A Cosmological Perspective ‒ Conclusion

[Web editor's note: For unknown reasons, this conclusion wasn't published in 2014 with the rest of the series.]

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet 

Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology,

August 2014

[Link to Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 4.2]

What has been recorded in this series is an effort to carry the seeker into a zone normally closed to researchers — that is, certain deeper levels of the universal manifestation that have been relegated to the category of myth in its acquired sense of fanciful imagination. The practitioner of certain advanced Yogas can access the areas of human consciousness-being where the core of what we know as ancient mythologies can be experienced; but this requires recognition and acceptance of the role the Soul plays for the species in evolution. Time and again I have stated that myth is the language of the soul. I have also stated that periodically an updating of that perennial knowledge is required. This series has been an exercise in the act of updating — i.e., the present observed on the backdrop of certain timeless keys of knowledge. The great good fortune of India is that a method was in-built in her tradition from very ancient times that provides an orderly, organic system of updating, respectful of everything that is of value for the future evolution as we move higher and higher up the ladder toward an apotheosis of unimaginable depth and beauty. There are, however, difficulties on the way to this culmination.
First and foremost is the current state of civilisation, often referred to as a global society. We are aware how it comes to pass that civilisation is almost a universal phenomenon, to the point that the oft-quoted phrase from the ancient scripture vasudhaiva kuțumbakam (the world is but one family) seems so very contemporary. But to really abide in that consciousness of Oneness, as the Sanskrit words suggest, great effort must be made to shed the baggage we carry that impedes this attainment — a condition that plagues the spiritual realiser as much as the scientist and the layman.
The Time-Spirit of the Age of Aquarius demands a universalised consciousness — not only on the individual level but more especially on the level of the societies we create. We are burdened with the baggage of fragmentation and divisiveness — so aptly reflected in the 4.5 Orbit of our solar system when we view the Gnostic Circle as a blueprint of the human consciousness-being, as indeed it is. For centuries the human being has been cajoled into believing that this particular passage through the System can be avoided. Sri Aurobindo has described this ‘error’ for his disciples:

‘According to both Buddha and Shankara liberation means laya of the individual in some transcendent Permanence that is not individualised — so logically a belief in the individual soul must prevent liberation while the sense of misery in the world leads to the attempt to escape.’ (Letters on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo, CE, p.66)

In another letter his perception of the human condition has been captured in the Gnostic Circle when he refers to a ‘Higher Path’ after the experience of the Buddhist Nirvana. This would be the path the seeker embarks upon when escape is rejected. The ‘higher path’ is known as the ‘higher hemisphere’ in astrology, where we find Uttarayana; it begins at the 4.5 Orbit (Libra) and culminates in the highest Cardinal Pole, Capricorn/Makar. 

‘Nirvana cannot be at once the ending of the Path with nothing beyond to explore and yet only a rest house or rather the beginning of the Higher Path with everything still to explore. The reconciliation would be that it is the end of the lower path through the lower Nature and the beginning of the Higher Evolution. In that case it would accord exactly with the teaching of our yoga.’ (Ibid, p.67) 

Of all contemporary realisers, Sri Aurobindo is the only one who has emphatically stated that what has been sought in a Beyond, in a timeless, spaceless realm can and must be brought down here on Earth — what he has often referred to as ‘a life divine’. The issue is, how do we effectively reach the point where we can participate consciously in the establishment of a far better world than has ever been known on this blessed but beleaguered planet we have the good fortune to inhabit? Baggage has to be shed.
The next question to ask is, how can we distinguish between the Eternal and the temporal, between the Infinite and the finite — for hasn’t spirituality been hammering into our consciousness that only the Eternal and the Infinite are worthy of our efforts; the rest is simply an illusion, a ‘play’ of some remote God whose mysterious ways we can never understand, at least while in this third orbit. From here, we have been told, we must shed whatever pins us down to this material abode. We must destroy that network of time in space we have woven since our first individual breath at birth. Only then, we have been assured, can we be released from repeated births until the ultimate liberation whereby we disappear forever from the face of a planet that knows only the way of war and destruction of every sort — from physical to psychological in an unending display of all that opposes the good, the true, the real.
The truth of the matter is that this very promise of a better Beyond, however we call it — for we do project our prejudices and biases to that Beyond as well — is responsible for the lamentable condition of our now-global society.
In this series I have attempted to present a means to re-position ourselves on the planet so that we can live the experience of the Eternal and the Infinite right here, and nowhere better than here. The purpose of evolution, poised on our soul-vahana, is to know those divine Principles in material creation, those very same properties, transcribed for us here on Earth via the harmonies of our solar system, as simply the densification or the materialisation of that which not only transcends but which evolves, using time and space as its sacred instruments. A science that can inculcate this experience of Oneness in our youth is the only science worth teaching.
To date this science has not been in the forefront. It is covered in veils that must now be lifted. This series, as all my publications, seeks to reveal just how those Divine Principles fare in this material dimension as seen and experienced from Earth. Above all how our planet contributes her part in enhancing the experience by the splendid diversity she exhibits in all aspects of the evolution she houses: change, movement do not diminish but rather they increase the delight — which we may consider to be the heart and soul of material creation, its purpose of being. For if there is one truth none can deny it is the truth of diversity, of multiplicity, of exuberant displays by the greatest artist of them all — Mother Nature.
Mother indeed. This principle or mode of being lies deeply beneath those heavy-laden veils now in need of lifting. For sure civilisation needs to be feminised; we all know it, we all aspire for a softening of our culture, divesting it of what has come to be associated with a masculine, heavily- testosteroned societal aberration. But how do we carry out this transformation? How do we carry at least a collective representative grouping to that realisation of Oneness?

All we need for now is to observe the trends displayed in this very society we judge to be in serious decline, and which we intend to remould into whatever ‘image’ we cherish the most. As things now stand, given the hardening of barriers across the globe, we can be certain that that ‘image’ will be in conflict with another’s. We see that there is a breakdown of traditional structures which until now have sustained certain patterns very effectively during the early stages of the process, particularly the stark male/female divide. In Hinduism we find support for this biological stage of evolution in the Shiva/Shakti tradition, or more specifically, the divine couple, Parvati and Shiva, and in the coupling of all the Gods. The result is that given our rapid pace of development, a divide of this nature, so efficient during the less mature stages of evolution, has become an encumbrance and is impeding progress to something beyond these divides that are now a burden. Try as we might to maintain or impose them, time moves on, we cannot reverse its inexorable march. But what we can do is to assess the signals projected before the collective eye of contemporary societies the world over with a re-focused lens, as it were, widened to include what had hitherto been hidden beneath veils, awaiting the time when they could be removed as a part of an organic process.   
We have reached the point where our perceptions of the division between the male and female contributions to society are pressing for change. We have reached the point where the way we express our love for one another is pressing for change — same-sex marriage issues are one example. It would be naive to believe that such expressions are a contemporary aberration and indicate the decline of our civilisation and had never occurred in the past. What we must admit is that for some reason this state of affairs seeks to be legitimised as perhaps a sign of things to come, a Love liberated from atavistic constraints alone. This and many other demands troubling democratic societies simply reflect what the human consciousness knows instinctively: Oneness and not sameness, not uniformity but the oft-repeated but seldom attained diversity in unity.     
There is a place on the globe that bears the responsibility of shedding the baggage of dogmas — both spiritual and scientific — that are now impediments to attaining true diversity in unity in this 9th  Manifestation. It is the Indian subcontinent, for the simple reason that it is in India where we find an unbroken thread in the web of Time that joins the present to the past regardless of the distortions that have crept in along the way but are easily removed. For instance, the realisation of Oneness that seeks universal expression now is a state depicted in Hindu iconography carried over from a distant past. It is the image of Siva Ardhanarishvara, half male, half female. The same condition is echoed time and again in the Rig Veda where we find hymns to the ‘twins’ that seek to join the One. It is the foundation of zodiacal tradition with its feminine and masculine signs, all part of the ONE CIRCLE extolled in the Veda. In other words, if we can trust the Hermetic aphorism, As above, so below, the journey through the 12 signs/stages of the tropical zodiac, unveils what each human being on planet Earth embodies: an essential oneness of being. This condition is just in its initial stages of manifestation. 
We need to go a step further and understand more pointedly where that eternal Vedic journey is headed. Is it intended to fortify the baggage we carry that divides us more and more — part of which is the dogma of exclusivism, resulting in a constricting stagnation the Earth had never known until we crossed the threshold of Cosmic Dawn in 234 BCE? We then plunged into the deep cosmic sea of the Piscean era, whose dark purpose has been the consolidation of certain obscure trends inherent in a consciousness in evolution. These consolidations carried humanity far away from a more enlightened condition as we find in the hymns of the Rig Veda, or the iconography of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. The upshot was the complete denial of that former condition — and of Form in general; more specifically, of the Mother in all her exuberant manifestations. At that point the only recourse was to seek escape in one form or another, to abandon this hapless planet to her own devices — and at this we have proven ourselves to be masters.
This mastery is, of course, an illusion. Nature knows best how to tame this wayward species: Ganga’s responses are an example of the way the Mother makes her will known when a certain threshold has been crossed and humanity can no longer be left to its own devices. Interventions are then required, ruthless as they may appear; we witness their increase across the globe.
A mature civilisation does not consider these reprimands by Nature as mere superstition; we have done this for far too long in the effort to justify our greed, insensitivity and ego-centricity. On the other hand, the pragmatists throw the baby out with the bath water and turn to Science for the answers. Can there be a higher synthesis that accommodates both positions by accepting the laws of Nature that have been transgressed, individually and collectively, not as punishments of a wrathful Power but rather an awareness of the consciousness-being of the Earth herself? We do seek to transform those tendencies common to all human beings; the question is, how do we go about the task? If we continue to ignore the hidden in favour of only that which can be measured by our contemporary scientific yardsticks, we will never reach that synthesis.
Those who do not shy away from the ‘deep thought’, as Sri Aurobindo had described it in the early part of the last century, or the supreme Vision as presented to Arjun of the Bhagavad Gita, fearlessly observe the trends society unequivocally offers for scrutiny. Feminisation, yes of course — but is this the preserve of only half of the human creation? Is this what Siva Ardhanarishvara conveys?
I have always sustained that women are responsible for their own unfortunate plight because they themselves have not realised Shiva Ardhanarishvara. They have found a way to accommodate themselves to an increasing darkness by leaning on the male and forfeiting their responsibility to stand at the forefront of Time’s forward march. But this too is fast changing, much to the chagrin of the chauvinist.
In this grand transitional phase we live in, the obvious challenge is to acquire a finer discrimination whereby we recognise what needs to be shed to lighten our burden in order to be able to reach those lofty heights that stand before the human race as a realisable goal. The past is preserved only insofar as we can discriminate in the prescribed manner — that is, when we are able to carry into the present the residue of former ‘churnings’, shorn of the accoutrements that were required in former times but which are now encumbrances that slow down our march. However, the process of universalisation presents difficulties as intuitive historians recognise if they are to shed their ideological baggage or prisms through which they observe the past. Our world today, given our transitional stage, presents us with a One World perspective thanks to the thoroughness of past geographical exploits on land, on sea, leading up to the present and the stunningly beautiful photographs of the globe from outer space, borderless and whole. This is the new icon: the Earth as an integral Whole. This is what can inspire children across the planet in a new way.
But the pace of evolution as experienced in different parts of the globe varies — some are more materially advanced than others; therefore less mature societies are confronted with impositions of material advancements shorn of the tempering wisdom known to the Ancients. This situation is confined to a certain ‘swathe of time’ during which those imbalances will surface through negative displays until the globe is cleansed of the useless and obstructionist.
Indian news channels, for the most part, are displays of just what society needs to shed by the biases their conditioning constraints foist on the public. Presently [late July-early August] what occupies the news space is the fact that in Gujarat there is sought to be an imposition of a fast- receding culture. This appears outrageous to a section of contemporary Indian society, particularly because the books in question extol the attainments of the Ancients which these intellectuals have neatly closeted away as mere fiction — imaginative but misleading myth.
I do not seek to add fuel to the fire raging for the moment, but I do wish to call attention to the true, the real, the eternally abiding Dharma that India holds as her most cherished foundation but which requires updating from age to age. This methodology has been carefully nurtured across the ages in the Epics and sacred literature preserved from those former times. However, to seek to interpret the verses and myths today proves an almost impossible task, given the distance in time and circumstance from the civilisation we seek to analyse. We are burdened with countless disciplines or specialisations answering to whichever of the numerous ideologies that burden the human consciousness as it stands today. I will provide just one example of the difficulty in interpreting the mystifying verses of the Rig Veda. This is the work of Dr. B.G. Sidharth, director general of the Birla Science Centre. He has sought for a specific ‘code’ in the Veda that can enlighten researchers today not only about the civilisational moorings of India but of the factual (not mythical) content of the verses. According to his study they are explicitly astronomical, provided their symbolism is understood.     
I just came across Dr. Sidharth’s book, The Celestial Key to the Vedas (Inner Traditions, 1999), and his more recent publications on the theme via his website. Sidharth’s deductions prove what the Rig Veda itself very clearly explains: there is an exoteric layer as well as a more hidden, secret dimension to the hymns. Being a trained scientist Dr. Sidharth has quite naturally analysed the symbolism from his perspective. To provide one example by which the seeker can judge whether or not the verse in question is understood properly, on page 42 of his book, Sidharth quotes from the Veda the following:

What pathway leadeth to the Gods? Who knoweth this of a truth, and who will now declare it? Seen are their lowest dwelling places only, but  they are in remote and secret regions. (RV 3.54.5)

When I read this verse I nodded in approval; it seemed clear beyond dispute. But I understood the hidden regions not to be a part of the advances in astronomy of the Rishis but of the way in which they bridged the subtle and the material by following the path (of the year) as prescribed in the Scripture. For Sidharth the enigma is solved once we accept that the Rishi was simply revealing that in the Vedic Age the distances between the stars that shine brightly in our night sky was well known, an astronomical fact that eluded the early Greco-European astronomers. (For Sidharth the Gods are the code for ‘stars’.)
I have no doubt that the Vedic Rishis had material as well as supramental knowledge, and on that basis the chants flowed from their lips displaying the fact of Oneness in verse after verse. Having stated that, to one who has taken the same ‘journey’, the Rig Veda encourages the seeker to embark upon it consciously. Therefore the Ancients, while not judging which is right or which is wrong, highlight the fact that there is a ‘hidden’ aspect that is made known only to those who embark upon that journey into those secret recesses, into the esoteric dimension.
There is another verse that amounts to the same exhortation but which is even more interesting in this regard. On page 41 Sidharth quotes the following line from the Veda: ‘Who hath beheld him as he sprang into being, seen how the boneless one supports the bony?’ And his comment follows: ‘Rendered less literally, the boneless and the bony are understood to indicate the insubstantial, or feminine, and the substantial, or masculine. That is, Nature supports the manifested or material world. On the other hand, the respected German scholar Hillebrandt surmises that “the boneless” is the Sun, and “the bony”, the Moon. Reason suggests that “the boneless” would indeed imply the Sun, because it is gaseous, but that “the bony” would mean the Earth, because it is, in contrast, solid and rocky. The hymn says in other words, “The Sun supports the Earth.” Now, apart from being meaningful, interpretations should also be consistent. Can the heliocentric theory in the Rg [sic] Veda be deduced from other straightforward statements?’
Sidharth goes on to quote the verse I have noted above regarding the hidden and secret regions. It does seem obvious that this verse refers to the Unmanifest and the Manifest. According to the new cosmology the Unmanifest (‘unsubstantial’ of Sidharth’s reading) is the masculine Transcendent, while the Manifest (‘substantial’) is feminine — the opposite of his interpretation.
The point to note is that astronomy was not the central concern of the composers of the hymns. Furthermore, Sidharth has an aversion to astrology and he makes no ‘bones’ about it (pun intended!). In my view it is only astrology that can give the right interpretation of bony and boneless, especially in view of the fact that a separate discipline, which we have to contend with today, did not  exist in the Vedic Age and well into the Piscean era. There was only astrology, considered by many as the mother of all sciences — the point being that what most interested the Ancients was the logic of the spheres, much the same as I am stating in these pages. And this is what we find lacking in contemporary science that seeks only the how of material creation and not the why and wherefore. The Vedic Journey shorn of that sense and purpose is meaningless. Let me use bony and boneless as an example of how astrology even today can explain the verse, though admittedly it is a knowledge that, as Sri Aurobindo wrote early in the last century, ‘has fled from its coverings’. We are left with a science, an astronomy that seeks to penetrate those ‘secret regions’ without having taken the same Journey! It is as if to say that we can criticise quantum and relativity without the knowledge of contemporary physics.
Taking the words within the context of the astrology of the day — to appearances a system of 6 planets plus the Sun — we need to interpret the verse on the basis of the knowledge of those early times, and not foist upon them a ‘science’ entirely alien to the consciousness of the Rishi from where the hymns were emitted. Therefore, the zodiacal lore that is still intact across the globe (lost in post-independent India’s astrology but preserved in her temples and myths), understands that the 6th and last planet of the old order, Saturn, rules the bones — that is, the most material element of the human structure, the part of our constitution that never dies or that is, for all practical purposes, immortal. Organic flesh withers and is ‘insubstantial’. Not the skeleton of the human being. Saturn would have represented the final stage, the goal of the journey which was immortality.
The point made is that only an intimate knowledge of what supports the manifest, material dimensions can lead to an immortal state of being. The rest of the verse encourages the initiate to understand that even this most material part of his being is supported by that which sustains it beyond this materiality of the external regions, or the ‘lowest dwelling places’.
Another example of the multi-dimensional approach is the usage of hieroglyphs in astrology inherited from a very distant past — the same today as then. For instance, the glyph for the 5th sign Leo (the Lion) is . The exoteric interpretation is simply that it is a stylised image of the lion’s tail. But deeper reflection sees the symbol as more precisely what astrology has handed down across the ages as the characteristics of the 5th sign — paternity, the masculine principle, and so forth. In that light the glyph is clearly a representation of the male sperm, wiggling tail and all. There will be predictive howling from the historian’s quarter: The sperm was only ‘seen’ with the modern invention of the microscope! And thus the deeper levels will be passed off as either coincidence or fiction. As always, the choice is the observer’s to make.
The problem is that in seeking to uncover the value of the tradition inherited from ancient times, we run the risk of doing so without the proper preparation. I can confidently state along with Sri Aurobindo that there is no one who can understand the Veda in India today; but the fault does not lie with Science; it lies in a spirituality that sought only those ‘hidden regions’ and abandoned the Earth to those who focus only on the material disconnected from the true foundational support ‘on the other side’[1]. Astrologers in the subcontinent have followed suit.
Youth today cannot be satisfied simply with what is seen as an imposition of a tradition that is meaningless in today’s context. But, I repeat, the Vedic Tradition is fortunate to have an in-built system of renewal, the potential of an updating from age to age, just as the Bhagavad Gita proclaims. This is not mere rhetoric; it is factual; provided the effort is made to understand that from time to time there is a need to update, to re-evaluate the scripture within today’s context. If we accept that Time’s becoming is as meaningful as its being, that what is involved in the Seed is as precious and relevant as the growth that proceeds from that compactness, then we have found the path to an unveiling that can satisfy the scientist as well as those inclined to the less apparent. The only demand is sincerity in the quest, and an acceptance of the fact that destiny has provided India with a connection to the ancient tradition that is unbroken though ‘hidden’. The many temples that preserve this Tradition stand all around us. It is unfortunate to state that contemporary science itself is responsible for that ‘lost knowledge’, that soul which, in Sri Aurobindo’s words, has fled from its coverings.
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[1] See Beyond Contemporary Scientific Paradigms (PNB), for a presentation of the manner in which the two dimensions can be unified in a seamless operation that does not negate the material or the ‘insubstantial’.

© Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet 2014

Aeon Centre of Cosmology Website Launched

"It is not through a repetition of rituals, as inspiring as they may be, or by the chanting of mantras that the connection with the Veda is maintained, rather, only the thread of Knowledge can be the direct link between India today and of the Vedic Age, precisely as the word implies - veda, knowledge.  That this potent word lies at the root of the civilisation surely indicates a unique destiny." ['Puranic Cosmology Updated,' Part 1]

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New Website Launched

We are pleased to announce the official launch of our new website:

 

www.aeoncentre.com

It's hard to believe that only two months have passed since The Future Realisation exhibition in New Delhi. Among other things, Thea has been writing a new series of articles, The Conundrum of India's Choice of Destiny, which are being published in the Organiser magazine and are also available on our website in their full, unedited form.

The website itself has grown organically out of our experience in New Delhi and our understanding for the need to make this work more accessible to a wider public. We hope that it will become an important resource for those who vibrate to the mission of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother -- all who aspire to be conscious instruments of the Supramental Manifestation upon Earth.

We are re-issuing the Vishaal Newsletter, originally written by Thea and published by the Aeon Centre of Cosmology between the years 1985-1995, packed with in-depth applications of the New Way. The first issue is now online and we will be releasing new issues regularly. Stay tuned for much more to come.

We have also created Aeon Forum, a place where everyone can engage in dialogues beyond science and spirituality. We hope that you will join us in the important work of seeing in understanding, and evolving our collective views beyond the polarities of secular and spiritual dogma. Although the polar tension continues to increase in India and abroad, this only means that those who see the way out of the morass have a greater responsibility now than ever to light the way forward. And those of us who are just learning to see -- a greater responsibility now than ever to focus our lens of perception, to learn to see in a new way.

Included below is the Welcome Message that our director, Thea, wrote for the new website. We hope you will take the time to read it, and join us in this new and exciting phase of the work!

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"Why is Aeon Centre of Cosmology putting forward its work of the past several decades in this new comprehensive format? The reason is that never like now has the national discourse in India and throughout the world become so intensely polarised. In India this polarisation revolves around a question that seems to defy solution: Is India, born as an independent nation in 1947, to revert to establishing itself on its ancient moorings, or will those be discarded in favour of the reigning principles of our 21st Century, in many ways foreign to the ancient tradition?

"This is the new India’s 67th year. However, that newness is only a small part of her history. The contours of her abiding civilisation are found in carry-overs from very ancient times. Having this dual living framework of destiny and being unique among all nations for this very reason, Aeon Centre of Cosmology is duty-bound to provide answers that can help resolve the issue of an amalgam of both ancient and new as a living force within the context of conditions on the globe today."

Link to full message at www.aeoncentre.com
 

The New Order is Born

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

January 2015

This is the final posting on Puranic Cosmology Updated (PCU); it has served its purpose. The time has come to create a new forum, and Aeon Centre of Cosmology is in the process of giving shape to that new voice. This development in itself reveals essential features of the new times that open before us the world over.¹

Several items have helped me bring PCU to a close today, as is befitting of a platform that has served to convey the message of integrality. They may seem wildly disconnected – and yet they form a closely knitted web at the centre of which stands the New Way. These are 1) the Australian Open currently in progress, 2) President Obama’s State of the Union address this morning (21.1.2015), and 3) Kiran Bedi’s appointment as candidate for Chief Minister of Delhi; and, above all, her call for ‘a new politics’. Embracing all this has been The Future Realisation breakthroughs, ACC’s presentation in New Delhi from January 1 through 15, 2015, where on display were salient elements of the new cosmology, the overall, comprehensive embrace whereby all things are ‘made new’ when each thing is ‘put in its rightful place’. And, of course, the key that allowed the new cosmology to reach a wider public through TFR is the Mother’s vision and plan of a chamber, the new garbha griha for the new age.

In the Mother’s vision and plan we find a clear indication of how that new order is to come about. In January 1970, exactly 45 years ago from TFR/Delhi, she described the core of her vision as the symbol of the future realisation. On other occasions she spoke of a shadowless consciousness – that is, the aspirant so poised (in time and space, i.e. the measures of our world) directly beneath the rays of a midday Sun that therefore no shadows are cast. But there was far more packed into the vision and description, for indeed the image points to a number of correlated items of the New Way. In that regard we come to the perennial question: chicken or egg? Did the vision compel events to give shape to the New Way, or did the New Way shape the vision in the consciousness of the Seer? Put another way, did Being gives rise to Becoming, or does Becoming create Being, on the order of I think therefore I am?

Most would opt for the eternity of Being out of which Becoming issues, that it precedes the latter. Be that as it may, with the incorporation of Supermind the two are experienced simultaneously: they are simultaneous, not just ‘thought’ to be. Yet our senses and the structure of our physical universe strongly support the perception that only what is real exists, or only what stands on this side of the event horizon (borderline is perhaps a more appropriate label). Supermind bridges this side and that.

Eternal Being ‘exists’ on the other side but does not cease to exist (or function as support and upholder) when the border is crossed; similarly silence does not cease to exist when sound arises – it too is ‘carried over’, a message elegantly conveyed in Indian classical music by the drone/shruti that never ceases to uphold the raga. This fact is what allows for the experience of simultaneity. Certainly one of the foremost indications of the presence of the supramental Truth-Consciousness is the ability not only to perceive the simultaneity of Being and Becoming, but to live in that consciousness with its revolutionising impact on how we conduct ourselves on this side – where that simultaneity of experience is denied. From his transcendent poise Sri Aurobindo has amply elaborated the subject, thereby assisting us in reaching the accuracy that is possible at this stage of the experience. Also here to assist us is the new cosmology.

The All-Inclusive Foundation

Until now we have known only contemporary scientific cosmology. It is the fountainhead of all science today, no matter what discipline. This brand of cosmology deals only with events on this side of the border; hence it is thoroughly engaged in dissecting the structure of our world in its act of Becoming, of evolving, of expanding, while ignoring Being. And it is this discipline that pretends to be the way of salvation from ignorance, backwardness, bigotry and superstition. Consequently, the religious, political, and economic polarisation we find in societies can be attributed to this dispute: science on one side and matters of the spirit, in whatever guise, on the other. This polarisation is tearing societies across the globe to pieces. At the same time, its benefit is to make the insufficiencies inherent in both positions obvious even to the most obdurate champions of either side. And this exposure to help humanity see is likely to increase.

However, this perception is helpful only if we have a foundation that serves as a canvas/backdrop onto which things can be put in their right place, on the basis of which the lens of perception can become focussed. That canvas is what allows us to view the several items mentioned above not only within a fabric of oneness, but also to indicate where we stand in knitting together the whole world.

In this exercise Number comes to our aid. It must be stated that the canvas is required in order to allow Number to speak to us in a new language, itself the outcome of the New Way. Without this formulation there would be little hope of reaching the goal of a new world order. That canvas is the Gnostic Circle, one of the key features of the new cosmology. With its aid let us take the items mentioned to illustrate the process.

           

How would President Obama’s speech have anything to do with tennis? On the surface nothing at all. But through the Gnostic Circle we see that both resonate to the same number 3, an angle of the central triangle (orange colour). And Kiran Bedi’s new politics in the mix? She is the latest addition to Indian politics, whose main platform as she enters the electoral fray is a workable new politics, not confrontational but collaborative. We can easily find a correlation between Bedi and Obama as he presented his agenda this morning, seeking a consensus across party lines. Will either succeed in introducing this novelty into what has always been a platform of confrontation, except in times of war? 

The tools of the new cosmology help us realise that the time has come for the new order to take over from the old. India and America share a common destiny, an axial binding. The number power joining the two is 3 – the Daughter Principle in metaphysics, as well as the number-umbrella of the present stage of the descending Solar Line of 9, 6, 3, a number sequence that I call the axis of the new India (see The New Way, Volume 1, Aeon Books, 1981). Thus, various elements have joined in our very times to play out what Being holds in ‘seed-form’ on the other side of the Border.

As explained in the course of the numerous postings on PCU over the years, particularly the descriptions of the new scientific paradigm, Being contains triadic quanta in a descending compression of the formula 9/6/3/0, each triad of which encompasses a particular aspect of the Absolute that contributes to the constitution of our world in evolution on this side of the border. In that dimension (for want of a better word) there is no relativism. We are there faced with Absolute Truth, whole tones as it were, unknown to our 21^st century civilisation; not only unknown but fiercely combated. Absolutism, as far as science of the relative is concerned, belongs to the domain of religion – i.e., superstition: it cannot be ‘proven’ therefore it does not exist. The avenues for that proof are the disciplines of the science we know today, entirely limited to the cage it has constructed for itself over the past millennium. Its ability to measure and thereby to prove or disprove a theory is entirely dependent on the relative mathematics and physics of contemporary society. But reality is much larger, all-embracing. The new cosmology provides the tools whereby we can measure both sides of the border; above all, whereby we can understand the simultaneity of both – the true description of Reality.

The triadic quanta 9, 6, 3, are measured on this side of the border by our measures of time and space which are the Absolute’s eternity and infinity transposed into our physical universe: the Absolute’s eternity is our time; its infinity is our space, by densification we could say. Further, each triad is measured in the universal calendar via the Mathematics of Unity, known in India as reduction to seed digits. This methodology allows us to link Number on both sides of the horizon. By the intensity of its completeness, the last triadic compaction compels the birth of the One from the 0-Womb; and thus is our physical world of space born. Thereafter Time propels the contents of the Zero-Womb-Seed to the extension of Itself in our material dimension – with no separation between the two; that is, never leaving a void but bearing the seamless continuity of an upholding plenum. The new India has provided the world with the precise display of just how this play-out is arranged, and on the basis of the metaphysical principles each quantum embraces, we can gauge how far evolution has carried us forward in this extension process; and we are able to fill in the details that provide the answers we need for the formation of the new world order that is emerging. Most importantly, we learn of the indispensable addition of diversity (expressed in the sequential series of numbers on this side of the Border) for the full reality and experience of diversity in unity; certainly not only the motto of India but the very nature of the entire world and the evolutionary process.

The Binding Power of Number

Recently I wrote a piece for PCU entitled The Embrace at Last. It dealt with what were by then (10.2.2014) the clear signs of a long-sought rapprochement between the United States of America and India. Written in 1974, I quoted from The Gnostic Circle of this necessity in order for the reign of Truth to begin. It was also explained how the USA and India resonate to the 3 number-power. These details need not detain us here; suffice to state that events since then have made it possible to declare that indeed the time has come.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama appeared as if he had experienced a new birth as a leader. I recall how badly he was faring in his last term and how certain his defeat in the last electoral contest seemed (2012). But the tide was dramatically turned in his favour in the final days of the campaign by Nature herself in the guise of hurricane Sandy. Clearly Obama had something else to do. Thereafter, Prime Minister Modi came along to draw out the best in him; he seemed to gather as much energy from Modi’s USA tour as the prime minister himself. Critical foreign policy changes followed, long-standing alliances began to totter and a new America has emerged on the world stage. For all practical purposes a close partnership on the axis formed with India, foreseen so many decades ago as being the sign of the foundation of a new world order, has begun to bear fruit. In the present context it necessarily means a re-organisation of nations to allow for a harmonious comity to come forward and lead the way into the new Age of Supermind that calls for a more universal, non-parochial consciousness. In this the United States of America is in advance of India, the latter only having emerged from colonial rule comparatively recently. There is still baggage to be discarded for India to embrace the world.

Finally, how can tennis possibly fit into all of this?

Across the globe the status of sports invariably indicates the pulse of a nation: this is because the planet said to ‘rule’ sports is Mars. The vital pulse that Mars brings to the planetary family can be gauged in its strength by the status of sports. Mars also rules war, as well as attributes such as passion, intensity, drive, determination and the conquering capacity, the bringer of victory; not only in war but in any enterprise requiring that quality. We see this in the candidate for chief ministership of Delhi in a suggestive manner: In answer to a question she referred to sports activities having led her to enter the police service – both governed by Mars. In tennis she demonstrated the same drive and conquering ability as she displayed later in the police force insofar as she was the first woman to enter the Indian Police Service. Now she can turn that same capacity to politics. In fact, if the transformation of society could be focussed on one single element at this stage of our collective development it would be Mars. There will be a lot more to explain in this regard in the months and years ahead because this is the beginning of a final showdown, shall we say, of the passage to a higher expression of Mars, which until now has been a unifying force mainly in times of war. Violence in all spheres of life may finally be tempered by the higher attributes of Mars. It is not a question of eliminating those aberrations but of transforming them, of channelling the negative to positive expressions of the same component of the human consciousness; no doubt this is what Bedi intends by the ‘new politics’.

India’s sports record since independence has been dismal on the whole, given the size of her population and an undeniable proof of latent talents. I have dealt with this topic to some extent in a recent article posted on PCU, Growing Pains.

The linking feature in all that tennis embodies involves the 3 number-power once again, the third principle of the essential formula of Reality expressing Transcendent, Universal/Cosmic, and Individual/Soul. Within this structure tennis provides a field to assess individual application with a global flavour; this is because while tennis is certainly an individual sport for the public, at the same time it is international, being perhaps the most appreciated televised sport along with football, the latter corresponding to 6 in the triangle and not 3, being a team and not an individual sport.²

The international character of tennis is special as an observational field in a compact display (the tournament) because the character not only of the individual but of that individual within the whole can be easily detected. The player offers an insight into character and strengths or weaknesses of the nation of birth, even though players move about the world for training or competition. They seem always to retain their national identity, not merely restricted to citizenship but to the type of energy and their approach to the game. In a word, tennis as an observational field reflects diversity in unity when studied within the Canvas.

More importantly, the Mars factor can be closely observed in players and the role that undermining plays in the ability to fend off suggestions in the midst of the game that deplete the player of the energy required to ‘conquer’, ending in the fact that the player, more often than not, defeats him- or herself. Champions of the game display the capacity to silence those suggestions, so evident in the final moments of a game; one can note this in the player’s body language and a variety of other displays that television allows us to observe close at hand. We observe what the inner fibre of a champion is, especially when we follow the entire tournament. Courage is the outstanding characteristic when Mars is prominent in a natal horoscope. This is displayed in sports and war. Both fields have the capacity to unite the masses.

All of this is captured in the 3 angle, within the context of all the components of the Gnostic Circle; above all we learn that the individual is an essential item in the expression of harmony, perhaps the most outstanding aspect of evolution on Earth. Harmony is the Earth’s very own contribution to the Sun’s planetary family, requiring as it does a convergence of matured elements for the purpose.

In this way following a tournament can be a rewarding experience, as it has been today accompanied by Obama’s speech and Bedi’s exhortation for a ‘new politics’. When the first grand slam of the season began down under, I saw more clearly than ever how truly ‘the symbol of the future realisation’ shows us the way to reach that supreme goal: the solar ray casts no shadows. In other words, there is no tilt left or right of the axial ray. The poise required is upright beneath the Ray, perfectly poised in time and space without any need to deny their role in the manifestation of Truth, as all spiritual paths have done. Rather, the Mother reveals in this new symbology that it is precisely via these Earth measures that the realisation comes into being. The symbol’s display of shadowlessness makes it evident that the deviousness of corruption and self-interests that have plagued politics and almost every field of human endeavour find no place in the new dispensation. That condition applies to all levels of society and all of its expressions, even those we believe to be beyond these recognisably base instincts such as philanthropies, charities, human rights campaigns, etc. To be shadowless even in pursuit of the good is one of the most difficult and highest achievements possible.

The Master Key

As a further example of the synthesising capacity of the new cosmology, India’s ruler is Capricorn/Makar, the Cardinal Pole known in astrology as Cosmic Midday – precisely when no shadows are cast. Her physical body (space measure) describes the ancient Capricorn hieroglyph . This correspondence cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence, the way science is wont to do more often than not when faced with the inexplicable. I bring this up for two reasons. One is the error Prime Minister Modi made in addressing the international business community in Mumbai on 16 January last. In an otherwise fine speech the point I made earlier in a letter to him was ignored, it seems, concerning Ganga’s plight (June of 2013) and the message the sacred river was conveying. I have been trying for the past twenty years to drive the point home. He stated in English, italics mine:

‘Friends, Makar Sankranti was celebrated on 14 January. It is an important festival. It is the beginning of Uttarayan, which is considered to be a punya kaal (auspicious time). The Lohri festival also coincides with it. On this day the sun begins its journey north. This marks the transition from winter to spring…’.

The Prime Minister and the whole of the Hindu Samaj would find no error in the above statement, though surely the astronomical flaw should be evident. But it is not, and therein lies the problem, especially since the sign’s hieroglyph describes the actual physical body of the undivided nation, making accuracy especially important in all matters involving this ‘auspicious time’. Capricorn of the tropical zodiac cannot be separated from the shortest day of the year, the December Solstice which is the legitimate uttarayana, the north Cardinal Pole. This is sacrosanct in all higher studies of cosmic harmonies throughout the world; but only in India, with Capricorn as her astrological ruler, have the two been separated, therefore making the aberration especially damaging.

The prime minister fell in with the Nirayana astrologers and the fundamentalists of science that have succeeded in convincing even upholders of the cosmic harmony that the two must be separated. He has followed suit, though still clinging to what makes the true Makar Solstice (22 December) auspicious and sacred among all the months of the year: the moment of increasing light, or, as the prime minister put it, when the transition from winter to spring occurs, with the Sun’s light beginning to increase. But how do we experience this increase on Earth? It is by the days becoming longer from uttarayana onward – or, specifically, the winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere.

Scientists claim that astronomical calculations prove Capricorn/Makar is ‘no longer there’ (i.e. coinciding with the Solstice); or as Al Biruni wrote centuries ago in India, his book of travels, ‘it [the zodiac] has moved on’. According to him and a number of post-Vedic astrologers and astronomers, the zodiacal sign has shifted and moved away from the Solstice, ‘The solstice (December) has kept its place but the constellations have migrated, just the very opposite of what Viraha had fancied,’ India, II. Over the centuries Al Biruni’s influence has finally borne fruit when the entire nation now believes, and science steps in to ‘prove’, that Makar is no longer connected to the Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the only time we can scientifically claim that the light begins to return.

Thus is superstition born. No one questions this contention. No one dares to question what has now become the ‘authoritative’ word even in matters sacred where science can never be the final authority. Science has declared that Capricorn is ‘no longer there’. And lamentably the vested interests of pundits have reaped the benefits in the many available panchangas by proffering, each one, a different calculation (called ‘correction’) as to when that elusive and shifting dial reaches Capricorn, somewhere out there in the constellations, beyond the solar system and for all practical purposes irrelevant to our experiences on Earth. Since each one comes up with different calculations, because there can be no accuracy in the way science is approaching the matter, this ‘uniqueness’ assures sales.³

No one ponders over the fact that the only measure that never shifts and that therefore can be truly scientific, requiring no correction, is the Earth’s own and unique contribution to the System, her balancing Cardinal Poles marking off, with easily calculable accuracy, the Equinoxes and Solstices. These do not exist in the constellational sphere astronomers have imposed on Nirayana post-Vedic Pundits, though any deep study reveals that the Cardinal Poles are fundamental for an accurate cosmic connection, so central to the Dharma. Every Hindu temple supports me in this statement.

The cage of physicality disconnected from ‘the other side’

Let us penetrate more deeply into this vexatious issue and discover why this so? Why do astronomers prefer the constellations rather than the time-tested fourfold Equinoxes and Solstices, markers of our seasons? If we wish to be charitable, the simple reason could be that the constellations consist of stars which can be seen with the naked eye for the most part; they satisfy far more the demand for tangibility than the tropical zodiac with its ‘arbitrary’ division of the ecliptic plane into 12 parts – hardly arbitrary when we consider that the 12 are Aditi’s sons, but this ‘seeing’ requires an opening to the soul’s light rather than just the physical. After all, scientists would argue, ‘there is nothing there’, a plane yes, but empty and unable to justify the ancient call for the ecliptic plane to be divided into 12 ‘steady and unshifting’ parts. Contemporary science, so tightly closeted in the cage of physicality, has disregarded perhaps the single-most distinguishing feature of life on Earth – nights and days of equal and unequal measure – and opted for projecting the measuring Eye out to the distant stars where there are no such balancing pillars, with no other argument to support this uniquely Indian aberration than its monopoly over Measure. They brush over the fact that the pictographs of the zodiac which they project onto the clusters of stars do not provide a neat 30 degrees for the benefit of calculating the months they cover connected to the months of the universal calendar; their respective degrees vary wildly. The constellations are larger and smaller and therefore the connection cannot be done satisfactorily, without fudging as it were. And this provides another insight into the sacred arts: it is measure that matters and the lived experience – that is, the days and nights balanced firmly on the four pillars of the Cardinal Points. This is described accurately in the Rig Veda as the ‘circle that shakes not’. Why have astrologers succumbed to this illogical imposition without even a whimper?⁴ 

Thus both, astronomers and Nirayana post-Vedic astrologers, perhaps unknowingly, serve vested interests, the signature of the old way, the world that is imploding due to the tilt this side and that (of the midday solar Ray that casts no shadows). That the extreme edge of this tilt has been reached is revealed by the cosmic harmony itself when scrutinised in depth because the shift according to Indian scientists and pundits has carried Makar/Capricorn 23 days away from the December Solstice to the 14-15^th of January (the discrepancy between 14 or 15 January is because pundits of the north and south differ in their calculations by sometimes 24 hours and more!). The 23-degree tilt of the Earth’s axis to either side of the Equatorial plane is the farthest degree possible, at which time the Solstices north or south occur. At that precise moment indeed, as the Prime Minister noted, the ‘light’ begins to return – i.e. from shortest day the Earth moves toward the longest at the next Solstice in end June. Before that she reaches the equilibrium of Mahavishuva, the 21^st March Equinox, initiating spring in the northern hemisphere. The perception of light beginning to increase and therefore making Capricorn/Makar so special for India was entirely correct; but then the Prime Minister got it wrong when he made the mistake of equating that 23-day late festival with the shortest day of the year or uttarayana, the highest point when the Sun casts no shadows – Cosmic Midday. This is the burden astronomers have saddled the civilisation with, by not respecting the boundary between the sacred and the profane where they belong by virtue of their own self-inflicted limitations.

In my reading of the situation, with sufficient corroborating evidence, this fact of a 23-degree/day ‘slippage of time’ imposed by Indian astronomers, coinciding with the 23-degree limit north or south of the Equator that carries the nation 23 days away from the true Makar/Swar gateway, describes the abyss upon which we stand as a civilisation: one ‘step’ more and we ‘plunge’. (See my The Partition of India on PCU where the effects of this mis-measure are explained in detail.) In ‘the symbol of the future realisation’ the tilt is brought into balance directly beneath the ray of the true Makar/Capricorn Midday Sun. To attain that goal science/astronomers would have to admit that they have been misleading the nation by measuring in the wrong circle. What is the likelihood of that coming to pass?

Finally, the Capricorn symbol-map is the item of single most importance in the new cosmology that made all the discoveries regarding India possible, including the USA/India axis which can be ‘read’ in the cosmic harmony provided that the Earth’s own measures of time and space are accepted and respected. Then only is the new cosmology made applicable.

<sup>__________________

1 Aeon Forum, Dialogues beyond Science and Spirituality. [This Forum/Website currently under construction.]</sup>

²  I exclude cricket in this assessment since its appeal is limited to the commonwealth nations and has not managed to step beyond that framework; that it is India’s main sport, never allowing others to come to the fore tells us much about the distance to cover in this especially important field where the Mars energy is such a vital ingredient in the transformative process.
³  See Appendix.
⁴  See Appendix.

Appendix

When the Rig Veda explicitly states ‘the circle is one’, this means that there is indeed only one circle: the ecliptic plane of our solar system that sets the measure throughout, and not the greater sphere of the heavens, simply because that equinoctial plane is as if the dial of a clock. The larger cosmic face (heavenly sphere) in this case becomes the face of the clock divided into 12, just as the face of the ecliptic – where the planets travel including the Earth – is also divided into 12, as well as our clocks on Earth. All-important is the dial in movement over these faces – the one face/circle; and that dial is propelled by the Time-Spirit, poised squarely on Earth at the centre of it all, working through the instrumentation of the Vishnu Line of Ten – his very own Emanations, to provide the required accuracy in Time and Space. I present here a diagram that will help understand the differences and the confusion that presently exist.

In this composite design the innermost circle (Tropical) is divided into four – the Cardinal Points. Capricorn/Makar is the highest whose 0 degree is indicated by the Cardinal cross, or the beginning of the sign; in time this is 21-22 December each year. The next circle (Sidereal) is the current astronomical/Nirayana astrology calculation as to where that cross would fall if Makar is supposed to BEGIN only on 15^th of January – i.e., 23 days/degrees into Capricorn/Makar. This shows the distance away from the actual Solstice.  The outermost circle (Constellations) presents the zodiac of astronomers, comprised of the 12 pictographs imaginatively constructed into that sphere – on the order of the child’s game of connecting the dots! And this is accurate science?

In current Indian astrology the constellation/sidereal sphere becomes relevant as a backdrop for certain stars (nakshatras), though today the latter is given entirely too much importance in Nirayana post-Vedic astrology. That sphere, disregarding the stars and considering it only as a ‘canvas’ onto which the zodiac is projected, pretends to be the very same 360-degree circle divided by 30 degrees for an equal 12, just as the ecliptic plane is divided. Onto or into that circle the background motion of the ecliptic plane is projected; the movement/dial is called the Precession of the Equinoxes, again highlighting the relevance of the equinoxes and solstices. It needs to be repeated time and again (with the hope that someday the message will get through), there are no equinoxes and solstices in the constellations. The movement that calls forth the passage of the astrological ages (yugas), indicates for Earth inhabitants where the societies and civilisations we create stand in the vaster movement of the Ages. Given the aberration and consequent mis-measure, India has no means of accurately locating her civilisation’s position within the larger cosmic cycles. The result is necessarily only chaos in an area where accuracy is paramount and clarity comes only with the true Vedic Divine Measure provided by the Line of Ten.

Finally, projection onto the extended sphere by the dial/plane is only pertinent to the movement of the astrological ages and cannot be used to construct the horoscope of the individual, or even of rituals on Earth. For the latter the tropical zodiac is the means to deal with individual incarnations properly. Unfortunately, mis-measure using the wrong circle, as illustrated, has created confusion where none need exist, and has been the result of astrology being considered a pseudo-science. There can be no claim to science with the current practices; at the same time, scientific methodology as we understand it today cannot be applied to this most sacred of the 64 Arts, mother of all the rest and the one responsible for connecting what transpires on Earth to the cosmic surround in an applicable manner, as demonstrated in the cosmology of the New Way.

The Gita makes the role of the Vishnu dasavataras abundantly clear when Lord Krishna states, I come yuge-yuge. This ascertainment of his role in the quest for accuracy is more than clear: it is his primary task, for reasons described throughout the postings of Puranic Cosmology Updated. This is how we redeem the Earth (in mythology it would be described as a battle between good and evil, the latter standing at the threshold of taking possession of the planet). Redemption (or the victory of the Gods) is accomplished by the descent of the Emanations of the Time-Spirit honouring her measure, her contribution to the harmony of the Solar System. This redemption is not done by a miraculous appearance interjected from beyond our measures of time and space, or a Second Coming on the order of an appearance in the heavens, descending as a figure of light with flaming sword in hand, as comforting as the image may be. It is the Earth herself that is ‘redeemed’ when she is no longer thought to be a hell to flee from but rather a sublime contributor to the harmony of the cosmos, thereby making the 9^th Avatar’s prophecy of a life Divine on Earth that much more realisable.

For this reason PCU has been centred largely on clearing the cobwebs away that cover what I have called the backbone of the Sanatana Dharma – i.e. its Axis. Interestingly, and to prove the consistency – that is, why there is confusion in the issue of the Avatar, as well as in making the correct cosmic connection – it is be because the two go hand-in-hand. We can only recognise who the true Emanation might be when we ascertain his ‘cosmic credentials’, and those are discernible only when the correct circle is utilised for the calculations that alone can reveal those credentials. Of most essential importance is the correct location of Makar Sankranti. Vested interests (alias, asuric hostile forces) can, for a time, hide the greatest truth the Earth has ever known – but only for a time.