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‘The truth is most of the individual mistakes boil down to just one: a belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal. Looking back at that belief during hearings this fall on Capitol Hill, Alan Greenspan said out loud, “I have found a flaw.” Congressman Henry Waxman pushed him, responding, “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right; it was not working.” “Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan said. The embrace by America—and much of the rest of the world—of this flawed economic philosophy made it inevitable that we would eventually arrive at the place we are today.’

After reading the article I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be a godsend if those whose will it has been to protect the yoga and legacy of Sri Aurodindo and the Mother would make such a sincere and public inquiry into the question of what central flaw and subsequent series of mistakes have led to longtime ashramite, Peter Heehs’s betrayal of their cause and to the crisis this betrayal has created in the Integral Yoga community? Would any be willing to recognize and admit that such a flaw exists and inevitably marches them towards collapse from the inside out?’

Those who protest against Heehs and his book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo would like to think that it is only Heehs who is at fault … only Heehs’s mindset and view that has allowed the divergence from and falsification of Sri Aurobindo’s yogic path and its real effect in the world. Yet both they and Heehs form two sides of the same mistake. Both are focused on (in Heehs’s case by de-sanctifying and in the Aurobindonian fundamentalists’ case by protecting) the past accomplishments of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother while rejecting or remaining oblivious to the living present that assures the future of their divine Work. Despite evidence to the contrary presented by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea), Heehs and Aurobindonian fundamentalists share the belief that the descent of transformative knowledge brought into the world by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, stopped with their departures. Certain of this belief, post-1973 they have practiced and/or taught the yoga with no living guide other than their own hearts and minds. They have trusted that the spirit of Sri Aurobindo and the will of the Mother would manifest through them sufficiently enough to sanctify their choices and their creations.

One of the first ominous by-products of this belief was the choice to diverge from the Mother’s blueprints in the building of Her own temple. The Mother’s vision was treated as if it were something that her students could improve upon and in the end the sacred (truly Vedic) measurements she gave for this ‘Symbol of the Future Realisation’ were disregarded by those in charge of the construction. A similar disregard was displayed in the choice of an Ashram press manager to destroy the first press run of Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet’s book, The New Way, Volumes 1 & 2, which detailed not only the truth, the consciousness-force and the beauty of the Mother’s original temple design, but also the necessity of Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth to fulfill the formula of a four-part descent as the sure foundation of the ‘rise and establishment of a Gnostic society’. The rejection of this book is equivalent to rejecting the vision of how the Supramental Descent continues to evolve, progress, succeed, uplift and illuminate the world.

Such mistakes can be traced back to one hard to see, hard to admit but very real central flaw. What is it? With regard to the Integral Yoga community, what is that central flaw that promises perpetual crisis, fracture and eventual collapse of all that rests on its faulty foundation? What could it be other than an inadequate grasp of the divinity and consciousness-force that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother envisioned, embodied and tried to prepare the world for? Combine a narrow grasp of the divine consciousness of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with basic egoic tendencies (to be in charge, to protect itself, to be separate, to have ‘free license’) and one has the recipe for the slow decay that has surfaced over the years in the Integral Yoga community as failed sadhana, betrayal, deception, mismanagement, fundamentalism, xenophobia, rigidity, perversion, infighting, scandals, lawsuits, and the persistent co-opting and warping of Sri Aurobindo’s integral ideal by authors all over the world.

This is all certainly understandable, even to be expected given the dark nature of the human consciousness that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother incarnated to transform; but the question that remains now is whether those who have put themselves in charge (in positions of authority) can admit to some meaningful extent, that in their own ignorance they have belittled the full scope of the yoga and blocked the true flow and essence of the Work. As a result their institution, their narrow line of thought, now suffers the fate of a stream (or a religion) that dies off, dries out before it reaches the ocean due to its insufficient (in this case non-eternal) source. Can an individual’s yoga thrive in a dying stream?

Heehs made a comment in the epilogue of his book which represents the drying up or collapse of his own yoga. He wrote, ‘It is impossible to say anything certain about the success or failure’ of Sri Aurobindo’s ‘endeavor to bring down a new consciousness into the “earth-consciousness.”’ If one is trained to see, it is actually quite possible to observe and bear witness to Sri Aurobindo’s success and to the current ramifications of that success in the world play. Heehs has simply chosen not to. His disinterest in Sri Aurobindo’s mission and force as Avatar belies the same collapse. The question of Avatarhood doesn’t interest him because he does not understand either the truth contained in the Hindu tradition which honors the ten Avatars of Vishnu who come to assist in the terrestrial and spiritual evolution of earth-consciousness, nor the truth of Sri Aurobindo’s mission and accomplishments, the most important being his return as the fourth, a continuum in the line which he initiated without a loss of time awareness. He could have thoroughly researched and studied what has been written on this crucial subject, but again, he has chosen not to.

Many followers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother stand outraged at Heehs for his public display of ignorance and arrogance and for his lack of respect for and faith in his gurus. But if one looks closely one can see surprisingly similar (yet even more devastating) flaws and hubris in those who have assumed leadership positions in the Ashram and in Auroville after the Mother’s departure in 1973 and in those who have toed the line.

The mishandling of the Mother’s Temple and the subsequent failures to correct or admit the distortions of the temple is clear evidence that those in charge of the project and the majority of devotees of the Mother did not and still do not consider perfect adherence to the letter of, or in this case to the measure of, her design to be important. Hence the temple is promoted as a great work of the Mother, a great work of sacred geometry, when in reality it stands as a monument to her disciples’ ignorance of sacred geometry and ignorance of the truth-consciousness that she, Sri Aurobindo and Thea have labored to bring into the world. Aurobindonian fundamentalists do not admit that this choice represented and still represents a rejection of both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s divine will and divine seeing. They believe that they are protecting the integrity of the yoga. The image of devotion to the ‘masters’ is believed, portrayed and protected, with all the skill allotted to the ego, but the errors distorting the Matrimandir speak louder than the image portrayed. Why did the leaders and the community accept these errors, and why is the distorted temple still upheld and clung to as a jewel of the Integral Yoga community? Why have the only book and only person detailing the truth and beauty of the Mother’s original temple design been treated so appallingly?

A Past and Legacy Not Understood

It is notable on a symbolic level that Heehs’s book and the subsequent controversy emerge from the heart of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram’s archives. Heehs, who was given seemingly unlimited access to the archives, is now accused of using its riches to threaten the legacy of Sri Aurobindo. The archives clearly symbolize the past. If the past, present and future of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s yoga were understood as an integral whole and were the basis for individual and collective sadhana, Heehs’s book would not be dividing the Integral Yoga community in two halves of the same mistake. The book would be appreciated for much of its historical content and critiqued for its distortions, hubris and blind spots without creating the fear, crisis and turmoil that currently threaten the integrity of the Integral Yoga community. Both appreciations and critiques of the book would further students’ understanding and appreciation of the Work already accomplished by Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Thea, and would further the collective will towards the important Work that remains to be done. Yet, instead of rising to the call of the beauty already revealed, many sadhaks are stuck in a muddy past, defending a legacy that they themselves have misunderstood and helped to distort, however good their intentions.

While discussing some of the difficulties of writing The Lives of Sri Aurobindo in an interview published in Auroville Today, Heehs inadvertently admitted that he had to choose between one of two sides of the same mistake:

‘When I began writing this book, I had to decide who I was addressing. Among people interested in Sri Aurobindo there are, first, the devotees. But there are also many people in the academic world who are interested in Sri Aurobindo not as a spiritual figure or object of devotion but because of his writings or because he was a revolutionary.’

On the one side, Heehs points to devotees who do not appreciate a clear connection between Sri Aurobindo’s revolutionary actions to liberate Mother India and his spiritual efforts to reveal/liberate the hidden or forgotten wisdom of India’s sacred texts (the Veda). On the other side he posits academics who do not consider any real or study-able connection between Sri Aurobindo’s revolutionary work and his spiritual work. Neither party apparently has any idea, understanding or vision that Sri Aurobindo’s radical efforts to first liberate India and subsequently ‘the secret’ of the Veda were two steps of the same movement, two integral and formative stages of the same path towards the spiritual and material transformation and uplifting of world consciousness. This mind-made schism Heehs describes represents neither admirable academic research nor sincere integral yoga. In actuality it represents the mental and egoic obstacles in the way of developing a truly circumspect or integral view of events linked in time.

From Heehs’s statement that ‘It is impossible to say anything certain about the success or failure’ of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, it is evident that he made the choice to side more with the academics than with the devotees. The devotees do not question the success of their gurus. Yet again, in this question of ‘success’ of the yogic mission, we see the commonality that binds both sides together in their crisis. Both sides share the same adversity to considering certain major successes of the yoga, such as the unique reincarnation process of Sri Aurobindo; the perfection of the Mother’s original temple design; and Thea’s revelations regarding the Mother’s Temple, the entire Supramental Descent, Vedic knowledge, and the geometry of time. Both sides of the Heehs-Ashram debacle consider Sri Aurobindo’s reincarnation via whatever manner Thea describes to be preposterous and disastrous to their own cause and belief structures. Concerning this error Thea writes:

‘[Sri Aurobindo’s] reincarnation process was precisely the successful culmination of his life-long yoga. Without this return, exactly as it transpired with the aid of time, then and only then could it be held that he had ‘failed’. Fortunately for the world this notion of failure persists only in the minds and hearts of those who chose to destroy [The New Way, Volumes 1 & 2] the only book where the knowledge of Sri Aurobindo as the Fourth in the Solar Line was given; and to distort beyond recognition the Mother’s Inner Chamber where the same knowledge was preserved. Both these repositories of his Truth were sought to be obliterated. The only ‘failure’ is that these destructive acts failed, the knowledge survived, triumphed.’

The validity of the real success that has been achieved in the process of this world-uplifting Yoga can be known through study and contemplation. One can directly see the divine logic, structure, organization and precision of the whole flow of events, from Sri Aurobindo’s birth, through to the Mother’s announcement of ‘the manifestation of the Supramental upon earth’ in 1956 and up to the current crisis the Integral Yoga community now faces. But the victory is most powerfully discovered when one sees the same divine logic, structure, organization and precision in one’s own journey in time and in the flow of world events. The success of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga in this sense is not a matter of faith, but rather a lived experience. When one directly sees the divine will in one’s life and in world affairs, one KNOWS Sri Aurobindo’s endeavor to bring down a new consciousness into the earth-consciousness was successful. A claim of success void of the knowledge of HOW it has been accomplished and WHAT this success truly means in terms of navigating the difficulties of our present-day world is proving to be shaky ground for the Integral Yoga community.

© Lori Tompkins
13 March 2009

Q. What do you base this statement on?
A. Similar to all ancient cultures in the Vedic Age, sages used the actual rhythms of the Earth as the basis for their calendar. For example, the balancing factor was the four Cardinal Poles – which never changes; as it was then, so it is today. There are verses in the Rig and Atharva Vedas which make this clear:

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)

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…
(Atharva Veda X, 8 )

The most important portion of the above is ‘one is the wheel’(AV); and further,  ‘they shake not in the least’(RV). The Rishi stating that the circle is one makes it clear that all measuring must be done on the backdrop of this single circle. That is the ecliptic within which the Earth and planets travel. Even the Nakshatras are to be measured in this single circle of 360 degrees and which we further divide into four quarters – two of which are the Equinoxes, and two the Solstices. The Nakshatras are simply one of the many divisions of that single circle (the ecliptic); they are based on the mean motion of the Moon: 13.20 degrees per day. These have been labelled the Mansions of the Moon when Al Biruni brought this knowledge from India to Arabia; and from there it passed on to Europe. This designation is still used in astrology today.
Basic astronomy gives very precise timings for Equinoxes and Solstices, as do certain ancient texts such as the Brihad Samhita. Two timings were especially important: the Equinox of March, and the Solstice of December. The former is the true beginning of the Vedic year – 21/22 March. That is the 0 degree of the ecliptic when days and nights are equal. The second, the December Solstice (Makar Sankranti) is even more important for Hindus and continues to be celebrated throughout the nation, though its current timing is woefully incorrect.
The Rishis emphasised only these two timings because getting them right would mean that all the rest would be accurate as well, – the Navaratri, for example, and all the other celebrations of Hindus. It may be claimed that being festivals based on the phases of the Moon different calculations and a different circle would be needed. This is not so. Just as the Veda states, the circle is one. Within that even the lunar phases are inserted, with the required intercalary addition to compensate for any discrepancy. However we study the matter we note that the degrees of this single circle are 360 ‘pegs’ set therein, and which we divide into 12 parts.
When the Rishi states, ‘they shake not in the least’, he or she is referring to the most important injunction of all. For the fact is the current Hindu calendar in use does indeed ‘shake’ insofar as its starting point, or ayanamsha, is not fixed, as would be the case for the universal calendar. It shifts constantly, with each passing minute and second in fact, unlike the true Vedic Calendar which does not shake ‘in the least’, even with the passage of thousands of years.

Q. Pandit Nehru encouraged scientists to lead the way in calendar reform, but you say that science itself has been the problem. What do you mean?
A. It is not the duty of scientists to interpret Vedic injunctions. This is not their domain. It is the duty of men and women versed in the language of cosmic harmonies based on direct yogic experiences, of the Vedic type, I must add. Clearly in the Committee for Calendar Reform in 1953, there was no such person. In my experience I have not come across anyone who has undergone a sadhana for this express purpose. The result is what we have today – a calendar that cannot unify 80% of the energies of the nation.
A scientist would not make any sense out of the Rig Veda verses I have quoted. He would not take them seriously since in the first place he does not believe that the ancients had knowledge of such matters. Remember that these verses were composed before astronomy became a separate discipline. In those days throughout the world it was simply astrology, jyotish, albeit quite different than the astrology practised today. That was ‘science’ and it was based on astronomical data which was easily verifiable by calculating the Equinox and Solstice. The tropical zodiac in use then is the same we use today. Its division into 12 parts is important to note, as the Vedic verses affirm. Those 12 parts/months must begin when day and night are equal based on the four balancing pillars of the ecliptic – the Cardinal Poles. Science will focus on the astronomy involved; it cannot be expected to deal with aspects of Yogic/Vedic knowledge. This is the domain of those who have undergone a certain discipline that reveals the higher issues involved. Since this discipline is very demanding, the Rishi asks, ‘Who can understand this?’ It would appear simple to understand, but the truth is otherwise – if not, the Vedic calendar would not have been discarded in favour of what is currently in use: the Nirayana system based on the constellations and not the tropical zodiac of the ecliptic, as in Vedic times. The result is the calendar confusion that plagues the Hindu Samaj today.

Q.  The tropical zodiac with its four Cardinal Poles of Equinoxes and Solstices is the true Vedic measure of time. What do you base this statement on?
A. In the Veda there is no reference to a circle that is disconnected from the Earth’s rhythms. This same prescription is used in temple building to this day, based on the sacred scriptures. A Hindu temple is oriented to these Cardinal directions, similar to the Great Pyramid at Giza. Regarding the latter, it is astonishing to note the accuracy with which such a massive structure was built. This was many millennia ago, yet the Cardinal directions remain the same, then as now because, as the Rishi stated, ‘…the circle is one, it does not shake in the least’.
So, the Cardinal directions were fundamental. Spatially the temple is accurately aligned; however, when time has to be incorporated this is done based on the scientist’s understanding of the way measuring is to be done. The result is that time and space do not find their necessary harmony in Hindu Temples; and this is compounded year after year, day after day by that same system employed for all observances. While the spatial alignment may be correct, the time factor is another matter. Herein stands the difficulty. To rectify the situation bold measures must now be taken. If not, the ‘slippage of time’, as I call it, will continue; and with it the Dharma as well: we move farther and farther away from those Vedic roots.

Q. Most would disagree. The prevailing belief is that time is relative; therefore, how can what is ‘eternal’ (the Sanatana Dharma) be linked to what is ‘relative’ and impermanent?
A.  Let me quote another verse from the Rig Veda. It is pertinent to your comment:

Certain eternal worlds…are these which have come into being,
their doors are shut to you (or opened) by the months and the years;
without effort one (world) moves in the other, and it is these that
Brahmanaspati makes manifest to knowledge.
RV, II.24.5.

Naturally these lines are difficult for the layman to understand, but, I repeat, not for one who has undertaken the Vedic ‘journey’ just as it is described in the Veda, based on the revolution of the Earth around the Sun, along the ecliptic within the tropical zodiac; above all the zodiac because that is where we find the secret language. The central protagonist of the Veda is the Year – the sacrifice lasting 12 months.
The Rishi is explicit in these verses: the doors of the months remain closed or are opened by the knowledge Brihaspati (Jupiter, known as the Guru in astrological lore) confers. Most important is mention of ‘eternal worlds’, and one moving into another ‘without effort’. Entrance into these ‘worlds’ is secured by the correct knowledge: that is, the right KEY that unlocks the doors (months). For this to occur the right time harmony of our solar system has to be the key to open those otherwise closed doors.
Today there is no such key available to worshippers; thus we witness the faithful flocking to temples according to the day and time prescribed by pundits in their various almanacs – each one advocating a different time, it is to be noted. But, lamentably, based on these mis-measures there is no door before them to open! Time has slipped by, though none, not even the pundits are aware. Translated into practical terms, the result is that there is no unifying element for those COLLECTIVE energies. The individual devotee may well receive the blessings of the deity because of his or her fervour and belief, but that will not ‘unlock the door’ no matter how much devotion is poured out to the Goddess. Brihaspati cannot ‘make manifest’ the higher knowledge that can truly replenish, and restore a unifying PURPOSE in the Hindu Samaj. As it is, the Sanatan Dharma is losing ground to other less mature, less profound faiths.
If this unifying measure were to come into being, the weaknesses presently afflicting the community would be overcome. There would be a renaissance of immense significance and vigour.

Q. Where exactly has science gone wrong in this matter?
A. I can be very specific: the grave error for which reason we cannot experience a ‘circle that shakes not’ is because science disregarded the Earth’s own contribution to the harmony of the System. The ecliptic journey of 12 months through the tropical zodiac was displaced in favour of a projection well beyond our solar system to the constellations. Out there, hundreds of light years away from our planetary base science determined the start of the year. Moreover, it determined for the Hindu Samaj that this was the true measure to follow, requiring, however, a rectification from time to time based on certain calculations so that the ayanamsha or zero starting point of that distant constellation of stars would be ‘scientifically correct’. No thought was given to 1) this ayanamsha is almost impossible to determine with precision, hence resulting in serious differences among the pundits, and 2) that ayanamsha is therefore NOT STABLE as seen from the Earth, making therefore a mockery of the Rishi’s express statement: It shakes not!

Q. You mentioned the Makar (Capricorn) Sankranti as being ‘woefully incorrect’. Can you explain? In what specific way is it ‘incorrect’?
A.  By its very name this ‘gateway’ (Sankranti) is connected to the zodiacal sign Capricorn (Makar). The question is, which Capricorn? Using the current Nirayana system, the sign Capricorn referred to is Capricorn of the constellations. This is quite different than what is meant when the system the Rishis espoused is employed for calculating this most important of all Hindu observances. I say most important because the entire destiny of India, old and new, is encapsulated in that special sign of the 12.
I reproduce below the symbol-map of India with the Capricorn hieroglyph superimposed on it. This is of course Akhand Bharat and predates contemporary boundaries drawn on this particular segment of the Earth’s geography. Indeed the origins of the glyph are unknown since it extends very far back in time probably to prehistory. I have written extensively on this subject, with this symbol-map as background, because the relevance of the sign can be verified geographically with great precision. However, even without this ‘proof’ all astrologers throughout the world consider Capricorn to be the astrological ruler of India.

From: The New Way, Volume 1, p.154, Aeon Books

But there is more. There is a time factor involved along with the spatial measure. We use the Earth’s longitude to ‘locate’ the sign Capricorn. This, most interestingly, gives us the precise ‘location’ of Capricorn on the globe. Most astonishing of all, it coincides with the beginning of the Indian landmass as indicated in the map-symbol. The point I am making is to demonstrate the singular importance of Capricorn (Makar) for India. I repeat, the full destiny of the nation can be understood by a penetrating analysis of what this sign really signifies; it is the most secret and sacred of all. But we have the Rig Veda itself that confirms its importance. Though penned thousands of years ago, the Rishis located the victory of the Aryan Warrior to be in this very sign of the twelve, the 10th month (calculated from the first, the March Equinox). Note that it was not in just any period, any month: it was the tenth. And that is the sign Capricorn.
If we use the constellations to locate this section of the circle, the result is what we have today: the sign Makar does not begin when it should for Hindus. It is 23 days AFTER the onset of the sign. Capricorn in all ancient civilisations, foremost of all the Vedic, begins (the sankranti or gateway) at the exact time of the December Solstice, the shortest day of the year. For this very reason Bhisma chose this date to leave this plane. There is a very deep purpose in this timing to coincide with the shortest day. I have written extensively on this subject and need not repeat myself here. Suffice to state that by positing this gateway 23 days after it actually occurs, that ‘door’ has passed us by. The result is that the most important of all Vedic injunctions – the 9 becomes the 10 – cannot be realised. It is as simple as that.
This is of course relevant to the individual, but even more so for the Hindu Samaj. Collectively this shortest day should be observed if the passage ‘the 9 becomes the 10’ is to bear any impact for the entire nation. Certainly Bhisma would have had a hard time making this passage based the current Nirayana system!
My point is that when the symbol-map is revealed, as it was in 1974, we know that the most important period of India’s history for thousands of years has come to the forefront. It is now, in our very times, that everything Capricorn signifies in the nation’s destiny can reach fulfilment. But as it stands, this cannot happen; and we see the results all around us. It can happen only when the correct ‘key’ is inserted and the tenth month does indeed stand before us, both individually and collectively. Therefore I have put so much energy into revealing these deep aspect’s of India’s destiny – aspects which have been set in motion thousands of years ago. I do so in order to drive home the point that we do run the risk of missing the moment. Therefore I invite pundits to discuss this matter and reach a conclusion. I am ready to present my arguments. I am ready to listen to theirs. Thereafter, let the community decide.

***
© Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet 2009

Something more must be said of the Earth’s axial tilt at 23.20 degrees since it plays a role in the fantasies, if they may be so called, of many new-age groups. If I am not mistaken, even Edgar Cayce spoke of a future re-alignment of this axis at an unspecified time which would cause wide-spread destruction. Over our recorded period of history this 23 degree tilt has been in place – and certainly for an untold number of years before our times. In my view, the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza reveals that the ancients had the tilt on their minds as well. In addition to what I wrote in La Salle du Mensonge, I would like to return to this theme because it explains just why the Earth has been considered only a place to expiate one’s sins; and, God willing, to die and go to heaven. Or else it is a place to learn to lose oneself in an otherworldly intoxication – anything but face what such a tilt signifies courageously, because indeed this tilt can be held responsible for the diminished condition of the human species.

            There are various ways to deal with this apparently unredeemable condition that afflicts the entire planet. For the past 2500 years at least we have devised methods to counter this cosmic affliction. If we study the matter deeply on the backdrop of the revelations concerning alignment of the new cosmology, we realise that living on a planet with such a tilting axis imposes certain conditions. In fact, this has conditioned not only biological evolution but the evolution of consciousness as well throughout the ages.

            In La Salle du Mensonge I noted that the central issue of the supramental transformation could be described as the Mother has done on several occasions: to have one’s consciousness so poised as if to stand beneath the ray of the midday Sun casting therefore no shadows. The image that comes to mind for students of the New Way is Omanisol of The Magical Carousel seated on the mountaintop absorbed in a special state of consciousness that can be described as ‘the Immobile amidst the Mobile’. She is not, as we would surmise on the basis of the current interpretation of such states, in a meditation that obliterates the phenomenal world we live in; rather this contemporary mythos explains exactly her state by describing that from her mountaintop position all the world is seen at her feet, extending as far as the eye can see; over which she presides. And this condition, again as the myth explains, comes into being when somehow a rectification of this axial tilt is attained, for Omanisol is the reigning Goddess of the tenth sign, Capricorn, the cosmic midday Sun that casts no shadows. It is precisely the goal of the Rig Veda journey which the Rishi announced as the ‘victory’ for the Warrior in the tenth month (counted from the March/Aries Equinox, the first)  who could overcome the perilous crossing we measure as the third quarter of the diurnal and annual ecliptic journey, comprised of the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th zodiacal signs. The Agni realisation of the Immobile amidst the Mobile that Omanisol reveals is entirely one of axial alignment.

            The four quarters, or the four Cardinal Points, do in actual fact refer to the different alignments of the Earth herself vis-à-vis the Sun. All our civilisations from time immemorial have thus been conditioned by the effects this quaternary alignment brings about; resulting externally in the four seasons. We realise by this that in some profound way the question of alignment is a key feature of our planetary existence. This helps us understand the ancients and their emphasis, in one way or another, on alignment – for example, the Rishis of very ancient times as well as those who put so much labour into the very accurate alignment of the Giza Pyramid precisely to those Cardinal Poles.

            However, the part that interests me most concerns the condition of our planetary civilisation and how the various religions and spiritual paths have contended with this cosmic stricture. Christianity plays an especially important role in this issue because its gospel and dogmas accurately describe the off-centre state of affairs. Christianity has certainly coloured our world-view for the past 2000 years; consequently its postulations must be of interest and occupy a prominent place in our analyses. The struggle of its theologians was to deal with an apparently unredeemable situation. In this light and given that the affliction is cosmic and therefore seemingly beyond our control, we must view with compassion the conclusion the Christian Fathers arrived at and which can be summed up as follows:  Given the infallible wisdom of God the Creator, we must necessarily deduce that the Earth is simply where one’s sins are expiated; and that in His compassion and boundless love for His creation, He sent His only begotten Son, who agonised on the (off-centred) cross for our sins, thus assuring us of redemption and everlasting life elsewhere, but certainly not here.

            India’s ancient Rishis saw the matter differently. They understood that certain processes could result in a rectification of the mis-alignment we carry in our consciousness-beings; but that, more particularly, this rectification could only come through an alignment with the harmony of our solar system, a very different approach that would exalt the Earth’s function and not diminish her cosmic status. It could be contended that rather than expiation this planet is blessed among all others since it is right here where the battle is both fought and the victory won, – as well as enjoyed. In their wisdom they understood that correction rested on the allegiance of time and the rhythms that come to us in the diurnal and annual patterns the ‘months and the years open’ for us, – with the insertion of the right ‘keys’ however. The objective of the Rishi’s labour was not to use the planet as a field to transcend time and space – the often unstated objective of religions and most Eastern paths of spiritual development – and to transcend our planetary base. Rather, for those ancients the method they discovered was to utilise that very cosmic harmony to secure the victory right here.

            We have lost touch with that line of wisdom, but it lives on in the new mythos and particularly in the new cosmology whose central theme is alignment. It lives on in the revelation of the Inner Chamber more perfectly than in any pyramid ancient or new. The difference between the two – the Inner Chamber and the Great Pyramid for example, the first dealing with time, the latter with space – is important to note. While in Egypt the extant evidence points to a mechanism for the purpose of actual spatial alignment, in the Mother’s revelation it is time. But in both instances the individual is the converging point. In other words, both models, while bearing planetary/cosmic ‘credentials’, rely on the human component for fulfilment. In Egypt the initiate entered the physical chambers for transformation, as if in a realigned atmosphere brought into being by the perfection of design and measurements established by the Initiate-builders. In the Mother’s contemporary model the individual is transformed by an act of seeing and what this produces in one’s consciousness-being. The physical itself undergoes a change in varying degrees which the totality of conditions permits when the Act brings about a realignment of the physical structure so that the current atavism of the human being is gradually replaced by a ‘higher purpose’ in service of a Higher Cause.

            We do have evidence that this Act was the apotheosis of the Greek Eleusinian Mystery rites. They were brought to an end by a diktat of the early Christian rulers who had gained a position of authority in the centuries of the millennium following the birth of Jesus. But contrast this birth with the Child in the displaced Eleusinian tradition. One is crucified, strung up on the off-centred cross-axis that eventually became the identifying symbol of Christians throughout the world; the other presented the glorious transformative Vision to participants of all sections of the society at the culmination of the Greek celebration in honour of the two Goddesses, mother and daughter. That Ecstasy was experienced by all in a collective awakening when in some manner unknown in its precise details to us today – because it was indeed a ‘mystery’ rite – the Daughter addressed as Téa  was ‘seen’ to bear a divine Son, amidst the ecstatic cries ‘Brimos is born’! This was the great revelation that altered the consciousness of all who participated in the nine-day ritual. And then, like now, the apotheosis came through the Daughter and the Male Child she bore. It indicates that this birth held a secret and most sacred significance which the new faith drove out. Transformation thus hinged on the Act of Seeing, then as now when the tradition is being restored.

            We thereby understand better why in this contemporary enactment the Daughter bears a similar Greek name. Moreover, we understand why the 9-6-3 Formula became etched in the fabric of our Earth’s memory by the date of the last year this magnificent Mystery was celebrated: 396 CE, – iconic in its own way. We take up the work left truncated by belief in a crucifixion of that Child which so clearly revealed what lay in store for the world from that point onward – and also what a difficult labour lay ahead for those who would come in a future Age to reinstate the ancient way.

            In our Age we reach the bone of the structure, its skeletal defining component. We deal directly with consciousness because we employ Time as our primary tool and the harmony of our System as the blueprint to utilise as one would a map in discovery of physical spaces. The Egyptians being spatial/physical as their 7^th Manifestation demanded had to construct a physical model that would actually alter the effects of the Earth’s axial tilt. In Vedic India the map was the harmonics of our planet’s time. The yearly rhythms of the Earth’s own journey in orbit of the Sun was the ‘area’ covered as if one were to move across a territorial expanse, with keys of knowledge in hand to ‘open the doors of the months and the years’.  The journey may have been the same in both cases, but, I repeat, in the Vedic experience we reach the heart and soul of what embodiment means on this particular planet of this particular solar system. For in the words of the Upanishad, here we perceive ‘Time as the self of the Horse Sacrificial’. There are no deeper depths to explore than these.

The ‘Mountain’ as Symbol

The Pyramid, the new myth informs us, is the Mountain in the formula the symbol is the thing symbolised. But this too is explained by the months and the years when the right Key opens the door to the tenth month Capricorn, India’s own zodiacal ruler. We enter the mountain-pyramid when the Vedic Brihaspati (Jupiter of the 5^th orbit in the solar system) ‘has made manifest’ the only element that can effectively open those closed doors – gnosis of the supramental kind. With this light at one’s disposal, this ‘golden sword of truth’, the Warrior then moves into the 8^th sign of Death, Scorpio. Thereafter, if the passage is successfully accomplished, Swar is reached in the 10th. By this singular Gnosis heaven is revealed to exist right here on this planet. If that superior dimension cannot be reached here by the 9 becoming the 10, then it is reached nowhere, for there is no conscious ‘seeing eye’ to enjoy the victory elsewhere. These keys of knowledge transform our physical reality itself because it is seen with eyes made new in an Act of Seeing made new for our times. When Death of the 8^th sign is conquered, the Scorpion is replaced by the Eagle whose home is the lofty mountain heights.

            Everything converges on the individual whose physical structure is the laboratory in this exclusive adventure. Rightfully, as St John prophesied in his vision, there was no physical temple in the City descended from God because each embodied soul that takes birth on this Earth can become the temple. The body itself is the temple when the tilt is corrected by a realignment of one’s consciousness whose ‘hub’ as in a wheel holds a ‘new purpose’, a new axial function for oneself and for humanity.

            Initially there may be only one individual who ‘sees’ in this new way, whose perception alters the tilt and the axis/ray casts no shadows in a shadowless consciousness-being. But this ‘temple’ multiplies until ultimately the planet can be populated by millions of such ‘temples’ of the new light of Gnosis.

            The Second Coming is this revelation: not a crucified but a glorified Son, he who secures the victory in the tenth month of Capricorn.

            All spiritual and religious experiences of the past 2000 years have been attempts to accommodate the exigencies of the cosmic journey that takes us through the third quarter of the fourfold wheel – that is, when ‘death’ must be faced and somehow conquered. The apotheoses of all these methods, including the Vedantic, have been simply accommodations. They all accepted that the journey for those born on Earth is brought to an end either by physical death, or else a similar ‘death’ caused by an obliteration of the Seeing Eye of consciousness through methods devised for this purpose. Thus have they betrayed the planet’s sacred purpose in the Harmony, the birthright of all those born on this planet. All have been guilty of abandoning the Earth to her own devices, subjected to our ways of ignorance which have even resulted in a possible physical obliteration of our planetary base. This would amount to a denial of everything the Second Coming portends. That is, a rejection of the healing this birth signifies which is the sacred and deepest objective of the Descent. By the Coming the Void of the ages is closed.

The 2012 craze

The year 2012 has become imbued with a certain magic; but we must bear in mind that alignments such as John Major Jenkins and others describe and which is purported to occur on 21.12.2012, are gradual processes covering sometimes thousands of years. To put this in context, we can say that the entire final Round of this 77,760-year cycle or ‘journey’, a round consisting of 25,920 years, is the gradual positioning of celestial bodies to serve as the hands of a cosmic clock as seen from the Earth. Our entire final Round of the Map of the 12 Manifestations has been leading up to this and similar phenomena. But bear in mind that these alignments are Earth bound. They exist only in the eye of the beholder, – but not therefore ‘relative’ and inconsequential. Rather they reveal the one absolute truth of our existence: It is on Earth, and on Earth alone that the heavenly harmonies can be known, seen, lived, – where they can speak to us of mysteries of indescribable elegance and beauty. Rather than being a hell, this planet holds the potential, unique in our System, where ‘heaven’ can be realised here without succumbing to death. This Earth has been and always will be the home of the Immortals.

            Thus the date 21.12.2012 (note the focus on the number 12) is not THE moment itself as if it were some Final Judgement Day. These are cycles, some major, some minor. The Maya were as obsessed with cycles as the Indians from ancient times till today. However, the civilisation that left us this ‘pointer’, the Maya, no longer exists. 2012 then becomes a lifeless and meaningless indicator because the convergent object, the human component of that special Maya journey is no longer with us. Indeed a shift has taken place, and we must realise this and make the necessary adjustments. The Mountain to climb is India where Omanisol sits on its peak. The answers lie in the present not in a long-forgotten past. For if not, then what would have been the purpose of recording and preserving somehow that date, or of a Sphinx or a Great Pyramid?  Are they to be simply reminders of a glory that once was but cannot now be retrieved? Or are they simply pointers to our times of convergence when all that they signify, the secrets they hold, are to be not only revealed but lived.

            This entire ennead, of which 2012 occupies the 5^th position in a series of 9 years beginning in 2007 and ending in 2016, is the culmination of everything the December Solstice date has signified throughout the ages into the present. The initiation of Capricorn holds the key to 2012 because the Maya highlighted that solstice and no other date in the year. All ancient Traditions have held this solstice to be special. Therefore, to know what the Maya expected of 2012, we have to plumb the mysteries of Capricorn.

The December Solstice of any year offers entry into the Inner Chamber, but only if ‘the 9 has become the 10’. It is the master key, the key that alone can open all the other months/doors. Through this special portal we not only enter Swar but we open that Chamber whose heavenly light can then descend as torrents on the world just as the Ganga legends tell us. The great secret of 2012 is found in these pages. It is the revelation of not merely one date but an entire process covering a number of years, weaving its magic through many cycles across the ages. It is the secret the Capricorn Solstice holds.

            For all practical purposes that solstice no longer exerts its magic at any point on the planet. It certainly does not exist in what once was Maya land. It does not exist in present-day India, a land that was once home to the realisers of Immortality. Yes, that ‘gateway’ to Capricorn continues to be celebrated by contemporary Hindu society – faithfully, religiously, with all the rituals that should accompany such an event, – minus the light, the living knowledge of the tenth ‘gateway’. Further, it might be said that the loss occurred in a more dignified manner in the land of the Maya than what occurred in India, where distortion has displaced the ‘soul of knowledge’, as Sri Aurobindo described in his ‘The Secret of the Veda’, ‘…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.’ It is exactly what we find in the Shadow Temple in Auroville: distortion. At least the Maya respected the knowledge and did not tamper with it; they preferred to let it be buried by the soil of the ages and exhumed at the behest and will of the Time-Spirit.

            Not so in India. Here the ‘wisemen’ of science, of architecture know what the Immortals do not know: How to disfigure so that the populace is made to believe that the Capricorn solstice gateway opens before believers on 15 January, when in effect that 21.12 ‘door’ has passed them by on the magical carousel of the ecliptic Vedic Year. And they see not, they have neither eyes to see what they have missed nor the keys of knowledge to open that sacred door. Most lamentable of all, they have lost the Master Key that holds the knowledge of their very own Capricorn destiny.

            The harmony died with the Maya, a noble dignified fading away. In India of today it is purported to be alive and well. We hear constant praises of her ancient culture where, it is proclaimed, an unbroken line ties the nation to that Vedic Cosmic Truth. None see that through distortion, like in the disfigured temple in Auroville, it is simply a shadow of that supreme Light. Certainly we must ask, Was it reasonable to expect the physical construction of the chamber of Cosmic Truth when it had not been acquired by processes of the supramental yoga? And when on the soil where it was being constructed there is an identical disfigurement of the very element the Mother’s original vision was to rectify?

            The greater sin is to distort the truth, not to lose it entirely. We see all around us the infirmities of distortion. Every religion transgresses in the same way: a kernel of the true thing exists, but its ‘coverings’ have made a mockery of that kernel’s significance and place within the whole, – above all, its place within the whole. Indeed, in the wise words of a member of the Calendar Reform Committee in 1953, those entrusted with the task of guiding Hindus in this crucial matter of time reckoning ‘believe they are guiding [them] on the path of dharma, when in effect they are being led on the path of Adharma’.

The Santana Dharma lives on only in the Veda. But, as the Rig Veda itself states, ‘Who can understand it?’

 2012 in context

The new cosmology covers all the bases, all angles of the unfolding. The statements made on the basis of its indications over the years have been validated. This will now increase. A symbol that the time has come for the things promised to become manifest for all to see, hinges on the date when the Fourth Power was born in Earth time: 26 November.

            26/11 is the latest iconic number to fill our news reports daily. The revelation of the Fourth Power indicates that in its addition to the triadic grouping that preceded his entry, not only were all the angles of the Gnostic Circle’s sacred triangle covered by the 9/6/3 births of the Solar Line, but the essential, the most cosmically relevant ‘gap’ was finally attended to when the birth of the Male Child took place. More significantly, the closing of that cosmic ‘black-hole void’ did not simply occur at birth and the work was then done. To be precise, 13 years had to pass before it could factually be inserted into the equation. This happened through an Act of Seeing involving the Core of the Mother’s chamber. 26/11 was written in this sacred space, but distorted beyond all recognition in the architect’s rendition of the Mother’s original, – as written above, the greatest of all transgressions. The true ‘filling of the void’ occurred when it was ‘seen’ in 1976, 36 years (four cycles of 9 years) before 2012. From that year the new cosmology would point to the complete fourfold cyclic passage through the four major dimensions of Being, – physical, vital, mental and supramental; concluding in 2012. It can be deduced on this basis that 2012 can rightfully be understood only on the basis of an interrelated assessment via the lens of a Gnostic vision. Disconnected from that interrelated harmony, 2012 can make little sense.

Carrying the act of seeing further, we note that the addition of another 13 years (the measure of the Pedestal where the rebirth is recorded) brings us to the 49^th year; and backwards in time we reach 1963, the actual year the birth occurred. By the mathematics of unity, 49 equals 4 – thus fully centred on the orbit this Power of the Solar Line brings to the equation. His year number-power is 1, but his operational orbit, where he fulfils his ‘purpose’ is the Void that the design of the enneagram itself points to: the 4.5 Orbit of our solar system, or the Asteroid Belt.

This orbit is a place of shattered particles and we call it a ‘void’ because there is no consolidated cosmic body at that location, precisely to ‘fill’ this Void. In equal measure the millions of particles at the 4.5 position reveal the immense danger of the period on Earth that is opened by this birth; hence it is written that we face creation or destruction now, as never before. It is further written that this Fourth relates to nuclear physics and the shattered particles of his ‘orbit-realm’ to the fission in nuclear processes; and by deduction, to the possible destruction of the world through a nuclear holocaust. We may rightfully ask, Is this what 2012 portends as many believe, since it is described as the ‘end time’?

            True, 26/11 reaching India’s doorstep through the Mumbai Massacre points to a confirmation of the new cosmology’s message: the nuclear weapons play-out would be centred on India. And so it has come to pass. This play-out in its final stage began on 26/11 in the year 2008, indicating 4 remaining until 2012. It was the 45^th year from 1963, thus by the count from the birth itself it indicates not an end but a most significant new beginning of an ennead ending in 2017 and whose mid-point is the 4.5 under discussion, 2012. 26/11 occurring on Indian soil confirmed the trikaladrishti of the new cosmologists. It is a seeing of relations, of interconnections, of a unified One and Many, or Being and Becoming, which is the heart and soul of the truth-conscious Gnosis. The final showdown has begun, centred on India as foreseen in 1976.

           The above brief analysis is meant to be an indication of the inadequacies of reductionist thinking. An event such as a galactic alignment, if it does exist, is for all purposes meaningless when meaning is not instilled by the Keys of Knowledge revealed for the express purpose of providing the Light that can serve as a beacon while we explore the cosmos in an effort to understand our reason for existence. Above all, these Keys renew an appreciation of the Earth’s role in the unfolding of this grand Harmony I referred to when I wrote to the Mother in 1971 from Rome, ‘Il n y que ça, cette grand Harmonie qui va toujours en avant et que rien peut arrêter.’ (‘There is nothing but that, this grand Harmony that moves always forward and that nothing can stop.’)

            We are living, conscious parts of that Harmony. Birth in this special cycle offers the privilege of allowing us to bear witness to that movement of the cosmic harmony which only our special position in this third orbit can reveal in its true splendour. It is not that the Harmony is only relative because it can only be perceived from Earth, as the exponents of Voids and Nothingness would have us believe, but rather that the structure of our solar system as it exists in this cycle of many thousands of years indicates that Earth has a very special purpose: she is to provide the field, the laboratory for the descent and manifestation of the truth-conscious gnostic Supermind. This happening requires for its unveiling an instrument aligned for the purpose – indeed, to express at last that core of a divine Purpose.

 
Thea

Aeon Centre of Cosmology

at Skambha

January 2009

In early Ashram days there was a reading room where all the daily newspapers were kept and the sadhaks could read. It still exists. At a certain point the Mother was asked to name the room. She called it, La Salle du Mensonge, or the Room of Falsehood. If this was true in her time, imagine what she would feel about the state of the media in today’s world.

The extent this wave of falsehood covers now has so far exceeded what the Mother experienced then of the simple daily newspaper that it is almost laughable in comparison. Thanks to the electronic media that has proven to be an even more effective channel for the spread of anything and everything in the name of freedom of speech and the right to propagate one’s ideas, we live in a world so thoroughly polluted that the Mother surely would not have believed possible. At the same time, this media has played its part in the manifestations of our Age, – not in the spread of truth or even falsehood, as a surface assessment would indicate, but rather it has played a most significant role in the acceleration process we experience. This is of course essential for the purposes of the Supramental Shakti in this 9^th Manifestation, given its Sagittarian significance. Without the ‘acceleration of time’, as I call it, the progress required could not be achieved. Primarily, the pace had to be revved up so that this could become the Age of the Great Churning like never before. In this the electronic and print media have played a very significant role. But it ends there.

Just observe how difficult it has been for my work to find proper channels for expression of its high Truth. On the other hand, for years my detractors have been maligning me at will through the media and with me the full Solar Line; because their objective is not to target me personally, though I have been the ‘chosen one’ for their destructive processes. Rather, the objective has been the destruction of the Work itself. Or at best to delay the inevitable Victory from occurring ‘on time’. Fortunately the Supramental Shakti has other devices and, as the myth explains, she is brilliant at using both positive and negative to further her aims. I will provide an example.

As you all know, I have sustained that George W. Bush will go down in history as one of the best US presidents. I still stand by this statement I have made on numerous occasions. I have done this in spite of the total pollution of the atmosphere engendered precisely by the various media which have been so diligently used to malign him, much the way I have been maligned. Unjustly, as some of you are inclined to believe. This state of affairs has recently been brought to my door in a personal manner. I have experienced the full extent of that pollution regarding the former president and have written about the pseudo-liberalism that caused so much of this pollution… This also made it possible for my detractors to hold so much power. In these matters it is not that they POSSESS POWER. Rather, it is that by blocking alone – the proverbial Vedic hoarding of the Cows – they are able to DECREASE what would rightfully be at the disposal of the agents of the Work.

We see this ‘hoarding’ to have been so effective (in serving the purposes of the One) during Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s lifetime. We see how it is a TOOL to keep them within a certain time schedule. Better put, this ‘hoarding’ is actually what creates the famous BOUNDARIES that exist in a number of areas. This may be collective or individual. It is also universal and pertains to a cosmic phenomenon such as Dark Matter, or Dark Energy. Hoarding is the key, and it is vital to understand how it functions because the time has come to extend those boundaries, which can happen only when we ‘cut the stinger’. At that point we experience INCREASE. The released energy that had been hoarded goes to the pressure FROM WITHIN THE SYSTEM to push or to extend boundaries outward. This then means that we embrace a larger sphere. We can do so without destruction experienced, as would happen if that influx were to take place without the ‘cutting of the stinger’, because we have gained an increase of energy, yoga shakti, properly speaking. This comes from the Source. Those ‘knots’ have for their purpose the holding back of power, similar to regulator valves – indeed, to the regulator genes on our own DNA biological structure.

When you are able to perceive the mechanism the evolution of consciousness employs you enter a sphere of greater truth where the pollution I am describing cannot take hold. It has no ‘power to sting’ any longer. And this mechanism and its understanding can be carried over to your own experience of yoga. This is what the entire planet must experience now. I have had some rather interesting experiences in this regard. Just last night I BECAME the Earth for a certain experience. I understood the tilt of her axis in its more profound significance. It is a question of LEANING which makes the ‘filling of the Void’ impossible. That ‘leaning’ has to be overcome if one is to stand beneath the rays of the Midday Sun. This is the essence of Capricorn.

In this light you can understand how important the loss of the correct time measure has been for Indian society. As well, you can better appreciate what I mean when I state that we have reached the border of Time, as it were. If this correction does not come about now, when the days/degrees are 23, we fall as civilisation’s repository and preserver of the ancient Tradition, into the ‘abyss of time’. The dharma is lost forever – or at least for the remainder of this cycle of 77,760 years. Of course being here among you makes that plunge impossible. Furthermore, we have crossed the threshold where defeat was a distinct possibility. But that should not make us complacent. The pressure on those positioned more centrally in the Work will increase, just as it is doing in these days: what was tolerated before cannot be sustained now. The time has come for a complete change, and it begins right here at Skambha.

All of this has been a mere introduction to the core of what I intend to write this morning. And it concerns that polluted atmosphere of falsehood that revealed itself concerning the presidency of George Bush. But first, let me explain WHY that outrageous pollution had to come into being, what its purpose was. The election just experienced had to see a man from the Black Community come to power. I have pondered over this for long and given you my point of view. Recently I was made to experience how I do impose my views on all of you and how this creates pockets of poison when it appears that you must suppress your own views in favour of mine, unthinking – a blind acceptance that has never been my demand. I vowed that I would stop ‘spreading the word’ as it were. But on deeper reflection I realise that nothing would become established of the higher things because of the limitations of your consciousness to assess the true things and not be carried away by waves sweeping across the Earth. This was made especially clear in the New York travel situation where we saw the extent of that pollution in full.

The need of the hour, however, was to create such a dreadful aura around the last administration that by sheer repugnance this black man would break through the most hardened barriers one can imagine possible and win the day. Added to this the outcome had to be brought about by presenting one such individual who was not burdened by a past of slavery, but nonetheless had the right colour of skin to be able to rally the Black Community to his side, and many others as well. He was simply unbeatable. But, please bear this in mind: he was unbeatable because of the pollution around Bush. Had that not been there I guarantee that Obama would never have been elected, no matter how great a candidate he might have been. The simple reason is that we are discussing centuries-old hardened crusts. No single individual, on his own, would have had the power to knock down those crusts. He had to be helped by the Negative. The pollution by the media was his greatest aid. That won the elections, not Obama. Added to this was everything that had been worked out during the campaign itself, as I wrote early on: the campaign was the real issue because certain accumulated ‘knots’ had to be unravelled in the larger context of what was required for the rest to unfold. This did come to pass. I need not enumerate, you can do that yourselves. The Republicans cannot do this job, only the Democrats. So when the Democrats come to power you know that a certain ‘layer of falsehood’ if it may be so called, is about to be dismantled. The Republicans are too ‘straight’ to serve the purpose, hence they are hated by the Liberals among you. This was clearly made evident in the Clinton imbroglio and Kennedy before him. You could say that Nixon too, a Republican, served the same purpose. But it was a different purpose then. I will elaborate another time.

The result now will be that widening of the boundaries which the released energy from the black citizens can now contribute, energy that had been hoarded away for at least two centuries. I repeat, no single individual could have accomplished this task. And this was what we witnessed of the Inauguration. Of course the tears were tears of accumulated guilt by the populace. His assumption provided that release too. It was symptomatic of what I am describing. We can go further to predict that America will have to deal with that release, to utilise it correctly. And that will be Obama’s test. He appears to be capable, but once in office it remains to be seen how long it will take before he realises what I have written in this analysis: that it is not HIS doing, HIS accomplishments, HIS victory, quoi. He has simply been a pawn – hopefully an instrument, but that would indicate a certain degree of awareness which I do not believe he has – for this process of dismantling the crusts of centuries and the extension of boundaries.

Bush, on the other hand, has been a far more aware person. Hence I would call him an instrument. The reason for this assessment is that he had to hold the torch amidst the most devastating onslaught of the Falsehood that has ever been mounted, for the purpose of getting Obama elected and without which that could not have happened. This dedicated man had to hold firm before what appeared to be the negativity thrown at him by an entire nation. Obama could not deal with such an onslaught. He may grow in stature to reach those heights. But for now he has to be aided from outside. Therefore the play of circumstances will do its part to push him into a corner, so to speak. The first indication is Pakistan’s and the Taliban’s reaction to his statement that Pakistan would have to prove itself regarding its sincerity in fighting its home-terrorism before any aid would be granted. The response from both groups was defiant. This will be his first test and perhaps the focus of his presidency.

I am including here the text of an interesting article I have just read on Bush’s presidency, mainly because of the happenings here at Skambha over this past week, which I have discussed above; but also because it is wise to present an ‘authority’ outside my ‘personal’ views which I base largely on an assessment of the inner fibre I sense of a person. It speaks for itself. Further, it brings home to me the reason why during the inauguration a political worker from the black community was interviewed briefly. I was struck by his downcast appearance: he was deeply troubled and depressed and confused. I gathered that he was a Republican supporter and the triumph of Obama was simply too overwhelming to bear. But there was more, it went deeper. He stated that he just could not understand why Bush had left the way he had and that the positive aspects of his presidency had not been acknowledged – just as the article I include points out. This disturbed him greatly. It must have also been on Obama’s mind at the end because he went out of his way to congratulate Bush on his achievements and to see him to the helicopter that would take him to his Texan home, in a very moving expression of appreciation. I am certain that now privy to certain inner workings of the White House, he felt ashamed and tried his best to make amends. Nothing else explains the unusual display of solidarity that he demonstrated at the end. Bush, for his part, was as always noble, a model of equanimity and fair play to the end. We will hear more of his valiant contribution in the years to come. As Ramakrishna once said, God does not allow a good man to be humiliated.

***

HISTORY WILL SHOW THAT BUSH WAS RIGHT

Andrew Roberts

The New Indian Express,

Friday, January 16, 2009, Madurai, India

While many will remember the President and his tenure with remorse, many nations around the world cherish his association.

The American lady who called to see if I would appear on her radio programme was specific. ‘We’re setting up a debate,’ she said sweetly, ‘and we want to know from your perspective as a historian whether George W Bush was the worst president of the 20^th century, or might he be the worst president in American history?’

            ‘I think he’s a good president,’ I told her, which seemed to dumbfound her, and wreck my chances of appearing on her show. In the avalanche of abuse and media assessments of President Bush’s legacy, there are factors that need to be borne in mind if we are to come to a judgment that is not warped by the kind of partisan hysteria that has characterized this issue on both sides of the Atlantic.

            The first is that history, by looking at the key facts rather than being distracted by the loud ambient noise of the 24 hour news cycle, will probably hand down a far more positive judgment on Bush’s presidency than the immediate, knee-jerk loathing of the American and European elites.

            At the time of 9/11, which will forever rightly be regarded as the defining moment of the presidency, history will look in vain for anyone predicting that the Americans murdered that day would be the very last ones to die at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists in the US from that day to this.

            The decisions taken by Bush in the immediate aftermath of that ghastly moment will be pored over by historians for the rest of our lifetimes. One thing they will doubtless conclude is that the measures he took to lock down American’s borders, scrutinize travellers to and from the United States, eavesdrop upon terrorist suspects, work closely with international intelligence agencies and take the war to the enemy has foiled dozens, perhaps scores of would be murderous attacks on America. There are Americans alive today who would not be if it had not been for the passing of the Patriot Act. There are 3000 people who would have died in the August 2005 airline conspiracy if it had not been for the superb inter-agency cooperation demanded by Bush after 9/11.

            The next factor that will be seen in its proper historical context in years to come will be the true reasons for invading Afghanistan in October 2001 and Iraq in April 2003. The conspiracy theories believed by many (generally, but not always) stupid people – that it was ‘all about oil’, or the securing of contracts for the US-based Halliburton corporations, etc. – will slip into the obscurity from which they should never have emerged had it not been for comedian-filmmakers such as Michael Moore.

            Instead, the obvious fact that there was a good case for invading Iraq based on 14 spurned UN resolutions, massive human rights abuses and unfinished business following the interrupted invasion of 1991 will be recalled.

            Similarly, the cold light of history will absolve Bush of the worst conspiracy theory accusation: that he knew there were no WMD’s in Iraq. History will show that in common with the rest of his administration, the British Government, Saddam’s own generals, the French, Chinese, Israeli and Russian intelligence agencies, and of course SIS and the CIA, everyone assumed that a murderous dictator does not voluntarily destroy the WMD arsenal he has used against his own people. And if he does, he does not then expel the UN weapons inspectorate looking for proof of it, as he did in 1998 and again in 2001.

            Bush assumed that the Coalition Forces would find mass graves, torture chambers, evidence of the gross abuse of the UN’s Food-for-oil programme, but also WMD’s.  He was right about each but the last, and history will place him in the mainstream of Western, Eastern and Arab thinking on the matter.

            History will probably, assuming it is researched and written objectively, congratulate Bush on the fact that whereas in 2000 Libya was an active and vicious member of what he was accurately to describe as an “axis of evil” of rogue states willing to employ terrorism to gain its ends, four years later Colonel Kaddafi’s WMD programme was sitting behind glass in a museum in Tennessee.

            With his characteristic openness and at times almost self-defeating honesty, Bush has been the first to acknowledge his mistakes – for example, tardiness over Hurricane Katrina – but there are some he made not because he was a ranting Right winger, but because he was too keen to win bipartisan support.  The invasion of Iraq should probably have taken place months earlier, but was held up by the attempt to find support from UN Security Council members, such as Jacques Chirac’s France, that had ties to Iraq and hostility towards the Anglo-Americans.

            History will also take Bush’s verbal fumbling into account, reminding us that Ronald Reagan also mis-spoke regularly, but was still a fine President. The first MBA President, who had a higher grade point average at Yale than John Kerry, Bush’s supposed lack of intellect will be seen to be a myth once the papers in the Presidential Library in the Southern Methodist University in Dallas are available.

            Films such as Oliver Stone’s W, which portray him as a spitting oafish frat who eats with his mouth open and is rude to servants, will be revealed by the diaries and correspondence of those around him to be absurd travesties, of this charming, interesting, beautifully mannered history buff who, were he not the most powerful man in the world, would be a fine person to have as a pal.

            Instead of Al Franken, history will listen to Bob Geldof praising Bush’s efforts over AIDS and malaria in Africa; or to Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, who told him: ‘The people of India deeply love you.’ And certainly to the women of Afghanistan thanking him for saving them from Taliban abuse, degradation and tyranny.

            The credit crunch, brought on by the Democrats in Congress insisting upon home ownership for credit-unworthy people, will initially be blamed on Bush, but the perspective of time will show that the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started with the deregulation of the Clinton era.  Instead Bush’s very un-ideological but vast rescue package of $700 billion might well be seen as lessening the impact of the squeeze, and putting America in position to be the first country out of recession, helped along by his huge tax-cut packages since 2000.

The Daily Telegraph

T

‘Before dying, falsehood rises in full swing. Still people understand only the lesson of Catastrophe. Will it have to come before they open their eyes to the truth? I ask an effort from all so that it has not to be. It is only the truth that can save us; truth in words, truth in action, truth in will, truth in feelings. It is a choice between serving the truth or being destroyed.’ – The Mother, 26 November 1972

            Do these synchronicities fall into the mind’s waste bin of random coincidence? Is it at all significant that the passage of the Indian Constitution also transpired on 26 November, in 1949? On the occasion of India’s Independence, 15 August 1947, Sri Aurobindo wrote:

‘August 15th is my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began life, the beginning of its full fruition.’

            For those who agree that India’s independence falling on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday was no ‘fortuitous accident’, and for those who agree that India must recover her true Self and recover the Sanatana Dharma, perhaps the Mumbai attacks effected on “Immortality Day’ will wake up a revived sense that the Divine Force spoken of by Sri Aurobindo is active in our world today.
            For thousands of years India’s ancient culture and knowledge have been thoroughly walked on, eroded and distorted as a result of occupations, invasions, migrations and religious conversions (whether forced or peaceful). Perhaps with the Mumbai attacks, the passivity that allowed such encroachment on India’s soul, is now, from this important date, giving way to a stronger sense of self and a stronger will to be WHOLE. Surmising Sri Aurobindo’s vision for India, Sisir Kumar Mitra wrote:

‘… the task ahead of building up a new India is a tremendous one requiring the application of more than the utmost normal capacities of the race. The endeavour therefore must be made to reconstruct the national life on the basis of India’s own culture, the truth of her soul and the purpose of her existence. Indeed the free India of today is not at all what she is destined to be. Her territorial integrity, her political oneness is vitally necessary for her growth as a nation as well as for the accomplishment of her mission in the world. Verily it is for this particular work that she has lived through the ages. A resurgent India, a strong, united and above all, an illumined India able powerfully to revolutionise the consciousness of the entire world and shape it anew by her own illimitable spiritual force is the hope and need of humanity today. That will be the noontide of her freedom, the high watermark of her greatness and her supreme raison d’etre among the peoples of the world.’ [Bold emphasis added]
–  Sri Aurobindo and Indian Freedom, 1948 [1]

            Those who follow the yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother must wonder how the Supramental Shakti is active in accomplishing the tremendous task and destiny which Sri Aurobindo envisioned for India, which would ‘new-mould the life of the world and restore the peace of the human spirit’. [2] They must wonder at the coincidence of the Mumbai attacks beginning precisely on the 26th of November – ‘Immortality Day’, precisely at Apollo Bunder, the locale where Sri Aurobindo returned to Indian soil in 1893 to begin his epic work towards restoring India (and the Sanatana Dharma) to its full glory and potency.
            In 1978 the Sri Aurobindo Ashram press began a publishing run of a book by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet which discussed, among other things, the reincarnation of Sri Aurobindo. Against the wishes of the Ashram Trustees, all but three of the books were destroyed by the press managers. [3] The birth date given in that book for Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth was 26 November 1963. The story Ms. Norelli-Bachelet has told in her books – of her own role in the Yoga, of the rebirth of Sri Aurobindo, and of the Supramental Will expressing itself in cycles and geometries of time – won her few friends and many enemies amongst followers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. They could not imagine that the Supramental Descent would proceed in such a manner, and could not imagine that the Supramental Shakti would express herself or be visible in cycles and geometries of time.
            One wonders if those persistent in dismissing Ms. Bachelet’s yoga, have yet paused to consider if the coincidence of the Mumbai attacks on the 45th birthday of the said reincarnation of Sri Aurobindo was not at all a ‘fortuitous accident’. For those who see 26/11 only as a tragedy, this association would seem unfortunate. But for those who understand and agree with with the assessment that India’s ‘territorial integrity, her political oneness is vitally necessary for her growth as a nation as well as for the accomplishment of her mission in the world’, 26/11 can be appreciated as a profound seed of change and an important summoning of vital energies necessary for India’s reclamation of her own soul and her recovery of the Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Truth of Being and Becoming) for all the world.
            Those who understand something of the ‘secrets’ of the Vedic texts will not be adverse to the idea, as proposed by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, that the recovery of the soul and of the eternal dharma involves a retrieval of gnosis of the circle of 360, gnosis of the 9 number system used throughout the world and attributed to ancient India, gnosis of the Earth’s year as traveled in a twelve month journey around the Sun, and gnosis of the living Cosmos and its harmonies. Evidence for such retrievable gnosis can be found in both the Rig Veda itself and in Sri Aurobindo’s writings on Vedic truth:

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

****

‘It is in the revolution of the year that the recovery of the lost Sun and the lost cows [solar rays/light] is effected, for we have the explicit statement in X.62.2, rtenabhindan parivatsare valam, “by the truth, in the revolution of the year, they broke Vala [the Ignorance],” or, as Sayana interprets it, “by sacrifice lasting for a year.”’   
– Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda

****

‘… in a hidden chamber closed and mute,
Are kept the record graphs of the cosmic scribe,
And there the tables of the sacred law,
There is the Book of Being’s index page
The text and glossary of the Vedic truth
Are there; the rhythms and meters of the stars
Significant of the movements of our fate:
The symbol powers of number and form,
And the secret code of the history of the world
and Nature’s correspondences with the soul
are written in the mystic heart of life.’

– Sri Aurobindo, Savitri

****

            In 2006, unimpressed by such words of the Veda and of Sri Aurobindo, moderators and members of Auroconf (an Integral Yoga Study Group) ridiculed Ms. Norelli-Bachelet’s notions that the Supramental Descent and Shakti would somehow be visible in ‘the rhythms and meters of the stars’ or the ‘symbol powers of number and form’.
            In 2007 Auroconf member Lynda Lester co-hosted a panel discussion entitled “Facing the Challenge of Fundamentalism and other Shadow Issues in the Ongoing Evolution of Integral Yoga” at the California Institute of Integral Studies ‘AUM Conference’ held at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. The opening remarks of the discussion read as follows, ‘Sri Aurobindo and [The] Mother did not want to found a new religion… but we do see a few examples of fundamentalism …’. Lester then proceeded through a list of four offenders the last of which is ‘a small but aggressive group of people following Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet who are into esoteric numerology …’
            According to the conference literature, the purpose of the conference was to ‘identify, heal, and clear unconscious divisions and blockages; foster deep listening, mutual learning, and the cross-pollination of knowledge streams; expand boundaries, build bridges of trust and collaboration; develop a more integrated, effective, and applied sense of the term “integral.”’ Yet by not inviting any presenters who appreciate or understand Ms. Norelli-Bachelet’s Supramental and Integral yoga and ‘applied cosmology’, they succeeded in continuing to block out points of view that renew the Sanatana Dharma, and succeeded in dismissing and alienating a living ‘stream’ of knowledge. Under the guise of authority and the safety of group agreement, the conference succeeded in defending old boundaries, and in refusing to bridge what has been accomplished by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in the past with what is being accomplished by Ms. Norelli-Bachelet in the present.
            In response to Lester, and to others who label their enemies as fundamentalists, Ms. Norelli Bachelet has written:

 ‘The ‘authorities’ who pontificate on the danger of fundamentalism
cannot appreciate that their own consciousness is its breeding ground.
The bane of all new-agey scholarship is Liberal Fundamentalism.‘
26.12.2008

            The efforts to marginalize or keep on the outskirts the very new idea (which is actually a very old Vedic idea) of a Divine Consciousness-Force that eternally weaves and orchestrates patterns of sacred geometry and sacred architecture in the course of Time is painfully short-sighted by all involved. The refusal to admit or even attempt to see such a Divine Consciousness-Force at work in the progression of the year and in larger cycles of time, effectively disables seekers from comprehending the ‘body of Time’ and from integrating the past, present and future, whether on an individual or a collective scale.
            Perhaps the weight of groups and institutions that participate in such dismissals will increasingly prove to be irrelevant to seekers who take on the task of determining for themselves who or what represents a religious calcification of the knowledge introduced by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and who represents a true breakthrough into previously unseen and unexplored territories of the Supramental Truth-Consciousness. One wonders, what the members of Auroconf and the ‘experts’ on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother make of the coincidence not only of the Mumbai attacks on Immortality Day and on the date that they have denied as Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth; but also that the very slow moving Pluto (the unrecognized 9th planet of our solar system) happened to move into the 10th sign of Capricorn (the very portion of the 12 spokes/months of the wheel which the Veda extols as the month of the Victory), some three hours after the attacks began. The last time Pluto made this transit into Capricorn was in 1762.
            Cultivating an appreciation for sacred geometry – for the Divine’s beauty, precision and perfection as displayed in nature, in Space – is no longer considered an ‘esoteric’ pursuit in our modern times. In fact many a scientist and mathematician have contributed to (and will continue to contribute to) our ever deepening appreciation of the Earthly, Cosmic and Human design.  One wonders when it will no longer be considered ‘esoteric’ to consider a sacred geometry or divine control and beauty displayed in the course of Time. That will surely be the end of the prevailing mental view which imagines events in time proceeding randomly, with no connection to the individual or collective soul.

‘Observe that in the Puranas the Yugas, moments, months, etc are all
symbolic and it is stated that the body of man is the year.’

– Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda

*********

 Endnotes:

[1] Sri Aurobindo and India Freedom, Sisir Kumar Mitra, Madras; Sri Aurobindo Library, 1948 (from pp. 25–26.). Mitra’s portrait of Sri Aurobindo’s vision for India drew largely from Sri Aurobindo’s writings in Bande Mataram, Karmayogin, and letters and speeches written by Sri Aurobindo, such as the 15 August 1947 Independence Day Speech that was broadcast through All India Radio. See Link.
[2] Bande Mataram, 2 March 1908.
[3] This book, The New Way – A Study in the Rise and Establishment of a Gnostic Society, was subsequently published in 1981.
23-24 December 2008
© Lori Tompkins

[Author’s note: In mid-January 2009 I was alerted by a reader that I had misattributed the Sisir Kumar Mitra quote to Sri Aurobindo. I apologize for the error and have made the appropriate corrections in the text and in the endnotes.]

An excerpt taken from Movement of Restoration of Vedic Wisdom:

‘From antiquity the Vedic/Hindu civilization has been founded upon certain eternal truths, forming the basis of the ancient dharma. It is a mythic civilization, rooted in the cosmic harmonies which permeate every facet of its culture, not merely as a passive reflection of a static cosmos, but as an applied dynamic knowledge. With the passage of the Ages, knowledge of these laws and harmonies became clouded over. The ancient Vedic scriptures, repository of these immutable truths, succumbed to interpretations which fragmented their original unity. As a consequence their sublime truths were either misinterpreted or lost. What arose in their place was a secular, scientific model of cosmic phenomena, imposing its own committed observations upon the celestial sphere. The most glaring evidence of this loss, brought about through a disconnection with Time, is the misalignment of the Hindu calendar. The Makar Sankranti, for example, which celebrates the change of the Sun’s Directions from the Lower Hemisphere (Daksinayana) to the Upper Hemisphere (Uttarayana) is now celebrated on January 14th some 23 days after the Winter Solstice. Confusion and chaos now reign in place of cosmic harmony and the Vedic way.

‘The urgent purpose of the Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom is to restore the ancient dharma and make it an active principle in Vedic/Hindu culture once again.’

I can feel the immediate effect of the Conference today. A gentle man asked me for the availability of software for writing Horoscopes according to Sayana [Tropical zodiac] system.

India, as you know, suffers from an adherence to an old and inaccurate system of zodiacal measure known as the Sidereal or Nirayana system which uses the Constellations as the basis of its measure.  According to the Nirayana system and its progressed Ayanamsha or Zero point, the Makar Sankranti falls on 14 January, some 23 days/degrees from the actual Winter Solstice, shortest day of the year. The true measure, according to the Vedic sages, is based upon the Tropical or Sayana system which uses the unchanging  Ecliptic measure to mark the Sun’s passage from sign to sign and season to season. According to the Sayana system, this year’s Makar Sankranti will occur on 21 December at 5:25 pm. At this very moment the Sun will move into the Cardinal sign Capricorn; the days will begin to lengthen and the light will begin to increase.

As important as the cyclic measure is to our study of the Cosmic Harmonies, there is another, more hidden aspect of the Makar Sankranti which relates to the occult dynamics of Contraction and Expansion or the convergence of directions known as Involution and Evolution. We know for instance that in the months approaching the Winter Solstice, the days grow shorter and there is contraction of the light. We might imagine this contraction as an involutionary pressure  compressing  things toward a “Point” or Seed which will then evolve after a certain threshold in Time has been crossed. Since the Convergence conference in September and the Autumnal Equinox, we have observed this process of contraction or compression first hand in both the global credit crash as well as the Mumbai attacks. And now, with the approach of the Makar Sankranti, we are nearing that point of reversal and an increase of the light. One can only imagine what events lie just ahead but to me the greatest gift Thea has given us is to be able to SEE whatever happens in the context of these eternal Cosmic Harmonies.

Robert Wilkinson
9 December 2008

Q: There has been a lot of news here in India on the upcoming elections in the USA. A month ago when the primaries began the front page of THE HINDU was full of the results, along with big photos. In your cosmology you put the India-USA axis as a central tenet. So how do you assess all that is happening now?

It is interesting for me because I wrote The Gnostic Circle in l974; it was printed in 1975. In it there is a chapter entirely dedicated to the India-America axis, as you call it. These two countries are on opposite ends of a pole through the Earth. There is more involved of course – their dates of independence and so forth. At the time, we were in the thick of the cold war, and Nixon had threatened to send his 7th Fleet into the Bay of Bengal during the 1971 war with Pakistan. This heightened the animosity even more. India had a very close relationship with the Soviet Union then; I believe there was a Friendship Treaty that was in full force. This brought about some balance and containment.

The point is there was nothing to suggest that what I was seeing (about this axis between the two countries) was correct. Just the contrary. If you look at the way things were then, they seemed hopeless. But in this cosmology you go beyond the moment, and the moment can be a decade, two decades, or fifty years. If your seeing is correct and based on objective knowledge, sooner or later it must come about. You see that this axis exists, regardless of what is taking place in the moment, and that in its own time the signs will come that it is to be activated. That is what we are experiencing now, since about 2001 when the terrorist attacks became more significant.

I believe America was gathering friends to try to contain this terror, and they established a closer relationship with India. Since that time you see these two polar opposites aligning themselves via various issues.

I want to read a letter that Sri Aurobindo wrote in July of 1926, under the title, ‘To the People of America’ (Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, Page 388, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, 2006). There is a portion that echoes exactly what I am saying, almost the same words. Of course I had never read this letter; I don’t know that it was even published until recently:

‘India and America stand prominent at the two poles that have to meet and become one, the spiritual and material life. One has shown a pre-eminent capacity of realisation on the spiritual, the other on the material plane.’

Now, Sri Aurobindo looks at it as polar opposites, the way it has come down to us today as Spirit and Matter. He is not looking at it from a cosmological point of view such as I would; but we come to the same thing. I have used those same words in many instances as well.

There is something more in this letter that is of great interest regarding the difficulties he faced in his own work. He refers to the Swami Yogananda Movement [in the USA], which he felt was very much attuned to the American spirit and mentality:

‘I do not think it would have much success in India where there is a long tradition and in spite of much imperfection and error, the standards of spiritual life are of the subtler kind.’

He refers to the practical orientation that Yogananda’s work took for the American public, so he says that in India it is of ‘the subtler kind’.  He continues:

‘The difficulties we experience here are due rather to a widespread inability to go freely beyond ancient ideas and forms. Plenty of money can be had in India for orthodox religious purposes and although not on the American scale, for Ashrams and other spiritual institutions which take the ascetic form or repeat established and well understood formulas. But the general mind has not yet advanced far enough from the old moorings to form even an  inadequate conception of what I am doing here and it is easily disconcerted by the departure from old forms, a willed absence of the customary paraphernalia and the breaking of traditional barriers and limits.’

That is precisely what the USA brings to the world: this ability to constantly break down and remake itself. This is extremely difficult in countries like India or many European countries where they are burdened with their past. It is difficult to move forward. America has a short history, relatively speaking. But more than the time factor, let’s say the ‘star’ under which that society was born was conducive to change, In fact, that is its bane because it falls into fads very easily.  Picks up one thing, drops it, picks up another. Sri Aurobindo finishes his letter, and this is the important part:

‘America must be able to receive freely India’s riches and to give freely in return from her own for the material organisation of a higher life on the physical plane; this is at once a condition and her chance. At present it is only a possibility. Let us see whether it can be made an achieved and perfected symbol.’ (Ibid)

Now this is precisely where we stand. You read about the nuclear deal. These are perhaps attempts to help on the material plane, but you have so much opposition and everybody pulling according to their own ideology. I have not studied this matter in depth, and am not qualified to do so. I see it from the point of view of this cosmology:  these are attempts to bring the two countries together in precisely the manner Sri Aurobindo described, that America should give help on the material plane. This is what seems to be attempted here with all its imperfections.

You wonder how things can succeed in an atmosphere of ‘politics as usual’. I do see something happening in America today that is going to put the nation into a better position to open to higher spiritual values, for lack of a better word.

Q: Are you saying that America is responding to Sri Aurobindo’s heeding that it must open itself to India?

Not necessarily to India, but to a NEW way, to the new power that is manifesting in the world. He secluded himself for 24 years in order to make this possible in the whole world, each country in its own way. We are talking about these two countries that have very clear destinies written out for them: India and America. I’m not going into the African nations or even the European countries. I myself am interested in these two because around this coming together hinges the future of the world in a more enlightened condition. We have to see how we get there.

Q: So what is happening?

Precisely what you see in the electoral processes going on now. It is unthinkable in India that you can spend two years campaigning and it will be three years before the actual election takes place in November. That’s all we’ve heard.  But, as I have pointed out, it is the process that is important right now. The campaign is the important thing now: you yourself referred to the fact that this is front page news in India. This country prides itself on being a democracy, but it cannot compare to the American experience where the democratic process reaches all sectors of society, with its disadvantages and advantages. The disadvantage is that everybody is wrapped up in this, with the result that you have a lame duck presidency, but how can it not be? No one is interested in what is going on in Washington because they are more interested in this electoral process taking place right now. I do not recall it like this in past elections. It is this particular election, and what does that tell you? The time has come; the things foreseen or prophesied are ripening and coming to fruition.

Q: What’s really being worked out in this electoral process?

That is the interesting part. It gives you a key to the real position these two nations occupy. They are not on opposite ends of a linear pole, but they are within a circular movement. There is a Centre and then there is a circle around it (as in the astronomical symbol of the Sun ), the periphery. America is comfortable within the periphery. You could say the spiritual light, or the Supramental Light according to Sri Aurobindo’s definition, is what is located at the Centre – and that is the New Way. That is what is being established right now.

You have the two roles: India at the central point and then the outer circle which is embodied by the American spirit to an extraordinary degree: change, change, change. But if America can get onto something of greater value and depth, then you have what is a key feature of the Supramental Manifestation: the harmonisation of the Being and the Becoming, or the central point and the multiplicity (periphery), the unity and the diversity. This is what needs to happen, and it is happening.

America is taking care of that outer flutter which India gets lost in – it is not capable of dealing with that at all. This brings up the point Sri Aurobindo made when he wrote that India has difficulty in letting go of the old and ancient forms. That was his labour of all those years while he was embodied, to open up to the new and to shake off some of the baggage. I have continued in the same process. It is essential to both civilisations in order to do their job. This is taking place now in the electoral process, and the American experience is being raised to a higher level.

We haven’t seen anything in India like this. We have not seen any sign of an opening to the Supramental Manifestation as yet. We can discuss this later and I will show how it has worked, but nobody is aware of it; and that is why it got done. It would have been destroyed or pulled down by the old baggage.

Q: Your observations indicate that the USA electoral process is helping America to raise its consciousness to a higher level. How are the candidates doing that?

In America you see that the two candidates on the Democrat side – Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – expose the main prejudices that stand in the way of a higher expression, – that is, gender and race. You have to see this as being organized by the Supramental Shakti, or by a higher power, however you want to call it.  One is forced to see it like that because the candidates were perfectly fashioned for the job they have to do, – well before any of this came to the fore, and well beyond the human ability to devise.

Barack Obama not only represents the Black community but he himself is an example of white and black, a perfect mix, half and half. How can it be that he is such a perfect example of the possibility of harmonizing these two and bringing them together? In his own being that is what he has done or attempts to do, however imperfectly or misguided, in a sense, because he attaches to it the old labels; and you can see the mess he’s gotten into with his ‘former pastor’, as he refers to him. He seems not to have enough courage to really break out. So what does he do?  He gets into a new united church; he is fishing around for where he can find his place more comfortably given his ‘mix’, shall we say.

It is exciting to see what is taking place: it is an historical moment, as many commentators have declared based on his last speech, the one dealing with the furore that arose from his pastor’s sermon against America, basically against everything that America cherishes. So that brought up the possibility in this inspired man to speak his piece and in the process to raise the whole discourse to a higher level. ‘Politics as usual’ is going to try to pull this speech apart and that is good – they play their role in forcing him to deal with these issues within himself, to hone, to articulate, to formulate. And that is always beneficial.

On the other hand you have Hillary Clinton who is the gender candidate. She brings up all that. She is brilliant and many of her qualities Obama does lack, but with her comes the old baggage. In a sense she does represent womanhood; they are burdened with the stereotypes that most women will not let go of. She herself cannot play the role that Barak Obama plays. She feels she has to rely or lean on the old establishment. So you have in these two candidates this bringing to the surface everything that blocks America from a higher expression. Therefore I say the final result is of lesser importance, whether McCain, Hillary or Obama. America has the capacity to move along with the times now, and you see extraordinary things happening which you do not see in India.

I have been living here 36 years and I have not seen anything like this happening. The electoral process is of course only 45 days. But there is more to it: you have a huge mass of the population that is illiterate, which you don’t have in America. So the ways that have to be worked out for India are totally different and they relate to its being the Centre of this New Age.

Q: What about India? You say America is now rising to its higher destiny during this electoral process. Where does India stand?

India does not rely on the population being carried along in the same way as the American. In America it is the collectivity that is important – it always has been and always will be (‘…A government for the people and by the people’…). That’s what makes these two societies so totally different. Here things go on as usual and there is a pretense of carrying the populace along with you, but it really doesn’t happen. Everybody knows this and that’s why there is cynicism in India; far more than America could ever imagine.

Here people are cynical because they see that the institutions have little value. They are intrinsically valuable but in the operational sense they cannot function because they can never come to fruition, to completion; there is too much interference. So even if one gets a court order, one doubts. I’m sure everybody who reads the newspapers feels the same thing: Oh, this will never come out; this conviction will never hold. In America cynicism to that degree is unthinkable. The moment the populace really comes to understand that their courts, their executive branch, and so forth, cannot deal with a problem, they try to change society.

Q: But you are describing India as the harbinger of a new world order; how, if the system doesn’t work?

How? It works out according to laws prevailing for the Centre. In other words, it is a vertical descent that takes place. Visualise it as the astronomical symbol of the Earth  with its four quarters delineated within a circle, you can understand what I mean. You have the vertical, and the horizontal. What is required for the Centre to come into being (for the entire globe) is a perfect meeting point of these two ‘directions’. That is where the USA comes in as the horizontal, the space element, the field. In India it is the vertical, – which America cannot provide, and is not meant to provide. You can look at it as the vertical being the spiritual element, the horizontal the material, to use Sri Aurobindo’s definition. It is the same thing and that is what this cosmology describes, each with its own ‘laws’.

When we go into these things deeply you realize that in this symbol of the equal cross you have described the very same thing, but using different terms – the vertical for one, and the horizontal for the other. This cosmological terminology is more ‘secular’ and therefore perhaps more acceptable to a larger section of the population.

The vertical means that things get done here as commanded and set in motion by the higher Power; and it has to be unknown to elements that might obstruct the happening. Yet at the same time it must make use of what is here on the ground, in the field. So you have the new independent India to come up and you have things arranged, as I am able to show in my written works, that from long ago a particular ‘line’ was established through whom this axis of India’s essential being is to be rooted in the Earth, and in the particular spatial point that this country occupies, – that is, the centre.

Q: In India things are set in motion by a higher power – that’s the vertical descent – and the rooting of this power in the country is what is taking place now. Is that what you are saying?

In a certain sense this is an updating of what in ancient times were known as the Lunar and Solar Dynasties. The main difference between the two lies in the fact that monarchies and their dynasties are obsolete. A ‘new way’ is required for the contemporary setting.

Thus, you have this family arising long before anything was known – what I call the Lunar Line – and before they themselves even had a sense of their own destiny. Admittedly, everyone had ‘a sense of destiny’ around the time of the Independence Movement because obviously that’s when they were all committed to and driven by a single aim. Many today lament the fact that that spirit is gone, and of course it is – it cannot last. But what happens when these things take place unconsciously is that other forces jump in and corrupt the atmosphere; and that is one reason why you have such rampant corruption in the country.

Most of what I am going to describe is hidden, except for what has appeared in my books since the mid 1970s. It all took shape without violating anything of what was being established as the New India – that is, the political process, the democratic process – without violating that but making use of it without anyone’s knowledge. If it had been known it would have been torn to pieces before maturity.

So you have the Lunar Line furnishing a descending numerical sequence or formula of 9-6-3-0/1, which is the key to the entire process. And you have the Nehru family embodying that sequence through their births; that is to say, they cement those number-powers in the fabric of India’s temporal being. I won’t go into greater details for now. Suffice here to state that you start with Motilal Nehru, then you go to Jawaharlal Nehru and then to Indira Gandhi, and these fit that 9-6-3 pattern accurately.

Q: The first three members of the Nehru family, or what you call the Lunar Line, are the 9, the 6, and the 3 of your cosmological formula. How do you arrive at that?

The sequence of their births with their respective number equivalents is according to the ancient system I called the Mathematics of Unity – that is, by reducing through addition each sequence to a single digit. The harmony works both vertically and horizontally as below:

There are criticisms, often legitimate, about the role these individuals have played in the destiny of the fledgling nation. But you have to remember that they were constrained by the prevailing conditions of the times. Jawaharlal Nehru was a Fabian Socialist who saw that for India the only hope was the socialist order, and he passed this on to Indira. Now this seems absurd; we have moved away from certain basic tenets of socialism and are embarking on a very different course through the process of free-market globalisation. It is obvious that the tag of Socialist Republic as Indira Gandhi had inserted into the Constitution in the 1970s doesn’t make much sense today. Yet we cling to that label because it serves a certain political purpose for the government of the day, – such as, a system that works for the people, and only for the people. How accurate this may be is another question.

Having at this point no choice in the matter, we must accept the existence of this arrangement for the nation, called the Lunar Line for very specific reasons in this cosmology, but which must not be confused with a ‘dynasty’, as is commonly understood simply because it follows a biological configuration. Furthermore, the Line ends at the fourth level, and only the fourth; after that it is ‘politics as usual’! If all was centred on a particular political party it is simply because during that whole stretch of many decades, it was the only party that covered all of India. Things are quite different now. The cosmological pattern is very exact and it has played itself out to perfection.

Q: The Lunar Line ends with the fourth member, or the numbers 0/1. That would have been Rajiv Gandhi?

In this arrangement there are FOUR stages, 9/6/3-0/1. Once these number-powers are cemented in the nation’s destiny as a sort of axis, then the actual political process takes over; the descending movement reverses itself (at the Zero level) and a new direction is assumed: the horizontal proper. That is when the political process can take full shape. It is the level of the number-power 1, as here indicated:

Rajiv Gandhi           20.8.1944 = 1

After that fourth level the movement, as stated, is reversed and the horizontal and multiple take over. Therefore, it is entirely understandable that coalitions should come into prominence now.

This was meant to take care of the ‘outer circle’, something on the order of a relay station connected to the HEART of the new order which is the Solar Line. Metaphorically, we can view the arrangement as a pulsating heart (the Solar Line) setting in motion a ‘pulse’ to be carried through the Body (the nation) via its veins and arteries (the Lunar Line). Each one was elected and re-elected according to the demands of India’s fledgling democracy without violating those demands; but, I repeat, taking into consideration the prevailing circumstances, as well as the personality traits of each member of the Line, both Solar and Lunar. For example, Indira Nehru-Gandhi was the third in the Lunar Line. As a woman she had to work within the constraints her gender imposed, similar to Hillary Clinton today. Any woman who tries to come up knows the difficulties very well. Indira was no different.

Each one had a personality to deal with, we cannot ignore this fact. And they are going to accommodate themselves to the field they find when they take birth to accomplish their task.

All of this had to be respectful of both the existing conditions and the cosmological requirements for making of India the centre of the new Age, of the new world Order.  I cannot pretend to describe all this in a brief interview but please note that this is very different from the label, superpower. I have explained it exactly as it is in the three volumes of my series, The New Way. It is a deep study that needs to be made. The point I wish to make here is that if it had been spelt out originally… if Sri Aurobindo had spelt out exactly how it was to take shape through the Solar and Lunar Lines, it would have been destroyed.  Forces would have intervened to make sure it did not happen.

Q: Are you saying there is a corresponding Solar Line, which also follows the same numerical pattern of the 9, 6, 3, and 0/1?

Yes. The Solar Line is the main factor, the creative power working from ‘behind’.

These incarnations are often obliged to work day after day without the full understanding of how the process is going to take shape. I come along at the third level of Sri Aurobindo’s work, and things are much clearer for me. We‘ve gone through the 9 and 6 of their Solar Line, in harmony with the Lunar, albeit with a different function.  But we see the same thing happening. You see that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the 9 and the 6, were able to do their work largely because nobody bothered about them. Even Sri Aurobindo did not spell out exactly what it was he was doing. Yet in his symbol its central Lotus, known as the Lotus of the Avatar, contains the Formula: two rows of petals, 9 and 6, respectively; and then 3 leaves. The way the Mother designed his symbol was exactly descriptive of the way it actually took shape. In the symbol the 9 and 6 are together (in time) and attached to each other; then there is a gap (in time) and the 3 leaves complete the sacred Formula, which in the symbol stand alone and unattached.

This is a beautiful example of ‘Prophecy through Symbols’, which can be read only by those initiated into this unique language. I say ‘prophecy’ because the final ingredient of three leaves reveals a gap (in time) since the birth described by this arrangement took place many decades after the symbol’s creation and was unknown to all concerned.

Almost like a relay station, the Nehrus did their part on the periphery; but then you see what happened toward the end – the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. When things have to be done unawares, unconsciously, it allows for forces to come up and interfere.

You can’t say the course of things changes, but this indicates where you are in the process and how much remains to be done. Unless a certain proportionate group takes cognisance of what the new Harmony actually is, and for which purpose, those forces do take advantage of these ‘empty spaces’.

This is where India stands today, the role it is to play in the world had to be devised with nobody knowing what was taking shape.

Q: What do you mean the role it is to play in the world?

The role it is to play as the Centre, the central point to this circle which is the world, the Earth. It is a cosmological fact of our times that can be verified objectively; or better said ‘mathematically’ – but the new Order brings its own ‘science’, a new language to accommodate the new energies sent abroad upon the world.

Q: These are very powerful statements. You say India is the centre of the world?

No, not exactly. It is a temporal measurement we are discussing, the Centre of this 9th Manifestation which covers 6,840 years from 234 BCE. India is the centre for this period and it must provide everything that is required of such a Centre.

Q: Does India know this?

Sri Aurobindo made it very clear that the baggage of the old is very real. This is what he and the Mother had to deal with. I also had to deal with something on that order, but of a different nature; and I was very much protected in the beginning of my work. Really, it is only now that I am ‘coming out’, so to speak – because I had to spend decades perfecting this process and its cosmology to the point where it can be given out.

Nobody can take advantage of this higher knowledge; you cannot misuse it, you cannot do anything with it now that would obstruct the process. You accept that there is a power arranging things beyond the scope of the human being; you learn to see it operating in the world and you realise that it can transform the world.  If we wait for all human beings to respond – well, you tell me if that is realistic? India, because of her ancient traditions, should have no difficulty with that; cognisance of the reality as it has been arranged ‘from above’, so to speak, has not yet happened in India on a large scale. Hence there are usurpers.

There have been interferences; there have been – I can’t call them delays, because everything is so controlled by the inexorable arrow of Time – but there have been burdens to carry, and great difficulties in trying to inch forward, inch forward, to fall only to rise again and still move forward, you understand.

I think if people were to realise the existence of this harmony, this pattern that works for India, this 9, and 6, and 3, it would go a long way to easing the pain that arises precisely out of Unknowing. It has worked out to perfection because nobody knew of its existence. But at this point, at the third level of course it is possible to describe things previously left untold because they are largely seen by hindsight. Most of the protagonists involved have passed on, their work having been completed. One can now discuss what it all means because there is no possibility of interfering. The work, in large part, is done.

If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6, and 9
then you would have a key to the universe.

Nicola Tesla
scientist/inventor
1856-1943

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea)
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
 Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet 2008