details of the Formula could be revealed.

The formulation of longitude bands across the globe began to take shape in the 17^th century. The art of horology was part and parcel of the discovery because in order to carry out the process precision instruments were required for measuring time. The result was the longitudinal bands as we know them today covering the 360⁰ of the Earth, upon which we have placed the 360º of the ecliptic with the twelve zodiacal signs of 30⁰ each to arrive at the precious discovery that India is Capricorn (Part Five).

Though Vedic civilisation has always been obsessed with cosmology and time, scientific discoveries of the 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries have made the formulation of the new applicable cosmology possible. For that we do not need super telescopes to study the cosmos; we need only plunge deeply within to uncover Guha, the One at the heart of every created thing, large or small. Further, the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s were compressed by the time-tested Vedic laws of correspondence and equivalence into the last three decades of the 20^th Century. And it was precisely during that period that the Supermind manifested, making use of – nay, controlling – the totality of circumscribing conditions for the purpose; and in so doing Supermind revealed its most significant quality – the ability to harmonise what had hitherto appeared irreconcilable in the linear perception: the One and the Many, Unity and Diversity, Being and Becoming. This is what it means to shift from linear to spherical, upon which basis cosmology can move into its higher expression of application. There is no better method to demonstrate this radical change than the analysis of the ‘contingency plan’ Supermind arranged for the new India, to serve as a stabilising Axis around which the civilisation could take its place as the centre of the Earth for this 9^th Manifestation. The Formula had to be cemented in India first for it to be the holding power of the entire planet. And this did indeed come to pass.

What I propose to discuss will seem to project the Congress Party and the Nehru-Gandhi family as somehow saviours of the nation. The truth of the matter is that there was no other political vehicle then that could serve the purpose of axis-binding. To be noted, however, is that the Formula contains four numbers/stages/individuals. It does not extend beyond the fourth. But at that level the vertical, descending direction shifts to horizontal. Regarding the Congress and the designated instruments for the four stages, the last was Rajiv Gandhi. History confirms the exactitude of the Supramental Formula in that his period was the last of single-party rule. The (horizontal) era of coalition politics had begun and is still with us today. The ancient symbol of the Sun

explains the situation graphically: 9/6/3 are numerical properties compacted into the central Point (the Zero), from where a reversal takes place and the direction shifts from vertical to horizontal, – that is, to the periphery. Thereupon, as multiple stars in the firmament, we find the multiplicity of political parties. For a time during the transitional phase confusion may prevail, but it will eventually subside when a new balance replaces the old. It goes without stating that the new will have to be based on a true new order, proper to India as centre.

Thus 9/6/3-0/1 is the Formula. We note that with meticulous precision it has been cemented in India’s contemporary history as a form of Time-Axis with binding power via the birthdates of 1) Motilal Nehru (6.5.1861=9); Jawaharlal Nehru (14.11.1889=6); Indira Nehru Gandhi (19.11.1917=3). Significant is the fact that Indira had two sons while up to that point the family line consisted of a single off-spring. Yet Indira’s sons are proof of the remarkable previsionary nature of the Supramental Shakti since both sons bore the same number-power (Rajiv 20.8.1944=1, and Sanjay 14.12.1946=1). We note that both Sanjay and Rajiv were born with the required 1 number-power. There is no better demonstration of the spherical controlling capacity of the Supramental Shakti than this evidence of a ‘contingency plan’ in the event of the demise of either one, as indeed did come to pass.

But this is only part of the Formula. The most important element is provided by what must necessarily be termed ‘powers of the Sun’. This is because only the year is used to determine the operating number-power of each of the four members, whereas regarding the Nehru-Gandhi-Congress ‘axis’ the full birthdates were required: day, month, year. This may be a dilution of power but it is also an indication of an inherent capacity to operate in the world openly, as indeed each one did, conscious or not of the axial design they were fashioning. They were a sort of relay station. What is known as the Solar Line (because of the power of the Sun/Year) is the creative or originating source, the central Pole as it were; the Lunar Line is the receptive vehicle operating in the world as a relay station, a function metaphorically conveyed by the Moon in the harmony of our system in orbit of the Earth, whose rotations provide the full birth numbers in calendar time.

This is another example of up-dating the ancient cosmology. Solar and Lunar Dynasties were a firm feature of the previous descents of Vishnu’s avataric line: Sri Ram belonged to the solar dynasty and Sri Krishna to the lunar. Their epics provide the precise details to confirm these cosmic/zodiacal designations (see Secrets of the Earth, PNB, Aeon Books, 2009). But today, in this time of culmination and spherical convergence, we may naturally expect the Lines (formerly dynasties) to be simultaneous. Important to note is that the new arrangement is still faithful to the Vedic Laws; indeed, contemporary history serves, as we have noted, to confirm the value of those ancient precepts, with the additional ingredient of applicability.

Thus, a scrutiny of events through historical analysis cannot provide a really complete and accurate understanding of the affairs of states and nations; rather, the Vedic up-dated Formula makes sense of those events providing a framework that far surpasses anything contemporary society has accomplished so far. At the same time, and this is significant because once again fundamentalism and dogmatism are exposed as tools for fossilisation, it is revealed that the Supramental Shakti and the Formula of Supermind does not need to violate contemporary processes. On the contrary, being the creator of what transpires on Earth, it uses the totality of conditions at any given moment for its manifestation. We thus see how three of the Lunar Line were time and again voted to power through regular democratic processes – precisely because we are in the Age of Aquarius and therefore the Time-Spirit’s favourite tool is democracy: it is the time of universal transformation and the lived and harmonised experience of the One and the Many as the Sun’s symbol describes: the voice of the people is heard.

Details of the Solar Line are as follows: Sri Aurobindo, 1872=9; the Mother, 1878=6); Thea, 1938=3). To be noted is that there is a gap of 66/60 years between 9 and 6, and then the 3. This has been conveyed in the Avatar’s lotus-symbol by the separation between the lotus petals and the three leaves, revealing a stunning prophetic capacity: the symbol was designed long before the full details of the Line were known, even before the Third was born.

Before concluding mention must be made of another creative act of the Solar Line, this time involving the discipline of sacred architecture and geometry, equally an ‘obsession’ of all ancient civilisations throughout the world. But similar to the other topics we have discussed, only in India do we find that thread connecting today’s culture through the Puranic period right to the Vedic Age. However, as with all things Vedic, an up-dating is now required which we can do because of the in-built system of renewal that has reached us from those former times. It is the ancient art of temple-building that now captures our attention.

The Mother has provided us with this up-dating through her visionary act of a temple’s Inner Chamber with its accompanying architectural plan, Vedic to the core in the purest sense of the term. Her greatest legacy to humanity and particularly to India has been this detailed plan, a blueprint of the cosmic harmonies; or, as it is termed in select schools such as that of the renowned teacher I. Gurdjieff, a ‘new model of the universe’. The essence of her design, with its accurate and detailed measurements, is again, as we might expect, Capricorn; at the same time it conclusively establishes which calendar should be used by Hindus, the Vedic Sayana and not the current Nirayana calendar. As I have done throughout this study, the Mother has also established the full and true dimensions of Akhand Bharat – that is, 30 + 40 (latitude and longitude respectively). This has brought sacred architecture and geometry to another level, worthy of the Supramental Manifestation that she heralded in 1956. On that foundation the Mother was able to engage in this renewed ‘act of measuring’ and to put the art in its proper place in contemporary Hindu society.

A word of caution however: the Mother’s original vision and plan are not to be confused with the Matrimandir built in her name. The structure in Auroville is only a shadow of her original, though the public is encouraged to believe that the building there is her design. Rather, it is the architect’s improvisation on her theme, by which he altered every detail she had given; therefore the revised version has lost all its original Vedic content and left only an empty shell in its place (see Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, PNB, 2009, www.matacom.com for details of the Mother’s original).

In this brief study only a small portion of the particulars of both Lines is being presented, space not permitting anything more. For the full details The New Way series may be consulted, and also the latest publication Secrets of the Earth which deals in detail with the Vishnu Line of Ten and the new culminating arrangement. It needs to be stated that there are no less than twelve individuals who complete the harmony. We see, for example, the place of Mahatma Gandhi in the scheme which helps us realise that titles such as Father of the Nation may well have to be re-thought, though we do observe nonetheless the control of Mahakal in evidence at the birth of the nation because it occurred on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday. There is one axial-truth: the Solar and Lunar Lines. The rest find their place in that scheme, their rightful place. Their participation is not at all diminished by this superior and comprehensive arrangement; rather, the key to the Supramental Manifestation lies in its ability to put each thing in its place on ITS terms, regardless of the consternation this may create, or offenses to ideological preferences, of whichever persuasion.

The design arranged for the new India is not political, or an unstable axis tilting sometimes Left, sometimes Right. Its truth is proven by the march of Time and the unfolding of the play of circumstances. It needs no other proof nor adherence, for belief changes nothing of WHAT IS, as this study has demonstrated. The new rests upon and draws sustenance from the old. India’s ancient heritage with its in-built mechanism for renewal is her sanatana dharma. We may lose sight of that foundation at our own peril, because then we risk becoming like all the other nations on Earth that finally succumbed to forces closed to the ways of the Mother. If anything, what this series has proven is that the attempt since independence to diminish Hinduism to the point where it poses no ‘threat’ to exclusivist religions and ideologies, is to play into the hands of hegemonic powers which, through the same tactic sought to be used in India, have systematically destroyed all ancient cultures which indeed posed a threat to their designs of world domination (witness Nepal).

In spite of these failings, we see displayed in the Axes of Births stretched across a century the invincible power of what Hinduism has always known to be the controlling majesty of Mahakal. Nothing else displays this quality like the revelation of the Solar and Lunar Lines, the stabilising Axes the new India would require as holding power during the foreseen period of break up, renewal and re-establishment, as an aid to conquer precisely those divisive forces. Not for herself alone; for the entire Earth.

This is all contained in India’s ruling sign, Capricorn – the sign of the Axis, of Mahakal, of the Time-Spirit, of Destiny and Dharma. To deny these truths of her ancient tradition is to deny India her dharma and to establish in its place cultures that have no relation to the ‘thread’ that sustains that Dharma throughout the ages: the Vishnu Line of Ten Avatars.

Lest a misunderstanding arise, there is a fundamental point to clarify. It would appear that India’s problem of ‘fault lines’ occurred or began at the time of Partition. However, the opposite would be the case. Partition could occur because integration of the Mother’s gunaic play had been lost much earlier, long before the political division took place in 1947. The actual physical dismem-bering could happen because of atrophy through disuse of her limbs.
Many centuries earlier those gunas were disassociated from the Body by an easily detectable method. A clear signal that this had happened was the disarrangement in the sequence of the gunas themselves. To connect them to the cosmic harmony (and they have no other purpose, it must be stated) as revealed in this series, the progression must be Rajas, Sattva, Tamas. However, as of the past 2500 years, or with the close of the Vedic Age, spirituality on the subcontinent began to incorporate principles of un-Vedic systems. This was then reflected in the order of the Gunas. All scriptures and spiritual texts penned – not necessarily the lived experience – over this post-Vedic period will bear evidence of a certain contamination. At first the infiltration was minimal; but then, as we moved into the 9^th Manifestation (234 BCE) and its first astrological age of that 6480-year period, the Age of Pisces, the ‘slow poison’ eventually turned into an unstoppable flood. Spirituality in India came fully under the influence of reformist systems such as Buddhism. And with this development all subsequent philosophies and systems of yoga fell under the same compelling influence. This is reflected in Independent India whose national flag and seal are composed of venerable Buddhist symbols.
The single word to explain the aberration is otherworldliness. Time and again we have provided factual evidence of this development. But in this series the focus is on Partition from the perspective of the new cosmology. No better means have been provided to drive home the point that this contamination, stretching back at least 2000 years, is the direct cause of Partition. And no other discipline but the new cosmology lays bear the truth of what was actually contaminated and its methodology. By a slow and steady poison, the revolutionising method to follow the flow of time and destiny so that the truth of oneness and unity can be manifested, even in negative happenings, was successfully undermined. Indeed, similar to the role of hostile forces in our development as aids along the way (see Part Seven), we note that the means to discover factual proof of the organisation of supramental formulas has been precisely through the negative display of those harmonies. In this manner the aphorism of the New Way is constantly illustrated: the Negative and the Positive serve the purposes of the One.
In this light Partition takes on a profound meaning. Its defining moment occurred twenty-one years after crossing the time demarcation between the former Age of Pisces and the new Aquarian Age (1926). In fact, the serious demands for partition into separate states began, as historical records prove, with the onset of that new age. Sri Aurobindo’s seclusion precisely from 1926 revealed that intense concentration was required on his part to see the passage through successfully, difficult as he knew it would be. And from that time the call for an independent Muslim state became louder and finally irrepressible as the world moved farther and farther into the Age of Aquarius.
This definitive crossing and the resultant dismembering of the once whole Body signalled that Supermind had reached maturity. The labour of the 9^th Avatar and his co-worker, the Mother, had succeeded in bringing down the anticipated Formula. The time had arrived when this numeric pattern could become cemented in the Earth atmosphere [see Conclusion] to make possible the extremely difficult Vedic passage, ‘the 9 becomes the 10’. This occurred in the years following Sri Aurobindo’s passing in 1950.
After 1950 another twenty-one years transpired when, as a signal that his mission had been completed successfully, in 1971 the supreme Vedic rahasya could begin to be unveiled. The details of this passage and its results have recently been published [Secrets of the Earth, Aeon Books, 2009] and need not be repeated here. Suffice to state that shortly thereafter, in 1974, the Capricorn symbol-map was revealed. On this factual basis we are able to decipher the extraordinary and unique destiny of Bharat. And above all to reveal just how ancient Akhand Bharat really is. It did not date from the period of the British Raj; rather, that conquest simply brought the destiny fully into the new age by providing an easily comprehensible language to explain the position, – contemporary, but not for that un-Vedic. On the contrary, the new cosmic language is proof that Supermind creates its own conditions for its manifestation. Nothing provides better proof than the Symbol-Map by which falsehood itself can actually be measured.

Before all else we must accept the fact that the process of dismembering was long, slow and steady. Partition in 1947 was simply the signal that the Age of Supermind had arrived, carrying with it the unmistakable proof of its truths and methods which have become our superlative aids – precisely for making whole what the Ignorance had torn asunder.
Foremost in the rectification is the correct understanding of the Gunas, their proper order and the imperative need to understand that they are threefold. Any dislocation and, above all, any elimination of one or the other from the harmony can only result in collapse. They cannot stand alone in the cosmic structure. We find the living proof in Bangladesh and Pakistan. They do manage to survive as independent states, to be sure, but always propped up from the outside, unlike India; failing which they would have collapsed long ago.
It is an interesting exercise to note just how both gunas have operated on their own over the past half a century. The case of Bangladesh is more than clear. It was India that won independence for the erstwhile East Pakistan. In addition, as an independent body it cannot survive without a steady and sizeable influx of foreign aid. This is necessitated largely because of the regular ravages of Mother Nature in this ‘armpit’. The Tamas Guna is inherently connected to the mode of Destruction of the trinity. Without the support of a triune harmony, destruction plays havoc since it is not tempered by energy expressions that can keep it in check, if not entirely transformed into its higher mode of dissolution.
Since 1971 and independence, we see Bangladesh making full use of its character of Tamas. In spite of itself it will fall back on this natural tendency for survival, especially after the formal consolidation of that entry point for invading forces. Thus the British made their way into Akhand Bharat through this Tamas gunaic point. It was not a bombastic entrance as occurred time and again on the western front, – that is, always by military penetration and conquests. Rather, in keeping with the nature of Tamas, infiltration was in a sense camouflaged and deceptive. First came the East India Company – traders not warriors. Finally when the penetrating trade route was secured, the Raj followed and remained as the sole ruler over Akhand Bharat, the ancient land of the Mother. From that time until today Tamas has coloured the area. There was no need for incessant battles and the destruction of symbols of Hinduism as in the West. The method was simply a steady undermining: seeds were planted in the consciousness of the people to destroy confidence in themselves, their culture, their spiritual attainments and the ancient truths; above all their unity under the Vedic banner. This relentless activity took a precise form: the most important educational institutions during the Raj were occidental/Christian, introduced if not by the Raj itself but allowed because of the gap in the Tamas Guna.
An example of how thorough the undermining became is given by Sri Aurobindo’s upbringing in Bengal, right at the entry point. His father sent him to Great Britain for education, as many Indians did during the Raj, but with a telling proviso. The young Ghose brothers were to have no contact with their Indian brethren, or even with Indian culture and languages. Thus, the young Aurobindo spent from the ages of seven to twenty-one completely cut off from India and anything Indian. He was brought up initially in the home of a Christian minister, to add the final touch of anti-Hinduism, whose ‘superstitions’ the British were helping to rid the nation of!
The same methodology is in evidence in the North East today on an increasing scale. Apart from the fact that the area has been thoroughly Christianised, infiltration from across the border is the tool of undermining today. Silent and deceptive, it is there and active before one can even realise its presence; and difficult to locate because it is so all-pervasive and easily camouflaged. The demography has been altered to an almost irreparable degree, and India is forced to stand by as a mere spectator while hordes of hostile forces penetrate, making full use of the Tamas character of the area to conquer by means of collapse, of caving in and a self-destructive turning back on itself as the last guna must indeed do as indicated in the Capricorn symbol-map itself. However, the Symbol-Map also presents a complete gunaic harmony; in which case, the tail-bending (loop) turning back is not a movement against itself; rather, the Capricorn hieroglyph indicates a perfect contained and balanced play of energy because the central body is not a void but a most vital part of the system – indeed, right where the vital organs of the Body are found. Therefore, it has the capacity to sustain the triadic play, just as we would expect of Sattva and Preservation, the supporting quality of Vishnu. To be the Centre of the Earth requires that the Gunas be harmonised and integrated within a contained space, as if in a seed. We will observe further on how this sustenance is lacking and therefore the Tamas section stands cut off and alone, a secure area of penetration for forces hostile to wholeness, to unity, to oneness.

We now turn our attention to the western border and the Rajas Guna, bearing little similarity to the east. If this Guna Map had been available at the time when India was carved up, it would have been obvious that West and East Pakistan would ultimately prove incompatible. Developments on the subcontinent, accelerated by the impulsive Rajas in the west, brought a definitive severance: Rajas and Tamas went their separate ways. As K. S. Munshi explained to Sri Aurobindo (Part Four), this certainly did allow both segments ‘to develop their own separate ways’. But what these ‘ways’ have revealed is that at least where Pakistan is concerned, its energy flow is eastward, and will always remain so. In other words, Pakistan cannot help being obsessed with India from whom it seeks sustenance, as a child from its mother. We note that even its foreign aid is channelled toward creating contentions with India in some form or another. India provides the excuse for all its policies and utilisation of the huge foreign aid it receives, mainly from the USA and China.
With the supramental Keys of Knowledge in this study, the relations between Pakistan and India permit analyses of a very different order than current methods. Of course we realise that the ‘proof’ presented here is not acceptable to academics across the spectrum of various disciplines which, until the formulation of the new cosmology, had been the sole methods utilised. In our view, these methods only skimmed the surface of what India is and means for the world. Their inadequacies are constantly being exposed, the latest being the Jinnah book. Regularly publications appear, sometimes causing a flutter, but they are unable to present that Big Picture as it is hoped this study can do. For this purpose we have turned to the cosmic harmony solely, but of course armed with the proper tools to be able to make sense of that Harmony. Because that sense was lost, degeneration set in. When spirituality veered from its Vedic moorings to become focussed on otherworldliness, the subsequent collapse became inevitable. That collapse is consistent, coherent and revelatory. From all angles we are drawn to the same conclusion: the Earth-centred discipline of the Vedic Age, upon which an entire civilisation found support, gave way to the lure of the Beyond and the tactic of escapism. This shift became consolidated further on in what was always the most binding element for all major civilisations, past and present: the calendar used by the majority of the population and which governs, above all, its collective cultural experience. In India’s case it would be the calendar used by over 80% of the population; it is reasonable to note that the area most susceptible to the final and definitive coup-de-grâce was the method and rationale behind its calendar computation. Indeed, this did come to pass and efficiently dispersed the energies of the majority. Truly, divide-and-rule!
Historic records indicate that in Al Biruni’s time the true Vedic calendar was still in use. This was the 12^th Century. But his recommendations seem to have set in motion its final demise. Today 80% of the population cannot ‘get its act together’, even in so simple a matter as the correct Makar Sankranti. Moreover, all have lost sight of what the true function of a calendar must be. Hindus have been systematically undermined to become second-class citizens in the very country where they are in the majority, by this strategy of a calendric divide-and-rule. Indeed, the degeneration and loss of a higher understanding appears to have been so thorough that when presented with facts that suggest the need for a return to the time-tested Vedic measure, complaints are heard that the actual calendar reflects more accurately the ‘wonderful diversity that is India’! Any attempt to introduce what these champions of ‘diversity’ equate with uniformity is vehemently opposed.
Lamentably, this has been the attitude of nationalist forces as well, those who we would expect to champion these Vedic prescriptions. Instead they label our struggle as somehow ‘anti-Hindu’! They oppose vociferously these campaigns on the grounds that this is another infiltration of a ‘foreign’ power to undermine Indian culture! None have the depth of thought to grasp what this ‘phobia’ against change and all things foreign really means and the harm it has done to India. Thus, the Vedic calendar is opposed because it is thought to be of Christian origin, a false premise in itself. Nor is there in evidence a consciousness of unity that allows one to distinguish between unity and uniformity. The country is confused by distortions of all sorts, of all values that were once known to be right and true. There are twists, knots and paralyses, all of which undermine attempts at bringing back a higher order based on eternal values free from the contamination we observe today. Those values and principles are watered down to become all things to all men. But the Vedic Way is absolute, though not at all dogmatic and closed to change according to the demands of the Time-Spirit.
Higher issues such as the right calendar for Hindus must be left to persons of proven higher knowledge and not to the vested interests of almanac publishers who can be easily misled because of, precisely, those infamous vested interests.
Entries through Rajas by conquering armies brought also the seeds that set in motion the destruction of the Vedic Calendar, as we have noted. Yet India is caught in a bind in the effort to be ‘secular’. Thus, military conquerors like Babar are given pride of place in history. Monuments such as mosques erected after destroying temples in certain key places as the birthplace of none other than Ramavatar are a case in point. No one questions why Hindus were so incensed by the mosque at Ayodhya, above all others. However, in a society where truly all are equal, the Hindu lament would have been heard long ago and places sacred at least to the Epic Heroes would have been understood for what they are. Erecting a monument of conquest at those sites seems to have been intended to deal a fatal blow at the heart of the civilisation. Babar was not a holy man; he was a general, a military man, a conqueror. His mosque at Ayodhya struck a blow deep into the Hindu psyche. Yet, why is he honoured more than Ramavatar? Why is this not understood?
If such had been the case, if eternal truths had not been sacrificed at the altar of the shallowness of a contemporary secularism, the forceful destruction at Ayodhya would never have occurred. A monument of conquest cannot be equated with a holy site sanctified by the consciousness of perhaps a Sufi or a Muslim saint or savant who might have inspired its construction, as we find in so many cherished places on the subcontinent. Thus, Ayodhya, the legendary birthplace of Ramavatar, has become synonymous with shame rather than glory. But how will history pass judgement when all sides will be heard including this new cosmology? It could have been a rallying point for a conclusive reconciliation to compensate for hegemonic acts by those rajasic forces that saw it fit time and again to trample upon the most extraordinary repositories of the cosmic harmonies ever conceived by the human mind – the Hindu temple, some 30,000 of them. One for thirty thousand? That seemed a fair enough deal by any standard.
The nature of the Rajas Guna when it stands alone does not require further elaboration. We have historic evidence in the form of Pakistan since Partition to assess how Rajas acts when it pretends to be sufficient unto itself. Particularly important to note is the direction of the gunaic flow eastward, which can explain Pakistan’s obsession with India and its insatiable desire to treacherously snatch up more territory from the main Body – once again seeking to add salt to old wounds by claiming just ownership rights over Kashmir simply because its population is now mainly Muslim, – that is, after relatively recent conquests, conversions, and now relentless ethnic cleansings. But this ‘majority right’ covers only the briefest period of the evolution of consciousness on the subcontinent. From ancient times into the present, Kashmir has been perhaps the most sacred portion of India. After all, it is the abode of Mahakala, of Shiva himself. And it contains the invincible Eye of Shiva (76º longitude) from where the Dharma receives its sustenance [see Kashmir and the Convergence of Time, Space and Destiny, Aeon Books, 2004]. However, for India to hold her own in the face of Pakistan’s perfidy, she must first be convinced of these ancient truths, and she must realise that the Avatar in this 9^th Manifestation comes as Shiva. Perhaps this will help us understand why Kashmir is so hotly contested, and also why India must never relent, and take back what is rightfully her own.
As for the Tail of the Symbol-Map fully within Tamas, briefly, the closed and cut-off condition of Burma is consistent with the fact that a tail is moved by the body to which it is attached. Burma is as if in a state of limbo. Without a connection, however loosely, to the rest of the Symbol and integrated with the other Gunas, it is simply trapped by its own irrelevancy.
To conclude, we must discuss the Sattva Guna, most of which falls in central Bharat. Succinctly, if we wish to comprehend India’s infirmities, her inability to ‘win the peace’, her almost complete paralysis in the face of that bombastic rajasic force hurled at her time and again, we have to lay the blame at the feet of Yogis who came at the close of the Vedic Age and inculcated securely the notion of Escape. Thus Sattva was per force extolled above all others, and then came to displace its companions in the threefold harmony. The result of this spiritual misstep is exactly what we have today: an India of only Sattva, both in the dimensions of its evolving collective consciousness as well as its physical contours. She has no one else to blame for this sorry state of affairs but her own ‘wisemen’ who, in the words of the poet, ‘shall talk and sleep’ as ‘God grows up’… [Savitri, Sri Aurobindo: ‘God shall grow up while the wisemen talk and sleep.’].
Arms have been severed from the multi-limbed Goddess. How then can she guide her own children and the world successfully through these tumultuous times without those indispensable limbs and a body whole and complete?

We near the conclusion of this series. It is hoped that with its completion right thinking, right planning, right strategising will be elaborated to deal with this sombre moment in India’s history. Sri Aurobindo warned the powers-that-be and the population in his broadcast to the nation at Independence. What he warned of then (‘…another invasion and foreign conquest…’) seemed unimaginable at the time. India and its erstwhile rulers were confident that never again would the nation fall prey to hostile attacks. And yet, in this sixty-two-year interim attempts have been made periodically to violate the Body of the Mother – sometimes successfully.

The disastrous situation in Kashmir is one example. Three major wars were fought due to Pakistan’s perfidy, and though India won she has been proven incapable of winning the peace at the after-war negotiating table. There is a specific reason for this inability which will be detailed in the remaining portions of this series. It is as if a fault line cuts across certain critical portions of Akhand Bharat; periodically eruptions occur deep in those sensitive locations with energy drained away impeding the necessary action on the part of the powers-that-be from reclaiming the occupied territory over which India had fought off the invader – and WON. Alas, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir tells its own tale of this inability.

Let us examine the root of the problem. What exactly constitutes those fault lines, not only in Kashmir but all along the western and eastern borders of the country? Now we note that China has queered the pitch and has intensified its nefarious activities on the eastern front. India is increasingly seen to be caught in a pincer-like grip: China and Pakistan have long since joined hands in this activity; and now, with an American regime indifferent to India’s plight, unwilling or unable to restrain what appears to be a last-ditch attempt to conclusively break India apart once again and for good, clearly India stands alone. Sri Aurobindo warned the nation on 15 August – his own birthday – in 1947:

‘…India is free, but she has not achieved unity, only a fissured and broken freedom…’ (Ibid)

Many in India then and now, particularly in political echelons, consider that the emergence of Partition was actually beneficial. It could be seen almost as a divide-and-rule policy whereby the problems posed by the Islamic block would be weakened by Partition and hence become more manageable, thus resolving vicariously the problems with the community that had surfaced in the decades leading up to Independence. However, this was short-sighted in the extreme. Our analysis of Akhand Bharat makes this abundantly clear. In particular the Guna Symbol-Map lays bare exactly what Partition did mean in that none benefitted. Gaps were left in the Mother’s Body through which energy could be sucked away; and at the same time those gaps left openings through which hostile forces could easily penetrate, leaving no peace for all concerned unless those gaps would come to be closed.

In the practice of the new Integral and Supramental Yogas introduced by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, practitioners learn to accept attacks by what are euphemistically known as ‘hostile forces’ almost willingly. They are seen just for what they are: pointers to ‘gaps’ in one’s consciousness-being, very similar to the gaps in the Mother’s Body. They are welcomed only because they are known to be without substance – indeed illusory. If we ignore their existence and the role they play in our sadhana, we miss the point and fail to take these attacks as aids in the course of our attempts to attain self-perfection. They indicate exactly where attention must be focussed, on ‘knots’ of energy which had become entrapped by these entanglements, thus withholding from the integral development precisely the additional energy required for progress and without which no advance can be made. Indeed, Indian yogas encourage an attitude of dismissing these attacks and attackers precisely because they are known to be ‘unreal’. Lamentably, this label extended to the entire field wherein these activities transpire: the Earth herself, our Mother, our field where progress can and must be made if a thorough transformation is to come about. We will return to this problem further on.

This is the wisdom of the Rig Veda. The same situation faces the Warrior as he or she undertakes the Vedic Journey. Unavoidable is the struggle with hostile forces which, in the Riks, are known as the Panis led by Vala; they do indeed succeed in snatching away those ‘rays (energy/‘cows’) of the Sun’ and entrapping them in their caves deep in the bowels of material creation. These are the strongholds of Vala and his Pani helpers. We may disregard their presence to our own peril because they will constantly interrupt our progress – until, of course, we recognise their utility and the inevitability of integrality on this Earth-centred path.

The 9^th/10^th Avatar understood the need to reverse the direction the spiritual endeavour had taken on the subcontinent from an otherworldly goal to our world in this material universe. He had come ‘to correct the error of the Buddha’, in Sri Aurobindo’s own words. For in his infinite compassion the Buddha understood that there was a sure method to disengage the human being from his suffering by emphasising its illusory nature. To do this he had to undermine the Soul, which is our individual and collective vahana as we journey through life in this material universe and on this planet Earth. But here lies the contradiction: the purpose of this third planet is none other than to provide that immaculate vehicle by which the Journey could be undertaken with the certitude of victory. The zodiacal sign Capricorn gives us this very same message. Consequently, we understand that without the Soul as the acknowledged helper during our sojourn on Earth, trouble inevitably threatens and we are assailed time and again along the path we have CHOSEN to embark on when we take birth. We may have forgotten when and how that choice was made; but indeed it was solemnly made, and it lies at the root of our destiny, individual and collective. The point is to become conscious of that choice, that Act of Choosing.

The entrapped energies in the stronghold/caves of the Panis must be released because that very withheld substance is the fuel required to scale the (Capricorn) Mountain and join the victorious Immortal Ones. The Vedic Journey is an exact description of the demands placed on practitioners of the Integral Yoga. But the process has been extended by the descent of the Supramental Avatar and his Line to encompass not just individuals but the entire Earth through the revelations of the Supramental Yoga. If Sri Aurobindo had not lived the Vedic ‘9 becoming 10’, if he had not introduced that extended process embracing the wider field of the Earth, nothing of this series could have been expounded. The only method to deal with the destiny of the world is through the supramental revelations such as The New Way collection provides, and all publications of Aeon Books since 1976.

Thus, Bharat becomes a single consciousness-being with a destiny the lines of which describe what Supermind is and how it operates in the world; above all, its organisation for Earth use, as explained by Sri Aurobindo when discussing his quest for ‘the Formula’. We do have that Formula now and in the remainder of this series we shall reveal how accurately it has been active in India’s contemporary history. Before that, however, let us reflect on the way in which hostile forces can operate in the life of a nation just as we experience them in our individual sadhana.

Pakistan has played the role of adverse force for many decades, we must admit. But if the equation is applicable – as indeed it is – then the entity we know as Pakistan is simply illusory and substance-less as hostile forces can be proven to be in one’s individual sadhana. That adversity, we know by experience, exists only for as long as the sadhak requires. That is, there is a ‘knot’ which must be undone, and without which progress cannot be made – in this case to achieve true unity and integration. Relentlessly until that undoing, attacks will persist, and they are our greatest aid. Thus, the same may be said of Pakistan vis-à-vis India: when India has succeeded in liberating those hoarded-away energies, that hostile power will dissolve; for, ironically, it is India that feeds Pakistan energy for its survival. Or better, Pakistan gathers substance due to gaps in the Body from where toxins emanate. These are poisonous fumes, to be sure, and whoever utilises them for subsistence must reveal in every way that toxicity, proving Sri Aurobindo’s statement that Pakistan is ‘…fraud, force and treachery’. It cannot be otherwise when nourishment is gathered from oozing wounds, from energies entrapped and usurped to obstruct the attainment of unity.

‘…the whole communal division into Hindu and Muslim seems to have hardened into the figure of a permanent political division of the country…if it lasts India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest…’ (Ibid)

Sri Aurobindo highlights the essence of the problem: Muslim/Hindu. It is not so much the divide that causes concern, on which basis Pakistan came into being. It is rather the equation of Hinduism as a religion with the acknowledged religion that Islam is. In so doing the schism was inevitable and easily predictable, as well as the continued strife Sri Aurobindo has noted. This happened considerably prior to actual independence. In fact, in this section we shall move farther back into the Age of Pisces and uncover how weakness set in on the subcontinent at least 1500 years ago. Gradually, as Sri Aurobindo wrote, like a slow poison the consciousness of Bharat became contaminated to reach the present impasse (see The Origin and Nature of Hindu Decline, PNB, 2006, Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom). But, as stated, we now have Pakistan and China to thank for keeping the issue alive and thereby, due to periodic eruptions from the fault lines caused by Partition, fumes are emitted to remind us that all is not well in Paradise!

Unity in the context of Bharat is quite simple to identify. We have, to begin, Supermind’s revelation of certain ‘keys’ which leave us without any doubt as to what unity is and even how to go about attaining it. We have discussed substantially how unity is defined based on these precious Keys of Knowledge. Let us now focus our attention on the fault lines in the Body where poisonous fumes escape to feed hostile forces.

In this map of Akhand Bharat (without the hieroglyph) we see exactly where the fault lines are located. The means to determine the precise areas in the Symbol-Map was the true Makar Sankranti which we located in the geography of India on the zodiac-ruler at 0 degrees Capricorn. Moving back into the sign based on the measure of the ‘lost’ 23 degrees/days (see Part Seven), the extremity of the western fault is exactly where Pakistan begins. The eastern entry point is 0 degrees Capricorn itself, or Bangladesh. But let us review the historical facts to understand the nature of invading forces at both these locations.

The Guna Map opposite places Pakistan fully in the section governed by Rajas Guna as part of the Mother’s threefold energy play. On the other side it is Tamas, perhaps even more subtle and sensitive because it is in this area that we note a shift in signs, from Capricorn to Sagittarius as the Ruler indicates (Part Six). Both these configurations provide exact descriptions of the quality of the forces that made repeated incursions into Bharat across the centuries from these points, finally gaining definitive entry to become ‘permanent political divisions’ at Partition.

Pakistan’s brief history confirms its rajasic quality: bold, forceful, even reckless as rajas can be when not tempered by the other Gunas. To be noted also is that the western Fault from 23º is LINEAR, in a sense reflective of the largely mountainous terrain of the area it crosses. On the eastern side Bangladesh is fully within tamas. We note the stark difference with Pakistan in that

the latter’s boldness and reliance on the military option is not prominent in the Tamas section. We could almost state that the breakup in 1971 of Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh was inevitable given that these areas do not share a common guna which is then reflected in the unfolding of their respective destinies.

Also to be noted is that the breakup between East and West Pakistan occurred at a most significant time in the destiny of Bharat – the whole of it. 1971 marked a sort of before and after. The remaining three decades of the century and millennium would be the most important and significant period of the entire history of India, ancient and new. Most significant of all is the lifting of the last veil covering Guha and then the revelation of today’s connection with the Vedic Age, not only in terms of Knowledge but the revelation of the real and not imaginary avataric descent. The full Knowledge did take its place in the spiritual consciousness of India – and can no longer be ignored. During those three decades the understanding of the separate destinies between Pakistan and Bangladesh because of their different Guna qualities was made factual on the basis of the Symbol-Map with the Gunas.

If we wish to visualise the difference between the West and East fault lines, the line that constitutes the border separating Pakistan from India is indeed linear, – stark, aggressive and bold. The Bangladesh line is seen to be more circular. Its influence is exerted in the more subtle ways of the circle which we will discuss further on when we analyse the actual incursions into the Body of the Mother from these two sensitive areas and how contemporary history itself serves to confirm deductions based on the new Indo-centric cosmology.

To further emphasise the exactitude of our supramental Keys, let us observe just how much area in square kilometres these two portions carved out of the Body contain. The result of our calculations is further proof of the remarkable nature of the truth-conscious Supermind.

Applying the Vedic laws of Correspondence and Equivalence, Pakistan and Bangladesh make up approximately 951,510 km² of what was once Akhand Bharat. We state approximate because there may be some difficulty in being exact because of inaccessible areas. According to Wikipedia data, these two sections together make up approximately 22.44% of the total landmass (951,510/4,238,750); other sources give similar approximations, all ranging between 22 and 23%.

Insofar as 23 was the ‘Measure of Falsehood’, again it is proven by the Capricorn Makar Sankranti of India’s geography that this is indeed the percentage of land that must be retrieved; just as the 23 days ‘lost’ by the wrong calculation of the Sankranti must also be retrieved. These are the two areas that require immediate rectification. The calendar comes first, however, inasmuch as there are 80% of the energies of the nation that are currently dispersed by the wrong Nirayana calendar in use for Hindu temple observances. When those 80% are unified through adoption of the Vedic calendar, then India will acquire the power from within to conquer.

There is no outside power that can save India at this critical crossroads of her destiny. She stands alone. True to the centre that she is, power to conquer any adversity must arise from within. There is no nation on Earth that can do for India what she must do for herself. But those Hostiles know exactly how to keep the energies of 80% of the population disunited and hence useless for solving her problems; and above all, to be in a position to face the adverse forces and expose their illusory substance. After all, it was Al Biruni in the 12th Century who set the undermining seed in motion when he wrote that ‘….. ‘The solstice [December] has kept its place, but the constellations have migrated, just the very opposite of what Varaha has fancied.’ (India, II, p.7, quoted in ‘The Origins and Nature of Hindu Decline’, Part 2). And thus the undermining, that would take approximately 800 years to bear results, had begun.

Hindus, slowly but surely, took to heart Al Biruni’s critique, baseless as it was in terms of the Veda; and thus his suggestion, the Nirayana calendar of observances, finally came in vogue and displaced the Vedic Calendar with hardly a protest. No need for invading armies or converting proselytisers thereafter. From within Hindus determined their own fate. It is therefore only from within that the undermining can be brought to an end and India can be made whole – first in the subtle dimension of her energy body; then, with that new and re-vitalised foundation, wholeness will automatically be extended to all Akhand Bharat.

No longer mysterious are the ways of the Divine, for when Vishnu’s Incarnations descend, particularly the 9^th and 10^th of his line, the most profound mysteries of creation are laid bare. It is not out of the Lord’s compassion that this is so; rather, the clarity with which we are able to disclose the highest truths of creation and the Earth’s destiny is determined by the fact that having reached the 9^th Manifestation and the Age of Supermind, the only way we can face the challenges of these trying times is by the conscious participation of at least a certain percentage of the Earth’s population. Ignorance can no longer be tolerated; ignorance has carried us to the brink of destruction. The only method to reach the other shore of Destiny intact, beyond the misery we know today, is by the descent of a higher knowledge unparalleled in the history of our planet.

India is pivotal to the unfolding of a higher destiny. As the Earth’s one and only cosmological Centre, the proportion required to transform our planet into the home of a life divine must occur in India. Only from this Centre can the Earth make the crossing safely. The unconsciousness, disorder and violence of the 20^th Century reveal the true extent of the danger. Unlike any other period in history, the century we left behind in the year 2000 was certainly unequalled by any other for its legacy of strife and inhumanity. The two World Wars bear testimony to this statement. And out of those conflagrations of such colossal proportions in terms of human lives lost and unprecedented material devastation, we are left with the most lethal store of destructive power ever amassed. Before us lies Destruction or Creation.

The 9^th Manifestation is the period of Shiva/Mahakala. While the Avatars are all said to be emanations of Vishnu this is because their descents can only occur during his astrological ages – or the Ages within each Manifestation of the quality of preservation. However, each of the ten may express a different energy, a type required for a particular task to be accomplished.

The Trinity is the essence of not only the metaphysical and psycho-spiritual reality but the cosmological as well. The zodiac, for example, is constructed on a triune foundation – groups of three repeated four times, 3 x 4 = 12. Each of those four segments or quarters consists of the triune powers of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In astrological tradition they are known by different names but remain the same energy: Brahma=Creation, Vishnu=Preservation, Shiva=Destruction; the respective astrological nomenclature is Cardinal (Brahma), Fixed (Vishnu), Mutable (Shiva). The correspondence is unequivocal and without this basis our study cannot reach any firm conclusion. More particularly, we cannot become conscious instruments or facilitators of the avataric mission in this cycle unless the triune expression underpins the cosmological data.

Moving through each of the quarters wherein the triune energies are grouped in their correct sequence, the last of each segment would always belong to Shiva the Destroyer. Our current 9^th Manifestation is the last sign of the third quarter, Sagittarius, therefore of Mutable/Tamas/Destruction energy – Shiva’s expression. But there is an important shift at this 9^th stage because the Line of Ten comes to an end in this special Manifestation. It is elaborated in the Puranic tales regarding Shiva and Parvati with eloquent precision. Thus, we are privileged in this Aquarian Age of Vishnu to be instruments for the most important play-out of the Harmonies to have been experienced in a period of 77,760 years. The final thrust of approximately 12,000 years is described accurately in the Rig Veda in the special verses to Vishnu when he ‘measures’ the universe in three strides. It is later picked up again in the Epics: the final descents, starting with Sri Ram’s 7^th, through Sri Krishna’s 8^th, and then Sri Aurobindo’s 9^th, are described by Vishnu in his Act of Measuring and transposed to the Epics. But the jewel of the crown is set in place in our present Age of Vishnu when the injunction found in the Rig Veda is actually made a lived experience not just for its Initiates but for the entire Earth. This injunction is the mysterious ‘9 becomes the 10’. Indeed, it was when the final veil was removed from Guha and the 9^th Avatar himself was revealed to be the 10th in an unbroken line of time that the full Knowledge descended in torrents. This occurred in March of 1976. Therefore, ignorance can now no longer be our refuge. To borrow from Sri Aurobindo’s style of aphorisms, Ignorance was the helper, ignorance is now the bar.

Though there may be few on Earth today, the initiate of the true Vedic Way understands what it means when ‘9 becomes 10’. The details of this culminating realisation need not be repeated here [see The New Way, Volumes 1, 2, & 3, 1981; Secrets of the Earth, 2009, Aeon Books]. The 9^th Avatar undertook the very difficult passage for India and the world. But significant to note is that to the lay person what transpires after this ‘reversal’ might appear as the unfolding of a miracle when this equation becomes a lived reality. The most apparent and obvious result is the transformation of our experience of Shiva himself from being the Destroyer to the Dissolver. This transformation of the final energy mode of the triad is the grace that can save the Earth.

‘Destruction was the helper, destruction is the bar’. Without that transformation the Earth and all her creatures would be doomed. The planet could not bear the full descent of the power of Mahakala as Destroyer. It is described artfully in the myth of the descent of the heavenly Ganga whose impact was lessened when the sacred waters tumbled into the matted locks of Shiva to mitigate the rushing power of the Goddess. Once again we meet Ganga in our analysis, for in this Manifestation she is directly connected to the geographical Makar Sankranti via the location of her numerous mouths where Ganga rushes to meet the ocean and the world. The measure she provides is thus a vital clue to the problems Partition poses. Therefore we are able to use the 0 degree of Capricorn – the mouths of Ganga according to the zodiac/ecliptic Ruler – once again to confirm that both Partition and the current Nirayana Calendar of Hindus are indicative of the wounds that must be somehow healed. Ganga sets the measure.

The Makar Sankranti – 0 degrees Capricorn/December Solstice – is currently celebrated 23 days late, or 23 days AFTER the actual Solstice. The argument proffered by the Nirayana Pundits for this aberration is that ‘Capricorn is no longer there, at that same point where it was centuries ago but has shifted 23 degrees’, they argue. As absurd as it may seem, they make the mistake of using thewrong circle for locating this crucial point in the heavens, using only the sidereal constellations and not the Tropical Zodiac along the ecliptic as was the custom in the Vedic Age and even throughout the world today. Since that ‘circle’ is hundreds of light years away and bears only scant relation to our solar system, its 0 Point in that distant space is largely unverifiable; hence total confusion prevails: one pundit gives a particular time for the passage, the second gives another, and a third yet another.

All are wrong. Capricorn is always equal to the December Solstice and never shifts, as they claim, because it is the last of the four ecliptic Cardinal Poles that form the verifiable, scientifically measurable structure of our solar year – today as in the Vedic Age without any shift or change, or, what I call a ‘slippage of time’.

Let us put aside discussion of their incompetence and return to the true measure of things cosmic. We move from Ganga’s 0 degree point in the ‘armpit’ of the zodiacal map-symbol and cross back through the body of India for those ‘lost’ 23 degrees (days) of longitude. The result is, amazingly, another confirming miracle of the manner in which even the negative proves the truth of the new cosmology and India’s very special destiny. 23 degrees from 0 Capricorn carries us exactly to the westernmost tip of India as she stands today in her dismembered condition (above). Thus the false Makar Sankranti points out the falsehood of Partition via India’s present longitude expanse in the measure of those lost 23 days from the true Makar Sankranti, or 14-15 January in calendar time.

If this were the whole tale it would be remarkable enough. But there is more. If we use the same latitude ruler of the Earth and count from 0 degrees latitude, 23 takes us right to the Tropic of Cancer – again directly to that same westernmost tip of present-day India. In both directions, vertical (time-longitude) and horizontal (space-latitude) we end up at this same point, above which lies the whole of Pakistan, torn out of the Body of the Mother in 1947. The other measure, 0 degree Capricorn in the ‘armpit’ was also torn out of Bharat Mata at Partition. These two most sensitive areas, west and east, are today outside of the main Body, wrenched out due to ignorance of these eternal truths of Akhand Bharat. And we cement, we ‘feed’ both falsehoods, each time we celebrate the Makar Sankranti on 14-15 January instead of at the December Solstice, 21-22 December.

Let us now examine more closely those torn-out portions of Akhand Bharat. In this exercise we will discover an entirely new way of analysing contemporary history. In India’s case, with a destiny mapped out so clearly in the cosmic harmonies, the result of analyses according to the accepted methods today is not sufficient to convey just what that destiny might be. Thus, all political and historical analyses are trapped in ideologically-induced conclusions. The brouhaha over a recent book on the founder of Pakistan is sufficient proof of the correctness of this statement. The book sought to uncover the real culpability of Partition and its agents; but the result has proven once again the point made in this series: there is no single individual or group of individuals or any single political party responsible for the dismembering of Akhand Bharat. There is simply the totality of conditions at any given moment or period of history which, in their totality, compel individuals to play the roles they must play in order that the contours of that destiny be shaped according to the reality THAT IS.

This is the message of the Bhagavad Gita: Arjun must slay because the victims are already slain. And since this sacred text has shaped the mind of India for centuries upon centuries, India has great difficulty in conforming to contemporary models of governance that might conflict or present obstacles to giving shape to the injunctions of the scripture.

This is especially noticed in the area of jurisprudence. The injunction of the Gita puts anyone sitting in judgement over another in a very difficult position indeed. For example, can a murderer really be held guilty when, like Arjun, he was simply the instrument to fulfil destiny, by whose hand the victim ‘met his fate’?

The dilemma is very real – and the difficulty judges face in India is obvious to any careful observer. The solution will come only when we understand that a new way must evolve in and for India that reconciles both the sacred and the profane. This reconciliation of course reveals that it is really with the establishment of a superior consciousness, more God-like, that the way ahead to solve the many inadequacies of global jurisprudence will actually come about. It lies in the understanding that, yes, the victim’s fate was indeed ‘sealed’: destiny was inevitable, death was unavoidable, inescapable. In addition, the higher vision as per the Gita causes us to realise that the slayer was also bound by the same fate to slay as the slain. However, reconciliation would come to pass when both the slain and slayer accept their responsibility – not in the current terms of justice ‘done and seen to be done’, but with a broader vision that questions why it was this particular murderer and no other. That is, the slayer’s totality of conditions forming his or her consciousness-being, when known would reveal that there was no other instrument possible to carry out the designs of destiny at that particular moment in time. What brought both parties together at that fateful moment? What macabre play of circumstances? What flaws, above all, exist in the consciousness-being of the murderer to assure that he would be the proper channel for the act?

This perspective does not freeze us into in-action, which would be the unregenerate Tamas reaction, so prevalent today in India and for which reason cases upon cases, files upon files pile up and remain forever unresolved. Rather, the results of such a vision would carry us to a very different conclusion where our justice systems are concerned. Punishments meted out would necessarily take into consideration the inevitability of the situation and not freeze us into non-action but point us in the more all-inclusive direction of the transformation of the conditions within the murderer that brought him to be the ‘chosen’ instrument for the act. This is responsibility within a more all-inclusive vision of the slain, the slayer and the parameters of destiny that brought the two together on that fateful day. To bear responsibility for one’s acts is the key; but newness lies in securing different methods of analysis which would inevitably produce different results when judgements are passed.

It is to be noted that in a sense attempts are made to reform prisons and correctional institutions with a view to transform individuals rather than simply to punish. This may be adequate for the world at large, but our analysis is focussed on India and her obligation to set new standards first within her own borders and, while being the Centre of the Age and obliged to take the woes of the world into her bosom, to assist in or to facilitate the establishment of new ways to solve these long-standing problems beyond her borders. It is to be borne in mind that what is good for the goose may NOT be good for the gander! India lives by the tenets of the Sages in the true spirit of the Veda. Her task is different, her responsibility lies elsewhere.

To provide an example and to demonstrate once again how Akhand Bharat and the Capricorn hieroglyph contain the answers we seek, let us deal with the question of that unregenerate Tamas Guna which is the scourge of India today. To do so we must present further details of the ‘Name of God’ glyph which reveal how the three energy manifestations are contained in the ancient script. This being the case, the occidental esoteric name given to Capricorn must necessarily be altered to read the Name of the Goddess, for the map below reveals that her three energy modes are contained in the Capricorn script. But the order of the Gunas has undergone a deformation over the years, like everything else. To be cosmologically applicable they must be known to move from Rajas to Sattwa to Tamas. Only then can the Gunas be connected to the Trinity in the correct sequence.

We shall discuss this in depth further on to demonstrate not only how the Gunas manifested in the nation’s destiny at Partition but how they continue to undermine the advance of Bharat Mata to occupy the centrestage in global affairs. While gaps where energy is drained away remain, Sri Aurobindo’s words are prophetic: ‘…The partition of the country must go…For without it [unity] the destiny of India might be seriously impaired and frustrated. That must not be.’

The cosmos harbours many wonders of which science knows only the surface layers. It contains harmonies that the human being intuits only when somehow the depths of the soul are touched. From there the truths of the collective psyche are transmitted across time and space in the language of the soul which is Myth. All ancient civilisations have left records of these psychic seeings, but none have survived into the present as sustaining pillars of the modern nations that came to replace the cultures of old. The one exception to the rule is India. Her Myths, together with the great Epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharat, hold treasures of knowledge precisely of those cosmic truths – as valid and vibrant today as ever they were.

It may be more accurate to state that contemporary Indian society validates those eternal truths in a manner never imagined possible. This fact deals a piercing blow to fundamentalist ideologies because it is not really the past – which fundamentalists revere – that legitimises the present. On the contrary. India is unique in that the contemporary unfolding of her destiny is the legitimacy required to prove that indeed there is an unbroken thread from the origin of Vedic culture, through the entire trajectory of the civilisation’s tumultuous history during the last Age of Pisces, with its residue of unhappy memories and schisms, to this new Age where that Golden Thread can now be uncovered and openly experienced as the binding axis of Bharat Mata.

In this series we have located the thread in the cosmic harmonies. But we have the same revelation in all the myths of India and, above all, in the Epics because they provide the record of the Incarnations of Vishnu. As emanations of the Time-Spirit they are the true Axis of the civilisation. Without their appearance yuge-yuge, the destiny of India could not be fulfilled.

Capricorn is the sign of the zodiac describing a month of the year that is considered especially auspicious. This is one example of contemporary history and tradition legitimising the key element of the ancient scriptures, stretching back to the oldest record of all. Thus, we scrutinise the Rig Veda to learn that indeed Capricorn is honoured among all the months/signs, with no less an attribute than to state that the victory of the Warrior who embarks upon the singular Journey the hymns describe (through the pathway of the Year) occurs in that 10^th month, holiest of all. The Mahabharat itself opens on the very first day of that special month, and later records that the mighty Bhisma chose to exit this plane on no other day but that shortest day of the year, the Capricorn Solstice.

In the contemporary culture of Indian society this very same day continues to be honoured as the day when the sign/month Capricorn begins, the tenth of the zodiacal wheel after the March Equinox. Makar Sankranti is celebrated throughout the land, though only very few realise its cosmic source and significance, as well as its relevance today, if any at all. Indeed, that relevance has been severely impaired with the fragmentation of the Capricorn symbol-map. The connection is seen between the nation’s time factor (the calendar day when Makar sets in) and its space correspondence where that same Makar appears in a geographical spread when the twelve signs are laid across the globe as if on a ruler, starting from 0 degree Greenwich. Moving eastward for the full 360 degrees of the globe, this zodiac/ruler takes us in a backward movement to the 300^th degree where we encounter Capricorn.

The sign consists of 30 degrees, in this case longitude, or 300 to 270 degrees. At the end of these 30 we are lead to the ‘armpit’ of the hieroglyph-map (below), where we find the mouths of Ganga. In zodiacal Capricorn, this would be the 0 degree of the sign which in calendar time corresponds to the Makar Sankranti. From these mouths the power of Ganga meets the world. The sacred river runs for a total of 12 degrees of longitude from its source and finishes at the end of Capricorn in the symbol-map. The diagrams make this clear.

At that sacred location the ancient hieroglyph describes a loop and turns backward, followed by a tail as it were, ending at the Andaman-Nicobar Islands, exactly according to the actual geography of India in a wonderful display of the Knowledge that transcends any barriers we erect of time and space. Indeed, the loop and tail are in fact just where there is a change of signs, from Capricorn to Sagittarius. These are the precise cosmic/terrestrial coordinates of Akhand Bharat. The Cosmo-Terrestrial Ruler we present here and its accompanying diagrams indicate where Capricorn begins and ends, covering the main portion of Akhand Bharat. This Capricorn geography is that Vedic victory sign, the goal of the Immortals who had completed that special Journey. It is not just a spatial expanse; it is temporal as well.

However, two factors disturb the harmony. One is Partition where vital sections of the hieroglyph have been removed. This would be the cosmic/spatial coordinate. The other disturbance relates to time, but always involving the same Capricorn/Makar. To illustrate just how accurate these harmonies are, in time measurements our calendar is the above Ruler. Makar thus begins its time expression on the Solstice of December, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. This is borne out by all the ancient scriptures: the commencement of Capricorn and the shortest day Solstice are one and the same. Interestingly, we note that the very same distortion or disturbance of the space Capricorn occurs in its temporal correspondence as well, because according to the calendar of Hindu observances used for every temple and private function, and for the construction of every horoscope, that same Makar is not recognised as synonymous with the Solstice. It has been torn from its cosmological rooting in the four Cardinal Poles. Capricorn is believed to begin 23 days after the shortest day of the year, an aberration known only in India. Indeed, because only in India is Capricorn so vital to the nation’s destiny.

The revelation of the Capricorn hieroglyph synchronicity with the geography of India has come only late in the last century, in 1974 to be exact. Though many readers will find these details too technical and difficult for the layperson to grasp, what is offered here is an immensely important and necessary verification of that revelation by presenting its cosmic background and to demonstrate the results of the aberration in both the country’s space and time coordinates. We use the geography of the Earth herself for the purpose. More than anything else, this helps us realise that Bharat Mata is living and pulsating, and, in spite of all, continues to breathe even in her debilitated form and with her erroneous time measure. To make her whole implies that both measures be restored to their pristine states, spatial and temporal.

Therefore it is stated that contemporary history, albeit it negatively, confirms truths which have been sanctified in myth and scripture and which have reached us intact today. It is always that Tenth Month, our very own special philosopher’s stone.

In this revelation we have an unequivocal confirmation that Bharat Mata has very precise geographical measurements and that the ‘Name of God’ Capricorn glyph delineates the eternal truth of Akhand Bharat thereby proving that it was not the British Raj that gave us this configuration; it was as ancient as the hills and mountains and plains of the subcontinent. Thus, we also have confirmed not only the falsehood of Partition but the entirely wrong celebration of, precisely, that sacred Makar Sankranti 23 days after the fact; not at the onset of Capricorn as the mouths of Ganga indicate and all the sacred scriptures, but rather when the sign has neared its end in both cosmic/terrestrial time and space. Celebration of the Makar Sankranti was meant to be the most auspicious time of the year when the unified energies of the entire Hindu Samaj would find access to that secret ‘door’, like a portal to another dimension, where the power so organised, unified, would flow from Bharat to the world just as Ganga does at the geographical Sankranti of 0 degrees Capricorn as illustrated here. But since distortion exists in this sacredmost rite, is it any wonder that things are the way they are on the subcontinent?

We may refer once again to the Mother’s 1952 photograph in front of Akhand Bharat for further confirmation directly from the consciousness of one of India’s greatest Seers. We will find the same Capricorn indication, not by the hieroglyph itself which is implied in the Map, but by the fact that her own superimposed symbol, consisting of twelve outer petals – or the 12 months of the year – holds all the Vedic keys that have been presented in this series. Usually her symbol has the four inner petals drawn thus X, pointing to the signs of Vishnu, known as Fixed/Preservation in astrology. However, this bas-relief seems to be the single exception she made: the inner petals have been shifted to point as indicated in the photo, – that is to EAST/NORTH/WEST/SOUTH, or to the four Cardinal Poles/Directions.

The most significant petal or arm is the uppermost which would be Uttarayana, or the North Gateway – precisely Capricorn. Certainly it cannot have been simply a mistake or mere ‘coincidence’ that Capricorn is indicated. Rather, this was a deliberate message the Mother left for posterity, for a future time when she knew it would be most needed. Those times are upon us, and in this way the present confirms the past and the ancient knowledge, preserved across the centuries and the millennia and revitalised from time to time by great sages and seers. However, in this Age of Vishnu within the 9^th Manifes-tation, that revitalisation comes through the Line of Ten Avatars itself. It is therefore a privilege and of extreme importance to be born in this century, in this Age. But we bear the burden of that special destiny; it weighs heavily in the hearts of the inhabitants of Mother India.

To carry that burden successfully the true SPACE contours of Bharat should be known, rendering irrelevant any fundamentalist stance which has only the past to sustain it, and poorly interpreted with significant points missed entirely or distorted to mean the opposite of what the original intent of the Seers had been. Equally, and perhaps more importantly, Bharat’s true TIME factor must also be known because Time reveals Destiny and Dharma. To this end a new calendar has to be adopted, the true Vedic measure of the civilisation’s time.

To achieve both these goals, the zodiacal sign Capricorn has been revealed as holding the key to India’s higher space and time properties. This is graphically achieved in the world map presented here. It offers another verification of the singular relevance of India’s Capricorn rulership. We take that same zodiac of 360 degrees and lay it across the 360-degrees of the globe, six signs west and six east, both horizontally and vertically, or across latitude and longitude lines, starting at Greenwich with the first sign Aries. We move over one half of the globe with the first six signs, Aries to Virgo, then over the second half with Libra through Pisces. We do the same horizontally, starting from the same Aries point. In an astonishing display of the exactitude of the new cosmology, we note that Capricorn on the eastern half converges on India from both directions: latitude and longitude.

All diagrams are from The New Way, Volume 2,
and Appendix VII (above map)
PNB, Aeon Books, 1981

28 September 2009
© Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet