A Cosmological Perspective - 2

The time-bound necessity of War 

[Link to Part I]

 

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

11 December 2013

The Aquarian Age entered with a bang – quite literally. The era of air/space exploration was introduced with the first successful launch of a liquid-fuelled rocket on 16 March 1926. In just five days, on the Equinox of 21-22 March of that year, evolution passed from the water sign Pisces into the air/space sign Aquarius.

The period immediately following the First World War adds weight to my thesis concerning the atmosphere of Dissolution that surrounded the events leading to the passage. To prove the point, we may take just one example, certainly the most important of all the developments following the conflagration: the founding of the League of Nations. It was widely believed at the time that a forum such as the League would go a long way in eliminating the causes that might lead to war; but the League was doomed from the outset because it was built on unstable foundations as if on sand. Under the circumstances, it seems to have been intended to serve simply as precursor of the things to come, given the fact that the sands of the Piscean hour glass were running thin: anything built with a focus on the future in those shifting conditions was destined to collapse. The old world had to give way to the new, this much was clear; but before that could conclusively occur, another global conflagration would be required under very different compulsions and harbouring an entirely different agenda, sinister in the extreme and no less important than the First World War.

As for the causes of the Great War, there is a robust exchange of ideas on the subject in progress, given the fact that its centenary approaches. Certainly the need to come to terms with its real causes is long overdue, if we are to avoid a war our ignorance seems to have brought about. In contrast, a civilisation may be said to have reached a measure of maturity when it can assess its role and participation in evolution in a far more all-inclusive manner and with a greater awareness than the less mature. For instance, the long-anticipated Planetary Society can be recognised by an ability to assess its contribution to the march of evolution in more realistic terms, worthy of a society unburdened by the limitations the collective ego imposes. In such a light the current exercises appear inconclusive regarding the events just prior to the onset of the new Age. They appear shallow and trapped in the ebb and flow of surface phenomena alone.

However, each thing in its own time. It is only in this new Age that greater clarity can emerge based on an assessment of the totality of circumstances converging on any point at any given time. An all-inclusive understanding of this sort can offer an insight into the real causes not only of war but of everything we collectively experience on Earth; only then would the necessity of War become truly obsolete. To illustrate, in Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad-Gita, India’s most treasured Scripture, we are shown the plight of a representative individual (Arjun, friend and pupil of Sri Krishna) who seeks this comprehensiveness prematurely, before an organic and timely progress has occurred. The warrior Arjun asks his mentor Sri Krishna, the 8^th Avatar in Vishnu’s line of 10, to reveal his true and complete sacred Form. Obligingly, Krishna concedes. What follows is the vision of the World-Spirit:

9-14. …Having thus spoken, O King, the Master of the great Yoga. Hari, showed to Partha His supreme Form. It is that of the infinite Godhead whose faces are everywhere and in whom are all the wonders of existence, who multiplies unendingly all the many marvellous revelations of His being, a world-wide Divinity seeing with innumerable eyes, speaking from innumerable mouths, armed for battle with numberless divine uplifted weapons, glorious with divine ornaments of beauty, robed in heavenly raiment of deity, lovely with garlands of divine flowers, fragrant with divine perfumes. Such is the light of this body of God as if a thousand suns had risen at once in heaven. The whole world multitudinously divided and yet unified is visible in the body of the God of Gods. Arjuna sees him (God magnificent and beautiful and terrible, the Lord of souls who has manifested in the glory and greatness of his spirit this wild and monstrous and orderly and wonderful and sweet and terrible world) and overcome with marvel and joy and fear he bows down and adores with words of awe and with clasped hands the tremendous vision.

15. Arjuna said: I see all the gods in Thy body, O God, and different companies of beings, Brahma the creating Lord seated in the Lotus, and the Rishis and the race of the divine Serpents.
………
19. I behold Thee without end or middle or beginning, of infinite force, of numberless arms, Thy eyes are suns and moons, Thou hast a face of blazing fire and Thou art ever burning up the whole universe with the flame of Thy energy.
20. The whole space between earth and heaven is occupied by Thee alone, when is seen this Thy fierce and astounding form, the three worlds are all in pain and suffer, O Thou mighty Spirit.
………
23. Seeing Thy great form of many mouths and eyes, O Mighty-armed, of many arms, thighs and feet and bellies, terrible with many teeth, the world and its nations are shaken and in anguish, as also am I.
24. I see Thee, touching heaven, blazing, of many hues, with opened mouths and enormous burning eyes, troubled and in pain is the soul within me and I find no peace or gladness.
25. As I look upon Thy mouths terrible with many tusks of destruction. Thy faces like the fires of Death and Time, I lose sense of the directions and find no peace. Turn Thy heart to grace, O God of gods! refuge of all the worlds!
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29. As a swarm of moths with ever-increasing speed fall to their destruction into a fire that some one has kindled, so now the nations with ever-increasing speed are entering into Thy jaws of doom.
30. Thou lickest the regions all around with Thy tongues and Thou art swallowing up all the nations in Thy mouths of burning; all the world is filled with the blaze of Thy energies; fierce and terrible are Thy lustres and they burn us, O Vishnu.
31. Declare to me who Thou art that wearest this form of fierceness. Salutation to Thee, O Thou great Godhead, turn Thy heart to grace. I would know who Thou art who wast from the beginning, for I know not the will of Thy workings.
32. The Blessed Lord said: I am the Time-Spirit, destroyer of the world, arisen huge-statured for the destruction of the nations. Even without thee all these warriors shall be not, who are ranked in the opposing armies.
33. Therefore arise, get thee glory, conquer thy enemies and enjoy an opulent kingdom. By me and none other already even are they slain, do thou become the occasion only, O Savyasachin.
34. Slay, by me who are slain, Drona, Bhishma, Jayad-ratha, Kama and other heroic fighters; be not pained and troubled. Fight, thou shalt conquer the adversary in the battle.
35. …Having heard these words of Keshava, Kiriti (Arjuna), with clasped hands and trembling, saluted again and spoke to Krishna in a faltering voice very much terrified and bowing down.
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45. I have seen what never was seen before and I rejoice, but my mind is troubled with fear. O Godhead, show me that other form of Thine; turn Thy heart to grace, O Thou Lord of the gods, O Thou abode of this universe.
46. I would see Thee even as before crowned and with Thy mace and discus. Assume Thy four-armed shape, O thousand-armed, O Form universal.
47. The Blessed Lord said: This that thou now seest by my favour, O Arjuna, is my supreme shape, my form of luminous energy, the universal, the infinite, the original which none but thou amongst men has yet seen. I have shown it by my self-Yoga.
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49. Thou shouldst envisage this tremendous vision without pain, without confusion of mind, without any sinking of the members. Cast away fear and let thy heart rejoice, behold again this other form of mine.
50. …Vasudeva, having thus spoken to Arjuna, again manifested his normal (Narayana) image; the Mahatman again assuming the desired form of grace and love and sweetness consoled the terrified one.
51. Arjuna said: Beholding again Thy gentle human form, O Janardana, my heart is filled with delight and I am restored to my own nature.
52-54. The Blessed Lord said: The greater Form that thou hast seen is only for the rare highest souls. The gods themselves ever desire to look upon it. Nor can I be seen as thou hast seen Me by Veda or austerities or gifts or sacrifice, it can be seen, known, entered into only by that bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things.
55. Be a doer of my works, accept Me as the supreme being and object, become my bhakta, be free from attachment and without enmity to all existences; for such a man comes to Me, O Pandava.  (Sri Aurobindo’s translation)

As a representative entity, clearly the inability of Arjun, mighty warrior that he was, to accept the cosmic formula on its own terms indicated that the world was not yet ready for the wider perspective; in fact, it is said in the Puranas that the Great God of Time (Mahakala) stands above all the Gods, just as Arjun had learned from the supreme vision he was granted. A perceptive capacity capable of withstanding such a mighty vision would require the arrival of the 9^th Avatar and the advancements the 9^th Manifestation would bring, approximately 6000 years from the time of the Mahabharat War – more importantly the acceleration we experience in our present times. This wider perspective is introduced when the goal of evolution can be revealed, as well as the path leading to fulfilment.

It is not possible to disclose the ineluctable Control of the Time-Spirit as presented to Arjun, in the midst of a catastrophe such as the First World War, while we are as yet unable to understand those recondite workings. It would be an unspeakable cruelty to do so. Therefore, the body of supramental knowledge as revealed in this new Age is a complete package, as it were; it discloses not only the goal but the logic of the steps leading to that apotheosis, all within the embrace of the Spirit of the Age whose instruments Earth beings have always been in this fulfilment, albeit in ignorance of their indispensable contribution. That unknowing is destined to be lifted in this new Age of Aquarius.

Without a doubt the human species is pinned down by the yoke of mortality. Death is sovereign and has been for many millennia; but this was not always the case. The Earth has housed a race of Immortals time and again; in fact, our mortality may cover only the briefest history – in cosmic terms. There are surviving testaments to the existence of advanced beings in a distant past such as indicated, for example, by the Sphinx at Giza. This most famous of all extant monuments of antiquity is no mystery at all, as most believe, when assessed within the cosmic Map of the 12 Manifestations which I presented in Part 1 of this series.

The Sphinx is composed of two symbols taken directly from the zodiac: Lion and Man. These would be the two astrological ages of its symbolism: Leo and Aquarius. The first indicates the Age during which the colossus was built – i.e. approximately 12,000 years ago, confirmed

now by geologists as the only acceptable period for its construction, given the distinct weathering patterns they have discovered. The second, the Man half of the figure, would be the Age of Aquarius, or the Friend of the zodiac – our own times. The axis formed by these two signs that stand in opposition to each other, as the Map indicates, hold the secret to the fulfilment the zodiac itself prophesies for human evolution. Notably, the ‘secret’ would be unravelled in this Aquarian Age, whose beginning in 1926 marked the exact year that the desert sands of Egypt were finally removed from the Sphinx, and have never more been allowed to return. Similarly, the secret Knowledge of the zodiac stands disclosed in this Age for the entire world to appreciate. The time of elitist Mystery Schools has passed. If we would save the world we must, as an integrated collective body, be able to sustain with equanimity the vision of the Time-Spirit, creator and destroyer of the worlds.

At this point we must consider the two epics India has given to the world, whose contents are described with great precision by the astrological signs that form each of the 12 Manifestations of the Map above. I have described the correspondence elsewhere in my published works and need not repeat the exercise. (Readers who are interested can consult Secrets of the Earth (2009), and Kashmir and the Convergence of Time, Space and Destiny (2004) Aeon Books.)

Briefly, Sri Ram’s appearance as the 7^th Avatar of Vishnu left the Ramayana for posterity, the contents of which are established by the zodiacal signs comprising the 7^th Manifestation. Similarly, as the 8^th Avatar of the 8^th Manifestation, the contents of Sri Krishna’s epic, the Mahabharat, are explained by all the zodiacal signs that fall within the 8^th Manifestation. India recognised the value of the ‘canvas’ I am presenting in this series as the backdrop on which the evolution on Earth is played out. I would go so far as to state that it is more than likely that this ‘canvas’ is the product of an exemplary vision of one of her ancient Rishis; it most likely travelled from India to the rest of the world, to return in this period of the 9^th Avatar for an even deeper understanding of the wisdom it contains. The Bhagavad-Gita, which I quoted from extensively above, is the heart and soul of the Mahabharat.  It proves the point I am making.

The Mahabharat War was the mother of all wars, the war to end all wars. This simply means that during the 8^th Avatar’s appearance approximately 6000 years ago, the elements worked on in the evolution of the species are those that if left unresolved would lead to an Earth centred only on these devastating conflicts, leading finally to the total destruction of the planet. As a summing up of the situation, we have the two World Wars of the last century. The function of the first was to remove encumbrances and transform destruction to dissolution, as previously discussed. The role of the Second World War will be discussed in Part 3 of this series. But in closing, it needs to be noted that the 9^th Avatar’s epic for this 9^th Manifestation differs entirely from the 7^th and 8^th. There is no place for war in his epic. Rather, the focus is entirely on displacing Death as the sovereign of the species, as well as the role of Love in that conquest. The epic is centred on the ability of the Goddess Savitri who by a superior logic – the signature of the Supermind, it needs to be stated – conquers Death. Finally, as the Earth Goddess par excellence, she gains the cherished boon from the Supreme to return to Earth, bringing the message of oneness, of love.

India’s role in this exercise of transformation is a decreed fact. It is only the centre-soul of the planet that can serve in this manner for reasons entirely cosmological. What is to come, success or failure, is determined by the choices she makes.

Vera Brittan has poignantly expressed her own experience of the Great War and the near despair of the inhabitants of Europe in her classic autobiography Testament of Youth. In the final summarising chapters she writes,

‘…How much there was to be done for this suffering Europe, this stricken humanity; we could not even, if we would, leave it to its agony and live in the past! To find some guiding principle of action, some philosophy of life, some constructive hope upon whose wings this crippled age might swing forward into a fairer future – that at least remained and always would remain, for us who had experienced in our own souls those incalculable depths into which Germany had fallen.

‘…Perhaps, after all, the best that we who were left could do was to refuse to forget, and to teach our successors what we remembered in the hope that they, when their own day came, would have more power to change the state of the world than this bankrupt, shattered generation. If only, somehow, the nobility which in us had turned towards destruction could be used in them for creation, if the courage which we had dedicated to war could be employed, by them, on behalf of peace, then the future might indeed see the redemption of man instead of his further descent into chaos.’ (Testament of Youth, p.645-6)

Indeed, the issue at hand is a very different experience of destruction, as the author pines for – that is, its replacement by Dissolution which implies that telling Control.

Destruction results in a tabula rasa where the movement appears to revert to a zero base. We begin again the lengthy process of establishing a higher perceptive capacity which, because of the severe limitations inherent in a method that employs the ego as an axial tool of advancement, must move more slowly through the corridors of Time. In just the 2000 years of this 9^th Manifestation the truth of this statement is proven: when Dissolution replaced Destruction, in large measure due to the First World War, the progress humanity has known since then has been astonishingly rapid by any yardstick. Not only has civilisation taken rapid strides in science and technology, but also and more importantly, with the advent of Vishnu’s 9^th and 10^th of the Avataric Descent, an entirely new dimension of spiritual awareness and experience has opened before us, rendering obsolete the very term ‘spiritual’ that we believe were the highest peaks scaled by the human mental species during the last Age –  static and unchanging, the one truth for all times to come. Today, so remarkably different is the perception of Reality opened before us that we can no longer call it spiritual. Supramental is the proper term because it best reveals the character of the new capacity which places it above Mind, until now the faculty that has coloured all our perceptions and experiences of Truth; and in the absence of Supermind per force the ego had to be employed in place of the soul as the pivot of consciousness. When at least a section of humanity can consciously follow the movements of the Time-Spirit and by that conscious participation allow for a dissolving of all that stands in the way of the highest goals set for this planet, the Earth will become the home of a very different species.

Supermind introduces the Truth-Consciousness which allows evolution to be a progression in full awareness of our indispensable role in the process. No longer is the human being an unconscious pawn in the hands of a power or powers unknown and unknowable. The times have changed – this much is more than clear. The acceleration of the progression is made apparent by the speeded-up integration of the Earth leading to the experience of Oneness and the establishing of a Planetary Society.

The sense of Oneness is taking possession of humanity at a breathtaking pace. This acceleration was made possible by the sacrificial conflagration of the First World War, for which reason I have stated that it was the most noble of all Wars. It removed each and every encumbrance that could act as dead weight to impede the heightened pace of the new Age ahead.

[Link to Part III]

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^* India stands greatly handicapped in the appreciation of the choices before her in that she has cast aside the wisdom of the Ancients and played into the hands of lesser forces: she has discarded the zodiacal wisdom by disregarding the correct Zero Point entry into the wheel to allow her to find her place in the cosmic Canvas, which would then reveal that she is the centre-soul of the Earth. As it is she stands behind the rest of the world by a measure of 23 days that makes any true understanding of her destiny, based on the cosmic Canvas, impossible. As a collective experience Hindus, who form at least 80% of the population, stand cut off from the rest of the world by the adoption of an un-Vedic calendar which effectively dislodges India from her role as centre-soul, all the while proclaiming that the ‘cosmic connection’ stands intact! The strategy is superb because it is a usurpation that pretends to be ‘Vedic’ while all along it carries India farther and farther away from taking possession of her true Centreship and any real and applicable connection with the Vedic Age.