Update 7 (continued)

In the yearly circumambulation of the planets around the Sun, the Time and Space axes are brought into alignment. This process is given physical validity in the Equinoxes (space) and Solstices (time). It means that the equal cross is an astronomical fact and is our birthright as inhabitants of Earth. Logically, being so Earth-oriented, this had to be the crux of the Vedic Sacrifice, made evident by the stated ‘victory’ in Capricorn, the 10th month, the last and highest Solstice; indeed, the ‘abode’ of the Great Time himself. To appreciate that Capricorn is the ‘location’ (in time and space) of the realisation, naturally the zodiac of the Vedic Journey has to be understood in initiatic terms, bearing little resemblance to the practice of the Art in India today, or even in the West, though there the situation is somewhat improved because the proper calendar/time reckoning is used for these sacred purposes, unlike in India today. In the West the whole society moves through the Year according to the Vedic calendar. But while the alignment occurs through calendar synchronicities, what is lacking is the initiatic realisation to accompany the physical phenomenon. By the testimony of the Veda we find both supporting each other. This lasted for a time into the Puranic era as well; but due to the Ruse the focus of the ritual turned to the Beyond, and the twain became irrevocably separated. We see this clearly reflected in the exclusion of the Vedic Calendar in favour of the ‘otherworldly’ sidereal Nirayana computation employed in all temple worship and astrological configurations.

We learn from this reflection that it is not enough to follow an accurate calendar to govern a society as we find in western nations. Nor is it sufficient to carry out rituals parrot-like that have lost their ‘knowledge content’. In both cases ignorance prevails. This draws us close to understanding what the focus in this Age of Mitra/Aquarius is: the establishment of a ‘higher purpose’ in the human being where the physical joins the spiritual based on solid Knowledge.

Nonetheless, all is as it should be. If the Deluder could draw the Asura off the Vedic path so effectively, thereby enfeebling the Gods – and we have the wise words of the Puranas as confirmation – then the direction of the quest was destined to veer AWAY from the Earth. Essentially both abandoned her – one by the inability to contend with the exigencies of a creation in matter; the other out of delusion born of ignorance. Naturally the Earth’s rhythms and harmonies were doomed, central to which is the solar Vedic Year. Sooner or later this mis-direction would take its toll.

By consequence, this cosmic ‘mis-step’ had to reflect ultimately on the Vedic Sacrifice, whose efficacy depended on the precision alignment of the Year. As a result of delusion and to illustrate the loss, the Hindu calendar, which all temples and astrologers follow, is miscalculated by twenty-three days. We can seek to explain away the mis-calculation by hiding behind ‘scientific’ subterfuges and claiming that time has moved on and with it the zodiac which it propels; therefore, they advocate, Capricorn is ‘no longer there where once it was’ – i.e., joined to the shortest day of the year. The truth be told, and we tell it in the simplest terms to avoid adding to the delusion/confusion, these latter-day pundits and astrologers of the POST-VEDIC school (though they call themselves ‘Vedic’ Astrologers) are using the wrong circle. They base their deductions on the circle of constellations out in the Beyond (astronomically and yogically speaking) rather than the actual Vedic Journey through the ecliptic where our Earth finds her home. Lamentably, we will have to bring up this point off and on in this updating because it is central to the condition of things Vedic as well as Puranic in the subcontinent, which caused Sri Aurobindo to state that ‘…for the past two thousand years no Indian has understood the Veda’. And if the Veda are not understood, how can the deep sense in Puranic myths be seized, having their roots in the more ancient body of yogic knowledge?

The culminating realisation of the Veda is therefore an impossibility under the circumstances, if we agree that the Veda are cosmically rooted, as indeed they were and remain, the Deluders notwithstanding. For the simple fact is that entry into the kingdom of Swar through the 10th month gateway is barred by this mis-calculation. Indeed, the Makar Sankranti celebrated on 15 January each year cannot present the seeker or the larger community with an actual portal to enter. Access would be barred for lack of the right ‘key card’ – which is the Capricorn alignment with the December Solstice; they must click into place together for the month/door to open. But on 15 January there is no such portal to cross; it passed by 23 days earlier. Therefore, the means to effectuate the required alignment of Time and Space which the Vedic Sacrifice demands, remains unfulfilled both for the individual and the community that follow these latter-day prescriptions.

Again we note that Capricorn holds the key. That sankranti or gateway must coincide with the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere so that the experience of contraction (of the Light), its maximum compression to a point is the singularity/portal to the kingdom of Swar. But let us be clear: the Vedic swar is not the ‘heaven’ of the religious experience inherited from the Age of Pisces. Materialisation on Earth of Capricorn unequivocally reveals that Swar is of this Earth and is not found in any unprovable Beyond. The means to prove the point further will be dealt with in the course of this updating.

For now we must consider that when the terms of the Sacrifice are honoured, then Capricorn is revealed as the stage of the Journey, Vedic or Puranic, where an AXIS is forged to materialise in the Initiate the equal-bodied cross. Capricorn is the month/stage of the Initiation where this alignment/realignment is achieved. And given that Capricorn has ‘descended’ onto the body of our planet, we know that this realisation is no longer confined to the experience of an elite but is now destined to embrace the entire Earth. This is the importance – nay, the imperative requirement – of updating the Puranic Cosmology.

The whole of the Earth is experiencing the passage that brings realignment. But before the full apotheosis, residue must be dissolved, encumbrances must be shed which have been accumulated during passage through Pisces. This ‘shedding’ lies at the root of the physical stresses and strains the Earth is experiencing; but the pressure is not only confined to the physical with its constant upheavals in the form of unprecedented floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and the like. All parts of her fourfold being (the cross) are being ‘compressed’. To illustrate, the second part, the vital, encompasses economics, finances, trade, the suppliers of society’s need, the energy factor, and so forth, which are now globally felt because of the universalism of Aquarius. The third sector/plane, the mental, covers governing bodies and the way we elect our rulers, the military, the justice system and so on.

Last but not least, the hardest pressure is felt on the fourth body, the spiritual, for reasons I will continue to describe well into the series, since this, the highest, is the Unknown when access to Capricorn is barred. Presently it is akin to a black hole: the Light is somewhere in there but cannot be reached. For all practical purposes the withheld energy/light (the ‘cows’/rays of the Sun in the Veda) is the most potent one-quarter of the circle that we cannot tap and integrate to facilitate the emergence of the next evolutionary specimen which Sri Aurobindo calls the Gnostic Being.

The Churning of the Ocean on display at the international airport of Thailand, August 2007.
This contemporary depiction reveals more clearly Devas and Asuras on a par, tugging Mt Meru as churning stick, atop of which stands Vishnu balancing the action.