It is possible to demonstrate graphically the effect of the lost wisdom on the civilisation of the subcontinent, as I have done in Parts I and II. Graphics often speak louder than words; this presentation may well prove the point.
Cosmic harmonies are largely grounded in geometry. This is because one starts computations and analyses with a whole in which parts are set in place and joined together creating a web, a system formed of interrelated lines. The process is an ancient one, inherited from the Vedic and Sangam periods. It forms the basis for a key feature of that wisdom to function as an applicable formula. This is referred to as a system of correspondences. Unlike other ancient schools, the Indian premise has always been one of Equivalencies. This stands for that because in their essential being they are equal. Therefore the Sage uses that essence which may be equated with a seed, and the compact or minute therein reveals the larger of which it is connected as a web to its centre that holds it in place.
However, this ancient method can function only within the overall framework of the Circle. If that does not exist (in consciousness or perception), we have linear forms that cannot provide the wisdom of Correspondences. The degeneration witnessed in caste is a case in point and can reveal, geometrically, how what once was an enlightened structure lost its superior cosmic qualities when the vision of spherical perceptive capacity of the Ancients was lost. Linearity replaced the circular. Then the Cosmic Man does not fit into the circle as the zodiac laid out in the diagram in Part II reveals; the image is restricted to the upright progression, always valid indeed, but an incomplete perception subject therefore to unavoidable decay. The pyramidal diagram below describes caste as we know it today given our lost spherical perceptive capacity which has been replaced by the linear.
Caste remains in spite of the lost spherical capacity, for indeed its cosmic roots make it indestructible, but the circle has vanished. The four segments are perceived as stacked one upon the other as in a pyramid. The base is of course the largest, the first caste, Shudra: the entire pyramid rests on this first foundation/mass. Therefore, rumblings, agitations, disturbances (Maoists?) cannot be allowed at that level of the structure or else the entire edifice would be threatened. Thus are born machinations to exploit or else to keep the lower in check, come what may – often by unholy means. It is simply a question of self-protection, given the loss of spherical perception. In a true cosmic-based society, what we may call planetary, these problems do not arise.
The next segment is Vaishya followed by Kshatriya, and finally the Brahmin. If we assume that the apex of the triangle is the position that connects the sections to the heavenly, or to the Supreme, then the position of the Brahmin is secure in a linear society because all approach to the highest must be done through that loftiest segment. The individual in such a society is stationed somewhere in one of the lower portions and cannot connect to the Supreme Reality directly; he or she is obliged to approach the Highest through representatives – in this case the Brahmin, or the priest as in orthodox religions of the West, all of which took shape during the very period when the Vedic vision began to decline. The Brahmin or priest is therefore rendered indispensible and he too must put in place certain protective devices, one of which is to establish ownership over rituals and scriptures, thereby eliminating the threat of intruders from other segments of the pyramid. This becomes the sole preserve of the Brahmin or the officiating priest by which the populace can be led to the portals of the Highest.
But there have been rumblings in the lower ranks, and the security once enjoyed has been disrupted, sometimes ruthlessly. This is the fate of linear perception. It must implode when top-heaviness occurs by the weight of its contradictions; or else when the base becomes unable to continue lending support to a system that has exceeded its utility.
The real cosmic foundation is not pyramidal but spherical, as indicated in the image below. This is appreciated when we turn to the One Circle where these contradictions are resolved. Above all, as noted in this graphic, it offers equal access to the Centre, to God, or the highest ideal of the civilisation, requiring no intermediaries. This is truly equality and respect for all segments of society. There is an upper hemisphere and a lower – but this does not refer to superior or inferior, lesser or more privileged. This distinction, which is one of the foundations of astrological principles, applies to function, above all. It is similar to the seasons: each one compliments the other. There is neither good nor bad, best nor worse. In the true cosmic harmony, caste is not the prerogative or the bane of birth. The horoscope, in the hands of a true astrologer, provides the means to discover one’s caste. Or the part one plays in society as part of the system.
There are two keywords to describe the new cosmic-based order: Unity and Integrality. The former is of the nature of the circle; the latter is the linear that extends from the centre or the connecting lines to the central Point. Without integrality there is no web to position the lines drawn by Time. We may have circles within circles, but lacking the definition that lines within the circle describe, half the equation is missing. This is again a demonstration of each thing in its place.
We can visually appreciate the condition if we imagine a spider’s web without its linear components that extend from the circle’s centre to provide the solidity a web requires for it to serve as the spider’s habitat. The spider and web is a wonderful metaphor for the creative act of the Divine Maya to give form to the Transcendent Absolute. The Absolute BECOMES the universe (the web) through the medium of the Divine Mother (the spider), she who is one with the Transcendent and gives shape to all created things. He becomes the universe because of her power, without which the Transcendent cannot manifest.
This analysis and its visual images reveal that the two, circle and line, must join in a harmonious design to provide the cosmic plan for evolution to inhabit and within which it may evolve by the aid of Time to a higher status on the ladder. Unity cannot be the lived experience of a creation in matter without the Integral. Both have their origin in the centre, the Point, and must inevitably find their just and harmonious place within a contained cosmic manifestation such as our universal system. The two together describe the complete nature of the reality of our material world. Up there, in some heavenly extra-cosmic dimension, if it exists and can be reached, circles may suffice. Here below, in matter, the Line is required to create a vehicle on which evolution may travel to fulfil its purpose.
The current pyramidal structure of caste is all lines, no circle. Therefore it cannot survive in a world that has overcome the obstacles encountered during the evolution of human consciousness to become equipped with a consciousness of a higher level that alone is able to integrate the final fourth quarter.
Here we have the four planes of consciousness placed within the circle, and their Vedic designations on the outside. The fourth section is the issue because this plane – Swar – is the void as far as material creation on this Earth is concerned. All spirituality, eastern and western, considers this fourth to be extra-cosmic. Heaven, it is called, and in our minds this evokes a static, unchanging, indeed eternal world or plane or dimension, beyond Time, beyond Space.
However, the geometry of the circle, as also the zodiac it contains, does not imply otherworldliness at all. In fact, the fourth quarter is the most materially earthly of all the quadrants. The lived experience of the fourth segment – that is, when it becomes an integrated part of the evolving consciousness – is when the true role of the Earth in the cosmic harmony is revealed. Until now glimpses of that integrality and Earth-centredness have been perceived. The travails of society today are precisely efforts to move deeper into the Point, the centre of the centre itself, as in the centre of the spider’s web out of which creation emerges, the Centre where all created things are held together and from where lines extend to draw the whole into the experience of Oneness. Indeed, the innermost central point is the One, the Divine Child of almost all traditions, the anticipated saviour – not for the few elect souls who have followed the dogmas faithfully, but for the Earth herself.
At our current level, with the weapons of mass destruction that exist, with the desecration of the physical Earth, with the decimation of her living creatures, it is clear that an integral all-encompassing Power has to be unveiled that can save our planet from the devastation brought to her by the present limited human species which to all appearances possesses the ability to destroy in toto the web of its own habitat. That habitat, the metaphorical spider’s web, is constructed by Time, by the lines Time draws in the evolutionary matrix. Just as disorder is brought into the cosmic order by using the circle and its properties against itself, so too can we experience Time as destroyer of its own creation; or time as the motor of evolution to bring humanity on this third planet to a new order of which Time itself holds the key.
This is the sense implied in the Maya ‘end time’ predictions for 21 December 2012. True or false, a correct reading of the Maya calendar and its pictographs or not, we have reached the ‘end of Time’. But a qualification is required. It is the old time that is dissolved, and all the forms it has given rise to, those crumbling structures of the old world that are imploding. It was a world created by a severely hampered human consciousness. Its incompleteness is the signal that it must, as time moves on, evolve into the wholeness contained in the innermost Point itself, it must shed the old forms similar to a serpent that sloughs off its lifeless and purposeless old skin.
We are living the collapse of the old – but we are also part of the new that is concurrently arising to replace the old. Cosmos, caste and calendar play fundamental roles in this transition to wholeness, particularly in India, the nation that has never severed those connections. The cosmic harmonies formed the foundation in ancient times for the subcontinental civilisation to carry the burden of the evolution through darkness into an age when the Vishnu Avatar re-appears to lay the guidelines of a new creation of Light. The limitations of the physical, mental, and emotional structure of the human being are being exceeded, the boundaries of the old structure are being dissolved, leaving before the human species an entirely new world to discover along with the processes that will transform the Earth into the paradise we have been led to believe can only exist beyond time and cosmos; when it is actually Time itself that brings the new things divine onto our planetary home.
This new Light can hardly be called ‘spiritual’ any longer because the old world appropriated the term and it is therefore no longer adequate to describe the nature of that Light. The fourth (Swar) is the home of that superior experience of Reality and the secret of our new age is that the time for the unveiling of its Earth-centredness has come.
To conclude, the very first step to bring Hinduism back to wholeness so that the things promised can be fulfilled is to rid itself of the Ayanamsha Chaos. If that simple first step is not taken, caste and all that was once real and true cannot re-make itself and India cannot guide the world to the new Order. For how long are we to continue denying the self-evident fact that the Vedic Calendar, with all that finds a legitimate place in its four-fold eternal structure, must be restored. We lament the degeneration of caste, but we need to realise that the whole of Indian society and not just caste is in a state of decay because 80% of the population’s energies stand hopelessly divided. This is due not to caste but to the lack of the unifying element the subcontinent had always known and for which reason it was able to survive the ravages of time and circumstance. Continuing to accede to the pressure of vested interests that impede this transformation, which would re-make society by releasing and unifying energies that are now being wasted in futile attempts to reform the periphery, while the centre of the circle itself stands veiled and, for all practical purposes, ineffective and inoperable, is not the way to make ‘all things new’. Nothing is in its place, indeed. But foremost is the centre-point itself.
Like Guha, Shiva’s mighty warrior Son, the need of the hour is to unveil the Centre that holds. And indeed this requires the courage of the Warrior.
