The Warrior-Child of Ayodhya - 1

The significance of his appearance
for the Hindu Samaj

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea)
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
South India, 5.10.2010

‘…the disputed site is the birthplace of Lord Ram. Place of birth is a juristic person and is a deity. It is personified as the spirit of [the] divine worshipped as birthplace of Lord Ram as a child. [The] Spirit of [the] divine ever remains present everywhere at all times for anyone to invoke in any shape and form in accordance with his own aspirations, and it can be shapeless and formless also…’ [Italics mine]

Justice D.V. Sharma,
The Ayodhya Verdict
30 September 2010

*

‘The Indian judicial system treats deities as legal entities
who could have a legal representation in courts through trustees
or an in-charge of the temple in which they are worshipped…’.

Harshvir Pratap Sharma
Supreme Court lawyer
‘The Hindu’, 2.10.2010

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The long-awaited judgement of the Allahabad High Court at Lucknow has come, a landmark in the history of modern India.
Just the fact that a judgement was passed after 60 years was in itself commendable given the sensitive nature of the issue and the accretions this case has experienced during the interim. It is a process that spans all the founding years of the new Indian Republic, having begun just one month after the signing of the Constitution. Therefore, we may state that Ram the Child witnessed the establishment of the foundations of nationhood, biding his time patiently until the moment when from his vantage-point the full implications could be revealed. That time has come.
After the doors to his abode were locked by a court order immediately following the Appearance, the Child matured in solitude for 36 years. But, it must be stated before all else, that every detail surrounding his historical contribution has been noted and tested, and its disclosure at this time is in the just order of things given the maturity reached. This is what I propose to discuss.
To carry out this analysis in an orderly manner given the complexities inherent in the Ayodhya issue, I will provide a graphic image as the basis for the entire presentation – the circle. In this geometric symbol the reader will find the history of Independent India contained; we will trace that history through the symbol right up to the present and the judgement passed on 30 September last by the three honourable judges of the High Court in Lucknow.
In the language of symbols the circle does not exactly represent unity as one might expect. More interesting for our analysis, it is a unified diversity. As such it stands for the collectivity – but a unified collective unlike what exists today, for reasons I will explain. To visualise unity alone in symbol form we need to add another element to the geometric construction – the Point, because all forms arise out of the plenum that is the Point, including all creation and all geometric forms. If we combine the two in one symbol the result is the astronomical/astrological symbol of the Sun of our solar system. This is the graphic image of unity (point) and diversity (circle).

If we carry the matter even further ahead, this Sun-Symbol is the graphic image of every Hindu Temple, from ancient times into the present. At Ayodhya, now legally established by the High Court judgement, the Deity has been duly apportioned his correct place in the proposed allotment by having been granted the space under the area where the dome of the mosque once stood – that is, the centre of the complex. Ramlala therefore becomes the plenum-point of the Sun-symbol and the circle surrounding the Deity is the protective womb, the garbha griha. ¹
But this will remain in the realm of metaphors and symbols if we do not use the key Ramlala gave us when he made his appearance during the night of 22-23 December 1949. That moment was the beginning of the process of integration that would span the next 60 years and beyond, with Ramlala as a silent witness while Time unfolded the most meaningful period in contemporary Indian history.
However, the need of the hour is to make the above statement factual. This can be done, I repeat, if we use the key the Deity has provided by his appearance at a very specific point in time. Factuality is then added by Time itself. The Circle allows us to actualise the statement when we understand that it is also the symbol of the Earth Year of 365 days. Thus, the date of the Appearance can be located through the Circle in the calendar year and thereby applied to the whole nation through its official calendar. But to be allowed ‘access’ to that year we need a key, or the correct 0 Point; if not we find ourselves meandering about as if in a labyrinth. Things just ‘happen’, but never as a connected whole which the Circle signifies. And this is what Ramlala has provided by his appearance exactly at the December Solstice and entry into zodiacal Capricorn/ Makar. His coming at this very important time in the history of Independent India serves as an anchor of sorts, to keep the ship of the civilisation on course.
Coincidence? In the course of this analysis a number of such ‘coincidences’ will emerge, until finally we surrender our scepticism and accept the impeccable controlling power of Mahakala, the Great God of Time, just as the sages had done in the remote history of Bharat.

Thus the story begins with Ramlala’s appearance in the former mosque on the night of 22-23 December 1949, the Solstice. We will consider only this date as the starting point of the dispute because in fact it was. Regardless of what history textbooks may contend, this is the point of departure for the Hindu Samaj’s contemporary connection with the Child-Warrior. That connection may stretch back thousands of years, as indeed it does and the nation’s Epic affirms; but this is immaterial to the present case, both legal and societal. Moreover, it is Ramlala himself who has indicated this date as the zero-point of what can best be termed the ­re-establishment of the Dharma. ²
This is what Ramlala is bringing about in no uncertain terms, and here too we need to be factual. To back up this statement, I must lay a certain foundation for the discussion, using precisely the Circle for this purpose. We must accept veda as the basis for any treatment involving the Epic Heroes, and especially those whom we know to be the emanations of Vishnu, his avatars. I have called them Evolutionary Avatars for specific reasons. Just as we use the Circle to define the 365-days of our calendar year, so too we can extend the diagram almost infinitely, adding spiral upon spiral until we move back in time (or forward) and locate the astrological age of Ramavatar’s original appearance. I call them Evolutionary Avatars to highlight their contribution to the evolutionary process and to distinguish them from the abounding number of ‘avatars’ who do not possess the necessary cosmic credentials for the task, which I can indeed provide for Lord Ram and his companions in the Line of Ten. Second, it is precisely those credentials that allow us to read the message of the Appearance at Ayodhya in 1949. With this act Ramavatar has updated the older tradition by revealing his own science (of Time) which factualises what might otherwise remain elusive, certainly one of the most marvellous displays of renewal and re-establishment that has ever been witnessed in Vedic civilisation’s long trajectory.
True, we have the Epics at our disposal to know of the exploits of earlier times; but they now fall into the category of Myth and can therefore be easily dismissed by modern scholarship. What is needed in this hour is certainly Myth, but understood as ‘recurring history’ through endless cycles. However, in this age of rationalism we demand more, and this has been provided by the Appearance and its connection to Time, the science Ramlala reveals. We are blessed to be living in an era when we can be witnesses to this unique unfolding.
Admittedly I am presenting a very different view-point from all previous treatments of the Ayodhya issue. As a cosmologist I naturally tend to view life within a cosmic framework because cosmology is the study of the harmony of the spheres but centred on Earth; therefore her living creatures cannot be excluded, unlike in scientific cosmology. That is the vantage point we find in the Rig Veda, or in the Hindu temple, or even in the classical music of India. We cannot separate ourselves from the cosmic surround no matter how strong our urge may be to do so. The slogan is All is One. But the problem is that it has become just that: a slogan; and now repeated even by material scientists.
Ramlala appeared on the scene in contemporary society precisely for the purpose of restoring the ancient truths that made Vedic civilisation indestructible. Many will agree with this statement but their agreement would be from a rather superficial layer – the resurgence of Hinduism based on worship of one of its many gods and goddesses. However, I wish to carry this analysis of Ayodhya in the contemporary context to a deeper level that will take us to an ancient past but which miraculously still survives only in India. Nonetheless, the stresses and pressures of contemporary society are taking their toll on the Tradition, to the point where it faces extinction even in this single surviving location.
Ramlal has appeared to save the Tradition by a process of updating.

The Deity chose to appear as a mere child. There are various tales in the Tradition of child-warriors who come on the scene to save the Earth from being overtaken by hostile forces. Kartikeya, Siva’s divine Son, comes to mind, who single-handedly conquers the mightiest asura of all, Tarak. But Ram’s contemporary child-appearance is even more dramatic since this time around the Earth indeed faces extinction, as in the ancient myths, because of the lethal weapons with which science has filled our arsenals. We may brush aside the tales we have been told down the ages, or even their portrayal in temple sculpture and architecture as just ‘myths’ – that is, not factual and certainly not ‘history’, and therefore of no substantial value in a court of law. But what of the contemporary Appearance? This cannot be brushed aside because of its historical and factual content. We shall examine that content but on the basis of an applied cosmology.
In this analysis the Child-Warrior does indeed stand before the mightiest asuric power of all times; and what is more, as a mere ‘child’ – he conquers. This is the way to appreciate how the tales of old can actually be recurring history. By this contemporary experience we understand how the Myth came about. The idol for all practical purposes is the Child-Warrior who stands in the middle of the battlefield: that is, he is the point of convergence of formidable contending forces; this would be India today in conflict with her ancient past, while seeking to accommodate cultures essentially at variance with her Vedic tradition that lives on into the present – foremost of which concerns Ramlala most specifically. The issue at hand is precisely that of the Idol, a concept which is vehemently rejected by imported orthodox faiths.
The High Court has now confirmed this basic tenet of Hinduism regarding the status of the Deity, in this case the Idol standing at present-day Ayodhya. The point is that there is no difference between the Deity in the ancient tale and Ramlala today in terms of essence-spirit and current idol-form in the Tradition. The myth may appear fantastic in a modern context – Can it be credulous that a mere ‘child’ conquers the mightiest asura Tarak? But if we use the current Ayodhya denouement the myth becomes the reality of our contemporary history – Ramlala being precisely the point of convergence, or the centre of the battlefield amidst ‘forces’ bent on destroying the soul of the civilisation which he represents as Evolutionary Avatar. He wages war against the most destructive forces the Earth has ever known centred on India.
In our diagram, this is Ramlala, the central Point of the Circle: its holding power. Around him the armies wage war in the subtle planes but with their representative forces in the physical. Years from now, perhaps in another Age, another Manifestation, another Yuga, the tale may be told of this very Ram as Child-Conqueror to add to his thousand exploits. Who will believe that it was history and not just a fantastic story conjured up in the mind of a dreamy visionary of epics? Cosmology of the Vedic order will uphold the reality, just as it does today while the tale unfolds before the eyes of those of us who are privileged to witness the exploits of the Deity, while history is being made by and through him. He is real, the battle he fights is real. And so is the victory.
Mercifully wisdom has prevailed in the recent High Court judgement, and the honourable judges have taken Tradition into account. It is difficult to understand how in an ancient civilisation such as the Indian, tradition can sought to be dismissed when adjudication is required. Of course every attempt is being made to eradicate that Tradition and to build the new India on entirely different foundations. Some lament that this attempt has not been successful and that through a judgement like the court delivered in the Ayodhya case, India has ‘regressed’ and slipped into a past many would like to forget. However, like it or not Ramlala forces us to rethink the question of tradition and myth in a civilisation born of veda. He certainly has other ideas, foremost of which is to make that Tradition relevant today; and, I must add, factual.
This is what his appearance accomplished on the night of 22-23 December 1949. He updated the Tradition, he re-established the value of Myth in Indian society, he drew together myth and history as a seamless whole in a manner acceptable to contemporary society – indeed, a manner that can be appreciated only by a modern-day society with ancient Vedic roots.
This is nothing to be ashamed of; rather we should take pride in the fact that India is the only surviving nation where that Tradition still exists and is being updated to make it acceptable to modern exigencies. Above all, his appearance on that very special date is the key for the entire Hindu Samaj to re-establish the eternal Dharma. The Evolutionary Avatars have this specific task: to re-establish the Dharma according to the demands of the era in which they must appear. And it is this ‘mechanism’, may we call it, which alone can combat fossilisation, fundamentalism with its attending brittleness, leading to ultimate collapse. Fortunately, the Avatar has other ‘plans’ for this society, unique on Earth. The time is ripe to discuss just what those plans might be within the terms he has set out of his ‘programme’.
This is not a question of belief or faith – far less superstition. Belief is not the Vedic Way. The Avatar is a realiser not a preacher or a priest or even a saint. Hence, all Vishnu’s Line have been of the Kshatriya caste: warriors by inherent dharma because they do indeed conquer even on the Battlefield when required to combat the forces of Ignorance. But there is science involved, a precise method to the madness. This may not be of the contemporary brand, but science it is nonetheless: this applied cosmology is just as exacting and demanding. And we apply to it the demand for evidence even when dealing with Ramlala, though we cannot foist upon him the parameters of a science that is foreign to the knowledge he brings to the enquiry. What I intend to reveal cannot be brushed aside as ‘coincidence’, often the escape route when science is faced with mysteries it cannot explain.

(To be continued)

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¹ (Author’s note) At the time of printing, a comprehensive and extensive article has appeared in The New Indian Express, dated 8.10.20100 by A. Surya Prakash on the question of the structure beneath the Babri Masjid discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India in 2003 after extensive investigation of the ruins. Not only is there conclusive evidence of a prior Hindu Temple which was demolished for the mosque to come up – perhaps the most important piece of evidence for the present judgement – for the purposes of my presentation as Ramlala central Point and the garbha griha its circular enclosure, the survey, as reported in the newspaper concludes that the erstwhile temple was a circular shrine: ‘…Thus on stylistic grounds, the present circular shrine can be dated to the tenth century AD…They possibly brought the tradition of stone circular temples transformed into brick in the Ganga-Yamuna valley.’ Though I proceeded on the basis of higher knowledge of symbols in my presentation, this has been attested to by the facts on the ground. (9.10.2010)

² In the wake of the Ayodhya judgement a furore has erupted among rationalists and liberal-Marxists regarding the affirmation by all three sitting justices that the site in question is the birthplace of Ramavatar. Rationalists sustain that based on Hindu scriptures themselves Ram belonged to Treta Yuga which covered a period of 1,296,000 years of the ancient past. Therefore, they sustain, how can we know where his birth actually took place? However, the mistake being made is to take the Yugas at face value and consider them Earth years, when the figures are actually seconds of degrees of celestial longitude. Thus, a Kaliyuga measured 432,000 would not be years – an absurdity and completely lacking pragmatism, a hallmark of the Rishis – but rather when converted into years would cover four astrological ages as measured by the Precession of the Equinox. The Treta Yuga would be, as the name suggests, three times 432,000. (See The Gnostic Circle, Chapter 6, ‘The Indian Yugas’, page 61.)