On the Nature of Prophecy

Regarding the resignation of Benedict XVI

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

12.2.2013

Recently the world received the unexpected news of the resignation of Benedict XVI, pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Newspapers and TV channels have given us statistics: this is the only voluntary resignation of a pope since the 13^th Century when circumstances were very different. On the surface it is apparent that a lack of vitality was impeding Benedict from fulfilling his duties. His diminishing strength has been evident for some time. There will be any number of theories floating about which are justified in the circumstances; and certainly this pope had been carrying a heavy burden on his shoulders.

For the most part, I will leave speculation to those best qualified for the task, but of course we can expect more news on this fascinating turn of events, foremost of which will be the selection of the next Pontiff. There is speculation that the time has come for a black pope, or else one of the cardinals from South America. If the papal selection were a reward for the number of converts or the size of the existing laity, that might be the case. But the position held by the head of Roman Catholicism has geo-political value which may not be fulfilled by the candidates from those continents.

Benedict’s resignation is indeed fascinating because in perhaps the most important prophetic text of Christianity, The Revelation of St John, the condition of the Church today was foreseen some 2000 years ago. Regarding certain specific verses, I wrote in my commentary on John’s text that they describe an ‘end of the papacy as it is now known’. The visionary described events surrounding the popes of the 20^th Century – that is, approximately 2000 years into the future from the time the verses were written. To my knowledge no one before me had made a convincing connection with our times, but the verses themselves prove the point. In 1976 I published The Hidden Manna, a commentary on The Revelation. I am bringing the relevant portions of my book to readers today because of the light they throw on the nature of prophecy itself.

I found John’s text to be of a more universal character than appears on the surface, in keeping with the atmosphere prevailing today in which a more global consciousness seeks to replace the old way of viewing the world. Ostensibly his prophecy was centred on the Second Coming of Jesus, but this may not have been entirely the case. However, given the recent resignation of Benedict, I will set aside that aspect of the text and concentrate on the verses that pertain specifically to these current developments and the state of the Church in the last century, carried over into the 21^th through the 8^th pope and culminating with the 9^th, Benedict XVI.

The verses in question speak of five ‘kings’; however, I understood them to be popes. At the time of John’s vision, immediately following the death of Jesus, it is unlikely that the term pope was in vogue. But with the right key to decipher the enigmatic Revelation, the verses themselves make it clear that he was foreseeing the line of popes from the beginning of the 20^th Century up to the present Pontiff. Here are the verses from Chapter XVII:

9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are the seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

The key to understand the above verses lies in the ability to know when the text could be deciphered, insofar as that future time was written into the prophecy itself. (Readers in India would not be surprised by this statement insofar as the Brighu readings of natal horoscopes often follow a similar pattern.) The clue was given by the prophet himself. It can be noted that John wrote in the present tense (‘…one is…’). As I explained in my commentary, the decipherer would have to read the verses at a specific point in time for them to be comprehensible. Thus, in 1976, concerning these enigmatic verses I wrote,

‘But John soon describes the downfall of the Whore (Babylon), for the time of her end is the last century of the second millennium, the time of the unveiling of the Revelation. Yet as she is also Rome we may find a clue in her twentieth century life which can be equally appropriate regarding the ‘mystery’. We find therefore that in this century there have been six Popes to date [1976]. As the prophecy is given with the time of its deciphering built into its structure, the angel would be able to speak as if projected into the future when the veils of the text are lifted. Therefore it is said, ‘five (kings) are fallen’. Regarding the Popes of this last century of the second millennium, there are Pius X (1903-1914), Benedict XV (1914-1922), Pius XI (1922-1939), Pius XII (1939-1958), and John XXIII (1958-1963). ‘One is’, - this is Pope Paul VI, the present pontiff who began his office in 1963. He is the sixth, and he is also Paul the sixth.

‘The verse continues: ‘and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.’ This indicates that there will be a seventh and after his entry into office the turn of the millennium will occur. But before that, it is possible that there will be an eighth. If so, he may well be the last pope; the eighth may bring an end to the papacy as it is now known.’ (THM, Chapter XVII)

At the time of writing the above (1976), Pope Paul VI was still alive, hence John wrote, ‘One is’. At his demise, John Paul I followed. There can be no doubt to whom the prophet is referring when he wrote: ‘…and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.’ He was pope for a brief ‘short space’ of 34 days. The prophecy was accurate – but, I repeat, the verses could only be understood correctly when deciphered in a particular decade of the 20^th Century – i.e., when Paul VI was still on St Peter’s throne and the short reign of John Paul I had not yet started. The accuracy of my commentary was therefore proven when he did take office in 1978, two years after publication of The Hidden Manna.

The prophet goes on to speak of an 8^th. This was John Paul II. In The New Way, published in 1981, I discussed the prominence of the number 8 in his life and in his ascension to the papacy. The prophet makes it clear that his reign begins in the 20^th Century (‘…even he is of the seven’). But my interpretation of the verse, ‘And goeth into perdition,’ was that the nature of the papacy itself would change with his appointment. Indeed, his successor, Benedict XVI, would have to share the burden of this change, the details of which require no elaboration.

With the radical development of a pope resigning, we are forced to agree that the papacy might indeed never be the same again. In my view the change was already in evidence at the election of the non-Italian Polish John Paul II and the political character of his papacy, in large part a departure from previous popes. If this trend continues and Benedict XVI was an interim pope (a ‘placeholder pope’, to quote The Guardian) as many believe, his successor if not an Italian is more likely to be from Asia rather than Africa or South America, following indications given by John Paul II himself. It is even possible that unlike earlier elections there is a candidate-in-waiting, groomed for the papacy. Benedict’s resignation makes speculation about the changes inevitable. His principal mission seems to have been the beatification of his predecessor which, without his intervention, would have taken many more decades if not centuries.

The widespread belief is that the election of a pope lies in God’s hands. Whatever the case, the fact is this position cannot to be equated with an ordinary official who enjoys the right to resign as he wills. No doubt Benedict had very good reasons for doing so; yet questions will be asked. For example, there is the dogma of Infallibility. Does it set in at election and end at resignation?

The Revelation is, in my view, one of the most important documents in prophetic literature. But this assessment can be truly appreciated only when it is understood as the culmination of a process that began many centuries earlier, the details of which have been recorded in the Old Testament. The New Testament, of which The Revelation is the last book, loses its unique and most valuable sense if we do not follow the development from the Old Testament through to the New in an unbroken line. When a unity of perception is applied to the exercise then the historicity of both Testaments can be appreciated, albeit in a different light than the conventional interpretation – though not for that of lesser importance. Rather, such a treatment reconciles existing differences and draws people and nations together instead of dividing them, as is presently the case and for which reason endless wars are fought with no positive outcome in sight. On the basis of an all-inclusive, integral vision, the correct interpretation of the above cited verses and The Revelation in full carry us to the portals of fulfilment in the 21^th Century, which in John’s prophecy is expressed as a triumphant Second Coming. But in the present context, fulfilment of what, we are forced to ask?

In the last century Sri Aurobindo wrote of our times in a style similar to what we find in both the Old and New Testaments. In his short prose piece, The Hour of God, written some time in the first quarter of the last century, he gave a warning to nations to be prepared because the ‘hour of the unexpected’ had arrived. It is timely to re-examine his piece in the light of recent happenings. The Hour of God indicated that the time of ‘fulfilment’ was near, but only after what Sri Aurobindo foresaw as a possible apocalyptic upheaval. Indeed, the First and Second World Wars justified his warning.

Have we reached a similar turning point that requires the descent of a Godhead in the form of the War God, as he is described in The Revelation as well as the last Avatar of Vishnu?

‘There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which calls down the rain of God's bounty.

‘Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives, is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction.

‘In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defense against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall rise again, even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return. Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable.

‘The Hour of God’

 Sri Aurobindo

SACE, Volume 17

India, Egypt and the Enigmatic Sphinx

- Message to India 4

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

4.2.2013

^{[Link to Message 1 , 2 or 3]}

IN Message 2, I mentioned the central focus of the ancient Egyptian civilisation with respect to the Indian and the line both civilisations had been pursuing from ancient times. I have developed the theme elsewhere in depth. The Egyptian was spatial, I wrote, while India’s task involved the temporal. Hence the importance a discussion such as this assumes.

Researchers have been intrigued by certain enigmatic monuments Egypt has bequeathed to us, to the extent that for a very long time the existence on Earth of such phenomenal engineering displays was played down – for some reason it was embarrassing to admit that there had been ancient cultures capable of what we cannot repeat today. For instance, school children are taught even today that the Great Pyramid at Giza was built by slave labour as a tomb to satisfy a megalomaniac ruler. It did not matter that this slave-driven feat could not have been executed anywhere on Earth at the time the Pyramid began to occupy our attention, somewhere in the 19th Century. The tale was told and re-told until finally no further questions were asked.

This situation prevailed until well into the 20th Century. When it was accepted that our technology had not reached the point where a colossus of that nature could be built by us, in spite of our advanced equipment, questions began to be asked and a number of theories emerged: the Great Pyramid began to reveal its secrets – some of them, but not all.

As for the theory that the ancient Initiates of Egypt could somehow manipulate molecules to disassemble and re-assemble the Pyramid’s humongous stone blocks in order to set them in place at the height of a 40-story building, evidence to suggest that this is possible emerged not in conventional halls of science but by the humble and largely unpublicised accomplishment of a man on the fringe of engineering, Ed Leedskalnin and his Coral Castle. For those interested, the evidence of his astonishing feat can be viewed over the Internet.

While acknowledging a number of discoveries by the unorthodox, my curiosity led me to question why it would have been necessary to build such a massive structure. I understood what impelled the Egyptians to expend so much time and energy in the construction of a colossus like the Great Pyramid when I discovered Egypt’s connection to India. It was the Sphinx that confirmed my assessment, I might add. What I discovered would obviously not be on the order of Einstein’s time-space relativity theory but something entirely different. It formed part of that ‘third thing’ the Mother described in the early 1960s, beyond both science and spirituality as they are experienced by us today.

Briefly, the contribution of Egypt was more than clear. In Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, I discussed in detail my perceptions in Update 1 of the series (see www.matacom.com). For the first time I presented what I considered to be the Pyramid’s function within the context of ancient Egypt’s contribution to a process that had already become clear to me but which required to be ‘fleshed out’, so to speak: its involvement with the conquest of Space.

The idea I presented would seem outlandish on the surface, that a re-setting was in order similar to India’s objective, but involving one of the two ‘belts’ encircling the Earth – the space ‘belt’ covering the physical globe, it is important to note. Interestingly, shortly after developing this aspect of the Pyramid’s contribution, a scientific discovery came to light that in large part substantiates my position. The scientist in question confirms that mass of a certain proportion near the Equator can affect the Earth’s alignment. The news item in question appeared in The Hindu, 27 May 2004, entitled 'Why the Earth Wobbles'. I wrote in Chronicles, Update 1,

…This report from scientists at the University of Nevada adds considerable weight to the assessment put forth in these Chronicles…regarding the function of the Great Pyramid.

The 'wobble' referred to in the newspaper report is what creates the Precession of the Equinoxes. Catching up with ancient traditions the world over, science now knows that it takes approximately 26,000 years of the Precession for one gyration to be completed, but more importantly it is now theorising that a shift in mass on the surface of the Earth can alter that rhythm. According to Geoff Blewitt, by using a global positioning system over the past decade and measuring changes in the shape of the Earth, the conclusion his team has arrived at is that ‘…the earth is wobbling while its shape is changing…It bulges at the equator as it's spinning. If the position and height of that bulge changes slightly - we can pick it up'.

This shift in mass changes the wobble and, by consequence, the rhythm of the Precession must change. The builders of the Great Pyramid possessed a technology very far in advance of our own. On this point there can be no dispute. However, what is still being questioned - or rather ignored because there seems to be no 'reasonable' answer - is what the purpose of such a massive structure might have been….The Great Pyramid and its companions had a specific role to play - and incredibly this role embraced the destiny of the entire Earth. The Initiates of those times dealt with the Solar System as if it were a great Clock, and they left us this evidence of their startling ability to re-set this cosmic timepiece.

What has not been addressed, though we continue to give so much thought to HOW the pre-Pharaonic Egyptians carried out the construction, is why such massive stones were required. We seek to understand how they were set in place, realising that today we cannot duplicate such a formidable feat; but no one questions why they needed such enormous blocks to begin with. Considering their very advanced technological capacity, the Pyramids could have been made hollow, if only the shape was required - for whatever purpose. This was not the case. Great effort was put into securing a certain tightly fitted mass. It seems clear enough that this mass is the key issue.

Contemporary science is now edging closer to the discovery of just what a given mass might have been needed for, though it does not apply these discoveries to the Great Pyramid; after all, our text books continue to propagate the misinformation that we are the apex of evolution! How can science now introduce anything that might contradict this dogma?

As stated in these Chronicles and in other publications, a 'shifting of the poles' was required in order to bring about a convergence of the two circles, equatorial and sidereal, in 234 BCE. This was to assure that the Age of Aquarius would begin in 1926. According to the newspaper report, '…Large amounts of mass need to be moved from one place to another so that the Earth is “off balance” to make the Earth wobble, according to Blewitt, who said the North Pole then adjusts to a new position to compensate.' (Emphasis ours)

With the Great Pyramid constructed at very precise longitude and latitude coordinates and at a specific Age in the Precessional unfolding, with an orientation to the Poles added to the equation of a precision that engineers can hardly repeat today, the size and weight of its enormous stone blocks does not seem to have been purposeless. If it had been, why was so much energy expended in their transport from a far away location to the site, especially if we go along with the conventional theory that it was merely a tomb built long before ‘civilisation’ had reached the shores of the Nile?¹ 

The Egyptian re-alignment and re-setting would have taken place in the Age of Leo some 12,000 years ago – once again contradicting conventional theories. While the date for the Pyramid has not been conclusively proven, it is now widely accepted that the Sphinx was constructed during that same Age, confirmed by geologists when observing its weathering patterns with an open mind. The geological evidence proves that the Sphinx had to have been sculpted during a period of significant rainfall. This last occurred during the 7th Manifestation and the time of the appearance of Vishnu’s 7th Avatar, Sri Ram – approximately within the specified geological framework as supported by the new cosmology. We find further confirmation in the details of the Sphinx symbolism from the zodiac itself – half Lion, or the Age of Leo; the other Man-half points to our present 9th Manifestation and the appearance of Vishnu’s 9th Avatar in the Age of the Friend/Man, which in the zodiac is Aquarius. In the Rig Veda verses precisely to Vishnu, this symbolism is referred to specifically as the Friend (‘Mitra’), the last ‘step’ of Vishnu while measuring the universe. This is the applicable interpretation based on the cosmic harmony, while the orthodox version is not:

1.  Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self-accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement.

2. That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible Lion that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain-tops, he in whose three wide movements all the worlds find their dwelling-place.

3.  Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervading, the wide-moving Bull whose dwelling- place is on the mountain, he who being One has measured all this long and far-extending seat of our self-accomplishing by only three of his strides.

4.  He whose three steps are full of the honey- wine and they perish not but have ecstasy by the self-harmony of their nature; yea, he being One holds the triple principle and earth and heaven also, even all the worlds. 

5.  May I attain to and enjoy that goal of his movement, the Delight, where souls that seek the godhead have the rapture; for there in that highest step of the wide-moving Vishnu is that Friend of men who is the fount of the sweetness.

6.  Those are the dwellings-places of ye twain which we desire as the goal of our journey, where the many-horned herds of Light go travelling; the highest step of wide-moving Vishnu shines down on us here in its manifold vastness.  (Rig Veda 1.154)

Thus we have an axis formed in the Sphinx, whose secret is revealed by the Precession of the Equinoxes linking the two Manifestations, the 7th and the 9th, and the Ages of Leo and Aquarius, as my Map of the 12 Manifestations demonstrates. (For further details see the series Secrets of the Earth, questions and answers on ‘The Line of Ten Avatars of Vedic Tradition’, Aeon Books, 2009.)

 The Gnostic Circle (1975)

and The New Way (1981)

Aeon Books

The Ages of Preservation (Vishnu’s period of appearance) have been preserved in the Sphinx symbolism taken directly from the zodiac – Leo (Lion) and Aquarius (Man/Friend), the first and last of Vishnu’s three strides. In between is Taurus the Bull, Krishnavatar’s appearance in the 8th Manifestation, as the Map indicates. When the Precession of the Equinox is employed correctly, we learn that the Man/Friend is Aquarius, our very own Age, and that it began in 1926. On the other hand, if we go by the Nirayana system, we have to wait perhaps 500 years for India to catch up!

When the correct cosmic key is unveiled enigmas no longer remain and speculation is silenced. The problem is the usual one: vested interests. Added to the Nirayana pundits we have the entire scientific community intent on securing that the ‘enigma’ remains in place. There are so many ways to pin a civilisation down. But it has to be borne in mind that what is being written in these Messages refers to a collective realisation. Throughout India we find individual yogis even today who have realised the cosmic truth; many at the Mahakumbh itself, no doubt. It is what has kept the ‘thread’ intact over the millennia. What is required at this crossroads of destiny is an enlightened calendar that can incorporate the mass engendered by the energies of 80% of 1.2 billion people. This is the call of the hour, not for herself but for the entire world. And this is the purpose of a calendar to govern the extended body of a civilisation which is not expected to have a realisation for which an entire life has to be dedicated: it can be embodied in a calendar, as it had been across the millennia prior to the Age of Pisces. For centuries upon centuries the ‘thread’ could be carried on by those individual realisations; but the events of the last Age have forced the issue now and more is required – collectively.

Astronomers insist that only the sidereal circle of the constellations is of value, with its shifting zodiac, whereas the Tropical and the Sidereal are of equal importance but they serve different functions. In other words, with Mahasaraswati’s grace we are simply putting each thing in its place and drawing the benefits thereof. For instance, the Map above is based on the Precessional movement and the extension of the equinoctial plane the Earth’s wobble traces in the sky within the same measure of 12. If we believe astronomers that it is the physical circle of the constellations, we are falling into the trap of relativism: the 0 starting point can be anywhere. Moreover, the physical constellations refuse to oblige and to adhere to the measure of 12 (360 ÷ 30); some are far smaller, some far larger. In addition, if we are unable to connect correctly those 25,920 years of the Precessional Great Year to the calendar we use, it is of no use and serves, as stated, to drag us off track – in India’s case by half a millennium! The ‘weight’ of that error has accumulated to the point where correction is now imperative.

Most readers will require some form of confirmation from the scriptures for the above to be accepted – i.e. the measure of 12 of the 360-degree circle, Precessional or Tropical. I can do so by quoting the pertinent verses of the Rig Veda itself which describe in detail the very diagram I presented in 1973 before coming upon these verses:

Twelve spokes, one wheel, navels three.

Who can comprehend this?

On it are placed together

Three hundred and sixty like pegs.

They shake not in the least.

(Rig Veda 1.154.48)

There are 12 ‘spokes’ within the one wheel which consists of 360 ‘pegs’. This cannot be denied. The intriguing part is the Rishi’s mention of ‘navels three’. Rightly he asks, Who can comprehend this? The Map of 12 Manifestations answers the question because it contains indeed three hubs in its static form. But when dynamism is added by the impulsion of Time, they become spirals just as the above diagram describes, all within ONE WHEEL. There is no ambiguity, no fumbling or fudging. The verses are clear – or they are rendered clear when the Cosmic Truth is seen.

However, the most important line of all is the last, ‘They shake not in the least’. Or else as stated in the Atharva Veda: they are firmly riveted. These verses alone should be sufficient grounds to dismiss the current Nirayana system which SHAKES; and within the sidereal sphere which it employs at the behest of scientists NOTHING CAN BE RIVETED because it is constantly shifting. It is perforce relative, lacking in any objectivity, in contrast to the Tropical Zodiac that NEVER SHAKES. If scriptural approval is required, with these verses who can continue to doubt and raise objections?

The mystery is finally solved by Time, but not according to the flawed dictates of astronomers, those in India and abroad. It is rather an appreciation of the Cosmic Harmony as revealed by the sages of old and open to all who approach the matter in the correct poise of consciousness. And true to the message of the Sphinx, the obligation of time conquest – the theme of this Message – is India’s duty, destined to be fulfilled during the current Age of Aquarius, or the period when the Vishnu Avatar makes his appearance to ‘re-set the cosmic clock’.

It is obvious that in order to have any convincing value a certain coherency has to be present to lend credence to an assertion such as I am making. In 1977, I gave the key to the methodology when I wrote in The New Way, Vol. 2, Chapter 9, page 369-70,

The Ganges, on the other hand, does not move against the current of her inherent nature and essence.  Therefore she is eternal, and she carries the seeds of an undying Truth through the body of India. Her Truth is indeed elusive, as is the nature of Time and the essence of the Spirit, and there are no concrete or solidified monuments representing this Truth, which can bear testimony to it through the long corridors of Time and withstand its ravages. The Truth of the Ganges is one of Consciousness, and it is this that is preserved throughout the ages. This Truth can be ‘measured’, and in this way it is brought down into the Earth dimension to a greater degree…

    India has always been the cradle of the Spirit. This destiny can endure through time because it is the very power of Time that sustains the destiny’s fulfilment. But it is a destiny which expresses itself through Consciousness. For this reason India is the cradle of the new race…

    Now that the moment has come in the harmony of the Earth’s Time for the new to arise, India can fulfil her destiny in perfect attunement with her inherent dharma. Now we come to the core of the movement in Earth-Time where the beginnings of the new world and race arise. And so we have reached the moment when the jungle of human consciousness that has hidden the truth of Ganga throughout the ages can be cut away and the sacred River Goddess can stand [exposed] before our eyes. She unveils herself – the womb that carries Shiva’s seed.   

In The New Way, Vol.2, I noted the role of Ganga and the Kumbh Mela in the cosmic harmony, and that it is India’s people, the ‘energy’ of consciousness contained in her human population – in contrast to the material mass of the Great Pyramid – that is the mass needed today for the Time Axis of the planet to be ‘re-set’ or brought into a new alignment. In other words, via the time-honoured realisations of her sages across the ages, but extended to the population at large through an enlightened calendar for the purpose. For as I wrote in Message 2, given the volume of the destructive (‘stockpiled’) power the Earth is saddled with, a proportionate ‘mass’ of India’s (over)population is also a necessary though temporary factor in the equation; that proportionate ‘mass’ of human consciousness is the element that can ‘tilt’ the scales in favour of the Earth’s salvation with respect to the conquest that makes of Time an ‘ally’. India has to shift the Earth’s subtle and elusive time axis to fulfil this task by a conscious, knowledgeable action.

However, it is not just any human mass that suffices, because in that case China could lay claim to the task rather than India. This mass has to be supported by a cosmology that in an unbroken line is maintained yuge-yuge, or through the periods of the 7th, 8th, and 9th Avatars. China cannot lay claim to Centreship because of its ‘mass’ alone, proportionate though this may be. It lacks that Vedic ‘thread’ – and especially the backbone provided to the civilisation by the periodic appearances of the Vishnu Dasavataras, known significantly as offspring of the Time-Spirit. With the understanding that India’s role is universal and at the service of the entire Earth and not just her own people, every attempt would be made to give whatever assistance possible to facilitate her fulfilment. But if we cling to the old binary formula, as all nations are doing, with its demand for the axial balance ‘superpowers’ provide, then China’s struggle to be first makes sense. It ‘makes sense’ but only in a linear world, not the sphericality that Time demands (see diagram above). The struggle for supremacy in a dying world may tilt the scales with losers on all sides. Hence the need for India to unveil her Centreship at the earliest so that she can ‘hold’, and in the process deflect what appears to be an unavoidable calamity ahead.

This is the essence of the new way that puts each thing in its place in a new order for the world.

(Concluded)

^{_______________________
 1 The New Way, Vol. 2, Chapter 9, ‘East and West, Joined by the Rivers of Time and Space’, Aeon Books, 1981)}

The Choice of Cosmic Truth or Superstition

Message to India 3

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
1.2.2013 

^{[Link to Message 1 or Message 2]}

There have been responses to my message pleading for a revision of the Hindu Calendar and the need to re-establish the cosmic connection Hindus have lost. These responses are predictable; they can be summed up in a few words, ‘The constellations have shifted and Makar/Capricorn is no longer there, it has moved by 23 days.’ It is as if the entire Samaj had been programmed to repeat endlessly and unthinkingly the pat reply astronomers have for a ‘shifting zodiac’. None seem to care if this programmed response is right or wrong, so no questions are asked.

It is this ‘shift’ that is causing the 12 signs to move backward, to slip away from alignment with the 0 degree March Equinox of the tropical zodiac, they claim. The amount of slippage is 23 days according to astronomers who are determining perhaps the most important factor of the Sanatana Dharma – the timings for rituals and horoscopes and marriages, and just about everything that takes place in India, for all communities, even those who are proclaimed non-believers. Furthermore, the slippage continues, if we follow their dictates to the letter. This means that regular adjustments have to be made, hence a need for the pundits who in turn need the astronomers – and so it goes. 

The rationalist has seen through it all. He realises that these rituals mean nothing or very little, because he finds no valid reason to believe that there is anything beyond what science can prove – even though it is more than obvious that regularly new discoveries are made, more powerful telescopes and probes are devised which are forcing a re-evaluation of what were once proven scientific ‘truths’. Our science and history books are full of the details. However, the question we must ask is if the foundation of the Dharma lies beyond the physical – and certainly none will dispute this fact – and if certain rituals and mantras can bring us into contact with that beyond – the common belief – why is it that we turn to men for guidance who are, for the most part, declared atheists? Why have we come to trust them more than our sages and the scriptures they have left – I refer to the Vedic Seers, of course. 

The scientist has no means of proving the existence of what lies beyond the threshold of physicality, however rarefied it may be. At the most, the closest science has come to accepting that the physical is not what it appears is the recognition that it is all really a play of energy. Some are convinced that this has carried science to the doors of Indian spirituality and is proof of the sagacity of the ancients. But in approaching these matters from the foundation of contemporary science without the realisation of unity, these energy/matter equations have left us with tools to destroy ourselves. This would not be possible if the wisdom of the sages had been governing matters on this planet.
I am not advocating the naïve belief that turning the other cheek is the answer; as things stand, nations have to defend themselves and protect their people. Nor am I appealing to a certain type of fundamentalism in making a case for the ancient wisdom because time moves on and there is a method to the current madness. The Sanatana Dharma has an in-built system of renewal, provided certain ‘laws’ are adhered to. On that basis we can move forward from an original core as if on a spiral into an ever wider sphere, embracing more and more layers of energy/conscious-ness. This is the objective of a process that lies beyond the purview of contemporary science.
We know that our moral and ethical codes are crumbling and a decisive crossroads of destiny has arrived. When certain nations are set upon spreading this mechanism of destruction far and wide, to suit their own hegemonic purposes, it is reasonable to assume that sooner rather than later some nation or group or individual is going to let the genie out of the bottle. Then what? 

As individuals we have no way of halting the madness. What is required is a collective breakthrough that can counterbalance these destructive forces. The power of destruction is so colossal now that the counterbalancing also has to be colossal; hence, my call for the millions who attend the Kumbha Mela to insist on the correct alignment with the cosmic truth. This is one aspect to consider in the apparent hopelessness of over-population, for example. With 80% of the Indian population aligned correctly to facilitate the emergence of the cosmic truth once again, there is no limit to what this civilisation can accomplish for the world. It cannot happen in churches and mosques or even in temples as things now stand because the connection I refer to is factual – it either exists or it does not; it cannot be feigned or believed to exist on the basis of romantic notions of an eternal right of possession. But if it is truly made then collectively we can make a difference because correct alignment that counterbalances allows us to connect with the other side, which places us within the ambit of a different set of laws: we are here but elsewhere due to different ‘laws’ operating. We are ‘accessible’ only when the same formula for unity is followed which alone permits ‘access’.
This means that the cosmic connection, when real, establishes a poise, individually and collectively, where unity and oneness are in command. In other words, a society in such a poise is in contact with or is approachable only by those of the same poise. It is a process of attracting and repelling: when alignment is done and centering is secure, then ALL must serve the purposes of the One – negative or positive.
There is a world in a state of collapse. It is the product of an old and dying consciousness. It carried us as far as it could on the basis of its ‘laws’ – that is, to the decisive threshold of creation or destruction. If we continue according to its dictates we will destroy ourselves. But if, on the other hand, we realise that the cosmic connection was effectively lost and contemporary scientific cosmology can do nothing else but carry us farther and farther away from alignment, then the creative mode is set in motion and for all intents and purposes the decadence that surrounds us can be carried away with relative ease. The new alignment can open the doors to a new world that awaits the inhabitants of this planet.
Hindus have to cast off the burden of an unregenerate tamas/inertia they have been carrying for centuries. They must realise that astronomers are not astrologers. However, a qualification is required. In my view there are not many true astrologers among us. This is why I refer to my own work as cosmology – more particularly an applied cosmology – to avoid confusion. When a person writes to me that the Hindu Calendar is both sidereal and tropical, I know that he does not understand the difference – i.e., when the constellations enter into the equation and when they do not. The applied cosmology allows us to appreciate the difference, to distinguish one from the other and when to apply each yardstick. Moreover, in this new age we are in a period of climax, of culmination. This is the 9^th Manifestation (a knowledge arrived at by an enlightened understanding of the sidereal and tropical combination). This tells us that it is the time of birth. Whatever we have known until now – and in this I include both science and spirituality – has been unreal in the sense that it was only a foetus in gestation. Now, after passage of approximately 50,000 years, gestation is complete, the Child is born. We are blessed to have taken birth at this unique moment in evolution.
We do bear a certain responsibility which we are fleeing from when we leave the sacred to the profane for validation. For the astronomer the constellations alone are of value because he believes he can measure them, he can ‘see’ them, he gives them shapes and uses them as determining elements in his calculations. For the astronomer/scientist the tropical zodiac of the ecliptic plane, which we divide into 12 sections of 30 degrees each, does not ‘exist’. It is simply a somewhat convenient inherited formula. At most he acknowledges the existence of equinoxes and solstices, but only because they cannot be ignored: the Sun will not allow Earthlings to dismiss the fact of equal and unequal days and nights. But as for the arcane signs of the zodiac and their hieroglyphs, the scientist can be entirely dismissive: they are relics of a past bereft of the enlightenment an astronomy separate from astrology has brought to the world. The 12 are clubbed together with everything else that cannot be ‘measured’ according to the yardstick of science.
Lamentably for Hindus, this attitude has prevailed. The 12-stage process of the Vedic Rishi, the ‘journey’ as it is called, has lost all meaning – even though every temple across the country preserves this sacred knowledge, along with the myths we tell our children to keep the flame of the soul burning brightly in spite of the dominance of those ignorant of these sacred truths that give meaning and purpose to life on Earth, and which the course of evolution itself can prove.

To simplify the issue and eliminate all speculation as to the correct starting point of the Journey, we have the March Equinox of equal days and nights. From that point in time, when the undisputed balance exists between the temporal and the spatial – also preserved in all temples by their orientation to the Cardinal Poles – the Journey commences and the Vedic traveller on the path (of the Sun) undergoes the initiation that can refashion his or her consciousness by producing (or earning) the same alignment the Poles provide as part of the solar system. He or she BECOMES THAT.
It is only an individual who has lived through the initiation and returned to tell the tale that can affirm what needs to be measured and what needs to be discarded. A university degree does not come even close to granting this right.
In the constellations, beloved of astronomers, there are no such balancing poles, no unequivocal starting point. Because of this, in the constellations everything is RELATIVE, the bane of our contemporary society that has been milked on this half-truth. The Equinoxes and Solstices the Earth experiences are her contribution to the System. We have discarded this truth and in the process we are destroying everything that is most dear on the planet.
The Rishis were not so foolish as to leave an amorphous circle (the sidereal) for us to meander through in a futile search for a starting point in order to correctly locate the Age we are in which covers thousands of years; much less would they allow that amorphous circle of constellations to be the basis for a calendar to regulate sacred Vedic practices, ignoring the foundation enshrined in its own verses:

One is the wheel; the bands are twelve;
three are the hubs – who can understand it?
Three hundred spokes and sixty in addition
have been hammered therein and firmly riveted.

Take heed, O Savitr.
Six are twins; one is born singly.
The Twins desire to unite with the one that is born alone.

Though manifested, it is yet hidden, secret,
its name is the Ancient, a mighty mode of being;
in Skambha is established this whole world;
therein is set fast all that moves and breathes. (AV X, 8)

Hinduism prides itself in carrying on an unbroken line of knowledge from the Vedic Age to the present. But as things now stand that line has been effectively severed because we cannot find a beginning in the constellations where there is no Equinox to guide us. The pundits are left to speculate endlessly because there is absolutely no method to mathematically and objectively determine an ayanamsha in the amorphous constellations of our imaginings.
Astronomy may insist that the approximation is close enough and the discrepancy is not worth troubling ourselves over as far as the Hindu Calendar is concerned – after all, the atheist and pragmatic rationalist considers it all to be superstition, so why be concerned if the ayanamsha of one pundit differs from that of another by a fraction of a second of a degree of celestial longitude. What the faithful are not told is that the fraction amounts to hours and days and months and years on Earth! But, so what? It is all mere superstition, we are told; hence, the scientist is absolved of all responsibility.
On the contrary, the farther the alignment goes the less likelihood of accuracy in the astrologer’s predictions. He must therefore be thrown back on his subjective intuition, adding more fuel to the science versus pseudo-science debate. When intuition rules the day then of ‘science’ there is none. And by this I mean a cosmology that embraces past, present and future in a continuum on the backdrop of a fabric of oneness. In such a case the believer is never isolated from the all, just as the individual is never disconnected from the collective body when oneness dominates – not sameness but an equality born of a diversity contained within the all-embracing cosmic harmony, a connection which has been effectively lost. Our objective must be to use the sacred sciences based on an applied formula to express the true integration which the cosmic truth offers, irrespective of caste or creed or wealth or poverty, or the colour of one’s skin. The cosmic truth does not distinguish in this surface manner, but it does, by the grace of Mahasaraswati, put each thing in its rightful place.

The 150^th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda is being celebrated; various aspects of his life and times have been in the spotlight. He was seriously critical of Hinduism – but for different reasons than I have been and with a different focus. However, we have both advocated reforms. The Swami wrote, ‘…Finally everyone must become his image in full…and then in reality everything will become one. Religion is nothing but this. The obsolete and lifeless rituals and notions regarding godhead are but ancient superstitions.’¹ And further, to his monks he instructed, ‘…Teach them that they must bow to all deities, but we worship only Ramakrishna…The other deities have become old and obsolete. We have a new India now, a new deity, a new faith, a new Veda.’ 

Sri Aurobindo was born nine years after the Swami. He had a similar lament. In his seminal work, The Secret of the Veda, he wrote: ‘…The letter lived on when the spirit was forgotten; the symbol, the body of the doctrine, remained, but the soul of knowledge had fled from its coverings.’ But while recognising the degeneration that had set in he did not throw the ‘baby out with the bathwater’, as some sought to do. He was passionate about the source of Hinduism as revealed in his major opus cited above. His aim was to reveal its psycho-spiritual ‘secret’ in the effort to restore that ‘soul of knowledge’ in those new foundations of Hinduism which Swami Vivekananda had foreseen.
I have followed Sri Aurobindo’s lead, not because of any ‘Aurobindonian orthodoxy’ which has been rearing its stifling head of late, but because my own yoga drew me along the very same path until I returned to the same source (The New Way, Vol. 2, Chapter 10, ‘Integrality and the Return to the Source’, Aeon Books, 1981). In so doing I came to realise just why that soul of knowledge had fled and the ritual was merely an empty covering. Finally, with the new cosmology in place, the way was found to restore vibrancy and life into the entire system just as the Veda explained. To do so it was necessary first to recognise the reality of the situation and then to unmask dispassionately the real culprit – the disease of superstition and how it is present only when knowledge is absent. In the days of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, it was widely believed that science, as it was evolving largely in the West, would be the tool to eliminate superstition, but Sri Aurobindo followed a different path and held a different view, similar to my own. That is, there is a ‘third thing beyond science and spirituality’, as the Mother explained. His whole life was dedicated to establishing in the Earth’s atmosphere the broad lines of that ‘third thing’. My cosmology is a part of that effort.
In the course of my yoga I soon realised that the conquest of Time, to render Time an ‘ally’, lies at the heart of the Hindu destiny, at the core of its Dharma. But I saw that this was impossible under the Nirayana system. Sri Aurobindo never used the Hindu Calendar in his Ashram, though Time was his obsession in a sense. He followed the calendar of the ancient pagan, pre-Christian world which has now become the universal method, officially adopted by India as well. In that system his own credentials can be read. It was obvious to me which should prevail insofar as it is the Vishnu Avatar’s duty to ‘re-set the cosmic clock’. But in their nationalist fervour my critics have labelled my work anti-Hindu, largely because I want to do away with the current Nirayana system and to re-establish a method of time reckoning that alone can dissolve superstition because it is founded on Vedic Science – i.e., knowledge not ignorance. Needless to say, as with all such matters, vested interests are at the forefront of the objection.. These critics would do well to heed the Swami when he treats the issue of parochialism: ‘…Does our master belong only to India? India’s degeneration is the result of such narrow attitudes. Any beneficial outcome is impossible unless these are destroyed.’
He was a man and an Indian, as was Sri Aurobindo. How much harder is the task for a woman and a mleccha? It would seem, however, that matters have been carefully arranged to ‘press buttons’. Perhaps only in that way can we succeed in putting each thing in its rightful place, as Mahasaraswati, the reigning Goddess of our Age, commands. A universal consciousness of oneness and unity is the answer. India has to outgrow a constricting nationalism which is an understandable reaction to centuries of colonial rule. But what was once an aid to attain freedom from the invader is now a bar: it is the primary obstacle to overcome if she is to be unveiled as the Earth’s soul-centre. 

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¹ All quotations of Swami Vivekananda are taken from the article by Tapan Raychaudhuri, ‘Iconoclast Swami’, Frontline, February 8, 2013.