When the Measure reaches 9

Updating by Triads

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

May/June 2013

Traditional Indian astrology does not incorporate the three outer planets when analysing horoscopes and events. On the individual level this system, limited to six planets (the Moon taken among them) and the Sun, may be sufficient. However, if we wish to read the destiny of a civilisation, especially in view of the unimaginable strides taken over the past three centuries, we need to turn to the planets that were discovered during that period to answer why things have been arranged as they are, and, more importantly, where this is all taking us. It cannot be denied that civilisation is under great pressure to evolve a now global culture based on an outlook that can observe events in a connected fashion to overcome the fragmentation we now experience. In what way might the outer triad impact the process of expansion of consciousness, collectively and individually?

The outer three planets describe the pressures we are experiencing and their necessity. Clearly a new order is in the making; but the most difficult moment is the one we are passing through right now – the transition stage. We look over our shoulders at what is collapsing behind us, but there is as yet no clear vision of what lies ahead, and how to get there. The outer planets are opened to our perception precisely in order to serve as signposts or torches lighting the path ahead.

In a perception based on Oneness, our contemporary travails would make little sense without the extension or expansion of our solar system to the eye of humankind. It is important to note that until the last planet, Pluto, came into view the Hindu astrologer was correct in refusing to entertain the notion of restructuring a system that was until then serving him well. As I wrote in Beyond Contemporary Scientific Paradigms, the process of creation – or what must be described as a manifestation from ‘the other side’ and into the materiality of this universe of 9 – is precisely a triadic enfolding. The compaction then begins to expand or evolve on this side in quanta of 3s. Until the full triad is known – i.e. discovered, sighted, ‘seen’ – it is of little use and can be set aside in attendance on a further development to complete the triadic pattern.

We see this triadic process expressed not only in Number but also in the manner in which we record time – as in the current universal calendar. I present below a chart with the time of discovery and the respective positions in the tropical zodiac of the triad in question. A pattern emerges that in itself becomes proof of what I sustain regarding not only the triadic necessity, but how the entire process can be understood/revealed only with the addition of the last item of the equation. When that takes place we know that the time has come for integration to be possible. We also know that the wholeness of the trinity demands a certain expansion of consciousness if we are to benefit from the new energies that are released into our system; hence the need for a certain pressure to discard what cannot be accommodated in the new Order to make room for the often unexpected twists and turns that are sure to be experienced during the transition phase.

From: Symbols and the Question of Unity (1974)
and The Gnostic Circle 1975)

The Supramental Organisation

Uranus was the first of the outer triad to be discovered. This occurred in 1781 (see chart above). The events of that century are consonant with the meaning astrologers attribute to Uranus. Foremost would be the onset of the Industrial Revolution for which technology of a uranian nature would be required. Along with this the foundations were more firmly cemented for the dominance of science as we know it today. This was perhaps the most salient feature of the Uranian century because it has become the backdrop of everything our civilisation has had to offer since then. Further, the social and political revolutions of that period were also Uranian in nature. They were precursors of the next astrological Age, the Aquarian ruled by Uranus, during which Age the triadic formula would be completed and Aquarian/Uranian ideals would begin to spread across the globe. The French and American Revolutions in the 1700s are cases in point. The ideals underlying both inspired the freedom struggles and democratic systems that came forward at the completion of the triad and the onset of the Aquarian Age (1926), along with the call for unity - witness the unification of Italy, for one. Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, a fact the chart I am presenting also confirms, as I will explain further ahead. The significance is that whatever Mercury represents in the old order is taken a notch higher so that the field is made better suited to accommodate finer energies, or higher ‘vibrations’, if you will.

Neptune was discovered in the following century in 1846. A number of developments during that period also conform to the entry of Neptune to enhance the capacity of the field, such as new trends in art and music that departed radically from artistic traditions up to that point. Impressionism, for example, which conveys something of the elusive, dreamlike and often illusory quality of the 8^th planet. More pointedly, the primary art form of the new Age would fall directly under the rule of Neptune with the discovery of photography and soon after the use of film in cinema. Art and artistic pursuits are connected to Venus, of which Neptune is the higher octave. It is therefore understandable that new artistic expressions would arise when Neptune found its place in the System.

As perhaps a reaction to the rising dogma of materialism of the 1700s, the next addition to the triad introduced a balance to the lifelessness the new science was inculcating. In this regard, we note another area of interest that falls directly under Neptune’s rule, spiritism. There was widespread indulgence in séances to contact the spirit world and the deceased, so thoroughly a Neptunian occupation. The craze gradually decreased as time moved on, but the gains of that period, if they may be so called, have remained. For many the introduction to a reality beyond the physical resulted from those early explorations into the paranormal under Neptune’s rule.

These are just some effects which explain cosmologically the advances made by the discovery of Uranus and Neptune – or more accurately, advances that were signalled by their unveiling in the System. The sightings simply served to focus the lens of perception regarding humanity’s purpose and direction in evolution. What becomes evident is that their discovery marked periods of heightened activity in the field each planet is said to ‘govern’. Did the discovery cause the changes or did they emerge synchronistically, the discoveries themselves forming a pattern that would be self-explanatory?

These changes, this expansion cannot be explained astrologically when the measure of the solar system remains pegged at 6 + 1. But neither can this knowledge be incorporated to the extent required with only two outer planets as the chart itself reveals, where the full sense only becomes clear as a triad. In their wisdom wisemen and women of India knew the trinity to be the harmonic chord affecting both the macro and microcosms. As above, so below was an aphorism all ancient civilisations accepted, especially those proficient in astrology – or an astronomy infused with sense and purpose and not the theoretical lifelessness of its contemporary offshoot. It is therefore understandable that even when a degeneration set in, as we find in contemporary Indian society regarding the ancient ways, there remains this basic grounding in triadic formulas. The concrete proof is that the descent of the Supramental Avatar of Vishnu, the 9^th, adhered impeccably to the triadic foundation – nay, the descent of the 9^th and his line put the seal and sanction of the Supreme on the essential character of material creation as being triadic.

However, that foundation, that imprinted pattern, did not originate on this side of the boundary that separates subtle from physical. (See: Beyond Contemporary Scientific Paradigms.) It arose on ‘the other side’. Only in this way could the formula find its place and be perceived in our material universe. The expansion of the solar system by three indicates the emergence of new enhanced tools of perception in order to bridge the chasm dividing spirit and matter. The indication is that prior to the appearance of the outer triad, what was reserved for an elite can now be offered in a self-evident formula as the foundation for a new planetary society; in this way the dominance of a purposeless materialism can be superseded. The number 9 is the key that opens the door to these arcane mysteries. This has been the ancient secret knowledge that India still preserves but must now ‘globalise’.

India has known of the place of 9 from the dawn of its civilisation; it remains to this day a national obsession. Though diluted and discredited by rationalists, Indian astrology, mythology, sacred architecture and geometry continue to honour its role even in face of the ridicule cast on the ancient arts by those who for the most part are neither initiated practitioners nor believers in ‘the other side’; and yet these are the men who pass judgement on what they have never experienced yet vehemently deny. Unfortunately, the ridicule would easily be dealt a fatal blow if astrologers and temple pundits could adequately explain why the navagraha yantra (commonly translated as nine planets, though ‘planets’ is not the best translation) is found at the entrance of every temple, for example. The laity is told that this is because first and foremost the planet relevant to the object and objective of the worship must be invoked and in some cases its ‘evil’ effects neutralised. Sani/Saturn is a prime candidate given his inauspicious nature: any misfortune that befalls an individual, is laid at Sani’s door. (Ironically, Saturn is India’s ruling planet.) Whatever the current thinking is, the intent was to preserve the measure of 9 and its triadic structure (3²). This knowledge may be withheld from the worshipper, but it should form a basis for everything the astrologer or pundit does. This is no longer the case; hence, the practice can be easily labelled mere superstition. The direct result is the flawed calendrical system that has come into vogue. Notwithstanding this misstep, once the evidence is made available that deviation can be rectified. India has been chosen to preserve the ancient way in attendance of the day when the veils could be drawn aside. The outer triad of planets indicates that the time has arrived.

These essays have for their purpose the eradication of superstition by the only means possible: unveiling the Vedic foundation – the keys of knowledge that gave rise millennia ago to certain practices which are now shadows of their original content without that foundational knowledge. But a ‘shadow’ presupposes a solid object – and that is the purpose of these exercises in updating: a return to substantials.

Navagraha: its true value

The Navagraha configuration of 9, with each ‘planet’ personified as a particular God of the Hindu pantheon, is meant to inculcate the Divine Measure of 9, no matter what form is given to each number. There has been an embellishment or elaboration over the centuries in this regard, similar to the progression of the Vedic Altar to what we now know as the Hindu Temple; the reason was not to dilute its core sense and purpose but to preserve that Measure in times of great trials when threatened with extinction. This method was effective, but when the time comes to lift the veils we must not hesitate otherwise that same civilisation, founded on the highest veda, can degenerate into mere worship of external Forms devoid of soul, as Sri Aurobindo wrote in the last century. It is the triadic measure of 9 (as in 3+3+3) that is the issue over and above all else. The original seed, we must acknowledge, was so robust and vibrant that unlike all other ancient civilisations it is only in India where we find the Knowledge preserved in such an explicit and complete manner.

When the world passed into a dark age, for all practical purposes that sacred measure was lost: it went underground. Or, as the myth informs us, it was ‘covered in veils’ like Shiva’s divine Son in his form of Guha. Those veils are then lifted when as a child he saves the Earth – the mythic contemporary history records. India, in spite of all the attacks on her dominant belief system, remained faithful to her dharma throughout; but to do so she would need to include items in the navagraha which today are held as proof by rationalists of backwardness and a telling ignorance of the actual mechanics of the solar system, given the inclusion of Rahu and Ketu which are not planets but simply points where orbits cross. Actually the only problem is the fact that, ‘the soul of knowledge’ has ‘fled from its coverings’. What remains is a vast body of ritual which, while preserving the Knowledge, cannot explain WHY.

Interestingly, we discover once again that a very important aspect of the Tradition has been preserved from ancient times: The navagrahas prescribe all the correct elements, planets or otherwise, which an astrologer requires to read the celestial harmonies, in an individual’s chart or to understand the mysterious ways of the Divine in this material creation as projected into our solar system. Given the expansion of our times the yantra is modified accordingly, but not to the rationalist’s satisfaction, to be sure. Rahu and Ketu, the lunar nodes, are certainly not eliminated but are simply inserted into their rightful place. In my view, with the formulation of the new supramental cosmology they have finally come into their own: the lunar nodes, north and south, head and tail, form the axis of destiny of an individual as perceived in the natal horoscope; while the solar system as a whole also has an axis that serves the same purpose. This axial measurement and alignment is defined by the Capricorn and Cancer solstices of the tropical ecliptic zodiac. For this reason we can say that nothing is excluded in the new cosmology but each thing is simply ‘put in its rightful place’ by a more penetrating focus of the lens of perception – failing which it cannot manifest its true purpose and potential. This adds to the argument that only in this 9^th Manifestation do we experience the highest potential by virtue of completion which allows for each created thing to find its true place within the whole. The result of this wholeness is that seepages of energy are eliminated.

The Navagrahas and their Vahanas   

The perennial Earth Axis mechanism

The descent of the Vishnu Avatars at certain critical periods in evolution serves the purpose of firming up the Axis: the Churning of the Primordial Ocean under the auspices of Vishnu is the myth that describes the process most accurately. To this end, when he appears, the 9^th Supramental Avatar of Vishnu must not only reveal the Formula, he must explain by his very appearance what the original intent was and how it is as valid today as ever it was, once updating is done. This essay is one more effort along those same lines. I have filled volumes with proof of just how this has been accomplished. My primary objective has always been to offer evidence of what might otherwise be brushed aside as speculation or theory, or even just hagiography – words that do not find a place in the new cosmology.  I do not intend to repeat what has already been exhaustively explained and published elsewhere. The diligent seeker can read the evidence to determine whether or not my statements are supported by facts. It needs to be stated, however, that when dealing with ‘spirituality’ the demand for evidence is strangely set aside, the argument being that the direct (read, subjective) experience alone stands as verification, which of course not only places the experience outside the reference field of the scientist but also of 99% of the lay population. However, the New Way and its body of supramental knowledge revises that notion: the ways of the Supreme Mother in her material creation are as easily supported by hard facts as any demands contemporary science may make; the only proviso is that the approach must be on Her terms – i.e., with a grounding in the harmonies of the cosmos that are real and not merely theoretical, speculative or subjective. This has been proven by the publications of Aeon Centre of Cosmology for the past four decades, with evidence drawn almost entirely from the facts provided by the 9^th Avatar’s birth in Earth time, in conjunction with the birth details of the others of his line, which, similar to the pattern under discussion, can only be revealed when the full line is completed in Earth time. This completion was brought about by the Avatar himself – it is what constitutes the supreme Victory.

The analysis of the discovery of the outer triad of planets is a case in point. But first I need to clarify that astrology is caught in an epistemological conundrum. The practitioner always refers to the ‘influence’ of the planets – and scientists cry till they are hoarse that no such ‘influence’ has ever been detected and measured. What they fail to appreciate, and astrologers do not seem interested in explaining, is that influence is brought to bear by these patterns I am discussing. The effect is one of resonance or, in Vedic terms, equivalency and correspondence (‘as above, so below’). In other words, they are not waves or other physically measurable phenomena. To simplify a complex subject we do call it influence because there is indeed an action that arises due to these configurations; but the true explanation is the question of Measure: our solar system measures 9 orbits, with a planet in each to furnish a particular note required for the famed Music of the Spheres to be embedded at the very core of our beings. We may externalise, call it a God, a Divine Architect or Intelligence, or whatever. That is our choice. But always it is Measure. This becomes divine when completion takes place, as we are privileged to witness today. Because the system is now complete, this offers a means to wed matter to the more subtle dimensions of the spirit.

For Indian astrologers and cosmologists the chart I am presenting is the best proof not only of the validity of the triadic complementary character of the cosmic harmony but also of the fact that verification can only be obtained by use of: 1) the universal calendar employed throughout the world and also officially adopted by India at independence, 2) the tropical zodiac of the ecliptic as the ‘one circle’ extolled in the Rig and Atharva Vedas, the only method of time reckoning that permits this verification.

In light of the above, this chart could never have been discovered utilising the current Nirayana method of computation – on the basis of which any confirmation of completion (‘victory’) that the Divine Measure of 9 signifies for the Earth, would be ignored. Such is the dilemma Indian astrology and cosmology face today. Naturally the outer triad is ignored by pundits because, based on the flawed Nirayana system of time reckoning they use, that further triad effectively does not exist. The implications in the present circumstances are serious. It may be further stated that backwardness (as in ignoring the real dimensions of the solar system) does not lie in an increase in superstitious practices but in the fact that astrologers in India refuse to see what stands physically before their eyes. (Such an attitude calls to mind the refusal of Catholic prelates in Galileo’s time even to look through his newly-fashioned telescope and prove for themselves the truth or otherwise of his postulations, because they considered it to be ‘work of the devil’. We need not labour the point except to state that this sort of closeted mentality is entirely foreign to India’s philosophic and yogic traditions, and is an ‘import’ that the nation can well do without.)

Higher octaves and orbits

The centuries when the outer planets were discovered are compressed into decades, by the mechanics of Vedic correspondence, when their time of fulfilment arrives. These would be the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s of the last century. It is not surprising therefore that I discovered this pattern precisely in the Uranus ‘condensed’ period – the 1970s. That entire decade was spent in the Uranian pursuit of establishing a new language of cosmic harmonies in keeping with the expansion of consciousness the Earth is experiencing. I laid the foundations during that decade for the updating that is now possible; and astrologers understand that cosmic harmonies do indeed fall under the rule of Uranus – but Uranus as the higher octave of Mercury, it needs to be borne in mind. In addition, we are in a position to appreciate that an acceleration is in progress given this possibility of compression of time – centuries to decades.

In this light whatever the world is living through today can be traced to those three centuries and the three decades closing the last millennium because they drew global society irrevocably out of the old measure and carried the world into the dimension of higher octaves. The option to retreat, to turn back the cosmic clock does not exist. 1971, the first 9 power year of the condensation, opened the floodgates not only to the full formulation of the new supramental cosmology but also to the onset of actual happenings across the globe that served to dismantle the old foundations and allow the new and higher perceptive capacities to manifest. Truly it is ‘the birth of a new world’, as Sri Aurobindo’s co-worker, the Mother, explained in 1962 – not a transformation of the old but ‘an entirely new world’.

To properly understand the exquisite pattern presented in the chart, it must be accompanied by the division of the 360-degree circle by 9 which then records the orbit numbers of each planet in the system: Mercury=1, Venus=2, and so forth, as indicated in the diagram below. Only then can the profoundest implications of the pattern be properly grasped. To illustrate, I mentioned earlier the question of orbits as the truly important elements of the cosmic harmony; planets are markers of orbits, pace-setters. By the mathematics of unity the total count of the years of their discoveries (column two) confirms this importance. The resultant 4, 1, and 8 are then found to be repeated when 9/8/7 (centuries) are added to the lower octave orbit numbers (4,2,1) as indicated in column three. There would seem to be no logic in such number combinations, just fanciful jugglery of little or no consequence, but it should be borne in mind that much of contemporary science does not even offer this or any type of novel logic for many of its assumptions. They remain just that: assumptions. In reality, what occurs when the matter is studied in depth is that time is wedded to space in a unique manner through the mathematics of unity that reduces numbers to their whole tones.

The diligent student will note that the mathematics of unity is the tool by which we establish the factuality of the new cosmology, regardless of the fact that we have no prior model to which we can compare the exercise, except perhaps the use of the number 9 in Vedic Mathematics and its method of reduction to ‘seed digits’. In this demonstration, the focus is always the integration of a triad beyond the original 6 – that is, the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th planets/orbits. This 7, 8, 9 sequence has been imprinted by the century of the sightings. That, in conjunction with the orbit number of the new planet’s corresponding lower octave planet – i.e, Mercury=1, Venus=2, Mars=4 – establishes the connection between the two and that the new discovery, through the time of its sighting, links it firmly to the former planet; that is, its lower octave to its higher. In this regard it may be noted that even in the West there is some confusion on these issues; this discovery helps to clear the air and honour the true harmony in its supramental character, which presents itself in such a way as to silence speculation.

The triad of outer planets as the higher octave of those inner planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, can no longer be dismissed as some astrologers in the West do, or their relevance ignored as traditional Hindu astrology does, because Number links them in this unmistakable manner. As well, this demonstrates another signature of the Supermind by including in the pattern events of the future which, once having occurred, the soundness and consistency and wholeness of the discovery will silence needless speculation. Thus, a confirmation grounded in truth-seeing could only come when the final ingredient had been added with the discovery of Pluto; but it was always present within the wholeness of Time’s womb.

Conclusion: Return to the ‘One Circle’

Now to the last item in the list, the individual degrees of the triad in the ecliptic zodiac (the last column in brackets) at the time of their discovery, under the application of the mathematics of unity. Again 7, 8, 9 surface in proper sequence. However, to be noted is that this is measured in the tropical zodiac of the ecliptic, not in the far-off sidereal circle used by astrologers but in that ‘one circle’ extolled in the Rig Veda. Nowhere do the constellations fit into this carefully crafted Divine Measure. Everything contained in the pattern is derived from measurements the Earth provides by her various movements in orbit of the Sun within the ecliptic plane. Sadly, this magnificent display of Supermind organised for Earth application is closed to Nirayana post-Vedic astrologers.

For readers of these essays the present exercise is the best example of a consciousness of unity about which we can only speculate, never having had a concrete example of its operations. This is one such example where a consciousness that perceives holistically is required to see and, more importantly, to grasp the implications of this simple triadic pattern. As well, there is the ability to navigate across centuries and years as if, indeed, all is simultaneously contained within that ‘one circle’ of the ecliptic – on the order of the famed trikaladrishti of the ancient Seers; in the New Way terminology it is called simultaneous time. There is no speculation required in this exercise; but what is demanded is the ability to recognise its newness and phenomenal implications. As well, there has to be an acceptance of the correct tools of knowledge to comprehend this and other utterly astonishing displays of patterns that allow us to follow the steps of the Time-Spirit into the new Supramental Age.

The Dilemma of Language

In this new series, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet explores the new foundation of Knowledge established by the Supramental Manifestation and the 'imperative necessity to evolve a new language in order to distinguish it from traditional yogas and spiritual paths, a language that describes more faithfully the new experiences of the reality of our material world and the true foundations of this new consciousness that is being established on Earth, in and of time.' Readers are invited to consider how our modern society and its language is based on a deeply ingrained schism between matter and spirit which promotes the tendency towards escapism and severely limits our ability to recognize the true nature and structure of our reality and our evolutionary unfolding. Questions from readers are welcome.

 Question & Answer 1:

‘Finally, with that I could not resist and a couple of letters have gone ‘to the Editor’, but I doubt they will get printed. They are, as usual, too long. But what to do? I am constantly faced with an ‘educational programme’ without which I cannot transmit anything. Actually, it is a process of REORIENTATION, or rather of turning the whole thinking process inside-out. I realise that there is this contamination in the thought process, and unless that is cleansed no sense can be made out of anything true and real. One has to establish that basis first, then proceed. But for this reason it all becomes so long and drawn out. Yet, I know of no other way. What I foresee happening is that on the basis of this labour in future people like yourself will be able to BUILD on that renewed foundation, and then the discussion is shorter and more to the point because there is this accepted foundation. For now we have to battle against the falsehood of the ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ iron stronghold. Truly this has infiltrated everything and coloured everyone’s thinking. Wherever one turns it is there. I am trying to establish another basis for the discussion without which nothing of the new can take root. In the process we have to reverse things, thinking, bring matters to the point where this new way is accepted as a right foundation, equal in every way and better than the old seeing.’

From a letter to Girilal Jain
30 December 1991

Skambha, 8.4.2013

Q: Why haven’t Scientists studied Time like they have studied Matter? Clearly, from civilizations such as the Vedic and the Mayan, we see that the sages, upon whose wisdom the civilizations were built up, were well versed in the knowledge of micro and macro cycles of time. They understood that the evolution or development of consciousness on Earth played out in terms of vast ages which were ‘months’ of the Great Year (i.e. the Precession of the Equinoxes). Underlying this understanding of Time was the knowledge of the inseparable connection between Spirit and Matter. Our civilization seems to be built on both a rejection of Time gnosis and an acceptance of a split between Spirit and Matter. You have begun the process of restoring Time gnosis and studying it with the goal of fully realizing the unity of Matter and Spirit – realizing unity consciousness. This seems to be a task of great importance when it comes to World and Self-Knowledge, yet the vast majority of people, whether on the Spiritual or Scientific (Materialistic) side of the split, are content to ignore or negate Time altogether. What do you think it will take for people to become interested in fully integrating Time into their scientific or spiritual pursuits? What might crack this seemingly impenetrable wall of resistance that has built up over several millennium?

A simple answer to your question would be ‘the time was not ripe’ for a penetration into Time’s mysteries. I have pointed out in several of my more recent publications, as well as in the series The New Way, that this is India’s task, even as Egypt’s was the Space factor. But of course in the case of the latter, their approach was entirely different than what we would consider today to be a ‘conquest of space’. It has nothing to do with space travel, or even a speed barrier which would incorporate the latest findings regarding space at some level. The enormous difference is this question I keep returning to: the DIRECTION OF THE QUEST. For science today the direction is entirely different: it seeks for answers externally, so to speak. It is always looking into the past, never the present where the answers are to be found. In ancient times it was always an Earth-oriented quest.

We have lost the direction today. This loss lies at the root of most of our problems. I believe it arose with the idea that we must subdue the Earth/Nature. That has been the attitude for centuries – it seems to have been given religious sanction.

Returning to your question, to truly understand the role of Time the only way is through the ‘porthole/wormhole’ (!) of the present. Coupled with that is an understanding of Gravity. Having said that, we come to the core issue: The real mystery is and will remain gravity until Time is dealt with appropriately. Gravity holds the key to the Time factor. Science is unable to do that because of the obstacle its ‘tools’ present – namely its mathematics. Entry into that domain requires that the individual realiser undergo extreme compression (of consciousness), contraction almost to obliteration. Is there a scientist today who can do that?

In this 9^th Manifestation the task before us is ‘the conquest of Time’ – and it is in India that the path is being opened. You have rightly commented that in ancient times sages accepted Time’s important role; they mapped out its large cycles and were quite comfortable with the measure of aeons – in fact more comfortable than with the smaller details. This time we have to deal with the time factor as it unfolds before us. We deal with the larger cycles, but not disconnected from the day-to-day unfolding. This is because the consciousness of unity you mention comes about when the two axes (time and space) are harmonised. In philosophical/yogic parlance, it would be the integration of Being and Becoming.

India is the only country today that maintains a thread with that ancient ability to consider/ map out the passage of Time in large cycles. But India has also lost the key to the here-and-now. In so doing, it is also out of synchronisation with the larger because you cannot have one without the other. But at least it is a discourse familiar to the population. That is a good beginning. That ‘thread’ with the ancient way has been preserved here precisely for this present task.

The following article which was first published in The Vishaal Newsletter (1985) concisely explains the situation:

THE SPIRITUAL AND SCIENTIFIC CONUNDRUM

‘We believe that we are heading toward a new synthesis. Our role is not to lament the past. It is to try to discover in the midst of the extraordinary diversity of the sciences some unifying thread. Each great period of science has led to some model of nature. For classical science it was the clock; for nineteenth-century science, the period of the Industrial Revolution, it was an engine running down. What will be the symbol for us? What we have in mind may perhaps be expressed best by reference to sculpture, from Indian or pre-Colombian art to our time. In some of the most beautiful manifestations of sculpture, be it in the dancing Shiva or in the miniature temples of Guerrero, there appears very clearly the search for a junction between stillness and motion, time arrested and time passing. We believe that this confrontation will give our period its uniqueness.’  

Prigogine & Stengers,

Order Out of Chaos

It had always seemed to me that science, unlike spirituality, accepts the validity and relevance of certain cosmic properties such as time and space, which constitute our experience of material creation – indeed, which are fundamental to the emergence of a creation in matter. Spirituality, I had come to discover early on, denied any valid purpose and place to these aspects of creation. In fact, almost all spiritual paths can be summed up as methods devised to carry seekers ‘out of time’ (and space). However, recently I have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with the pioneering work of the noted physical chemist, Ilya Prigogine, which has radically altered the idea I had of science. Progogine, I came to discover – with a certain satisfaction – is obsessed with time as I am; and moreover, he has the same complaint about science as I have regarding spirituality: its denial of time and the contradiction this introduces in its search for truth.

Let me quote certain passages from Prigogine’s interview with OMNI (May, 1983). The interviewer questions him about his methods of discovery and his early experiences as a scientist who was decidedly a ‘nonconformist’. What I shall quote will certainly convince the reader that in the world of science, Prigogine has faced the same resistance that my work faces in the world of spirituality, where my occupation with time is often labelled ‘unspiritual’ or ‘mental’.

Can you recall a particular moment when you had a flash of insight into a specific problem you were working on?

   

Well, I always remember with pleasure my first work on non-equilibrium thermodynamics, in 1946, when I realized that non-equilibrium might be a source of organization and order. I was very, very happy to have this idea, which has never left me. Perhaps in science, at some point, there is a close relationship between who you are and what you try to do. Science is a much less objective enterprise than often assumed. It’s true you need some tools. You need to write down your findings and convince yourself and others. But the driving force for new ideas has to be a deep personal involvement in the problems you’re working on.

Are you an intuitive person?

Oh yes. For me mathematics is only a tool to write down my ideas so that in the long run they can be communicated. I say ‘in the long run’ because in my history all of the ideas I have proposed have been poorly accepted.

What was the scientific climate like when you first began to study time?

Well, quite naturally I was interested in the reaction of well-known scientists to this line of research. Their reaction was uniformly negative. It was in 1946 or 1947 when one of the most famous scientists attending the lecture I gave stood up and asked, ‘Why is this young man devoting his interest to irreversible causes? Irreversible causes are just illusory. Time is just a parameter, so forget about it.’ I was so stunned by this reaction that I was unable to get up and respond. But I happen to be very stubborn; so I continued. Today the situation has changed quite a bit. Time has become an essential factor in elementary particles as well as cosmology.

You were a nonconformist, a dissident. How did you muster up the conviction to go against the prevailing ideology?   

I would say, again, this probably corresponds to a deep psychological element that isn’t easy to make explicit. The attitude of Einstein toward science, for example, was to go beyond the reality of the moment. He wanted to transcend time. But this was the classical view. Time was an imperfection and science a way to get beyond this imperfection to eternity. Einstein wanted to travel away from the turmoil, from the wars. He wanted to find some kind of safe harbour in eternity. For him science was an introduction to a timeless reality beyond the illusion of becoming.

My own attitude is very different because, to some extent, I want to feel the evolution of things. I don’t believe in transcending, but in being embedded in a reality that is temporal.

There is no need to go into further details of the work of this notable scientist. If desired, the reader can pursue the study via his latest book, in the English translation entitled, Order Out of Chaos, Bantam Books, 1984). I must point out, however, that in the above statements, Prigogine could be describing the attitude of traditional yogis or seekers on the spiritual path, and the ultimate goal they desire to attain. It is clear that, as Prigogine points out, even a scientist is necessarily influenced in his discoveries by the fibre of his own consciousness-being. Einstein, as probably all other scientists, was seeking a means to ‘go beyond’, to escape the cosmic and earthly dimensions, so painful and apparently unredeemable; just as the practitioners of yoga do, the seekers after nirvana and Samadhi. In the world of science it would appear, time and all that it engenders is an illusion. In the Commentaries on The Magical Carousel, Chapter X), I have discussed in depth this position, in particular concerning the theories of Einstein.

It is evident that the life and work of a scientist like Prigogine conspires to demonstrate that the crux of the human dilemma, lodged at the root of all the known spiritual enquiries and systems, was, in its later stages, transported into the heart of the scientific enquiry. This fact, somewhat of a revelation for me, demonstrates in a most emphatic manner that the real and only answer to this problem lies indeed in a synthesis that carries us beyond both science and spirituality.

In my article, ‘The Supramental Synthesis’, I referred to the Mother’s perceptions in this regard, which determined the beginning of certain insights into the new cosmology. Without referring to the details constituting each enquiry – the scientific and the spiritual – she made it clear that ‘something else’ was needed, that pursuing either way or method to its ultimate reaches would not suffice. Indeed, it is this aspect of the Supramental Manifestation that presents the imperative necessity to evolve a new language in order to distinguish it from traditional yogas and spiritual paths, a language that describes more faithfully the new experiences of the reality of our material world and the true foundations of this new consciousness that is being established on Earth, in and of time.

Yet, as the references to Prigogine’s work reveal; this action is certainly not restricted to any one sector or society or country, or any particular discipline in the quest for truth; or to any elite which, by virtue of its dedication to a realization of God as opposed to Mammon, entitles it to some privileged status. Rather, the Supreme Consciousness is working through inspiringly diversified channels. These may be few at present – all too few we are sometimes brought to lament – but nonetheless there are clear signs that an acceleration is in progress, and the Power is carrying us rapidly to new stages in the establishment of the supramental creation.

Prigogine’s comments expose a truly critical problem – inherent in both science and spirituality, and by consequence at the very root of the human malaise. This is the question of decay, degeneration, and ultimately death that all things born in time are subject to; the only secure fact of our human embodiment, it would seem, is the factor of an irrevocable march of time leading to inevitable death. From the moment of birth we progress toward our demise. The situation is so distressing and has reached such a desperate threshold that the utter purposelessness of such an existence – conditioned so thoroughly by the irreversibility of death – is likely to result in a global, collective suicide. The factor that stands behind and upholds the irrepressible arms race, for example, is this despair over a march of time that we cannot control, which moves us irrevocably toward a death we fear and can in no way avoid. This appears to be the sole purpose of birth.

Sri Aurobindo’s message to the world is the advent of a new way, an entirely new path for humanity. This path leads to a state of immortality. Thus the direction he provides is, quite logically, entirely different from all previous paths that sought in their entirety an escape from birth as well as death, an obliteration of the conscious Seeing Eye and a dissolution (nirvana) into the comforting transcendence of Nothingness. Though some fill this nothingness with fantasies of a blissful paradise, it is still distinctly ‘otherworldly’. But Sri Aurobindo takes us precisely into the core of this world of matter, and hence into the innermost recesses of time and not out of it. As Prigogine might explain it, ‘to be embedded in a reality that is temporal’.

Why is this so? Simply because if we speak of a transformation of matter as central to Sri Aurobindo’s revelation, then time is the indispensable ally in the task. His yoga rests in the secure womb of time, which in turn is the creative driving force behind evolution. Indeed, the last chapter of his The Synthesis of Yoga is aptly entitled ‘Towards the Supramental Time Vision’, which was to open the way to a formulation of his own yoga but which, as he stated, he had not had the time to present. He left us only with this hint that ‘a new vision of time’ would be a key.

Prigogine has described for us the reluctance of the scientific community to accept the place of irreversibility (the ‘arrow of time’, past-present-future) in its postulations. In the same light I shall now quote from a most interesting new publication on this very subject, consisting of dialogues between J. Krishnamurti and the physicist David Bohm. The book is very appropriately entitled The Ending of Time (Harper & Row, 1985). Of all the books I have read on this theme, certainly this particular collection of conversations offers the most dramatic revelation of the conundrum the world knows, engendered by the unwillingness of both the yogi and the scientist to face squarely the question of Time and find the true answer. What we have been witnessing throughout the ages is a shrinking from the problem and a maddening attempt to obliterate the individualised consciousness in order to step out of time and the entire universal creation – as if this were indeed possible – and thus escape the pain, the frustration, the exasperation that the certainty of death imposes and all the difficulties engendered by this ‘corruptible flesh’.

The problem lies in the fact that in so doing no attempt has been effectively made to understand what the real purpose of birth on this Earth, in this cosmos is. For surely the Supreme Consciousness that clearly upholds and controls the course of our lives and evolution, is not some impish, devilish, capricious God, who plays games with a hapless humanity to please and appease some insatiable sadistic hunger. Yet the way to learn what that true purpose is lies in a quest into time, rather than away from and beyond it, insofar as it is time alone that can reveal the sense of the evolutionary process.

What that sense is, Sri Aurobindo has indicated. Likewise, in my work with time via the practice of the integral and supramental yogas, I have been able to confirm those same discoveries. The present level of human evolution is a transitory passage to a higher poise. And rather than being a passage to death and total annihilation, our present Age is the glorious gateway to a splendid new future.

But it is time that offers this encouraging vision and caries us to this newness. Yet all the spiritual leaders insist that we go ‘beyond time’ in order to know God and attain liberation. Some do this openly, as we shall soon learn from the dialogue I will present between Krishnamurti and Bohm; others do it more covertly; and many without even realising that this is their aim. From The Ending of Time, the reader can assess how difficult a transition this is, and how utterly confused both the spiritualist and the scientist are at this point:

J. Krishnamurti: We have extended our capacities outwardly, and inwardly it is the same movement as outwardly. Now if there is no inward movement as time, moving, becoming more and more, then what takes place? Time ends? You see, the outer movement is the same as the inner movement.

David Bohm: Yes, It is going around and around.

JK: Involving time, If the movement ceases then what takes place?...Now if that movement ends, as it must, then is there really inward movement – a movement not in terms of time?...You see, that word movement means time. (pp.15-16)

Krishnamurti discloses here the correlation, quite logical, between time and movement. According to him, both must cease. In the course of his conversation with Bohm, he defines creation in matter, in particular in our physical bodies with all the elements they provide for experiencing life in the cosmos and on Earth, as being something of which we must rid ourselves. He makes this clear by distinguishing the mind as a property we must disconnect from the brain – the latter, the physical instrument provided for the purpose of enacting the commands of the mind on the physical plane (see VISHAAL 0/2), is hence thoroughly ‘in the mire’ as it were.

JK: My brain – but not my mind – has evolved. Evolution implies time, and it can only think, live in time. Now for the brain to deny time is a tremendous activity, for any problem that arises, any question is immediately solved.

…Now how are you going to open the door, how are you going to help another to say, ‘Look, we have been going in the wrong direction, there is really only non-movement; and if movement stops, everything will be correct?

…That is, mankind has taken a wrong turn, psychologically, not physically? Can that turn be completely reversed? Or stopped? My brain is so accustomed to the evolutionary idea that I will become something, I will gain something, that I must have more knowledge and so on; can that brain suddenly realise that there is no such thing as time? (p.18)

The next part of the dialogue specifically locates the conflict, which, according to Krishnamurti, lies between a brain that has evolved in time, and a mind that is supposedly free of time. Krishnamurti sees this as the root of the problem. However, as far as I can perceive, the conflict is not in a temporal/atemporal dichotomy, but rather in the fact that Krishnamurti is an embodied consciousness like all of us, inhabiting a physical body which is his instrument of perception and his means of participating in this evolutionary and spiritual adventure – and yet, this instrumentation is being wholly denied. To me, the problem is a perception that places us at odds with not only the bodies we inhabit but with out total habitat – the Earth and cosmic dimension. For time, movement, are the underlying truths of our world. What Krishnamurti is describing in this dialogue is the very problem I have been revealing as the root of the species’ extreme distress: the quest that is intended to carry us beyond this dimension we are born into, as the only means of escaping from a pain that we cannot understand in its true perspective and hence overcome within the legitimate boundaries provided us as an evolving species on this particular planet, Earth. And contrary to what Krishnamurti suggests, this is the attitude that is the ‘wrong turn’ humanity took; yet that very ‘wrong turn’ is precisely the remedy he is offering. That is, his solution of seeking to stop time and movement IS THE WRONG TURN, and it was taken many millennia ago, and is the focus of every spiritual discipline and religion the world knows.

The answer lies here, in time. Not out of it. Indeed, embedded deep in the core of time, as I am sure Prigogine would agree.

DB: But I think you are implying that the mind is not originating in the brain. Is that so? The brain is perhaps an instrument of the mind?

JK: And the mind is not time.  Just see what that means.

DB: The mind does not evolve with the brain.

JK: The mind not being of time, and the brain being of time – is that the origin of the conflict?

DB: Well, we have to see why that produces conflict. It is not clear to say that the brain is of time, but rather that it has developed in such a way that time is in it.

JK: Yes, that is what I mean.

DB: But not necessarily so.

JK: It has evolved.

DB: It has evolved so it has time within it.

JK: Yes, it has evolved, time is a part of it…Can the brain itself see that it is caught in time, and that as long as it is moving in that  direction, conflict is eternal, endless? You follow what I am saying?...Has the brain the capacity to see in what it is doing now – being caught in time – that in the process there is no end to conflict? That means, is there a part of the brain which is not of time? (pp.19-20)

The problem becomes acute when the exchange between these two eminent men produces these memorable lines:

DB: You see, to go further, I think one has to deny the very notion of time in the sense of looking forward to the future, and deny all the past.

JK: That’s just it.

DB: That is, the whole of time.

JK: Time is the enemy. Meet it, and go beyond it. (pp.21-22)

This represents the classic postulation of the theory of Illusionism, be this in the realm of spirituality or science. There is something fundamentally, radically, pathetically wrong in a quest that places us in the necessity of denial of our experience of life, in a body, in material creation. Conditioned by this particular vision, the only possible and logical conclusion is that existence on this planet is simply without a rational purpose. The exchange between Krishnamurti and the physicist Bohm, reaches such extremes that toward the end Krishnamurti has Bohm ‘agreeing’ that the universe is not of time.

JK: I am asking you as a scientist, is this universe based on time?

DB: I would say no, but you see the general way…

JK: That is all I want. You say no! And can the brain, which has evolved in time…?

DB: Well, has it evolved in time? Rather, it has become entangled in time. Because the brain is part of the universe, which we say is not based on time.

JK: I agree.

DB: Thought has entangled the brain in time.

 JK: All right. Can that entanglement be unravelled, freed, so that the universe is the mind? You follow? If the universe is not of time, can the mind, which has been entangled in time, unravel itself and so be the universe? (p.220)

It is certainly difficult to understand how David Bohm, a physicist, can reconcile his lifetime involvement of the study of physical laws, for which measure is essential and temporal studies are paramount, with this perception: the universe is not of time. Furthermore, these dialogues reveal a rather incomplete understanding of just what the universe is; for it is not only the dense material substance that we can know by the external senses, but consists of other subtler dimensions that are all contained in this ‘universe’. Mind and the planes which it rules are just as much ‘of the universe’ as the physical brain. And hence mind is also ‘of time’. While we are on this planet, the brain and mind must work together in order to provide us with an instrument that harmonises our consciousness-being with the laws of time and evolution consonant with Earth’s position in the solar system, a penetrating study of which reveals the purpose of this evolving species that has been so meticulously equipped with the proper instruments to allow for this conscient experience of oneness with our total habitat, in a continuous evolution toward higher embodied states of being.

I believe these extracts from The Ending of Time have demonstrated more clearly than any material appearing so far in the spiritual or scientific world that the root of humankind’s dilemma is this misguided quest, which over the millennia has sought to carry the human being in the direction beyond the lawful condition of his embodiment. Above all, it is the pernicious misinterpretation that the origin out of which material creation has emerged is a void of nothingness, and that this void, this nothingness is the ultimate attainment in one’s quest, which has done the most damage. This situation is poignantly conveyed in Krishnamurti’ s own words:

'…to be free of becoming? That is the root of it. To end becoming…. Of course, there is only complete security in nothingness!' (p.257)

To put it succinctly, this is nothing other than the denial of the Mother, of materia, of the fullness of that womb of creation, and that Vedic Divine Measure that the Mother laboured so intensely to unveil on Earth as the planet’s deepest secret and reason for being. David Bohm has recently presented his new theory of physics, the ‘implicate order’. In our terms, enfolding would be involution; and unfolding, evolution. But surely one has the right to question his position as a scientist, since all this ‘order’ implies the active participation of movement and time. It would appear then that we are here faced with a paradoxical split: on the one hand there are his statements in this dialogue with Krishnamurti to the effect that ‘the universe is not of time’, implying that time only exists as a distortion of the brain in one’s psychological experience, not elsewhere in the universe or otherwise; on the other hand, he presents a new theory of physics, an implicate order which demands the intrinsic instrumentation of time. This would appear to reflect the same dichotomy, and in some cases downright schizophrenia, that characterises the acute malaise of our times, discernible in practically every sphere of our collective and individual lives. Above all, with such a philosophy as one’s background, it is understandable that scientists are assiduously working to present us with greater and better means of total destruction. Why not? Insofar as it is all nothing but illusion in any case?

In concluding, this dialogue calls to mind the experiments carried out at the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute (1983), in which hypnosis was used to erase a person’s time-sense. A group of college students were given suggestions while under hypnosis that upon awaking they would have no past or future, or sometimes no time at all. The effect on these patients was most disturbing; some turned catatonic, others behaved like schizophrenics. The conclusion was that life must have a direction provided by its ‘arrow of time’ in order for it to be worth living; and that people who are given a present but without the past and future, become preoccupied with death and behave schizophrenically.

I feel that if one were to pursue the path laid down in The Ending of Time, the results would be similar if not identical to these experiments. While it is simply an intellectual exercise and remains on the level of philosophical banter, no serious harm is done. Nonetheless, when spiritual authorities encourage people to embark upon a quest of this nature – and Krishnamurti’s credentials in this regard are certainly some of the best – then the matter requires serious deliberation. It can be emphatically stated that these old ways, these obsolete perceptions that have been pursuing us like draining phantoms throughout the ages, can in no way bring us into harmony with life, as a civilisation, and above all, solve the distressing impasse in which the human race presently lives.

This is the Age of Supermind. Sri Aurobindo has often described the Supermind as the only reconciler of paradoxes. Are not Prigogine and Stengers in their book, Order Out of Chaos, anticipating the same advent when they write

‘We are now entering a new era in the history of time, an era in which both being and becoming can be incorporated into a single non-contradictory vision.’

The answer lies, as the Mother has suggested, in a third poise. Beyond both science and spirituality.

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

© Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet 1985