‘…Nothing is more difficult than to bring home the greatness and uplifting power of the spiritual consciousness to the natural man forming the vast majority of the race; for his mind and senses are turned outward towards the external calls of life and its objects and never inwards to the Truth which lies behind them. This external vision and attraction are the essence of the universal blinding force which is designated in Indian philosophy the Ignorance.’
Sri Aurobindo
Foundations of Indian Culture
Part III, Chapter II
I have time and again brought up the issue of the misuse of the Rigveda to support the claim that the Aryans of the hymns were historical figures from distant lands who entered Bharat and conquered the indigenous population, bringing with them a superior culture into a largely primitive society. This basic premise has been invoked in countless ways to further the divide-and-rule syndrome. It must be admitted that the tactic was immensely successful and effective. Any attempt to counter the effects of this undermining postulation and to provide a true and faithful interpretation of the Veda engenders a vehement antagonism, or else simply indifference.
But it is not only the misuse of the Rigveda that concerns us. Many other aspects of India’s culture have been similarly misused. And if this is not so evident, there is another aspect to the conspiracy which is perhaps the most damaging. It is the fact that certain means had been provided to re-make or re-structure what had been distorted over the ages. Yet these elements themselves were taken over and perverted to the point where their function became twisted to serve the Falsehood and not the Dharma.
One such case had been the Matrimandir in Auroville. Most unfortunately for the public, that structure is held by the builders, and even disciples of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, to be ‘the Mother’s creation’. But a series of distortions crept into the original plan, the consequences of which have been that it is the Mother’s creation in name only. The Vedic essence she brought down through the original plan has not only been lost but worse, it has been perverted in the extreme. And yet that ‘creation’ was meant to be a central element in the establishment of the ancient Vedic Dharma.
Let me proceed to explain in depth the significance of this loss because pari passu with the loss in terms of sacred architecture and geometry as a means of realigning the Dharma, there is the most important factor of the lost Measure. That is, the misalignment of the time-axis.
Certainly one of the most important discoveries I have made in the field of cosmic harmonies has been the time factor in the Mother’s original plan of the Chamber (see The Gnostic Circle and The New Way, Volumes 1 & 2). Indeed, over the centuries many seekers have attempted to make the same discovery; but lacking a true ‘model of the universe’ provided by an enlightened sage in contemporary times, they have invariably sought for this knowledge in the extant remains of ancient cultures. The Great Pyramid at Giza is one example. Many have been the attempts to read into the Pyramid a time key. The result has always been a speculative mental theory without a firm truth-foundation and not at all a working model applicable to our times.
The Mother’s original plan of the chamber was entirely different. And insofar as the actual construction of the building fell under the rule of Falsehood – or the Lord of Nations, to use the name the Mother once gave to identify this falsifying element operating in our times, – this precious time element was lost in the actual physical building. But it lived on in the realm of Knowledge. It is this that has provided the foundation of the New Way.
But, we must ask, why is it necessary to have this ‘time factor’ at all in a building of that nature, or even in an architectural plan? For it must be pointed out that it is the plan which serves as the Philosopher’s Stone. However, the necessity for such a device has to do precisely with the reestablishment of the Dharma. And in India’s case, given the objective of its millennial destiny which is to ‘conquer Time’ (in contrast to the Egyptian which was to conquer Space), this question of reestablishment is intertwined inextricably with Time.
This, however, is not abstract, as we tend to view any theory involving Time. I shall proceed now to draw very specific connections in this part of the study between the ancient Veda and contemporary Indian society, focusing especially on the elements provided for the reestablishment. This is a work exclusive to the Avataric Line. It is understandable therefore that the Mother, second in the descending scale of the supramental avatars, and as such embodying the Cosmic Divine, was called upon to offer her contribution precisely in the area of the cosmic manifestation. She left humanity, India, with a ‘new model of the universe’. This was the culmination of her mission. But it was not the end of the work, nor of the Line. Two further stages remained and only half the work had been accomplished successfully. The most difficult portion stands before us and its successful completion hinged precisely on the discovery of the time factor in that ‘model’. Without that the exercise would have been entirely sterile, static, non-evolutionary and inorganic: once again simply speculative and abstract. Indeed, for the people of Auroville and the devotees of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in the Ashram and throughout the world, that is all they can extract from the temple. Devoid of Knowledge such a structure is merely a church. It serves as a focal point for the congregation into which it can pour its adoration and aspirations. But it is not a key of Knowledge and never a tool for the Yoga.
Yet, a model of this nature was meant to be something far more than even just an instrument of yoga and personal enlightenment. It was indeed a new model of the universe. Therefore when today we speak of a ‘new world order’, and if the Mother’s creation indeed epitomises the new creation announced by Sri Aurobindo in all his writings, then we are entirely justified in expecting to find that ‘new order’ somehow written into the Mother’s original plan. I shall demonstrate how meticulously this has been the case.
Similarly, if the Mother’s plan is that model and by consequence not only a vessel of knowledge but POWER as well, as a corollary of the former in all true processes of Vedic Yoga, then everything surrounding its creation must reveal what IS. In other words, the distortions brought into the construction by the architects and builders and devotees must be as revealing of our times as the pure, uncontaminated original model.
This is precisely the case, the state of our times: everything has been contaminated. Similar to the Rigveda and the outlandish interpretations foisted upon it, so heavily entrenched in the mind of contemporary Indian academia, the Mother’s original plan underwent a disfiguring in even worse proportions. But if the misuse of the Rigveda tells us everything we need to know about the prevailing consciousness which has settled over the nation in that it reflects an imperialistic, colonising, Euro-centred mindset, the same may be said of the Matrimandir in Auroville. Those in charge of the project are not only European but, to my view, they seem to have been carefully ‘selected’ to represent an important ‘knot’ in the transformative work, centred on architecture and aesthetics; precisely what Sri Aurobindo described in his comparative study of European and Indian culture. This seemed to be a residue from the Italian Renaissance.
The items distorted, the nature of the distortions clearly reflect the consciousness of Falsehood which overtook the project in the mid 1970s – to be precise, at the 4.5 Orbit of that ennead, or July 1975. To give just one example – and I will furnish many more in the course of this study – the crystal the builders have recently installed with great care reflects the surrounding objects and people UPSIDE-DOWN. A person sitting in meditation on one side of the room sees those on the other side reflected onto the crystal but in this topsy-turvy position through this optic inversion.
It goes without saying that such an occurrence would have been unthinkable had the Falsehood not overtaken the construction. In the first place, based on the true Knowledge, that ‘crystal’ should not have been transparent but rather translucent and nothing of the surroundings should have been reflected upon its surface. But at the same time, I repeat, even the distortions help reveal WHAT IS and nothing is more revealing that this topsy-turviness and, more especially, the factor of reflections onto that sphere in the first place. In other words, the sacred, luminous Globe has become simply a tool for the projection of each person’s image rather than a resplendent, self-luminous object, full of its own light and power. It is precisely the work left undone from the Italian Renaissance, which has so heavily coated occidental culture throughout the world. It is the exaltation of the individual as creator, in contrast to the Vedic poise of instrument for the divine manifestation. This ‘new model of the universe’ as it has been built in Auroville displays a singular ego-centredness and distortion, as indeed the ego does inflict upon the human condition: everything we perceive in our state of imbalance, of binary poise and alignment according to this bi-polar reality is similarly flawed, turned upside-down. I shall deal with this imagery further on in greater detail.
This is of course no different than the distortions suffered by the Rigveda which have permitted it to be used to divide-and-rule. And it is certainly most interesting to note that in both cases it is the European who has introduced the distortion, while the Indian meekly accepts and even applauds the act. Equally, as with the Rigveda where any attempt to clear up the misinterpretations meets with contempt and ferocious opposition, any attempt to correct the distortions introduced into the Mother’s original plan, and later the construction, aroused similar if not worse reactions. For the aim of the Lord of Nations is precisely to distort, to disfigure, to pervert. That is, the shell remains in order that the item may retain its name, but it is connected to the true thing in name only: the essence has been squeezed out of the creation by the series of interpretations; or, as in the case of the temple, by a systematic alteration of each item in the Mother’s plan. In this way, by this distortion rather than wholesale rejection and introduction of something else, the builders can continue claiming that it is ‘the Mother’s original plan’ that they have built. Unsuspecting devotees are easily duped. And as far as the disciples go, there are few remaining of the calibre able to distinguish in such matters.
It must be realised that Sri Aurobindo’s work as it stands today in the two centres he and the Mother left is far closer to a religion than a new and vibrant supramental Yoga. Not to speak of the Supramental Manifestation. Indeed, the core of the latter is precisely GNOSIS, knowledge, the truth-consciousness. Vijnana and vidya to replace the colossal ignorance that has overtaken the world as an outcome of the human being’s misalignment of consciousness-being. In fact, this is the exact definition of a ‘reestablishment of the Dharma’. In every age when this hard labour is to be undertaken, in some form or other, we may appreciate that the task involves enlightenment, a casting away of veils, a dissolving of mists and shadows because of which the seeker cannot SEE, cannot perceive the Light and remains entrenched in his or her appalling condition of avidya.
In the case under discussion, what better tactic than to take the Mother’s own plan or model for the new creation of Truth and disfigure it to the point where it remains ‘hers’ in name only, and therefore acquires an unquestionable LEGITIMACY. But its truth-essence has been carefully, meticulously eliminated to the point where Knowledge cannot arise in the seeker through that channel – only a reinforcement of his or her ignorance. In this light, it is clear that the devotee who sits in meditation before an object which reflects his own self upside-down, is indeed being subjected to a formidable power of falsehood. Unless of course the aim is that the Matrimandir be a mirror of the individual’s falsehood and not the higher Truth, in which case to see one’s image inverted would be taken as a mirror of one’s true condition, unmasked and without veils; and as such an immense help on the path. However, I doubt that those who are drawn to participate in that enterprise or to visit the construction would be inclined to assess this upside-down reflection in this way.
Duping the Lord of Nations
The Mother was well aware of the nature of the power she was dealing with when she first gave out her plan for the chamber. Indeed, because of her acute sense of strategy, of ‘stalking’, to use the terminology of don Juan’s unique body of Toltec teaching, she grasped the situation and immediately understood that to save the creation this disfiguring in her name had to be avoided. The Matrimandir, as far as the Mother was concerned, needed to be the architects’ creation entirely. By consequence, she stopped insisting on the adoption of her plan after the 18th day of its revelation, and thereafter seems to have ‘blessed’ each and every change the architects introduced. Within a very short time the entire plan was redone and in such a way that no connection could legitimately be made with her original. It was similar to the urn positioned near the Matrimandir, wherein earth from over a hundred nations was placed for the inaugural ceremony of Auroville in 1968. The Mother had provided a design for the urn, with very exact measurements. This was replaced by the architect and something entirely different came to be executed and installed. It bears no relation at all to the Mother’s original and can in no way be said to be ‘her design’; nor has there ever been any attempt to do so.
This strategy was entirely in keeping with her wisdom, her intimate knowledge of the methods of the force she was dealing with in this Age and the clever tactic of disfiguring while ever clinging to the name of the thing.
We find the same occurrence in the placement of Gautam the Buddha in the 9th position of the Puranic avataric line. Though the true person of knowledge in India knew that this was a ‘ruse of the Supreme’, devised in order to ‘mislead’, the masses could not be expected to grasp the subtleties of such a strategy nor its purpose. Thus, for all practical purposes, the Buddha remains the 9th Avatar, usurping Sri Aurobindo’s position. In this instance too, it is evident that this was not the Buddha’s handiwork but rather those forces which began operating in the beginning of the 9th Manifestation, set upon the destruction of the Vedic Dharma. Similar to the Rigvedic ‘ruse’, the Buddha also became a precious tool in the hands of these forces. At the 9th level of the Puranic Line therefore there stands this aberration which defies any attempt at rectification, similar to the contemporary concrete and steel colossus which has been built in Auroville in the Mother’s name.
Knowing fully the nature of the Lord of Nations and this insidious capacity to distort the true things and disfigure them beyond recognition, the Mother, I repeat, allowed (and perhaps even encouraged) the architects to introduce any changes they liked. This is proven out by the fact that after 17.1.1970, the Mother did not refer to her plan again. The basis of the construction became entirely the architects. We know from the recordings of her conversations up to that date on this subject that she considered the proposed alterations of the architects to be a ‘mixture’ and far below her consciousness. We know that until then the changes were unacceptable to her. But once she realised there was no possibility of her plan being executed in full, she knew that the need of the hour was, similar to the urn episode of several years earlier, to have the architects take over the project entirely and that it should become THEIR building, unrelated to her in any way.
When I entered the scene toward the end of 1971, the foundations were already dug and shortly thereafter actual construction began. In 1974 the plan to be executed was shown to me by the presiding architect for the first time; this was a number of months after the Mother’s departure. It was then in no way recognisable as hers. And this was, I realise now, fully in keeping with her secret intentions. For in this way there could be no confusion in the minds and hearts of seekers. Her creation could not be misused.
To illustrate, the 12 pillars of the original had been eliminated entirely since the architects considered them to be ‘symbolic of the old creation’. The central symbol and pedestal had been removed and in its place a 3-metre hole had been inserted. The symbol that was to form a part of this area was shifted many metres below this void, this central open space in the room, and submerged in a pool of water at ground level. The entrance to the room, so carefully designed and placed by the Mother in her original plan to consist of 15 steps of specific measurements and proportions, and above all at the south end of the chamber, was also eliminated entirely; entrance was changed to two openings through the walls. And in the more subtle sphere, less easily perceived by the naked eye but of far greater importance, the diameter of the room was inaccurately rendered and the 24-metre horizontal plane shortened by close to one metre. In terms of the precision demanded in such a creation and upon which the Mother insisted, this discrepancy makes all the difference between correct axial balance and wrong alignment.
The point I wish to emphasis in the above is that EVERY visible and invisible item of the Mother’s original plan was allowed by her to be changed after 17 January 1970 – so as to reach the point where there could be no indulgence in the age-old and tested tactic of perversion of the true thing while calling it still the ‘original’. The Mother in this sense had outwitted the Lord of Nations. But it would not last long for reasons which I shall detail in this portion of our study in time, cosmos and the Indian reality. Insofar as the outwitting finally failed and the possession and consequent disfiguring did come to pass, I have felt myself obliged to dedicate the better part of my energies to an unmasking of the operation, also because this unmasking forms an essential part in the reestablishment of the dharma. In addition, and more importantly, it was precisely in the effort to unmask and expose the true character of the powers which have overtaken Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work that the real and full Gnosis was brought down and became the weapon of Truth, the sole power I would add, to serve in the reestablishment.
Not a Religion but a Yoga of Transformation
The goal of this 9th Manifestation and the work of the 9th and 10th Avatars is different than that of 6,000 or 12,000 years ago, during Sri Krishna and Sri Ram’s Manifestations, respectively. This 9th Manifestation is characterised by the rise and the establishment of organised, orthodox religions – a phenomenon unknown to the ancient world. In earlier times there was a formal worship, if it may be so called, but the purpose of such a collective expression was not to subjugate the people but rather to create ORDER, to regulate society.
This ‘orderliness’ was especially evident in ancient Egypt, but also in China of old and even pre-Christian Greece and Rome – not to mention the great civilisations of Central and South America. But one of the finest expressions of that Order (ritam is the Vedic term) evolved on the Indian subcontinent. More interestingly, it somehow managed to survive, to be carried over into this Manifestation, unlike all the other civilisations mentioned above. In the effort to survive, however, a strategy of compromise was the result. Indeed, so powerful was this urge to survive that this element of compromise has become a distinguishing and determining feature of Indian history of the past 1500 years. The result has been the disfiguring of the Dharma across the ages, for it must be stated that compromise with the Falsehood is a misconception. When one enters into a concord with that force, the disfiguring begins. Thereafter it is just a question of ‘time’ before the edifice of Truth is completely overtaken by the Ignorance and vidya has been entombed for good.
However, the wisdom of India lies in the fact that the mythic/epic character of the civilisation persisted. And, as I have pointed out earlier in this essay, in myth the true Knowledge has been preserved. Deep in the consciousness of the inhabitants of the subcontinent the higher things were ‘stored’. However, the attitude of compromise did indeed colour the history of Bharat from early Medieval times until today. And unless we come to terms with this element in the national psyche, there will not be the regeneration the collective consciousness demands for the Dharma to be re-established. Indeed, so serious has the situation become that it may no longer be appreciated and accepted that such a task begs to be undertaken. Or if it is accepted as the goal, there are few who can truly appreciate what this entails.
Thus, in the remaining portion of this essay I would like to concentrate on various aspects of this problem. In the process it will become clear that a major scourge of our times, our 9th Manifestation, is the religious consciousness. And by this we mean those partial expressions which rigidly and dogmatically seek to cage in the human consciousness and forbid it to approach the Supreme Truth in the atmosphere of full freedom which any true path of knowledge demands.
In our century fundamentalism has become a major factor to contend with. Indeed, it can be said to be the issue, the focus of the great unmasking and the core of the reestablishment of the Dharma. And precisely because of the tactic of adoption and disfiguring, we are faced with an interesting phenomenon in this sphere. When we mention the need to re-establish the Vedic way, understandably panic sets in among the secular western-oriented intelligentsia. This necessity is immediately perceived as fundamentalism, or a rigid imposition in the present of Hinduism of the past which, though it has experienced a certain regeneration and evolution with time and accommodated itself to the demands of this 20th Century, is still a product of an age of darkness, of a pre-‘enlightenment’, to be introduced later by science. And its reinstatement as imagined by these zealots of occidental secularism is nothing less than obscurantist. Mixed with this is the polity of the nation which seems to be experiencing a shift toward Hindutva or ‘Hindu-ness’, as it is called, particularly evidenced in the popular support of the proposed building of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. This has engendered a panic response in the intelligentsia of the nation. And as is usual in such an emotionally charged atmosphere, reason, logic and clear perception are lost. But in this case something even more precious is glossed over: the true meaning of ‘reestablishment’ and the impossibility to connect it in any way to fundamentalism and hence obscurantism.
If we persist in calling Hinduism a religion, then of course enlightenment on the matter becomes more difficult if not impossible. We have to return to the roots of Hinduism primarily in this area. That is, the first prerequisite is to understand in full that the focus of the discourse is not religion but rather culture, for want of a better word. To be more exact, it is CIVILISATIONAL. What is at stake is the continued survival of Bharat as a civilisation. In India’s case, given the fact that the lines of the civilisation had been established in the distant past and by the attitude of compromise they have been carried over into the present, albeit somewhat disfigured, the parameters of the discourse are thoroughly defined. It is now not a question of compromise – for then the disfiguring would continue and no reestablishment is possible. Rather, the key words are today harmony and integration.
Each religion that has arisen in this 9th Manifestation has established its own particular area of influence. In the effort to maintain supremacy over those areas, wars have been fought, crusades, conquests, and the like. Our history books are full of these ‘glorious’ exploits. But with certain cosmic ‘shifts’ which began in the 1700s, these positions became threatened. A new tactic expressed itself in colonialism and the secular mindset; these were instigators then of the disarray we observe today in world affairs which in certain key areas on the globe have given rise to the reactive response of fundamentalism.
Where then does India stand in this break-up and collapse? Again I must stress that the answer lies beyond Hinduism as a religion and in Bharat as a civilisation. This means that we must re-establish certain fundamental supports which are somehow still holding up the edifice of the nation but are greatly weakened by the distortions accumulated over the ages in the effort to compromise – i.e., to survive.
Thus, it is not a question of returning to the dictates of the Manu Smriti with its time-bound character, or to any other scripture as a fount of dogma. Nor is it simply a question of eschewing ‘foreign’ culture in favour of indigenous expressions or a revival of the arts on the basis of only that which can be acclaimed as Vedic and uncontaminated by any other culture. These activities may accompany the reestablishment we are discussing, but they are not the true channels and focus of what needs to be accomplished. It is not even a question of banning cow slaughter, of a rigid espousal of the caste system as we imagine it to be. Rather, something else is demanded. And it is this ‘something else’ that the Mother bequeathed to India in her original plan of the chamber. This is the key to the reestablishment of the Dharma in very great detail and precision via the correction of the nation’s time-axis in order to realign it with that of the ancient Vedic Age, and all that this act signifies. To comprehend what this may be, we shall explore the matter in detail in this study.
I am aware that this makes little sense to the layman, the devotee, or even the disciple. It is a language of INITIATION. But even this has wider and deeper connotations which we must explore. But to begin with and to make the discourse more easily comprehensible to a wider circle, I will take up one item of ancient civilisations which served to create order and maintain a diversity of expression under one umbrella held by the State over the population, but without a violent imposition of any sort. This was the calendar.
The Cosmic Order, or Unified Diversity
In ancient times the calendar served, to a certain extent, the purpose religions serve today, in particular as of the Middle Ages. Dogma, a rigid belief structure, replaced the cosmic harmony as the organizing principle in society, for the calendar was merely the instrument for carrying the population into that harmony, providing a systematisation (of time) by which that greater Harmony could be lived on Earth collectively and serve to unify the diversity which necessarily characterises any collectivity.
I mentioned earlier that as of the 1700s a shift came about and an element was injected into the earth atmosphere which served to corrode gradually the hold of religions over human society. This element of change was epitomised in the discovery in 1781 of the first of the outer triad of planets, Uranus. From that point onward we observe that accompanying the great expansion we have known as a global civilisation has been the consecutive discovery of two more planets, Neptune in the 1800s (1846) and Pluto in the 1900s (1930). And that expansion of the solar system had to have an effect on the basic contours of our civilisation. This should have been expressed in Hindu civilisation in the re-organisation of its methods of time reckoning and planetary positioning. But this did not take place; rather, as I have discussed extensively in these pages, the Divine Measure, which had been lost in the earlier portion of the 9th Manifestation, has been ‘slipping’ for Hindu civilisation ever since.
I am not alone in lamenting the loss of a correct key to time reckoning and a universal calendar for India. In the realm of secular sciences there is an even greater dismay at the present state of affairs in this domain. To illustrate, recently a seminar was held in Calcutta, sponsored by the Birla Planetarium and the Indian Astronomical Society. The topic of the two-day seminar was the ‘rectification of astronomical parameters published in Indian Panchangs [almanacs].’ The Times of India (13.2.1992, Delhi edition) reports that the eminent astronomers attending the seminar… ‘expressed concern over [the] bewildering variety and multiplicity of various Almanacs mostly based on gross unauthentic and miscalculations [sic] and not in line with astronomical parameters.’
It was lamented that even ’36 years after the implementation of the national Saka calendar’ which was ‘just an adaptation or a phase-shifted version of the Gregorian calendar’, the desired uniformity and accuracy was not achieved. In the keynote address of the secretary of the Society, Prof. A. Bandopadhyay regretted that such a calendar had yet to achieve the ‘desired popularity’ even as it was ‘designed to serve the purpose of a uniform and scientific Panchang.’
‘…Barring Maharastra and Gujarat where almanac compilers have been following correct astronomical parameters, others are still blindly engaged in the conventional process that leaves behind errors and wrong data in the Panchangs.’ (Ibid)
The errors Professor Bandophadyay refers to, I assume, are the positions of the planets in the tropical zodiac and the accumulating error of the inaccurate calculating of the precession of the equinoxes, the latter being the keystone of Hindu astrology/astronomy given the fact that the constellational sphere is used as the backdrop for positioning the planets rather than the tropical zodiac involving the equinoctial alignment discussed briefly in the last portions of this study.
The problem is immensely complex, as I am sure astronomers such as Professor Bandhopadhyay realise. For involved are cultural and even religious elements. It is for this reason that the professor justly points out that even 36 years after the adoption of an official calendar, it has not attained acceptance and the desired popularity. Indeed, the situation is that Hindus, Muslims, Christians and so forth, cling each one to their respective calendars and almanacs and use them to locate the time and place of their festivals and rituals. Needless to say there is no uniformity between these systems insofar as they reflect certain beliefs or are affirmations of reverence for the founder of the religion fixing the start of the count at the founder’s birth or other important dates in the evolution of the religion. They do not pretend to be accurate cosmic dials, unlike the Hindu almanacs which traditionally bore respect for the actual astronomical phenomena rather than a revered figure of the faith.
Bringing all this into harmony in a society and devising a calendar acceptable to all communities and sects is understandably impossible. Soon after Independence the Government of India realised that this situation needed attention if India was to function in a global secular society and occupy therein any position of relevance. The adoption of the official calendar was a step in that direction and intended to facilitate the new nation’s integration into the world community. Insofar as that community regulates its affairs on the basis of the Gregorian (Christian) calendar, the official Saka calendar was established on that model. This naturally could not have any emotional appeal to the majority Hindu community or even the Muslim. Thus there remains this split in the nation in this regard. Officially there is one system of time reckoning, but culturally and emotionally the cogs in the wheel of the national consciousness move at a different pace. Indeed, there are many such ‘cogs’ and they are all at odds with each other. Hence, the despair of the astronomer. This is similar in a way to the adoption of a national language intended to integrate the nation and the difficulties experienced in bringing the whole nation to accept the selection.
Regarding the calendar, the problem cannot be solved if it remains in the domain of religion – for example, a Christian choice over a Hindu, and so on. But insofar as Hindu astronomy became scientifically oriented when the split between science and spirituality was consolidated, the latter can be expected to understand the problem far better than any other community. Nonetheless, the irritant will remain when the Gregorian calendar gains supremacy, in particular as an aftermath of the imperialist, colonial age.
The question is therefore, Does a method exist to systematise the flow of time and the cosmic process which rises above these sectarian preferences and encompasses a more universal concept, one that can be accepted by all sections of the society?
I have laid great emphasis on India’s destiny to ‘conquer Time’. By this I do not mean to do violence to Time but rather to integrate this fundamental aspect of our material manifestation into a sort of ‘unified theory’ similar to what science seeks in order to evolve a ‘grand design’ which will explain the whole of the cosmic process. I am proposing this not within the parameters of current scientific thought but rather in harmony with the unalterable destiny and by consequence in tune with the deepest and widest parameters of India’s cultural and spiritual essence. This may not be appreciated by the scientific/academic community, though the result would not further aggravate the complex problem of adoption of a uniform calendar but would rather facilitate India’s integration into the world community, not merely officially but emotionally as well. In the process, within her own borders an integration would result when this question of time and cosmos is fully grasped and its relation to the ancient Veda established on the right foundation.
Nothing of this has happened so far. One need only review the research done by proponents of a ‘Vedic calendar’ to understand that the Lost Measure entails first and foremost a loss of the correct understanding of what it is that must be measured. That is, what is the principle which must govern such an undertaking – for in this discovery lies the key to a retrieval of the divine Maya or Measure.
My investigations have brought me to conclude that unless the current Hindu system of time/astronomical reckoning is taken as the all-important indication of the choices India made in the past which then permitted invasions, conquests, subjugations and the general decline of the civilisation, it will not be possible to bring any correction about. That is, the probe has to be pushed to the root of the problem. If a rectification is to come about which will be acceptable to Hindu society, we must disclose what transpired in Hinduism, and when, to bring the nation to its present state of confusion in this area, so vital for the proper fulfilment of India’s higher destiny.
For me the matter is wonderfully clear: the measure was ‘lost’ when the spiritual endeavour veered BEYOND the cosmic manifestation; and that Beyond then became the focus of the quest. This problem is an ancient one, though it acquired the power to pervert the destiny only after the onset of the 9th Manifestation, or after 234 BC. In the Atharvaveda this juxtaposition is confirmed and a certain conflict that it produced in the seeker when we read,
‘The branch of Nonbeing which is far-extending
men take to be the highest of all.
They reckon as inferior those who worship
your other branch, the branch of Being.’
Or else,
‘Great are the Gods who were born from Nonbeing,
yet men aver this Nonbeing to be
the single limb of the support, the great Beyond.’
However, in the age of this particular Veda, that Beyond was not yet the victor. Indeed, these verses to Skambha (‘the Support’) are the clear proof that at least up until that age, Skambha was the object of the spiritual endeavour and not the Beyond, or the Nonbeing. It was this axis mundi, this ‘binding energy’ of a ‘centre that holds’, or the national consciousness held together by this principle in an harmonious whole. The hymns to Skambha are exemplary in that they are the clearest description of what I came to call in the 1980s, the Yoga of the Chamber. This Yoga is EARTH-oriented. It forges that ‘skambha’ or Point; and from this ‘seed’ the entire cosmic manifestation has come into being. Contemporary science calls it the ‘singularity’ which resulted in the Big Bang, the theory upon which 20th Century cosmology is based. Science does not treat the question of what lay beyond that singularity, or what came before the so-called Big Bang. But the Atharvaveda does. The essence of these hymns is precisely the careful, faithful and exquisite description of that bridge, that cosmic ‘pillar’ (Skambha) which connects the two dimensions:
‘Men recognise the Golden Embryo [Hiranyagarbha]
as the unutterable, the Supreme.
Yet it was the Support [Skambha] who in the beginning
poured forth upon the world that stream of gold…’.
In other words, the Hiranyagarbha, or Golden Womb, is thought to be the FIRST step in the cosmic manifestation. But this verse makes it clear that prior to that ‘womb’ – or in the terms of 20th Century cosmology, the Big Bang – there came into ‘existence’ the Pillar or the bridge between that Beyond or Nonbeing and this material dimension. This is the ‘singularity’ science is seeking to establish. In the new cosmology which integrates the before and after, the first point of space is the ‘pillar’ formed by the 9, 6, and 3 as degrees of time-energy, compressed into this ‘singularity’, thus fully in keeping with the early Vedic perception, in particular the references in the Rigveda to Agni in the form of the Universal Purush… ‘With his vast and ample upbearing he props up the firmament like a pillar’ (RV, IV,5,1)
This forces us to ask where in the Middle East or in Europe of the the time of the ‘Aryan invasion’ were similar concepts expressed? That is, if the Aryans brought these profound perceptions into India from beyond, where is there any evidence of a civilisation which had similar perceptions? But more than that, which was entirely founded on those perceptions? On the other hand, the Veda, starting with the first book, the Rigveda itself, considered to be of much earlier composition than the Atharvaveda, speaks of nothing else. The hymns do not indicate the faint beginnings of perception of a ‘supreme cause’ as scholars such as H. J. J. Winter imagine, and that a gradual development began with these ‘Aryan invasions’ which finally resulted in the highly evolved sciences and philosophies we know from the Upanishadic period and beyond, into medieval times. The hymns describe as an APEX, a civilisation at the height of its spiritual and cultural creativity. Thereafter the decline began and these sacred ‘measures’ were lost, precisely when powers arose which had no understanding of these profound concepts and realisations, – and the tactic of undermining began.
I must return to the question I posed earlier on in his essay: What was it that had to be undermined for the fast and furious decline to set in? It was precisely that point, that Skambha. Science, as separate from the spiritual arose and gained supremacy in India after that Point had been effectively eliminated or hidden under impenetrable veils. Hence we have the later myth of Guha, the veiled hidden One, the Puranic counterpart of Agni and Skambha. What I mean to demonstrate by establishing these simple connections is how that original high perception came to be transferred to the myth and thus PRESERVED in the collective consciousness during the full period of the decline, conquest and subjugation of the race.
In our times we have even clearer evidence of the great Undermining in the Matrimandir. For in what way have the builders of the pseudo-temple captured this fact of India’s spiritual and material evolution, this undermining of the Point? In the architect’s own words, he explains why he left the centremost Point of the room’s floor empty, void.
‘It is symbolic: I do not think you will be able to see it in the daytime, as the natural sunlight will be too strong. But in the evening maybe a tiny spot of light will be visible underneath the floor of the Chamber’… (Auroville Today, August 1991)
Given the extraordinary significance of the central Point in the Dharma, the public has every right to demand of the architect what ‘symbolism’ he is referring to when he makes this statement, apparently with sound authoritative knowledge of such matters, that the ‘void’ in place of the solid and concrete Point is ‘symbolic’. Clearly he can have no satisfying answer. Once again, he has been merely a tool of the Ignorance. But in this way the ‘temple’ these commercial architects and builders have constructed is nonetheless allied to the Knowledge but in the NEGATIVE, by this symbolism revealing the reality of what IS, the realistic conditions to be seen and then finally transformed.
The great Undermining attacked the collective Will. This is amply confirmed by the Knowledge in that Agni, (Skambha or the Point) is referred to precisely as ‘…the divine Will working in the worlds’. Vedic Agni is the divine particle in the human being which holds his or her consciousness together and centred on this divine element rather than the dark ‘sun’ of the ego. The objective of the Vedic Yoga is the shift from a binary to a unitary creation. The means by which to achieve this end is through realisation of that Point, that perfect centre, that Skambha or pillar upholding the world and the axis around which the human consciousness itself is structured, in the apt aphorism, ‘As above, so below’.
‘As the unborn he has held the wide earth, he has up-pillared heaven with his Mantras of truth. Guard the cherished footprints of the Cow of vision; O Agni, thou art universal life, enter into the secrecy of the secret Cave.’ (RV, I, 67,3)
If we understand this then we are in a position to comprehend what it is that must be measured, and why I can state that wisemen, after the Undermining, lost sight of what that meant. To be precise, the Point is the axis of the soul, or the END of the Skambha or ‘pillar’ connecting the Transcendent to the Immanent. This may be individual or collective. It may as well be civilisational, and even involving the physical boundaries of a nation. In India’s case this is beautifully clear: the soul-axis, or the Pillar/Point, is located in the individual and in the civilisation, as well as the very geography of the country, because all these have been contained or integrated in a philosophy and spirituality wherein they are integral, interrelated parts. We do not find this demonstrated in any other civilisation or belief system. Though fundamentalist movements attempt to bring about a sort of integrated relationship between citizen, state and religion. Or in Israel’s case, the desire to read a divine sanction into the acquisition of land which conflicts with the ground reality in the area.
The reason why this integral approach is easily perceived in India’s case still today is because of the cosmic foundation of the Vedic Dharma. This is not relative or time-bound. That is, it does not hinge on reinstating values of past epochs, or else on an individual, a prophet, a founder, a saint; or even a book, a sacred scripture. It relies on the Cosmic Harmony which is an eternal scripture, ever in the process of evolution and expansion. As the human consciousness widens and perception is heightened, both spiritually and scientifically, that much more can be extracted from this cosmic Script. There is no final word, no definitive ‘interpretation’. But there are certain principles, laws; and these are indeed eternal and unchanging. This unchanging foundation in the Law (Varun of the Veda), the Dharma, is the single most important element of Hinduism. The Measure which was lost implied that a certain aspect of this Law was missed or lost sight of. This was precisely the centremost position of that Point or Skambha in the Dharma, so beautifully symbolised in the pseudo-temple in Auroville by the 4-cm VOID in the room right where that Point should have been lodged with reverence and knowledge. I repeat, this pillar/point is the soul’s axis. On this Principle or Law the entire material manifestation is founded. The evolution of the cosmos began with this Point, this soul-axis…
‘The One on whom the Lord of Life [Prajapati]
leant for support when he propped up the world –
Tell me of that Support [Skambha] – who may he be?
‘That which of all forms the Lord of Life
created – above, below, and in between –
with how much of himself penetrated the Support?
How long was the portion that did not enter?
‘With how much of himself penetrated the Support
into the past? With how much into the Future?
In that single limb whose thousand parts he fashioned
with how much of himself did he enter, that Support?’
(Athar.X,7)
Inasmuch as the human being is located on the planet Earth, at the third orbit of the solar system, this planet is that same ‘centre’ or ‘soul’, being the third measure from the Sun. More specifically, the planet is like a womb. And in that ‘womb’ we find the Point, Skambha or Agni of the Veda. It is for this very reason that so much importance is attached to the planet’s axial alignment and I have stated that it is in understanding this tilt that we can know the most profound aspects of our destiny as a planetary society, as an evolving collective consciousness. For that axial tilt is representative of the soul-axis which the planet itself must experience as a CONSCIOUS PROCESS through the collective yoga of the species, – or at least a representative portion of the human species. And that this Yoga or process is played out in India.
In the Solar Line the Third is the ‘bridge’ or ‘pillar’ – the connection to the Transcendent (9), and through whom that Power is reborn as the Fourth, the One or the Point. Thus, what constitutes the cosmic reality in macrocosmic terms, is a feature of our solar system; and it is lived by the Solar Line whose members enact this creative process in Earth-time:
‘The young Mother bears the Boy pressed down in her secret being and gives him not to the Father; but his force is not diminished, the people behold him established in front in the upward workings of things.
‘Who is this Boy, O young Mother, whom thou bearest in thyself when thou art compressed into form, but thy vastness gives him birth? For many seasons the Child grew in the womb; I saw him born when the Mother brought him forth’. (Rigveda, Secrets of the Veda, ‘Hymns to Agni’, Sri Aurobindo, CE, Vol.10, p.367).
When secret knowledge is revealed regarding the ‘compression’ to a ‘point’, the role of the ‘young Mother’ or the Third Power in giving birth to this ‘compressed point’, no longer can these verses be held as obscure, esoteric, or even exclusively for the Initiate. The existence and activities of the Solar Line have definitively brought the Veda down to Earth. The above describes with very great precision the process as it has been lived by the Line, mirroring the cosmic act of creation which science is seeking to unravel. The very first line makes the process clear, ‘The young Mother bears the Boy PRESSED DOWN…and gives him not to the Father’… The ‘Father’ is the Transcendent. The meaning is that this ‘Boy’ (Agni or Skambha or the ‘compressed Point’), is not drawn up into the Transcendent, or the Beyond – for that is the whole objective of the Vedic quest. At the same time, the hymn states that by this compression and emergence from the Womb of the young Mother, the Father’s ‘force is not diminished’. After the birth of that Point ‘the people’ experience this power ‘in front in the upward working of things’. There is perhaps no clearer rendering of the REVERSAL I have often described, precisely relating to the Fourth Power, the Son of the Solar Line, who introduces the horizontal plane after the ‘compressed vertical descent’ of the 9 and 6 and 3. The role of the Third is very clearly defined in these hymns as the power to give form to this compressed Point, within which is contained the full force of the vast Transcendent. This is the description of the birth of the Father (Transcendent), through the 6 and 3, the ‘mothers’, the latter of which is the Third Power of the Line and through whom the birth actually takes place – i.e., the Transcendent is compressed to emerge in the cosmic manifestation as the Immanent. Then, after the Reversal, the ‘upward workings of things’ can begin.
In this light, it can be appreciated that I am not exaggerating when I state that the Rigveda describes a yogic process and can in no way be interpreted as an historic document, or even a manual of ritual as it came to be viewed after the divine Maya or Measure was lost. Having lived this very process in full, I feel I am entitled to challenge the upholders of the ‘historic interpretation’ on every point they have made in support of their theory, a falsification which has done immense harm to the process of national integration.
The Third of the Solar Line equals the Earth in the new cosmology. The connection between the Earth and the Point, or Agni, is borne out by the Rigveda in the hymns to Usha, the divine Dawn, an aspect of the Earth, and her relation to Agni in the form of the white Steed:
‘Blazing out brilliant as the lover of the Dawn, filling the two equal worlds like the Light of Heaven, thou art born by our will and comest into being all around us; thou hast become the father of the Gods, thou who art the Son.
‘Very bright and lustrous is he like the lover of the Dawn. May his form be known and may he wake to the knowledge for this human being, may all bear him in themselves, part wide the Doors, and come to the Seeing of the Sun.’ (Rigveda, I,69,1-5, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, Sri Aurobindo, CE, Vol.11, p.56-7).
But the relationship between Earth and the Fourth is even more explicitly stated in the Puranas where the Earth as a planet is said to have given birth or form to Mars. This tallies exactly with the new cosmology and the details of the Solar Line in that it is the Third (Earth) who gives birth or form to the Fourth (Mars). The cosmological formula is simply a numerical rendering of the myth.
However, what brings these tales and formulas out of the realm of ‘symbols’ or abstract ideas is TIME. When the above is connected to actual births in time of a third ‘principle’ or a fourth, and that the details of these births as verified in a universal calendar are completely in harmony with the Knowledge and serve to render it concrete and no longer abstract, the quest undergoes a notable shift. It is no longer directed to a beyond, an extra-cosmic dimension. It is Earth-oriented. As the myth reveals, the Earth carries that Point in her ‘womb’. To actualise that in a yogic process and thereby to establish that Point as the ‘support’ or Will, both individually and collectively, societal and civilisational, then the message of the Hindu Temple has to be taken very seriously: the garbhagriha or ‘womb-house’ has to be respected and acknowledged as the focus of the Dharma, symbolically rendered in the Hindu Temple in this way. Or, conversely, denied in the rendering of the Matrimandir in Auroville by the elimination of that Point, centremost in the room.
When these elements of the Dharma are understood, then it becomes clear that in order to retrieve a correct measure of Time and that this becomes reflected in the acceptance of a calendar and astronomical system of positioning which serves that Dharma in full rather than to make confusion worse confounded, then the Yoga of the Veda has to be experienced. This means an entire reevaluation of all the spirituality India has been practising since the Middle Ages in the light of this retrieval of the divine Measure. To return to the Vedic ROOTS, or to reestablish the Dharma, demands that this Yoga be experienced. Otherwise what is it we are seeking to re-establish?
India, in the unconscious but controlled unfolding of her destiny, acknowledges time and again this sacred process and the central role it plays in the civilisation. We confirm this by the exactitude of this same cosmic harmony reflected not only in the birth of the members of the Solar Line but the Lunar Line of the Nehrus as well. In addition, we note that the Government of India adopted an official calendar based on the Gregorian (universal) model. For indeed, these harmonies cannot be verified in the Hindu calendar. Relying on that they would have been lost and the process rendered futile. To lay emphasis on this fact, we also note that this official adoption took place in 1956, or the very year of the Supramental Manifestation. This occurred on 29.2.1956, and it was the signal that ‘the time had come’ and the Harmony or formula would begin to play a pivotal role as the key to ‘the organisation of supermind for Earth-use’. For that, India had to have a universal calendar from that very year.
The evolution of the Matrimandir in Auroville and the manner in which the architects and builders, in complete ignorance of sacred architecture of any school, so easily gained possession of the construction and maintained control over it in spite of all attempts to retrieve the building and make of it a womb of Truth rather than a tomb of the Knowledge as it presently is, is evidence of the almost impossible task ahead. However, some gains have been made, precisely because of that ‘victory’ of the Falsehood. These gains arose because the victory of the Shadow FORCED the Knowledge to descend. That is, given the ignorance and opposition I was faced with in the Matrimandir, and perceiving the terrible loss for humanity which would result from an acceptance of that victory as definitive, with nothing of the higher aspects of the Mother’s original plan allowed to reach the public because of this possession, all I could do was to experience the Yoga, realise that Skambha – and in the process to resurrect the ancient Yoga of the Veda. I must confess that had the builders accepted the Mother’s plan unquestioningly from the beginning, there would have been no need for ‘the Yoga of the Chamber’. In which case, nothing of what needed to be reestablished, in its highest, deepest and widest sense, would have been known.
Defining the Time/Soul Axis
The essential lines of the Yoga of the Earth, or the birth of Mars, or Agni, or the Point, were given by the Mother in her original plan of the Chamber. To begin with, her specification regarding the entrance into the chamber emphasises the points I have made regarding the axial tilt of the Earth and the fundamental part the Tropics and Equinoxes and Solstices play in the Yoga. The Mother appears to have been fully aware of this connection, if her original plan of the Chamber is any indication. This is amply borne out by the fact that she positioned the entrance into the chamber precisely at the south end. The Mother was emphatic that this entrance should not only be located south, but that it should pierce the floor – or the horizontal plane of the room.
I am presenting here the floor plan of the chamber as designed by the Mother. It can be noted that the stairway rises into the chamber from below and is specifically located to penetrate the room from a certain position. In terms of symbolic/aesthetic representation, this position serves first of all to emphasise the quality of a plane which the Mother desired to bring forth in her design. All the ‘action’ was to be on this plane; and she was greatly disturbed when the architects and disciple kept insisting on changing her design with numerous entrances piercing not that horizontal plane but the circumscribing walls. This impertinent insistence, preserved on tape at the time, revealed a singular ignorance of what exactly the Mother wished to capture in her design: the harmony of the cosmos, centred on this third planet Earth; though in her recorded conversations on the subject she is revealed to be more than clear about the matter, explicitly relating the 12 walls, for example, to the months of the year – in other words, the zodiac.
What emerges from the analysis of her plan, supported by her own recorded comments during the 18 days when she sought to defend her vision before this outrageous demolition campaign waged by the architects and the disciple, and later carried through by the actual builders of the pseudo-temple, is that there are DIRECTIONS emphasised: horizontal and vertical. The former is the ecliptic, or the equatorial plane if we wish to connect it specifically to the axial tilt of the Earth and the solstice/equinoctial points in calendar time. This is the base, in the sense that I have written in the last two issues of VISHAAL regarding the foundational plane of the Veda, extending from the Sun of Gnosis. By designing the entrance opening right into and onto this plane, the Mother was establishing the first all-important fact of the chamber’s symbolism: the seeker’s merging into that plane as he or she enters the room, and is sustained by that Base. In addition, the foundational plane is the space dimension and the physical proper. But the design she gave goes much further. It provokes the experience. I shall explain in what way.
Thus, there is also a vertical direction emphasised in the Chamber’s original design. This is brought forth first and foremost by the descending central Ray (of the Sun), as well as the walls and pillars. This direction relates to TIME, above all else. The Mother made this clear when she spoke of the walls representing the months of the year.
However, all of this would remain in the realm of the ‘symbolic’ or ‘representative’, if Time had not added its power to the Mother’s creative act. To make this clear I must again remind the reader of the singular importance of the Earth’s axial tilt and the extreme importance of the solstices in this planetary feature. We have then the very same directions emphasised in the solstices and equinoxes as in the chamber’s original plan. The solstices correspond to the vertical/time direction; the equinoxes to the horizontal/space. This is clear if we note what it is that happens at the equinoxes of March and September: the equatorial plane is level with the ecliptic extending from the Sun. That is, the horizontal expanse experiences this harmonisation by the convergence of these two planes. As for the Earth, this levelling results in an equal distribution of day and night.
In the vaster movement of the Ages, this equatorial plane serves another purpose. It is akin to the ascendant in a person’s horoscope – or the ascending/descending plane in the chart. Given a particular motion of the earth similar to the wobble of a spinning top, this slowly revolving plane traces a circle in the heavens. The equinoctial plane requires 25,920 years to trace one full circle in the heavens. It is drawn on the backdrop of the constellational sphere traditionally. The only difficulty is that no one is in agreement about what point to establish as the zero demarcation of that greater circle, or the beginning of the constellational wheel. Consequently, given this discrepancy of opinion, none can agree on the date of the beginning of our own period, the Age of Aquarius. For it is this slow gyration of the Earth’s equatorial plane measured on the constellational wheel that establishes which astrological age we are in and when that began or comes to an end.
In India the matter assumes great importance insofar as all calculations for horoscopes, festival timings, etc, utilise this constellational point or demarcator rather than the zero point of the tropical zodiac. I have dealt with this situation extensively earlier in this essay and elsewhere and its consequences for the civilisation. My point in bringing up the issue again is simply to explain how the Mother sought to reorient the focus of time reckoning in India via her original plan of the chamber. But if certain key features of her design are not appreciated, then no coherent body of knowledge is forthcoming from her plan, whose purpose it is precisely to bring about this reorientation and establishment of the Vedic Dharma.
Thus the Globe in her original design is equal to the Earth. The symbolism in connection with the ancient Veda and the Puranas is perfectly clear when this equivalence is known because then the point, (left void by the builders in Auroville) is exactly beneath that Globe and centred at the base of the closed pedestal (open in the Auroville construction); and this position is the One born of the Third, or Mars born of the Earth. It is perfectly in harmony with the Knowledge for the Point is then both centre of the circle as well as axis. That is, it is the end of the solar ray which is indeed the axis of the entire chamber. But it is a TIME-AXIS and by consequence a SOUL-AXIS. This is the extraordinary Knowledge the Mother was able to capture in her creation, simply because she designed a most faithful reproduction of the cosmic harmony centred and converging on the planet Earth.
Further, the true Globe, in contrast to the falsifying ‘crystal’ designed by the architect and builders of the pseudo-temple, should have been fashioned IN INDIA, insofar as the Globe is both the Earth and Bharat. (More on this most important aspect further on.) Germany, where the architect commissioned the crystal, was entirely inappropriate inasmuch as it was the seat of the Lord of Nations openly until just recently; and that power continues to operate, less obviously though still potently falsifying, through channels precisely centred on the Mother’s work. Again for the Seer there is no lie: the ‘choice’ was the right one. Nothing better explains the decline, and now the supremacy of the Falsehood than this aspect of the pseudo-temple’s history.
To be effective as an instrument for the reestablishment, all of this had to be executed faithfully and in full knowledge, unlike what actually came to pass in Auroville where commercial architects took over the project and blatantly destroyed the chamber’s Vedic content. Purposely, it would seem. For it is hard to imagine that without this premeditated design anyone ignorant of occultism, temple building or cosmology would have dared to interfere with the Mother’s creation. The architect-in-charge has made the statement that the completion of this project was ‘…a deep fulfilment, the purpose of my life realised’… (Auroville Today, January 1992). One is inclined to enquire what exactly that might mean, given the nature of what he finally constructed as the Matrimandir, and supposedly ‘faithful to the original’.
To return to the stairway and entrance and its singular importance, we must note that in any attempt to create a piece of sacred architecture, the observer’s first contact with the symbol is of foremost importance. It establishes the ‘seed’ of the experience.
The Mother was not unaware of this fact and she made sure in her original plan that this aspect would be respected. Time collaborated in full in the process because not only did she design the entrance at the specific SOUTH END of the room’s floor plan, she saw and measured the creation at the right time – that is, over the only few days in the year which would bear witness to and corroborate what I have written above regarding the chamber’s horizontal and vertical directions; the former of space, the latter of time.
Thus, in the plan the entrance was placed at the south point of the (equatorial) plane. This, in terms of the all-important axial tilt and the resultant Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn is equivalent to the southernmost sign of the zodiac, the nadir of the dakshinayana of Hindu astronomy, – Cancer. Its opposite pole is the most auspicious Festival of Light beginning at the December Solstice or the 0° of Capricorn, India’s own astrological ruler and the hieroglyph of which delineates the nation’s physical contours. Indeed, the Mother ‘saw’ this chamber exactly in the heart of the Festival of Light; and even more uncannily, exactly in the segment of zodiacal time which I have come to designate as the 5° (of celestial longitude) of the chamber. That is, from 10° Capricorn to 15° – or January 1st to 5th. This is also the period of perihelion, when the Earth moves closest to the Sun each year.
Two elements joined in the Mother’s creative act in this way. It was as if the Mother had indeed entered the room in the subtle dimension (indeed her description of the experience does seem to indicate this very physical act) and then recorded what she had ‘seen’. But this she could only do with Time’s collaboration. That is, as the Earth reached these particular degrees of celestial longitude of the chamber, a veil was drawn aside and the Mother in her subtle physical body entered that magical space, that ‘hidden chamber closed and mute’.
In the space of those 5 days/degrees, the act of Seeing and Measuring was completed. Thereafter, the Mother presented her original plan, especially drawn up for her by an Ashram engineer, to the disciple and architects. And that was the end of her extraordinary vision. From that point onward the story of its execution has been a devastating denial of all that her original plan embodied.
The Festival of Light covers an expanse of 15 degrees/days from the solstice of December 21/22 to January 5th and the 15th degree of Capricorn. Clearly the Mother sought to carry the seeker into the chamber focusing on this phenomenon: the increase of the Light. She did so by explicitly designing 15 steps into the chamber. And the seeker, while mounting these steps (days) and entering the room would indeed experience the increasing Light by virtue of the fact that his or her eyes would be riveted during the ascension on the descending central Ray of Light. This Ray would ‘increase’ before his or her eyes with every step taken, until the seeker would stand on the horizontal plane of the chamber, at the 15th step (or the 15th degree of Capricorn, Cosmic Midday) and the peak of the Festival of Light when the Sun ‘casts no shadows’. This culmination would signify the seeing of the full Ray descending onto the Globe which represents not only the Earth and India but his or her own soul.
The architects and builders of the Matrimandir deprived future devotees and seekers of this experience when they decided to eliminate that 15-step, south-end entrance from below. In the words of the presiding architect…
‘The existing structure has been made with the maximum respect for the Mother’s vision… The room today is as faithful to the original design as it can possible [possibly?] be. Only one thing [!] couldn’t be respected: the underground entrance with direct access to the room at ground level. This particular aspect has been lost due to the room being 15 metres above ground level in the middle of the sphere.’ (Ibid)
Thus the architects succeeded in introducing their own ‘mixture’ (in the Mother’s own words) by eliminating this superb item of sacred Vedic symbolism and obliging visitors to enter the room through doors piercing the walls – expedient of course, but an architectural problem entirely resolvable if the will had existed to do so. What they have put in its place is totally devoid of ‘sense’. Contrasting with the Mother’s explanation that everything in her original design had a ‘sense’. As such, every detail was sacred and inviolable.
Ayodhya and the Mother’s Chamber
In the Special Issue of the December solstice (incorporated in TVN 6/5, December 1991), dedicated to the epiphany of the Ramlal idol in the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya exactly on the solstice of 1949, as another exercise in ‘rectification’, I discuss how attention was drawn to the same Festival of Light highlighted by the appearance of the Child Ram on that very night. Now we note that in a similar attempt at rectification through the channel of a divine Seeing, the Mother has also laid emphasis on the very same segment of time. Its importance lies in the fact that it is the true Makar Sankranti, or ‘gateway to Capricorn’. And this is the divine Measure which must be retrieved, symbolised in the Rigveda as the ‘lost Cow’, or in the more accurate translation, ‘the Lost Ray’.
But there are many more similarities between the Matrimandir as it has been constructed in Auroville and the Ram Janambhoomi/Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. In both places we have structures standing on hallowed spots which are in stark contrast to the essence of that sacredness. The mosque in Ayodhya is offensive to most Hindus because it represents the introduction of an alien concept right where it hurts mosts, so to speak. That is, on the location which is believed to have been the birthplace of Lord Ram, 7th Avatar of Hindu tradition. Whether or not this is factual is really not the issue since the Moghul Emperor Babar’s intension was to strike a blow at that belief, regardless if it was actually the spot or not. It was believed to be, then and now; therefore he installed a mosque right there, as was the practice in those times. Understandably, Hindus have ever since been attempting to demolish the structure and erect a temple in its place honouring Ram.
This pertains to the 7th Avatar of the Line. But what of the 8th, 9th and 10th? Are they similarly embroiled in ‘controversy’?
Indeed, Sri Krishna, the 8th, also experienced a squeezing out from his birthplace at Mathura. It was also overtaken by a mosque in a similar attempt to undermine the avataric belief. We must view these occurrences in their proper perspective and appreciate that such acts were the accepted practice for conquering armies in those days. And the buildings were intended to endure as a perennial reminder to the subject civilisation of the supremacy of the conqueror and his ability to demolish the cornerstones of the culture, demonstrating in the act the impotency of the populace and by consequence the superior strength of the invader.
History confirms this impotency by recording the contrasting Spanish expulsion of the Islamic conquerors (and the Jews) just before the time of Babar’s take-over in Ayodhya and the native population’s inability to react. But Spain, after close to 800 years of foreign rule, was able finally to expel the invaders because it was a nation on the rise, facing a brilliant colonising period. Indeed, it was Spain that in the very year the Jews were expelled, sponsored Columbus’s voyage in the discovery of the America’s (India?). On the other hand, India was a civilisation in full decline, at the nadir of her power and collective will. Whether the Spaniards were morally correct in what they did, or even Babar for that matter, is not the issue. My point is simply to demonstrate the ability of a nation to confront and expel foreign rulers after an 800-year occupation, in contrast to India’s incapacity to exert its will and force any definitive expulsion.
However, it is understandable that if something of a resurrection of the collective will begins to take place, attention will automatically be turned to these sore points such as Ayodhya and Mathura – and, right on time. They should be treated therefore as indications of that awakening by ALL sections of the society.
Thus, Ramlal made his ‘surreptitious’ appearance in the Babri Mosque exactly on time – both day and year. For it was precisely thereafter, in 1950, that Sri Aurobindo left his body and began the process of ‘giving form to the Point’ (that Will), or Agni, or Skambha via the Third Power of the Solar Line. Through Ramlal’s epiphany the focus turned decidedly on the Avatar, at the very time significant steps were being taken by him to bring the work of the Line to completion.
But similar to the Ram and Krishna sacred sites, we find Sri Aurobindo’s, the 9th Avatar of the same Line, equally invaded by a building which stands in stark contrast to the original essence. Indeed, in Sri Aurobindo’s case the situation is far worse that in Ayodhya or Mathura. In Auroville the Mother’s plan was perverted though retaining its name, thereby duping the unsuspecting seekers. In Ayodhya and Mathura this is not the case. The invaders made no attempt to dupe. They were far too honest. They simply tore down and rebuilt according to their fervent beliefs. The defence of these ‘statements of conquests’ by sections of contemporary Indian society is equally honest in that it is a defence of beliefs and monuments which symbolise those beliefs accurately. They are not monuments pretending to be Hindu but perverting the symbolism in order to dupe the seeker.
This, lamentably, is what we find in Auroville. Hence the upside-down reflection of the seeker in the central crystal. But duping or not, the similarities between Ayodhya, Mathura and Auroville remain: to demolish and rebuild, or not to demolish and rebuild. And in each case the heart of the issue is the Avatar, the last four of the Puranic Line. To be exact, Sri Ram, the 7th, Sri Krishna, the 8th, Sri Aurobindo, the 9th, and the 10th – or Sri Aurobindo as the resurrected Will, as the One.
It can be appreciated that this is an extremely complex issue with numerous ramifications and consequences. We shall explore them all in the course of this study in time, cosmos and the Indian destiny. In the process, perhaps the conundrum – to demolish and build, or not to demolish and build – will be resolved.
The Atmosphere of Trickery, Negation and Falsehood
It would seem as if in the course of my work I have been channeling too much energy into an exposure of the architects’ distortions of the Mother’s original plan in the pseudo-temple in Auroville. But, insofar as they persist in calling it ‘the original’, and ‘as faithful as possible’ to her vision, any serious disciple or student of the Mother’s work would welcome such an exposure, for not to denounce it is the same as saying, ‘I prefer darkness and ignorance and to be an instrument thereof.’ Indeed, in this age of compromise, when it is considered dogmatic and intolerant to be precise in such matters, the powers-that-be have in fact labelled all attempts to bring the true position to light as bigoted, dogmatic and an attempt at ‘making a religion of Sri Aurobindo’s work’.
Ironically, the real method to convert a path of Knowledge such as his into a religion is by squeezing out of it that higher content. And this is precisely what has been done in Auroville with the Mother’s plan. Hence, inasmuch as there is no lie for the Seer, the crystal designed and installed by those architects and builders does indeed mirror this perverse inversion in that we are faced with a consciousness which cannot create forms of truth but can only usurp them and then call this travesty ‘truth’, or ‘faithful to the original’.
Lamentably, this has not only been done regarding the knowledge content of the Mother’s original plan. My own work based on that very Knowledge has been similarly disfigured by these very people.
In January 1991, Auroville Today, the official review of the city, published an article by a fledgling architect which was a comparative study between the Matrimandir and the Great Pyramid at Giza, based on material extracted from her thesis. Since I am the only person who has done any solid work on this subject, and in spite of the fact that I had refused permission for this person to use any of my material on this subject two years earlier, she blatantly ‘borrowed’ (read plagiarised) entire diagrams and subject matter from my book, The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 12. Though this had been done without acknowledging the source, it would not have been so bad had the ‘borrowing’ been honest. Contrarily, it was done as an exercise in the same perversion which has become habitual in Matrimandir affairs involving the Mother’s original plan.
In this case, the very portion misused by the author and editor was, significantly, the section dealing with the inaccurately-rendered floor diameter. I presented geometric proof based on Sri Aurobindo’s symbol of this unacceptable inaccuracy which contradicts the Mother’s explicit request that ‘the 24 metres must end at the walls’ (they do not in the architect’s rendering). But instead of conveying this point, the author and editor preferred to make it appear as if my discoveries were applicable to what has been built in Auroville and that the building there conforms to my diagrams – i.e., the correct 24-metre diameter.
The true position however, as established in my original diagrams, is that Sri Aurobindo’s symbol cannot be ‘found’ in what they have built, given the inaccurate floor diameter. But in plagiarising my work in this way, my discoveries appear to CONFIRM their construction as ‘faithful to the original’.
But this blatant plagiarism and misrepresentation did not end there. In the subsequent June 1991 edition of the same paper, ‘Amrit’, the astrologer-in-residence in Auroville, was interviewed. This person was my student in the early 1970s. Again for this piece, one of my diagrams has been ‘borrowed’ without acknowledgement. Once more, this would not be so objectionable except for the fact that this ‘Amrit’ plagiarised my work called ‘the geography of the Gnostic Circle’ from The New Way, Vol.2, Chapter 9. He presents my discoveries as his. He also refers to 1926 as the beginning of the Aquarian Age, which is a date held only by me as such, and when the interviewer asks him why he had selected this date which was the year of Sri Aurobindo’s Siddhi, he replies. ‘It just happened that way! I have been experimenting with this date for some 17 years now and it has consistently worked…’. The interview continues in this vein.
Again what is demonstrated is a pick-and-choose attempt to utilise elements of my work which can boost their claim to a meaningful experiment in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work, with some foundation in Knowledge, and in the process pervert that Knowledge. The result is nothing but a travesty of the Truth, a disfiguring, by which the public may be duped. It is exactly what has been done with the Matrimandir: to adopt, to distort, and then call the result ‘faithful to the original’. At least regarding the pseudo-temple the Mother’s inspiration was acknowledged – as a part of the ruse, of course. Regarding my work, even this amount of honesty was withheld. It is simply theft and misrepresentation of that stolen material to use it as a support for that falsehood. Lamentably, these are the ‘official’ spokespeople for the Mother’s work.
We have brought this situation to the attention of the Government of India which now ‘owns’ Auroville. A committee of prominent members of the academic and bureaucratic world has been constituted to oversee Auroville affairs. But ambition would appear to rule the day. For Auroville has, under the new dispensation, become an important international platform, the Avatar’s sanction in the bargain! India as a nation has been brought into that Cauldron and the effects are far-reaching, as I have been illustrating from time to time in these pages. It is indicative of the decline under discussion that the Government of India, through this involvement, has become a tool of the Lord of Nations and not an instrument for the establishment of the Vedic Truth. But the day of reckoning is close at hand.
‘States upon states are born, the coverer of the coverer awakens to the knowledge: in the lap of the mother he wholly sees. They have called to him, getting a wide knowledge, they guard sleeplessly the strength, they have entered into the strong city. The peoples born on earth increase the luminous (force) of the son of the White Mother; he has gold on his neck, he is large of speech, he is as if by (the power of) this honey wine a seeker of plenty. He is like pleasant and desirable milk, he is a thing uncompanioned and is with the two who are companions and is as a heat that is in the belly of plenty and is invincible and an overcomer of many.
Play, O Ray, and become towards us.’
