Posts
Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
October 16, 2011
[Link to Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI,
Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII or Epilogue]
Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII or Epilogue]
I am discussing the properties of the horizontal in greater depth in this section, but in the next we must add the vertical to complete the Knowledge. However, in both cases it is always the Year that is the backdrop or that is the One Circle of our measuring. This, as illustrated in the first part of this section, can be the annual measure or the Precessional. The distinction is identified in the Vishnu praises quoted in full earlier:
The ‘seat of our self-accomplishing’ is the Journey during which period in the annual progression self-perfection can be attained. In the above case, it is the annual measure of 12 months and pertains to the individual initiate, or the Aryan warrior, on the path of ‘self-accomplishment’. Further, as noted in the verses quoted in the first part of this section 9, (‘Certain eternal worlds are these…’), Sri Aurobindo has translated the Sanskrit as worlds which are the 12 stages of the zodiac. They are penetrated in the course of the initiatic journey of self-perfecting through the portal that Time offers, and there the aspirant encounters different aspects of the individual and evolutionary constitutions that present both obstacles and/or opportunities in the course of that ‘self-accomplishing’.
To be borne in mind is that the process is the same for both, only the quantum of time changes. For the individual it is the year of 12 months; for the evolution it is the 12 Manifestations of 77,760 Earth years. This is an example of Equivalency, so essential for the Rishis’ consciousness of unity to flower in the individual practitioner, to see him- or herself as engaged in a single grand design for inhabitants of Earth. Clearly the ancients of the Vedic Age had no difficulty with this equivalency. The human being was never a single, isolated entity but a part of a greater whole, yet not for that was his importance diminished. Thus was the harmony known on Earth and the planet was honoured and praised time and again in the hymns for providing the base whereupon this unified operation could unfold. It goes without saying that this consciousness of unity and oneness was slowly eroded and then conclusively lost during the Piscean Age, to reach the point now where the Earth is constantly abused – nay, raped time and again, I would add – in the vilest of manners. With a vision of Oneness these unholy acts become impossible. The Rishi makes the equivalency of small and larger clear:
‘(Vishnu) who has measured out the earthly worlds
and that seat of our self-accomplishing…’
The ‘seat of our self-accomplishing’ is the Journey during which period in the annual progression self-perfection can be attained. In the above case, it is the annual measure of 12 months and pertains to the individual initiate, or the Aryan warrior, on the path of ‘self-accomplishment’. Further, as noted in the verses quoted in the first part of this section 9, (‘Certain eternal worlds are these…’), Sri Aurobindo has translated the Sanskrit as worlds which are the 12 stages of the zodiac. They are penetrated in the course of the initiatic journey of self-perfecting through the portal that Time offers, and there the aspirant encounters different aspects of the individual and evolutionary constitutions that present both obstacles and/or opportunities in the course of that ‘self-accomplishing’.
To be borne in mind is that the process is the same for both, only the quantum of time changes. For the individual it is the year of 12 months; for the evolution it is the 12 Manifestations of 77,760 Earth years. This is an example of Equivalency, so essential for the Rishis’ consciousness of unity to flower in the individual practitioner, to see him- or herself as engaged in a single grand design for inhabitants of Earth. Clearly the ancients of the Vedic Age had no difficulty with this equivalency. The human being was never a single, isolated entity but a part of a greater whole, yet not for that was his importance diminished. Thus was the harmony known on Earth and the planet was honoured and praised time and again in the hymns for providing the base whereupon this unified operation could unfold. It goes without saying that this consciousness of unity and oneness was slowly eroded and then conclusively lost during the Piscean Age, to reach the point now where the Earth is constantly abused – nay, raped time and again, I would add – in the vilest of manners. With a vision of Oneness these unholy acts become impossible. The Rishi makes the equivalency of small and larger clear:‘…In his three wide movements
All the worlds find their dwelling place…’
The Vishnu praises have been taken in the abstract by all translators except a few. Whereas, they are practical, applicable, and can serve as a guide in the Journey, individually and collectively, provided the 12-month zodiac is recognised as those ‘worlds’ for both. Further,
‘…he who being One has measured all this
long and far-reaching seat of our self-accomplishing
by only three of his strides.’
It is important to note that the Rishi mentions only three strides, because indeed he is referring only to the three stages of descent of his Avatars, the 7th, 8th and 9th.How marvellously alive these praises become for us when supported by the Mother’s symbol set in motion, based as it is on the Veda which establishes all of its features (Part 8). Again, the Rishi sings of Vishnu, the measurer in three strides:‘…he being One holds the triple principle
And earth and heaven also, even all the worlds.’
These lines delineate the parameters of Vishnu’s act of measuring, his three strides along the ecliptic tropical zodiac that is extended from the 12 months of the year to the 12 Manifestations – which together contain ‘all the worlds’, or those 12 stages of the Journey. And from the highest step of the friend Mitra, as the Sanskrit name suggests, the initiate who has expanded his consciousness of Oneness to embrace the micro and macro of this universe, can view the entire unfolding and appreciate the stages already traversed of the Journey ‘…where the many-horned herds of Light go travelling…’, as well as the ultimate goal of the path, or the Being and the Becoming of our manifest existence.Indeed, this is the boon we have received from the Cosmic Divine – the keys of the supramental Gnosis which allow us to appreciate why Vishnu’s steps are only three – specifically covering the 7th, 8th and 9th Manifestation, respectively of Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, and Sri Aurobindo in our Age of Mitra the Friend – Aquarius, the Water Carrier. He dispenses over the Earth and her inhabitants the ‘rapture’, the ‘ecstasy’ from his kumbha, which contains Mitra’s ‘font of sweetness’. These are the ‘waters’ he pours which are transforming life on Earth before our very eyes.(To be continued)
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