The unmanifest was not then, or the Manifest; spatial depths or heaven beyond were not. What encompassed, where, who nurtured it? What ocean, profound, unfathomable, pervaded?
Death was not then or immortality. Neither night’s nor day’s confine existed. Undisturbed, self-moved, pulsated the One alone. And beyond that, other than that, was naught.
Darkness there was; at first hidden in darkness this all was undifferentiated depth. Enwrapped in voidness, that which flame-power kindled to existence emerged.
Desire, primordial seed of mind, in the beginning, arose in That. Seers, searching in their heart’s wisdom , discovered the kinship of the created with the uncreate.
Their vision’s rays stretched afar. There was indeed a below, there was indeed an above. Seed-bearers there were, mighty powers there were. Energy below, will above.
Who knows the truth, who can here proclaim whence this birth, whence this projection? The gods appeared later in this world’s creation. Who then knows how it all came into being?
Whence this creation originated; whether He caused it to be or not, He who in the highest empyrean surveys it, He alone knows, or else, even He knows not!
(Jeanine Miller, The Vedas; B.I. Publications, 1974)
2
At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing.
There was not air not yet sky beyond.
What was its wrapping? Where? In whose protection?
Was Water there, unfathomable and deep?
There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness;
of night or day there was not any sign.
The One breathed without breath, by its own impulse.
Other than that was nothing else at all.
Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,
and all was Water indiscriminate. Then
that which was hidden by the Void, that One, emerging,
stirring, through power of Ardor, came to be.
In the beginning Love arose,
which was the primal germ cell of the mind.
The seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.
A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing.
What was described above it, what below?
Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,
thrust from below and forward move above.
Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it?
Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation?
Even the Gods came after its emergence.
Then who can tell from whence it came to be?
That out of which creation has arisen,
Whether it held it firm or it did not,
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
He surely knows—or maybe He does not!
(Raimundo Panikkar, The Vedic Experience,
All India Books, Pondicherry, 1977)
3
Then was neither Existent nor Non-Existent.
The mid-world was not, nor the sky nor what is beyond.
What enveloped it? And where? In whose protection?
What was the Water, unfathomable and deep?
Then was neither death nor deathlessness,
Nor any indication of day and night.
The One breathed without breath by its self-law.
Other than that was nothing else, nor aught beyond it.
In the beginning was darkness hidden by darkness,
And all was an ocean of Inconscience. When
That lay concealed by endless fragmentation, the One came
To be by the power of his infinite austerity.
In the beginning that moved as desire within,
Which was the first seed of mind.
The seers, having meditated in their hearts
Discovered the connection of the Existent in the Non-Existent.
A ray stretched out that cut the Existent from the Non-Existent;
What was there below? What was above?
There were impregnators, there were mighty forces,
There was self-law below, and a Will above.
Who truly knows? Who here may declare it?
Whence it is born? Whence indeed this creation?
Even the gods were subsequent to the world’s emergence;
Then who knows from whence it arose?
That out of which this creation has come into being,
Whether it upheld it or if it did not?
He who is the Lord of all this in the highest heaven
‘…But there is in taking this turn the danger that he may confuse his own disguised or sublimated ego or an interior power with the Lord and substitute its demands for the supreme dictates. He may fall into a common ambush of this lower nature and distort his supposed surrender to a higher Power into an excuse for a magnified and uncontrolled indulgence of his own self-will and even of his desires and passions.
‘A much worse thing may befall those who break something of the human bonds but have not the purity and have not the knowledge, for they may become instruments, but not of the Divine; too often, using his name, they serve unconsciously his mask and black Contraries, the Powers of Darkness.’
Sri Aurobindo
The Synthesis of Yoga
A word must be said about the question of alignment and its place in the transformation the evolution of consciousness is experiencing.
It is clear that the Yoga described in the Rigveda and which has been largely ignored by researchers, even those among Hindu pundits, was foremost a method to secure a special alignment which would allow the practitioner to ‘become the Sun’. Since several features of the luminary of our system are known, we are in a position to understand certain key elements involved in this alignment of consciousness in the ancient path. Principal of these is necessarily the Sun’s centrality. That is, its dominant position in our solar system, the king, as it were, of the planetary hierarchy. Indeed, so obvious was this feature that from ancient times societies and civilisations modelled themselves on this pattern, with the zodiac as backdrop. Consequently, the 5th sign Leo was not only ‘ruled’ by the Sun, it was also the sign of Kings, the ruler of the kingdom. In other words, this outstanding feature of centrality and lordship was not reflected in the ancient tradition by a special allocation, central to the body of knowledge transmitted in the zodiac. It was just one more sign, one more stage in the progression of 12 – if at all there was a vision of a unified flow through the signs. Indeed, this connected vision suffered irreparable damage by a linear perception which overtook the earlier seeing of wholeness.
Clearly there is a deficiency inherent in this paradigm. And it is reflected in the deficiency we observe in the human mental species. The progression of 1 to 12 with the Sun positioned at the 5th stage, as one among equals does not reflect the structure of our planetary system. But it does give a valid indication of something I have been stressing throughout my work: Humans are binary creatures, trapped in an off-centre alignment of consciousness, which in turn is reflected in the physical instrument. The binary, off-centre alignment of our bodies as humans in evolution determines the fact that each individual born into a body fashioned according to the actual human biological pattern cannot escape the inevitable, ineluctable finality of our sojourn on this planet – death. We are mortal, descendants of Martanda as he is known in the Rigveda, the ‘dead egg’. Or, in the more familiar contemporary paradigm of creation, we are daughters and sons of Eve, a mere ‘rib’ of Adam, and not the superior creation of Shiva/Shakti of the Ardhanarisvar Vedic iconography.
In ancient times on the subcontinent, this condition of the species was understood. Moreover, the path was mapped out for the ‘Aryan Warrior’ so that he or she might travel through the twelve signs, planes, stages and reach the 10th where the prize was Immortality. This was the summit of the path, the supreme achievement. The method to reach this pinnacle of Being was thoroughly worked out, veritably as a map by which the ‘journey’ could be undertaken with the certainty that moving through the darker realms which constitute the various ‘layers’ of human consciousness, the Aryan would be armed with this superior knowledge and thus find protection in this perilous adventure on the road to Swar, the Vedic ‘heaven’ or the realm of the truth-conscious Sun.
Thus, limitation to a system based on 12 was a feature of the ancient path. It describes therefore the same limitations in the human evolution, inasmuch as the zodiac is indeed a map of evolution. The 12 base, it needs to be pointed out, is the horizontal plane and dimension. However, this unidirectional base is insufficient to bring about an INTEGRAL development. And by this we mean a process that integrates both the individual and collective dimensions of the evolution of consciousness. That is, the One and the Many.
With a unidirectional base such as the one that prevailed in early Vedic times, this integral process could not be established. The reasons will be detailed in this study because having reached the point in our evolution of precisely that integral work, dissecting the innards of the former unidirectional condition will be of immense value in our present context. Moreover, it will help us understand in greater depth when certain thresholds were crossed which plunged Vedic civilisation into turmoil and on an apparent path of disintegration, resulting finally in invasions and conquests in our times. We will also delve more deeply into why this apparent disintegration had to come about. In the process, the future course will be clearer, our goal more luminous and hence the successful crossing to that Swar, that borderline, will be facilitated.
The period which will occupy our attention in this analysis is the millennium prior to our present 9th Manifestation which began in 234BC. The student will note, before all else that this time demarcation covers a certain particularly important epoch in the evolution of the civilisation of the subcontinent. It embraces the current 1500BC demarcation which all researchers ‘agree’ was the time of the alleged Aryan invasion of the subcontinent, or the beginning of a series of migrations of these Aryans supposedly from Central Asia or beyond, which, according to scholars of all hues, was the origin of all Vedic and Hindu culture and civilisation.
Fortunately that theory is now being demolished. We may safely state that its hold over the Indian intelligentsia has come to an end. The evidence in support of this theory is, in effect, non-evidence. And in this transitional period characterized by exposure, the principal target for this act perforce has been the Aryan Invasion Theory, inasmuch as it is the Big Lie, the central ‘knot’ at the root of the falsehood holding together the construction of the Lord of Nations, devised to subjugate ad infinitum the Indian people in order to secure the definitive demise of the Vedic Dharma.
In this issue, I am including as Appendix 1 my latest article on the subject, especially because it uncovers the hysteria my previous treatment has helped to provoke in the European Indologists’ camp, particularly my discussion of the role Germany has played in this great scholastic hoax via the colonial/Nazi combine.
Also to be noted is another central point I have highlighted in many of my published works on this theme, and in private correspondence with researchers of like mind who were key players in this revision of history. This concerns the unacceptability of 1500 BC as the time of this so-called invasion or migration. I have sustained that the hitherto almost total consensus that this was the date of composition of the Rigveda, the only extant document of the early Aryans, was a key feature in the scholastic, colonial hoax because only if this date was accepted could the hoax be perpetuated. Dislodging that linchpin would bring the entire edifice down.
Indeed, this part of my work has been taken up seriously and we read periodically of symposiums and seminars being held on this very theme: the unacceptability of the 1500 BC demarcation. The latest was a two-day symposium on Ancient Indian Chronology in January 1994, sponsored by the Birla Science Centre. In the estimate of scholars participating in this meeting, the date of the Rig Veda should be pushed back to approximately 3000 BC.
But the selection of 1500 BC, for whatever purposes, was not insignificant. About that time something did indeed occur in Vedic civilisation which had the inevitable effect of initiating a disintegration of the old forms of the system. That is, the 12-base paradigm seems to have received a critical blow then, whose repercussions have been felt from that time to the present, almost on the order of a slow, steady earthquake extended over the ages as if a millennium were 60 seconds of its revolutionising jolts. Indeed, it is by scrutinising these repercussions that we are able to draw certain conclusions as to what took place and when.
In this first degree of the Age of Aquarius, by retrograde motion through the Precession of the Equinoxes, we are experiencing a settling of the soil beneath us which had been shaken so deeply by the original ‘quake’ over two millennia ago. The upheaval that hit Vedic civilisation was what is universally held as the most significant contribution India is known to have made to the world of science: the discovery of the Zero.
In my yogic investigations into the transformational process alluded to in the Rigveda, I do not find evidence of the prominence of the Zero and the numerical system it gave rise to as its base. I find only that of 12 and thus the prominence of the 12 zodiacal signs, and, above all, the ecliptic itself as the foundation of the knowledge. Of foremost importance in the unidirectional twelvefold system is the fourfold division of the ecliptic – i.e., the four Cardinal Points, last of which is Capricorn; hence the prominence of the December solstice when the Light begins its increase, beckoning the Aryan Warrior to the Capricorn summit and the realisation of Immortality.
The revolutionising character of this discovery lies in this singular achievement: introduction, or unveiling, of the vertical direction. By this the dominance of the unidirectional base of 12 was dealt a first decisive blow and has never recovered since. Another direction was introduced but which would require at least two millennia to become integrated into the higher dimensions of the civilisation’s evolving consciousness and being. Its final amalgamation would depend on the next avataric appearance – precisely the 9th in the Hindu Line of Ten, insofar as the discovery of the Zero was the first prerequisite for that future appearance. Without the unveiling of the Zero, the 9th Avatar could not carry out his mission which hinged precisely on carrying the movement of consciousness across Time’s threshold, through his own death and rebirth, by virtue of which that very Zero would give forth the One. And thus the 9th Avatar, in an unbroken line of time would reappear as the 10th (10=1), as Kalki, in the 91st (9/1) year after his first appearance, 1872.
In ancient times there was only the horizontal line and hence the twelvefold base and the prevalence of the zodiac and the ecliptic as foundation for the knowledge. This formed the structural basis of the civilisation, traces of which are alive and vibrant even today. The Hindu temple as we know it and as it continues to be constructed, according to precise Scriptural designations, is a tool to connect the society and the individual to that circumscribing space which is divided into twelve parts, and then further subdivided into four. The latter then became the foundation of the chaturvarna, the fourfold caste system. Thus, in the Rigveda we find the first indication that this fourfold order was a firm part of the civilisation, and by deduction that the base of twelve prevailed, in the following verses:
…When they divided up the Purush,
into how many parts did they divide him?
What did his mouth become? What his arms?
What are his legs called? What his feet?
His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms
became the Kshatriya, his legs
the Vaishiya who plies his trade.
The Shudra was born from his feet…
But this, though providing a circular seeing (see, TVN 6/3, August 1991) and thus reflective of a form of unity, was still merely unidirectional; meaning that an entire dimension was hidden from the perception of the Rishi. The entire exercise, circular and whole as it may have been, was nonetheless limited to only one cosmic plane, – the horizontal. The base was thus 1 to 12. To be unveiled, realised, integrated was the vertical and the new base, 0 to 9.
This simple seeing was the earthquake that struck Vedic civilisation around the time of the purported Aryan invasion. A settling of the shaken up terrain, I repeat, is only being completed now, in our very century. This act of settling will be completed by the turn of the millennium. But meanwhile there remains much to be done in the realm of higher knowledge so that passage to a true new order will be successfully completed, ‘right on time’.
Pregnant Fullne at the Origin: Time’s Zero-Womb
The first imperative in this act of settling is to understand that any remaking of a civilisation such as the Vedic – i.e., based on higher knowledge – had to be done respecting the essence and demands of that original ‘seed’ the Vedic culture sprang from thousands of years ago. Just as a rose cannot evolve from the seed of a tree, similarly that Vedic ‘seed’ could never give rise to anything other than a creation of its own genus. In this light, it was decreed from the outset, from the first rending of the veils, or removal through Vedic yogic techniques of the ‘lid covering the Sun’, that this integral poise would one day come about. Not just for an individual, or an elite, a group of privileged individuals, but for the entire civilisation. Indeed, the special quality of that ‘seed’ was this integration of the Unity and the Multiplicity. It translated itself into a harmonisation of the Being and the Becoming in the course of time. Thus it was inevitable that the inadequacies of the original unidirectional base would force the issue when a critical threshold of time had been reached, and thereby oblige those early Rishis to push their realisation deeper and higher yet. The result was penetration into the Womb or garbha, as it is called in Sanskrit, – that is, the Zero. In that recondite dimension of Being there lay the spectacular realisation of Skambha, support of the worlds. The ‘womb’ held that sacred Child, the One, the Son.
We have verses of the Rigveda which have come to be called the Hymn of Creation. In my view these verses must be understood as a meticulous description of the plunge into the Core, into the Zero-Womb, or what lies beyond the threshold of the material universe as a permanent condition and not just a one-time ‘big bang’. Scholars vary somewhat in their translations of these verses. Therefore, I am including as Appendix 2 three translations in which certain discrepancies must be highlighted – namely those concerning the translation of the Sanskrit word abhu. Some scholars have translated this pregnant word as ‘the void’. But Raimundo Panikkar, though following suit, does mention in a footnote that the word signifies the transcendent Absolute. Indeed, it is this sort of discrepancy that throws light on the manner in which the Vedic emphasis on fulness and not emptiness as a primordial condition of being came to be distorted.
What is more than apparent from these verses, regardless of the translations, is that the Vedic seers were describing the contours of the experience which produced a penetration into what I have come to call the Zero-Womb, or the dimension before or beyond the Point, or the first manifestation of a spatial reality. They described the condition of compressed time, the womb of the Zero containing 9, 6, and 3. Out of this compression came the One ‘…who breathed without breath, by its own impulse’. Another important feature of these verses concerns the fact that the Seers saw this to be the origin of the horizontal dimension. Panikkar translates the significant passage as ‘…A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing’. This has been poorly rendered in Jeanine Miller’s translation as ‘Their vision’s rays stretched far’. Again we note that the former perhaps more literal translation is closer to the experience, inasmuch as the important factor to stress, as far as the purity of the Seeing is concerned, is the question of a horizontal dimension emerging from this ‘compression’. For this is indeed the dimension of manifestation of the One, born of the Zero-Womb of compressed time. On the other hand, V. Madhusudan Reddy translates this passage thus: ‘A ray stretched out that cut the Existent from the Non-Existent.’ While this too conveys the idea of an ‘above’ and a ‘below’, which the subsequent lines do indeed emphasise, I prefer the more literal translations because of their fidelity to an experience which is perforce beyond the scope of a translator. Therefore we look for a rendering which distorts as little as possible that experience. And at this point in time, when the contours of the original Seeing are known, these verses stand as a precious confirmation of the vigour of the Vedic Truth.
Another important passage, perhaps the most important of all, concerns the thrust of the movement of consciousness in discovery of this Truth. That is, it was not outward, it was not an experience that could come by a dissolution in a Beyond. Rather, it was a plunge within, and more precisely, into the heart. Thus, Miller translates the passage as, ‘Seers, searching in their heart’s wisdom, discovered the kinship of the created with the uncreated.’
Then we have Panikkar’s rendition, ‘The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom, discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.’
And finally there is Reddy’s, ‘The seers, having meditated in their hearts, discovered the connection of the Existent in the Non-Existent.’
We have three slightly different renditions, but all three indicate that the heart centre is involved in seeing this connection between the Existent and the Non-Existent, or the Manifest and the Unmanifest. Yet in their commentaries the translators are more concerned about the correct rendering of the lines immediately preceding these which state that in the beginning ‘desire’, or ‘love’ arose as the first impulse within. My point is that the more significant lines concern those which reveal that it is a plunge into the core which draws that all-important connection between this dimension and that which stands before and beyond. The ‘bridge’ is found there. It is important to emphasise this point because this is the channel, this is the key to the realisation. Not having brought out this point earlier has left a certain amount of confusion among seekers, and this has permitted a perversion of the Vedic Truth. The clarification of these simple and apparently unimportant lines helps us to discover that bridge and to reconstruct the process of creation, or the emergence of the One from the womb of the Zero. Just as the early Rishis did.
Thus in ‘seed form’ the realisation was done. That is, in the realm of the Zero, or the Being, the Unity. But what of the Becoming? How was that to be integrated, and by this we mean consolidated through the lived experience of the movement of that Zero-Unity?
It stands that since we are dealing with the vertical time direction, in contrast to the horizontal space direction, Time itself had to be the channel for the realisation. This means that Time’s movement would be the means to integrate the new dimension of itself. Thus, the evolution of that original seed-seeing could be meticulously monitored precisely via a higher understanding of time and its own transformation in the consciousness of the seeker from its poise of Destroyer to Ally. But when the great Quake struck in the latter part of the 8th Manifestation, we had no ‘becoming’ to serve as ally in the act of settling and re-ordering. Time itself was required, 2000 years or so, to be precise, or a full zodiacal Age in order to accommodate the new ingredients or energies the Quake had released which would compel, by their negative contributions, by exerting the required pressure via tension, the action of the Avatars, agents of that very Time-Spirit, to carry humanity beyond the Borderline.
Thus, the 9th Avatar’s appearance in 1872 initiated that grand march across the threshold of an Age and into the realm of the Zero, of Swar. Prior to his coming and the successful completion of that mission, the bridge connecting this human habitat to Swar was lacking. It was indeed a ‘heaven beyond’ and not of this Earth. The 9th Avatar’s mission was to create that bridge and thereby to bring that Heaven down to Earth. He completed this crossing 91 years after his birth in 1872. What is transpiring now is merely a final settling of the terrain, similar to the lengthy after-shocks of a mighty Uranian quake. These ‘shocks’ are the stirrings of the Becoming precisely so that the new order may be a faithful reproduction of that majestic Cosmic Truth, essence of the innermost Vedic ‘seed’ at the heart of the civilisation.
We could state quite accurately that the Vedic realisation which formed the basis of Hinduism and hence the prevalent culture on the subcontinent, was always incomplete. It was indeed merely the horizontal base, the heavenly circumscribing ecliptic of 12 divided into 4. Its sole purpose of existence was to provide the future One with a ‘womb’, whence he could be born. In other words, the Rigvedic creation hymn was equally a description of the origin of a civilisation. Vedic culture is thus the expression given to the compressed seed at the Origin. The gestation we are describing has been a long one. It has been a process straddling 8 Manifestations of 6480 years each. In 234 BC we reached the 0 Aries Point and the beginning of the final Round of 25,920 years of that long evolution through the 12 Manifestations. Humanity embarked then upon the last circumambulation of the Sun in the precessional movement of the Equinoxes. Approach to that Zero Point at the end of the Age of Aries brought the dawn of the new Seeing, truly Usha, the Divine Dawn, carried by Agni as the white Horse, across the twilight of an Age, for that 0 Aries point is indeed the Cosmic Dawn.
The beginning of the degeneration of the caste system was one of the evident signs that the former 12/4 base was receiving mighty shocks. The cause of this was not corruption of the Brahmin caste but rather the corrosion of every caste. With the introduction of the new direction, the vertical, prior to integration, nothing was ‘in its place’ insofar as time was required to lay these new and more complete foundations. The veils had been drawn aside, the Zero-Womb had been disclosed by the realisers, but its labyrinthine recesses were covered as yet in the tenebrous veils of the many layers of consciousness-being which had to be integrated by means of the precious power of the Becoming. In other words, the two feminine powers, the 6 and the 3, had to take their place in the action of time, providing the energy needed both to impel the movement forward, as well as to organise all the elements/energies drawn into the process. For while the 12 base steadies itself on the fourfold pillars, the 0 base requires the triadic powers of 9, 6, and 3. These three powers had to join in the labour so that ‘right on time’ the One would emerge from that cosmic Womb, and his birth would herald the arrival of the new age of the Supermind, the descent of heaven upon Earth. India, for the past 2000 years or so, has been carrying out this great labour for the world. And the work is done.
The Reign of the Usurpers
In this long passage of Time, in the course of illuminating the dark crevices of the Zero/Womb, usurpers have emerged to fill the void with their own brand of ‘truth’, with their ‘mixtures’, as the Mother called it. Indeed, from the very outset we encounter a series of usurpations, deviations, distractions, designed to draw the Aryan Warrior off course and abort ‘the Birth that fills that void’. All of these attempts, straddling an entire Age and more vigorously encountered in this century, have failed. The work is done, the Birth completed, the void is filled.
Nonetheless, the act of settling which I have described above, concerns a very careful and thorough act of exposure. Its purpose is precisely to drain the Usurper of energy. All the folds of the Womb have to be illumined so that the Shadow cannot continue to usurp energies which must now serve exclusively the purposes of the One.
The act of exposure, a large part of which I have been documenting in this series, carries us back to the original realisation of the Zero, sometime in the last millennium of the 8th Manifestation. This seeing was so decisive and overwhelming that thereafter it became ‘the secret’ of all the cultural expressions which the civilisation produced. We find it in music, captured in the drone or sruti, the silent Sound, or the sound-axis that renders the Silence full and not empty; we find it in architecture in the Hindu temple’s axis, shooting up from the centremost point of the garbhagriha, precisely the ‘womb-house’ or the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. Indeed, we find it in every artistic creation where an axis is required. For the perfect axial alignment requires or presupposes the realisation of the Zero and the ‘birth that fills the void’.
Yet all these experiences were still examples of a society in preparation for the fullest manifestation of the Dharma. They denote anticipation – precisely of that birth that fills the void. True to the exceptional capacity of Hindu wisemen to perceive these deeper, hidden truths, sometime during this passage the Scriptures inform us that the Buddha was also included in the list of Ten Avatars as an emanation of Vishnu, but that he was sent by the Supreme to ‘mislead’ seekers, more particularly, the asuras. And we also have Sri Aurobindo’s words to the effect that Kalki comes ‘to correct the error of the Buddha’.
What, precisely, was that error? The answer lies in the Mother’s temple – or rather, in the shadow-temple in Auroville, built in her name. What has taken shape there as the Matrimandir is an architectural rendition, attaining the highest heights of symbolic representation, of precisely the error of the Buddha. Thus we refer to it as the Shadow-Temple, inasmuch as it does indeed present the shadow of the supramental Truth: the emptiness of Nothingness.
The Map of the 12 Manifestations, reproduced below, describes the ancient Vedic foundation. It represents the twelve-fold unidirectional, horizontal base of the early civilisation. I discovered the diagram by means of the numerical properties of the name given to me during initiation in 1971, the year when the ‘sorting out’, or ‘decanting’ the Mother set on its way by her yogic power a year earlier began. Thus, when I discovered the significance of Thea and applied it in the formulation of this Map, I was unaware of these Artharvaveda verses which describe this very diagram:
One is the wheel; the bands are twelve;
three are the hubs, – who can understand it?
Three hundred spokes and sixty in addition
have been hammered therein and firmly riveted.
Thus, we note that the Map of the 12 Manifestations is composed of 12 bands, and 3 concentric circles (hubs); with, of course, 360 spokes/degrees ‘hammered therein’, just as the Veda declares. It provides the essential key to the appearances of the Ten Avatars of Hindu tradition.
Had I remained satisfied with the diagram as the be-all and end-all of the realisation, the integral knowledge would have been withheld. This came a year or so later, in 1973, just before the Mother’s passing. It was the discovery, or seeing, of the Gnostic Circle, providing seekers with the same twelve-fold base, onto which, or into which is lodged the vertical direction of the circle of 9, a number equal to the 0 – as the Mathematics of Unity discloses. This is the formidable new key which describes the true new order.
The shadow of a ‘new order’
The Earth is passing through a transitional stage which is perhaps the most precarious passage in the entire history of her long and laborious evolution. While it is a fact that a ‘new world order’ has arrived or been thrust upon us, the true position is that this newness is nowhere in evidence. What we see taking shape is simply a last and more determined attempt to secure complete and everlasting control over the future of humanity by a consciousness which began its accelerated drive for supremacy several centuries ago.
Thus, throughout the world we witness the overt manipulation of certain societies to coerce adherence to this ‘new world order’. It is necessary to analyse the nature of this imposition in these pages, for it concerns our work directly, even as it concerns the destiny of the Indian subcontinent in greater measure than any other area on the globe. The issues involved are those most pertinent to the Vedic Truth and its survival than ever India has known. Throughout the long course of her history India has experienced many tribulations, many attacks on her essence and the continuity of her central leadership in matters of the spirit. But never before has she faced the possibility of total destruction of that essential Truth like today. Being the centre and soul of the very planet, it is fundamental to understand her struggle and weigh the conditions for success or failure. Indeed, it must first be emphasised that none are truly aware of the real struggle, of what actually lies at the heart of the turmoil, or ‘churning’. Given this lack of a clear perception, the Lord of Falsehood has easily clouded the real issues. This is nowhere more clearly discernible than in the struggle to have the Mother’s original adopted for construction of the Matrimandir in Auroville. To this day there is but a handful of people throughout the world who truly perceive the nature of the force that has secured a complete and unrelinquishing hold over the city the Mother founded in 1968, through the channel of what was meant to be its soul – the temple.
Indeed, if the Mother stated that the Matrimandir was to be the soul of Auroville, it is understandable that instruments would come forward to construct that ‘soul’, and that every attempt would be made – conscious on the part of behind-the-scene forces, and often unconscious by their frontline instruments – to assure that this soul would be faithful to the consciousness desiring to take possession of that centre. The Mother was not unaware of the struggle she was setting in motion by centering the endeavour on this temple. Master strategist that she was, she knew the benefits of such a strategy in that identical to the Churning Myth, both positive and negative forces would be gathered in one place as it were, and would thus be obliged to join their energies to accelerate the movement and thereby to hasten the denouement. Indeed, the period set aside by the Time-Spirit for this decisive work was the last three decades of the millennium. That is, we have the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s, drawn into a condensed experience in the final three decades of the millennium, starting from 1971. To be noted is that the beginning of the larger demarcation coincided with the rise of colonialism on the world scene; while the condensed period of three decades was heralded in by the beginning of the temple construction in 1971, precisely because acceleration was the demand from that year onward until the end of the millennium, and the process the Mother organised around the temple drama created that ‘controlled acceleration’.
Thus today, in the drive to impose a ‘new world order’, we witness an intensive effort on the part of the consciousness that worked through the colonial powers to secure its definitive stamp and lasting hold over the Earth’s evolution. And as prophesied in St John’s Revelation or Apocalypse approximately two thousand years ago, the focus of the struggle has indeed been a temple.
As in the early days in India when colonisation began through the East India Company – i.e., economic subjugation – today the concentrated effort of that same consciousness to maintain its hold is equally through economic slavery. The difference between these two periods is only in degree and method of implementation. Then it was force combined with diplomatic coercion and manipulation. Today it is political coercion under the guise of ‘freedom’ – i.e., ‘free’ trade, ‘free’ market, ‘free’ economy, and so forth.
Similar to the perversion in matters of the spirit which we have witnessed in the last three centuries, accentuated in the last three decades, where this question of freedom has been the key tool to pervert, in economics and trade freedom has suffered an identical perversion. That is, in both realms what exists is an illusion of freedom and not the real thing.
Nations throughout the world are being manipulated to subjugate themselves to the presiding economic ‘deity’ by conviction that this adherence implies access to a degree of ‘freedom’ which they have never known. Similarly, they are being convinced that their participation is as equal among equals and hence in keeping with the secular democratic tradition which has gained supremacy over the past hundred years or so, particularly since 1989. But both the freedom and the equality offered are an illusion. Nations which have recently emerged from colonial subjugation are simply diving into the fire from the frying pan, to put it prosaically.
The option that had been offered to these fledgling nations was of course no option at all. Socialism was an instrument of that same consciousness and its entirely predictable offshoot. The colonial era spawned several channels to secure complete domination. Socialism, which a number of newly independent nations opted for, was perhaps the cleverest tool of that retrograde force in that its reliance on a stifling of political, economic and social freedoms for expression and survival, assured its demise at a certain point in the development when precisely the perversion of freedom would become the principal tool of the Lord of Nations. This process culminated in 1989, the start of the very last ennead of this millennium, when the clarion call of freedom brought about the collapse of the socialist paradigm as a visible alternative.
Yet, developing nations throughout the world are in no way ‘free’. And there appears to be no solution to their subjugation inasmuch as none are aware of the level of deception. Nor can they identify the instruments and channels this force uses, much less devise means to secure true freedom from its centuries-old hold. Cultural issues of minor import are focussed on, in an exercise of missing the forest for the trees. In addition, even if this identification were possible, no valid replacement can be envisioned since perversion has been the tool; and this creates the interesting phenomenon of ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’. Thus, while freedom and equality are legitimate primary ingredients of the new world order, perversion of these principles results in a reactionary response which drives one in an opposite direction in the effort to become ‘free’ from the subjugation.
The unipolar world is thus a fallacy in terms of any one of the superpowers occupying that dominant position. For it is neither America, nor of course Russia, nor any other nation which has taken over centre-stage. It is a consciousness working through certain channels which have been prepared for the role they are presently playing some centuries ago. Nor can we say that that consciousness has wholly occupied this position. What we are witnessing is the final struggle of certain forces to secure the dominant position. Indeed, the position is still vacant, but it is rapidly on the way to being filled by the force which functioned so effectively to subjugate half the world during the colonial age.
The outer signs and symbols indicating the victory of that force cannot be ignored. Inasmuch as the denouement was arranged to hinge on a temple as central protagonist in the struggle, mainly to be an aid in identifying the quality of that usurper consciousness and its tactics, foremost is the symbolism of the shadow-temple nearing completion in Auroville. Every item of the construction points to a decisive victory on the physical plane of the force we call the Lord of Nations. Indeed, it is in a sense a conglomerate of nations which serves as a channel for that force to execute its designs on the world scene. This conglomerate also has representatives in the city and its shadow-temple. But the most important item of the symbolism is the transparent, empty crystal, centrepiece of the temple, coupled with the empty stand as its ‘support’. Everywhere in the symbolism we are faced with emptiness – an entirely indispensable ingredient in the ‘new world order’ of the Lord of Nations.
Thus, one of the most important aspects of the new creation is threatened to be rendered obsolete. This is the victory of the soul, both individual and collective. For nations, for India, the problem translates itself into a losing struggle to affirm the national soul and build a new future on the basis of its pulsations and not those emanating from the conglomerate consciousness of the Lord of Nations. Emptiness as a symbol in this essential area of the Mother’s work points to the triumph of the Usurper, of forces from beyond the parameters of the national consciousness. This too has been the fate of the Mother’s city and temple, pertinent especially to India, and through India to the rest of the world.
The problem is the central void. For only by securing this emptiness can the Usurper succeed in imposing its shadow-consciousness on the Earth. India plays a special role in this adventure. But the fact that on her soil, in the body of the Mother, the Usurper has stamped its consciousness on this most important symbol, does not bode well for the nation. Economic policies must evolve from and be an expression of the fulness of the national soul and thus be in harmony with the true needs of the people on all levels and dimensions. They must serve that One, that divine Purpose of the soul, and not take possession of the nation as an imposition from beyond and stemming from impulses and priorities which have no connection with the nation’s central pulsation. Economics cannot inspire a people. They cannot drive the collectivity to express its highest ideals and to attain its loftiest goals. They can only be an outcome of that innermost pulsation and never take its place.
But today it is expected throughout the world that the carrot of economic well-being dangled before nations struggling to affirm their national soul, via a subjugation to the dictates of that conglomerate consciousness, will suffice to silence the stirrings of these indigenous pulsations. In the present scenario what is more than clear is that nothing is in its place. Policies or areas of collective existence which should be an expression of something else have usurped the position that ‘something else’ should occupy. In other words, the law of usurpation triumphs throughout the world. This is possible because of a central emptiness.
Oriental societies constantly bemoan the emptiness in evidence which seems to be undermining the foundations of the old order and which they identify with a western materialist consciousness. But the emptiness I write of is something far more subtle and difficult to detect and hence to remedy. It is a cosmic knot whose existence in turn left that soul-centre void and hence susceptible to the usurpation and the numerous external manifestations of this emptiness. Indeed, if we insist on locating the area on the globe where the perception of central emptiness made its first impact on the human consciousness, it was in the east and not in the west. It was, in fact, in India more than two millennia ago. And today India continues to set the pace and upon her success or failure depends the true ‘new world order’.
What is at stake is not a new world order dominated by a superpower or even a concert of powers. It is a question of the Consciousness which must be stamped on the evolution of the human species and its resultant civilisational expressions. The struggle lies there, in that essential domain. But, important to note is that in this higher destiny of the Earth there is only one plan, as it were, one pattern, one ‘order’ – and not a choice among many possibilities. This order is represented thus:
A centre or point, and a periphery. Like a flower with its circumscribing petals, there are concentric circles evolving from the Point which in turn is identified as ‘the centre that holds’.
In other words, the new order is simply the manifestation of the Cosmic Truth which is spheric in design. Its ‘forms’ are multiple, but unity is its base. Whereas, the new order sought to be imposed is linear insofar as the centre is a void and hence cannot give birth from that Point to a ‘holding power’. Consequently, that ‘new order’ imposing itself is a recipe for continued strife and more explosive expressions of unrest than the world has yet known. The reasons for this are mathematical. We shall discuss them in depth in the remaining portion of this study.
The true harmonious world order is a cosmic expression where each thing is in its place. Thus there can be no usurper, no frustration aroused, resentment or sense of diminishing. Equality is understood and implemented as an expression of that true place of each part of the collectivity. There is no higher or lower. There is equality of the instrument whose complete fulfilment lies in the discovery and occupation of its true place within the whole. If at times this condition has been experienced on Earth, it has been accidental and certainly never conscious. At least during our period of recorded history. The situation may have been different earlier, perhaps during the Vedic Age when the caste system based on the cosmic harmony prevailed in its uncontaminated, undiluted form. But the great divide resides precisely in a conscious or unconscious evolution.
Things cannot be put ‘in their proper place’ without conscious awareness, precisely because the deception, perversion and falsification are extreme and have proven so effective in securing the subjugation described above. To illustrate, there is not one of the surviving older disciples in Sri Aurobindo’s ashram in Pondicherry who has been capable of identifying the presiding consciousness in Auroville as the Usurper. All have fallen at the feet of this consciousness in possession of the project and installed as the ‘deity’ in the shadow-temple.
On numerous occasions these respected disciples have made pilgrimages to the temple, particularly after installation of the empty crystal and stand. They have described the power they felt there as ‘the Mother’, and have not cared to delve deeper into the nature of their experiences because in so doing the painful reality would emerge of a race, a species so thoroughly misaligned that Truth lies beyond its reach and the supramental Gnosis appears to be entirely unattainable. I repeat, it is a painful discovery, particularly after a long life of involvement with Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga. To conclude after 50 or 60 years that one has come no closer to an identification with that Light than in the initial contact with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, or gained the essential discrimination they so assiduously emphasised as a first prerequisite for attainment of a superior consciousness, is indeed a confession few are ready to make.
Yet in the light of knowledge and particularly the supramental Gnosis Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have brought down, the experiences of these older sadhaks, which have been published in various Ashram and Auroville journals, disclose the failure on the part of these respected disciples to fathom certain fundaments of the yoga and especially the nature of the context which perforce had to accompany the victory of the gnostic Light in the world.
This failure merits an in-depth discussion because of its potential for clarifying certain elements of the yoga somewhat difficult to grasp. In addition, this analysis will also serve to illumine the way ahead on this precarious path into the new future which the entire human race is embarked upon and which is meant to be opened precisely by the realisers of the supramental Gnosis. Thus, in discussing the failure to perceive the character of the presiding ‘deity’ in the shadow-temple, the path ahead may become clearer for those who are truly sincere in their aspiration to be instruments for this great change.
A Consciousness of Perversity
A simple means to illustrate the nature of the consciousness that has overtaken the shadow-temple and has thus come to exert a central influence on the affairs of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as centred in that project, concerns the all-important question of a transparent or translucent globe as the focal piece of the temple. Inasmuch as this item is by far the most significant part of the temple, described by the Mother as ‘the symbol of the future realisation’, clearly there should have been the utmost care in executing her will in this key matter to the best of one’s ability. We find, however, that this was not done. And because of its central importance and the subsequent disfigurement that came to stand in place of this supreme symbol, naturally we are driven to conclude that the consciousness presiding over the city’s development is perverse indeed. This is especially so because we have the Mother’s own words to help us determine exactly what that symbol represents, what quality she wished to capture in the symbolism, and finally her definitive instructions that it should not be ‘transparent’: ‘A globe which is not transparent but rather translucent.’ (10.1.1970)
In view of these clear instructions, can there have ever been any confusion about exactly what was required?
To further emphasise the point, the Ashram fell in line completely with the deception by reinforcing the hold of the Usurper through its official publication, Bulletin of the International Centre of Education. In its February l992 edition, it published extracts from the Matrimandir Dialogues where the Mother had explained her vision in detail, clarifying many points which, however, were subsequently disfigured. Regarding the globe the editors reproduced only those early portions of her discussion with the disciple, Satprem, where she speaks of a transparent globe.
For all intents and purposes, her preliminary comments with casual reference to a transparent material, in this official organ of the Ashram would confirm that the selection of a transparent crystal was fully in keeping with the Mother’s vision and wishes.
However, that was her early description of what she ‘saw’, before she drew up a plan with the Ashram engineer a day or two later. Thus, by 10.1.1970 when she met again with the disciple, with those plans in hand, she stated the following when the question of the ‘crystal’ was brought up: ‘And the globe is translucent.’
These more definitive, categorical instructions have been entirely ignored by the communities of both the Ashram and Auroville. There has, moreover, been a concerted, wilful, deliberate attempt to hide the fact from the public that the Mother specifically did not want a transparent globe. In keeping with her ‘seeing’ it had to be translucent.
A sincere aspiration to do the Mother’s will and construct the temple as faithfully as possible to her vision and not the architect’s, would reveal to the careful reader of the Dialogues exactly why she first mentioned transparent and then clarified that it was, on the contrary, translucent. The reason comes across in her own reflections on perhaps the need to put a light under the globe in order to illumine it from below, – that is, to ensure that it becomes full of light, which would be in keeping with her vision. In other words, the Mother in her discussions with the disciple Satprem and the Italian designer, Paolo, sought to explain the chamber and centrepiece as she SAW it. The globe was clearly full of light, effulgent, luminous. To be more precise, it was not empty, much less transparent. It was in her vision an element capable of retaining a luminosity projected upon it, however that was to be devised.
When working on the plan, it is obvious the engineer must have informed the Mother that the effulgence she ‘saw’ could only be attained by a translucent and not transparent globe. With the latter light would pass through and not be contained as in a vessel. Yet this is exactly what now stands as ‘the Mother’s vision’ in the shadow temple: a transparent crystal through which light passes and is not contained, giving the impression of an empty void. And, to further reveal the quality of its presiding ‘deity’, this crystal captures on its surface the images of everything in the chamber and reflects them turned upside-down.
It needs to be stressed again and again that a sincere desire to reproduce the Mother’s vision according to her own description and clear instructions would have encountered no difficulty in reaching the conclusion that a transparent crystal was not in accordance with what the Mother ‘saw’. The Ashram engineer, Udar Pinto, clarified the matter for her. And a diligent study of her dialogues on the subject would have revealed the reason for the two apparently contradictory statements.
But even if this had not been clear, the obvious choice for the centrepiece would perforce have been the last instructions – that is, on 10 January, after she had drawn up the plan herself and worked out those details with the engineer. It must be recalled in this context that the Mother specifically requested an engineer to execute her vision, not an architect. The reasons are obvious in view of the disastrous rendering of that vision by precisely the architects who initially she had foreseen would be incapable of dealing with the matter in the right spirit.
True to the perverse character of the Lord of Falsehood, presiding ‘deity’ of the shadow-temple, her comments on a transparent globe before she herself had understood the difference in terms of the final effect produced, were the only ones clutched tenaciously by the powers-that-be in both communities. Indeed, there is not one disciple in the forefront of a movement not only to restore the purity of her original vision but to rescue the city (and the Ashram) from the hold of that dark conglomerate consciousness of the Lord of Nations.
There are other essential items of her vision which were similarly disfigured when they could have been executed exactly as she saw the chamber. The ‘stand’ is foremost among these items. She specified that Sri Aurobindo’s four upright symbols supporting the globe had to be carved in stone and of a somewhat orange-gold colour. Never did she request metal. Yet the powers-that-be disregarded as well these clear instructions and have placed the empty crystal on a see-through wrought-iron stand. Wherever one looks, however one approaches the symbolism one finds only emptiness, weakness, nothingness in place of the solid fulness of a supramental creation which was the character and quality of the Mother’s original vision, and indeed of the ancient Vedic seeing.
Another important item which was severely disfigured and which is perhaps the most damaging falsification of all concerns the axis of the temple, the horizontal and vertical measurements of the inner cross-section of the chamber – indeed, the most essential measurements to reproduce faithfully in any Vedic creation. In the Mother’s words, this cross-section was to ‘form a perfect circle’ whose periphery would touch certain points of the chamber. To achieve this, before all else the room’s diameter had to be accurate: 24 metres, wall to wall.
As if foreseeing that the falsifying consciousness would target this essential point for its prize achievement, the disfiguring of which would render the temple a faithful reflection of its own misaligned consciousness, the Mother stressed the INNER wall measurement; yet these instructions were deliberately ignored. I write deliberately because I myself implored the powers who secured control over the project before anything was built in Auroville to respect the Mother’s wishes and execute the inner diameter 24 metres wall to wall. She stated, when the disciple wanted to add several metres to the room’s diameter: ‘It is understood that the wall must be at 24 metres’. (17.1.1970) Later he continues to insist and again the Mother stresses: ‘It is understood, the 24 metres end at the walls.’
My efforts in 1974-5 proved futile, as futile as the Mother’s in 1970. The presiding architect is known to have stated that even though it would take ‘only ten minutes’ to re-do the calculations and extend the room’s diameter to the prescribed 24, he had no intention of doing so. The reason for his ignorant obstinacy none have cared to investigate. Any sincere, knowledgeable person must readily conclude that the consciousness guiding the decisions and actions in both the Ashram and Auroville was a shadow of the true thing, a falsifier and not an upholder of Truth.
An example can be found in Appendix 3. This letter was addressed to one of Sri Aurobindo’s oldest remaining sadhaks, one who considers himself an authority on his teachings. It exposes the problem the Mother faced in not having any allies to help execute her vision. We seem to have inherited the problem as the letter reveals, compounded by her departure at the point when this help could have been given. (Unfortunately, we are unable to publish herein the sadhak’s letters, to which this is a reply, because he has withheld permission.)
Today the public is duped because it too stands under the influence of this Shadow. And naturally, given the fact that public funds are involved – a colossal seven crores, or 70 million rupees, – the truth is sought to be concealed. But the day will soon dawn when the truth will conquer because, true to the Mother’s call, there is one person who has seen along with her. The vision thus lives on.
Spinal dislocation
Let us proceed with our discussion of the Gnostic Circle geography and discover how the Mother’s original plan carries a geographical correspondence in the measurements she gave for certain essential items. In particular, we must discuss the axis of the temple mentioned above, inasmuch as it is the principal factor to reproduce faithfully in any Vedic temple. To illustrate, above is a cross-section sketch of a Hindu temple taken from George Michell’s, The Hindu Temple (University of Chicago Press, 1988). This can be of any size, bearing due respect for the correct proportions in any transposition. The important feature, as I have discussed earlier, is the shaft rising from the centremost point in the garbhagriha, the womb-house, or the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.
The Mother has carried this Vedic principle to even higher levels of truth-seeing by rendering the axis in light. She has thus materialised the Vedic symbolism of the Cow as Ray of Light, which is the dual meaning of the Sanskrit word for cow: go, gau. But it is its connection with the geography of India via the geometry of time of this new cosmology that transports the seeing beyond anything that has so far been implemented on Indian soil. For the axis of light is, by the geometry of time, equivalent to one year of 365 days, or 365 years in the equation, one day for one year, which we discover time and again in the Vedas.
I have pointed out in various publications, in particular in The New Way, Volume 2, that the geometry of time in conjunction with the diameter of the temple’s luminous globe provides us with the understanding that the globe is the totality of the subcontinental landmass by means of an application of the Laws of Correspondence or Equivalency. These laws were of utmost importance to the Vedic seers. We find this corroborated by a contemporary French scholar, Charles Malamoud. In an interview he gave to the Unesco Courier (May 1993), he comments on the Vedic emphasis on the question of ‘correspondences between the macrocosm and the microcosm’…
‘…Such correspondences exist, but it is up to humans to discover them, to become aware of them, to formulate them – and in so doing, to confirm them. Solving the Vedic riddles I referred to earlier which are one of the aspects of Brahman, involves linking similar elements from the different levels of existence. There are not just two of these, but more often three: the level of the gods, which is that of the cosmos; the level of the individual human being (body and soul); and between the two of them, the ritual level. A ritual object, a particular moment in a ceremony, is thought to have a replica or counterpart in some specific spatial or temporal element of the universe, and also in some aspect of human activity or an organ of the human body.
‘This network of correspondences is not static. The Vedic authors, particularly in the Upanishads, give much thought to finding new, more refined and complex equivalences. Several Sanskrit words convey this idea, words that mean “connection”, “link”, even “kinship”. In Vedic India the idea of correspondences is more important than the concept of causality – whereas Buddhism insists on the sequence of cause and effect…’
In keeping with this Vedic tradition, the Mother has given us measurements in the centrepiece of the chamber which do indeed contain these ‘new correspondences’ which Malamoud discusses in the above interview. Once again, it is necessary to stress, this newness carries the tradition to even greater depths of perception and understanding of the universal harmonies, provided one is equipped with a key which can clarify the ‘riddle’. This contemporary key of knowledge is the Gnostic Circle.
To illustrate, by the Law of Correspondence, we have 30 degrees of latitude and 40 degrees of longitude captured in the globe of 70cms which the Mother specified as the correct diameter of the globe. This is the spatial equivalence noted by Malamoud, and it is understood that discovering a relationship of this order is not a mental operation. One does not either create such a correspondence or discover it through the mind, but rather on the basis of that special quality of ‘felt vision’ the Mother often refers to, which in the Veda is known as sruti or ‘hearing’ the Truth, combined with ‘seeing’ – for indeed the Rishis are called ‘seers’. That is, a sensorial perception of a superior order.
The temporal relation corresponds to the Festival of Light starting with the December Solstice and culminating on January 5th, tapering off to the 9th. The 5th would be the 15th degree of Capricorn, the ‘mountaintop’. It describes the soul of India.
from: The New Way, Volume 2, pages 350-1
The Gnostic Circle is the key of knowledge to render the measurements of the chamber’s shaft of light and centrepiece applicable through their connection with the calendar via the geometry of time. To illustrate the method, we may take the globe’s 70cms diameter and apply the laws of correspondence through the Gnostic Circle and we find that while its 30 and 40 degrees refer to the 30 and 40 degrees of latitude and longitude respectively, they are also representative of the two segments of the Gnostic Circle’s superimposed circles: the circle of 12 consists of segments of 30 degrees, while the circle of 9 consists of segments of 40 degrees. Further on, we shall observe how these 30 of the space (12) circle and 40 of the time (9) circle correspond accurately to the latitude and longitude in an exercise of applied cosmology.
In addition, when laid as a yardstick around the globe, with its 0 point at Greenwich, the Gnostic Circle reveals that Capricorn starts just where the Capricorn hieroglyphic Indian landmass begins. From there the sign’s 30 degrees move into and through India, with the 15th degree of the sign as indicated in the maps shown previously, – i.e., at 76˚longitude east. With the zodiac thus laid on the globe, Capricorn begins at 60/61 East and continues eastward to the mouth of the Ganga in the Bay of Bengal; and then the Capricorn tail is carried over to encompass Burma, and from there swings back toward the central body. This hieroglyphic symbol represents a play of energy, and cannot be understood unless this is taken into account. The gunas, or energy qualities, move into the Body in this eastward triadic play. The tail, reversing at the Capricorn 0 point in Bengal and thereafter sweeping back into the central Body of the Mother, indicates an essential feature of the destiny of Bharat, not to be found in any other nation in the world: a contained triune play of energies to produce a centre that holds. This would be the Earth’s zero point, her centre, her soul.
In The Magical Carousel this attribute of Capricorn is detailed in the tenth chapter particularly via the sign’s connection to Time, and above all, simultaneous time – or the three times of an immobile centre or seed: compressed time in the core. The effulgent translucent globe of the Mother’s original vision captures the supreme essence of Capricorn in both time and space through the new cosmology’s geometry of time and cosmo-geography of space.
The spine of the Body or its Mt Meru axis is found at 15 degrees into its Capricorn form, thus at 76˚longitude. It moves vertically through the entire portion of the subcontinent, covering the prescribed 30˚of latitude from top to bottom, as indicated on page 24. The student who wishes a more detailed presentation of this configuration may consult Volume 2 of The New Way, Chapter 9. I am restating a portion of that analysis here simply to highlight the importance of executing that central axis in the Mother’s temple with extreme care inasmuch as it has this geographical correspondence with the actual Indian landmass of the Capricorn hieroglyph through the laws of correspondence and equivalence.
Indeed, having failed to execute the axis properly in the shadow-temple, it stands that in some way there has to be a reflection in the geography the axis-globe comprises – i.e., the Indian landmass. One important though tragic correspondence seems to be the recent earthquake that struck India on 30 September 1993. The area affected straddled principally parts of the state of Maharashtra, and then into Karnataka. Its intensity was such that it was felt even at Skambha.
To date seismologists are baffled by this earthquake. In their words, there is ‘no scientific explanation’ for its occurrence in that area. The epicentre was around Latur and Osmanabad in Maharashtra, a location not significant in seismological assessments of quake-prone zones on the subcontinent; in fact it is rated in the category of least probability.
I had pointed out when the ‘crystal’ was installed in the shadow-temple that due to its misalignment and emptiness, there would be repercussions in all that the globe and pedestal stand for. Particularly its geographical correspondences. One such was this very epicentre: the quake struck not on any geological fault line but rather right on the disjointed spinal column running through the body of a dismembered Mother India in terms of the Capricorn hieroglyphic relationships; and at a critical location on that column, – that is, 18 degrees down the column and 12 degrees from the tip of the ‘V’ at the bottom of the map. Both these numbers hold the key to the time-space relationships in the Mother’s chamber. 18 is the key to the vertical descending solar ray and its correspondence to certain time cycles, equivalent to longitude which is measured vertically across the globe; 12 is the horizontal base of the Mother’s 12-petalled symbol, equivalent to latitude bands, measured horizontally.
The ‘spine’ extends from what I have called the Eye of Shiva (in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir), to the tip of the subcontinent. This axis passes right through the epicentre of the recent inexplicable earthquake (the area is indicated by a circle in the map shown previously). The correspondence with the shadow-temple lies in the same axial dislocation producing a derangement of both time and space. This is the ‘fault line’ susceptible to disturbances in a landmass that is hypersensitised to these geo-cosmological rumblings.
It is to be expected that disbelievers will attribute this clear correspondence to ‘coincidence’. But the sages and seers know. The unfortunate part is that their voices are neither heard nor heeded. For the Mother herself lamented, after her efforts to have her plan implemented in the temple construction failed, that ‘…One is not going to say it! To begin with, they will not believe me.’ (17.1.1970) A year later she questioned, ‘Will it have to be the lesson of catastrophe?’
The perversity of ‘goodwill’
Listening to the taped recordings of the Mother’s discussion on the Matrimandir with the disciple, Satprem, is a profoundly disheartening experience, for it reveals the inability of the human being to follow the Mother in her seeing and to offer the least resistances possible to the fulfilment of her will. Indeed, what is evident as we listen is that from the beginning there was no desire at all on the part of any of the dramatis personae to serve as channels for the implementation of her vision. From the outset the disciple, for one, reveals that his sole interest is to secure the Mother’s approval for his protege’s vision in place of hers. This is quite apparent if one listens to the entire sequence of the recordings – those made public, that is – from 31.12.1969 to 17.1.1970.
I would like to close this portion of our study with a brief summary and analysis of the contents of those recordings for readers who do not have the tapes, and also as a guide for those who do. (The complete transcripts are included in TVNs 1/5 and 1/6.)
31.12.1969: In this conversation the Mother makes it clear that she has not seen the temple as yet. She has an idea based on a preliminary ‘seeing’, this is clear, since she describes the chamber in this session with the disciple very close to what she did come to see, perhaps within hours of their meeting. Rather than provide us with the details we seek to reconstruct her vision accurately, this discussion centres mostly on the problems with the official architect in charge of the entire project and his reluctance to start with the centre of the township, the temple. His preference, according to the Mother, is to build the city first and then the centre.
But the most important feature of this session is the disciple’s presentation of his protege’s ideas. He tells the Mother about Paolo Tommasi’s ‘inspiration’ as to what needs to be done and reads out PT’s letter to her. The gist is that the centre should be built first and only after that the city. In addition, he emphasises that this ‘unification’ around the centre’ will help to bring down the vision.
The extremely interesting part to note is his repeated reference to an axis, a centre, which he feels should serve to gather the dispersed energies in Auroville for the positive completion of that task at hand. Given the role that these two played subsequently, precisely in the destruction of that (occult) axis and centre the Mother so meticulously arranged for her temple, this recording takes on historical importance and is a document of immense value, for it casts light on the difficulty a ‘sincere goodwill’ poses when not accompanied by a sincere yoga.
The important part to focus on in this tape is the insistence on PT’s vision and ideas because subsequent developments will reveal that throughout the entire exercise, spanning 18 days, he clings tenaciously to his part in the affair, his instrumentation, even after the Mother had informed them all that she had SEEN, that she no longer needed them for the purpose.
But even as early as this discussion the objective listener can easily appreciate that the Mother intuited the essential lines of the chamber and was only waiting for that decisive experience to come which would both confirm her intuition as well as provide the missing and essential details of the chamber. Indeed, immediately after this first session with Satprem, she did receive that confirmation. This came through the ‘felt vision’, or the actual discovery on the subtle plane of that chamber. She entered the temple in the subtle physical, saw, and thereafter recorded what she saw. At that point, she did not need anyone to help ‘bring down the vision’, and she stated this quite emphatically though fruitlessly.
3.1.1970: The disciple informs the Mother that PT waits outside her room to see her. The Mother begins enthusiastically to tell Satprem, before seeing PT, of her experience, that she has now SEEN. She tells the disciple in minute detail what she ‘saw’, ‘lived’. He suggests that she should tell PT rather than him, but the Mother prefers to talk to Satprem about it, until she has the plans drawn up.
After describing the experience of seeing in full, she declares: ‘I have had the vision of that room, so I do not need anyone to see what that should be: I KNOW. And an engineer is needed rather than an architect, because an architect…It has to be as simple as possible.’
The disciple then relates that he transmitted everything the Mother had told him (31.12.1969) about the ‘large empty room’ and how touched PT was by this idea, that it coincided with his – this emptiness. The Mother makes it clear that she would rather have the plans in hand before seeing PT, but agrees to see him nonetheless since he is waiting.
When PT enters she again describes her vision but begins by stating straight-away that… ‘I have seen the interior’, and that in a few days she will have the plans and drawings because…‘the exterior, I do not know at all, but the inside I KNOW’.
Then begins another long, detailed description of every aspect of her vision, remarking from time to time that she will soon have the plans. PT appears to listen intently. She ends by stating again. ‘…So, as soon as my papers (plans) are ready, I will call you to show you.’
After PT leaves the room the Mother again broaches the subject of the harmony (or disharmony) between the competing architects, Roger Anger and PT, and how she would prefer to have PT present to handle building the centre [after all, he seemed so enthusiastic] while RA is absent, and when he returns and works on the township PT should be absent, and so on. But again she stresses her preference for an engineer, ‘…It is for this reason that I am going to have these sketches to show him (PT), done by an engineer, because it is not an architect’s job, it is a job for an engineer…very precise…very precise.’ And then regarding the importance of the right calculations, she states, ‘That is what is important, the Sun’s play on the centre (the globe). Because that becomes the symbol – the symbol of the future realisation.’
To note in this portion is the repeated insistence that she wants an engineer not an architect, and that she will soon have the plans to show. In other words, she comes across in this tape as fully sure of her vision and her ability to get precise plans done by the engineer. At which point, with plans in hand, they can proceed to execute them. Time and again, to both Satprem and PT, she declares: I HAVE SEEN, I do not need anyone.
10.1.1970: Satprem begins by telling the Mother he has a letter for her from PT. The Mother interjects, saying she plans to meet PT in the afternoon. Then she informs the disciple that she has the plans of the chamber. She has him unroll them and begins a long explanation of each and every detail. It is clear that everything has been meticulously worked out by her with the engineer.
Referring continuously to the plans, she discusses the centre of the room, her horizontal symbol, Sri Aurobindo’s four symbols forming a square upholding a translucent globe (‘…as yet we do not know what material’).
Then the Mother, discusses the entry as a descent under the walls and into the room from below, with these memorable words, ‘…It is another symbol. Everything is symbolic.’
She explains that Sri Aurobindo’s symbols are to be carved in stone of an orange-gold colour, the only colour in the room, and again ‘…A globe that is not transparent but translucent’.
When she finishes, Satprem reads PT’s letter. It is necessary to reproduce his letter in full because more than anything else in this sordid display of ignorance and self-importance, this letter reveals the precise nature of the difficulties the Mother faced in having her vision executed. To appreciate in full the nature of the intransigent obstinacy, it must be recalled that just a week earlier PT met the Mother and she told him she had seen, she would give him the plans, she now did not need anyone, and she did not want an architect, only an engineer. Nevertheless, he wrote,
‘Very sweet Mother, ‘I saw R [the official architect] Sunday, he came to my room, we had lunch together. With love, I arranged for you and R some very beautiful flowers. You, you were with us. We spoke a lot. I felt R like a brother. ‘I told him that Auroville cannot be born like any other city (urban problems, social, economic, all that: later). The beginning must be ‘something else’. For that reason we should start with the Centre. This Centre must be our lever, our fixed point, the thing on which we can steady ourselves to leap to the other side – because it is only from the other side that one can begin to understand what Auroville should be. And this Centre should be the form which manifests in matter the content which You can transmit to us on all the planes (even the occult). We, we should be simply the open and sincere mediums through whom you can make that concrete. ‘And I told him how I felt the need to approach all that by living the experience internally, all united – people from the orient and the occident – in a vast movement of love, because it is the only cement possible to build ‘something else’. ‘And the Centre can give us that love immediately because it is love for You! ‘I told him that, practically, we can begin by a moment of silence, all gathered together, and try to make a total blank, and on that blank, with the aspiration of everyone, make the signs for the beginning descent. But all united and all together, especially those who are spiritually more advanced, the Indians. ‘R was in full agreement. He said really we must do that.’
The Mother’s immediate response to his letter was revealing: ‘I am seeing P this afternoon and I will give him the plans. Because this is what I have seen.’ Then she does not dwell on his desire to unite and call down the ‘signs’ of what should be, she returns again to the details: white marble, where to get it, Sri Aurobindo’s symbols…and the translucent globe.
Most important, she specifies the correct diameter of the globe: 70cms, asking the disciple to confirm this in the plans. He does. Then the entry by descent and ascent into the room is emphasized and the fact that to gain access to the chamber certain conditions would have to be met (‘…It must be somewhat initiatic.’)
17.1.1970: The disciple begins by presenting the ideas of PT and her Italian secretary, Nata, regarding the outer shape of the building. The Mother comments that she is open to suggestions since she only saw the inside. (The implication being that the interior is her creation, her domain, not the architects’.)
But from this discussion on the outer form the talk spins off to every item of her plan, until by the end of a long and gruelling attempt to defend the elements of her vision which had been systematically attacked, we realise that the Mother was in the presence of obstinate ignorance in the guise of ‘love’ and ‘goodwill’.
For example, the twelve columns are attacked as being ‘another symbol of the old creation’ (PT’s words). If it was necessary to have them for a ‘symbolic’ representation (after all the Mother had said, everything was symbolic), then one could put 12 blocks, or backrests about 50cms high. To this nonsense the Mother replies, ‘That has no meaning.’ A symbolic meaning?, the disciple questions ‘…because you spoke of the pillars as backrests.’ She insists she saw pillars. He insists that something could be put in their place as ‘symbols’. She keeps on insisting. He retorts. And on and on it goes.
The recording of much of this was not kept, only the transcripts which appear in The Mother’s Agenda, Volume 11 (1970). Reading these transcripts, it is pathetic to discover that even with the precise plans in hand, her disciples and devotees saw fit to dismantle her vision bit by bit. Nothing was sacred.
Midway through this gruelling exercise, Satprem even makes this astounding remark about PT’s ‘plan’ of the room which he brought to the Mother: ‘But when Paolo showed me his plan, I had the impression of something very beautiful …I will tell you what I felt. I felt: I am assisting at the birth of Auroville.’
The Mother wastes no time. She replies: ‘It is not true.’
Satprem insists: ‘The material birth, I mean.’
Again the Mother is emphatic: ‘Yes, yes, I understand well, but it is not true.’ After this, according to the transcripts, she enters into a long concentration.
The recording commences again, after these pages and pages of the Mother’s futile attempts to protect her SEEING, when finally she states:
‘You know, I do not believe in external decisions. Quite simply, I believe in only one thing: the force of Consciousness which makes a Pressure…And the Pressure goes on augmenting.’
She then explains that she cannot move about to oversee things as she used to, – in other words, to make sure things get done as she wants. Therefore she relies on the ‘pressure of the Consciousness’, … ‘All the rest, those are things men do; they do them more or less well, and then it lives, and then it dies, and then it changes and then it is deformed, and then – that is what they do…’.
Finally the discussion concludes with these words, ‘So, since there are not many who can understand, I saynothing: I watch and I wait. I LOOK…Someone gives me a paper like you have just done when you gave me that drawing [PT’s plan of the temple], I look, like that, and I see very well what in that paper comes from above, and what is a mixture and what is… Like that. But one cannot say it! – to begin, they would not believe me.’
After a moment of silence, the Mother interestingly begins discussing the terminology Sri Aurobindo used to describe the new species he envisioned, which would replace ‘the old man’. She comments that she understands why he called it ‘supramental’ and not superman. In other words, she realised she was faced with precisely that aberration: the exaltation of ‘man’, the ego of the instrument, and the deranged mental approach which has brought so much calamity to the world.
What becomes evident at the end of this disturbing exercise is that at no point along the way did the Mother enjoy the collaboration of instruments ready to execute HER vision. The transcripts and recordings reveal an obsession with their own ideas, to the point that we are justified in asking whether they even heard the Mother.
In this context, it may be of interest to report that in late 1974 or early 1975, when the first wave of opposition to the architects arose before construction of the room had reached the point of no return, I invited PT to describe his experience with the Mother to me. Since the points in question were salvation of a few important items, particularly the 24-metre inner wall room diameter, entry from below, and the twelve columns, I wanted to solicit his help and to know what it was like to have heard the Mother describe her vision immediately after it had occurred. He explained how ‘charged’ her room was, how extraordinary the experience was to listen to her.
Naturally I then asked how it was that he came back to her with all the above changes (‘…columns are another symbol of the old creation’) when her description to him had been so remarkable, so powerful. He had no reply.
The conclusion must be that these were representative instruments sent to implement a vision, but certainly not the Mother’s; that their obstinacy was total and that the Mother, given her age (92) and frailty and inability to oversee the construction herself, could not pretend to emerge victorious from this 18-day Kurukshetra battle, which closed on that most significant date, 17 January. Thus she concluded with these words ‘…But one is not going to say it. To begin, they would not believe me.’
What now stands in Auroville is not merely a ‘mixture’. It is the representation of what the Mother did not care to elaborate upon then: the contours in every detail of the Titan’s Consciousness, the shadow of the Gnostic Light, the perversion of Sri Aurobindo’s truth and the objective of his mission. Lamentably, what was recorded during those fateful 18 days was the description of the binary creation with all its flaws and ‘goodwill’. Indeed, the Mother’s ‘helpers’ displayed one of the principal characteristics of the Titanic Consciousness: self-important ego of the instrument. None heard her because they were too full of themselves.
Another reason for this scrutiny of the Titanic response to the Light is that it forms an introduction to the next part of this study in which we shall analyse the limitations of the Supramental Shakti in dealing with human aberrations, even when it means the destruction of her own creation. We shall delve into this question of ‘pressure’ which the Mother refers to, in her view the only means to get the right thing done. What, then, is the nature of that special power she referred to? Has it been in evidence?
It is clear that given her age and physical condition, the Mother could not deal with her entourage as she might have done in her younger days. She relied heavily on that ‘consciousness exerting a pressure’. But in this case it would appear as if nothing had been accomplished, inasmuch as the shadow-temple has come up and appears to be an everlasting ‘symbol’ of the old creation, in the Mother’s own name. In other words, a travesty of her truth. But the Divine Strategy has been revealed in the course of the years following the Mother’s passing, though its confirmation has often been through negative and disturbing happenings. At this point there is one thing that stands beyond all doubt. Seekers are given a choice: this or that. It is an important feature of the divine Strategy in that the next stage for humanity is characterised by a conscious choice. For this there must be a clear understanding of what our options are. We cannot be expected to choose between this and that unless we know the contours of both the Titanic and the Vedic Consciousness. Hence, this exercise, unpleasant as it may be for seekers, especially those who consider that ‘spirituality’ be tainted by ‘controversy’ (and there are many in this old mindset), has been a necessary and all-important part of our study. From here, having dissected the Shadow in all thoroughness, we shall move on to the Light, to a discussion of the means at the Mother’s disposal to bring about the establishment of her Truth in the world. For this to happen the sincere seeker must be armed with a fine discrimination so that the shadow is not mistaken for that Light.
Several thousand years ago science and astrology (or alchemy) were one. The sage was the scientist, the astrologer the astronomer. When the split occurred in the Dark Age it was the signal that the world was being prepared for a gigantic leap forward. At that point, as a reaction to this severance which threatened the foundations of the old world, a reaction sprung up in the form of organised belief – i.e. dogma. It was an imposition of a crystallised seeing, a freezing as it were of perception. This was an interim necessity, a means of holding civilisation together, so to speak, because the split brought about a collapse of the old, without introducing the new. The effect was a polarisation still in place today. We have religion and matters of the spirit on one end of the pole; and material pursuits and science on the other. The chasm between the two has deepened to the point where a harmony and integration seem impossible.Simultaneously, beliefs have hardened and their imposition has even been forced on non-believers. Everything has become compact and mentalised. Today we view the ancient integration with mistrust. We call it superstition, ignorance, backwardness. The result is a world that has lost its sense of purpose. We cannot agree upon a meaning to our existence which would satisfy both positions – material and spiritual.But a split of this nature is simply a clue to the impending expansion of human awareness. The ‘new order’ we seek is not political or economic. It is not even spiritual. The new order is precisely a new integration, a new harmony. A reconciliation of the two extremes.We cannot retreat into the past insofar as the boundaries of our awareness individually and collectively have been expanded due to the compulsions of the Time-Spirit. This expansion is mirrored in the expansion of the solar system from 6 to 9 planets. It would be inconceivable to return to the old system once we have seen the 9. Similarly we cannot return to the ancient traditions and expect them to be the solution. Firstly because we do not know the true nature of those traditions; and secondly because they would not be able to accommodate this new expansion. When divisiveness set in and spirit and matter were seen as antagonists, it was the signal that the time had come for a new way, a new world order of integration and harmony. The underlying impulsion for this process is Time. What the zodiac does is simply to provide a map of this process in such a way as to be universally applicable by means of the calendar which provides us with the sacred measure of the Year.Another indication, therefore, that we are approaching the point of reconciliation, of integration and harmony, is precisely the fact that the present system of time reckoning is universal. This indeed is the salient clue our Age provides. And an interesting factor in dealing with Time is that it cannot be arrested or reversed. We can only move forward.To do so in a creative and not destructive manner, we must seek to expand our awareness in proportion to the expanded measure of our solar system. This expansion is a question of higher octaves, higher potentials of human awareness being allowed to manifest by providing a fertile terrain in which this new seed may flower…(PNB, an unpublished note dated 1 February 1997)
I am presenting this note from 1997 for your consideration because it introduces a theme of great significance in this updating series, perhaps the most important of all. It is the discovery of the new triad of planets beyond Saturn. In Update 19, I stated that Saturn either bars the aspirant’s entry into the final quarter of the Circle, or else it facilitates passage: the choice is ours as to how we will relate to the sixth planet in the course of our journey to self-perfection.In the old school of astrology Saturn stands for destiny and, by consequence, for karma – as it has come to be understood after passage through a dark age. In the new, the 6th position of Saturn is exactly what it is seen to be (in the solar system): Guardian at the gate either to a beyond, or to the experience of an ‘extension of the boundaries’ by a further triad of planets, permitting the manifestation of higher potentials. Until the discovery of the new triad there was actually nothing to ‘enter’ into! The diagram below makes the position clear. Most significant of all, as the following discussion will reveal, is that the ‘extension’ could not be seen or integrated as a part of the cosmic harmony until the measure was an addition of 3; this will be proven by the triadic harmony itself.
(click to enlarge)
The first wheel (A) consists of the 12 signs of the zodiac; the Sun and planets are entered on the circle’s periphery according to their true orbital positions in the solar system, 0 (Sun) to 9 (Pluto). In the next (B), we have the same circle divided into four quarters. Saturn’s location is in the third quarter which begins with Libra and extends to Capricorn. This is where we find Scorpio, the sign of Death. For the Initiate-Warrior it was the most dangerous passage of the Journey. Sri Aurobindo has noted the difficulty in the following passages:
‘The expression in the hymns, daso maso ataran, indicates that there was some difficulty in getting through the full period of ten months. It is during this period apparently that the sons of darkness had the power to assail the sacrifice; for it is indicated that it is only by the confirming of the thought which conquers Swar, the solar world, that the Rishis are able to get through the ten months…’(The Secret of the Veda) From the perspective of Myth this 8th stage is Aditi’s 8th son, Martanda, progenitor of our mortal race. And yet the Rishis posited the victory in the tenth month, in Capricorn, two stages further on. Nothing is indicated by this arrangement that the Journey ends in death as we experience it – unless, of course, we follow the lead of religions and spiritual paths for which this third quarter is the final one on Earth. For them the remainder of the Circle is experienced in the Beyond, however it may be identified in these belief systems. But is this the final word?As the introductory note highlights, the situation for our evolving species has been altered considerably with the discovery of the new triad of planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.1 Interestingly, given the fixation on the Beyond and the ‘illusion’ of material creation, this emphasis is reflected in the current perception of cosmic harmonies in India where we find a disconnect due to the adoption of the Nirayana system. To compound matters, astrologers in India refuse to incorporate the new triad in their horoscopy. For them the system remains what it was in the Middle Ages, the Sun plus 6. If anything, this refusal to grasp the significance of the system’s expansion by another triad is the clearest example of the wrong turn cosmology took in the Piscean Age: the new discoveries began in that Age with first Uranus (1781), and then Neptune (1846); the process of expansion was finally carried over into our Age with the discovery of Pluto (1930). They are the indicators of the stages opened before the species, making those ‘worlds’ a part of the process to be experienced on Earth, in a physical body, and not in a Beyond. The last quarter is now ours to discover.Admittedly, it is difficult to relinquish a system that had worked so well for so long to provide a sense of order for society, especially when the new discoveries were made straddling three centuries. Finally, when the new Age set in (1926), Pluto completed the process. It then was time to incorporate the triad into the cosmic harmony. In this Update I will highlight the need to do so now, failing which India cannot utilise the most important feature of the Dharma: its renewal mechanism.The system was a measure of 6 when the Earth was passing through the Dark Age. Human consciousness had never been so severely closed in the prison of Ignorance as then. But for our purposes this is the best proof we have of the accuracy of the Vedic Vision because that negation too was accounted for. However, this would not be apparent without the present updating; and, more precisely, without the remarkable pattern the latest planetary discoveries provide. In revealing the pattern, first presented in The Gnostic Circle in 1974, this updating will allow students of Puranic Cosmology to understand the need to incorporate the new triad insofar as it indicates the stage of evolution we are embarking on in this Aquarian Age. If we close our minds to these new revelations, we do indeed become imprisoned in a cage of ignorance and superstition because the new triad opens up a quarter of the Circle that was believed to be an experience after death. What this opening reveals is that the quarter designated as ‘swar’, given the evolutionary leap we are experiencing is not ‘heaven’ in another dimension but rather the victory sign of the Vedic Age which is now being opened to an extended human experience. In other words, the entire last quarter of three signs has been integrated and brought into the Journey as a consciously-lived process for all humanity; it is no longer a void, no longer reserved for an elite. And certainly the changes in the world over the last three centuries testify to the relevance and validity of the enhanced measure.The following diagram makes the ‘location’ of Swar clear, beyond the third quarter and Scorpio, where the Initiate must conquer Death in full awareness in order to continue the Journey. That last quarter was closed to human experience and could be reached only after death – the unconscious sleep leading to an equally unconscious rebirth.
The cosmic Birth (Update 18) and the nature of the Child that is the product of this unique gestational process spanning thousands of years, is described by the new triad. I reproduce below the pattern from The Gnostic Circle2 which reveals that when the old order is to be surpassed, it will be arranged in such a way that no room is left for speculation, because in the spirit of true science the theory is supported by facts corroborating the original premise from different angles. There can be no doubt that the time has come to ‘extend the boundaries’, for this new addition indicates the enhancement in perception that Supermind is adding to the evolutionary experience in this 9th Manifestation, opening the quarter beyond the Mental. In our recorded history, this would be the first time such an integration of the four levels of existence had been achieved.
(click to enlarge) From The Gnostic Circle, Chapter 12, ‘The New Planets, the Significance of their Discovery and the Calendar Years,’ Aeon Books, 1975
Here is the arrangement. First the planets/numbers are given of the new orbits in descending order, 9, 8, and 7, followed by the years of their discovery with the centuries again highlighting 9, 8, and 7. In the last column we find the position of the planets in the tropical zodiac at the time of their discovery to again highlight 9, 8, 7 – results arrived at through the Mathematics of Unity (as in 1+8=9). Several elements are emphasized in this discovery. To begin, there is the importance of the Mathematics of Unity as a fundamental part of the manifestation of the Supermind.3 Next is the combination of the orbit numbers of lower and higher octaves (4/1/8). Without these elements the discovery of the harmony could not have occurred and this remarkable display of the Supermind’s controlling action could not have been deciphered. None of the discoveries would have made harmonic sense unless the ‘chord’ struck consisted of three ‘notes’ (planets); but no sooner had we entered the new Age than the final ‘note’ was added. The result is this superb Music of the Spheres we are now able to ‘hear’ – the voice of the Supreme in the harmonics of the new Age of Supermind.The orbit numbers surface in the reduction of the years of discovery through the Mathematics of Unity; and also amazingly in relation to the lower and higher octave orbits combined, through the same simple mathematical reduction formula. So as to leave no doubt regarding the validity of the new cosmology, the emphasis is on the relationship between LOWER OCTAVES and HIGHER. That is the issue to be highlighted. These are added thus: Pluto (9) is the higher octave of Mars (4) together equalling 13 = 4; Neptune (8) combines with its lower octave Venus (2) equalling 10 = 1; Uranus (7) is the higher octave of Mercury (1) – together equalling 8. To perceive the cosmic harmony complicated mathematics only serve to complicate the issue! Because then the beauty of Oneness and Unity is lost.What is revealed in this unusual pattern is the relationship of the new planets as higher octaves to their lower octave counterparts. It is an important discovery confirming the functioning of Supermind in this new Age because many astrologers in the West, while incorporating the new triad have misunderstood this aspect when seeking to insert the new planets into the zodiac by rulership, following the tradition. For example, they believe that Pluto is co-ruler of Scorpio, ruled by Mars in the old school. That is, they seek to fit the cosmic language of Supermind, of which the triadic pattern is a prime example, into the old system; whereas the new cosmology is indeed new, and the Gnostic Circle is Supermind’s updated astrology for the Aquarian Age.Thus, in the new harmony Pluto is not related to Scorpio but to Capricorn, because that is where Mars is exalted, and Pluto is the higher octave of Mars in its Capricorn location of exaltation.4 The same for the other two: Neptune is the higher octave of Venus and therefore correctly seen in relation to Pisces where Venus is exalted. Mercury is exalted in Aquarius with Uranus as its higher octave, therefore related to Aquarius. This discovery provides proof of one of the basic premises of astrology: the perception of the exaltation of planets in particular signs. It is as if this new revelation had been ‘arranged’ by the Supramental Shakti to convey the correct position and eliminate speculation, guessing and approximation, while ever validating the Tradition. Again, we are simply updating the system but this time with the integrating power of Supermind.The exaltations of planets has been a firm part of Indian cosmology for as long as we have memory. As an example, there is the Jupiter Temple in Tamil Nadu where the deity is known as Dakshinamurthy – the Lord of the South. Why the South? The astrological exaltation of planets provides the answer: Jupiter is EXALTED IN CANCER, the south Cardinal Pole. This reveals the importance of the astrology practiced throughout the world, but especially preserved in India in her temple culture. It is just a question of ‘extending the boundary’.I will conclude this Update with another example from temple architecture of the Age of Pisces – that is, before the higher octave of Mars had been incorporated into the system of cosmic harmonies. Nonetheless, the example is pertinent because it involves exaltations similar to the Jupiter Temple in Tamil Nadu, but this time it involves the Sun. The Mars factor enters by way of the sign it rules, Aries, where the Sun is in exaltation. I refer to the 13th century Sun Temple at Konarak in Orissa.This temple is famous for its voluptuous erotic sculptures, all of which adorn the exterior walls of the structure. It is an unusual temple because it is in the form of a chariot, replete with symbolism taken from the mythic description of the Sun’s chariot. The outer form displays a particular aspect of Mars, eroticism; consequently, Mars also rules Scorpio which refers to sex, death and regeneration, among other things. At Konarak the sign involved is Aries, however, because not only is the eroticism of Mars on display, but the Sun being in exaltation in Aries has also been conceptualised in this unusual temple. The variations can be many provided there is an underlying order and cosmic sense. This is provided by the zodiac.The erotic sculptures have disturbed some visitors, and enthralled others, while causing embarrassment to many Indians who have been influenced by England of the Victorian period. How can such displays be permitted in what is held to be a sacred precinct? (Naturally this has given Christian missionaries grist for the mill!)In the Konarak Temple we find an explicit message: all depictions of eroticism – the Mars factor – are carved on the outer symbol-forms of the chariot. But the inside is bare and that is where the sanctum sanctorum is found, the abode of the Sun God whose exaltation is the first sign of the zodiac, Aries, ruled by Mars. The two, Sun and Mars, are the basic ingredients of this temple; and the chariot form leaves no doubt as to its Vedic foundation because the Journey begins in this sign/month of the sacrificial year, Aries – or Agni of the sacred Fire, leader of the hosts and whose vahana is, precisely, the Ram. In Puranic iconography he is depicted with two heads, one turned to the left, the other to the right, indicating both movements: the Vedic months to one side counterclockwise; the clockwise movement in years of the precession to the other.Eroticism has a legitimate place in the outer circle of life. But when the Initiate enters the innermost circle, those tendencies fall away and there he or she stands as if nude before the innermost deity in the sanctum sanctorum of the heart, in this case the Sun God Surya himself. Having shed the gross, in that condition of pure solar substance, the Journey can then begin.
…We stand on the brink of destruction or creation simply because we will not allow the new world order to establish itself due to dogmas which prevent the new way from organising our world. Our political systems are ‘protected’ – and rightfully so – from any intrusion by those dogmatic forces. In the process we have created a new dogma in the form of secularism and its demands of total exclusion of the sacred from our collective organisations of life. This has been a necessity because the dogmas imposed by religious minds are attempts at freezing time and by consequence they serve as encumbrances which burden us with dead weight in order to arrest the march forward into the new. It is because of this that religions are under such pressure of late. No religion in the world is free from the pressure to relax their hold on the faithful by an acceptance of the change the Time-Spirit is introducing. But time cannot be arrested. The seed planted will flower. The destruction we witness is simply the measure of our resistance to change in the dimension which determines the forms thrown up by these deeper impulsions – the dimension of pure consciousness which is the field of Time. (Ibid.)
‘O soul of India, hide thyself no longer with the darkened Pandits of the Kaliyuga in the kitchen and the chapel, veil not thyself with the soulless rite, the obsolete law and the unblessed money of the Dakshina, but seek in thy soul, ask of God and recover thy true Brahminhood and Kshatriyahood with the eternal Veda; restore the hidden truth of the Vedic sacrifice, return to the fulfilment of an older and mightier Vedanta.’
Sri Aurobindo Thoughts and Aphorisms
We begin this portion of the essay with a recapitulation. For this purpose, I shall present a diagram which incorporates in one design everything discussed so far. Indeed, in so doing an important service is rendered to the cause of higher knowledge by highlighting its distinguishing features. Employing just one geometric form to draw together all the elements so far analysed is the most effective means of describing the unitary, integrated perceptive capacity. This act will be engaged in throughout the remainder of our study in caste and cosmos. The very fact that a single design is capable of incorporating numerous dimensions and planes, related both to the individual and society as a whole, reveals a salient feature of the new consciousness seeking to become established on Earth: the experience of Oneness. Central to the perception lies Time. In this portion of the study, I will describe the manner in which the process of integration is carried out almost exclusively on the basis of a gnostic vision and utilisation of Time. Vast cycles are connected to the smaller, always through the same diagram. And these are rooted in the consciousness of the human being via his or her individualised ‘measure’: the Earth Year.
In the diagram (below) I have incorporated several major divisions of the circle which draw together various apparently separate branches of Knowledge, the relatedness of which may not be fully appreciated without this visual aid. The main division is fourfold. Each section combines various elements of our analysis. For example, the first of the four segments refers to caste (Shudra), and time via the first quarter of the zodiacal year, the sign/months Aries, Taurus and Gemini, or April, May and June, starting with the March Equinox. In addition there is Twashtri’s ‘Bowl’ of the ancient Vedic school in which the fourfold division refers to planes of consciousness and parts of the being, in this case the Physical. But Twashtri’s Bowl does not restrict itself to the human being. It refers to the subtle dimensions as well and the ‘being’ of a civilisation or a society. Consequently, it is intrinsically connected to caste. Each caste has an affinity with one of the subtle planes of consciousness-being which this ‘Bowl’, or the celestial sphere, describes. As the study progresses, we shall locate these divisions in the greater harmony, in the workings of evolution itself and in the movement of the Cosmic Ages. In the process, I am confident that a new perception of the destiny of India will emerge, an offshoot of which is a radically different concept of nationalism, for the latter too has its roots in the cosmic harmony.
The Uniqueness of Indian Nationalism
India is the centre of the new Aquarian Age. Given that Aquarius is a sign of Preservation or Fixed energy flow, it is the Sattwa period designated for the appearance of one of the ten Avatars in Hindu tradition. But being a ‘centre’, and the only centre of the Age, a heavy burden is cast upon India, one that sets it apart from the comity of nations. Indeed, at the heart of the matter lies precisely the question of nationhood. What, exactly, is meant by a nation; and in this special case, a nation whose destiny lies in being the ‘centre’ of the 9th Manifestation’s Age of Aquarius?
The definition is very precise and unequivocal, albeit somewhat obscure for the layman not versed in the specifics of the new cosmology. For it involves the question of cosmos, and by consequence the definition of ‘centre’ itself. The Indian nation is not merely a landmass, sacred through it may be as revealed by the application of the Capricorn hieroglyph, or tradition’s hallowed ‘Name of God’, on this landmass. It is the physical-consciousness manifestation on Earth of a new cosmos. This, succinctly, is the description of the Indian ‘nation’: a cosmic body. Insofar as the Divine Mother is that very Cosmic Body of the Brahman, we aptly refer to this landmass as Bharatmata, or Mother India. Thus, the nation is far more than the land enclosed within its borders. It is a creation on Earth of the Cosmic Truth; or, more precisely, it is a portion of the Earth upon and through which that Truth is given physical/consciousness expression. To understand this singular type of ‘nation’ demands therefore that we discover the nature of that Cosmic Truth itself. In other words, the nationhood of India is described in and by the cosmic harmonies. Inasmuch as this also describes the foundations of Hindu Dharma, it stands that as we unravel the mysteries of India’s nationhood, we also reveal the intricacies of Hindu Dharma, and vice-versa.
The heavy burden of such a destiny is obvious, for the world is not an image as yet of that high Truth. The presiding powers are agents of the Cosmic Ignorance. It is India’s destiny therefore to work out this cosmic ‘knot’ for the world, which alone can permit light to replace darkness. Thus, a true and uncontaminated concept of Indian nationalism is obliged to incorporate an appreciation of this service to be rendered, the effects of which extend far beyond the nation’s borders.
When this cosmic foundation of the Indian nation is disregarded or unknown, the result is varying degrees of chauvinism. For India, and India alone, the dividing line between the two may be thin – but, at the same time, there is a great chasm separating one poise from the other. Chauvinism, within the Indian context, is nationalism which ignores the nation’s cosmic character. It seeks to cage the national soul in the boundaries of the separative, divisive consciousness. To provide a practical example, the soul of the nation is its COSMIC substance as described in the Capricorn symbol-map of the subcontinent. The area the symbol delineates is thus the true nation. These would be or should be its borders in the higher vision of its cosmic destiny as the Centre of the 9th Manifestation.
If higher knowledge is employed in the determination of such essential issues, it is evident that the partitioned condition of Bharatmata exposes the fact that this cosmic truth was unknown at the time Pakistan was sliced out of the landmass and organised into a separate state and Bengal became divided. Similarly, Sri Lanka, Burma, and since 1971 Bangladesh, all stand as aberrations or denials of that Cosmic Truth. To have attempted to stand, integrated and whole, as a landmass united to form the Capricorn hieroglyph at the time of Independence would have meant a conscious espousal of these guidelines. Or a nationalism not tinged with ignorance as was the case in 1947. Had the nation been in a position to listen to and follow the indications Sri Aurobindo was giving from the early days of the freedom movement, the 9th Evolutionary Avatar would have been able to guide the people of India to the fulfilment of that cosmic destiny, swiftly and benignly. That is, the organisation on Earth of the Centre of the Age and the direct representative of the Cosmic Truth in the comity of nations – an element which is lacking at present. Insofar as no other nation can occupy that centre, the position stands as a void. In that ‘black hole’, energies are compressed which demand now to be released.
The totality of prevailing conditions did not permit this guidance. The result was Partition. The ‘nation’ that emerged stood as representative on Earth not of that unifying Cosmic Truth but of the Cosmic Ignorance. Indeed, the very power which has been in command of the evolutionary process for many millennia and which is sought to be vanquished.
The Vedic Dharma describes the mechanism by which the Cosmic Truth is manifested on Earth. The truncated nation we know today as India presents the world with a denial of the purest, highest expression of that Truth. The Indian ‘nation’ is simply the lived embodiment of that Dharma. That this has been denied and combated, in the effort to uphold a confused brand of secularism, is also evident in the dismembered condition of the symbol-map; while the ‘nationalism’ which seeks to take hold of the people of India in this last ennead of the millennium is simply the perception of the nation as a sacred landmass, embodying for the Earth that cosmic Truth or Hindu Dharma.
When this cosmic purpose is lost sight of, the result is chauvinism which in the Indian context is nationalism divorced from the enlightenment this Cosmic Truth provides. Thus, to awaken true nationalism in the hearts and minds of the people of India signifies that we must simultaneously unveil India’s cosmic purpose; and this in turn implies that the Vedic Dharma is revealed as the foundation of that nationalism. Since this was not the case during the freedom struggle, in the fullest terms which it is now possible to do, the result was a nationalism coloured by concepts which stood in stark opposition to the fundaments of the soul of the nation. The outcome was Partition, and since then a gradual disintegration not only of the nation’s body but also of its collective will.
The answer is therefore only one: an awakening of true nationalism which is the unveiling of the nation’s soul whose essence is the Cosmic Truth, and which, in turn, forms the indisputable foundations of the Hindu Dharma. While we continue to deny or oppose these facts, we postpone the act of integration and in the meantime we continue to suffer the anguish of diseases which have set into the body of the nation due to this denial and for which we have no cure.
Religion is not involved in this process in any way. The Cosmic Truth that is the Vedic Dharma is akin to an umbrella under which all expressions of life may take shelter. It is a synthesising, integrating agent – NOT a unity of religions but revealing a superior reality beyond religions, towards which the world as a whole is rapidly moving – a reality which stands well above organised religions of whatever brand. Partition, signifying the denial of India’s cosmic Purpose, drew into the nation’s destiny a lesser struggle for which it was ill prepared. Indeed, for which the contaminated condition of its collective consciousness had no effective means to combat or counteract. Partition, and everything that led up to it over the centuries, thrust before the nation the ugliness of the religious consciousness, a totally alien concept which came into the body of Bharatmata through a series of invasions and foreign conquests. India today continues to grapple with this alien concept. Yet lamentably the tools it uses to do so are themselves products of those alien concepts, – impotent in the extreme as elements for the unveiling of the true spirit and soul of the nation. That the intelligentsia of the country believes these concepts to be the only ones which can arrest the impending slide into a further partition and a complete disintegration of the collective will, is the measure of the success of those foreign conquests. India is thus still a prisoner of ‘foreign rule’, the meaning of which is ideologies, concepts, formulas, programmes which fail to take into account the nation’s cosmic essence and hence the true quality of the Vedic Dharma and its central place in the formation of the new India. If Islam and Christianity were the avenues for those alien concepts to take root in the consciousness-soil of Bharatmata, the method to the madness was not that they be integrated and a ‘synthesis’ emerge of the resulting cocktail. Rather, they were drawn into the nation to serve her in the process of conquering the power that feeds these limited expressions of human society and holds the entire Earth prisoner of a divisive, separative consciousness.
These concepts did not enter into the symbol-nation to enrich the Vedic Dharma but simply to provide a field in which the soul of the nation could express its cosmic purpose through a struggle which has been described in a series of epics and myths recorded in the nation’s collective memory. The finality of the struggle will be to rid the Earth of the scourge inflicted upon her by the divisive consciousness. And none can deny that religions throughout the world are tools to divide rather than unite. The seeds of the religious consciousness were thus drawn into the Centre of the Age not to conquer but to be conquered – i.e., to force the soul of the nation to stand erect and unveiled in its cosmic purpose, to unveil this before the eyes of the people of Bharat and the world.
I write these lines at a most incongruous moment, it would appear. I write as the nation seems to face a further dismembering. To appearances this is so, but it is also true that in this darkest hour of her history, India prepares to conquer. India prepares to experience for the first time in her long history of thousands of years, the fullest depths and heights of true nationalism rooted in the fully revealed precepts of its Vedic soul. This study in caste and cosmos is one more ingredient in the process of kindling the flame of that true nationalism by a revelation of the cosmic background of caste and therefore how in antiquity the Chaturvarna served as a vehicle for Indian society to express that Cosmic Truth on Earth. The decline of caste proceeded pari passu with the decline of the Dharma, and it accompanied the infiltration of alien concepts meant to hasten the collapse so that the soul of the nation could be more swiftly born.
The time has come for that birth, insofar as the Earth has become one whole, a global ‘being’. That is, the necessity for a ‘centre’ to emerge hinges on the uncovering of the periphery of the circle. Until the Earth was fully explored, and until space exploration had revealed its boundary-less condition of oneness, the purpose of the Centre could not be fulfilled. It must be borne in mind that India has always been this ‘centre’. That is, India’s role in this capacity is a development stretching over thousands of years – approximately 50,000. It has been a progressive unfolding or unveiling. This is an evolutionary process, the contours of which are provided by the Ten Evolutionary Avatars of Puranic tradition. In an explanation of the Gnostic Circle geography in Volume 2 of The New Way, I have disclosed certain elements of the new cosmology which reveal India’s predestined role as Centre of the Age, when the Earth’s entire periphery would be known and the Centre would be called upon ‘to hold’.
Fullness versus Void
Having laid the foundations for an assessment of the cosmic background of the caste system, it is important at this point to discuss briefly the elements which served to weaken the system. Not so much because, in the view of certain religions, it was an inhumane treatment of a large segment of the society, but because those religions opposed the cosmos itself. Hence caste became a target for their attacks.
The case of Buddhism is quite clear. While Buddhism did not directly bar the cosmos and material creation from its vision of reality, it did plant the seeds for a slow and steady decay in the spiritual dimension of Vedic civilisation by a remarkable process of undermining. This was achieved through the introduction of a certain realisation which in itself served as the undermining agent. It was the dissolution of the consciousness (Nirvana), whereby the nexus binding the individualised consciousness to the planet and the cosmos, as an integrated, vibrant particle in the network of time and space, was disintegrated. The result was moksha or ‘liberation’. Hence it is held that Buddhism denied the existence of the soul, for indeed it is this component of the human incarnation which provides the link between cosmos and man. The Cosmic or Universal Purush is thus a description of that supreme Atman or Soul through which the microcosm (multiple souls) is equal to the macrocosm. Caste was a system whereby the entire society became the reflection of that greater harmony by organising it in such a way as to provide the Cosmic Being with every possible channel of expression for its evolutionary purposes. Each section of the ‘circle’ embracing the four castes was intended to be the collective instrument for that superior, integral manifestation.
The Purush is the cosmic Soul. The individual born on Earth partakes of the macrocosmic by embodying in the physical universe a spark, shall we say, of that all-encompassing Flame. Time is the essence coursing through this network, as breath rushes through the body, and it utilises the soul for creating a cosmos; or, in a succinct description of our world: a unified multiplicity. Consequently, two features of caste cannot be overlooked in a truly deep study of the matter: time and cosmos. Both hinge on the soul and the part it plays in the physical universe in this act of harmonising and integrating.
Thus, if the Buddha undermined the soul’s central position in the civilisation, it was only a matter of time before the edifice of caste would collapse. However, it did not collapse entirely, as history records and an assessment of present-day society affirms. Rather, as Sri Aurobindo wrote in the early part of this century ‘…old names and formulas have been preserved while the thing itself was profoundly modified until its original sense remained only as a pious fiction.’ (TVN, 6/2, p. 31.)
Referring to our diagram on page 16, we may situate the soul at its central Point, the centre without which ‘the circle cannot hold’. The Point or the Soul having been undermined, the channel which feeds the periphery and the infinite diverse segments of the circle was attacked. Seepages of energy began, drains on the system. Buddhist practice and related methods of ‘liberation’ secured in India that the Centre would no longer hold the periphery together or be the bridge to the Cosmic Fullness of the Mother. Rather, it would be the shadow of that Fullness, – i.e., the Void.
In practical terms, in the spiritual world this introduced the first perceptible seeds of what was to develop fully later, in Shankara’s time: an almost complete split between Spirit and Matter in the perception of Reality and the experience of yoga. The Spirit was no longer experienced through the channel of the Soul, or the Mother, but rather, in a series of yogic realisations which in varying degrees continued the process initiated by the Buddha in his experience of Nirvana, the seeker was encouraged to overstep the Cosmos as Sri Aurobindo has explained:
‘…But in speaking of the supreme liberation I was simply taking the Buddhist-Adwaita view for granted and correcting it by saying that this Nirvana view is too negative. Krishna opened the possibility of overmind with its two sides of realisation, static and dynamic. Buddha tried to shoot from mind to Nirvana in the Supreme, just as Shankara did in another way after him. Both agree in overleaping the other stages and trying to get at a nameless and featureless Absolute. Krishna on the other hand was leading by the normal course of evolution. The next normal step is not a featureless Absolute, but the supermind. I consider that in trying to overshoot, Buddha like Shankara made a mistake, calling away the dynamic side of the liberation. Therefore there has to be a correction by Kalki.’
‘Letters on Yoga’, p. 402-3
The consolidation of these realisations in the spiritual evolution of Indian society had the devastating long-term effect of undermining the cosmic bridge, the soul, and all that this signifies for a creation in matter. The soul was thus the target; in the terminology of the new cosmology, it is the Third in the descending scale of 9-6-3-0/1. If the 3 (the soul) and the 6 (the Mother) are eliminated, the realiser shoots from the 9 directly to the 0. In that case, without the ‘fullness’ of material creation in between, the 0 stands as Shunya, or the Void. It has not thrown up the One, the divine Son Agni. In a word, it is an incomplete perception of Reality, entirely un-Vedic, with devastating results on the society that embraces these concepts, driving it to devise evermore sophisticated means of escape. Again, Sri Aurobindo writes…
‘According to both Buddha and Shankara liberation means laya of the individual soul in some transcendent Permanence that is not individualised – so logically a belief in the individual soul must prevent liberation while the sense of misery in the world leads to the attempt to escape.’ (Ibid, p.66.)
Returning to our diagram once again, this process can be visually appreciated if we locate the area of dissolution or annulation OUTSIDE the periphery of the circle. In that realm there is no individualised consciousness. The nexus or the binding energy that constitutes the soul is dissolved (‘nirvana’). Thus, the embodied consciousness of such an individual, who in the proper terms of the experience can no longer lay claim to that title, does not offer sufficient concentration of energy to serve as a channel on Earth for the influx of an integral flow. In other words, the individual is no longer centred, no longer poised at the centre of the influx and harmoniously aligned so that he or she may express that totality. The centre is a void and the binary structure of an incomplete energy base is the result. Such individuals or the society they form can never be the instruments on Earth of a divine manifestation:
‘What are you going to do with all these people? If you want Nirvana, you have either to expel them or stifle them or beat them into coma. All authorities assure us that the exclusive Nirvana business is a most difficult job…and your own attempt at suppressing the others was not encouraging, – according to your own account it left you as dry and desperate as a sucked orange, no juice left anywhere. If the desert is your way to the promised land, that does not matter. But – well, if it is not, then there is another way – it is what we call the integration, the harmonisation of the being. That cannot be done by the mind and vital being – they are sure to bungle their affair. It can be done only from within by the soul, the Spirit which is the centraliser, itself the centre of these radii…’ (Ibid, p.53.)
Fullness versus Void is most clearly expressed in the art Buddhism and Hinduism have inspired. Pure Buddhism, not influenced by Tantra, is bare, placid, revealing no other state or emotion but a static Peace. On the other hand, Hindu art and temple architecture offer always exuberant displays of the Fullness; and, above all, dynamism. Even its representations of Peace in certain creations depicting Shiva, for example, are dynamic and serve to convey one of the highest experiences available to the practitioner of the Integral Yoga – the supramental state of a harmonised unity and multiplicity, or the simultaneous experience of rest and motion. For the whole of society it would be the correct blending of Stability and Change. This would be the true VEDIC experience, shorn of these intermediate developments, in the fullest sense of the word: veda meaning knowledge: a Gnostic Society.
‘…The harmonisation is in the Supermind – the Divine Truth at once static and dynamic, a withdrawal and extinction of the Ignorance, a recreation in the Divine Knowledge.’ (Ibid, p.79.)
Most spiritual realisations offer the seeker only unity, or rest, or stability. Change, movement, dynamism became equated with a lesser deceptive power whose objective it was to imprison man within that Circle where movement is perceived as the impermanent and hence the unreal, impeding his escape to the Beyond by entangling him in the coils of a ceaseless, inebriating motion, an entanglement in what has come to be known as the veils of Maya or Illusion. Escape can be achieved only on the basis of the experience of Dissolution or disintegration of the consciousness in one form or another by a prior denial of reality to that deceptive conspiracy of circumstances labelled samskaras, or one’s fixed responses to past patterns within the web of time and space.
This development or emphasis reached a peak in the Middle Ages. If we refer to our diagram again, Hindu civilisation quickly became the shell of itself once the Soul had been dislodged from its central binding throne, once the Point had been rendered an empty space.
Hindu Dharma was ill prepared to contend with the consequences of Nirvana, having no recourse to dogma, to bigotry, to expulsion or excommunication. The foundation of the Dharma was unity, and the lived perception and experience of the One embracing the All. Therefore its response was the only possible one if wise men and women in that dark period of the Age of Pisces were to be faithful to the Vedic foundations of the Dharma. Their reaction was thus to incorporate the Buddhist realisation, for it was the lived experience that the Brahman included everything, even the darkness. At the same time, they knew that even if contained in the All, Nirvanas and Voids were underminers of the Atman.
Hence the Buddha was incorporated into the Puranic Line of the Ten Avatars, but his participation was a qualified one: the ruse of the Supreme meant to mislead the asura-seeker. This incongruous description for an Evolutionary Avatar of the Line points to two facts: one is the all-embracing nature of the Vedic perception, and the other indicates that perhaps the decline was anticipated and accepted and foreseen in the renovating mechanism of the Dharma as a means to attain greater future manifestation. That ‘fall’ was seen as a necessary corollary to a future rise. In the terms Sri Aurobindo provides, the wider harmonisation which only the present Age of the Supermind can unfold.
But the results of the decline were fast in coming. Thus, in the early 700s the subcontinent witnessed the first invasion from the west. The seeds of Islam were brought into India as a perfect symbol of the denial of the soul which had already become consolidated in the civilisation by that time. The capacity for Islam to serve as this symbol lay in the fact that one of its pillars of the faith is the condemnation of idol worship. Given the proliferation of Hindu Gods and Goddesses with their many arms, vahanas and whatnot, it is clear that Islam’s almost complete denial of FORM, or the Mother who is the FORMATIVE POWER of the Brahman, would present a chasm between the two civilisations which has never been bridged, partly because most do not realise what it is that really separates the two. The compulsive destruction of Hindu Temples by these invaders and their replacement by mosques is simply a very physical albeit brutal means to affirm the supremacy of a religion which has radically veered toward the masculine pole in its perception of Reality, and which, when denied the companionship of the Feminine, is able to espouse a vision of God entirely formless.
The undermining Nirvana and similar realisations set in motion simply served to dissolve the energies which could have coped with the invasions. At the same time, we must admit that Islam was merely fulfilling its own dharma via those relentless incursions into the Body of Bharatmata. Thus, no blame can be attached to their bold thrust. Nonetheless, we must realise that the conquests by these foreign powers were simply reflections of that inner disintegration. From the standpoint of the conquered, it ought to be stressed once again that the purpose was to queer the pitch, as it were, to heighten tensions. It was a divine strategy to play out before the civilisation the results of an original denial of the soul.
This play-out has been central to Indian life for the past 2000 years. With each passing year the results of the great Undermining became more and more devastating because the imbalance of energies was accentuated. Today the nation has no energy/will to eject definitively the viruses from its sacred form which are the offspring of those original ‘seeds’ planted so long ago.
Half-lights of History
In the June 1991 VISHAAL (6/2), I discussed at length the areas in the physical landmass through which invasions took place. By the application of the Capricorn hieroglyph, I pointed out how perfectly in tune they were with the cosmic harmony, albeit negative expression of that harmony – that is, representing Vedic civilisation’s decline and the disintegration of its collective will. I repeat, having begun more than 500 years prior to the first invasions from Arabia, by the Middle Ages the inner disintegration was such that invasions could not be conclusively repelled. Historians speculate endlessly about the underlying causes of India’s inability to contend successfully with these invasions. Many consider the degeneration of the caste system to be the principal reason, or at least one of the main expressions of the inner decay and subsequent collapse, presenting the invaders with a society at war with itself and unable to unite its forces due to an inherent divisive quality in the system itself, where the four castes were not complements but antagonists. However, this is only partially true.
To begin with, I find the reasons given for the degeneration of the caste system to be entirely unsatisfactory. The prevalent view is that the preponderance of the priestly caste caused the structure to collapse under the weight of this sacerdotal despotism. While I might attribute the decline to that segment of the society, the reasons I give are quite different. Such a system, founded on a SPIRITUAL perception, can disintegrate only when that perception has been corroded. And this was exactly the case.
Be this as it may, the fact is Hindu civilisation could not contend with Arabic, Persian and Moghul invasions. Within a span of several hundred years, and though greatly out-numbering the aggressors, almost the entire subcontinent came under foreign rule and Islamic influence.
The problem lay in the fact that the unifying power of the subcontinent, the binding force of Hindu civilisation, was the Dharma. Thus, in spite of the fact that there was no POLITICAL unity meeting the aggressors, with the subcontinent presenting a very disunified appearance, it was the Vedic Dharma that made of India a unified civilisation, entirely unique and not to be found anywhere else on the globe in ancient times. India was a ‘nation’ regardless of the separate kingdoms the subcontinent housed.
As already established, the Cosmic Truth is central to that Dharma; the soul is, in turn, central to the Cosmic Truth. With the denial of the soul, and by consequence the denial of the Mother or the Formative Power of the Brahman, it is understandable that Islam and later Christianity – religions which both nurture an aversion to form as demonstrated in their condemnation of idol worship, labelled paganism – moved into the subcontinent with relative ease, except for isolated periods and incidences of effective resistance here and there. The latter, however, were not conclusive or all-encompassing enough to protect the Body from an implantation of divisive elements in the system which would take decades and centuries to eliminate.
The degeneration of caste was thus contingent on that original denial and undermining. Indeed, it was a wave which, in a very brief span, engulfed the entire planet. The Age of Pisces, dating from 234BC to 1926AD, witnessed the almost complete collapse of one element which in itself encapsulates the entire process described above: the prominence of the Mother or the Goddess in almost all philosophies, belief systems, schools of yoga, and cults of worship. In a word, the dismantling of the ancient world which in its entirety could be labelled ‘pagan’ since the Goddess was indubitably central to all belief systems that in the Piscean Age earned that label.
With the spread of the Middle-Eastern religions, in particular the proselytising ones such as Christianity, the Goddess and all that the Feminine Power stands for in the collective consciousness of the Earth, was almost entirely dislodged from the elevated status she had always held. The symbol of this displacement was the simple act of condemning idols, a tenet shared by all the young faiths which emerged from the Age of Pisces. Accompanying this displacement was a loss of perception of the sacredness of the Earth itself, – indeed, mother Earth. This too was reflected in the new tenets in a blanket condemnation of ‘nature worship’, a corollary to ‘paganism’ in theology, and ‘animism’ in philosophy. Both carried the connotation of uncivilised and barbaric. By implanting this sense of inferiority in the masses of the subcontinent, conversions to the new religions were easily achieved, its corroding power being far more potent than the discriminations of caste. These incursions into the core of Vedic belief, affecting especially the elite of the society, was to peak in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Thus, the seeds of the great Undermining which began at the outset of the last Age, the first of the three which comprise our 9th Manifestation, allowed for two different though related foreign conquests in India, Islamic and Christian. The former signified military subjugation above all else, in keeping with Islam’s character. Islam, being so utterly different from Hindu worship and culture, posed little danger of invading and replacing the indigenous philosophies and cultural substratum of Hinduism, or even contaminating it in any essential way. Conversions were effected by force or otherwise, but these did not strike at the core of the unitary consciousness which pervades Hinduism, primarily because Hinduism was not a religion as Islam was. The twain could therefore never really meet or mutually influence each other in substantives.
The situation regarding Christianity was quite different. It was not Christian religion that conquered or made definitive inroads into Hindu civilisation. Rather, it was the consciousness which had overtaken the entire world as a result of Europe’s colonial exploits. Christianity, with its dogmas of faith and discomfort in dealing with matters material and of the flesh, had forced the rise of science (as separate from pursuits of the spirit), rationalism, the logic of the Age of Reason and ‘enlightenment’. And finally a worldview entirely overshadowed by a materialism divorced from the more subtle influence of the Spirit, – a split unknown in the ancient world and even, though greatly reduced in vigour, in India at the time of the appearance of the traders/conquerors from the British Isles. These are the ‘seeds’ that Christianity planted through British rule, stressing, as we must, that this rule occurred not at Christianity’s peak of influence but rather at a time with the seeds of its own decline were evident. And the conquering continues though the conqueror has left because the consciousness that invaded India was ‘secular’ and bore profound affinities with the ancient Indian spirit.
The Indian mind, while not enjoying any particular affinity with Islam, was entirely at ease and comfortable with the ‘scientific temper’ and with ‘secular’ concepts, – these having been part and parcel of India’s ancient culture and civilisation millennia before the appearance of these latter-day secularists and scientists. Rationalism, logic, science, the demand for empirical proof and practical substance which characterise all schools of Indian yoga, founded on direct experience rather than blind faith, were part of Indian civilisation before the advent of Jesus. When these attitudes arose in the West as a reaction to religious dogmatism and obscurantism, they were easily accepted in India of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, insofar as they were concepts closer to the character of Indian philosophy and systems of yoga than any religion might be.
Thus, the two waves, Islamic and Christian, each in their own way continue to ‘conquer’: Muslims, with their demand for a dismembering of the subcontinent on the basis of religion at the time of Independence, and presently with a rise in Islamic fundamentalism which, in the form of another wave from the West, has stoked the fires of secessionism and has not ceased to encourage a sense of instability, a nation perennially threatened with a new partition. While the brand of secularism which the West firmly planted in the consciousness of the elite of pre- and post-independent India through British conquest and influence is a constant underminer that does not allow the nation to appreciate its own soul and the deepest truths of the Vedic Dharma. This is attainable only when the true nature of Hinduism is explored and its unreligious character is discovered. In other words, the western concept of secularism, introduced in Europe because of a necessity to counteract the dominance of religious obscurantism, is inadequate to contend with the fissiparous forces at work in the subcontinent. Western secularism cannot unify because the seed of its own origin is divisive. It was an entirely reactionary formulation, with no inherent and substantial power and truth; unlike the Vedic Dharma founded on the Cosmic Truth.
Caste, Time and the Calendar
The first appreciable casualty in the loss of the cosmic vision was the caste system. When the Beyond became the goal, and life in the cosmos and on Earth was held to be a prison of consciousness, the spherical perception disappeared and in its place remained caste as a linear, pyramidal structure (see: TVN 6/3, diagram p.24). In the very same period, Hindu civilisation lost its vision of an enlightened perception of Time, a development which I have discussed in ample detail in the series ‘The Capricorn Factor’ (TVN 2/4, 2/5). The Divine Maya or Measure was lost and this had a direct effect on caste because caste and time are quasi synonymous. That is, without the Divine Measure there can be no Cosmic Purush reflected in a society on Earth, integrated in all its parts, each limb or organ supporting the other limbs and parts of the Being. Nor could there be any all-encompassing fabric integrating the diversity that has always characterised the societies of the subcontinent. Time provided the means to achieve this integration. Hence, the means to record and regulate the flow of time in a cosmic society is fundamental. We understand, therefore, why the Year occupied such a central position in the knowledge of the Vedic Age (and also in Mayan America), as revealed in the extant hymns of the Rigveda and the Atharvaveda. The Rishis were forever singing praises to the various components of the Year, – the seasons, the periods of the 24-hour day such as the dawn, the night; or else the elements which are energy manifestations within that time structure: fire, earth, air and water, elements which Time uses to give form to consciousness.
It must be borne in mind that the diagram by which we have integrated all the elements of our discussion (p.16) – or the circle of 360 degrees divided into four – is also the year. Thus, Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya and Brahmin can also be allocated to a portion of the Earth Year. This means that there is a beginning and an end, a 0 point and a 360-degree point to both the year and caste. It means that while 90 degrees of the 360 comprise three months – those of Spring, for example – they also ‘comprise’ the Shudra in the collective Body. It means that the twelve months of our Earth year and the calendar we devise to monitor the passage of time within that span are intrinsically related to caste and are essential to its right functioning. Given the disintegration of caste, whereby only its shell remains, and the proliferation of divisions within each segment which are indications of the degeneration, it is not surprising that we should find the same process to have afflicted the methods for a collective systematisation of the time experience: the calendar. India today does not possess just one calendar; there are many. Almost each State and community have a different system of reckoning, as well as each religion – Islam, Christianity (the Gregorian calendar in use throughout the world), Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, and so forth. There are five principal methods employed; that is, some may use the lunar year, some the solar. In addition, there are 300 almanacs in use throughout the country, each different from the other, each catering to the needs of the different communities.
The Cosmic Truth, which uses time via the Divine Measure for its binding and formative creative operations, is reflected in the calendar. An enlightened calendar is the hallmark of an enlightened society. This means a calendar which comes as near as possible to aligning society with the Cosmic Truth unrolling through the flow of time during the Earth year. Thus, we can easily appreciate why the Rishi declared in the Rigveda, ‘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 into the other, and it is these that Brahmanaspati has made manifest to knowledge.’ (II,24-5)
The essential feature of that superior alignment was the correct zero point, or the start of the year, which then set ‘each thing in its place’ as time moved on in the course of the ensuing twelve months. If that 0 point was miscalculated or otherwise tampered with, the flow was disfigured accordingly and time’s ‘gestation’ produced either a stillborn or maimed creature. A society that had lost that correct calculation of the 0 Point could not hope to experience any significant harmony within itself or integration of its diverse limbs, not to speak of a proper relationship with the cosmos, since the act of integration hinges on the correct ‘axis’ or ‘alignment’. In the Veda and the earlier Upanishads, this ‘axis’ was the property of the God Agni.
Before proceeding further, a word ought to be said about the proliferation of symbols, personifications of the Gods and their carriers via animal or other images in India, since this practice is one that divides contemporary society from almost all ancient civilisations. In all parts of the world there has been a complete break with this ancient form of conceptualisation. India is perhaps one of the few nations today where we find that this practice is still a vibrant part of the country’s cultural and spiritual life, given the fact that myth, epics and, above all, the still prevalent guru/disciple parampara or tradition, are vigorous ingredients in the socio-cultural fabric. The need to transmit knowledge in this fanciful manner was not a frivolous indulgence of a pagan, nature-worshipping and naïve mind. Rather, that the Seers of the Vedic Age (and rare modern visionaries) chose to frame their knowledge in this way was an indication of a very high degree of sophistication. The purpose was to achieve an integral seeing. For example, this meant that the use of Number alone, or even the enlightened use of diagrams as a means of transmitting facts about matter, time and the cosmos, could only appeal to and develop the mind without engaging other equally important parts of the being and planes of consciousness. Hence, they were not adequate if exclusively utilised, as we do today, for the transmission of concepts. Indeed, in so doing the result is information leading to the manipulation of those facts, never an understanding of the integrality and oneness of our world and the interconnectedness of its many planes and dimensions. Number might appeal exclusively to only one of those planes – the mental; while the animal image, for example, drew in the visualisation capacity of the human consciousness, the art of seeing, and hence the vital to a large extent.
Or else there was the utilisation of hieroglyphs, for instance of the twelve signs of the zodiacal year – a highly sophisticated means of transmitting knowledge which drew into the exercise the higher mind and higher vital centres. Today this capacity to see in such an integral fashion is entirely lacking. Consequently, there are no seers, no Rishis.
Let me provide an example of the above which illustrates the capacity for ‘seeing’ in an area connected to the present topic under discussion: the calendar related to caste. Agni’s vahana or carrier is known to be the Goat. This image must not be construed as a meaningless designation born in the mind of pagan nature-worshippers, for the Goat in Agni’s imagery refers to the Year and the correct alignment under discussion. There are two complementary 0 points which describe the Divine Measure and bear a very special relevance to the act of ‘setting each thing in its place’. One is the Ram 0 point, or the first zodiacal sign Aries, and the second is the other goat image, Capricorn, the tenth sign/month. In terms of number-power they are both 1 – the 10 simply being the 1 after the completed cycle of 9 numbers; 10 starts the new cycle and is, numerologically speaking, a 1. Both correspond to the power of the Son, or the One: the divine Agni.
Hence, the Vedic ritual may begin (and end) with an invocation to Agni, first manifestation of the Gods, first of the elements (fire=Aries), ‘leader of the hosts’ in his aspect of Mars, ruler of Aries; Mesham, in Sanskrit, the first month. These correspondences are found throughout the hymns. Thus to ignore the zodiacal character of the Rigveda is to deliberately and wilfully seek to thrust upon this bedrock of Hinduism a character which is entirely foreign to its true nature and purpose. This was indeed the case when 19th– and 20th-century Indologists sought to cram the Veda in the entirely inadequate slot of History. That they succeeded in doing so is the measure of success of the contamination set into the Indian mind via the western secular onslaught.
After Aries – first sign or first manifestation of Agni/Mars – the ‘journey’ or the ‘sacrifice’ brought the initiate to the 10th sign/month/’door’ and entry into Swar, the realm of the Truth-Consciousness. But this passage was not a simple matter. It was fraught with danger, for it involved the 8th stage, Scorpio, also ‘ruled’ by Mars; it was then that the real trouble began – in the imagery of the Veda, the rescue of the cows (rays of Light, or Knowledge) from the cave of the Panis. Scorpio is the sign of Death in traditional astrology. It was the same in the Vedic Age, ample proof of which is given in the references to Martanda, the eighth son of Aditi, the ‘fallen star’, whose very name comes from the root meaning death.
If the energy of Mars is not transmuted or released (the ‘release’ of the cow/rays), death meant the obliteration of the consciousness and disconnection with the physical plane. It meant that the ‘victory’ in the 10th month of Capricorn, traditionally known as the exaltation of Mars, could not be achieved on Earth and connected to its evolutionary processes, but only in ‘heaven’. The decline of the Dharma saw this drama enacted in full, with spiritual energies posited in that ‘heaven’ beyond and withheld from a process which alone could unify and conquer on Earth.
On the other hand, when the Mars transmutation occurred and the Sacrifice was ‘pleasing’, the energy was released which provided fuel for the rise to the mountaintop or the sign/month Capricorn, India’s very own zodiacal ‘ruler’, according to tradition the world over. Interestingly, at that point Agni became the Horse, the white steed – indeed, horse-power. This was indicated by the 9th sign sandwiched between Scorpio and Capricorn: Sagittarius, precisely the sign of the Horse. And in order to emphasis the Earth-oriented essence of the realisation, rather than a heaven beyond of a dimension outside of this cosmos and our material creation, that immaculate Steed which is Agni transmuted, is the vahana of none other than Usha, the divine Earth-Dawn. Agni, as the Horse (9th sign/month), ushers in the Dawn, be it of the Earth day, or the year or twelve months, or the cosmic year of many thousand months.
We may now refer to our diagram on page 16 and locate this process of transmutation, of conquering, in the third segment of the Circle – the Kshatriya. In so doing, we instantly confirm the connection between caste, time, the calendar and the Vedic Dharma. To provide even more conclusive proof, it may be recalled that an aspect of Agni is the Hindu War God Kartikeya. His birthday is celebrated precisely in the heart of this Kshatriya segment: late November, or with the correct 0 point, in the sign/month Sagittarius. In Sanskrit the month is known as Kartik.
Thus the Rigveda, the oldest book in the world and foundation-seed of all that is contained in Hindu culture, establishes a remarkably rich and poetic connection between cosmos, time, year, Earth – and caste. The only problem is that the great Undermining produced the unfortunate result of a loss of the Divine Measure. Contingent upon that loss is the lack of a single calendar uniting the collective consciousness. There is not one but dozens, and each has a different 0 or starting point. Hence, though these multiple calendars may still use the backdrop of the 360 degrees of the celestial sphere and the division of that sphere into 12 segments or months, initiating their counts at different times reflects the inability of Indian society to become integrated. Indeed, for a person of Knowledge it is as if one were observing the unfolding of present-day Indian society through a painfully unfocussed lens: no matter how hard one tries, clarity just will not attend one’s efforts. The chaos brought before one’s vision is simply another indication of that lost Measure. Notwithstanding the fact that at the time of Independence the Gregorian calendar was adopted for official purposes in order to align India with the rest of the world, the different communities and religions continued to use their own methods of reckoning. Any attempt to bring about a ‘focussing’ in this time-lens would be similar to the demand voiced by certain quarters for a uniform civil law code, whose adoption is also hotly contested by communities which view such a step as a threat to their ‘separate identities’. In fact, a true discussion of caste and cosmos is, by definition, precisely one of identity, of essential truth of being, of individual and collective dharma. This aspect of the study will be explored further on.
To return to our discussion of the stages of the Vedic Sacrifice, or progression through the year, we note that passage through the 7th, 8th and 9th stages, or the Kshatriya/warrior caste segment, was considered crucial. Indeed, in the successful ‘crossing’ of this zone lays India’s ability to survive as a nation and a civilisation. But to appreciate how this may be and what connection these ancient prescriptions may have with contemporary Indian society, we must expand our time vision and study the Chaturvarna on the backdrop of the larger measures of time, the cosmic Ages, or, as I have called them, the Twelve Manifestations. In this way we shall appreciate why it is that the 7th and 8th Avatars, and indirectly the 9th, have come to such fierce prominence of late, through the contentious issue of ‘temple or mosque’ at Ayodhya, and how this issue is singularly reflective of the grand Sacrifice described in the ancient Rigveda as precisely involving the 7th, 8th and 9th stages of the Journey. And by this interrelated seeing, we shall discover how the last three decades of the millennium, the 70s, 80s and 90s, have recapitulated or condensed in this very special time span the Vedic passage through the most dangerous and determining portion of the Circle.
As we proceed with the next portion of the study, once again we engage in that magical feat of harmonisation and integration, whereby caste and time continue to reveal the profound truth in the Hermetic aphorism, ‘As above, so below’. This further act of perceiving the equality of macrocosm and microcosm will assist us in drawing together these multiple time-threads in a concentrated focus on caste within contemporary Indian society, in its individual and collective expressions; and what might be its relevancy to the civilisation that gave it birth, if any at all.
Caste has been an issue of ongoing contention in contemporary Indian society. In the course of this essay I have referred to this situation and the manner in which inhibiting forces have been exerted on certain traditional castes, resulting in an undermining of the dharma of that particular community. The community in question, the Sikh, presents a rather obvious example. But the same inhibition has been inflicted on most segments of this ancient system of structuring society. In one way or another the essential purpose and function of the various castes has deteriorated, to the point where little is left of that original intention. Added to this, or perhaps as a result of this loss, a fragmentation process set in, or a splintering. Each of the four major divisions of caste – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, known in Sanskrit as the Chaturvarna, or ‘four colours’ – became divided within themselves, and then again subdivided in a process of fragmentation leading to an increasing differentiation of groups. The India mind has a superb ability to define and codify. This has been one of its most interesting features from ancient times, a capacity which we find reflected in contemporary Indian society by the high percentage of scientists and technicians among Indians – both in the country and residing abroad, placing the nation in the forefront in this regard.
Some believe that the exercise of defining inhibits free expression and development of a society. This is an objection especially prevalent in 20th Century society in which freedom is the foremost concern. It was not a concern during the last Manifestation several thousands of years ago. To define meant to be in a position to harmonise and integrate. Having lost that capacity to some extent, the difficulties contemporary Indian society experiences with integration are understandable.
The capacity to define and codify was thus employed in the ancient division of Hindu society in an important exercise which originally enhanced the caste system’s ability to integrate a people. For integration can only reach its fullest expression when the parts to be integrated are known and defined. A system such as the Chaturvarna was, in essence, an act of ‘putting each thing in its place’. It collected all the segments born of the act of defining and set them in their proper position within the whole.
Indeed, it is that very WHOLE which will be the focus of this analysis, insofar as with the passage of time the original function of the Chaturvarna – the Whole composed of its well-defined Parts – has been lost sight of. Consequently, the two qualities which describe the purpose of such an arrangement and its raison d’etre – integrality and wholeness – have largely disappeared with just the opposite in evidence. There appear to be nothing but the fragments left – isolated, well segregated from one another due to the act of defining. But these parts abide in a void, being deprived of certain essential elements, – i.e., a centre that holds, and a circle or sphere in which that centre may act as a binding or integrating force. In other words, we have the innumerable parts floating in a void, or a chaos not a cosmos. The overall binding energy of the Chaturvarna has vanished almost completely.
In this portion of the essay, we shall therefore concentrate almost exclusively on this question of the Chaturvarna’s essence or essential purpose. In the process, the indisputable cosmic foundation of the system will be explored, for it is this foundation that provides the answer we seek regarding the origin, purpose, function and consequent decline of caste. This essay will also highlight other aspects which need to be dealt with. Once we have established the connection between caste and cosmos, and insofar as Hinduism’s roots lie firmly embedded in the Cosmic Truth, it will be revealed that in any attempt to re-establish Hindu Dharma this question of caste will perforce surface and demand to be dealt with. Amidst the decline and degeneration experienced in India of its ancient civilisational and cultural bases, an analysis of the true foundations of the Chaturvarna will also reveal that caste was perhaps the single element most responsible for providing a binding component to Hindu civilisation, cutting across and through a series of separate kingdoms and fiefdoms.
It is known that the administrative ‘unity’ introduced by the British during colonisation of the subcontinent was the only time that all these kingdoms were gathered under a single administrative umbrella, thus paving the way for a united nation. However, in the course of this essay I have presented certain ancient keys of higher knowledge which, because of their central position in Hinduism, indicate that in a particular dimension of the nation’s collective consciousness this sense of unity existed long before the Moghuls or the British came on the scene. The basis for this all-embracing unity, cutting through the barriers of these multiple kingdoms, was what we call today Hinduism. The Sanatan or Eternal Dharma was the unifying, binding force of the civilisation which has inhabited the subcontinental landmass from prehistoric times.
More importantly, in these pages I have presented the means by which Hinduism was granted the unusual capacity to endure, to hold a civilisation together in spite of these barriers; indeed, to be a civilisation at all. The key lay in the cosmic harmony. Forming as it does the basis of Hindu Dharma, and being a harmony unending in its unfolding, by means of which Hinduism organised its civilisational expressions, it is logical that the Chaturvarna would also reveal its origins to have stemmed from that same cosmic harmony. Given this fact, it is easy to appreciate that when the Divine Maya (Measure) was lost some centuries ago, which provided the enlightened link with that cosmos, the Dharma was fated to decline since its renewing mechanism hinged precisely on that connection. By consequence, the caste system, equally rooted in the cosmic harmony, began to experience a degeneration by virtue of an act of defining and division run rampant, having been cut off from its fount of integrating power.
Essential to an understanding of how this degeneration came to pass is the question of exactly what was lost in the vision and expression of the Chaturvarna. It is apparent that no historian or authority on Hindu civilisation has really been able to pinpoint this failing. Indeed, had it been possible to do so, the decline would have been arrested and the aspired reestablishment of the Dharma would have already taken place. Therefore, a fundamental, central feature of this analysis is that lost element in the perception which alone could hold the system together. This was the all-embracing vision of the Cosmic Truth which in ancient times provided the unifying factor. All expressions of the Dharma could be found related to that Cosmic Truth – or the true perception of the cosmic harmony, and, above all, its divine Maya or Measure, as the means to give effective expression in the society to that Truth. The closer this came to a shadowless perception, the nearer was the Satya Yuga or Golden Age of Truth drawn.
The Inadequacy of Mental Formulas
In the second part of this series (TVN, 6/2), the threefold basis of the Hindu Dharma was discussed, also taken from the cosmic harmony. This triune play of energy – creation, preservation and destruction – was seen projected onto the subcontinental landmass via the Capricorn hieroglyph (see page 10, TVN 6/2), or, as it is sometimes called in ancient traditions, the Name of God. In Part II, I made brief mention of the fourfold order. Together with the threefold, this combination provides the essence of Hindu Dharma as mirrored in these celestial exchanges. In the present essay, we shall consider the trinity, Rajas, Sattwa and Tamas, and how it is related to the fourfold caste system. To do this we may use the principle ingredient in the study of cosmic harmonies – the circle. With this simple geometric form it is possible to explain the origins of caste and, at the same time, its relation to the gunas, or the triune play of energies.
If the circle here presented is taken as the circumscribing heavens, we are establishing our first premise: the four castes are perceived as four segments of the heavenly sphere; and this division, in turn, is employed on earth to provide a cosmic basis for the structure of society. Indeed, this circle divided into four is the astronomical symbol of our planet Earth, the four angles indicating the four cardinal points.
It is apparent that the evolution of a civilisation – and indeed the evolution itself – cannot be on the basis of a mental formula. By this we mean a formula that springs from a divisive consciousness. Efforts to impose such a mental formula would be doomed to fail. In fact, this is precisely what has transpired regarding the ancient caste system. When the original formula and measure were lost, substitutes arose from the mind of a humanity which had lost contact with a plane of perception higher than the mental. All on earth was sought to be made ‘in man’s image’ and not the Divine’s as mirrored in the cosmic harmony. The result has been a severe fragmentation of society: the parts seek to assert themselves via these divisive mental formulas, and in so doing their capacity to find their place within the Whole is forfeited. Again we return to our original premise: cosmic harmonies offer a vision of wholeness and integrality. Mental formulas, which are human perceptions disconnected from a higher source, are characterised by an inability to harmonise and integrate, to situate the parts within the whole, insofar as there is no conscious awareness of that totality. Hence, these formulas do violence to a society. Indeed, the increasing violence of our worlds, and in particular the astonishing display of minds capable of fabricating the most sophisticated instruments for mass destruction, are results of a development devoid of any light higher than the mental. The consequences are an increasing fragmentation, divisiveness, isolation, segregation, splintering – in the name of a search for ‘identity’, or an assertion of national or ethnic rights. These may or may not be connected to religions. When they are, the product is an explosive brand of assertiveness, highly intolerant of diversity, which we label fundamentalism.
These manifestations in contemporary society are representative of minds incapable of a perception of wholeness, or a unified multiplicity. The most accurate description of the aberration is a linear in contrast to a spherical perception. Further on I shall demonstrate graphically how this aberration has played a crucial role in the degeneration of the caste system with its attending disassociation from the cosmic harmony.
In our study the circle represents that spherical capacity of perception – a consciousness capable of seeing the parts within the whole. At the same time, the circle is the celestial sphere comprised of the planetary harmony. We have divided this circle into four parts. Each section corresponds to one of the four castes: Shudra, the labour class; Vaishya, the traders or providers; Kshatriya, the warrior/rulers; and Brahmin, the person of knowledge, adviser of kings and governments.
It may be asked how this division can be effectively connected to or bear any real relation to the cosmic harmony with its planetary/orbital patterns, in any way other than merely a symbolic representation – hence, another mental formula. Indeed, it is legitimate to question whether the factual and not simply symbolic relationship can truly express itself in a civilisation or in the evolution of consciousness on Earth. The argument is similar to what we encounter in the scientific community’s debunking of astrology. For the scientist also claims, How can it be held (and proven) that the planets ‘influence’ mankind or regulate or determine the lives of human beings? I have dealt with this objection elsewhere in my writings and need not reopen the debate. I intend to reveal the existence of this connection in the present analysis by exceeding the boundaries which cage in the contemporary scientist and relegate him or her to a status far inferior to that of the seers of old. The limitation, I may point out, is the linear perception in lieu of the spherical.
An ancient dictum holds that the macrocosmos is equal to the microcosmos, – i.e., the human being, to name just one component of that microcosm, was held by the ancients to mirror or TO BE that cosmic pattern in miniature. Consequently, a penetration into the mysteries of the cosmos, based on the spherical capacity of perception and not the linear, discloses that what holds ‘above’ holds ‘below’. Cosmic harmonies describe the intricate patterns of our solar system, but at the same time they speak of the human being in his or her physical constitution as well as psychological. In a word, these harmonies of which the circle is the geometric symbol, speak of the many layers, dimensions, planes of the embodied consciousness, both individual and collective. ‘As above, so below’ would then point to an interconnection, a oneness, a magical fact of unity as the governing principle of our world. This fact of our planetary existence has clearly been overlooked. Contemporary society is a product of that lost perception. The travails of our times, this last decade of the millennium, expose the pressure human societies are feeling to regain that beatific state of wholeness and completion and integration of the parts within the whole.
Thus, having established this fact of oneness and unity, we come closer to understanding the sense behind one of the oldest references to the Chaturvarna, or the Fourfold Order. It is found in the Rig Veda, Hinduism’s most ancient collection of sacred hymns. In the ‘Purush Sukta’ (X, 90), the seer describes the universal Purush, or Being. All parts of creation are seen to emerge from or find their place in this Being. The body of man is used to provide the connecting link between the vast and the minute. At the same time, the sphere that is this Universal Being is divided into four quarters. The seer states that three fourths, however, are ‘above’…
…Such is the measure of his might,
and greater still than this is the Purush.
All beings are a fourth of him,
three fourths are the immortal in heaven.
Three fourths of the Purush ascended high,
one fourth took birth again down here.
From this he spread in all directions
into animate and inanimate things.
Using the Purush as their oblation,
the Gods performed the sacrifice.
Spring served them for clarified butter,
Summer for the fuel, and Autumn for the offering.
And several verses further on, after enumerating all the creatures of the Earth who have originated in this Cosmic Being, the seer proceeds to describe the Chaturvarna…
…When they divided up the Purush,
into how many parts did they divide him?
What did his mouth become? What his arms?
What are his legs called? What his feet?
His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms
became the Kshatriya, his legs
the Vaishya who plies his trade.
The Shudra was born from his feet…
(Translation largely Raimundo Pannikar’s) The Vedic Experience)
The above is considered to be the first mention of the caste system in Hindu scripture. Its origins can therefore be situated in the bedrock of Hinduism, the Veda. More especially, the Rig Veda. In studying the fourfoldness of the division of the celestial sphere in depth, we come to realise that the zodiac as we know it today, with its major division of four (the four Cardinal points) and overall 12, formed the basis of the order used for the Chaturvarna. In the above hymn the Rishi makes the connection explicit when he refers to the seasons, – interestingly, he mentions only three. We might consider that these correspond to the three fourths ‘above’: Spring, Summer and Autumn. The fourth omitted we may assume to be the one fourth left for the human creation ‘below’. But there seems to be more to this omission considering that the Rishi would have located this creation on the subcontinent, whose astrological ruler is the zodiacal sign Capricorn – or the first Winter month, the only season left out of the hymn. To lay further stress on this point, we have the hieroglyph of Capricorn superimposed on the map of India in a perfect synchronism of symbol and form. This is an immensely important clue to the cosmic rather than the historic context of the Rig Veda; as well, it assists us in piecing together the cosmic Mosaic which forms the backdrop of the Hindu Dharma.
These clues, found in abundance in the Rig Veda, have encouraged me to believe that the origin of the zodiac was the ancient civilisation which inhabited the subcontinent. Indeed, so firmly were the roots of zodiacal wisdom embedded in the civilisation that they have never ceased to exert a predominant influence in Hindu society; not only in Hinduism’s body of ritual but also in contemporary Indian society through an involvement with astrology and other forms of predictive arts which have this cosmic foundation.
The precise origins of the twelve hieroglyphs are unknown. They seem to have always been a part of the civilisations which made use of a system of 12 for the division of the year. Western scholarship has always considered Mesopotamia to be the location of their origins, but this is without foundation. There too the script may have been imported from farther east, just as the concept of the Zero was taken from India by the Arabs and brought to Europe, with many western historians and mathematicians still attributing the discovery to Islamic civilisation. The oldest civilisations which are acknowledged to have fed the evolution of thought in Europe are limited to the Middle East. This has consequently produced a lopsided world, tilted in one direction on this axis of partial seeing.
It is quite possible that the origins of the zodiacal script were in ancient and legendary Lemuria, the submerged continent described in a number of old texts, but particularly in the ancient Sangam literature of Tamil Nadu. The oldest of these books speaks of this submerged continent, dating back more than 30,000 years, where an advanced civilisation dwelt which then migrated to what is now Tamil Nadu at the time of the cataclysm. A pointer to this possibility lies in the Tamil language itself which causes us to believe that it too was a means of conveying higher knowledge of cosmic import, consisting as it does of 12 vowels and 18 consonants. In all there is a combination of 216 letters in the alphabet, or 12 times 18. I have always felt that these 12 and 18 are not sufficient to capture all the sounds of the spoken language. It seemed rather that the structure of Tamil was used by ancient seers as one more key to the Cosmic Truth. Indeed, language and grammar were always considered limbs of the Knowledge, – witness the works of Panini and Patanjali. If we accept this thesis then we see that the vowels and consonants of Tamil point to two basic divisions of the Circle: its division into 12, or the zodiacal signs; and the threefold energy flow of 6+6+6 or 18, which is the same key contained in the division of the books of the Puranas, each 6-section corresponding to a member of the Trinity – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This division was discussed extensively in Part II of this essay regarding the geography of India (TVN, 6/2, June 1991).
Needless to say, these theses are not accepted by contemporary scholars largely because there are none among them with any grounding in the subtleties of cosmic harmonies, its script, its language. Hence, no coherent sense can be made out of verses such as I have quoted above from the Rig Veda. The conclusion of western scholarship regarding the Purush Shukta seems to be that these verses have provided exemplary proof of the pagan, animistic roots of Hinduism – with the implication of course that these are inferior expressions of the religious spirit.
Be this as it may, let us proceed a step further with our unveiling of the cosmic foundation of the Chaturvarna. The Purush Shukta describes the Manifest as a fourth of the fourfold sphere. Three quarters are above, one quarter below. Yet, as the hymn develops and the evolution of material creation is described, when the seer comes to the caste system he does indeed mention the FOUR quarters and their connection with that same Cosmic Purush. The head with its mouth is allotted to the Brahmin. This clearly refers to the power of the Word the Brahmin is meant to possess. The arms are allotted to the Kshatriya, referring to power – the warrior’s power, yes, but also the ability to WIELD power, to rule as well as to protect. For example, the many arms of the Gods and Goddesses, particularly the Goddess of Victory, Durga, who conquers the embodiment of evil with her many arms, each of which wields a different weapon representative of different aspects of that power.
The seer goes on to mention the legs and feet in the lower hemisphere (of the circle – see page 16), the support of the body/system. This, it must be emphasised, is the vision from above, from the position of the three quarters. When this is played out below a reversal takes place. The zodiac, or the sacred script describing the evolution of the species, presents us with that vision below. Consequently, the flow of time is added, which regulates the processes of manifestation, which gestates the creation the zodiac describes. It is the key to this flow of time that was lost and hence the present inability to make the connections we have made in these pages, insofar as Time is the bridge between that ‘above’ and this ‘below’. The means to translate the Vision into material reality is by an enlightened perception of Time’s essence, purpose and methods. This knowledge was a central feature of the ancient Dharma. Today only its shell exists, certain fragments which serve to inform us that the foundations of Hindu Dharma are to be found and explained in this Cosmic Harmony.
In another ancient text of the subcontinent the portion above is expressed by a different image: the primordial, inverted Tree with its roots in ‘heaven’ and its trunk and branches extending downward to form or become the material creation. This symbol intends to convey that the source of manifest creation lies in the subtle dimension or ‘heaven’. The human being sees only its external form; the sage perceives what is hidden but essential.
Regarding the caste system and the zodiac, we find this same concept conveyed, diverting from the Purush Shukta’s classification of the Brahmin as the mouth of the Cosmic Being. In the zodiac the fourfold order is more pointedly given a cosmic backdrop, inasmuch as the zodiac is the division we know and employ of that same heavenly sphere, with the additional ingredient of Time. But zodiacal tradition reverses the allocation, while yet maintaining the same fourfold division. The divine Purush is projected onto the Wheel head first (Aries), and then through the rest of the signs which all correspond to a portion of his Body in a downward movement. But though there is the same fourfold division, the zodiac begins with the Shudra as the first (hence the head, throat, etc). Finally, at the last quarter of the signs Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, corresponding to the knees, ankles and feet, respectively, we have the Brahmin caste. Thus, similar to the primordial Tree with its roots ‘above’, we see that the cosmic harmony considers the Brahmin equally to be the support of the system, the element which allows the body to stand erect and hence to be distinguished from the animal and other species.
The reason for this reversal is also borne out by the fact that the Brahmin caste, while being the ‘highest’ of the four, was traditionally deprived of ownership of material possessions. The Brahmin’s right of possession was Knowledge and the heavenly attributes of wisdom and truth-seeing. And these were used in the society to furnish it with those flawless foundations, or the Tree sustained by its roots in heaven, fed by that highest Source.
Twashtri’s Bowl: the Journey into the Integral
The Rig Veda also describes this celestial sphere divided into four as Twashtri’s Bowl, Twashtri being another name of the Divine Architect, Vishwamitra (see The New Way, Volume 2). Differing from these four designations, the four sections are related to the four planes of existence – the Physical, the Vital, the Mental, and the Spiritual. Again it can be observed that they also correspond faithfully to the four casts: Physical/Shudra, Vital/Vaishya, Mental/Kshatriya, and Spiritual/Brahmin.
The last section of Twashtri’s ‘bowl’ is the Vedic heavenly Swar. With the decline of the Knowledge this highest plane of consciousness, the attainment of which was the main purpose of the Yoga described in the Rig Veda (called variously the ‘journey’, the ‘sacrifice’, and so forth), came to be considered another dimension or plane of consciousness disconnected from the remaining three. Swar was attained by a disassociation of the consciousness from the body and from material creation with all its interconnections and interrelatedness. However, its true meaning was to be found in the inverted Tree. In other words, the embodied consciousness of the Vedic seer was rooted in that Swar, while yet engaged in the Earthly evolution. Indeed, the meaning was quite clear: this highest plane was the source of the Brahmin’s vision, which was then used in support of the kingdom by translating that Knowledge into a system upon which the civilization could flourish as a harmonious, mutually enhancing body.
With the decline of the Dharma the oneness of manifest and unmanifest or subtle was lost. The stark divide between Spirit and Matter arose which has been humanity’s affliction for the past several thousand years. In such a worldview, based on the principle of division, it can hardly be expected that the Brahmin will serve society according to the dictates of his/her inherent dharma or inner truth. Similarly, the other castes cannot hope to find their correct place and expression in a society which has lost its connection with those roots, borne out by the relegation of Swar/Brahmin to a plane apart from this creation and a resulting chasm (which the Brahmin is meant by destiny to bridge) dividing this world and that ‘heaven’.
On this basis, however, it is simple enough to understand how the Brahmin came to occupy an isolated, privileged and special place in Hindu civilisation. I shall now present a GRAPHIC image of the distortion which the hierarchical, exclusivist approach introduced into the caste system during the period of decline, or when the linear consciousness entirely displaced the Vedic spherical perceptive capacity. The higher then had no contact with the lower, just as Swar/spirit had no relation to Earth/matter. The twain, indeed, could never hope to meet. In addition, the highest at the apex of the structure could be construed as ‘closer to heaven’ than the lower, thus indubitably enjoying a tremendous advantage and hold over the people, especially in a society solidly grounded in spiritual tradition and reverence for higher knowledge and for those who have attained the divine Consciousness. At later, more degraded stages, the upper echelons acquired additional ‘top-heaviness’ due to an inner decay and loss of the dharma; that is, when material wealth replaced the spiritual and the Brahmin, having lost the knowledge and contact ‘above’, with his legendary obesity, virtually became the physical reflection of that accumulated MATERIAL wealth, filling the void the loss of the spiritual engendered. Then the lower levels began to feel the pressure as they had to bear this top-heaviness due to the loss of the dharma of the upper castes which sat heavily upon the lower. The degenerated form is described in this symbol:
This pyramidal form is a faithful graphic representation of the decline of the Chaturvarna; as well, it provides us with the understanding of WHEN and HOW poverty began its steady and slow march to deaden the civilisation in centuries to come. The Chaturvarna does not take poverty and backwardness into account, since it forms no part of the vision for obvious reasons. But we shall deal with this particular aspect of the decline further on. At this point, the pyramid is meant to impress upon the student the LINEAR and UNI-DIMENSIONAL consciousness that came into being during the Hindu civilisation’s dark age. Above all, it is separative and serves to foster divisiveness and segregation in a society, contrary to the Chaturvarna’s most important function. The Shudra may come into contact with the Vaishya, but nothing beyond; or the Vaishya with the Kshatriya, and so on. But the lowest can never hope to reach the highest. In a word, the pyramid demonstrates the total and complete loss of the Chaturvarna’s purpose of setting each element in its place in the sublime experience of a harmonious integration of the parts within the whole.
With the spread of the linear consciousness the Divine Maya was very quickly lost, the sacred Measure whereby Hindu civilisation maintained its contact with that Source, or the truth-consciousness of the cosmic harmonies. This true purpose and function can be properly conveyed only through the circle, thus:
The key to understanding this diagram and its connection to caste is that each segment converges on the centre. That is, each segment has EQUAL access to the Source; while each of the four castes among themselves join at the centre. The Centre being the shadowless domain of the Truth-Consciousness, it is only in its proximity that ALL ARE EQUAL.
This is one of the most important conclusions drawn from a study which connects caste to cosmos. It is not that differences do not exist in creation. Diversity, degree, gradation – indeed, hierarchy – are facts of life; nay, they describe the beauty and fulness of life and the divine Consciousness in manifestation. The multiplicity, where differentiation has its play, is unity carried through the various dimensions of creation, where that same unity expresses itself in an infinitude of forms. But that immense variety can return to the Source, for indeed it had never left it; just as Silence does not cease when Sound arises, the latter being simply the movement of the Silence. Similarly, diversity is the flowering of unity through the multiple dimensions of cosmic existence. The Breath of Brahman is said to be indrawn when those layers of creation are gathered back into the Source, to be then exhaled as the Seed of Unity fills creation with infinite expressions of the flowering of Itself.
The Chaturvarna, having this cosmic foundation, is also an expression of that perfect blending of diversity within unity. All human beings are not equal in the sense of uniform. Thus, caste defines certain varied expressions of the Cosmic Purush as organs and limbs of a single Body; and with the correct spherical perception, one can appreciate that each segment has an entirely equal relationship to the central Source, a horizontal convergence, and this is important to note, of all parts onto single binding Point. Once that Source is attained or realised, the individual of whichever of the four segments may be said to have exceeded his or her original boundaries and realised the integral nature of God in humanity. Because of these roots of the Chaturvarna in this truth-seeing, it has been held from very ancient times in Hindu civilisation that the person of God-realisation steps out of the limitations caste may impose. The realised individual, be he or she a Brahmin, a Kshatriya, or whatever, is thus free of the boundaries of caste. However, this noble precept of the system has also suffered considerable degeneration which we must now deal with, insofar as it is the causal agent of the decline.
Into the Beyond: Dissipation of the Power
When Nothingness, the Void, the Beyond became the summit of the spiritual quest, those who had attained these realisations considered themselves to be beyond time and space or material creation, since their consciousness was placed OUTSIDE of the cosmic border, which by then was equated with the lesser Maya, the Mother divested of her divine attributes. Thus they were also beyond caste, since it is in a creation of time and space that the Purush comes into being. The Divine Maya is precisely the formative power of the Absolute, in the macrocosm and moving into and through the countless dimensions of creation to the minutest point. The distortion that overtook the realiser was the attempt to escape from the confines of this superlative Body of the Absolute. It can be visualised in this way: each segment instead of converging onto or moving into the centre, moves outward (the arrows in the diagram, page 25). That is, the direction changed and instead of the consciousness converging ever inward, into the Source, or that central Bija or Seed, it moved outward and experienced dispersion, dissolution, decentralisation, disintegration. Indeed, the realiser, being beyond the cosmos, no longer had the power to influence the creation he or she had left behind. With the passage of time, that orphaned creation was overtaken by the darkness resulting from a withdrawal of that light: the human creation it had abandoned fell thoroughly under the control of the Ignorance.
The central Seed is the immanent Transcendent in the heart of each created thing, the Hiranyaretas, or the golden Seed, light of the worlds. It was in that sacred, centremost space that the individual could come to realise the integrality of all the parts and planes of his or her embodied consciousness, made in God’s own image, for this was the divine Purpose of caste within cosmos. Thus, to move INTO THAT CREATION rather than out of it was the purpose of caste and life on Earth within such a superior structure. To assist the individual in that integral attainment, rather than dissolution (nirvana) of the consciousness because the mis-direction outward implies that there cannot be a concentration of the power or energy sufficient to explore and integrate all the parts and levels of embodied being. This, in concise terms, is the real description of the decline of Hindu Dharma and consequently of caste. In view of that decline regarding this essentiality of direction or poise of consciousness, it is understandable that a society which continues nonetheless to embrace caste faithfully can only be a shadow reflection of that Truth, that divine Cosmic Purush. It must, therefore, display in the subsequent evolution of the civilisation under aegis of this Shadow, all the distortions such as mis-direction and poise must engender. Poverty is one result, a leprotic disease afflicting the Purush with ugly eruptions covering its skin, and which, because of the mis-direction, came to be synonymous with the Divine. In God’s image then meant the poor are closer to God’s kingdom, in some way more expressive of the ‘true’ nature of God. This exaltation of poverty and renunciation is a direct consequence of the wrong direction, a direction outward, beyond a creation in matter, into the nirvanic Void rather than the rich and intensely blissful fullness of the Mother, particularly in her aspect of the divine Lakshmi, goddess of plenty, wealth and increase, of beauty and harmony in a physical creation fashioned in her image.
Diversity was then the bane of human existence, with all its avenues of expression such as the body and its senses. One dissolved one’s consciousness in the Beyond, one renounced the world and material creation, or the divine Mother, and attained a naked realisation, denuded of the luxuriant robes of the manifest creation. This, we must repeat, was not the original aim of the Chaturvarna, and it could never allow for the fulfilment of its main function: harmony and integration.
The purpose of such a system is to allow the individual the possibility to realise his or her inner truth, in material creation, in a body, on this planet Earth. Birth on Earth and into the caste system, or into the magnificent harmonies of the cosmos as one more note of the Infinite, was not intended to be a means of escape from that material creation and a plunge into nirvanic Nothingness or the indifferentiated Absolute. The process would thus be a senseless exercise if the only goal was to shed each and every vestige of this diversity. Yet, this is the ‘truth’ of every philosophic system, every religion, every path of yoga: birth may be a privilege, but only because it provides us with the possibility of dissolving whatever we may have had the misfortune to accumulate during the process of birth and the evolution of consciousness on Earth, finally returning to the source whence we came in an unfettered condition. In other words, we enter baggageless, we accumulate baggage, and then we are obliged and expected to follow the spiritual paths which will help us to shed that baggage and attain that pristine state of nakedness in order to merge with that original source once more.
But the Divine Consciousness is not such a senseless thing. This is simply the human inability to cope with diversity, multiplicity, richness and fullness – with life in its totality. It is simply a projection of God ‘in man’s image’, – i.e., purposeless and inane.
This perception, which took hold of India in the early centuries of this Manifestation, had to produce a decline in the Chaturvarna. A ‘God realisation’ of this sort could only undermine one’s faith in life on Earth. Thereafter, what sense could there be to a system such as the Chaturvarna? It was then that a very heavy blanket of inertia began to descend upon the consciousness of the people of Bharat, of ‘high’ caste and ‘low’ in equal measure, since the function of such a System had been corrupted.
The caste system’s essential purpose was to offer the individual an ideal FIELD and CONDITIONS within the System to explore the many layers of consciousness and make contact with one’s inner dharma or truth. That is, the individual in any of the four segments, starting from the periphery of the diagram, from birth to birth moves closer to the Centre. In the process the richness of his or her temperament, psychology, and even physical attributes and potentials were unveiled and integrated. The act of ‘setting each thing in its place’ within oneself could then be extended from microcosm to macrocosm. These attributes and aspects of one’s consciousness can be said to exist equally in all beings, but in seed form. The experience of the Chaturvarna was an aid to the development of that potentiality according to the overall dictates of the individualised destiny: the harmony of the parts within the whole.
Closer to the divine Source, the heart of the process was reached, the inner Chamber where the divine Purpose stands as the cosmic pillar of creation, as the immobile Agni amidst the mobile, or the divine Skambha. The Vedic journey in the sacrificial period of the year unveiled the magnificent diversity of creation and offered this at the feet of the Divine Mother, each part an instrument expressive of the highest realisation of her diversity in unity. Caste like cosmos was not divisive. Rather it was the path to wholeness and completion.
In the next portion of this essay, we shall explore Time’s function in the Chaturnarna and why the Year was of such singular importance in the Vedic vision – both the Earth year and Cosmic, and its relation to caste.
The tale of Satyavan and Savitri is recited in the Mahabharata as a story of conjugal love conquering death. But this legend is, as shown by many features of the human tale, one of the many symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save… Still this is not a mere allegory, the characters are not personified qualities, but incarnations or emanations of living and conscious Forces with whom we can enter into concrete touch and they take human bodies in order to help man and show him the way from his mortal state to a divine consciousness and immortal life.’
Sri Aurobindo
To readers of the VISHAAL Newsletter, it ought to be evident after studying several issues that significant emphasis is being given in these essays to the factor of a harmonisation of two poises – the material and the spiritual – and by consequence, to the question of bridging the chasm that now exists between these two dimensions of reality. The spirit/matter polarity has translated itself into a planetary polarity. The East is considered the pole wherein the spirit finds itself most comfortable, and the consciousness of the people born and bred in that part of the world more easily reflects a concentration on this aspect of life. The West, on the other hand, has revealed itself over the past few centuries to be the staunchest champion of the concerns of matter. Our 20th Century technology stands testimony to the formidable strides the West has made in compelling matter to disclose its secrets for the purpose of this remarkable development.
A careful observation of the course of civilisation over the past several hundred years, particularly accelerated in this century, will show that indeed such a polarity exists. Moreover, we can observe that a sort of degeneration has set in, both in the East and in the West. It is clear that these two poises, isolated and disconnected from each other as is presently the case, are experiencing a decay never before witnessed. In fact, never before has it been so easy to distinguish the dichotomy that exists on the planet, clearly displayed in an East/West split and carried over to a disturbing separation between the concerns of the spirit and of matter.
On the surface it would seem that matter is leading in this confrontation and quest for supremacy; but it is moving us toward some as yet unformulated fulfilment, – or devastation. We cannot be sure which. Where is the technological conquest taking us as a civilisation? For we see that the severance between spirit and matter has indeed left the latter in a commanding position. By means of the tremendous destructive power that modern technology has given birth to, we realise that unless something as yet unforeseen takes place, this leadership of the material West will carry us to a devastating annihilation.
In the last VISHAAL (1/1), I discussed to some extent the position of the East in this regard, according to what Sri Aurobindo had foreseen. It is true that the East is to provide the inspiration that will arrest the decline and prevent materialism from overtaking the consciousness of the species and stamping its mould on all future generations, if indeed they are allowed to take birth. But what exactly is this inspiration? This is the important question we must now ask. And it concerns the inhabitants of both East and West in equal measure. At the same time, by reviewing the situation that has developed over the past two decades in particular, we can come to a clearer understanding of what the problem is and where its solution may lie. None can deny that the West has witnessed a spiritual invasion from the East during these past two decades, and more specifically from India. But what has been the result? My own work was born during this very period. It was in 1965 that I took up in earnest the quest for ‘a new way’. From that time until the present, we have seen many spiritual empires rise and fall, with no significant achievements left behind that point to a decisive encroachment into the stronghold of science and the all-pervading materialist consciousness. The latter still holds sway on the planet, still holds it captive to its destructive power, while no spiritual movement has been able to arrest this decay that we consider the upholders of matter over spirit to be responsible for.
However, I view the matter somewhat differently. The decay we are experiencing is largely the result of an effete, impotent and stagnant condition of spirituality. And why is this so? Why have the countless gurus with their respective messages of superior Eastern wisdom failed to correct the degenerative decline in any significant manner?
One of the problems that surfaces in this review concerns the stagnation of spirituality. While we have seen an extraordinary renewal in the realm of science and technology, in particular over the past century, on the surface there has been no such renaissance of spirituality in evidence. Furthermore, the most interesting and significant point is that the very necessity for such a renewal in spirituality is not at all appreciated. Today we are witnessing an upsurge of fundamentalism with its consequent fanaticism. Some people consider this a renaissance; but this appraisal is far from the truth. And in any case the rise of fundamentalism is reserved for religions – all of them without exception, we may add – and does not touch spirituality at all. Indeed, there can be no fundamentalism and fanaticism in true spirituality.
There is a vast abyss between the two – religion and spirituality – as anyone proficient in yoga can affirm. Therefore, while fundamentalism has increased over the past twenty years, in an effort to reinforce the hold religions have over the masses, which has significantly weakened due to the rise of science, we find no such movement in spiritual circles. That is, there is no attempt to renew or formulate the truths of the Spirit in a way consonant with the new demands a bold and determined Science thrusts upon us. What we have seen, however, is a fever to spread the word, in the East and in the West. Consequently, countless gurus have gone on spiritual campaigns to conquer the West and save the world by this invasion of the enlightened hordes from the East.
Many theoretical physicists with philosophical inclinations have become spokesmen for this spiritual invasion. They have perceived that Eastern mysticism holds ‘timeless’ truths and that science is just beginning to discover this fact and come to the same conclusions. These exponents of a new physics consider that they are bridging the gap between Science and Spirit in this fashion, and hence between West and East. However, to date I have not encountered any such thing. We do find physicists quoting from ancient eastern texts of wisdom, such as Brian Josephson with his penchant for Vedic science due to his involvement with transcendental meditation. But in no way does this throw any effective light on the issue, a light powerful enough to dispel the darkness in that abyss and concretely bridge the chasm.
The reason for this is quite clear: spirituality is considered a timeless truth and its experience static and unevolving. This is considered to be its main characteristic, by which it is distinguished from mundane and materialist concerns. The mysticism that has been exported to the West is hence ‘old wine’, devoid even of ‘new bottles’. And in most cases it is not even that, not even the true expression of the ancient paths.
Sri Aurobindo laboured intensely to alter this closed concept of the unchanging nature of spirituality, of schools of yoga and philosophy. I myself have heard criticisms of his work along these lines: It has never been done before, therefore it cannot be done (regarding the establishment of a life divine on Earth). Or else I have heard: If the great sages of the past have not revealed these things, how can Sri Aurobindo pretend to do so? This attitude is so recalcitrant and widespread that it has even been carried over to a condemnation of my work vis-à-vis Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: ‘They’ never saw these things (you write of), so how can you! One venerable old sadhak who had been with Sri Aurobindo for many years has even gone so far as to tell me explicitly that whatever had not been seen and described by Sri Aurobindo could not be done by anyone else. Sri Aurobindo’s word is the ‘final word’, according to these pontiffs. But following this line of thought, it is evident that they must have also come to the conclusion that Sri Aurobindo’s work has failed, insofar as he himself admitted that much remained to be done. If we are not permitted to carry on where he left off, we must accept that failure is the ‘final word’.
In actual fact, Sri Aurobindo’s ‘word’ is the beginning, the broad outline of a spectacularly vast all-encompassing vision. The task is now to fill in the details of that vision and complete a work that he gave us in seed form.
Let me quote from his letters to disciples on this very theme, showing the incessant effort he was called upon to make in order to expose people to the idea of an evolving spiritual experience, to help them to accept the fact that spirit as well as matter is engaged in the process of evolution, and in equal measure:
‘…I have had no inspiration from
the Sadhana of Bejoy Goswami, though a good deal at one time from Ramakrishna
and Vivekananda. My remarks simply meant that I regard the spiritual history of
mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose,
not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated.
Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there
in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very
important stage and the names I mentioned had a special prominence in my
thought at the time – they seemed to me to indicate the lines from which the
future spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but
passing on. I do not know that I would put my meaning exactly in the language
you suggest. I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any
religion, new or old, for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that
is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the
matter.’
Concerning those sages he saw connected with him in this pioneering work, I must point out that in the new cosmology the places of both Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are clearly distinguishable above all the others, confirming empirically, so to speak, Sri Aurobindo’s experience (see The Gnostic Circle, and The New Way l&2). But on another occasion he displayed greater impatience:
‘…Truly, this shocked reverence for the past is a wonderful and fearful thing! After all, the Divine is infinite and the unrolling of the Truth may be an infinite process or at least, if not quite so much, yet with some room for new discovery and new statement, even perhaps new achievement, not a thing in a nutshell cracked and its content exhausted once for all by the first seer or sage, while the others must religiously crack the same nutshell all over again, each tremblingly fearful not to give the lie to the “past” seers and sages.’
8 October, 1935 (Ibid, page 135.)
These letters cast essential light on the difficulties that have surfaced in the export of spirituality to the West. For in fact what has been sought is an opening to the old spirituality, that the West should become exposed to the timeless truths of the Sanatana Dharma, and in this way find salvation, or give to God what is His just due but which has been denied in the West in its frenetic pursuit of scientific and technological achievements.
However, the result of this endeavour has been quite the opposite. We have witnessed that rather than impose eastern truths of the Spirit on the consciousness prevailing in the West, the movements that sought to establish a certain supremacy became, each one of them, caught up in the morass of that materialistic mire which the gurus encountered, with the result that none of them could avoid the onslaught and the evident toll their spiritual enthusiasm had to bear in an increasing submission to the elements that have always been considered anathema to spirituality, – i.e., wealth, affluence, material comfort, not to speak of the temptations to use the media for publicity and thus become entrapped in the very mire they originally sought to purify. Accepting this state of affairs, the business of guruhood soon became the fastest way to make a fortune. Invariably all the movements that have gone westward since the 1960’s have suffered a diminishing of their spiritual purity and zeal and increasingly have taken on the proselytising attitudes of western religions, so far removed from the true nature of Indian spirituality. They have done very little to effectively change anything, and the most that can be said for them is that they have provided a means to close a culture gap, exposing the West to certain terms and modes of spiritual expression which it had been ignorant of on a mass level, but hardly a true establishment of the highest of Indian spirituality as a real force for change in the world. Nothing in fact comparable to the power that science wields, – not only in the West but increasingly in the East as well. That is, there has been no spiritual movement of this century that has been sufficiently powerful (and I use the word purposefully) to arrest the course that science and western materialism are imposing upon the world.
The reason for this is more than clear. All the spiritual movements have become bogged down in the past and are merely repeating the old formulas. And those formulas were, even in the past, incomplete. They catered to the regions and demands of the spirit, disregarding the life of the body. Indeed, the spirituality we know as ‘eastern’ is founded on the basic principle of escapism. This is the same as the foundation of western religion and mysticism: the Earth is a hell and birth thereupon is a scourge; salvation lies in heaven or nirvana, – anywhere, but decidedly out of this cosmic dimension and free from the strangling coils of a corruptible flesh.
With this formula, no matter how much we seek to clothe it in veils that camouflage its essence or render it palatable to our 20th Century taste for matter-oriented solutions, it is evident that no real and effective change can be brought about. The spiritual power that exponents of the traditional ways bring to the West is undermined from the outset, notably by this emphasis on otherworldliness, the outcome of a spirituality that refuses to renew itself and open itself to the new light that is being born on Earth.
I do not wish the reader to construe from the above that it is not by a spiritual force that the imperative change is to come about. What is meant is that with the spiritual force something more is needed, anew power that can effectively deal with the demands that a growing materialistic consciousness has imposed. Until now it has not been properly understood that ‘something else’ is required at this stage of evolution, something that the old spirituality simply cannot provide because its foundations are essentially otherworldly. And that ‘something’ is the capacity to deal with the power of matter, to withstand its colossal assault and not be overwhelmed by its boldness and, above all, its definiteness.
The way Sri Aurobindo has introduced (‘… a way to be opened that is still blocked’…) is not meant either to be a religion or, more especially, a movement, a stirring thus of the superficial strata in society and the collective consciousness. Rather, this new way offers a true power for change and unfolds a mechanism that works in the deepest layers. Because it touches the heart and root of existence, and because it holds the secret of the method for introducing true change, it is certain of attaining the goal.
In this context, I would like to point out that the USA, which stands at the centre of present day materialism, its inspirer, we may say, is characterised by a constant submersion in the flux and flow of precisely that superficial strata of change, those ceaseless, relentless stirrings in the most external dimensions. This finds its expression in a nation enamoured of fads, to name just one aspect, which wildly overtake the population. Like a tornado that whisks away everything it meets on its path, so the collective consciousness of America is drawn into the frenzy accompanying every new fad, intoxicated by the desire for change – for the sake of change. What is lacking in this display is an immobile, solid and stable core, a poise akin to the centred eye of the tornado which while it encourages and upholds change and dynamic renewal, yet bears in its centre that Stable Constant.
India at present is still caught in the opposite condition. There is stability born of the eternal truth it knows, but deriving from the old poise, it has become a power that obstructs change and renaissance, so badly needed now. India needs to unveil a new core or nucleus, one that is born of true unity, the unity that is the expression of the oneness of spirit and matter. For this, the quest has to be Earth-oriented and no longer otherworldly.
In the VISHAAL Newsletter of December, 1985, I mentioned the work of the neuroscientist, Roger Sperry, who is presently channeling his energy into what he calls the formulation of a new ethic. But he feels that science is the answer, and only through scientific methods – suitably enhanced or modified for the purpose – can any unifying force manifest in the world and halt the decay he is so conscious of, a decline that is precipitating us to our doom. Sperry insists that religion cannot provide this new ethic, nor mysticism, precisely because he understands that they are oriented to a beyond. In his book, Science and Moral Priority (Praeger 1985), he writes: ‘Today’s conditions call for long-term, biospheric perspectives in which this world is conceived to be more than merely a way station to something better beyond.’ (page 23.)
This brief passage reflects a trend in increasing evidence among the world’s intelligentsia. But thinkers such as Sperry or Josephson are well aware that science as it is now cannot provide the new poise that is required for this great transition. Indeed, what is interesting to note is that when they come to the point where their interests turn to the more spiritual needs of the human being, realising the impossible impasse we have reached as a civilisation, they invariably look into more mystical areas in the effort to find a solution. Or, like Sperry, they seek to introduce a new element into the old, a new scientific approach that can somehow accommodate this hitherto disregarded aspect of life. Sperry, as the above passage from his book reveals, is fully aware that any system which does not reorient itself toward a ‘this-world’ quest for truth is hopelessly doomed to failure. And with this – notwithstanding certain reservations which I shall discuss anon – we can agree.
Yet the gurus with their teachings are not equipped to deal with this situation. Hence they all succumb to the prevailing consciousness, in a sort of ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ attitude. What has been clearly overlooked is that a new way is needed to deal with the problem by effectively providing an entirely new Formula. And this is what the revelation of Supermind is: a newly manifested Power that can introduce real change, because it is a truth-consciousness poised on a completely different foundation from the old ways of the spirit, eastern or western.
This is apparent if we consider the aim of Sri Aurobindo’s work, the Earth-oriented nature of the quest, the goal of a life divine upon Earth. It is evident that in order to accomplish such a thing, a new way has to arise, equipped to deal with the strenuous demands made upon those of us who have become pioneers on this trail-blazing gnostic way, in which the truths of both spirit and matter find their rightful and complementary places.
The old spirituality has sought to convince the West with its technological consciousness that it must give up its materialistic bent in favour of a vision of reality in which forms of matter are seen to be intrinsically unreal. The only truth, they exclaim, is the Spirit, or the Self. And this is of course otherworldly. But the bold materialist consciousness is not so easily convinced, insofar as daily extraordinary breakthroughs are made in science and technology that indicate an increasing power to control those ‘unreal’ substances for the benefit – or detriment, if you will – of the human species. No amount of preaching the illusion of the world, in whatever of its overt or camouflaged forms, will convince the hard-core materialist that otherworldly spirituality is the answer to our woes. Rather, the scientific mind perceives that precisely such escapist attitudes have left us with no other choice but to accept a dichotomy between the two, spirit and matter, one pitted against the other.
After studying Roger Sperry’s work, its limitations become rather evident. Though he perceives or desires an upward trend in evolution to better and more noble expressions, his limited understanding of the human instrument undermines his efforts. The very fact that he places mind at the summit of being is one drawback. It obstructs a fuller vision and hence closes him to the numerous dimensions of consciousness that influence the human being and work through both body and mind. Added to this is his insistence that mind emerges from the instrument’s constituent parts, from which it cannot be separated. He stresses this point in an effort to discourage others from using his ideas to support the contention that there is an indwelling, immortal spirit, not dependent for its survival upon the life of the body. For Sperry, this sort of postulation lies at the root of the otherworldly syndrome he constantly decries.
However, a view of this order closes out the true vision, the integral poise and nature of the instrument, and hence it defeats its own purpose. Though Sperry seeks to reinstate what he considers to be the subjective reality by offering a certain legitimacy to the inner experience via his lofty concept of mind over matter, nonetheless he is closed to certain aspects of that subjective experience which would clearly demonstrate to him the fact that one may very well experience a Reality, a Presence, a Consciousness disengaged from the body and not dependent upon it at all. He ought to realise, furthermore, that it is this very fact that has sustained the otherworldly emphasis for so many millennia. As well, scores of people have had genuine out-of-the-body experiences. For the most part these are experiences in which the vital sheath slips out of the physical body and journeys on its own, fully conscious of what it is experiencing and able to provide a faithful description of those experiences when back in the physical. In many cases, the subject stands beside his sleeping body and thereafter can give a detailed account of what transpired in the room and around his sleeping frame. By an a priori refusal to accept such experiences, scientists like Sperry do little to further their aim of introducing a more holistic approach to life and consciousness.
Roger Sperry’s work offers the most striking example of the constrictions a mental attempt to reorder society imposes. His emphasis is preeminently on remodeling science so that it can be made to serve as the overseer in the introduction of ‘a new ethic’. According to Sperry this can only take place within the scientific framework. But the modified science he wishes to introduce is as impotent as the old science, – or the old spirituality, for that matter. It is limited in its perspective to the material strata and barely the surfacemost of those ‘inner’ dimensions. What is revealed is an appalling lack of knowledge concerning the real and integral causal role of consciousness, or even its very nature. The entire effort centres on mind and in fact barely touches the more all-encompassing truths of Consciousness. To further confuse the issue, the activity of consciousness is mistaken for the mental functions, or vice versa. When there is such a total disregard for the undeniable truths of the spiritual experience, when these are dismissed as merely quirks of an immature, undeveloped mind and psyche as yet closed to the higher redeeming light of Science, how can the true change come about that will relieve us of the narrowness that cages us in as a species? These attitudes reflect the customary pompousness of an inflated mental instrument, a mind in love with its meagre light, of which the individual submerged in Science is usually the victim. Rather, salvation can only come by a true widening, by which the truths of both spirit and matter are known. To seek to eschew the undeniable spiritual and occult experiences (called mystical and parapsychological by Sperry) of scores of people throughout the ages in favour of a one-dimensional, narrow and uninspiring concentration on the physical/mental strata solely, is, to say the least, a more presumptuous form of bigotry.
In another of his letters, Sri Aurobindo makes clear the distinction that is paramount in this matter, the line he draws between the change that can be brought about on the basis of traditional spirituality, in contrast to the ‘supramental transformation’ his work has introduced. This distinction is essential to understand because in it lies the answer we seek concerning the failure of the efforts of countless Indian gurus to alter the patterns of evolution in any significant way and thus deter us from the apparent collision course we are on. The supramental transformation, as Sri Aurobindo points out, engages the outer nature of the aspirant in the process of change along with the inner and spiritual dimensions of the being. This is its notable difference. And it is especially because of this that the Supermind can bring about a real and effective change on Earth, since it embraces the totality of the being and the surroundingcircumstances of life in the operation.
‘If spiritual and supramental were the same thing, as you say my readers imagine, then all the sages and devotees and Yogis and Sadhaks throughout the ages would have been supramental beings and all I have written about the Supermind would be so much superfluous stuff, useless and otiose. Anybody who had spiritual experiences would then be a supramental being; the Ashram would be chock-full of supramental beings and every other Ashram in India also. Spiritual experiences can fix themselves in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like; one can realise the Divine everywhere, the Self in all and all in the Self, the universal Shakti doing all things; one can feel merged in the Cosmic Self or full of ecstatic Bhakti or Ananda. But one may and usually does still go on in the outer parts of Nature thinking with the intellect or at best the intuitive mind, willing with a mental will, feeling joy and sorrow on the vital surface, undergoing physical afflictions and suffering from the struggle of life in the body with death and disease. The change then only will be that the inner self will watch all that without getting disturbed or bewildered, with a perfect equality, taking it as an inevitable part of Nature, inevitable at least so long as one does not withdraw to the Self out of Nature. That is not the transformation I envisage. It is quite another power of knowledge, another kind of will, another luminous nature of emotion and aesthesis, another constitution of the physical consciousness that must come in by the supramental change.’
(Ibid, pages 111-112.)
The key here is the emphasis on a new development in a world hitherto thought to have reached the summit of the spiritual pursuit, in which the integral scope of the endeavour permits the practitioner of the Yoga to withstand a certain impact – if it may be so called – on the inner dimensions from the powers contained in the more external strata. Until now, the only way to withstand this overpowering onslaught has been by a withdrawal of the consciousness. Thus when the propagators of Eastern mysticism and spirituality voyage to the West and seek to confront that power in its own domain, so to speak, with the old formula of withdrawal, the result is either a complete or partial degeneration of the teachings, or else a submission to the lures the materialist world offers in abundance. In this neither spirit nor matter is the victor. The truth is rather that they end by destroying or at best weakening each other through a process of either top dog bullying or underdog undermining, to use a current description of western psychology.
The truth of the Spirit, upholder of this material manifestation, is an eternal unfolding of Itself into the myriad forms of our universe, – like a rose that from a perfectly formed bud blossoms into its full and ravishing beauty, each stage in its flowering being as perfect as the former. And yet something increases, something is added by this unfolding of an ever-perfect splendour. Our experience of God is like the blossoming rose – a perfection to an ever greater perfection, never static, ever dynamic, as Truth always discloses more sublime aspects of itself.
This is the essence of Being, Sat of the Hindu tradition. Sat, pure existence is the absolute Truth, the infinitesimal Seed at the core of material creation. It is not religious dogma, so often called absolute truth by the zealots. Dogma is not being and hence can never be an absolute. But a rose engaged in the becoming of perfect and increasingly perfect form, is expressing that state of Being – that absoluteness. Even in its withering it never loses the grace of its essential and spontaneous perfection of being.
On this foundation we must build the bridge that unites East and West: on the solid rock of an eternal but ever unfolding, integral Truth.
Those who have followed my work in India since 1971 through a number of published books, and more recently also through blogs, articles and videos (aeoncentre1-youtube channel) online, can join with me in acknowledging that the Indo-American tie-up has been long overdue. I described its inevitability via perceptions gleaned on the basis of a new paradigm offered to the people of India and the world. For the first time we have at our disposal an Indo-centric applied cosmology as the background for our analyses that provides a very different understanding of world affairs, insofar as they were always viewed through the Euro-centric prism; but there are certain aspects to the current rapprochement that enhance our earlier perceptions. In this paradigm one of its outstanding features is the manner in which America is shown to form an axis with India in both time and space. To present factual examples of the applicability of the new cosmology, in Chapter 15 of The Gnostic Circle, entitled ‘The United States of America and India’, in 1974 I wrote the following, revealing far deeper commonalities between the two than simply the largest and oldest democracies:
The United States of America is of course a very important element in the Earth’s evolution at present. Together with India it forms the evolutionary axis of Cancer and Capricorn that has often been referred to in this text. Capricorn [Makar] is India’s occult sign, and Cancer is the Sun sign of the United States [based on its July 4th independence date]; these together represent the axis of Spirit and Matter which is now carrying the evolution. It is around these two nations that the future of humanity’s growth into a more divine species largely depends. Both must pass through ‘labour pains’ as described for Tibet. India must become ‘materialised’ and the United States must awaken to the Spirit. If neither of these fulfils its destiny there is no possibility of a transformation on Earth. It is also essential that the two nations realise their union and come to the point where they shall work in harmony with one another in order that the new reign upon Earth can become established, for it is no coincidence that Columbus in 1492 thought he had reached India in his travels and called the natives of the land Indians… (p.181)
Following the publication of The Gnostic Circle in 1975 this theme has run through all the discoveries I have made since then; there was nothing to change that perception – rather, it has been enhanced over the years. I had even written to leading politicians of the day in the same vein, notwithstanding the compunctions of the Cold War and the fact that Richard Nixon had just a few years earlier sent the 7th Fleet into the Bay of Bengal in support of Pakistan in its war against India and the rebellion of its then eastern wing.
…I spoke to you of the necessity of India and the USA coming closer. The reason for making such a statement is not some sentimental fantasy on my part, rather it corresponds to a cosmic working which, when realised, would signify the ultimate victory of Truth. To explain briefly: India and USA form a ‘pole’, occultly, cosmically and physically. This is the pole of Spirit and Matter, respectively. To those who have an inner vision of things this is obvious, but I must point out that this Pole is a world reality as well. India is of the sign Capricorn; the USA is of the sign Cancer. These are opposite signs and this would make them complements in this ‘occult’ pole. Yet this Pole is what I have called the ‘Axis of Evolution’, for it is also the very axis of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. In July, the month of Cancer, the Earth moves farthest away from the Sun. In January (Capricorn) it is closest, and this becomes then the physical axis of the orbit and hence of the evolution. We see that even in the development of our 20th Century civilisation this has been the case. USA is the prime representative of the materialistic consciousness, of Science, of Matter. India is the prime representative, as she has been for aeons, of the Spiritual Reality, and this has been her major contribution to the world. But we must understand that Spirit and Matter are one, and it is the discovery of this oneness that the world is now experiencing. If these two countries would somehow come together in this understanding, support each other, and work in harmony and unity, it would mean that the Earth would be able to live through these trying moments and come to the true spiritual age that is before us. I must point out also that these two nations are also ends of the Pole that pierces the very planet we inhabit. They stand back to back on the globe; we could say, it is a question that now they must stand ‘face to face’ rather. USA must come ultimately to recognise the value of India and that only by giving it full support can anything truly great for the Earth be accomplished. The Mother has arranged things in a perfect fashion, for all the events help to bring this about. I feel that the fall of South East Asia will inevitably bring USA to reconsider its position with regard to India; it will be obliged to ‘court her’…otherwise…China? (Private correspondence dated 18.4.1975, published in Tenth Day of Victory, Volume 2, Book One, Aeon Books, 2014.)
It is one thing to jump on the bandwagon today when the efforts of past labours are bearing overt results. The most difficult part of the labour was completed long before India and the world realised what was being done, for it is not limited to India. It is important to review those efforts because they began in the late 19th Century and continued through the 20th, unbeknown to even close observers of the political or spiritual scenes, and have finally culminated in this 21st Century as it transpires before our eyes in India and before the eyes of the world.
To illustrate, it was the labour of Vishnu’s 9th Avatar, Sri Aurobindo, that made it possible for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare that ‘India would be clean by 2019’, in his recent public appearances precisely in the USA. He referred to Mahatma Gandhi in the context of his championing the cause of cleanliness – a clean India which we all deeply desire on more levels than one. However, Gandhi was in a sense jumping the gun because he did not go to the root of the problem – he could not, because it was not his dharma to do so. In his day the cleanliness situation was bad enough; therefore, he himself took on tasks traditionally reserved for certain sections of the society so as to convey the message forcefully. With the increase in population since then, the lack of sanitation and hygiene has become overwhelming. But it must be noted that while these efforts were necessary they could not bear results unless the root cause of the filth that India has become was addressed.
I have written extensively on this ‘original cause’, and since that was dealt with successfully over the past century and into this 21st without interruption, one can rejoice today when Prime Minister Modi lauds Mahatma Gandhi and declares that he will take up the baton of cleanliness and sanitation, no doubt believing that it all started with Gandhi’s campaign.
What was the original cause? If we follow the thread we will see that it was cemented in the spiritual consciousness of the civilisation over 2000 years ago; moreover, it lay at the basis of every successful invasion and colonisation ever since. This understanding is reached today only if we manage to enlarge our view of evolution to include matters of the spirit as well as material. Both evolve, pari passu in fact. The evolution of the Spirit is the driving force of the material. Without it we would, as an evolving world, collapse into the ‘nothingness’ Science and even certain spiritual greats cherish dearly.
This first cause was a pernicious undermining in the spiritual domain that began approximately around the time the world entered the 9th Manifestation in 234 BCE, marking a stark departure from the realisations of the Rishis in the Vedic Age. The arrival of Vishnu’s 9th Avatar was due on the scene some 2100 years thereafter, during Vishnu’s gunaic/zodiacal period of Sattva/Preservation; more particularly, when the cosmic clock marked arrival at the borderline between the Age of Pisces and into our current Aquarian Age in 1926. From that point onward the stage was set on the subcontinent for all the elements to be put in place for India to play her destined role as centre of the 9th Manifestation comprising 6480 years – a duty for which she is eminently prepared: India is required to work out the dark patches in the collective consciousness of the subcontinent which are representative of the energy knots in the global consciousness, or in the aura of the Earth herself, if you will.
What was the original cause that finally, after two millennia, has come to be reflected in the filth that none have wished to see or to acknowledge as Prime Minister Modi has done, an individual aptly suited to the task, being born in the zodiacal sign of Virgo (see Chapter 6, The Magical Carousel, PNB, Aeon Books, where the characteristics of Virgo are embodied in none other than Miss Lily Spotless!)? The cause lay in the direction yogic and philosophic systems cemented in the spiritual consciousness of the civilisation as the be-all and end-all of every quest from the time of Gautam the Buddha. Simply put, it was Otherworldliness.1 A ‘seed’ was planted that undermined the Earth-centred quest of the Vedic Age as described in the Rig Veda, the world’s oldest scripture and the bedrock of the civilisation even today, though it has moved so far away from that Earth-centred direction to find itself unable even to satisfactorily decipher the treasure left to us by the Rishis. The good news is that this decline, this degeneration that has become so evident in the physical through the filth that we cannot ignore and that welcomes every visitor to India today, is part of the system of renewal and re-establishment of the eternal Dharma. And it is eternal only because of this in-built method of renewal, because only by renewal has it escaped fossilisation.
In a nutshell, this is the task of the Vishnu Avatars. The national Epics describe the life and times of the 7th and 8th in the Line of Ten. Today we have the grace to be born during the period of Vishnu’s 9th, Sri Aurobindo, some 6000 years after the last. The soil for his appearance was prepared by two spiritual giants of Bengal, just prior to his 1872 birth, Sri Ramakrishna (1836) and Swami Vivekananda (1863). In The Gnostic Circle I drew the connection more emphatically, in the process revealing the remarkable consistency in these matters Vedic:
…In the lives of these three there are significant dates which show us the important role they play. Ramakrishna was born with the Sun in Aquarius, in opposition to India’s new birth sign, Leo, and he left his body on August 16th, just an hour or so after the date of India’s independence, August 15.2 Vivekananda was born with the Sun in Capricorn, in opposition to the sign of America, Cancer, and he left his body on July 4th, the date of the American Independence … Ramakrishna’s incarnation was necessary for India’s spiritual awakening, and Vivekananda brought the word to America and planted the seeds of Vedanta in that country. (Ibid, p.182.)
Only those who have experienced at close hand the labour of reversal, as I have called it, can understand what a colossal task this has been. It entailed reversing an otherworldly goal and positing that as the ultimate attainment of any spiritual quest, because that created a split in an area that had never suffered a severance of this order. The Vedic Age was characterised by a seamless unity between Spirit and Matter. There was recognition of the various planes of consciousness, or sheaths that constitute both the individual and collective consciousness-being, but never a linear, polar positioning. It is to be noted that this linearity has plagued not only the subcontinent but the entire world. Those ancient civilisations that shared the unity poise in time and space, all succumbed to the same undermining in the Age of Pisces as India has; none survived, none were able to fend off the onslaught of Otherworldliness until finally this projection culminated in some of the major religions of the world, all of which arose in the past Age of Pisces, all of which enjoin their followers to aspire for salvation and ultimate fulfilment in heaven after death. In other words, this planet can never provide that fulfilment.
Bharat did survive and in spite of the degeneration could keep the thread more or less intact because of a system that allowed India to do so over vast evolutionary cycles of time – the Vishnu Line of Ten, backbone of Hinduism.
Conditions for dealing with what I have called a tendency in the human constitution were in place by entry into the Aquarian Age in 1926 – and this includes Partition, the contours of which began to take shape around that time. These conditions allowed for the 9th to begin the task of uprooting the cause of the decline. The task set before him was to reverse that trend and ultimately to extirpate the tendency of escape to realms beyond, entirely due to the state of incompletion of the human species. Therefore, together with reversal he had to establish in the evolutionary matrix what was lacking to cause the problem in the first place. This was the truth-conscious Supermind, the next level in human evolution. Each of Vishnu’s emanations has had a similar task – that is, the cementing of a particular feature of the human species in an ascending order, because of which Sri Aurobindo called the Line of Ten a parable of evolution. The consequence in India of the tendency to focus on the Beyond away from our planetary base, and thereby bringing about a de facto split between Spirit and Matter, was that the energies of hundreds, if not thousands of realised beings upon which the transformation of the human species depends, were withdrawn from the evolutionary drive. Eventually this withdrawal percolated through all the planes of consciousness down to the physical, the abandonment of which resulted in what we see today. The new, post-Vedic postulation was, simply put, all that is in motion – ergo, the material universe – is mere illusion. Up there in the Self, in the Spirit lies the only reality – a proposition significantly boosted by contemporary particle physics. Bharat thus lost a grip on the physical dimension. It was just a question of time before that physical would be abused to the intolerable level we witness today. Is it not incongruous that the nation acknowledged to have reached spiritual peaks as no other should also hold the distinction of today being the filthiest? India’s ruling zodiacal sign can perhaps give us the answer in its mystic imagery. Capricorn is depicted as the mountain goat with the tail of a fish. This image conveys the connected heights and depths. The time has come to reach a deeper understanding of the symbol when we learn that Capricorn is the sign of the Earth’s soul.
No one now sees the filth; it is just the way things are because it has been a slow and steady decline over centuries. Another aspect of the abuse is corruption, perhaps worst of all; it too is now just the way things are. For there is no store of those finer spiritual energies available, accompanied by the purposefulness required to eliminate the evidence of this abandonment. It is as if a gap exists in the human constitution through which energies are seeped away. This has allowed the physical body of Bharat Mata to display the problem for all those who have the courage to search beneath the surface debacle and reach what Sri Aurobindo called, a falsehood planted…at the very root of things, in his poem, ‘A God’s Labour’,
…A voice cried. ‘Go where none have gone! Dig deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.’
I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep On the Dragon’s outspread wings.
I left the surface gods of mind And life’s unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body’s alleys blind To the nether mysteries.
I have delved through the dumb Earth’s dreadful heart And heard her black mass’ bell I have seen the source whence her agonies part And the inner reason of hell.
Above me the dragon murmurs moan And the goblin voices flit; I have pierced the Void where Thought was born, I have walked in the bottomless pit…
By undoing that knot the rest could then find its place. Well meaning souls could shout till the proverbial cows come home, but until the labour of the 9th was completed, no efforts could bring concrete results.
This work is done; the reversal stands cemented in the evolutionary matrix. In February of 2014 the final ingredient was added to the alchemy and the sacred labour was completed. A Zero-Seed was planted within the prescribed harmony of Time and Space so that, through the Vedic laws of equivalency and correspondence the poisons in the Earth sheath of the past 300 years, further compacted into 30 years, to be further condensed, by the same laws, into 3 years, and finally 3 months (February to May) – were at last extirpated from the body of the Mother that is Bharat. The external evidence was that for the first time since 1984 – precisely 30 years ago – majority rule resulted from the electoral process on May 26, 2014, a majority none expected. This was the signal of a job well done behind the scenes, so to speak; the surface, in a connected, seamless consciousness, displayed this accomplishment, to remind us once again of that underlying drive with a purpose. This is not an unconscious, mindless creation and evolutionary process: there is a divine Purpose at the root of everything material and spiritual. Thus, that compacted Vedic Zero-Seed planted at a specially selected geographic position, directly aligned with the physical source of Ganga, was a womb which, like the poison accumulated in Shiva’s throat at the great Churning, served to gather within itself the compacted poison of centuries and, once and for all, cast it out of the body of the Mother, rendering it truly sacred again.
These are facts not theories or idealistic imaginings. When the Avatar’s labour covers all four dimensions – spiritual, mental, vital, physical – only then can we proclaim the work to be done, the direction to be reversed irrevocably; and the actors are now in place who can carry the fruit of that hidden labour into the dimension that people the world over can relate to: the material plane of the physical consciousness.
This is India’s response to the Aquarian wave that has swept across the globe awakening the masses to their rightful place beneath the Aquarian Sun. It is a revolution Indian-style. In this context, the coming together of America and India is not left to governments alone. The driving force in response to the Aquarian ideal is the people of both nations, and all nations. This was amply displayed in Madison Square Garden on 28 September 2014, a drive that extends well beyond the confabulations of the governments of the day. Exactly 43 years ago on this very date the final ingredients were drawn into India to assure this great victory of the people of both continents as an inevitable consequence the gnostic wheel of Time sets in motion when its divine purpose is accepted as a legitimate part of the Earth’s fulfilment. Today one leader plays the role the Divine Shakti commands, tomorrow it will be another. Her will prevails and we are blessed to participate in the manifestation of her Power that we have just seen Indian-Americans display in the United States of America.
‘At present mankind is undergoing an evolutionary crisis in which is concealed a choice of its destiny…’
‘…The significance of our existence here determines our destiny: that destiny is something that already exists in us as a necessity and a potentiality, the necessity of our being’s secret and emergent reality, a truth of its potentialities that is being worked out; both, though not yet realised, are even now implied in what has been already manifested. If there is a Being that is becoming, a Reality of existence that is unrolling itself in Time, what that being, that reality secretly is what we have to become, and so to become is our life’s significance.’
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 28
‘…This fullness of the means of life might be, by its power for a release from the incessant unsatisfied stress of his economic and physical needs, an opportunity for the full pursuit of other and greater aims surpassing the material existence, for the discovery of a higher truth and good and beauty, for the discovery of a greater and diviner spirit which would intervene and use life for a higher perfection of the being; but it is being used instead for the multiplication of new wants and an aggressive expansion of the collective ego.’
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 28
I write these lines in the United States of America, the nation whose coming into existence changed the face of the world. For a new world was indeed born, where new energies could find their freedom of expression, largely unburdened by the weight of past traditions.
The impression of a new and vibrant vitality is unmistakable in America, as anyone coming from an older, ancient civilisation can affirm when entering within the borders of this vast country. Indeed, one feels ‘burdenless’, and this creates the impression that anything is possible in the United States, the impossible appears totally possible, the attainable is there for all to attain. This is so largely because one is free of the weight of the past.
In terms of the new way, this condition is especially meaningful. I have delved deeply into the question of ‘time energy’. By specific yogic processes it was discovered that the experience of time ― the lived experience of conscious awareness, on this planet, in our particular physical bodies ― revolves around the question of energy, much as all else in this universe. Time is energy, or the executive force of Consciousness. As Sri Aurobindo wrote in Savitri: ‘The executor of my will, eternal Time.’
But an experience lived in an unconscious state, with half or more of the energies of the being asleep, results in the fact that time begins to condense energy within one’s consciousness-being. Consequently, one way in which we can describe the ego is by this formulation: the ego is the pivot formed by those accumulated, unresolved substances that come into being because of a wrong poise of the consciousness of the individual, whereby the time energies of the past form a ‘knot’ and pull the being off centre. That is, one lives one’s life pivoting this off-centre, which is the dross of our experience in time. The past becomes thus our prison. It is the burden we carry and which nails us to our cross in the lowest chakra.
Certain Yogas have sought to release this energy by various techniques which would bring about enlightenment. Tantra is one such path. The rise of the Kundalini in Tantra Yoga is one method to bring about a release. But there are certain limitations in the Tantric and Kundalini Yogas which I have described in the third volume of The New Way. Suffice to say here that seers have long been aware of this ‘knotted energy’ — or the coiled Serpent at the base of the spine. The ego’s pivot, and hence the pivot of the present human race, is the sex centre. Consequently, we have the Left-Handed path of Tantra which seeks to utilise the sex act for the attainment of its highest goal.
This is the situation for each human being born in a human body on this planet. But it is also applicable to nations. Some nations are tremendously burdened by the past, to such an extent that in order to free themselves from these shackles, they do so by seeking to obliterate them completely. China is one example offering this type of resolution, in that it has dramatically cut away its past and introduced a new order. But there are others as well. In the Middle Ages we find that Islam stepped in to fill a void it had created by a similar act of cutting away the existing order. And what was once there, a force of the new, has today become a conservative power of the past.
The United States of America does not have this burden, but because of this we find an interesting situation prevailing, perhaps even more interesting in view of the astrological sign that rules the nation, — Cancer. This sign describes the ego pivot, given the present condition of the race. That is, it is the sign that describes where and when the separation occurs in the evolution of consciousness that permits an individual to emerge. In our present condition of incompletion and unenlightenment, and our difficulty in dealing with time energy in a manner which would allow for a gnostic race to come into being, Cancer thus describes the ego pivot. Hence it is the sign of the past in astrological tradition, and also the ‘end of life’ period and the ‘tomb’. Its hieroglyphic symbol pictures the void we orbit as a race, an ‘empty centre’. And indeed the past is like a black hole; it consumes precious time energy, the lack of which keeps us from enjoying a state of immortal being.
America is representative of this condition because though she does not carry the burden of the past, yet she pivots a certain void. Other nations fill that void with traditions that have accumulated and which eventually become forces of inertia. This, however, the United States has not been permitted to do. The nation has only a short history of barely 200 years, and this short span covers precisely the period of history that saw tremendous upheavals the world over with respect to tradition and continuity.
America is indeed part of the ‘new world’. But in the context of this work, we may use this term as synonymous with ‘the new creation’. That is, this is a global condition and the time of the discovery of America marked the period when a ‘new world’ was being born on Earth, involving the whole planet. The coming into being of the United States as a nation in 1776 (a year of 3 power according to the mathematics of unity) was part of the foundation-laying for a new world order. But an essential ingredient in this order is a vision of oneness and unity. When these become firm pillars of our seeing and are applied to international affairs, then a new world order will take the place of the divisive oldness we live at present.
This vision of oneness and unity must permeate all aspects of life, the individual’s daily experience as well as relations between nations. Similarly, it must refashion our vision of the zodiacal wheel. For the condition that assails us of an incomplete experience of time, forces a separative vision of the wheel; and this creates a fragmented view of the zodiacal signs, whereby each is analysed in isolation of the rest. But with the new perceptive faculties now emerging, such as the Mind of Light, (see TVN 0/2, December 1985) this limitation is overcome. Accompanying the vision of planetary oneness there is a seeing of the integrated, united zodiac. Thus Cancer is no longer a sign separate from the rest, since that would then describe the ‘void’ central to the old creation and hence be productive of the off-centre pivot in the individual; and consequently it would be the sign representing the ego. Any nation, therefore, ruled by Cancer during times when these perceptive limitations prevailed on Earth, would suffer also from the severe limitations the ego would impose. (The several bouts with isolationist policies that the United States has experienced would indicate the old poise and an ‘unintegrated’ Cancer influence.)
However, the United States of America is one of the nations at the forefront of the new world order, and she came into being precisely when those first foundations of human unity and global oneness were being laid. The last three centuries of this millennium are ushering in a radically different harmony among nations and individuals; and the final three decades of this century are carrying this process to its culmination. Consequently, America’s rulership by Cancer carries a different significance. The void is still central, this is a fact, but not having tradition to fill it, the nation has come to express another attribute of the sign: Change. The result is a country caught up in a process of compulsive change, attempts to fill the void. The economic system America champions in the world is also strongly coloured by this factor, since the consumerist society is one that feeds on this need. New products must be churned out with relentless fury to replace old ones; and this, when accompanied by sophisticated marketing and advertising techniques, drives the public to desire ever better products with an insatiable appetite. The new technology is heightening this condition because daily new inventions render obsolete those of yesterday. The consumer is thus driven along on the crests of this compulsive wave of change.
Yet this situation lies very close to the key purpose for America’s existence, her true dharma, we may say. It is a very special attribute that she offers the world and represents her contribution to the symphony of nations, and in particular for the new world order that is upon us. This drive to renew, rather than a clinging to tradition and the ways of the past, is the expression of her Cancer heritage. But since this is a harmony of the One and the Many, one cannot appreciate this heritage and contribution unless the vision of oneness replaces the old seeing. Thus Cancer in the new holistic vision would not be the ego, if taken in conjunction with the other signs, all constituting one evolutionary ‘journey’, one united and connected process. More pointedly, Cancer must be viewed in conjunction with the sign that stands opposite on the wheel, Capricorn. We then find that these two poles form one axis, so to speak. Capricorn then fills that void with the stable core that it provides, for that is its dharma; while Cancer offers to Capricorn the essential ingredient it needs: the drive to renew, to change, without which the stability of Capricorn would become its power of undoing by virtue of a stagnation of energies.
India is known to be ruled by Capricorn, and within the symphony of nations she does provide us with that stable core, which has resulted in the fact that India has given the world so many philosophical systems and spiritual paths and leaders. But a harmonious interchange between these two nations, India and America, is essential now, especially for the latter, which has yet to fulfil her dharma. The United States may have been born as an independent nation in 1776, that year of 3 power, but her journey in the discovery of her soul is still incomplete. Likewise, though India — the new India — was born in 1947, also a year of 3 power, she too awaits the moment of her psychic fulfilment.
Both nations have reached a very important crossroads, and this has become especially apparent to me in my recent travels in the United States. But opposing any true expression of the American soul are forces of inertia which are making a concerted effort to fill that central void. The rise of conservatism in this decade, accompanied by a phenomenal increase in fundamentalism, indicates that occult forces are seeking to draw America away from her true destiny, — a destiny which in fact she has not yet fulfilled.
This of course may be said of all nations: none have fulfilled their destinies. It may be said of the entire Earth. The planet stands at a formidable crossroads: on one side lies collapse, caving in of energies, destruction, and on the other we find the new creation which the Earth is meant to house and which is the true and sole reason for her existence. This planet is to provide the physical base for this evolution to a higher species and a gnostic society.
The turning point America (and India) faces, is thus the same the whole Earth faces. What is going to emerge? Out of this great churning will the Earth’s soul be victorious and her child live and take his place in the complete harmony of the System? Or will the forces of Inertia prevail and cast this new creation into the black hole of the past, aborting the birth of the One Earth and the harmonious interrelations between nations and between individuals?
It is clear that this crucial juncture is upon us as a species, as a planet. There is no longer any possibility of an individual salvation, — read ‘escape’. It is abundantly evident that isolated parts cannot disengage themselves from this decisive reckoning. Thus the critical juncture that America faces expresses the turning point of our entire civilisation. What is to come? What is, in the first place, the real nature of the victory?
This may be said to be the central issue of the present discussion, and about which we seek to be very clear. At stake is the destiny of an entire civilisation. But more than that, it is the destiny of a planet. The decisive moment of which we are witnesses and participants, concerns the unveiling of the Earth’s soul.
In our racial memories we carry truth-seeings of our planetary psychic being. These have been conveyed in various ways and handed down throughout the Ages, — in epics, myths, or in records left by individual seers of their truth perceptions which all traditions have preserved. These are veiled prophetic glimpses, of seeings into that soul dimension. Yet the difference with our times is of capital importance. We are now living the actual Birth, a condition which the world has not known prior to our Age. Or if it has in the endless recurring cycles of Time, that event has receded deep into our collective unconscious. We have lost the living and conscious connection with that planetary condition. Some [people?] attempt to reconstruct this past, to ferret out traces of cultures and civilisations which seem to indicate that the Earth has known the full birth of her soul. But I am not especially concerned with what might have been thousands of years ago. I am solely concerned with the actual birth we are living now; and I realise that the times we live in are, for this reason, the most glorious and exciting that our race has living memory of. We are experiencing that great Birth. We have the possibility to be conscious participants in this unique event. For out of the labour pains of our times, the new creation emerges. Can there be any more sublime grace than to be offered by destiny the possibility of a conscious participation in this revolutionising happening?
An event of such phenomenal importance and proportions is clearly a global involvement, concerning nations and individuals. Therefore, if one observes world events with the eye of a new Seeing, enlightened by this faculty of clear vision, they take on a different meaning. We view then in a new perspective. Accordingly, this introduces a heightened sense of responsibility. For example, the turning point that the United States faces becomes a matter of deepest concern for all nations and people. We cannot stand aloof from the consequences a wrong turn at this stage would signify. In addition, a true spiritual insight reveals that the old methods for dealing with our problems are not adequate to influence events and people or change the course of destiny during this entirely new Birth. To seek to usher in the new Creation requires a new way, a new process. And this is what we are concerned with primarily. It is more than clear that the right course is not going to be found in the old paths of the spirit, nor through the already outdated solutions science and political ideologies provide. Rather, it is abundantly clear that a new consciousness has to come into being which can deal with the tremendous mental development of the human race, — the major conditioning factor of our civilisation. That is, a supramental change has to come about — or rather, is coming about. And we seek to become more conscious instruments in this great Change.
However, this requires special Knowledge. In my travels in America, I have been able to observe that there exists a decided immaturity in questions of Spirit. Unlike India where for thousands of years sages, seers, and yogis have been exploring all the existent dimensions open to the individual in his or her quest for Truth — from the highest reaches of the spirit, down through the innumerable occult planes and into the physical — , America is barely at the first portal in this investigation. Consequently, I have found that this lack of a precise Knowledge about those subtle, occult dimensions and the forces working therein has placed in jeopardy the realisation of the country’s higher potential. I feel that this matter is serious enough to merit a somewhat detailed discussion, and it is my hope that an explanation of the nature of the problem will help to arrest an incipient wrong turn and guide those individuals who could provide a certain amount of precious energies for the great Change back to the safe and real path of the Earth’s own way.
A great wave is sweeping over America, dispersing energies and creating a considerable amount of confusion among seekers regarding the nation’s true role in the new dispensation that the Earth stands poised to experience. This is occurring because, as mentioned, there is very little real understanding of the true nature of the occult dimensions that surround us, — those subtle dimensions with their respective forces, entities, and so forth, that ‘fold into’ the physical, and permeate it. These entities seek to mould the consciousness of the people in ‘their own image’, quite simply. Yet they have no real role to play in this manifestation; or rather, no directional role.
This has presently reached alarming proportions. One of its main expressions is the rampant influences these occult forces have acquired by means of mediumistic channels — be this either through automatic writing, the pendulum, the planchette, or simply a ‘source’ speaking through a sensitive, all of which are means to receive ‘messages’ from disembodied entities. There are many ways to receive such communications, but the actual methods are unimportant. The resultant communications are, however, a matter of deep concern to anyone knowledgeable about such matters.
The position needs to be explained in greater detail. In an integral path, and above all a supramental manifestation which presupposes an integration of all levels of the being, from the subtlest realms of the Spirit to the densest dimensions of material creation, it is not possible to brush aside the occult realms and all their intermediate planes as ‘illusory’, or to consider them plagued by the scourge of impermanency and hence to be dismissed as unreal. This has been done in the past. In fact, all spiritual disciplines and philosophies have propagated this view in one way or another. They all prescribe an extra-cosmic apotheosis, and in so doing the question of knowledge about the occult planes becomes irrelevant, since the Cosmic Body of the Mother is dismissed as ‘unreal’. The aim is to escape those subtle as well as physical planes, which are labelled Illusion, or Maya. This attitude is reflected in zodiacal tradition by the aforementioned separation between Cancer and Capricorn. By this divisive view, Cancer then becomes Diti of Vedic tradition, the Mother of darkness and division. Aditi, the unifying Mother, only comes into being when this point is joined in the perceptive vision to Capricorn.
In calling creation ‘illusion’, this has not freed the race from an interpenetration by the occult forces of this physical dimension. In fact, today we find that this disregard fostered by the spiritual authorities has created fertile ground for occult forces to influence happenings on the planet and they have come to wield considerable power over people, especially those engaged in a quest for Truth. It is not that those forces can effectively impede the new Birth, or even that they care to do so. What is happening, however, and which is truly lamentable, is that channels that could serve the Divine as instruments for the Supramental Change are being taken over by these powers of lesser significance; and worse yet, they are cajoled into believing that they are those chosen instruments utilised for this change.
I must point out that this is not a new phenomenon. In India the role of these forces has long been accurately known. But what is new is the all-pervasiveness of the happening. Yet Tantra, for instance, is a specialised Indian path with a specific body of knowledge concerning those occult realms. Indeed, any path that places the Divine Mother on its central altar of worship — such as the Tantric and ancient Vedic — perforce has to accept the reality of those innumerable occult dimensions that constitute Her consciousness-being. In her cosmic form she is the Body of the Absolute; and even as our own physical bodies contain subtle as well as denser material sheaths, so too does the Cosmic Mother’s ‘body’ embrace these same dimensions in macrocosmic proportions. Consequently, in the Supramental Yoga, in which the union with the Divine Shakti is paramount, it is not possible to either deny or ignore the existence of those occult planes with the forces that inhabit them.
However, it must be cautioned that an even more finely honed discrimination is required in this new path, insofar as it harmonises both the individual and the collectivity and by consequence it integrates all aspects of existence. This means that in the Supramental Manifestation, we cannot disengage the individual from the circumscribing collective consciousness. It is all one. Thus the phenomenon of communicating with the occult entities we are describing is of major concern to us since it is a primary influence today in the nation that has a special role to play in the dawning new creation.
These occult forces are seeking to gain influence on Earth by usurping certain channels, and especially by using the extensive communications network for the express purpose of extending their influence as widely as possible. At stake is the destiny of the planet. Is she to be the home of the supramental creation and thus fulfil her true destiny, or are those forces going to succeed in disfiguring the message and usurping the individual channels and moulding the vision into their lesser image? Each force in those planes attempts to do just that. The proverbial war between the Dark and the Light revolves finally around this conflict: the dark simply represents those forces of Inertia which strive to impede the forward movement and the establishment of the New. They are those blocked energies of the Past that resist change at all cost. And the seeker today faces an arduous task, for those influences come under the guise of the Good. It may also be said that as far as those entities are concerned, given the limited knowledge they possess, they are good. But as far as this work is concerned, though we must agree that a certain goodness exists, in the context of the new creation, what does ‘good’ really mean?
The point to bring forth here is that what may have been valid and true in ages past is not necessarily the light of today. Quite the contrary. Or what might be valid and true for another galaxy in another star system, may not be relevant and healthy for this planet, Earth. But let us briefly analyse this situation.
The Supramental Creation is a thing indigenous to planet Earth. Therefore it emerges from this planet’s own consciousness-being and in harmony with her own evolutionary laws. Via these laws that new creation comes into being, therefore resulting in an expression of the Earth’s particular and unique inherent Truth-essence, — not something imposed from outside, no matter how romantic such interventions may appear to our fanciful and imaginative tastes. It may be safely stated that the salient feature of this new creation is precisely a society in which each individual and every aspect of that society expresses their inherent truth of being.
One aspect that is perhaps the central ingredient in this evolutionary development is the gestation and birth process. The cycle of 9 is thus fundamental and it is the means used to create a new blueprint of the new consciousness to establish new ‘forms’. Therefore to expect that this new world is to come into being on Earth through channels external to that process and through guidance from other galaxies, or by the help of guidance from the occult dimensions through any particular ‘source’, is to fail to understand the real process and its full mechanism for introducing change.
The forces in these other dimensions are typal entities (see TVN 1/3; Sri Aurobindo on the Supramental Evolution). They are not engaged in this sort of evolutionary process. Yet they do seek to spread their ‘word’ on this planet, in this physical dimension, a fact which is made especially evident today by the great proliferation of mediums and ‘sources’. But lacking the capacity to discriminate on those planes, the seeker in America is being drawn into an area of occultism that can be extremely dangerous for the layman who has no secure grounding in the knowledge required to deal with those planes and forces. This situation has long been appreciated in India, and from very ancient times a distinction was made between spiritual attainments and the occult. In addition, it has always been recognised that to attain any proficiency in occultism a specialised preparation is required, and, in particular, the guidance of a trusted and reliable master or guru, to assist the disciple in the early stages in order to avoid a catastrophic possession by the forces operating in the occult planes.
To illustrate, I would like to reproduce a portion from a Tantric text that deals with this matter. It cautions the seeker on the spiritual path and lays bare the dangers one faces. The same advice can be extended to seekers in America, who unquestioningly accept all that comes through occult channels. The passage is from, The Ten GreatCosmic Powers, by S. Shankaranarayanan, (Dipti Publications), page 2:
‘…There is a regular hierarchy of Gods, some of whom are far above the highest heavens of human reach. But there are also Gods and Goddesses closer to the human level. They are more readily accessible to those who aspire to them and in some cases the seeker on the Tantric path looks to the aid and lead of these deities in his effort. They are endowed with capacities and powers beyond normal human possibility, but they are not at all for that reason divine in nature. There are higher and lower classes of them, ucca and ksudra Devatas. Those that are nearest to the earth-plane, swarming in the vital world overtopping the physical, are usually of the latter type. They respond very readily to the approaches of those who seek their help but they do so mainly for their own purpose, namely, to get hold of the particular human vehicle and convert it into a centre for their activity on the earth. They may and do answer the call of the seeker in the beginning, but in the end they let him down, rather roughly, once their purpose is fulfilled. The seeker is mislead, his inner progress comes to a standstill if it does not end in disaster. The Kshudra Devatas mislead the seeker with petty glamorous gifts, induce a false sense of progress and siddhi, prevent the dawn of real Jnana [knowledge] which would expose their whole game and succeed in enslaving the man for their purpose at the cost of his soul which is betrayed into misadventure.’
In addition to the above, I would like to draw the reader’s attention to the article that appeared in this Newsletter, 0/3, February 1986, on Pendulums, Planchettes and Automatic Writing.
To conclude, it is clear that the time has come for the American seeker to extend his or her boundaries, to begin to forge truly secure foundations in a more central domain of Truth-Seeing. During my travels it became apparent that a certain saturation had taken place; it was abundantly clear that something else has to manifest now, something that represents the culmination of two decades of intense involvement with the paths of the Spirit, something that in fact can reconcile the two poles of existence — the material and the spiritual — and which are translated into our life on this planet as the presently antagonistic poises of change and stability. For us at this time, one of the most relevant attributes of the Supermind is its inherent harmonisation of these two aspects of universal manifestation, and the new way has evolved as a tool to apply this higher principle in our individual and collective lives. This path is universal in its scope, as well as the language that characterises it, and by means of which it extends its influence in the world. It was born on Earth and is of the Earth. There is no question of its subjugation to the dictates of beings from other galaxies, or entities from the occult dimensions; nor is it dependent on sanction from disembodied spirits whose consciousnesses ‘on the other side’ retain the same limitations as when they were embodied on this planet. Nonetheless, this is indeed a vision connected with certain higher planes of consciousness, those realms of the Truth-Consciousness, as Sri Aurobindo described them. But these are intrinsic parts of the Earth’s own inherent truth of being. The Supermind is the mode by which the connection with the Absolute is made, as it is for each individual born on this planet.
India can provide the central stable core with its spiritual foundation and mature knowledge and wisdom born of the ages. But America must contribute the element of change and force of renewal, an element which is essential in any creation in matter. A forging of an axis of this sort, balancing change and stability, is the means by which an integrated new creation, expressing itself individually and collectively, can come about and hasten the establishment on Earth of the life divine.
Kodaikanal, August, 1986
A silent Cause divine…
A silent Cause divine Has settled in my heart From where a laughter mocks The busyness without.
No movement now, Mobility coils out from one point: A vibrant core of quiet joy, A snow-white ocean of fathomless Power.
Gone, gone the asking Gone the yearning. Nothing but that Cause remains. Silent, impeccable and alone.
‘…A new spiritual awakening must arise from the depths of this vast life that shall this time more successfully include in its scope the great problems of earthly life as well as those of the soul and its transmundane destinies, an awakening that shall ally itself closely with the renascent spiritual seeking of the West and with its yearning for the perfection of the human race. This third and as yet unknown quantity is indeed the force needed throughout the East. For at present we have only two extremes of a conservative immobility and incompetence imprisoned in the shell of past conventions and a progressive force hardly less blind and ineffectual because second-hand and merely imitative of nineteenth-century Europe, with a vague floating mass of uncertainty in between…’.
Sri Aurobindo CE, Volume 16, page 327
Civilisations evolve religions out of a perception of a certain metaphysical or cosmic order. Or else, the cosmos acts as a screen onto which an order is projected that has evolved out of the religious experience. This, in turn, finds itself reflected in different forms of government, more or less faithful images of that higher perception. Though we may seek to disconnect models of government from the religious experience, in an age which appears to have exceeded the boundaries of old and in the effort to secularise society, a deeper study of the matter does reveal the connection.
To illustrate, Semitic religions, whose influence has spread across the entire globe largely through colonial conquests, have a monotheistic conceptual basis. This ONE GOD then evolved into the monarch and later the president. Below this single Godhead there are the angels in Middle Eastern religions, and the pattern extends to governing bodies via the prime minister, ministers of state, and so forth, – executors of the commands of an all-powerful divine General.
A hardening of the structure has often come about. Fascist and communist regimes of the 20th Century are examples of this degeneration, for in the monotheistic model there are no attenuating, harmonising and balancing forces. The divine General lacks the other two aspects of the trinity, as equal powers, which do indeed prevent the degeneration of a process which bears a respect for the cosmic triune play of energy: CREATION, PRESERVATION and DESTRUCTION. This triadic compound is the true reality of the cosmos, describing the macrocosmos as well as the microcosmos. Upon this play of energy the whole of creation is balanced.
Two of these interacting forces are feminine in quality. In pre-Christian times this fact was expressed in the Greek myth of Demeter, the Divine Mother, and her daughter, Persephone. Joining them in the action was Pluto, thus completing the triune expression of positive and negative interacting and mutually sustaining forces. When these balancing, attenuating forces are eliminated from the pantheon, and this is carried over to governing bodies, it is understandable that a brittleness sets in and despotism of various degrees is the outcome. The dictator is the result of a monotheistic religious model which leaves salvation in the hands of a one God, masculine, wrathful, almighty, and a jealous guard of his all-inclusive rule.
In our 20th Century, secularism evolved when finally the hold of religion began to give way and society sought to disconnect it entirely from the processes of government. Indeed, the religious experience was seen to be unable to inspire the correct order which could accommodate and express a truth that harmonises. Thus, to all appearances, the West and all the governments it has provided models for across the globe, staunchly uphold the division of State and Religion. But a more penetrating observation discloses that the separation is in name only, and perhaps in law: the essence of government and the forms it produces are direct products of a metaphysical perception.
There are examples of the link between government and religion even today in the ‘secular’ West. Switzerland, to name one country, has only very recently granted women the right to vote, having withheld this right on the basis of its Calvinistic interpretation of the Bible, with certain cantons still adamantly refusing to concede what the courts are now seeking to impose.
Indeed, a force moves across the globe urging a release of those long pent-up feminine energies. This is primarily reflected in feminist campaigns for the liberation and uplift of women, similar to the Swiss development; or else there are the environmentalist movements, the save-the-Earth drives which receive more energy and commitment daily. The world is now being forced to accept the existence of these powers and to integrate them somehow into the existing order. But the governing bodies of Semitic inspiration are not reflective of this triune play of energy, hence we observe a state of flux and sometimes collapse when the resulting brittleness reaches an extreme. Or else these drives create a greater resistance and consequently a more intensive effort at suppression of feminine powers. In the sphere of religion itself, fundamentalist responses are always a reaction to the urge for change and the experience of integration and wholeness.
In the Middle East, cradle of the monotheistic tradition, this development has reached an extreme in certain quasi theocratic regimes where women are excluded from any form of effective participation in government. In Pakistan this is now a dominant issue insofar as the Sharia Law is about to be adopted, accompanied by a specific injunction barring women from the right to occupy the highest offices of government, being considered unfit to rule according to the scriptures. These regimes, through fundamentalist, proselytising agencies, seek to foist their divisive framework onto societies whose foundational perceptions are entirely different from the Semitic. Whenever these agents have been successful, we witness a schism: models of government out of tune with the nation’s cultural foundation. A prime example is India.
Rigid fundamentalist responses to change are simply indications that indeed the old order is collapsing. Throughout the world the call is for a new order, and none can now silence this fervent appeal. At the same time, societies are in a state of turmoil precisely because the lines of this Order are unknown; or else the imposition of an order alien to the indigenous soul persists, though colonial rule has ceased to hold sway, through patterns of thought perpetuated by an intelligentsia held prisoner of this bygone rule, acting as agent for a system totally alien to the national soul, the finer points of which these intellectuals themselves ignore.
To a certain extent the United States of America presents a divergence to the rule of a progressively hardening structure degenerating into despotic rule, simply because it has a specific role to play in this 9th Manifestation. America’s essential truth of being is a binary expression, perhaps the purest model to be found on the globe today. Its religious experience of a Semitic origin is expressed in the office of president very faithfully, but the more important feature is the binary party system which has its roots in a stark divide in the early perception of reality, positioning God on one side of the cosmic fence and Satan on the other, in eternal confrontation and struggle for supremacy. In other words, they stand as two basic forces in ceaseless opposition and mutual antagonism. In spite of numerous efforts to break this pattern and to introduce a third or more parties, these have never been successful. The USA has remained thoroughly entrenched in its binary system because indeed it represents the truth of the national soul and its contribution to the global harmony. At the same time, in this epoch, when a force of unity and integration is moving across the globe, we witness stresses on that system with the Republican Party virtually gaining a monopoly through successive re-elections with apparently no breakthrough in sight for the Democrats. Nonetheless, in Congress and the Senate the binary party system continues to function with an admirable degree of proficiency.
Yet, what might be true for one nation may not hold for another. The legacies of colonial rule are in evidence in most nations in the world. As in the case of India, they bear little relation to the soul of the nations colonised. They were imported models forcibly imposed, covertly or overtly. For this reason we see the world in the process of regurgitating all the concepts on which those governments had been based. The outcome of this worldwide movement is certain to be a new world order for there are breakdowns, stresses, pressures for change felt everywhere.
We are interested in the nature, the texture of that emerging Order because the New Way is a heralding voice of that superior expression. It has provided a model of a new order taken from the cosmic harmony which is its inspiration. Its order is hence of universal relevance and not in the least sectarian and divisive. Its essence is triune, or the harmonious balance of the triune powers of creation. Thus, using the formulas of the new way Cosmology, in this essay we shall present an example of 1) India’s higher seeing and the features which distinguish it from the Semitic model; 2) how this seeing has played itself out in India in the political sphere, though ostensibly the nation has adopted the Semitic model in contrast to the ancient Hindu formula; and 3) how 20th Century secularism impedes a competent resolution of the problems the Semitic model created in the nation, to the point where the entire edifice of modern India stands on the brink of a catastrophic collapse.
The long slumber of the soul of India
If the West evolved its political framework out of its perception of ‘heaven’ – often a euphemism for the cosmos divested of the sacredness of the Divine Mother once she had been relegated to the inferno of man’s suppressed desires and libido – the East has equally produced its contemporary order. But here we encounter an interesting phenomenon. India has never really displayed this order in the more recent historic period, having been saddled with foreign rule for the past thousand and more years. Nonetheless, Hindu civilisation has nurtured this order and kept it alive in subterranean levels of the consciousness of its people. This is because, come what may and in spite of innumerable fierce attempts to destroy its vision of wholeness, it has been maintained by the nation’s obsession with the cosmic harmony. Even today, western rationalism and Bible-thumping zealots notwithstanding, great store is placed in the validity of certain minor aspects of cosmic harmonies, namely astrology and other forecasting arts. In addition, India has used these harmonies to record its history in a language which evolved for that purpose. The Puranas, for example, express this cosmic truth. These ‘myths’ serve a purpose which has not been fully appreciated in modern India: they preserve the Cosmic Truth which is the basis of the new world order. While the West and the Middle East experienced the destruction of a unified perception and consciousness, which relegated the Divine Mother to the position of an Eve, evil temptress and responsible for all mankind’s woes, and in the process eliminated the Feminine Principle entirely from its civilisational expressions, so too India experienced the same severance – or at least a nearly successful attempt to split asunder the consciousness of unity which has always characterised the Indian spiritual genius. Indeed, the philosophical fragmentation has been reflected in the violation of the wholeness of the geographical body of Mother India. Thus, if Partition can be taken as a pointer, the attempt appears to have succeeded, and on a certain level of physical existence we are forced to admit that this splitting apart has taken its toll and appears now irreversible. But, is this entirely true?
To arrive at certain conclusions we must analyse the present position in the light of developments in this century which involve the political and spiritual manifestations of that cosmic harmony. At the outset one factor becomes clear: India had been suppressed by extraneous foreign and colonial rule only until the time when this superior pattern, this cosmic truth of her higher destiny had begun to play itself out. This means that for many centuries, indeed for several millennia, nothing of this cosmic truth escaped an imprisonment Time had demanded and maintained. However, the general lines of this pattern were preserved intact in the Puranas.
We are discussing the flow of Time over millennia. At the same time, we have narrowed our vision like a microscope and zeroed into this century where, in a nuclear time-space, physical and temporal, we observe that sacred Secret playing itself out. We see the truth of the Puranas cast into the political/spiritual pattern upon which the new India has been moulded. More astoundingly, we see it clearly and unmistakably reflected in the very geography of the subcontinental land-mass.
The discernible play-out began in 1857 with the Sepoy Rebellion or India’s first war of independence from colonial rule. Ninety years later, in 1947, that independence from the colonial power would become an historical fact. But ‘independence’ reflected the unconsciousness of the process: India’s physically dismembered condition is simply an expression of a process not whole, involving much unconsciousness in the executing instruments and an ‘order’ imposed upon the new India which does not bear a direct relation to that cosmic Harmony.
We can appreciate the gravity of the situation when we understand that the political order of the West reflects that civilisation’s religious perception. We know that the Indian perception is markedly different from the Western, of Middle-Eastern origin. Yet India has adopted a political system which is an import from that world very far removed from her reality. What, precisely, is left out? It is that very mother, – yet we go on invoking Bharatmata, or Mother India. Thus, we are not surprised to observe that the physical body of the ‘new’ India presents a dismembering of the Mother. The geographical condition simply describes the condition of India’s contemporary political and social order.
At the same time, in a paradoxical manner so much in keeping with the abounding paradoxes one is faced with daily in the Indian subcontinent, the awakened consciousness of the Indian spirit which we may call the Hindu Soul, for want of a better expression, has already revealed itself faithful to the unified perception of that ancient Vision. It has been the reflection of the Puranic cosmic truth in spite of surface appearances; or rather, that Truth has played itself out negatively though with immaculate precision.
The structure of the collection of Puranas provides the key, which none suspect exists and which has therefore served as its means of protection and preservation. Thus the Puranas have a triune structure: 18 books divided into 3 groups of 6. Each 6-section belongs to a particular aspect of the essential Trinity – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, or Creation, Preservation and Destruct ion. This same triadic play is more pointedly connected to the Mother through the gunas (energy flows) of the Tradition: Rajas, Sattwa and Tamas – again, Creation, Preservation and Destruction. This very same trinity forms the basis of astrology as it is practised throughout the world.
These triune groupings are the woof and warp of Hindu philosophies and systems of yoga. They are also the woof and warp of India’s political order via the Nehru Lunar Line of three (plus a fourth ‘one’). The accurateness of this pattern is empirically verifiable. The birthdates of the members of this Line provide the harmonic key: 9 and 6 and 3: the Trinity manifest. (See The New Way, Volume l; TVN 0/1) The cosmic harmony of our solar system given exquisitely faithful reproduction on Earth.
Nonetheless, the situation is problematic. The imported political structure bears little relation to that harmony ‘up above’. It does not describe a triune conglomerate of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, but harkens rather to a Semitic monolithic Godhead, a one God and no other, to the point where it denies the manifold expressions of the Divine Mother as reflected explicitly in its condemnation of ‘idol worship’. Contemporary India followed suit. Thus, we have witnessed the rise of organisations such as the Arya Samaj, a clear example of the subjugation of the Hindu perception of the cosmic Truth in its integral form to the imported religious experience of the Middle East and Western nations with their insistence on a stark monolithic truth, at war with the many-faceted reality of the Divine Mother’s vast Being.
Predictably, this exclusiveness and damning of the multiplicity of creation was inflicted upon the planet itself in an on-going war with Mother Nature, or the ecological collapse of our planet Earth.
Vedic India knew no such war. It expressed the integral realisation, – a harmony of God, Nature and the human being, or the Transcendent, the Cosmic and the Individual Divine. This was its foundational seeing; this remains the basis of the Hindu perception of reality. But where is the political order to express this indigenous seeing?
Over the centuries India has experienced continuous attacks on this original Vision – a vision that must form the recognised foundation upon which the new India is built, as well as the anticipated new order that is global. But, let us be clear, it is not HINDUISM that becomes that global order. It is the cosmic truth. Whoever has not realised that Truth cannot comprehend the universal character of Hinduism and its destiny of world affirmation. This affirmation will not be labelled ‘Hindu’. It will be simply that Truth, that impersonal face of the cosmic harmony manifesting in each nation in a progressive unfolding according to the ever-widening eye of its collective perception. This ‘infiltration’ by the Cosmic Truth – which began with the accelerated spread of the Indian spiritual vision throughout the world in the 1960s – brought about a gradual undermining of those old structures based on divisiveness and a separative perception of reality. Creation is seen as a wholeness of the triune manifestation, as the One and the Many, as a superb unity in diversity. The destiny of India is to spread the vision of this truth-seeing, not under the label of Hinduism but as the Cosmic Truth, a perception which then pierces the veils that hold back the energies concentrated in the Vision and these then find manifold avenues and patterns of eternally-renewing expressions.
Indeed the old order is crumbling. But it is merely the beginning. At present we are simply witnessing the collapse of very basic elements which in their continued existence will not permit the ‘infiltration’ of the Cosmic Truth. We have yet to witness overtly the formulas themselves which will evolve in those nations once the transitional period has been successfully surpassed and the channels of expression of that Truth begin to manifest.
Similarly, there is a crumbling of inadequate structures in India. Indeed, the nation seems to be disintegrating. It was predictable. It is inevitable. The existing order is inadequate to express the Vedic Seeing. It served its noble purpose during India’s transitional phase, but its limits have now been reached, in time and in the lived experience of India society. The time has indeed come for the true new order to be unveiled.
We emphasis unveiled, because like Shiva’s mighty and invincible Son, Guha, the Hidden One, the superlative Secret of the most profound secrets of Hinduism, the new order already exists in India. The travails of the present are simply experiences in this act of unveiling, in becoming conscious and whole, in granting to that Cosmic Vision a manifest vehicle of Truth which is able to unify the formidable diversity that is India.
The Vision that Illumines
The world order which was established at the close of the Second World War is crumbling, in India and beyond. The central focus of that order was the threat of communism and political systems in a number of countries were a reactionary response to that threat. Hence these systems were externally imposed. One very clear example is Italy. Having as it does a special relationship with India in esoteric tradition, Italy’s case history is particularly relevant. For we note that a crossroads has been reached there as well. Apart from revealing a chronic instability – the rise and fall of no less than fifty governments since the end of the War – Italy’s north now seeks to establish a certain independence from the south. The outcome of this movement and its effects on the newly-united Italian nation promise to be significant. As has been rightfully pointed out by political analysts, the demise of communism had a particularly hard effect on Italian politics, given the fact that the constitution and political structure adopted at the fall of Fascist Italy, bore this focus foremost: the threat of communism and its containment. Now that this threat has dissolved, the entire structure upon which it stood is threatened with collapse.
This is the situation we encounter throughout the world, and it is this circumstance which is the cause for the present strife and turmoil: artificial structures were adopted, systems which bore scant relation to the soul of the nations. India’s condition is not an isolated one. We may cite any number of similar situations where national ‘orders’ were the outcome of external conditions and not true and free internal movements and expressions. Constitutions and socio-political systems were devised in reaction to those externals almost exclusively. Even the national borders were determined by extraneous considerations. Such has been the legacy of colonialism throughout the world; and in this assessment we include the special brand of colonialism of both the USSR in Eastern Europe, and the USA in Latin America.
It is now openly accepted and stated in India that ‘something else’ must evolve to replace the constitution and parliamentary democracy which the nation adopted almost in its entirety from Great Britain. The loud invective is heard, COMMUNAL!, for any attempt to unveil another order, more attuned to the national soul. The death of secularism is bemoaned and the attempt to establish a ‘Hindu Rastra’ is frantically opposed and labelled retrograde.
The reply to these castigations and lamentations must necessarily be that the affairs of the nation have been in the hands of those ‘secular forces’ for decades. Independent India has never experienced anything else. Therefore, if the country is today faced with communalism, desecularisation, disintegration, and the opposite of any true integration, it is this secular mindset that must be held responsible. We must therefore question its efficacy and legitimacy and cease avoiding this badly needed introspection.
However, an introspection of the sort required at present is not advisable when it is a speculative, intellectual exercise – those which continue to abound. That is, analysts turn round and round on a wheel of nothingness with a void as its hub. These attempts to probe the failures of the system are thus always negative. It is similar to dissecting a corpse rather than the examination of a living body. We may uncover the reason for a fatal disease in dissecting the corpse, but we cannot pretend that this will replace a vision of its living truth. The implication is that introspection must have a centre, a focus – indeed, a vision. It is that vision which illumines our penetration. Without the light of this vision we simply engage in endless speculative gyrations in a mind-boggling labyrinth, apportioning the blame here or there. Introspection can only be a valid exercise when a clear focus exists. That focus in this case is the living pulse of the soul of India, with its mathematical avenues of expression, as the light which illuminates the causes for the failure of the old order. Without that we simply construct another model as a result of our introspection which will once again bear a central void in place of the living and pulsating soul of Bharat Mata. Because of this it has been stated time and again that the new world order can only arise on the basis of knowledge, the fruit of a very precise ACT OF SEEING, by persons of Knowledge.
Aids are provided for this purpose, born in the midst of intensely concentrated states of higher awareness. These revelations act as Philosopher’s Stones in our introspection. They reveal that India, unlike any other nation in the world, is not only a consciousness of the Divine Mother on Earth, but her very PHYSICAL being, her geography, proves that she is the earthly representative of that Mother. The key of Knowledge for this higher perception is the Capricorn hieroglyph (ruler of India) superimposed on the map of her integral Body. We may use this in our present analysis as we have done on numerous occasions in the past, this key being a ceaseless self-replenishing source, and we shall see that even in her disintegration there is a control that is a superb reflection of the Cosmic Truth. This superior tool of perception can, by consequence, reveal the path we must take toemerge from the present prison of unknowing.
Disintegration shows the way
Wholeness, an integration of a trifold manifestation is the way. But what are we faced with today? We have anything but wholeness. We have a truncated physical nation – but that is not enough. The subtle energy sheath of Bharat Mata is riddled with holes and in parts devastatingly dismembered. Massive portions have been severed from the Body, torn out of the sheath at crucial points. This is also the result of the external system imposed upon the civilisation. The results are mathematical. One clear example may suffice because it is of such crucial importance at present.
The inadequate brand of Gandhian non-violence permitted the body of Bharat Mata to be torn asunder at the time of Partition, and, lamentably, its effects continue to be felt in the nation. India, because of this inadequate perception, became a victim of an emasculated energy base. In terms of its ancient heritage, this meant that the concept of non-violence struck a critical, almost fatal blow at the Kshatriya (warrior/ruler) segment of Indian civilisation. This having been the case, what are the results today? We have the ‘defenders of the Dharma’, as the Sikhs have been traditionally called, not exerting themselves in the defence of this Dharma in the direction it should go, but twisted, turned back upon itself. This question of energies turning back upon themselves is the mathematical part of the process. We shall now explore it in depth.
Originally Sikhism arose not as a religion, let us be clear, but as an organisation within the Kshatriya caste for the defence of the Dharma in the wake of relentless onslaughts from the North West of forces seeking to implant in India a foreign culture and faith. The Sikhs stood at the frontier of Bharat Mata, face to face with that invading and corrosive element, at the point where it had entered. On the Symbol-Map, this would be in the Rajas portion of the subtle energy sheath (see page 10). They still occupy that same physical position, pushed back to the new frontier at the time of Partition. But what transpired after that initial moment of truthfulness, of faithfulness to their inherent dharma and the blessed expression of that Kshatriya energy?
With the completion of the Line of Ten Gurus, we see those corrosive invading seeds taking their toll and the Sikh religion came formally into being, separate from the cultural identity of the greater body. This crystallised as a reaction to that invading ideology rather than a true expression of the Kshatriya soul (numerous elements of its belief system and ritual attest to this fact). We are justified in asking how this came to pass. The answer is given in the sacred Symbol-Map of a united subcontinent and its projection of wholeness and integrated, integral seeing.
Thus, on the basis of the Symbol-Map, we note that at the other end, the North East, another corrosive substance had entered, through the Tamas portion of the subtle energy sheath. The British came originally through what is now Calcutta, and this invasion through the Tamas section forced the Hindu Soul more cunningly than ever into the cramped space of the religious consciousness. Its effects have been more devastating than the Islamic attack on the wellspring of Warrior energies. The Sikhs were caught in this crunch when the inadequate brand of non-violence was imposed upon the nation and the Sikh Dharma had no proper outlet of expression, or felt itself a victim of an inexpressible undermining.
Partition reflected the same turning back upon itself of that energy. The forces which might have been directed toward the colonial aggressor were blocked, suppressed, emasculated. The mathematical effect was a collapse of energies. That is, those frontier pillars of strength fell into the central void of where the Dharma is ‘preserved’. The impact of this collapse of energies in the subtle sheath of the nation brought a convulsive turn of Indian upon Indian rather than a concentrated, unified thrust of a county whole and integral in its energy body to oust the invading virus. It is similar to a disease attacking the immune system – indeed, AIDS is the utterly perfect symbol. The body of Bharat Mata lost its defences. Those ‘warrior cells’ were undermined throughout the breadth of the land, just as the immune system is undermined in AIDS. The Body from that time onwards succumbed to one disease after another. Continuing into the present, at both ends of the nation there are seepages of energy, escapes which at the same time permit entries of new viral hordes. These, it must be emphasised, enter and attack the health of the Body because of internal causes. The system breaks down, caves in upon itself, immunity fails from causes inherent in the body itself. The result is compulsive auto-destruction.
The suppression at the time it was most needed of these ‘warrior cells’ forced them to turn back upon the system – i,e., the main body – for they had no other legitimate outlet. The bloodshed of Partition was one such expression, but only the first in a long series of energy collapses. The process is mathematical, I hasten to repeat. Thus, the Sikh revolt of today, ostensibly for economic and political grievances, is a predictable development, the result of a denial of the truth of the Kshatriya dharma in the fourfold division of the civilisation’s consciousness-being, a division taken directly from the cosmic harmony, an expression, faithful and pure, of the Cosmic Truth. A denial of this sort perforce affects the entire nation since the Body and its presiding consciousness-force is an integral whole.
Sri Aurobindo once remarked that Gandhi was a Christian soul in an Indian body. Gandhi represented the prevailing conditions at the time of British rule, when the nation had failed to recognise and respond to the Supramental Avatar and aligned itself solely with the agents of the Lunar Line; it was thus a partial expression of the greater vision.
Gandhi, like the Sikhs in reaction to Islam, evolved a formula for the independence struggle which was primarily Christian in its flavour – ethical and moral (its main ingredient was a Christian-inspired manipulation of guilt) – but bearing no essential connection to the soul of the new India because the ancient foundation had long since been corroded upon which the new was to arise. The infiltration and its consequences on the national psyche became reflected in the physical Body, resulting in a dismembering entirely representative of this disintegration in the energy sheath.
This sheath is threefold and fourfold in its structure. It has ever been the basis of the Hindu Dharma. The Kshatriya element of the fourfold energy body bears a connection to the sexual expression of a civilisation or an individual. Thus, in the Rajas portion of Bharat Mata we encounter a very virile force, not merely in evidence in the North-western male, but in the female as well. Indeed we see the symbol materialised with an astounding accuracy when we note that while Gandhi attacked the Kshatriya segment of the energy sheath through his policy of non-violence, throughout his entire adult life until the time of his demise, he grappled with this unruly energy within his own being. He admitted that he had not succeeded in his self-styled methods to dominate his sexual nature, while he also seems to have stated that had he done so he would have succeeded single-handed in ousting the British.
The connection Gandhi made was valid, but his ignorance of the Integral Yoga and the work of the Supramental Avatar, while nonetheless finding himself at the helm of the movement, has left the nation with this shadowy legacy of incompletion and half truths. At this point the Government of India is expected to deal with that ‘unruly energy’ in its collective expression (one of which is terrorism, we may add), in such a manner that its policies will integrate it into the larger body of Bharat Mata and in that integration allow it its correct expression. But failing to appreciate and discuss the real flaws, how can a solution come about?
The Kshatriya element, like all the other segments of the fourfold sheath of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, must be allowed to express legitimately its dharma: the protection of Bharat Mata, similar to a healthy immune system in a body invaded by a virus. Instead, this ancient tradition must surely have felt itself undermined and relegated to an inferior status, for it is only such a deep-rooted frustration, impossible to express in the context of present-day secular India, that can account for the ferocity of the Sikh uprising and the determination to secede of a portion of the community’s members – precisely its virile youth – rather than the ‘grievances’ which appear on the surface to have caused the degenerated expression of that vir dharma.
The Government must act in this unclear atmosphere – unclear about the REAL causes of the disease; and similar to the administration of antibiotics, a violent suppression of the immune system of this order results in an enhancement of the invading virus by INCREASING the resistance of the body to the medicine. Thus, every remedy applied of this inadequate sort, based on retrogressive methods and not enlightened approaches to health and well-being, simply serves to fortify the resistance, or drive it to lower layers of the collective subconscious where it accumulates power (toxins) and returns at a later period to disrupt the Body’s harmony once more. None can deny that the nation faces precisely this unfortunate situation: whatever measures are taken merely enhance resistance and increase the efficacy of the destructive power.
Thus, in the subtle body of Bharat Mata these warrior cells were suppressed and controlled artificially by the imposition of a will acting in opposition to the inherent Cosmic Truth, with the predictable result that they now attack the central Body rather than the invading viruses on the frontier; indeed, equally predictably, the rebel cells align themselves with the invaders to add vigour to the viral attack. The Body no longer has the capacity to fight off invasions of this sort; it can only turn back upon itself and eat itself away. The result is collapse, collapse, collapse in an unending inward convulsion.
Interestingly, these two northern segments of the nation, ruled by Rajas and Tamas gunas, are important sources of economic support for the main Body. The Punjab stands in the forefront of the nation’s agricultural production, while Assam contributes considerably to the production of oil and the benefits accrued in terms of foreign exchange which its tea industry provides. Secessionist movements in these areas thus have the potential of striking deadly blows at the economy of the country, and it stands to reason that the inputs from those segments, Rajas and Tamas, will be critically affected as the collapse of energies quickens.
The Birth of the Cosmic Ignorance
In spite of these undeniable facts based on an integral perception of the Indian Reality, we are faced with a society which persists in denying its own soul-truth. The ‘Hindu Dharma’ is simply an expression, in its integral form, of the Cosmic Truth. But due to the inadequacies mentioned above which permitted the invasion of viruses, that Cosmic Truth became the shadow of itself – i.e., the Cosmic Ignorance. Indeed, the ancient Vedic Knowledge in its practical application was lost, and the keys which allowed this truth to provide the formulas for management of the civilisation along those higher lines became buried beneath a thick crust of ignorance. This was a process slow in developing, straddling many centuries. The first symptoms of the disease could be detected at the time of Gautam the Buddha, the ‘ruse of the Supreme’, the underminer of the Dharma (see Part I of this series, TVN 5/6). The Buddha played a pivotal role in the collapse of energies we witness today. This original undermining brought about a gradual disintegration in the spiritual dimension of Bharat Mata: energies began to collapse into a Nirvanic Void. They were thrust into the cosmic waste bin or ‘black hole’, and the nation was thus deprived of the only energy which could counteract the future invasion of ‘foreign bodies’. By the early centuries of the Christian era – the ‘Dark Ages’ – this withering away of spiritual force, this emasculation of the spiritual consciousness brought the same results as the emasculation of the Kshatriya element in contemporary Indian society. Consequently, it is not surprising that the Supramental Avatar was born into a Kshatriya family rather than a Brahmin. To arrest the decline in the realm of the Spirit, no less than in the more material realms, only those warrior energies will suffice.
We have thus far discussed the collapse due to faults in the Rajas and Tamas sections of the subcontinental Symbol-Map. We have not yet dealt with the central guna, Sattwa, or Preservation, though in this area of our discussion we are confronted with an equally important ‘symbol’, as irrefutable in its connections as the former two. For where have those viral seeds the Buddha planted some 2000 years ago settled? They were collected centuries ago in an especially significant location in the Symbol-Map: the lowermost tip of the descending ‘V’. Thus there too – indeed, most important of all in the esoteric sense – we encounter a gap, a point of seepage in the pocket of energy-mass we know today as Sri Lanka.
The drainage is thus at all three points of the Guna-Map of Rajas, Sattwa, and Tamas: the North West, the North East, and the deep, deep South…where the Dharma is ‘preserved’.
In Tamil Nadu the effects of this drainage are almost physically palpable, as if a deadly corrosive element were eating away at the bowels of the Body. Indeed, its effects upon the system are predictable. From time to time poisonous fumes emanate from this deepest-most pocket. They cloud the atmosphere periodically and on an increasing scale. These toxic fumes arise from this deep pit and infiltrate the entire Body with devastating results.
The central portion of Bharat Mata is ruled by the guna of Preservation, Sattwa. But preservation of what? The Hindu Dharma, of course, – or the Cosmic Truth. What is the channel or instrument of expression on Earth, in a physical embodiment, of that cosmic Truth? It is the Soul, the Atman. The power of Mahakal, the Time-Spirit operates through the psychic construct of the individual and collectivity to establish its heaven (the Cosmic Truth) upon this planet Earth. The secret goal of our Age is the ‘marriage’ of that Heaven and this Earth. But, as the ancient Veda prescribes…a new heaven and a new earth.
The Buddhist realisation, at a predictable moment in the evolution of the species, cast the first effective undermining seeds into the Body of Bharat Mata. It attacked precisely this channel: it denied the individual soul.
This is the poison that lodged itself in the pit of the Body, at the deepest heart of the Preservation Guna. Without this formidable happening some 2000 years ago, the North-Western and North-Eastern infiltrations could never have taken place. The foundations of the civilisation had to be undermined, which in the Symbol-Map are located in the deepest portion of the ‘V’, those energies which alone can preserve the Dharma. The other, uppermost portions of the Body which sustain themselves on these support pillars can suffer collapse only after the Preservation Guna is attacked and not before.
It was thus in this deepest southern Sattwa region that the great defender of the Dharma arose, Shankara. But what was his ‘defence’, at a time when the shadowy mantle of the Dark Ages had already settled over the soul of the nation? Shankara merely ‘integrated’ the Buddhist realisation of the Void into the Hindu Dharma; and while not its complete abrogation, the soul was relegated to an entirely inferior status in the spiritual echelon. Shankara carried those seeds, impeccable instrument that he was, from the deep south to the four corners of the Body. The result was the first clear and unmistakable sign of the loss of the Cosmic Truth. It was then that the nation became the representative on Earth of the Cosmic Ignorance and no longer the higher Vedic reality. Thus the Divine Maya of the ancient Veda became Shankara’s ‘Maya’, or Illusion, devoid of any divine attributes. For all practical purposes, she became the temptress Eve, the weaver of the veils of illusion and the cunning power which binds the human being to this woeful evolution, prisoner of his atavistic drives in the fruitless cycles of birth and rebirth. The cleavage in the energy body of the civilisation was complete: on the one side was ranged the Spirit, on the other Matter. And the toxic fumes from the chasm in between never cease to emit their corrosive substances to cloud perception of the higher Truth.
Shankara, like all superior souls, could not fail to be faithful to the Time-Spirit: he could ‘see’ only what the divine Power permitted, in an Age characterised by a dimming of the light, a first perceptible decline in the Dharma.
Thus, in present-day Tamil Nadu we observe a situation similar in some ways to the North. We witness the largely Hindu Tamils at the frontier, standing in opposition to the Buddhist Sinhalese. To appearances the struggle is ethnic, social and political. But this is simply because the channel provided for the struggle is the external political dimension. The spiritual channel to deal with the true issue is closed – or rather, hidden.
The ‘Bottomless Pit’
The base for the Supramental Avatar was carefully selected. It lay in the southern sector of Bharat Mata – in order to deal with those toxic fumes which no politician can possibly detect much less understand. That ‘sattwic’ portion of the Body requires a YOGIC defence, hidden from the eye of the uninitiated. Therefore Tamil Nadu preserves the nation’s most important, most meaningful and determining worship for the new India – that of Murugan or Kartikeya, or Guha, the Hidden One. His work is symbolised by the description of the 10th Evolutionary Avatar, Kalki, with sword in hand and mounted on a white steed: Kshatriya symbols. Indeed, all the prominent players mentioned were Kshatriyas. The Buddha belonged to this caste also, who had usurped the place of the true 9th Avatar, Sri Aurobindo, himself a Kshatriya. But in the yogic experience of higher expressions of energy interaction, how is that warrior force to be exercised? In the case in reference we have Sri Aurobindo’s explanation of the method as well as the struggle, recorded in his most autobiographical poem, ‘A God’s Labour’. Here are some of its verses:
All around is darkness and strife;
For the lamps that men call suns
Are but half way gleams on this stumbling life
Cast by the Undying Ones.
Man lights his little torches of hope
That lead to a failing edge;
A fragment of Truth is his widest scope,
An inn his pilgrimage.
The Truth of truths men fear and deny,
The Light of lights they refuse;
To ignorant gods they lift their cry
Or a demon altar choose.
All that was found must again be sought,
Each enemy slain revives,
Each battle for ever is fought and refought
Through vistas of fruitless lives.
My gaping wounds are a thousand and one
And the Titan kings assail,
But I cannot rest till my task is done
And wrought the eternal will.
How they mock and sneer, both devils and men!
‘Thy hope is Chimera’s head
Painting the sky with its fiery stain;
Thou shalt fail and thy words lie dead.
‘Who art thou that babblest of heavenly ease
And joy and golden room
To us who are waifs on inconscient seas
And bound to life’s iron doom?
‘This earth is ours, a field of Night
For our petty flickering fires.
How shall it brook the sacred Light
Or suffer a god’s desires?
‘Come, let us slay him and end his course!
Then shall our hearts have release
From the burden and call of his glory and force
And the curb of his wide white peace.’
But the god is there in my mortal breast
Who wrestles with error and fate
And tramples a road through mire and waste
For the nameless Immaculate.
A voice cried, ‘Go where none have gone!
Dig deeper, deeper yet
Till thou reach the grim foundation stone
And knock at the keyless gate.’
I saw that a falsehood was planted deep
At the very root of things
Where the grey Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep
On the Dragon’s outspread wings.
I left the surface gods of mind
And life’s unsatisfied seas
And plunged through the body’s alleys blind
To the nether mysteries.
I have delved through the dumb Earth’s dreadful heart
And heard her black mass’ bell
I have seen the source whence her agonies part
And the inner reason of hell.
Above me the dragon murmurs moan
And the goblin voices flit;
I have pierced the Void where Thought was born,
I have walked in the bottomless pit…
Sri Aurobindo writes of the ‘bottomless pit’. In the occult Body of the nation, it is precisely where he established his counterattack, his yogic realisation, together with the Mother’s. The first trinity of his Line set about their work in this lowermost area and injected an antidote into the bowels of Bharat Mata – into the ‘bottomless pit’ where the Void had consolidated its seeping stronghold in the body of the Dharma.
Yet all is still very much hidden. Thus this play-out continues to be a reflection of the Cosmic Ignorance and not the Cosmic Truth, and it is composed of suffering, bloodshed, schism, disintegration – all the trappings of that Ignorance.
To counteract this the Kshatriya element is needed not merely in the physical realm proper but in the spiritual. Mind is the bane of the human being. The Void is the experience of a species balanced on a precarious binary structure where Mind is the regent and the soul is denied…in Sri Aurobindo’s words, ‘the Void where Thought was born’. The Supramental Avatar, 9th in the Line of the ten, came to dislodge the usurper and to re-establish the Dharma in the only way that it could be done: to undermine the Void itself. And the location for this exercise was the South in the Preservation/Sattwa guna, right where the original invading virus had been collected and firmly lodged.
Courage is needed in this exercise – the courage of the Divine Warrior. To see what is, to express that profound Seeing fearlessly, and to refashion the new India on this foundation of Cosmic Truth.
The play is no longer quite so hidden, however. The Act of Seeing has lifted many veils from the Hidden One, exposing in greater measure the divine Truth. It is seen increasingly to shape even the most material and apparently insignificant aspects of daily life. To illustrate, a massive statue of the Buddha sinks to the bottom of the sea in Andhra Pradesh in 1990, while the Chief Minister of the state had previously declared that the project of installing the statue, inherited from his predecessor, would ‘sink the economy of the State’, – almost as if his words became a spell and played itself out most physically, driving the statue to its watery grave. People justifiably question how so noble a project could display such a merciless lack of divine blessings. In the light of what is written in this essay, one must question the wisdom of such projects being left to the discretion of secular leaders who have no deeper understanding of the hidden reverberations of such acts. Are they, we must question, in tune with the real Dharma of the nation? Or might these be further acts in this centuries-old process of undermining, unconscious no doubt but nonetheless exacting their toll?
The Dharma is an integral truth. The three Gunas are an harmonious whole, each completing the other. The Cosmic Truth describes this integral play of the Divine Shakti, resulting in both individual and collective integrality. Unless this is perceived and the truth is exposed in its totality, no integration can come about. For to integrate implies first to know what the equation is, what energies stand to be integrated, what the total alchemy consists of. Right now we have a truncated energy base: some portions of the subtle body are denied, others upheld, while the foundations are corroded.
The Buddha was a native of Bharat, it must be remembered, while Christianity and Islam came from outside. The element that the Buddha introduced was a work exclusive to India, a work which only India could do, or rather undo. The establishing of the Dharma is thus the undoing of that illusory substance, the unmasking of the cosmic Lie and the re-establishing of the light of the soul in its eternal truth of being.
Secularism’s Irrelevancy
Illusion – in the planetary harmony Neptune is its representative. Thus those ‘veiling fumes’ which arose from the nation’s deepest South are, astrologically speaking, ruled by Neptune. Being essentially an illusion, cinema also comes under Neptune’s rule in astrology. We cannot help but see the parallel, for which State can lay claim to a more consistent involvement with Neptune/Cinema than Tamil Nadu – ruled for decades by prominent figures from the world of Tamil films? How perfect therefore is this consonance with the Cosmic Truth. Similarly, how understandable is the rabid anti-Brahminical campaign which has struck blow upon blow in that segment of the civilisation whose duty it has always been to preserve the Dharma, to perceive, to experience, to foster the higher truths?
For several decades predominantly secularly oriented governments have ruled Tamil Nadu and have engaged in this campaign. They have justified their attacks by citing the age-old dominance of this highest caste, in detriment to the rise of the lower. In addition, justification is sought by citing the ancient Rig Veda, foremost pillar of Hindu civilisation, to establish an ‘historic’ precedent for a congenital North/South divide, thereby fanning the fires of the Dravidian movement. I have demolished this ‘historic’ interpretation of the Rig Veda elsewhere and need not present the evidence again. Suffice to say that without precise knowledge of cosmic harmonies erroneous and misleading interpretations are inevitable. Particularly nefarious is the persistent intrusion of the ‘secular’ viewpoint into a domain that is the product of a vision in which this contemporary framework is not only irrelevant but at times wickedly falsifying.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries – that is, with the entry of European invaders carrying the banner of Judeo-Christianity – the perversion was complete. The seeds of undermining were thrust right into the core of the Dharma by casting a secular, historic coating over the Veda; or else, in an even more perverse exercise, a mantle of paganism and nature worship.
The results of that invasion were particularly devastating in the Tamilian/Dravidian area of the Symbol-Map. The Rig Veda could thus be interpreted historically to prove an inherent division and by consequence the dominance of the Brahmin who then had to be neutralised. This development, however, is entirely understandable if we realise that geographically the south of India is the destined Preserver of the Dharma, while the north is the Defender, and the North East stands as the Dissolver of the old forms, casting the energy that emerges from that breakdown back into the central Body in a perfect containment of energies in a balanced play.
We live in a ‘secular world, hence these are perceptions not permitted to colour our policies or help us to identify the forces at play and their objective. Yet the Indian reality, I repeat, is a faithful expression of the Cosmic Truth, one element of which is the Symbol-Map which reveals with impressive precision this triune play of energy in the subcontinent.
Secularism is a necessary evil in a world dominated as it is by divisive and fanatical religions. But what has this to do with the Hindu Dharma whose foundation is unity and oneness? And if this appears not to be so it is precisely because these constricting formulas will not allow the real Hindu soul to arise and shape the future of India. This has plunged the nation into a very great inertia; and the elements most responsible for this degeneration of the Tamas Guna are the invaders into and through the Tamas segment – that is, the proponents of western secularism. At the same time, the awakening periodically comes from that very segment with Bengal playing this noble role.
In terms of this impersonal, objective assessment, the limitations of a secular, democratic system of government are obvious. It does not permit an analysis of this order because it appears that we are ‘mixing religion with politics’, insofar as the language I am employing happens to be the fundaments of the Hindu perception of reality and part of its ancient philosophical base. Yet none can deny that the revelation of the Capricorn hieroglyph superimposed on the map of India, whole and integral, does indeed explain the course of events and the policies which have shaped India since Independence.
How could we, for example, explain why anti-Brahminism ‘happened’ to arise in Tamil Nadu and no where else in the nation to the same degree – that is, as a consistent platform of the political parties that have held a monopoly over the State government for almost half a century?
The Symbol-Map informs us that such a development and these behavioural trends are compulsive. They also serve a purpose, but unfortunately this purpose at present does not contribute to the integration of Bharat Mata but rather to her disintegration. Consequently, we also understand why the Dravidian movement fostered secessionism, since the breaking up of the energy structure of the triune Map must inevitably become expressed at later stages as actual physical divides – witness the Partition at Independence.
We do not find the Kshatriya element hounded in South India as a policy, only the Brahmin. This is simply because the guna that governs this portion of the geography is Sattwa/Preservation, to which the Brahmin feels affinity. Whereas in the North, the pursuance of non-violence took its toll where the Symbol-Map indicated that it would: in the Rajas portion which bears an affinity with the Kshatriya. Similar to Tamil Nadu, we observe that the movement to restore something of the dharma in that area has resulted in a call for independence from ‘Delhi Rule’ because secessionism is the inevitable outcome when those seeking redress from wrongs which they cannot even formulate since they are related to deeply esoteric principles, become victims of the secular imprint which bars them from a vision of wholeness and integrality, whereby they would not seek to secede but demand to be integrated.
Christianity is a religion which holds Death central to its vision. One need only enter a Christian church or home with the image of a crucified Christ hanging on the wall to realise that this is so. Notwithstanding the Resurrection, which cannot compete with the Crucifixion in terms of a predominance of the symbol in the focus of ritual and worship, we must concede that Death via the Crucifixion does occupy a pre-eminent place. Consequently, the Christian invasion occurred in the Tamas portion of the Symbol-Map, a guna which bears an affinity with Death insofar as it is the agent of breakdown, destruction, dissolution, and so forth. In this case that affinity acted as a magnet and drew the British into the nation precisely through that segment, entirely in keeping with the Christian perception of reality.
These are facts of history which none can deny. However, to express them in the way I have done invites attacks from secularists who cannot go beyond the limited consciousness they possess and see Hindu civilisation and culture as a phenomenon completely distinct from all organised religions, in India and in the world. The Hindu Dharma founds itself on a COSMIC pattern – ideally on the threefold/fourfold pillars of the Cosmic Truth. This is as distinct from religions as day is from the night. Yet the secular model of independent India has trapped the nation in this false assessment with the result that all policies and even the political, judicial and social structures themselves are products of an essentially flawed perception. The question then remains, How can these structures be undone or otherwise permit the real soul of the civilisation to flourish?
The Divine Shakti presides over the evolution of the world and the evolution of Indian civilisation. As time moves on we witness that the flawed system is strangling itself, as if a malefic parasite were eating into the nation’s viscera, causing breakdowns in almost every aspect of collective life. This too was predictable, given the fact that the Cosmic Truth had degenerated into the Cosmic Ignorance centuries ago.
At this point, if at all we have the good of the nation at heart – and this too we must question given the patently self-destruct policies which are often adopted – we must accept what this cosmic-truth foundation of Hindu culture has to tell us regarding the true and real foundations of this civilisation. And we must accept that the principle of secularism, as it has evolved and the bizarre interpretations given to it by all and sundry, are simply clever ‘ruses’, tactics of hostile forces bent upon carrying Bharat Mata to a complete and total disintegration, for the only way to preserve her integrity is via the Hindu model.
The cleverest aspect of the ruse has been the constraints people of Knowledge have been subjected to when attempts have been made to cast aside these debilitating formulas and found the new India on real foundations, those in harmony with the nation’s ancient soul. Indeed, we are witnessing at present a formidable upsurge of forces intrinsically hostile to that Hindu psyche and who, by clutching the sinking raft of secularism, seek to suppress and eventually eliminate any elements in society who can vigorously champion the cause of Bharat Mata and rid her of these age-old viruses. They are in her body, physically; but more painfully, they are eating away at her psychic being because none have laid hands on the real roots of the problem – the perversion in the spiritual domain. None except the real 9th Avatar of this 9th Manifestation.
Insofar as the nation is at a perilous crossroads and in this situation the people of India must now elect a new government, it is understandable that all politicians proclaim that their party alone can provide the stability which India so badly needs in these disquieting times of collapse. But the analysis provided in these pages, I believe has exposed the vacuity of these claims: Stability of any sort is impossible unless the nation accepts the only real basis for that stability – the cultural and civilisational truth of India divested of these external models and ideologies which bear no relation to the soul of the nation, and incorporates this truth as a determining power. This does not mean that India must eject from her body whatever cannot honestly feel at ease with this ancient expression. It simply means that this is her central truth. All else is peripheral and can no longer be permitted, by underdog or top dog tactics, to mould the polity of the nation. Or if this continues to be the case, the mechanism I have described will continue to function with impeccable faithfulness to the formula, and the extremities of the Body will go on experiencing corrosion, decay, disintegration until they fall away at an ever accelerated pace from the central trunk. While that trunk itself, divested of its ‘arms’, or its shakti or power, will cave in upon itself in a sombre pralayic convulsion until another Age, until another line of Ten Avatars begins its cyclic work through the eternal meanderings of Time.
March 1991
*
Just before printing the above, there has been further evidence of the efficacy of the new way cosmology in its ability to cast light on happenings which, without this guideline, might fail to enlarge our vision and widen our perspectives. I refer to the cyclone which struck Bangladesh just after midnight on 30 April 1991 – thus pushing it over and into a day of 9 number-power (3+0+4+1+9+9+1=9). Insofar as Bangladesh is an integral part of the Symbol-Map analysed at length in this essay, a tragic happening of such colossal proportions striking at this ‘armpit’, must capture our attention. Indeed, on numerous occasions in the past I have written about the special characteristics of Bangladesh, since it occupies a very critical position in the Body (see page 10). It is located in the Tamas segment which does indeed account for these periodic visitations of Nature in her full fury. But of all the Indian states which occupy the same segment, why is Bangladesh targeted more than the others for this on-going devastation?
The answer lies in the new way geography whereby the Gnostic Circle is laid across the globe, its 360 degrees, comprised of the 12 signs of the zodiac, thus covering the entire planet. With this superimposition we can ‘read’ the various characteristics of certain geographical locations by the sign under which they fall (see The New Way, Vol. 2, Chapter 9). Bangladesh, for example, lies at exactly the transition from Capricorn to Sagittarius; that is, from a sign ruled by the Rajas Guna (Capricorn) to one ruled by Tamas (Sagittarius). Given this correspondence, it is understandable that the Tamas character is fortified. Particularly relevant is the location of the mouth of Ganga at this 90-degree longitude point.
In The New Way, Volume 2, page 355, I had written the following in January of 1978:
‘One of the most crucial areas of her Body is the armpit of the left arm, Bangladesh, because this area stands at the point of transition from Capricorn to Sagittarius and coincides with the mouth of the Ganges. The energy change there is from rajas…to tamas… It is a tremendously potent point – hence even nature manifests there in her full power when cyclones rage into this armpit with a force only occasionally felt elsewhere on the globe… Life can only be tumultuous in that area until the essence of this ‘armpit’ is understood and its true place taken in the destiny of a united India.’
The point of the above was to highlight the fact that a break-up in the geography of the triadic Symbol-Map results in ‘cracks’ in the system whereby no attenuating force can ease the impact of such furies and come to the aid of that segregated area. This type of assessment will certainly be ridiculed by the secularists and pragmatists, but I am confident that the evidence provided by the new way cosmology and the light it throws on what may be called, esoteric geography, will silence these criticisms. Indeed, almost on a daily basis, happenings across the globe do offer continual confirmation of the precision of this Seeing. Unfortunately, Bangladesh also furnishes us with a confirmation, a poignant and tragic reminder of the relentless drive of the Shakti to force the artificial barriers which separate the ‘nations’ of the subcontinent to give way and unity to be restored.
More recently, in the December 1988 issue of VISHAAL (TVN 3/5), in the article entitled, ‘The New Dawn of 1989’, I had again referred to Bangladesh and the tribulations it would undergo due to its severance from the main Body:
‘On the basis of the knowledge provided by the new cosmology, we see that it is the existence and reliance on just one of the energy flows that will provide the means to bring about unification in the subcontinent. Bangladesh, for example, cannot survive the constant onslaught of Mother nature in her Tamas energy flow as an independent nation. The natural calamities and the constant destruction which the area experiences can only be overcome successfully if that ‘armpit’ is an integral part of India; however, an India strong enough in her economy and political organisation to be able to absorb those disasters with relative ease. On its own Bangladesh will face ultimate disintegration under the weight of its isolated energy experience. The Shakti, using the tool of her destructive Tamas guna in continuous natural calamities, will undermine the economy of the State to such an extent that Bangladesh will either join India in the unification of the subcontinent or find itself overwhelmed by debts and thus left vulnerable to a host of aggressive forces because of the fragility of its political and economic structure. (p. 41)
Lamentably, this latest calamity, by its severity and fidelity to the above, has revealed that Bangladesh, similar to India, has reached the critical threshold. Henceforth, each such calamity – and they are already an annual occurrence, be these either floods or cyclones or tornadoes – will serve to push the State deeper and deeper into an abyss. To exit from that black hole, the only solution is Bangladesh’s re-entry into the main Body. If such were the case, given the restitution of the threefold harmony and balance of energy, these natural calamities would begin to lessen until the point is reached where this destructive force could no longer act in the area with its present ferocity, – destruction would be transformed into dissolution.
A statement of this nature cannot be accepted unless the Earth is seen and experienced as a consciousness-being of the Divine. India, better than any other nation, has the capacity – and indeed the duty – to reveal this Truth-Seeing to the world. This is her destiny, her dharma, her truth of being. In this analysis we have discussed the trifold nature of that Dharma. In the final part of this series, I shall concentrate on the fourfold harmony and a focus on the Chaturvarna, the ancient caste system, companion of the above, We shall explore its cosmic nature, and, by consequence, its place within the vision of the Cosmic Truth.
‘O soul of India, hide thyself no longer with the darkened Pandits of the Kaliyuga in the kitchen and the chapel, veil not thyself with the soulless rite, the obsolete law and the unblessed money of the Dakshina, but seek in thy soul, ask of God and recover thy true Brahminhood and Kshatriyahood with the eternal Veda; restore the hidden truth of the Vedic sacrifice, return to the fulfilment of an older and mightier Vedanta.’
Sri Aurobindo Thoughts and Aphorisms
We begin this portion of the essay with a recapitulation. For this purpose, I shall present a diagram which incorporates in one design everything discussed so far. Indeed, in so doing an important service is rendered to the cause of higher knowledge by highlighting its distinguishing features. Employing just one geometric form to draw together all the elements so far analysed is the most effective means of describing the unitary, integrated perceptive capacity. This act will be engaged in throughout the remainder of our study in caste and cosmos. The very fact that a single design is capable of incorporating numerous dimensions and planes, related both to the individual and society as a whole, reveals a salient feature of the new consciousness seeking to become established on Earth: the experience of Oneness. Central to the perception lies Time. In this portion of the study, I will describe the manner in which the process of integration is carried out almost exclusively on the basis of a gnostic vision and utilisation of Time. Vast cycles are connected to the smaller, always through the same diagram. And these are rooted in the consciousness of the human being via his or her individualised ‘measure’: the Earth Year.
In the diagram (below) I have incorporated several major divisions of the circle which draw together various apparently separate branches of Knowledge, the relatedness of which may not be fully appreciated without this visual aid. The main division is fourfold. Each section combines various elements of our analysis. For example, the first of the four segments refers to caste (Shudra), and time via the first quarter of the zodiacal year, the sign/months Aries, Taurus and Gemini, or April, May and June, starting with the March Equinox. In addition there is Twashtri’s ‘Bowl’ of the ancient Vedic school in which the fourfold division refers to planes of consciousness and parts of the being, in this case the Physical. But Twashtri’s Bowl does not restrict itself to the human being. It refers to the subtle dimensions as well and the ‘being’ of a civilisation or a society. Consequently, it is intrinsically connected to caste. Each caste has an affinity with one of the subtle planes of consciousness-being which this ‘Bowl’, or the celestial sphere, describes. As the study progresses, we shall locate these divisions in the greater harmony, in the workings of evolution itself and in the movement of the Cosmic Ages. In the process, I am confident that a new perception of the destiny of India will emerge, an offshoot of which is a radically different concept of nationalism, for the latter too has its roots in the cosmic harmony.
The Uniqueness of Indian Nationalism
India is the centre of the new Aquarian Age. Given that Aquarius is a sign of Preservation or Fixed energy flow, it is the Sattwa period designated for the appearance of one of the ten Avatars in Hindu tradition. But being a ‘centre’, and the only centre of the Age, a heavy burden is cast upon India, one that sets it apart from the comity of nations. Indeed, at the heart of the matter lies precisely the question of nationhood. What, exactly, is meant by a nation; and in this special case, a nation whose destiny lies in being the ‘centre’ of the 9th Manifestation’s Age of Aquarius?
The definition is very precise and unequivocal, albeit somewhat obscure for the layman not versed in the specifics of the new cosmology. For it involves the question of cosmos, and by consequence the definition of ‘centre’ itself. The Indian nation is not merely a landmass, sacred through it may be as revealed by the application of the Capricorn hieroglyph, or tradition’s hallowed ‘Name of God’, on this landmass. It is the physical-consciousness manifestation on Earth of a new cosmos. This, succinctly, is the description of the Indian ‘nation’: a cosmic body. Insofar as the Divine Mother is that very Cosmic Body of the Brahman, we aptly refer to this landmass as Bharatmata, or Mother India. Thus, the nation is far more than the land enclosed within its borders. It is a creation on Earth of the Cosmic Truth; or, more precisely, it is a portion of the Earth upon and through which that Truth is given physical/consciousness expression. To understand this singular type of ‘nation’ demands therefore that we discover the nature of that Cosmic Truth itself. In other words, the nationhood of India is described in and by the cosmic harmonies. Inasmuch as this also describes the foundations of Hindu Dharma, it stands that as we unravel the mysteries of India’s nationhood, we also reveal the intricacies of Hindu Dharma, and vice-versa.
The heavy burden of such a destiny is obvious, for the world is not an image as yet of that high Truth. The presiding powers are agents of the Cosmic Ignorance. It is India’s destiny therefore to work out this cosmic ‘knot’ for the world, which alone can permit light to replace darkness. Thus, a true and uncontaminated concept of Indian nationalism is obliged to incorporate an appreciation of this service to be rendered, the effects of which extend far beyond the nation’s borders.
When this cosmic foundation of the Indian nation is disregarded or unknown, the result is varying degrees of chauvinism. For India, and India alone, the dividing line between the two may be thin – but, at the same time, there is a great chasm separating one poise from the other. Chauvinism, within the Indian context, is nationalism which ignores the nation’s cosmic character. It seeks to cage the national soul in the boundaries of the separative, divisive consciousness. To provide a practical example, the soul of the nation is its COSMIC substance as described in the Capricorn symbol-map of the subcontinent. The area the symbol delineates is thus the true nation. These would be or should be its borders in the higher vision of its cosmic destiny as the Centre of the 9th Manifestation.
If higher knowledge is employed in the determination of such essential issues, it is evident that the partitioned condition of Bharatmata exposes the fact that this cosmic truth was unknown at the time Pakistan was sliced out of the landmass and organised into a separate state and Bengal became divided. Similarly, Sri Lanka, Burma, and since 1971 Bangladesh, all stand as aberrations or denials of that Cosmic Truth. To have attempted to stand, integrated and whole, as a landmass united to form the Capricorn hieroglyph at the time of Independence would have meant a conscious espousal of these guidelines. Or a nationalism not tinged with ignorance as was the case in 1947. Had the nation been in a position to listen to and follow the indications Sri Aurobindo was giving from the early days of the freedom movement, the 9th Evolutionary Avatar would have been able to guide the people of India to the fulfilment of that cosmic destiny, swiftly and benignly. That is, the organisation on Earth of the Centre of the Age and the direct representative of the Cosmic Truth in the comity of nations – an element which is lacking at present. Insofar as no other nation can occupy that centre, the position stands as a void. In that ‘black hole’, energies are compressed which demand now to be released.
The totality of prevailing conditions did not permit this guidance. The result was Partition. The ‘nation’ that emerged stood as representative on Earth not of that unifying Cosmic Truth but of the Cosmic Ignorance. Indeed, the very power which has been in command of the evolutionary process for many millennia and which is sought to be vanquished.
The Vedic Dharma describes the mechanism by which the Cosmic Truth is manifested on Earth. The truncated nation we know today as India presents the world with a denial of the purest, highest expression of that Truth. The Indian ‘nation’ is simply the lived embodiment of that Dharma. That this has been denied and combated, in the effort to uphold a confused brand of secularism, is also evident in the dismembered condition of the symbol-map; while the ‘nationalism’ which seeks to take hold of the people of India in this last ennead of the millennium is simply the perception of the nation as a sacred landmass, embodying for the Earth that cosmic Truth or Hindu Dharma.
When this cosmic purpose is lost sight of, the result is chauvinism which in the Indian context is nationalism divorced from the enlightenment this Cosmic Truth provides. Thus, to awaken true nationalism in the hearts and minds of the people of India signifies that we must simultaneously unveil India’s cosmic purpose; and this in turn implies that the Vedic Dharma is revealed as the foundation of that nationalism. Since this was not the case during the freedom struggle, in the fullest terms which it is now possible to do, the result was a nationalism coloured by concepts which stood in stark opposition to the fundaments of the soul of the nation. The outcome was Partition, and since then a gradual disintegration not only of the nation’s body but also of its collective will.
The answer is therefore only one: an awakening of true nationalism which is the unveiling of the nation’s soul whose essence is the Cosmic Truth, and which, in turn, forms the indisputable foundations of the Hindu Dharma. While we continue to deny or oppose these facts, we postpone the act of integration and in the meantime we continue to suffer the anguish of diseases which have set into the body of the nation due to this denial and for which we have no cure.
Religion is not involved in this process in any way. The Cosmic Truth that is the Vedic Dharma is akin to an umbrella under which all expressions of life may take shelter. It is a synthesising, integrating agent – NOT a unity of religions but revealing a superior reality beyond religions, towards which the world as a whole is rapidly moving – a reality which stands well above organised religions of whatever brand. Partition, signifying the denial of India’s cosmic Purpose, drew into the nation’s destiny a lesser struggle for which it was ill prepared. Indeed, for which the contaminated condition of its collective consciousness had no effective means to combat or counteract. Partition, and everything that led up to it over the centuries, thrust before the nation the ugliness of the religious consciousness, a totally alien concept which came into the body of Bharatmata through a series of invasions and foreign conquests. India today continues to grapple with this alien concept. Yet lamentably the tools it uses to do so are themselves products of those alien concepts, – impotent in the extreme as elements for the unveiling of the true spirit and soul of the nation. That the intelligentsia of the country believes these concepts to be the only ones which can arrest the impending slide into a further partition and a complete disintegration of the collective will, is the measure of the success of those foreign conquests. India is thus still a prisoner of ‘foreign rule’, the meaning of which is ideologies, concepts, formulas, programmes which fail to take into account the nation’s cosmic essence and hence the true quality of the Vedic Dharma and its central place in the formation of the new India. If Islam and Christianity were the avenues for those alien concepts to take root in the consciousness-soil of Bharatmata, the method to the madness was not that they be integrated and a ‘synthesis’ emerge of the resulting cocktail. Rather, they were drawn into the nation to serve her in the process of conquering the power that feeds these limited expressions of human society and holds the entire Earth prisoner of a divisive, separative consciousness.
These concepts did not enter into the symbol-nation to enrich the Vedic Dharma but simply to provide a field in which the soul of the nation could express its cosmic purpose through a struggle which has been described in a series of epics and myths recorded in the nation’s collective memory. The finality of the struggle will be to rid the Earth of the scourge inflicted upon her by the divisive consciousness. And none can deny that religions throughout the world are tools to divide rather than unite. The seeds of the religious consciousness were thus drawn into the Centre of the Age not to conquer but to be conquered – i.e., to force the soul of the nation to stand erect and unveiled in its cosmic purpose, to unveil this before the eyes of the people of Bharat and the world.
I write these lines at a most incongruous moment, it would appear. I write as the nation seems to face a further dismembering. To appearances this is so, but it is also true that in this darkest hour of her history, India prepares to conquer. India prepares to experience for the first time in her long history of thousands of years, the fullest depths and heights of true nationalism rooted in the fully revealed precepts of its Vedic soul. This study in caste and cosmos is one more ingredient in the process of kindling the flame of that true nationalism by a revelation of the cosmic background of caste and therefore how in antiquity the Chaturvarna served as a vehicle for Indian society to express that Cosmic Truth on Earth. The decline of caste proceeded pari passu with the decline of the Dharma, and it accompanied the infiltration of alien concepts meant to hasten the collapse so that the soul of the nation could be more swiftly born.
The time has come for that birth, insofar as the Earth has become one whole, a global ‘being’. That is, the necessity for a ‘centre’ to emerge hinges on the uncovering of the periphery of the circle. Until the Earth was fully explored, and until space exploration had revealed its boundary-less condition of oneness, the purpose of the Centre could not be fulfilled. It must be borne in mind that India has always been this ‘centre’. That is, India’s role in this capacity is a development stretching over thousands of years – approximately 50,000. It has been a progressive unfolding or unveiling. This is an evolutionary process, the contours of which are provided by the Ten Evolutionary Avatars of Puranic tradition. In an explanation of the Gnostic Circle geography in Volume 2 of The New Way, I have disclosed certain elements of the new cosmology which reveal India’s predestined role as Centre of the Age, when the Earth’s entire periphery would be known and the Centre would be called upon ‘to hold’.
Fullness versus Void
Having laid the foundations for an assessment of the cosmic background of the caste system, it is important at this point to discuss briefly the elements which served to weaken the system. Not so much because, in the view of certain religions, it was an inhumane treatment of a large segment of the society, but because those religions opposed the cosmos itself. Hence caste became a target for their attacks.
The case of Buddhism is quite clear. While Buddhism did not directly bar the cosmos and material creation from its vision of reality, it did plant the seeds for a slow and steady decay in the spiritual dimension of Vedic civilisation by a remarkable process of undermining. This was achieved through the introduction of a certain realisation which in itself served as the undermining agent. It was the dissolution of the consciousness (Nirvana), whereby the nexus binding the individualised consciousness to the planet and the cosmos, as an integrated, vibrant particle in the network of time and space, was disintegrated. The result was moksha or ‘liberation’. Hence it is held that Buddhism denied the existence of the soul, for indeed it is this component of the human incarnation which provides the link between cosmos and man. The Cosmic or Universal Purush is thus a description of that supreme Atman or Soul through which the microcosm (multiple souls) is equal to the macrocosm. Caste was a system whereby the entire society became the reflection of that greater harmony by organising it in such a way as to provide the Cosmic Being with every possible channel of expression for its evolutionary purposes. Each section of the ‘circle’ embracing the four castes was intended to be the collective instrument for that superior, integral manifestation.
The Purush is the cosmic Soul. The individual born on Earth partakes of the macrocosmic by embodying in the physical universe a spark, shall we say, of that all-encompassing Flame. Time is the essence coursing through this network, as breath rushes through the body, and it utilises the soul for creating a cosmos; or, in a succinct description of our world: a unified multiplicity. Consequently, two features of caste cannot be overlooked in a truly deep study of the matter: time and cosmos. Both hinge on the soul and the part it plays in the physical universe in this act of harmonising and integrating.
Thus, if the Buddha undermined the soul’s central position in the civilisation, it was only a matter of time before the edifice of caste would collapse. However, it did not collapse entirely, as history records and an assessment of present-day society affirms. Rather, as Sri Aurobindo wrote in the early part of this century ‘…old names and formulas have been preserved while the thing itself was profoundly modified until its original sense remained only as a pious fiction.’ (TVN, 6/2, p. 31.)
Referring to our diagram on page 16, we may situate the soul at its central Point, the centre without which ‘the circle cannot hold’. The Point or the Soul having been undermined, the channel which feeds the periphery and the infinite diverse segments of the circle was attacked. Seepages of energy began, drains on the system. Buddhist practice and related methods of ‘liberation’ secured in India that the Centre would no longer hold the periphery together or be the bridge to the Cosmic Fullness of the Mother. Rather, it would be the shadow of that Fullness, – i.e., the Void.
In practical terms, in the spiritual world this introduced the first perceptible seeds of what was to develop fully later, in Shankara’s time: an almost complete split between Spirit and Matter in the perception of Reality and the experience of yoga. The Spirit was no longer experienced through the channel of the Soul, or the Mother, but rather, in a series of yogic realisations which in varying degrees continued the process initiated by the Buddha in his experience of Nirvana, the seeker was encouraged to overstep the Cosmos as Sri Aurobindo has explained:
‘…But in speaking of the supreme liberation I was simply taking the Buddhist-Adwaita view for granted and correcting it by saying that this Nirvana view is too negative. Krishna opened the possibility of overmind with its two sides of realisation, static and dynamic. Buddha tried to shoot from mind to Nirvana in the Supreme, just as Shankara did in another way after him. Both agree in overleaping the other stages and trying to get at a nameless and featureless Absolute. Krishna on the other hand was leading by the normal course of evolution. The next normal step is not a featureless Absolute, but the supermind. I consider that in trying to overshoot, Buddha like Shankara made a mistake, calling away the dynamic side of the liberation. Therefore there has to be a correction by Kalki.’
‘Letters on Yoga’, p. 402-3
The consolidation of these realisations in the spiritual evolution of Indian society had the devastating long-term effect of undermining the cosmic bridge, the soul, and all that this signifies for a creation in matter. The soul was thus the target; in the terminology of the new cosmology, it is the Third in the descending scale of 9-6-3-0/1. If the 3 (the soul) and the 6 (the Mother) are eliminated, the realiser shoots from the 9 directly to the 0. In that case, without the ‘fullness’ of material creation in between, the 0 stands as Shunya, or the Void. It has not thrown up the One, the divine Son Agni. In a word, it is an incomplete perception of Reality, entirely un-Vedic, with devastating results on the society that embraces these concepts, driving it to devise evermore sophisticated means of escape. Again, Sri Aurobindo writes…
‘According to both Buddha and Shankara liberation means laya of the individual soul in some transcendent Permanence that is not individualised – so logically a belief in the individual soul must prevent liberation while the sense of misery in the world leads to the attempt to escape.’ (Ibid, p.66.)
Returning to our diagram once again, this process can be visually appreciated if we locate the area of dissolution or annulation OUTSIDE the periphery of the circle. In that realm there is no individualised consciousness. The nexus or the binding energy that constitutes the soul is dissolved (‘nirvana’). Thus, the embodied consciousness of such an individual, who in the proper terms of the experience can no longer lay claim to that title, does not offer sufficient concentration of energy to serve as a channel on Earth for the influx of an integral flow. In other words, the individual is no longer centred, no longer poised at the centre of the influx and harmoniously aligned so that he or she may express that totality. The centre is a void and the binary structure of an incomplete energy base is the result. Such individuals or the society they form can never be the instruments on Earth of a divine manifestation:
‘What are you going to do with all these people? If you want Nirvana, you have either to expel them or stifle them or beat them into coma. All authorities assure us that the exclusive Nirvana business is a most difficult job…and your own attempt at suppressing the others was not encouraging, – according to your own account it left you as dry and desperate as a sucked orange, no juice left anywhere. If the desert is your way to the promised land, that does not matter. But – well, if it is not, then there is another way – it is what we call the integration, the harmonisation of the being. That cannot be done by the mind and vital being – they are sure to bungle their affair. It can be done only from within by the soul, the Spirit which is the centraliser, itself the centre of these radii…’ (Ibid, p.53.)
Fullness versus Void is most clearly expressed in the art Buddhism and Hinduism have inspired. Pure Buddhism, not influenced by Tantra, is bare, placid, revealing no other state or emotion but a static Peace. On the other hand, Hindu art and temple architecture offer always exuberant displays of the Fullness; and, above all, dynamism. Even its representations of Peace in certain creations depicting Shiva, for example, are dynamic and serve to convey one of the highest experiences available to the practitioner of the Integral Yoga – the supramental state of a harmonised unity and multiplicity, or the simultaneous experience of rest and motion. For the whole of society it would be the correct blending of Stability and Change. This would be the true VEDIC experience, shorn of these intermediate developments, in the fullest sense of the word: veda meaning knowledge: a Gnostic Society.
‘…The harmonisation is in the Supermind – the Divine Truth at once static and dynamic, a withdrawal and extinction of the Ignorance, a recreation in the Divine Knowledge.’ (Ibid, p.79.)
Most spiritual realisations offer the seeker only unity, or rest, or stability. Change, movement, dynamism became equated with a lesser deceptive power whose objective it was to imprison man within that Circle where movement is perceived as the impermanent and hence the unreal, impeding his escape to the Beyond by entangling him in the coils of a ceaseless, inebriating motion, an entanglement in what has come to be known as the veils of Maya or Illusion. Escape can be achieved only on the basis of the experience of Dissolution or disintegration of the consciousness in one form or another by a prior denial of reality to that deceptive conspiracy of circumstances labelled samskaras, or one’s fixed responses to past patterns within the web of time and space.
This development or emphasis reached a peak in the Middle Ages. If we refer to our diagram again, Hindu civilisation quickly became the shell of itself once the Soul had been dislodged from its central binding throne, once the Point had been rendered an empty space.
Hindu Dharma was ill prepared to contend with the consequences of Nirvana, having no recourse to dogma, to bigotry, to expulsion or excommunication. The foundation of the Dharma was unity, and the lived perception and experience of the One embracing the All. Therefore its response was the only possible one if wise men and women in that dark period of the Age of Pisces were to be faithful to the Vedic foundations of the Dharma. Their reaction was thus to incorporate the Buddhist realisation, for it was the lived experience that the Brahman included everything, even the darkness. At the same time, they knew that even if contained in the All, Nirvanas and Voids were underminers of the Atman.
Hence the Buddha was incorporated into the Puranic Line of the Ten Avatars, but his participation was a qualified one: the ruse of the Supreme meant to mislead the asura-seeker. This incongruous description for an Evolutionary Avatar of the Line points to two facts: one is the all-embracing nature of the Vedic perception, and the other indicates that perhaps the decline was anticipated and accepted and foreseen in the renovating mechanism of the Dharma as a means to attain greater future manifestation. That ‘fall’ was seen as a necessary corollary to a future rise. In the terms Sri Aurobindo provides, the wider harmonisation which only the present Age of the Supermind can unfold.
But the results of the decline were fast in coming. Thus, in the early 700s the subcontinent witnessed the first invasion from the west. The seeds of Islam were brought into India as a perfect symbol of the denial of the soul which had already become consolidated in the civilisation by that time. The capacity for Islam to serve as this symbol lay in the fact that one of its pillars of the faith is the condemnation of idol worship. Given the proliferation of Hindu Gods and Goddesses with their many arms, vahanas and whatnot, it is clear that Islam’s almost complete denial of FORM, or the Mother who is the FORMATIVE POWER of the Brahman, would present a chasm between the two civilisations which has never been bridged, partly because most do not realise what it is that really separates the two. The compulsive destruction of Hindu Temples by these invaders and their replacement by mosques is simply a very physical albeit brutal means to affirm the supremacy of a religion which has radically veered toward the masculine pole in its perception of Reality, and which, when denied the companionship of the Feminine, is able to espouse a vision of God entirely formless.
The undermining Nirvana and similar realisations set in motion simply served to dissolve the energies which could have coped with the invasions. At the same time, we must admit that Islam was merely fulfilling its own dharma via those relentless incursions into the Body of Bharatmata. Thus, no blame can be attached to their bold thrust. Nonetheless, we must realise that the conquests by these foreign powers were simply reflections of that inner disintegration. From the standpoint of the conquered, it ought to be stressed once again that the purpose was to queer the pitch, as it were, to heighten tensions. It was a divine strategy to play out before the civilisation the results of an original denial of the soul.
This play-out has been central to Indian life for the past 2000 years. With each passing year the results of the great Undermining became more and more devastating because the imbalance of energies was accentuated. Today the nation has no energy/will to eject definitively the viruses from its sacred form which are the offspring of those original ‘seeds’ planted so long ago.
Half-lights of History
In the June 1991 VISHAAL (6/2), I discussed at length the areas in the physical landmass through which invasions took place. By the application of the Capricorn hieroglyph, I pointed out how perfectly in tune they were with the cosmic harmony, albeit negative expression of that harmony – that is, representing Vedic civilisation’s decline and the disintegration of its collective will. I repeat, having begun more than 500 years prior to the first invasions from Arabia, by the Middle Ages the inner disintegration was such that invasions could not be conclusively repelled. Historians speculate endlessly about the underlying causes of India’s inability to contend successfully with these invasions. Many consider the degeneration of the caste system to be the principal reason, or at least one of the main expressions of the inner decay and subsequent collapse, presenting the invaders with a society at war with itself and unable to unite its forces due to an inherent divisive quality in the system itself, where the four castes were not complements but antagonists. However, this is only partially true.
To begin with, I find the reasons given for the degeneration of the caste system to be entirely unsatisfactory. The prevalent view is that the preponderance of the priestly caste caused the structure to collapse under the weight of this sacerdotal despotism. While I might attribute the decline to that segment of the society, the reasons I give are quite different. Such a system, founded on a SPIRITUAL perception, can disintegrate only when that perception has been corroded. And this was exactly the case.
Be this as it may, the fact is Hindu civilisation could not contend with Arabic, Persian and Moghul invasions. Within a span of several hundred years, and though greatly out-numbering the aggressors, almost the entire subcontinent came under foreign rule and Islamic influence.
The problem lay in the fact that the unifying power of the subcontinent, the binding force of Hindu civilisation, was the Dharma. Thus, in spite of the fact that there was no POLITICAL unity meeting the aggressors, with the subcontinent presenting a very disunified appearance, it was the Vedic Dharma that made of India a unified civilisation, entirely unique and not to be found anywhere else on the globe in ancient times. India was a ‘nation’ regardless of the separate kingdoms the subcontinent housed.
As already established, the Cosmic Truth is central to that Dharma; the soul is, in turn, central to the Cosmic Truth. With the denial of the soul, and by consequence the denial of the Mother or the Formative Power of the Brahman, it is understandable that Islam and later Christianity – religions which both nurture an aversion to form as demonstrated in their condemnation of idol worship, labelled paganism – moved into the subcontinent with relative ease, except for isolated periods and incidences of effective resistance here and there. The latter, however, were not conclusive or all-encompassing enough to protect the Body from an implantation of divisive elements in the system which would take decades and centuries to eliminate.
The degeneration of caste was thus contingent on that original denial and undermining. Indeed, it was a wave which, in a very brief span, engulfed the entire planet. The Age of Pisces, dating from 234BC to 1926AD, witnessed the almost complete collapse of one element which in itself encapsulates the entire process described above: the prominence of the Mother or the Goddess in almost all philosophies, belief systems, schools of yoga, and cults of worship. In a word, the dismantling of the ancient world which in its entirety could be labelled ‘pagan’ since the Goddess was indubitably central to all belief systems that in the Piscean Age earned that label.
With the spread of the Middle-Eastern religions, in particular the proselytising ones such as Christianity, the Goddess and all that the Feminine Power stands for in the collective consciousness of the Earth, was almost entirely dislodged from the elevated status she had always held. The symbol of this displacement was the simple act of condemning idols, a tenet shared by all the young faiths which emerged from the Age of Pisces. Accompanying this displacement was a loss of perception of the sacredness of the Earth itself, – indeed, mother Earth. This too was reflected in the new tenets in a blanket condemnation of ‘nature worship’, a corollary to ‘paganism’ in theology, and ‘animism’ in philosophy. Both carried the connotation of uncivilised and barbaric. By implanting this sense of inferiority in the masses of the subcontinent, conversions to the new religions were easily achieved, its corroding power being far more potent than the discriminations of caste. These incursions into the core of Vedic belief, affecting especially the elite of the society, was to peak in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Thus, the seeds of the great Undermining which began at the outset of the last Age, the first of the three which comprise our 9th Manifestation, allowed for two different though related foreign conquests in India, Islamic and Christian. The former signified military subjugation above all else, in keeping with Islam’s character. Islam, being so utterly different from Hindu worship and culture, posed little danger of invading and replacing the indigenous philosophies and cultural substratum of Hinduism, or even contaminating it in any essential way. Conversions were effected by force or otherwise, but these did not strike at the core of the unitary consciousness which pervades Hinduism, primarily because Hinduism was not a religion as Islam was. The twain could therefore never really meet or mutually influence each other in substantives.
The situation regarding Christianity was quite different. It was not Christian religion that conquered or made definitive inroads into Hindu civilisation. Rather, it was the consciousness which had overtaken the entire world as a result of Europe’s colonial exploits. Christianity, with its dogmas of faith and discomfort in dealing with matters material and of the flesh, had forced the rise of science (as separate from pursuits of the spirit), rationalism, the logic of the Age of Reason and ‘enlightenment’. And finally a worldview entirely overshadowed by a materialism divorced from the more subtle influence of the Spirit, – a split unknown in the ancient world and even, though greatly reduced in vigour, in India at the time of the appearance of the traders/conquerors from the British Isles. These are the ‘seeds’ that Christianity planted through British rule, stressing, as we must, that this rule occurred not at Christianity’s peak of influence but rather at a time with the seeds of its own decline were evident. And the conquering continues though the conqueror has left because the consciousness that invaded India was ‘secular’ and bore profound affinities with the ancient Indian spirit.
The Indian mind, while not enjoying any particular affinity with Islam, was entirely at ease and comfortable with the ‘scientific temper’ and with ‘secular’ concepts, – these having been part and parcel of India’s ancient culture and civilisation millennia before the appearance of these latter-day secularists and scientists. Rationalism, logic, science, the demand for empirical proof and practical substance which characterise all schools of Indian yoga, founded on direct experience rather than blind faith, were part of Indian civilisation before the advent of Jesus. When these attitudes arose in the West as a reaction to religious dogmatism and obscurantism, they were easily accepted in India of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, insofar as they were concepts closer to the character of Indian philosophy and systems of yoga than any religion might be.
Thus, the two waves, Islamic and Christian, each in their own way continue to ‘conquer’: Muslims, with their demand for a dismembering of the subcontinent on the basis of religion at the time of Independence, and presently with a rise in Islamic fundamentalism which, in the form of another wave from the West, has stoked the fires of secessionism and has not ceased to encourage a sense of instability, a nation perennially threatened with a new partition. While the brand of secularism which the West firmly planted in the consciousness of the elite of pre- and post-independent India through British conquest and influence is a constant underminer that does not allow the nation to appreciate its own soul and the deepest truths of the Vedic Dharma. This is attainable only when the true nature of Hinduism is explored and its unreligious character is discovered. In other words, the western concept of secularism, introduced in Europe because of a necessity to counteract the dominance of religious obscurantism, is inadequate to contend with the fissiparous forces at work in the subcontinent. Western secularism cannot unify because the seed of its own origin is divisive. It was an entirely reactionary formulation, with no inherent and substantial power and truth; unlike the Vedic Dharma founded on the Cosmic Truth.
Caste, Time and the Calendar
The first appreciable casualty in the loss of the cosmic vision was the caste system. When the Beyond became the goal, and life in the cosmos and on Earth was held to be a prison of consciousness, the spherical perception disappeared and in its place remained caste as a linear, pyramidal structure (see: TVN 6/3, diagram p.24). In the very same period, Hindu civilisation lost its vision of an enlightened perception of Time, a development which I have discussed in ample detail in the series ‘The Capricorn Factor’ (TVN 2/4, 2/5). The Divine Maya or Measure was lost and this had a direct effect on caste because caste and time are quasi synonymous. That is, without the Divine Measure there can be no Cosmic Purush reflected in a society on Earth, integrated in all its parts, each limb or organ supporting the other limbs and parts of the Being. Nor could there be any all-encompassing fabric integrating the diversity that has always characterised the societies of the subcontinent. Time provided the means to achieve this integration. Hence, the means to record and regulate the flow of time in a cosmic society is fundamental. We understand, therefore, why the Year occupied such a central position in the knowledge of the Vedic Age (and also in Mayan America), as revealed in the extant hymns of the Rigveda and the Atharvaveda. The Rishis were forever singing praises to the various components of the Year, – the seasons, the periods of the 24-hour day such as the dawn, the night; or else the elements which are energy manifestations within that time structure: fire, earth, air and water, elements which Time uses to give form to consciousness.
It must be borne in mind that the diagram by which we have integrated all the elements of our discussion (p.16) – or the circle of 360 degrees divided into four – is also the year. Thus, Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya and Brahmin can also be allocated to a portion of the Earth Year. This means that there is a beginning and an end, a 0 point and a 360-degree point to both the year and caste. It means that while 90 degrees of the 360 comprise three months – those of Spring, for example – they also ‘comprise’ the Shudra in the collective Body. It means that the twelve months of our Earth year and the calendar we devise to monitor the passage of time within that span are intrinsically related to caste and are essential to its right functioning. Given the disintegration of caste, whereby only its shell remains, and the proliferation of divisions within each segment which are indications of the degeneration, it is not surprising that we should find the same process to have afflicted the methods for a collective systematisation of the time experience: the calendar. India today does not possess just one calendar; there are many. Almost each State and community have a different system of reckoning, as well as each religion – Islam, Christianity (the Gregorian calendar in use throughout the world), Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, and so forth. There are five principal methods employed; that is, some may use the lunar year, some the solar. In addition, there are 300 almanacs in use throughout the country, each different from the other, each catering to the needs of the different communities.
The Cosmic Truth, which uses time via the Divine Measure for its binding and formative creative operations, is reflected in the calendar. An enlightened calendar is the hallmark of an enlightened society. This means a calendar which comes as near as possible to aligning society with the Cosmic Truth unrolling through the flow of time during the Earth year. Thus, we can easily appreciate why the Rishi declared in the Rigveda, ‘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 into the other, and it is these that Brahmanaspati has made manifest to knowledge.’ (II,24-5)
The essential feature of that superior alignment was the correct zero point, or the start of the year, which then set ‘each thing in its place’ as time moved on in the course of the ensuing twelve months. If that 0 point was miscalculated or otherwise tampered with, the flow was disfigured accordingly and time’s ‘gestation’ produced either a stillborn or maimed creature. A society that had lost that correct calculation of the 0 Point could not hope to experience any significant harmony within itself or integration of its diverse limbs, not to speak of a proper relationship with the cosmos, since the act of integration hinges on the correct ‘axis’ or ‘alignment’. In the Veda and the earlier Upanishads, this ‘axis’ was the property of the God Agni.
Before proceeding further, a word ought to be said about the proliferation of symbols, personifications of the Gods and their carriers via animal or other images in India, since this practice is one that divides contemporary society from almost all ancient civilisations. In all parts of the world there has been a complete break with this ancient form of conceptualisation. India is perhaps one of the few nations today where we find that this practice is still a vibrant part of the country’s cultural and spiritual life, given the fact that myth, epics and, above all, the still prevalent guru/disciple parampara or tradition, are vigorous ingredients in the socio-cultural fabric. The need to transmit knowledge in this fanciful manner was not a frivolous indulgence of a pagan, nature-worshipping and naïve mind. Rather, that the Seers of the Vedic Age (and rare modern visionaries) chose to frame their knowledge in this way was an indication of a very high degree of sophistication. The purpose was to achieve an integral seeing. For example, this meant that the use of Number alone, or even the enlightened use of diagrams as a means of transmitting facts about matter, time and the cosmos, could only appeal to and develop the mind without engaging other equally important parts of the being and planes of consciousness. Hence, they were not adequate if exclusively utilised, as we do today, for the transmission of concepts. Indeed, in so doing the result is information leading to the manipulation of those facts, never an understanding of the integrality and oneness of our world and the interconnectedness of its many planes and dimensions. Number might appeal exclusively to only one of those planes – the mental; while the animal image, for example, drew in the visualisation capacity of the human consciousness, the art of seeing, and hence the vital to a large extent.
Or else there was the utilisation of hieroglyphs, for instance of the twelve signs of the zodiacal year – a highly sophisticated means of transmitting knowledge which drew into the exercise the higher mind and higher vital centres. Today this capacity to see in such an integral fashion is entirely lacking. Consequently, there are no seers, no Rishis.
Let me provide an example of the above which illustrates the capacity for ‘seeing’ in an area connected to the present topic under discussion: the calendar related to caste. Agni’s vahana or carrier is known to be the Goat. This image must not be construed as a meaningless designation born in the mind of pagan nature-worshippers, for the Goat in Agni’s imagery refers to the Year and the correct alignment under discussion. There are two complementary 0 points which describe the Divine Measure and bear a very special relevance to the act of ‘setting each thing in its place’. One is the Ram 0 point, or the first zodiacal sign Aries, and the second is the other goat image, Capricorn, the tenth sign/month. In terms of number-power they are both 1 – the 10 simply being the 1 after the completed cycle of 9 numbers; 10 starts the new cycle and is, numerologically speaking, a 1. Both correspond to the power of the Son, or the One: the divine Agni.
Hence, the Vedic ritual may begin (and end) with an invocation to Agni, first manifestation of the Gods, first of the elements (fire=Aries), ‘leader of the hosts’ in his aspect of Mars, ruler of Aries; Mesham, in Sanskrit, the first month. These correspondences are found throughout the hymns. Thus to ignore the zodiacal character of the Rigveda is to deliberately and wilfully seek to thrust upon this bedrock of Hinduism a character which is entirely foreign to its true nature and purpose. This was indeed the case when 19th– and 20th-century Indologists sought to cram the Veda in the entirely inadequate slot of History. That they succeeded in doing so is the measure of success of the contamination set into the Indian mind via the western secular onslaught.
After Aries – first sign or first manifestation of Agni/Mars – the ‘journey’ or the ‘sacrifice’ brought the initiate to the 10th sign/month/’door’ and entry into Swar, the realm of the Truth-Consciousness. But this passage was not a simple matter. It was fraught with danger, for it involved the 8th stage, Scorpio, also ‘ruled’ by Mars; it was then that the real trouble began – in the imagery of the Veda, the rescue of the cows (rays of Light, or Knowledge) from the cave of the Panis. Scorpio is the sign of Death in traditional astrology. It was the same in the Vedic Age, ample proof of which is given in the references to Martanda, the eighth son of Aditi, the ‘fallen star’, whose very name comes from the root meaning death.
If the energy of Mars is not transmuted or released (the ‘release’ of the cow/rays), death meant the obliteration of the consciousness and disconnection with the physical plane. It meant that the ‘victory’ in the 10th month of Capricorn, traditionally known as the exaltation of Mars, could not be achieved on Earth and connected to its evolutionary processes, but only in ‘heaven’. The decline of the Dharma saw this drama enacted in full, with spiritual energies posited in that ‘heaven’ beyond and withheld from a process which alone could unify and conquer on Earth.
On the other hand, when the Mars transmutation occurred and the Sacrifice was ‘pleasing’, the energy was released which provided fuel for the rise to the mountaintop or the sign/month Capricorn, India’s very own zodiacal ‘ruler’, according to tradition the world over. Interestingly, at that point Agni became the Horse, the white steed – indeed, horse-power. This was indicated by the 9th sign sandwiched between Scorpio and Capricorn: Sagittarius, precisely the sign of the Horse. And in order to emphasis the Earth-oriented essence of the realisation, rather than a heaven beyond of a dimension outside of this cosmos and our material creation, that immaculate Steed which is Agni transmuted, is the vahana of none other than Usha, the divine Earth-Dawn. Agni, as the Horse (9th sign/month), ushers in the Dawn, be it of the Earth day, or the year or twelve months, or the cosmic year of many thousand months.
We may now refer to our diagram on page 16 and locate this process of transmutation, of conquering, in the third segment of the Circle – the Kshatriya. In so doing, we instantly confirm the connection between caste, time, the calendar and the Vedic Dharma. To provide even more conclusive proof, it may be recalled that an aspect of Agni is the Hindu War God Kartikeya. His birthday is celebrated precisely in the heart of this Kshatriya segment: late November, or with the correct 0 point, in the sign/month Sagittarius. In Sanskrit the month is known as Kartik.
Thus the Rigveda, the oldest book in the world and foundation-seed of all that is contained in Hindu culture, establishes a remarkably rich and poetic connection between cosmos, time, year, Earth – and caste. The only problem is that the great Undermining produced the unfortunate result of a loss of the Divine Measure. Contingent upon that loss is the lack of a single calendar uniting the collective consciousness. There is not one but dozens, and each has a different 0 or starting point. Hence, though these multiple calendars may still use the backdrop of the 360 degrees of the celestial sphere and the division of that sphere into 12 segments or months, initiating their counts at different times reflects the inability of Indian society to become integrated. Indeed, for a person of Knowledge it is as if one were observing the unfolding of present-day Indian society through a painfully unfocussed lens: no matter how hard one tries, clarity just will not attend one’s efforts. The chaos brought before one’s vision is simply another indication of that lost Measure. Notwithstanding the fact that at the time of Independence the Gregorian calendar was adopted for official purposes in order to align India with the rest of the world, the different communities and religions continued to use their own methods of reckoning. Any attempt to bring about a ‘focussing’ in this time-lens would be similar to the demand voiced by certain quarters for a uniform civil law code, whose adoption is also hotly contested by communities which view such a step as a threat to their ‘separate identities’. In fact, a true discussion of caste and cosmos is, by definition, precisely one of identity, of essential truth of being, of individual and collective dharma. This aspect of the study will be explored further on.
To return to our discussion of the stages of the Vedic Sacrifice, or progression through the year, we note that passage through the 7th, 8th and 9th stages, or the Kshatriya/warrior caste segment, was considered crucial. Indeed, in the successful ‘crossing’ of this zone lays India’s ability to survive as a nation and a civilisation. But to appreciate how this may be and what connection these ancient prescriptions may have with contemporary Indian society, we must expand our time vision and study the Chaturvarna on the backdrop of the larger measures of time, the cosmic Ages, or, as I have called them, the Twelve Manifestations. In this way we shall appreciate why it is that the 7th and 8th Avatars, and indirectly the 9th, have come to such fierce prominence of late, through the contentious issue of ‘temple or mosque’ at Ayodhya, and how this issue is singularly reflective of the grand Sacrifice described in the ancient Rigveda as precisely involving the 7th, 8th and 9th stages of the Journey. And by this interrelated seeing, we shall discover how the last three decades of the millennium, the 70s, 80s and 90s, have recapitulated or condensed in this very special time span the Vedic passage through the most dangerous and determining portion of the Circle.
As we proceed with the next portion of the study, once again we engage in that magical feat of harmonisation and integration, whereby caste and time continue to reveal the profound truth in the Hermetic aphorism, ‘As above, so below’. This further act of perceiving the equality of macrocosm and microcosm will assist us in drawing together these multiple time-threads in a concentrated focus on caste within contemporary Indian society, in its individual and collective expressions; and what might be its relevancy to the civilisation that gave it birth, if any at all.
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