Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom – HISTORY & HIGHLIGHTS 2022 ONWARDS

20 March, 2024

To: Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and translator, The Valmiki Ramayana, volumes 1, 2 and 3.

Dear Dr. Bibek Debroy:

I’m writing because I need your good advice.

First of all, we congratulate you and Prime Minister Modi-ji for the tremendous goals you have undertaken: we read about your vision to attain Viksit Bharat: 2047 and support you 100%. It is reassuring to know that you and an extraordinary team are moving ‘India, that is Bharat’ forward – to 2047 and beyond (for the next 1000 years as the Prime Minister once articulated!).

And of course, all around the country are marvelous signs of a solid rejuvenation.

But we are concerned: within the Prime Minister’s Viksit Bharat vision, we don’t see any plans for a national Vedic Calendar based on the ancient way, the Vedic Hindu journey or ‘sacrifice’. Does not such a comprehensive blueprint need the universal Vedic Calendar to support this monumental growth? So much is in place, ready to go…

Today is the Vernal Equinox, Our earth enters the first day of the Zodiacal Year. In ten months she will reach Capricorn, on the December Solstice. This beautiful harmony has not changed since the beginning of time! And yet, India is out of sync with these natural cosmic harmonies – she waits to celebrate Mahavishuva in April, 23 days late – and only because of an error that crept in over the ages. She uses the wrong zodiac, the circle of the Constellations instead of our Tropical Zodiac.

I noted this in a letter sent to PM Modi (and cc’d to you) on the December Solstice (see attached)*. As a Vedic scholar, you well know the importance of the yearly journey for ancient civilisations, such as India. Calendars were organized to bring society together around one common endeavor, to chart out a meaningful path to achieve one’s dharma.

Dr Bibek, may I summarise a few points for you, based on the teachings of our founder, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea), a world renowned cosmologist**. I am hopeful that you will know someone who is interested in the Calendar issue and can open a dialogue.

The Tropical Zodiac originated in India thousands of years ago,

Our ancient ones gave much importance to accurately determining the pillars of Earth Time – the solstices and equinoxes – that support the planet in its journey along the pathway of the year. So much so, these balancing periods of time were elevated to ‘auspicious’ – Uttarayana, and ‘inauspicious’, Dakshinayana.

Uttarayana comes directly from the Tropical Zodiac. It is the NORTH GATEWAY, Capricorn/Makar. It is the highest point in the annual journey, Cosmic Midday. Thea calls these two Gateways (north and south) the ‘Axis of Evolution’. They can only be determined by the Tropical Zodiac.

The twelve rashis of this system were indeed well known in the Vedic Age – the hymns of the Rig Veda sing of this ‘initiatic’ journey through the ‘sacrifice’ of the Year,

Thea studied Sri Aurobindo’s translation of the Trivikrama Myth (see below) and offers a unique ‘seeing’ which confirms this ancient tradition. She noted that he capitalized the symbols of Lion, Bull and Friend, which is not usually done in Sanskrit.

Thea saw that Vishnu is measuring the Universe NOT by steps through space, but by steps through TIME, via the Precession of the Equinoxes This is not a quaint or fanciful tale, she informs, rather it accurately describes the time of the appearances on Earth of the last three of his emanations, 7^th, 8^th and 9^th. And thus she indicates the Dasavataras are of Vedic origin and not Puranic, as most believe.

The symbol figures in the verses , Lion, Bull and Friend, which describe Vishnu’s famous steps, are three of the four fixed signs of the Zodiac.

The zodiacal signs of fixed quality correspond to Sattva of the Indian Gunas, as in Rajas, Sattva and Tamas. Or they can be categorized as signs of Preservation as in the trinity of Creation, Preservation, Destruction-/Dissolution.

The First of his three steps (verse 2, the LION) takes the universe through the time epoch known as the Age of LEO during which the 7th Evolutionary Avatar, Sri Ram made his appearance. This is followed by the next step – the Age of TAURUS, (verse 3, the BULL) and the coming of Sri Krishna, 8th Avatar

In verse 5, the Rishi sees Vishnu’s next and last step: ‘for there in that highest step of the wide-moving Vishnu is that FRIEND’. The Friend is the astrological sign for the Age of Aquarius; the time period of the 9^th evolutionary avatar, our very own Sri Aurobindo! The fourth sign of Preservation, Scorpio, is left out of the verses because, Thea informs, Vishnu begins to measure while standing in his own zodiacal sign, the sign of the Eagle, his Vahana, Garuda.**

Dr. Bibek, India has always been connected to the cosmic harmonies of our Earth, but over the ages this true astrological tradition has been lost, it seems no one remembers.

India cannot afford to ignore this important issue. She is the centre-soul of the Earth, a destiny for which she has been preparing from the moment she took her first breath as a civilisation committed to carrying forward the Sanatana Dharma. India has no choice – she cannot abandon our Earth. Her national Calendar must be based on the Earth’s orbit as she annually circles her Sun, through the four solstices and equinoxes.

With much appreciation for all you do for our nation, Bharat.

I look forward to your comments and/or direction.

Patricia Heidt, PhD, Director

*Letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the celebration of Makar Sankranti, 2023

https://www.aeoncentre.com/mrvw-history-highlights-2022-onwards/

** Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea), Kashmir and the Convergence of Time, Space and Destiny, 2004.

****

RV, I, 154 Sri Aurobindo’s translation of the famous three steps of Trivikrama

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

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

Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervading,
the wide-moving BULL whose dwelling-place is on the mountain,
he who being One has measured all this long and far-extending seat
of our self-accomplishing by only three of his strides.
He whose three steps are full of honey-wine and they perish not
but have ecstasy by the self-harmony of their nature;
yea, he being One holds the triple principle and earth and heaven also,
even all the worlds.

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

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

***

Makar Sankranti, 22 December, 2023

Sub.: One Earth, One Family, One Calendar

Dear Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modiji,

Greetings on this special day, the December Solstice, Makar Sankranti! A year ago we wrote to wish you well on the opening of the G 20 India summit. We congratulate you and your team now for the extraordinary work done!

The students here also thank you for embarking on the journey, the ‘Amrit Kaal’ of a new India. You’ve committed yourself to a variety of ambitious projects to move in that direction. But there is one item that is not being addressed that we think can assist our earth toward this vision: this is the Calendar.

Just a reminder: the Calendar was the way our ancient ones organised their society so that the cosmic harmonies of the earth could be lived together collectively. The journey through the 12 month year, supported by the rhythms of the solstices and equinoxes, was the backdrop for an entire way of life, a culture, the Dharma.

Problem: Most of the world celebrates Makar Sankranti today, the shortest day of the year, the Solstice. Our nation should celebrate Makar Sankranti today too, just as they did during the Sangam Era and the Vedic Age, with no ‘corrections’ required.

But India has disconnected the celebration from the Solstice, and celebrates 23 days late, on 15 January. Contemporary science says that Makar or Capricorn is no longer THERE, it has shifted. But it is simply that they are measuring in the wrong circle (see diagram below).

There are two zodiacs. The innermost circle with the zodiacal signs is the Tropical Zodiac, the ONE CIRCLE extolled in the Vedas, with its fourfold division marking out the four Cardinal points of Equinoxes and Solstices.

The outermost circle describes the Sidereal Zodiac, the one currently used by Nirayana pundits which is actually the constellation of fixed stars far beyond our solar system.

Each Circle is Important:

The Sidereal circle is used to locate our Earth as she moves through the large cycles of time, the astrological Ages.

The Tropical Zodiac, the innermost circle, contains the Vedic knowledge of the 12 signs of the Zodiac; there is no Vedic knowledge in the Nakshastras out in the constellations.

It is through the equinoxes and solstices that the Earth as a family is connected to the cosmos. These cosmic harmonies are the Earth’s unique contribution to the Solar System: they are the unchanging landmarks, heralding the seasons of our year, and are deeply engrained into our biological clocks. (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, The Vedic Altar Updated, 2023).

We realise the issue is complex; each group clings to their own calendar…

we think it is only you, Prime Minister Modi, and your team, who can do this!

The Vedic Calendar is the way to unite all Hindu people who live and love the cosmic harmonies;

it makes the Saka Calendar a reality for the whole nation and aligns Bharat with the world communiity.*

Please consider setting up a committee to study the issue and to move in this direction.

Of the four pillars or Cardinal Points of our solar system, uttarayana is Capricorn/ Makar, highest of the four and known in astrological tradition as the northern gateway to the Midday Sun. (Dakshinayana, the southern gateway – is the sign of Cancer).

The Vedic Year opened with Mahavishuva, on the Equinox of March. Sri Aurobindo verifies ‘the victory is won in the twelve periods of the sacrificial year…the tenth secures the victory’. That is entry into Makar, the Solstice of 21/22 December (The Secret of the Veda, CWSA, volume 15, p.182 ).

Capricorn, known in ancient time as The Name of God, is considered throughout the world as the astrological ruler of India.

We are happy to share this extraordinary graphic with you. Our Founder, Thea (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet), a cosmologist of great renown, brings Capricorn from the heavens, in the tropical zodiac, and locates it on the landmass of Bharat. No longer is Capricorn merely a symbol, it has become real. It is no longer ‘heavenly’ in nature, but Earthly as well. (ibid, update 6).

With much appreciation for all you and your team are doing for our nation, Bharat,

Patricia Heidt, PhD, Director

*The Government of India, in 1956, officially adopted the Saka calendar, based on the Gregorian (universal) model, but it has yet to serve as a uniform and scientific Panchang.

** See Slides, Celebrating Makar Sankranti:

https://www.aeoncentre.com/6-one-nation-one-earth-one-calendar/

Cc: Draupadi Murmu, Honorable President of India

Cc: Honourable Ministers of the Government of India

23 September, 2023, (the Equinox)

Aditya L1 to orbit the Sun!

PM Modi sent congratulations to scientists and engineers at ISRO on the successful launch of Aditya L1, India’s first space-based solar observatory on 2 September, 2023, and added: “... Our tireless scientific efforts will continue in order to develop a better understanding of the Universe for the welfare of entire humanity.”

All of us join in with these well-deserved congratulations!

Our Founders early insights come to mind. Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet’s (Thea’s) writes that it becomes obvious Science is leading the way as an instrument for expressing the best of the planet’s energies. Science has heard the call of our Earth and is revealing the secrets of her deeper and unmanifested self, bringing to the fore the harmony and unity that she is, in her perfection.

Our delight and appreciation contrasts with the turmoil we experience in our daily existence; we cannot find solutions to the overwhelming problems that face our civilisation. ‘Science moves boldly and energetically ahead in its discovery, its renewal’, writes Thea, spirituality lags behind (The New Way, 1, p. 16). And she cautions: Our spiritual consciousness must be revolutionised, otherwise science will continue to lead the way, but science works in ignorance, without the direct beam of a higher light. We cannot expect the scientific community, who is quite capable of answering all the ‘How’ questions, to answer the questions of ‘Why’. (ibid).

It is a concern that our children are growing up with the idea that it is only scientific knowledge that will save our Earth, that the spiritual is useless in the important things of our lives. They should be taught that it is not only science that studies the Sun, that the spiritual and scientific move together. The grand explorations of our scientific community – the Pragyaan Rover on the Moon and Aditya’s launch to the Sun – run parallel with the new light descending on our Earth, the descent of the Supramental Truth-Consciousness, announced by the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, to her disciples in 1956.

The Indian civilisation has always worshipped the Sun

‘We choose the Supreme Light of the divine Sun;
we aspire that it may impel our minds…’

The singers of the Gayatri mantra (RV 3.62.10) aspired to become ‘guardians of the Light’. To ascend toward the luminous world of the divine sun, the supramental heaven of Swar, was their goal (Sri Aurobindo, Secret of the Veda, CWSA, Vol 15). This wide and large world of Truth-Consciousness, hidden within the darkness of our material creation could be found and released with the supreme help of Surya, proclaims Sri Aurobindo; we need only follow the same path of our ancestors – Earth’s yearly revolution around the Sun.

In a newly re-published book – The Vedic Altar Updated – Thea writes that our modern world has lost the link to the Vedic experience of the journey to the Sun (Swar). In a series of 12 essays she sets out to explain how she found ‘the key’ which allowed her to develop the cosmology to understand its profound wisdom. She reminds first that the original Vedic experience was not a form or an altar; rather it was an ‘initiation’ that took place in different stages throughout the Earth’s Year. She calls our year of 12 months, 365 days, the ‘divine measure’’. And in fact, the Year was the principle deity of the Vedic Sacrifice, as is evident throughout the hymns of the Rig Veda (as in, ‘By the truth, in the revolution of the year, they broke Vala’, RV X, 62).

By the close of the Vedic Age, the experience of the annual Journey gave way to the form of the Vedic altar. Gradually the Altar evolved into the Hindu Temple, with the installation of the deity in the garbha griha ensuring that connection between the individual soul and the Divine (The Vedic Alar Updated, p. 20).

A ‘system of equivalency’ was the hallmark of the Vedic way, explains Thea (ibid, p. 21). Earth’s yearly revolution around her Sun through the ecliptic path was the same inner journey of the soul to discover the Divine Truth-Consciousness or Swar. As Earth travelled away from the rays of the Sun on its southern orbital path, so too our soul, the spark hidden within, was in darkness and ignorance, covered by the birth of the ego. This six month period of time, Dakshinayan, was not ‘inauspicious’. Rather early civilisations considered this part of the journey as ‘gestational’, a time to prepare the soul to receive the full rays of sunlight six months later in Uttarayan, opening with the 21 December Solstice.

Thea explores this correspondence between our earth and her Sun in the graphic below. Earth’s axial tilt of 23.27 degrees allows our planet to show four distinct faces to her luminary as she moves through the annual journey of the ‘cosmic year’. Equinox and Solstice were the foundation on which the Vedic system of cosmic harmonies was based; the four cardinal pillars were (and are) the way our Earth family connects to and experiences life in harmony with the cosmic surround (ibid, p. 53). They provide stability and are deeply ingrained in our biological clocks.

Earth’s journey starts with the first zodiacal sign of Aries, with the Vernal Equinox (Mahavishuva) around 21 March; it is Cosmic Dawn. From there Earth swings away from the Sun and at its farthest point (the June Solstice) we are in the sign Cancer. It is Cosmic Midnight which represents the plunge into inconscience, or ‘the fall’; it is the movement farthest away from the Divine (Sun), birth of the ego.

The movement continues around to the sign of Yoga, Libra, the other mid-way point opposite Aries, the September Equinox. This is Cosmic Sunset, the sign of the awakening of consciousness. And from here we are brought to the fullest light at the December Solstice when the Earth is at its closest physical distance to the Sun. It is, in fact, Cosmic Midday (in Capricorn), the sign of the Golden Age, the Divine Mother in her most perfect manifestation. (source, Symbols and the Question of Unity, first publication, 1974, republished 2020 p. 18).

The Vedic experience of the journey to the Sun/Swar went into decline; in fact a profound shift occurred across the entire Earth, undermining the cosmic manifestation. By the beginning of the Age of Pisces (234 BCE), Thea concludes, our Earth’s unique contribution to the Solar System was ignored or rejected, leading to the rise and establishment of a secular divide. This idea that the human being is a separate person, isolated from the rest of the environment and no longer united and in harmony with its greater Self, Thea calls the cosmic lie. It is the source of all our ignorance and suffering in this world.

The Vedic civilization which was totally linked to the fourfold cosmic harmony of the Equinoxes and Solstices became dislodged from the sacred experience of its journey to Swar, and succumbed to forces of inertia. The result was the split between the sacred and the scientific, a confusion which has affected the whole of society even today. As Earth entered the Age of Aquarius, 1926, Avatar Sri Aurobindo, took up the evolutionary yoga where Sri Krishna left off. An intense period of Tapasya followed to anchor the consciousness of the new Age in the new time.

Why is recapturing the experience of the Vedic journey to the Sun so important today?

All eyes are on the Sun! We are told by the news that Aditya-L-1 mission holds much more importance than past missions because ‘it is meant to study the base of our solar system, the Sun… With increasing demand to study space, and more importantly, the impact of the Sun on our planet’s climate, it was never more urgent for ISRO to have its own large scale observatory focused on the Sun than this time…’ (Techlusive, 3 September 2023)

And just as ISRO is feeling that urgency to observe our Sun for answers to the escalating problems earth inhabitants are facing worldwide, has there ever been a more urgent time for the Earth family to study their relationship to their inner Sun, our planetary soul? As these words are being written, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is addressing the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the headlines in The Hindu news glaring states: ‘…people are looking to leaders for action and a way out of the current global ‘mess’.

For me, Aditya’s launch is a symbol of hope: the focus of their study is our solar system with the Sun as its central base. Aditya’s launch is a symbol that Mahakal, great God of Time, is pushing our Earth family toward a higher realisation, toward an inner experience that India has always known: the Sun is the symbol of the Divine Centre in each person as well as in our physical Solar System.

The solar system is an apt symbol for the collective as well, the emerging gnostic society: the Sun is the centre with the planets in orbit, they reflect her power and light. Our correct spiritual attitude should be the same.

The human mental consciousness as it is now is a very feeble light. It has usurped the place of our Sun and bound our human nature to a lower position. However it is possible (and necessary) to loosen the hold of the old ego-centered nature and install the Divine Sun as the centre of our universe. This may seem too high a goal, but as Sri Aurobindo exclaims, the Earth has been preparing for this great event for a long time. After all, the shift from our lower human nature, wrapped around the ego, to a higher hemisphere of light is the purpose and culmination of our evolutionary journey.

The Gnostic Circle is a vision and a tool that presents this integrated harmony; its goal is to help the seeker get a release from the hold of the old mental consciousness and gain access to a higher purpose for life on our Earth. It is obviously the right tool for our future children.

Last year, the Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom sent several letters to our PM Modi suggesting the way forward would be to unite our Earth family through a universal Calendar. Those letters and a graphic of a universal calendar are on our website. This year Mahakal, great time spirit, has pushed us to start a website series on The Gnostic Circle, we look forward to comments and any help the reader may have.

To be continued,

Announcement 25, on the December Solstice:

Proposal: one Earth, one Family, One Calendar

References

Sri Aurobindo also refers to a specific duration of time, the ninth through the tenth month (of the year), when the Aryan Warriors can overcome obstacles in the way and find and release the hidden rays of Sun/Light from the caves of the Panis. (It is when the nine months’ sacrifice is prolonged through the tenth, it is when the Navagwas become the ten Dashagwas… that the Sun is found…’ Ibid, 176-177)
By examining the vision (of her Temple) which the Mother of Pondicherry gave to her disciples during the month of January, 1971, Thea was able to recapture that lost ‘key’ which was the link to the extraordinary consciousness of the Rig Vedic seers. As co-worker of Sri Aurobindo, 9^th Evolutionary Avatar of Vishnu, the Mother enjoyed that same vision of unity and wholeness of our cosmos; her vision of the Temple was the channel for his knowledge to be rooted into our Earth (The Vedic Altar Updated, republished 2023, p.28).

That knowledge, descending from the world of the Supramental Truth – Consciousness, could not be grasped by those around the Mother, and the building that arose does not reflect the original vision. Fortunately, the 9^th Avatar had two shaktis to assist him in his mission. Thea was to formulate the cosmology which presented the link from the Mother’s vision to its original essence; she explains how a system of Equivalency evolved which became ‘the hallmark of the Vedic Way’.

The Calendar which integrated the Vedic society was the element that became undermined first; doubts were created about the legitimacy of measuring the date and timing for the celebration of the festival where none should have arisen. After all, it was very easy to determine the Solstice, shortest day of the year, that was all that was needed. Makar Sankranti became unlinked from the 21/22 December Solstice, in India in 2023, it was celebrated on 15 January, 23 days after the true date.

March Equinox, Mahavishuva, 21 March 2023

To Honourable Prime Minister Modiji

Sub. : Maha-Vishuva (Vedic March Equinox) today

We have been following the G20 meetings and we send you sincere thanks for your fine leadership. It was disappointing that the delegates could not come to a joint statement at the recent meetings of Foreign Ministers. We agree with you that ‘global governance has failed’ and the way forward is to focus on what unites rather than divides.

It is obvious that a consciousness of unity needs to emerge more fully among all the nations of the world on this earth. This was the focus of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga. Re-instating the true Vedic Calendar as the Global Calendar (One World, One Calendar) will take the world back to those roots of wisdom embodied in the mahavakya – Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

The Vedic year (the Samvatsar Satra) began on the March Equinox, (Maha-Vishuva), that day initiates the yearly journey as recorded in the Veda. The Vedic Uttara-Sankranti was observed on the day of the winter solstice when the Uttarayan or the Devayana, the ascent to the Divinity, began. These fixed points are uniform the world over and form the eternal basis for the World Calendar.

All of us join in with these well-deserved congratulations!

Let’s begin this journey back to the Vedic roots in India with the installation of the Sri Rama idol at Ayodhya. Because Ramlalla chose to make his long awaited coming in 1949 on the December Solstice, we requested you (vide our letter dated 26th January, 2023) to have the installation of the idol also on the upcoming December Solstice of 2023.

This timing affirms the importance our Vedic Fathers gave to the Year, the central figure of the Vedic Sacrifice; it honors our Earth’s true Vedic Calendar. In that letter, our Convenor[1], wrote:

[1] Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom

This timing affirms the importance our Vedic Fathers gave to the Year, the central figure of the Vedic Sacrifice; it honors our Earth’s true Vedic Calendar. In that letter, our Convenor[1], wrote:

[1] Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom

‘As Sri Aurobindo has explained in his Secret of the Veda – The vedic year-long sacrifice leads to successive dawns of wider truth (1)^. He further says – Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are opened by the months and the years (2). Therefore the “doors” have to be opened on the correct day of the year.

Hence, for the successive dawns of wider truth to arise, for the eternal states of existence to become a reality, the Ram Temple needs to open its door to bless India on the first dawn after the end of the longest night of December 22, 2023 – on the dawn of 23rd December, 2023, when the Earth will begin to experience an increase of the Light with every succeeding dawn.

This is what will deepen a consciousness of unity. It’s then that:

‘the heart of every Indian will beat to the eternal rhythm of the Mother Earth going around the Sun in her annual pilgrimage, coursing through the seasons in her Samvatsara Satra. Every Indian will then be “united in heart, with one and common aspiration, with common mind and companionship” (the concluding hymn – the “Bharat Vakya” of the Rig Veda as translated by Sri Aurobindo (3).’

We look forward to the inauguration of the new era for India on 23rd December, 2023.

With best wishes and appreciation, we send you a recently re-published book written by our Founder/Director on Partition of India: its cause, its purpose.

Patricia Heidt, Ph.D, Director

The victory in the battle against the dark powers is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth.’ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 15 p. 182
‘Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are opened by the months and the years.’ Rig Veda24.5; Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 15 p.179
Rig Veda,191.4, Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 16 p. 182.

cc: Shri Champat Rai, General Secretary, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust

cc: Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh

cc: Draupadi Murmu, Honorable President of India

enclosed: copy of Partition of India, its cause, its purpose

To: Honourable Prime Minister Modiji
26 January 2023, Republic Day, India

Subject: Pran Pratishtha, Ram Mandir

For many years we’ve been following the developments surrounding the Ram Mandir; we’re filled with joy to see Lord Ram’s magnificent Temple rising at his birthplace. Thanks from all of us here at ACC for your strength and energy which has helped this sacred event to take place so speedily.

In 2010, after Justice D.V. Sharma of the Allahabad High Court issued his verdict, our Founder-Director, Thea (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet), published a seminal article about the appearance of the ‘Warrior-Child of Ayodhya’ (1). She states that the long-awaited judgement – after 60 years – was a ‘landmark in the history of modern India’: it reinstated the role of the Icon or Idol in the Vedic civilization.

As a cosmologist, Thea carried the judgement a step further and highlighted what she believed to be a core value of the Vedic civilization that was directly involved in the Ayodhya issue that should not be ignored. It was on the fateful night of 22-23 December, 1949, exactly at the December Solstice , that Lord Ram, 7^th Evolutionary Avatar, came as a ‘warrior child’ and took possession of his sacred abode.

Thea reminded her students that the Evolutionary Avatar comes at a specific time and for a specific task: just as the cosmos is in constant motion and evolution, so too does the Indian society, based on the cosmic harmonies, enjoy a means of renewal to combat fossilization and fundamentalism leading to collapse. This ’mechanism’ is the coming of the Vishnu Avatar: when they appear on the scene, they set the mechanism in motion (2).

The reason we write once again to you, Prime Minister Modiji, regards the statement in the news made by the General Secretary of the Temple Trust, Shri Champat Rai: ‘The construction of the (Ram) temple is expected to be completed by December 2023 and Lord Ram is expected to be seated in the sanctum sanctorum by the Makar Sankranti festival in January 2024.’

The symbolic message of Ramlal’s coming was unmistakable; how can the descendents of Shri Ram ignore it? Surely if Shri Ram chose to make his long awaited coming in 1949 on the December Solstice, should not the Ram Mandir Trust consider that the Pran Pratishtha also take place on the December Solstice of 2023?

We have been thrilled and impressed as we watch the construction work which has taken place under the supervision of the Ram Mandir Trust since the historic Supreme Court judgement of November 2019 gave the land to the Ram Janmabhoomi. Recently, our convenor[1], visited the Ayodha site and reported, ‘I feel so blessed’.

[1] Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom

An equally important fact we wish to call to your attention : the warrior-child Ramlala chose to appear exactly on the December Solstice, entry into zodiacal Capricorn/Makar. His timing affirms the importance which our ancient Fathers gave to the YEAR. The central figure of the Vedic Sacrifice was the YEAR with her balancing points of the Solstices and Equinoxes.

Step by step matters have been worked out so carefully in terms of space , i.e. the place of installation of the new Ram idol, his Garbhagriha. May we ask you (and those entrusted to these decisions) to also install the deity at the correct time – on the December Solstice 2023 – not only because Ramlala chose to appear on that very Solstice in 1949 but also to honour our Earth’s true Vedic calendar.

Ramlala has appeared on the contemporary scene to restore the ancient truth that made the Vedic civilization indestructible … his coming had a purpose: to save the Tradition, to keep it ‘eternal’ (sanatana) by a process of Updating. He guides us to the knowledge (3).

As Sri Aurobindo has explained in his Secret of the Veda – The vedic year-long sacrifice leads to successive dawns of wider truth (4)^.

He further says – Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are opened by the months and the years (5).

Therefore the “doors” have to be opened on the correct day of the year.

That’s why the Vedic year (the Samvatsar Satra) began on the March Equinox (Maha-Vishuva) that initiates the yearly journey as recorded in the Veda; and the Vedic Uttara-Sankranti was observed on the day of the winter solstice when the Uttarayan or the Devayana – the ascent to the Divinity began.

Hence, for the successive dawns of wider truth to arise, for the eternal states of existence to become a reality, the Ram Temple needs to open its door to bless India on the first dawn after the end of the longest night of December 22, 2023 – on the dawn of 23rd December, 2023, when the Earth will begin to experience an increase of the Light with every succeeding dawn.

It’s only then that the heart of every Indian will beat to the eternal rhythm of the Mother Earth going around the Sun in her annual pilgrimage, coursing through the seasons in her Samvatsara Satra.

Every Indian will then be “united in heart, with one and common aspiration, with common mind and companionship” (the concluding hymn – the “Bharat Vakya” of the Rig Veda as translated by Sri Aurobindo (6).

With best wishes and appreciation,

Patricia Heidt, PhD, Director

References:

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, (Thea), The Warrior-Child of Ayodhya: the Significance of his appearance for the Hindu Samaj, 5 October 2010.

http://puraniccosmologyupdated.blogspot.com/2010/10/warrior-child-of-ayodhya-1.html

Ibid, Part 2. http://puraniccosmologyupdated.blogspot.com/2010/10/significance-of-his-appearance-for.html

Ibid, Part 3. http://puraniccosmologyupdated.blogspot.com/2010/10/warrior-child-of-ayodhya-3.html

‘The victory in the battle against the dark powers is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth.’ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 15 p. 182

‘Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are opened by the months and the years.’ Rig Veda24.5; Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 15 p.179

Rig Veda, 191.4, Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 16 p. 182.

cc: Shri Champat Rai, General Secretary, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust

cc: Shri G. Kishan Reddy, Minister of Culture

cc: Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh

cc: Draupadi Murmu, Honorable President of India

enclosed: copy of The Warrior Child of Ayodhya

Makara Sankranti, Solstice, 22 December 2022

This is Draft - 1 prepared for Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji. See Draft - 2, which follows this letter; It was dispatched to The Prime Minister on Makara Sankranti.

Sub.: One Nation, One Earth, One Calendar

We celebrate with you today the December Solstice, entry of Earth and her family into the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. May we take this opportunity to congratulate you and the nation as you assume presidency of the G 20 – 2023 summit. Your choice of a lotus to show India’s cultural heritage and faith was inspired; the central focus of Sri Aurobindo’s own symbol is the lotus. We pray that you and the nation are guided by his vision for One Earth, One Family and One Future.

Dear Prime Minister: As a follow up to our 21 September equinox email, may we ask you to consider our ‘idea’ – to gather together a group of interested people to study and set up an Earth Calendar for both India and the World. Honouring and celebrating the EARTH YEAR together is one of the most profound ways we can go further, and in your words, ‘catalyse a fundamental mindset shift to benefit humanity as a whole.’

There is no better time to initiate this than on the sidelines of the summit. May I review with you these facts on which we base our idea:

Sri Aurobindo’s vision is a significant part of the ‘new circumstances’ shaping our future globalisation. Can India help the world ‘go further’ and see (a) that we are an evolutionary race in transition, this mental stage of development is not the last or highest? (b)) that we are not meant to be liberated from life on earth, for a better place? It is our planet’s destiny to be the ‘home’ for all people who look forward to a life of fulness and harmony.

Sri Aurobindo’s vision has renewed and ‘updated’ that of our ancient Ones: they understood that the Earth was a special place in the solar System. For most ancient civilisations the yearly ‘journey’ of the Earth around the Sun was central: they followed the Earth’s ecliptic path as the planet circled each year around her sun, supported by the four cardinal pillars of the Earth- the solstices and equinoxes.

For some it was a ‘journey’, while for others it was a ‘yoga’. Their Calendar was organized so that the entire society participated. They were a civilization nurtured on Fulness, centred on Skambha – the Cosmic Pillar. In India, the journey honoured two basic rhythms of the earth, Uttarayana and Dakshinyana; The Year opened with Mahavishuva on the Equinox of 21/22 March and as Sri Aurobindo verifies, the Aryan warrior undergoing tapasya, achieved the ‘victory’ ten months later with entry into the Solstice of 21/22 December. (The Secret of the Veda)

It is through the equinoxes and solstices that the Earth as a family is connected to the cosmos. These unchanging landmarks, which herald the four seasons of our year, provide stability on the journey and are deeply engrained in our biological clocks. These cosmic harmonies are the Earth’s unique contribution to the Solar System. The tilt of our earth’s axis as she circles round her Sun through the ecliptic path, sometimes shortens the light of the day, sometimes lengthens it the light. But always our Earth and her people are honouring and saluting Surya, the great Sun Deity.
Currently our world societies have organised their annual Calendars with two starting points – 1 January and 21 March equinox: each is significant. But over time, the Calendar of our ancient ones, based on the cosmic harmonies of our Earth, has fallen into disuse.

Instead of using the Tropical zodiac (the Sayana system) for measurement, based on earth’s own path around the Sun through the ecliptic, pundits shifted their observation and measurements for temple timings out to the Constellations in the distant heavens. India no longer celebrates two of its outstanding landmarks in consonance with the cosmic harmonies of the Earth: Mahavishuva (March Equinox) and Makar Sankranti (December Solstice) are celebrated 23 days late.

Pundits are measuring the ‘sankrantis’ in the wrong zodiac. Both zodiacs/calendars are important, but you must know what you are looking for: there is an individual destiny and a universal destiny. The Sidereal/constellational calendar is used to measure the large cycles of our universe, the astrological Ages, based on the Precession of the Equinoxes. But for temple timings and individual horoscopy, Earth’s own measure – the Tropical Vedic Calendar – must be used. There is no Vedic knowledge in the Nakshatras (of the Sidereal calendar); there are no solstices and equinoxes in the constellations.

In the West, the Universal Calendar honors all four of the equinoxes and solstices and entry into Capricorn is recognised as the Solstice; but people do not understand the deep Vedic connections.

8. In a world of despair and confusion, an Earth Calendar, such as the one above, helps to organise a community, a nation, or a world. The cosmic pillars – the solstices and equinoxes – divide the Cosmic Year into periods of time, or stages of meaning and consciousness. The year becomes a ‘journey’ toward a goal, as it was for our ancient Fathers. And so the unfolding of Earth’s time as she moves around her Sun through the ecliptic pathway can fill our people with purpose and hope.

9. In the hymn below the Rishi refers to these 4 periods of the Cosmic Year as ‘eternal worlds’. Without effort, one ‘world’ opens to the other, as the Vedic Warriors tred Earth’s ecliptic path, ever higher and wider through the months and the years to the Capricorn Mountain peak (from the physical, to the vital to the mental to the supramental stages of consciousness). This path was the altar of their sacrifice.

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.)

We thank you for considering our ‘idea’, and wish you a successful year ahead, a successful Summit.

Patricia Heidt, PhD, Director

Cc: Draupadi Murmu, Honorable President of India

“This is a centre of cosmological/yogic studies, by an applied cosmology, and a practice of Sri Aurobindo’s revolutionary Supramental Yoga… We are discovering and disclosing a completely new path, ‘a new way’…‘This work can be a beacon, a stable point in the midst of a dying civilisation. For this reason I have named the new land Skambha, that Support of the world, sung of in the Arthavaveda, that cosmic pillar, that ‘axis mundi’.” (1987)

***

Letter To Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji,

Makara Sankranti, Solstice, 22 December 2022

Sub.: One Earth, One Family and One Future

Today we celebrate the December Solstice, entry of Earth into the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. We congratulate you and the nation as you assume presidency of the G 20 – 2023 summit. Your choice of a lotus to show India’s cultural heritage and faith was inspired; the central focus of Sri Aurobindo’s own symbol is the lotus. We pray you and the nation are guided by his vision for One Earth, One Family and One Future.

Dear Prime Minister: may we ask you to consider our idea: to gather together a group of ‘people of Knowledge’ to study and set up a Calendar for all people of the nation. Honouring and celebrating the EARTH YEAR together is one of the most profound ways we can go further, and in your words, ‘catalyse a fundamental mindset shift to benefit humanity as a whole.’ There is no better time to initiate this than during this year, the 150^th anniversary of Sri Aurobindo’s birth.

May I review the following with you - the thoughts on which we base our ‘idea’:

India is unique, no other nation on earth has a zodiacal connection of such depth, no other nation celebrates the day of entry, when the Sun is seen to enter its zodiacal sign, as a National Holiday. No other nation displays a physical connection with the sign’s very hieroglyph. The graphic below shows that India’s ruling sign, Capricorn, is ‘located’ on Earth when the sign is superimposed on the landmass known as Akhand Bharat (1).

2. The revelation of the zodiac, including the tenth sign, Capricorn, most likely was through a Rishi of the Vedic Age (ibid); it is knowledge long lost, except for the records in the four Vedas. Those verses clearly describe a consciousness of unity unknown to us today. And it was Sri Aurobindo’s mission, as the 9^th Evolutionary Avatar of Vishnu, to clear away the cobwebs covering that lost Vedic knowledge, which is the vibrant foundation of the Sanatana Dharma.

3. For that civilisation, the yearly ‘journey’ of the Earth around the Sun was central: they followed the Earth’s ecliptic path as the planet circled each year around her sun, supported by the four cardinal pillars of the Earth- the solstices and equinoxes.

The zodiac was their guide: Mahavishuva, the March equinox, opened that journey with Agni/Aries as leader; ten months later with entry into Makar/Capricorn, they celebrated ‘the victory’ (Sri Aurobindo, Secrets of the Veda).

Uttarayana, entry into Capricorn on the December Solstice, was celebrated as the most auspicious time of the year.

Why was Makar Sankranti so important for our Ancient Ones?

4. What did our Ancient Ones know, why was Makar Sankranti so important for them? At that special time in the annual ‘journey’ of the Year, Earth is directly aligned with our central Sun at her highest position in the heavens, the Sun is directly overhead and casts no shadows. The planet and her family are physically closest to their luminary at this time. (See addendum, end of letter)

The Rishis were consciously aware of the power of Surya, at this special moment in time. They attuned themselves to the cosmos – they put themselves in perfect alignment to receive the Midday Sun’s true essence at this time. They wanted to be inspired, uncontaminated ‘transmitters’ of that energy to the society – and they were, as is evident through their glorious hymns and their ragas.

The Vedic civilisation came into existence on the basis of these yogic experiences (2); from this alignment with their Sun came the ‘eternal’ truths of the nation, the Sanatana Dharma.

Dear Prime Minister Modiji, the question is, how can we reach those same heights? Can we as individuals and as a nation align ourselves in the same conscious way as the Rishis, so as to receive the energies of the great Deity, Surya, at the Midday Sun? Our confused world is truly in need of this, and it turns to India for this ancient wisdom.

And that is where the problem lies.

India no longer celebrates two of its outstanding landmarks in consonance with the cosmic harmonies of the Earth: Mahavishuva (March Equinox) and Makar Sankranti (December Solstice) are celebrated 23 days late. Instead of using the Tropical zodiac (the Sayana system) for measurement, based on earth’s own path around the Sun through the ecliptic, pundits shifted their observation and measurements for temple timings out to the Constellations in the distant heavens.

They are measuring the ‘sankrantis’ in the wrong zodiac. Both zodiacs/calendars are important, but you must know what you are looking for: there is an individual destiny and a universal destiny. The Sidereal/constellational calendar is used to measure the large cycles of our universe, the astrological Ages, based on the Precession of the Equinoxes. But for temple timings and individual horoscopy, Earth’s own measure – the Tropical Vedic Calendar – must be used. There is no Vedic knowledge in the Nakshatras (of the sidereal calendar); there are no solstices and equinoxes in the constellations (3).

We write to you because it is important for the Nation to celebrate the Earth Year together. It is clear that in order to discover our lost knowledge we must have the same alignment to the cosmos as our Ancient Ones had: that we must align our vision to that Midday Sun.

Your strength and attention is needed to stop the ‘usurpers’ who are out to rid the world of purpose, to keep our sojourn on this earth meaningless. It is obvious from all the good work you do that you believe in India’s destiny, that she is the ‘soul/centre’ of our Earth. We thank you and wish you a successful Summit and year ahead.

Patricia Heidt, PhD, Director

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea), Why is Makar Sankranti Important for the unity and Integrity of India? 1 January 2016, https://archive.aeoncentre.com/2016-in-focus/
Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea). The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 7, no. 4, October 1992, https://archive.aeoncentre.com/vishaal/culture-cosmos-3-3/
Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea), Puranic Cosmology Updated, 2010, https://www.aeoncentre.com/thea-puranic-cosmology-updated-no-4/

cc: Draupadi Murmu, Honorable President of India

cc: Shri G. Kishen Reddy, Minister of Culture

Addendum - January 25, 2023

Regarding the paragraph above about the Annual ‘journey’ of the year, two of Thea’s long time students, wrote that due to the tilt of the Earth at the Solstice, only that portion of the earth within the band of the Tropic of Capricorn receives the light of the sun directly overhead at Makar Sankranti.

I responded that Thea herself referred to Cosmic Midday as that time when the Sun was overhead and cast no shadows. In the letter below one of the students clarifies that Thea is speaking about the ‘shift in consciousness’ or inner light in that portion of the Gnostic Circle known as ‘cosmic midday’. With her permission I reproduce her informative letter.

Dear Patricia:

I think some of the confusion lies in the conflating of Cosmology with Astronomy.

I have a different understanding than you of what Thea is referring to here (From Chap XII, Vedic Altar Updated, highlights added):

“However, it is actually India’s zodiacal sign, Capricorn/Makar, ruled by Saturn, that has given rise to the Mountain/Gopuram because Capricorn is the sign of the Mountain, uttarayana, or the northernmost and highest point in the wheel, known as Cosmic Midday when the Sun casts no shadows, ‘…the (central) Mountain on which rests the sun at midday, and this is the only Mountain worth mention among all mountains” (Pradyumnesvara temple inscription).

“This knowledge was alive and well in the Puranic era; temples across India bear witness to this fact. They were repositories of the same secret knowledge of the Rig Veda. What can be known of India’s destiny ignoring these facts? If we refuse to see the consistent coherency of her destiny via the 10th sign, Capricorn/Makar, how can she physically become the World Mountain, centre/soul of the Earth?“

It is my understanding that when referring to the ‘highest point in the wheel’ Thea is referencing the Gnostic Circle, the Map of 12 Manifestations, and the consciousness of Capricorn when fully unveiled; the role Capricorn/the Mountain/India are to fulfil at that time. We are not there yet. She is not referring to the ‘scientific’ astronomical position of the Sun on December 21st, whose light at present is only directly overhead the globe at a narrowly defined area: the band 23.5 degrees south of the equator (not coincidentally) known as the Tropic of Capricorn.

In response to a request from me for further clarification she wrote:

Patricia, I think of the Sun ‘casting no shadows’ as being equivalent to there being no Ignorance, only Truth. A Consciousness completely aligned with the Divine. This is supposed to occur in the Age of Capricorn and purportedly will have a different meaning in this 9^th Manifestation (the birth) than it did during passage through Capricorn in the 1^st and 5^th Manifestations.

Astronomically, will the body of the Earth Herself change orientation, become upright, so that she no longer has an axis of 23.5 degrees (the number of days India is ‘off’ in her celebrations, remember) resulting in the entire globe receiving the Sun during Makar Sankranti with ‘no shadows’? I don’t know.

AUGUST 15, 2022

Celebrating the 150th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, 9th Evolutionary Avatar

A paper submitted by Aeon Centre of Cosmology, Kodaikanal Tamil Nadu

Last December, Prime Minister Modi announced that 2022 would be dedicated to the celebration of the 150^th anniversary of Sri Aurobindo’s birth. He aptly referred to Sri Aurobindo as a revolutionary leader, as ‘the Prophet of Indian Nationalism’ (using Dr Karan Singh’s words). In a paper published on the Ministry of Culture website, the author (mha.gov.in) writes that Sri Aurobindo has been described as a ‘rishi, a poet, a scholar, a literary critic, a philosopher, a yogi…and much more; … but the question still remains, Who really was Sri Aurobindo?’

Based on the yoga and cosmological insights of our Founder, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea, 1938 – 2016), we offer that he was first and foremost, the 9^th Evolutionary Avatar. The question and the answer are exceptionally important for India. Thea writes that ‘the Sanatan Dharma contains an inbuilt system of renewal

… unique on this Earth in that it forms the undisputed core of the Dharma or the backbone of the structure. This is the Line of Ten Avatars… a string of births stretched over many millennia but nonetheless thoroughly linked through the substance of the missions to be accomplished. The Avatar’s work, though spread out over vast aeons, is one process with one finality: the establishment of the reign of Truth, or the Golden Age, known as the Satya Yuga.’(1) and (2)

Thea calls Vishnu’s ‘Line of Ten’ the Evolutionary Avatars.. They show the next step in the divine unfolding on Earth, they become ‘the seed of the movement’, she writes. Sri Aurobindo is that ‘seed’ for this 9th Manifestation (3), just as Sri Rama was for the 7th and Sri Krishna for the 8th Manifestation.

The credentials for the Line of Ten Evolutionary Avatars is based totally on the cosmic harmonies. They use Time for their action: each appears at a specific Time, every 6480 years, during the Ages of Preservation (ibid, p. 23). Sri Ram appeared as the 7^th during the Age of Leo, 12,000 years ago, Sri Krishna followed as the 8^th in the Age of Taurus, and Sri Aurobindo, appeared as the Evolutionary Avatar for the 9^th Manifestation during the Age of Aquarius.

Gautam the Buddha, widely considered to be the 9^th Avatar, does not possess these cosmic credentials, having been born circa 500 BCE.

In the Map, each section of 6480 years is called a Manifestation; they are twelve in number, the same twelve signs of the zodiac. The Map is based on the Precessional movement of the Earth, her slow westward motion along the path of the Earth’s ecliptic. It takes 25,920 years for the Precession of the Earth to make one complete round through the twelve signs of the zodiac.

Thea turns to the Rig Vedic verses to Vishnu to confirm the ancient wisdom; but she offers a new seeing: she writes that Vishnu, the God of Preservation is measuring out the universe NOT by steps through space, but by steps through TIME, via the Precession of the Equinoxes (4).

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

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

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

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

Those are the dwelling-places of ye twain which we desire as the goal of our journey, where the many-horned herds of Light go travelling; the highest step of wide-moving Vishnu shines down on us here in its manifold vastness. (RV, I, 154, Sri Aurobindo’s translation)

The symbol figures in the verses above, Lion, Bull and Friend, which describe Vishnu’s famous steps, are three of the four fixed signs of the Zodiac. The zodiacal signs of fixed quality correspond to Sattva of the Indian Gunas, as in Rajas, Sattva and Tamas. Or they can be categorized as signs of Preservation as in the trinity of Creation, Preservation, Destruction/Dissolution (ibid).

The first of his three steps takes the universe through the time epoch known as the Age of LEO (verse 2, the Lion), during which the 7^th Evolutionary Avatar, Sri Ram made his appearance. This is followed by the next step – the Age of TAURUS, (verse 3, the Bull), and the coming of Sri Krishna, 8^th Avatar.

In verse 5, the Rishi sees Vishnu’s next and last step: ‘for there in that highest step of the wide-moving Vishnu is that FRIEND’. The Friend is the astrological sign for the Age of Aquarius; the time period of the 9^th evolutionary avatar, our very own Sri Aurobindo! The fourth sign of Preservation, Scorpio, is left out of the verses because, Thea writes, ‘Vishnu’s measuring begins from that sign, the sign of the Eagle, precisely his Vahana, Garuda.’ (ibid, p 12).

It is no small feat that Hinduism can still lay claim to this ancient body of knowledge through its four Vedas, exclaims Thea; thus we know that the ‘Dasavataras are of Vedic origin and not Puranic, as most believe’ (5). That the appearance on Earth of Vishnu’s last three emanations can be located with such exactitude is obviously for the purpose of preserving the Sanatan Dharma.

The primary focus now is on the 9th Manifestation (see Map, red arrow), a period of transition and tremendous possibility as the Earth evolves from the realm of Mind into Supermind – set on its way in 1872, when Sri Aurobindo took birth on Earth as the 9th Avatar of Vishnu. It was a joint mission carried out by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. As Thea explains:

‘…almost the entire focus was to reverse the direction the quest assumed by all the yogas approximately after the time of the Buddha. It was a joint mission to turn the tide – a tide virtually with the power of a tsunami – in that all the great realisers over the past 2000 years, barring very few, had opted for an escape out of the material dimension so as not to face the challenges posed by a creation in matter which appeared insurmountable given the totality of circumstances at this stage of evolution of the species…’(6)

It was on 29 February, 1956, that the yogic breakthrough took place, releasing the descent of a power that would ultimately bring about an entirely new principle operating within the evolutionary process. When the Mother announced that the Supramental Manifestation had occurred, she described it in these words:

‘This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine. As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that “the time has come”, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces. Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.’ (ibid)

2. As the Time Spirit arrived in the Ninth Manifestation at the Age of Aquarius, in 1926, when Sri Aurobindo, the true 9^th Evolutionary Avatar took up where Sri Krishna left off, he was not recognized.

The fact that Gautam the Buddha could be erroneously inserted into the list of Hindu Avatars as the 9^th in the line of ten happened only because over time, veils began to cover the core of Hinduism. The keys to that ancient Vedic Knowledge allowing the Dharma to remain ‘eternal’ were lost (7). Buddhism played an important role in this collapse of energies. It sowed ‘seeds of undermining’ which developed later into a split between Matter and Spirit in the way Reality was perceived – ‘the Spirit was no longer experienced through the Soul, or the Mother…the seeker was encouraged to overstep the Cosmos…’(ibid). With the soul dislodged from its centrality, Thea explains, the Hindu civilization by the Middle Ages, lost its binding energy.

Because the foundation of the Dharma had always been unity, the wise men and women of that Dark Age simply incorporated the Buddhist realisation; ‘it was their lived experience that the Brahman included everything, even the darkness…’. With that the Buddha became the 9^th of the Puranic Line of Ten Avatars (ibid). The Puranas however describe his participation in the Line as ‘ruse of the supreme’: one purposefully sent to mislead the seekers, in order to fool the hostile powers.

Thea asks why was it necessary to have a false avatar, a ruse, interjected into the line? ‘Was the fall of the Dharma seen to be a necessary corollary to a rise?’ She refers to Sri Aurobindo’s own words about a ‘wider harmonisation which only the present Age of Supermind can unfold’ (ibid):

‘…But in speaking of the supreme liberation I was simply taking the Buddhist-Adwaita view for granted and correcting it by saying that this Nirvana view is too negative. Krishna opened the possibility of overmind with its two sides of realization, static and dynamic. Buddha tried to shoot from mind to Nirvana in the Supreme, just as Shankara did in another way after him. Both agree in overleaping the other stages and trying to get at a nameless and featureless Absolute. Krishna on the other hand was leading by the normal course of evolution. The next normal step is not a featureless Absolute, but the supermind. I consider that in trying to overshoot, Buddha, like Shankara made a mistake, calling away the dynamic side of the liberation. Therefore there has to be a correction by Kalki.’ (Letters on Yoga, Book 1, Part 5, ‘The Meaning and Purpose of Avatarhood’, Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Volume 28).

The erroneous insertion of the Buddha into the Line of Ten Evolutionary Avatars has had enormous consequences on the Dharma.

At the same time the civilization lost its time measure; e., Indian astrology lost its key to Time. The shift from the earth oriented tropical zodiac – the Divine measure, Earth’s own measure – to the fixed stars of the constellations was a death blow to the Earth, Thea explains. As salvation came to be equated with freedom from birth on Earth, the Nothingness (or Nirvanic Void) which sought to replace the Vedic fullness of the Sun-soul, produced an inevitable breakdown in the old order.

Hinduism could no longer locate the periods of Vishnu or determine the exact time of the appearance of the Avatar. In fact, at this point, Thea exclaims, the next appearance of Vishnu is not expected ‘until the fourth millennium of our era!’ (8).

2. In addition to losing its time measure, the purpose and value of caste fell into disrepair. In the Vedic Journey, in the sacrifice of the Year, each part of society revealed their highest realisation. ‘Caste was not divisive, it was a path to wholeness and completion’ (9). Chaturvarna was totally based on the cosmic foundation, ‘… an expression of the cosmic Parush, limbs of a single body’ (ibid).

The Divine Purpose of birth on Earth is to move into creation rather than out of it or beyond it, writes Thea, ‘to experience the imminent Transcendent in the heart of each created thing, the Hiranyaretas, or the golden Seed, light of the worlds’…

The purpose of Chaturvarna is to allow the individual the possibility to realise his or her inner truth, in material creation, in a body, on this planet Earth…

Birth on this Earth and into the caste system, or into the magnificent harmonies of the cosmos as one more note of the Infinite, was not intended to be a means of escape from that material creation and a plunge into nirvanic Nothingness or the indifferentiated Absolute…’ (ibid)

3. During this 9th Manifestation of the Earth there is one place on the planet that holds as the ‘centre’ during the dismantling of the old earth and its evolution from the mental to the supramental consciousness. India has always carried the tremendous ‘burden of her destiny’ as the planet’s soul-centre, writes Thea: the link to the ‘other side’ – that replenishing eternal fount of light and power and bliss, Sat – Chit – Ananda (10). The nation lives on while others, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, have faded and waned out of existence.

India’s ‘centreship’ is not an enviable position; it means that all the problems our civilization has inherited from the last Age of Pisces (234 BCE – 1926 CE) which have been drawn into this destined centre must now be dealt with. India found herself, at the start of the new Aquarian Age (1926), shackled with many unresolved problems, the same ones that are creating havoc across the globe today, arising, it must be noted, from the divisiveness caused by religions. And because she is the Earth’s true cosmological centre what is being worked out in her grand plan, what transpires and unfolds in her consciousness, can affect the whole planet (11). India is rooted in the Sanatana Dharma and therefore ‘exclusivism’ of any sort cannot be permitted.

The Line of Ten Evolutionary Avatars means a march forward, with Hinduism providing a firm foundation upholding the progression. Thea assures us that

’Hinduism is one of the rare expressions on Earth of a progressively unfolding cosmic Truth… because its soul is that very Cosmic Truth, it is one with the deepest purpose of the planetary evolution.

Hinduism can therefore be identified as the vahana (vehicle) of the Earth’s own soul, a truth exquisitely conveyed in the ancient Vedic symbol of the white steed, Agni, carrying Usha, the divine Dawn, across the horizon of the Earth’s awakening cosmic Day.’ (12)

The mission of Shri Ram, the 7^th Avatar, was fulfilled thousands of years ago, in the 7^th Manifestation; the Ayodhya issue has served successfully as a rallying point to awaken dormant energies, calling attention the Line of Ten Avatars, the most vital feature and backbone of the Sanatan Dharma.

But now is the time to focus on what is transpiring today – a turning point has been reached in Hindu civilization, in the world. It is the evolutionary vision of Sri Aurobindo – 9^th Evolutionary Avatar, that carries us forward in our march. Thea explains the special ‘tapasya’ that he undertook to anchor the Earth in a new time:

‘…The avatar must take on the full burden of the work he or she comes to do, Unconsciousness of parts of this manifestation, or an unknowing of the outcome of the struggle and its details, are often essential elements for securing the victory. It must be remembered that a fundamental aspect of the avatar’s function is to live the process, to himself be the field, the Kurukshetra of the divine consciousness in evolution. This cannot be a travesty or a make-believe drama. The avatar lives the process in full; for this he accepts the yoke of ignorance placed upon him by the Supreme, for the benefit of the work to be done. This in fact, is his true great work for humanity, his really noble sacrifice. In this way he serves humanity as no other could do.’(13)

May this 150^th anniversary of Sri Aurobindo’s birth serve to revitalize the spirit and soul of the Hindu nation. May we hear his call for a ‘new spiritual awakening in India’. Let the residue which has accumulated surrounding the core of Hinduism, for over 2500 years, be cast aside so that the crusts that veil the true 9^th evolutionary avatar be dissolved.

References

The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 5, no. 6, February 1991
The Gnostic Circle, 4^th, 2020, p. 72. Thea explains that a Kaliyuga is a measure of time, not in years as usually accepted, but as seconds of celestial longitude. A Kaliyuga is made up of four zodiacal signs. A Kaliyuga is not a period of darkness; in fact, the Satya Yuga started in the Age of Leo, 12, 960 years ago, and will be complete in 16 signs of the Zodiac.
Ibid, p. 58
Kashmir and the Convergence of Time, Space and Destiny, 2004. Thea adds: ‘Note that the same symbols were used by this Christian visionary (The Revelation, also called The Apocalypse of St. John, (Chapter 12, 7 ) many centuries after the Vedic Age…around 70 AD: “And the first beast was like a lion and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.”’
The Future Realisation, An Exhibition connecting the Supramental Gnosis of the Mother to the Vedic Age, Guidebook, New Delhi, 2015
See Aeon Centre of Cosmology website: aeoncentre.com for references to the cosmology of Thea’s New Way
The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 6, no. 4, October 1991
The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 5, no. 6, op cit
The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 6, no. 3, August, 1991
The Burden of a Destiny, 2001
On the Nature of Centreship, 2013
The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 5, no. 6, op cit
The New Way, Volume 3, Ch. 9, the Map of Evolution, p. 111

23 SEPTEMBER 2022 - AUTUMN EQUINOX (MAHA VISHUVA)

Our new Convenor has written the following letter to the Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi about adopting a National Calendar for India.

Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendara Modiji,

Sub: One India, One Calendar

One way to fulfil the resolve (Pran) of taking pride in our glorious heritage and unity, mentioned in your speech on 15 August 2022, would be to adopt the ancient Vedic Calendar as the National Calendar (tentatively named the Bharat Calendar).

The concept of Vedic Calendar is based on the vedic knowledge – our true glorious heritage – rediscovered by Sri Aurobindo; and elaborated in recent times by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea, 1938 – 2016) in her Manifesto for the Movement for Restoration of Vedic Wisdom (MRVW), referenced throughout this letter. ^[1]

Why not adopt an Existing Regional Calendar as the National Calendar

The Calendar Reform Committee (CRC) set up by the then PM Mr. Nehru had the following to say about the existing Regional/Lunar Calendars –

The motion of the moon is very irregular and complex and therefore the moon is very inconvenient as a time-marker. Tithi is calculated for each locality. There are in every State different schools of panchang calculations for tithi etc. So the same tithi does not occur on the same day at all places. Hence, the dates for religious festivals differ in each region from place to place. Due to such rival regional calendars, Janmashtami in 1954 was celebrated on 21st August in North India and on the 20th, 21st and 22nd in other parts of India; Durga Puja was celebrated on two successive days in Calcutta in 1952. (1955, Report p.3 & 4)

Clearly, no existing regional lunar calendar can be adopted as the national calendar.

Why not continue with National Calendar prescribed in 1955

The CRC set up to propose a uniform calendar for the whole of India did not exactly achieve its purpose. The task before the Committee was to devise a satisfactory solar calendar first and peg on to it a lunar calendar (1955, Report p. 11). In the end the Committee agreed that its report was a compromise and hoped that further reforms for locating the lunar and solar festivals in the seasons in which they were originally observed will be adopted in future (1955, Report p. 8).

Completing the Incomplete Calendar Reforms of Nehru Era

The present Government, with its focus on unity and the determination to push through difficult but necessary unifying reforms, such as the revolutionary GST (One Nation, One Tax) ^[2] and the re-integration of Kashmir, ^[3]is the most qualified to complete this unfinished business of calendar reform pending since the Nehru era.

Proposed Reforms

The Year

To be uniform all over India, the National Calendar (Bharat Calendar) should be based on the Tropical Zodiac, with the new year beginning on the March Equinox.

Properly speaking, the year begins when day and night are equal – the Equinox in March. The year will begin at the Tropical Zodiac zero point (March Equinox), Aries, which remains fixed each year for the Earth, and from this measurement the opposite September Equinox and the Solstices will be derived. The upward journey of the twelve months starts from that Zero Point; it is that very same Zero point, or ayanamsha, that initiates the yearly journey as recorded in the Veda. ^[1]Year in the Veda means the twelve months of the sacrificial year (the Samvatsara Satra), the twelve periods of the upward journey. ^[2]

Four Pillars of the Year – the Solar Festivals

The Tropical Zodiac divides the circle/ecliptic of earth’s journey round the sun into twelve equal portions of 30 degrees each (the 12 solar months).This circle/ecliptic is further divided into four parts marked by the Equinoxes and Solstices, the days and nights of equal and unequal measure, respectively. These four pillars were, and remain, the balancing points of the planet in its journey along the pathway of the year. In the Rig Veda this fourfold division is known as Twashtri’s Bowl.^[1]

The Bharata Calendar should highlight the four pillars; especially the March Equinox and the December Solstice. The zodiacal year begins with the March Equinox and the first sign of the zodiac, Aries, and reaches Capricorn ten months later. Today, as in the Vedic Age, Capricorn (Makar) was not some nebulous region far out in the Constellations; it was, and remains, for India and the world, the December Solstice – the Makar Sankranti, when the Earth begins to experience an increase of the Light. ^[1,4]

The CRC also concurred with thse arrangements which ensure that the festivals determined by the sun such as Mahavishuva Sankranti (Equinoxes), Uttarayana Sankranti and Dakshinayana Sankranti would follow astronomically correct seasons. (Report p. 7).

In fact, all festivals (lunar and religious) should follow, like the solar festivals, correct seasons. This takes us to the next measure of reform.

Fixing the Dates of Festival in the Correct Season

The CRC stated – The dates of festival have shifted by 23 days from the seasons in which they were being observed till about 1400 year ago as a result of our almanac-makers (lunar calendars) having ignored the precession of the equinoxes. After agreeing that it is desirable to wipe out the entire amount of shift of 23 days at a time, CRC did not actually do so to avoid a break with the established custom (Report p. 7).

Originally, days of festivals were fixed with reference to seasons. Each Season covered two solar months. Bharat Calendar should fix the dates of festival, in the season and solar month in which it was originally observed, derived from the zero point of the March Equinox. This will lead to uniform dates of festivals for all the places in India for all the years to come.

Why it is important to correctly fix the Dates of Festival

As Sri Aurobindo explains in his “Secret of the Veda” – The vedic year-long sacrifice leads to successive dawns of wider truth. ^[5] He further says – Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are opened by the months and the years. ^[6] Each of the four points in the year (two Equinoxes and two Solstices) is the Maha-Dwara, the main portal; and other festivals are the seasonal doors to the future worlds to be opened on the correct day of the month every year. A door opened on the wrong day of the month will deprive us of the light of a wider truth. That is why, we should celebrate the new year on the March Equinox to open the door to welcome the Dawn of the Year; the Vedic Uttara-Sankranti or modern Makar Sakranti on the day of the winter solstice to open the door to the increasing light after the end of the longest night; and each festival on the correct date to welcome the dawn of wider truth bringing in the future worlds.

Once India re-orients its calendar to the solar year and re-aligns the festivals with the tropical seasons, all Indians will observe all the solar and lunar festivals at the same time throughout India; the mass celebrations will no doubt generate powerful waves of collective energy (like the Thaali-Naad during the lock-down or the Maha-Kumbha). It’s only then that the heart of every Indian will beat to the eternal rhythm of the Mother Earth going around the Sun in her annual pilgrimage, coursing through the seasons in her Samvatsara Satra. And every Indian will be “united in heart, with one and common aspiration, with common mind and companionship” (the concluding hymn – the “Bharat Vakya” of the Rig Veda as translated by Sri Aurobindo). ^[7]

With best regards

Convenor – Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom

Refer also to the letter and three books sent to you separately by the Aeon Centre of Cosmology.

[1] The Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom (MRVW) was founded by Thea in 2006, see her Manifesto (The Zero, the Veda, and the Divine Measure of the Year): https://www.aeoncentre.com/movement-for-the-restoration-of-vedic-wisdom/

[2] Kashmir and the Convergence of Time, Space and Destiny, 2004 by Thea

[3] https://www.aeoncentre.com/calendar/

[4] The victory in the battle against the dark powers is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth, until the tenth secures the victory. Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 15 p. 182. As explained by Thea in the Manifesto, the course of the year carries us to the apex of the journey, the Makar Sankranti, that sacredmost tenth month as measured from the March Equinox when the victory is finally accomplished and the Earth begins to experience an increase of the Light.

[5] Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are opened by the months and the years. Rig Veda 2.24.5; Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), Vol. 15 p.179

Equinox, 23 September 2022

Patricia Heidt, Director of ACC, has also written to the honourable Prime Minister Modi on this September Equinox

Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji,

Sub: Vedic Calendar - the Earth Calendar

Greetings of Navaratri! Our founder – Thea (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet 1938 – 2016) – would have been so happy to write this as an ardent Mother-worshipper herself. She called her spiritual autobiography detailing her work for the Earth in the light of Sri Aurobindo – ‘The Tenth Day of Victory‘ – Dussehra, in honour of her vision of the Goddess on the day she landed in Mumbai on her way to Pondicherry.

In fact, Thea would have been very happy to write to you about the actions you have taken over the years which have brought Bharat Mata more deeply into her role as ‘soul/centre’ of our Earth. These were the very concerns she held dear to her heart.

In an early newsletter to her students, in 1991, she explained that Ayodhya was a rallying point to awaken dormant energies in the nation.^[1] We think she must be have been very happy when you laid the foundation stone a few years ago for the Ram Mandir!

Thea was concerned that the Vedic Way was being attacked from all sides, and in particular she was concerned for the Kashmiri Pundits. In 2003, at the invitation of His Holiness, Jagat Guru Sri Bhagavan Gopinath Ji, she wrote a series of essays for the community review, ‘Prakash’. She published them later in a book, Kashmir and the Convergence of Time, Space and Destiny. In 2019, when you had the courage to lead your government to abrogate Article 370, we at the Aeon Centre of Cosmology (ACC) also joined those in the nation who thanked you.

And your focus and attention to the purification of the Ganga was deeply appreciated by Thea. Just before her passing in October 2016, she wrote a small book, Ganga, soul of Indian Culture, her descent to Earth. She wrote that this sacred river holds the secrets to the cosmic connections that are the foundation for the Sanatana Dharma.

Another of Thea’s concerns was the adoption of Vedic Calendar.

Given her credentials as a well known cosmologist, Thea was invited to deliver a paper at the first National Conference on Hindu Calendar Reform ^[2] in Tirumala, December 2010. She reminded the conference that the Vedic Calendar is based on the natural cosmic harmonies of the Year, on the ‘Vedic journey’ of the Year. It honors the revolution of the Earth around the Sun through the pathway of the ecliptic; it honors the four Cardinal markers of the Equinoxes and Solstices.

With the rise of science and the loss of the ‘Vedic journey’, the ancient Vedic Calendar was discarded. The sacred duty of time reckoning for the Hindu Samaj was handed over not to astrologers, but to astronomers who are not versed in the Veda; they made the fatal mistake of eliminating the natural year of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun through the pathway of the ecliptic, Thea explained.

Pundits shifted from the Tropical Zodiac with its Equinoxes and Solstices to the Zodiac out in the Constellations. This confusion is still at the heart of the problem: the Constellations cannot be used to measure timings for Temple functions or to draw up a horoscope; they are used to measure the large cycles of time, the precession of the Ages.

Even more important, there are no Solstices or Equinoxes out in the Constellations. There is only one correct day to celebrate India’s national holiday, the entry into Makar/Capricorn – that is on the December Solstice, shortest day of the year. But because Pundits use the wrong zodiac, out in the Constellations, India now celebrates Makar Sankranti 23 days late, on 14 or 15 January.

At the time of Independence, the Saka commission was convened by Prime Minister Nehru to devise a calendar acceptable to all communities and sects. The Government did adopt in 1956 an official calendar, it was based on the Gregorian (universal) model to bring the nation in tune with the rest of the world; but even after all these years, it has not attained full acceptance and popularity. The different communities and religions continue to use their own regional calendars and almanacs, out of a sense of wanting a separate identity or to honor their own founders and saints.

The Earth Calendar honors the Vedic journey of the year with its Solstices and Equinoxes. Regional and community holidays are honoured as well, but the focus is wider: it connects the cosmic journey in the heavens to the inner journey each of us makes, as citizens of Bharat Mata, as we evolve toward what Sri Aurobindo calls the ‘Supramental truth-consciousness’ now unfolding on our earth. They are one and the same journey.

India needs to adopt the Earth Calendar as its National Calendar. ^[3]We are sending you a link to our Earth Calendar (https://www.aeoncentre.com/calendar/). We hope you will see it as a valuable tool not only to retrieve the ‘lost knowledge’ of the Veda, but also as a way to further your third goal for the nation mentioned in your recent speech: to enhance National Identity. Please see the specific details in a letter Shri Mukund Ainapure is sending to you, as Convenor of the Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom (a special division of our Aeon Center of Cosmology).

And healing the divisions of Partition was a matter of utmost importance to Thea. Aeon Centre of Cosmology is preparing now to republish a book which Thea wrote on the cause and purpose of The Partition of India (2009). Our Prayer – in this year of Sri Aurobindo’s 150^th birth Anniversary – is that you and this glorious nation will continue to receive blessings from Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Thea for a reunited India, Akhand Bharat.

Patricia Heidt, PhD, Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

[1] (https://archive.aeoncentre.com/vishaal/culture-and-cosmos-2-part-3-contintued

[2] (http://puraniccosmologyupdated.blogspot.com/2010/12/importance-of-makar-sankranti-in-hindu.html).

[3] (https://www.aeoncentre.com/the-earth-calendar-introduction-terms-definitions/).

To her first Board of Directors Thea wrote:

“This is a centre of cosmological/yogic studies, by an applied cosmology, and a practice of Sri Aurobindo’s revolutionary Supramental Yoga… We are discovering and disclosing a completely new path, ‘a new way’.

‘This work can be a beacon, a stable point in the midst of a dying civilisation. For this reason I have named the new land Skambha, that Support of the world, sung of in the Arthavaveda, that cosmic pillar, that ‘axis mundi’.” (1987)

14 October, 2022

Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji,

Sub: One India, One Calendar

We have been following your days as you inaugurate the Mahakaleshwar Temple Project in Ujjain. This is a short follow up to our 21 September Equinox letter to tell you we are deeply moved to see you offering darshan and puja within the Temple honouring Lord Shiva.

On this glorious occasion may we also call your attention to something else: not only have you brought attention to this Temple as an ancient centre for devotion to Lord Shiva, but this inauguration highlights the fact that our ancient fathers gave utmost attention to the calculation of time. See attached email by renowned author Amish Tripath who writes that

On the summer solstice, the overhead sun fell directly on the tip of the spire atop the Temple, exactly on the beginning of Dakshinaya as the Sun God began the journey South.

And a very unique feature among the twelve jyotirlingas – the idol of the Makakaleswar Temple is known to be Dakshinamurthi, facing South.

May we not conclude that the Vedic Civilisation which worshipped Lord Shiva was totally governed by the cosmic harmonies of the earth, Uttarayana and Dakshinyana?

May we not conclude that the annual journey (‘sacrifice’) which our ancient civilisation took round the sun was rooted in the ecliptic path supported by the four cardinal pillars of the Earth – the Solstices and Equinoxes?

What has changed?

By the 6^th century CE, Varahamira – astrologer and mathematician who made Ujjain his home – corrected the Hindu calendar, writes noted cosmologist Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet/Thea (The Vishaal Newsletter, April 1993). She explains that by this time the Vedic realisation had declined and become a thing of the past. Science separated from the sacred and the calendar used by that ancient civilisation underwent a major change.

Measurements for temple timings shifted out to the constellations. No longer was the annual journey of the nation rooted in the ecliptic path around our Earth, supported by the four cardinal pillars of the Solstices and Equinoxes.

Dear Prime Minister,

We believe the people of the Indian nation need to understand what is at stake now, and take advantage of your vision and your efforts. They need to understand that Temple Timings should follow the Vedic Calendar of our ancient Fathers.

Currently, celebration of Earth’s entry into Cancer (Dakshinayan) and entry into Capricorn/Makar (Uttarayan) are determined by the Constellations, not by the Tropical Zodiac. They are celebrated 23 days late!

The Solstices have to be set right, and brought into harmony with a Calendar based on the Tropical Zodiac, not a Constellational Zodiac.

I am hopeful you will support our suggestion for a National Calendar (a Vedic Calendar); for a calendar that functions as it did for our ancient fathers – one that shaped their lives and revealed the deep union they had with the Earth. https://www.aeoncentre.com/the-earth-calendar-introduction-terms-definitions/

Our best regards,

Patricia Heidt, PhD, Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology

To her first Board of Directors Thea wrote:

Aeon Centre Of Cosmology

Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom – HISTORY & HIGHLIGHTS 2022 ONWARDS

RV, I, 154 Sri Aurobindo’s translation of the famous three steps of Trivikrama

Makar Sankranti, 22 December, 2023

Sub.: One Earth, One Family, One Calendar

Each Circle is Important:

23 September, 2023, (the Equinox)

Aditya L1 to orbit the Sun!

The Indian civilisation has always worshipped the Sun

Why is recapturing the experience of the Vedic journey to the Sun so important today?

References

March Equinox, Mahavishuva, 21 March 2023

To Honourable Prime Minister Modiji

Sub. : Maha-Vishuva (Vedic March Equinox) today

To: Honourable Prime Minister Modiji 26 January 2023, Republic Day, India

Subject: Pran Pratishtha, Ram Mandir

References:

Makara Sankranti, Solstice, 22 December 2022

This is Draft - 1 prepared for Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji. See Draft - 2, which follows this letter; It was dispatched to The Prime Minister on Makara Sankranti.

Sub.: One Nation, One Earth, One Calendar

Letter To Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji, Makara Sankranti, Solstice, 22 December 2022

Sub.: One Earth, One Family and One Future

May I review the following with you - the thoughts on which we base our ‘idea’:

Why was Makar Sankranti so important for our Ancient Ones?

Addendum - January 25, 2023

AUGUST 15, 2022

Celebrating the 150th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, 9th Evolutionary Avatar

A paper submitted by Aeon Centre of Cosmology, Kodaikanal Tamil Nadu

References

23 SEPTEMBER 2022 - AUTUMN EQUINOX (MAHA VISHUVA)

Our new Convenor has written the following letter to the Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi about adopting a National Calendar for India.

Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendara Modiji,

Sub: One India, One Calendar

Equinox, 23 September 2022

Patricia Heidt, Director of ACC, has also written to the honourable Prime Minister Modi on this September Equinox

Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji,

Sub: Vedic Calendar - the Earth Calendar

14 October, 2022

Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji,

Sub: One India, One Calendar

Cookie Information

To: Honourable Prime Minister Modiji
26 January 2023, Republic Day, India

Letter To Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji,

Makara Sankranti, Solstice, 22 December 2022