27.9.11

Updating the Vedic Altar – 4

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
September 27, 2011


What I will present from this point onward would seem to fall under the category of science fiction because of its unusual and unfamiliar character. It is not a new discovery; rather, the foundations of this new cosmology, in which the updated vedi figures as its main component, were established in the 1970s. Since then over the years I have presented the material to the public in a series of books and articles, but to date there has never been a serious evaluation of the cosmology. Admittedly, it is entirely new and challenging, leaving scientists and persons of a certain spiritual standing with no reference point in seeking to assess the discoveries – if at all they would wish to do so. The truth be told, they have never expressed the desire; and as is customary with all things that present a challenge to the human mind, this startling revelation has not only been ignored by most, it has been fiercely combated by some, on the order of a latter-day Inquisition. In point of fact, the cosmology’s main text, The New Way, a study in the rise and the establishment of a gnostic society, was ‘burned at the stake’ (actually ‘shredded to pieces’ – a somewhat less ‘inquisitorial’ method given our modern technology) when printing was almost completed at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, a black stain in the history of Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram that is not likely to be easily erased.
In a certain sense this behaviour is understandable. We encounter it in any sphere of human endeavour that truly breaks new ground. When it is just a question of re-packaging the known, no significant animosity is aroused. But when the subject is truly new as is this cosmology, the matter is quite different. The attitude toward these discoveries in the course of its 40-year history is proof that the human being has to exceed the present limitations of the species if the new things are to become imprinted in the evolutionary matrix so as to help arrest the downward slide humanity seems embarked upon.
However, it must be stated that an important feature of the new cosmology is the control it reveals over the destiny of the Earth and her inhabitants. Therefore, after studying the material I present, it will become clear that a doomsday ‘end time’ is not an inescapable feature of our collective existence; rather, amidst seemingly endless trials and tribulations we are simply being propelled to a higher status on the evolutionary ladder. Moreover, and this is the real issue, the choices we have made that have carried us to the present turning point of destiny are actually an illusion. The only real choice we have as individuals is to serve the higher cause in full awareness and to forego the lesser – that is, the choice to remain bogged down in the mire of a decaying world, or not. Time marches on and its forward-moving drive cannot be halted, with or without our consent.
This question of control is the most troubling aspect of the New Way and its cosmology; it is an affront to our entire way of life. We are fed the illusion of choice from the moment we enter life on Earth. Indeed, that illusion is largely what distinguishes ours as a mentally-poised species. The highest faculty of perception and cognisance of the human being is Mind and its accompanying receiving instrument, the brain. But science has discovered that the brain is evolving. Côme Carpentier de Gourdon in his article, Switching on the Cosmic Connection1 reports that the geneticist Bruce Lahn concluded that ‘two genes directly connected to the brain size were rapidly evolving in humans’ (Science, September 9, 2005). And further, regarding the possible role extraterrestrial intelligences may have played in terrestrial evolution, Carpentier de Gourdon questions, ‘…rather than an internal cause…could it not be an external intelligent factor at work as well?’ His hypothesis is also not new; scientists from different disciplines have suggested that life may have evolved with the help of an outside agency. He concludes by quoting the anthropologist Jeffrey McKee, ‘… [E]very species is transitional’.
Clear thinking, courageous researchers should be able to assess the new cosmology and its updated vedi with an open mind; but perhaps this is too much to expect until our brains have evolved further. A 15-year old student at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram School wrote a short story for his English class in 1979, entitled ‘The Book of Knowledge’; he seems to have understood the dilemma. His story describes a sort of Holy Grail-type quest by an individual in search of the book of all knowledge. Finally, once it is found the story ends dramatically with the seeker’s unwillingness to open it for fear of the consequences. When asked why, he makes this statement: If it were opened ‘…then man would no longer be man.’
The words of this youth summarise the human condition: Man, to reach what lies beyond, must relinquish his humanity and strive for Supermind, the next stage in evolution above Mind, the advent of which Sri Aurobindo described in detail. It is perhaps unrealistic to expect of those who have made the choice to remain bogged down in the evolutionary tomb of the past, to make this leap. That act of choosing is the signature of our times. We face it, illusory though it may be, on a daily basis – because this act is the necessary ingredient that liberates energies trapped in the past.
It is not an accomplishment to be attained in one dramatic, miraculous leap. There has to be a preparation; gradually Mind is exposed to revelations that come to it from a higher source, for want of a better word. Some may believe we are aided in this endeavour by extraterrestrials, but Vedic Tradition presents a different view: The advent of Vishnu’s Avatars, that ‘parable of evolution’, is the method to extend our current boundaries to embrace that which lies beyond – not merely individually but as a collective experience the whole world can enjoy, indeed a new step for humanity up the ladder of evolution. The updated Vedi is one such aid and it comes to us as a part the Avataric descent, for which the new cosmology provides the undeniable proof. The Rig Veda itself gives us the exact time frame for the appearances over many thousands of years. This is a happening of the Earth, for the Earth, embedded as it is in the cosmic harmonies that govern evolution on the planet. The updated vedi amply proves the point. It does not come from beyond our planetary system but from its deepest heart.
The point is, can Mind permit the new light to enter its precincts? Or will it close itself up and refuse to see and to accept the new that stands right in its midst? Will it ‘refuse to open the book’ and to exceed itself, like a crab securely closed in its shell, to reach territories as yet unexplored? This is the choice before us.
If such a state of denial and negation persists, the New will impose itself by ‘crushing circumstances’.2 These may present themselves in many forms: natural calamities, economic, political, societal breakdowns, and stresses of all sorts. Calamities are the result of hard crusts that have accumulated over the human consciousness and which impede entry of the new. The fear factor does play a legitimate role in the transition to higher states of awareness: fear of the unknown is a natural corollary of the mentally-poised species. But a few will break through those crusts to become free of the mental cage in which humanity is trapped – and for them all things will be made new. For this subjugation to Mind with its limitations is the reason why solutions cannot be found to the many problems our civilisation faces which are bringing societies across the globe to their knees: a new way is the path ahead.

The Mother’s plan for the sanctum sanctorum of a temple is the new Vedic Altar. I have discussed her revelation in great detail elsewhere, since it is the key component of the new cosmology. But in this series, for the first time I am drawing a direct parallel to the ancient tradition of the Vedic Altar. In the beginning of January of 1970, the Mother brought this remarkable tool of a higher supramental knowledge into our world from the plane of Truth-Consciousness, directly affecting the Earth atmosphere. Lamentably, as an indication of its uniqueness it would appear, history records that from the very first day she presented her plan for execution, it was severely combated until finally her vision was totally undone. The details of those 18 days during which time she sought to defend her vision are on record and need not detain us. Interested readers can review the case at www.matacom.com where all the details are presented. In this series I would simply like to highlight certain prominent features of her vision, their implications for humanity and the challenges they present to scientists and spiritualists alike.
However, we must admit that it may be difficult even for a Vedic Rishi to recognise her inner chamber as comparable to the ancient formulation. Therefore, we may set aside comparisons for the time being and focus our attention on the Mother’s extraordinary vision – so remarkable in fact that indeed it does appear to be the creation of an extraterrestrial since we have no prior record of a similar achievement. But in order to anchor perception in the Earth’s evolutionary progression, I will bring up certain premises found in the Veda so that a temporal continuity can be maintained in an unbroken line with the ancient Tradition. Furthermore, her revelation at this particular point in time will be seen as part of a carefully crafted plan, if you will, that extends back to the Vedic Age. The astrological ages thereafter, up to our present Age of Aquarius, have been filled with evidence of methods to solidify the Knowledge (for example, the Hindu Temples of the Puranic Age) while simultaneously enlarging the sphere of its application. Thus while knowing certain truths from the Vedic Age, the enhancement explained earlier will be rendered factual. Further, the control of Mahakala will be evident and undeniable. There is a plan, there is a goal. The time has come to open ourselves to what the cosmic harmonies hold for the inhabitants of Earth because those eternally-evolving harmonies reveal the terrain already crossed and the course that lies ahead. Belief is not the need of the hour, science is demanded – but this too is part of the new world we are in the process of discovering, and cannot be understood on the basis of past dogmas and out-dated theories.
From the material I will present, the entire experience can be seen as a means to bring the focus of higher studies back to the Earth and to re-discover her role in the evolutionary process. Since the advent of astronomy disconnected and separated from astrology, the tendency has been to extend our perception beyond our solar system; that is, we overlook our planet’s position in the System in the belief that the farther away from the home base we can extend our eye, the greater the truth that will emerge. It is interesting to note that this extension is always into the past. Yet it is only when we are firmly rooted on Earth that we can know the present, which in its compactness (Being) and its unfolding (Becoming) discloses the keys we search for in the beyond. This attitude is not only restricted to the material scientist; the culpability lies also with the spiritual realiser who, together with the astronomer, has forsaken the role of the Earth and her position in the solar system in favour of worlds beyond our own. For the scientist it is a fixation with the past – i.e., as in a search for proof of the Big Bang, and similar theories; while for the yogi of post-Vedic vintage, the quest, which can be described as otherworldly, has resulted in a similar escape from the present, and therefore from the Earth as the centre of our quest. Logically, this escapism, if it may be so called, has resulted in a failure to find the solutions the Earth offers in abundance to the problems we face.
This was not the case in the Vedic Age. To prove the point, we need only highlight the principal feature of the sacrificial ritual which the Vedi was to house. It was the Year, the Earth’s revolution around the luminary of our System in a period of 365 days. We may go so far as to state that this 365-day year was the main feature of the Vedic Sacrifice; or rather, it was the backdrop for the entire experience.
In the updated vedi, the same measurement – the Year – is given pride of place. Moreover, captured in that sacred measure, which is the Earth’s contribution to the universal harmony, are certain features of the ancient Veda that we continue to honour today. These features have been incorporated in the Mother’s plan in the most remarkable visionary feat of updating the world has ever known. The Mother’s exceptional vision has brought the truths of former times into the present in a fashion that justifies her statement regarding the experience of the Year which she geometrised in her chamber as ‘the symbol of the future realisation’.


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1 World Affairs, Vol. 12, Number 2, summer 2008, page 73.
2 The Mother’s message, dated 26.11.1972: ‘Before dying falsehood rises in full swing. Still people understand only the lesson of catastrophe. Will it have to come before they open their eyes to the truth? I ask an effort from all so that it has not to be. It is only the Truth that can save us: truth in words, truth in action, truth in will, truth in feelings. It is a choice between serving the Truth or being destroyed.’

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