The Gnostic Circle

Thea, Open Letter to the Editor of Swarajya, 14 May 2015.

and to V. Anantha Nangeswaran, author of the May 2015 cover story Enemies at the Gate.

I would like to offer a different perspective to the very important issue of the forces dead set on not allowing the Modi government to succeed. We realise that it is not the BJP or the Sangh Parivar that is the enemy for those forces. Or do we? This is my point and it is the focus of the cited article as well. My intention is to strengthen the author’s astute perceptions with facts gleaned from the new Indocentric Cosmology – thereby positing the discussion in a more objective framework. It is important for clear-sighted individuals to come forward at this stage of the global developments in which India is central. I make this statement because the dangers we face today are remarkably similar to the struggle that surrounded the Second World War. It needs to be understood that there is something much larger at stake than the success or failure of right-of-centre politics or economics. I will elaborate the issue further ahead.

I have resided in India for the past 44 years, since 1971. Over this long stretch of time I have seen the ups and downs of political parties, fluctuations in economic strategies, the rise and fall of once-thought unassailable ideologies, and even substantial cultural mutations, much to the chagrin of traditionalists; and of late the appearance of the newest tool on the block for foreign ‘invasion’ – the Internet. I have witnessed a growth in prosperity primarily evident in rural areas (where I prefer to live). In the 1970s and well into the 1980s, villages, picturesque and even pleasing to the eye, were a conglomeration of thatched huts. There was hardly a brick and cement building in sight, except perhaps that of the largest landholder of the area. This panorama has changed radically. The concrete habitations we now see may not be so aesthetically pleasing, but they do a better job in protecting their inhabitants than thatched huts. Above all, they indicate a new-found prosperity.

In this stretch of over forty years, what is it that has remained unchanged, and has certainly intensified? It is what V. Anantha Nageswaran admirably points out in his article: anti-Hinduism, plain and simple. I am a first-hand witness to this underlying obsession that has become so deeply entrenched in the Indian way of life, to the point that we must question if it will ever be eradicated. Not only have I been a witness, I am a perpetual target of those same forces as well. I have first-hand knowledge of their machinations to degrade Hinduism, and the obscene manner in which anyone who has an influential voice for the Dharmic cause must be discredited and ultimately silenced, by fair or foul means. And irony of ironies, even the apparently staunch upholders of the culture often lend their full support to such discrediting campaigns without realising what masters they are serving in doing so.

Anantha Nageswaran insightfully wrote that it may take ‘several generations for a millennium of slavish thinking to be shed. The risk is that the idea of India may be…buried before that happens, with its potential and promise remaining unfulfilled.’ The ‘idea of India’ is what needs to be discussed but by a cosmological and more objective approach. This has nothing to do with politics or economics, or even the mutations in culture reflected in the aspirations of the youth which often seem offensive to traditionalists. True, it is Hinduism that is in the dock. But even this is too simplistic and does not do justice to the essence of the matter. What do we mean by the word?

Actually it is the Sanatana Dharma that lies at the core of the hostility and relentless undermining that afflicts India in an increasing measure. Nor is this a recent phenomenon. Its seeds were first planted some 2000 years ago and have been gaining strength ever since. After successfully decimating all ancient cultures where aspects of the old tradition were to be found, those forces zeroed in on the only space on planet Earth where that Dharma had survived and been securely lodged. In other cultures where once the Dharma existed, esoteric schools called it the Perennial Knowledge. As the only surviving civilisation India was entrusted to keep the flame burning and the thread unbroken. Such is the burden of destiny she carries. It is a burden for the entire planet.

What we witness today is the last-ditch effort to re-group forces hostile to the perennial knowledge and finally to submerge that Dharma in the sea of ignorance we have inherited from the dark ages, to entrap the entire Earth, not just one nation, in a prison of spiritual backwardness; that is, to extirpate the Knowledge from its only surviving bastion. This is indeed a hegemonic struggle, but it is not a lust for worldly dominance or economic enslavement, as Hinduism’s adversaries strive for. It is a struggle for the elimination, once and for all, of the Sanatana Dharma, or the perennial knowledge that had once thrived across the globe in pagan cultures.

This true objective has been tactfully camouflaged. What is worse, a superb strategy was elaborated to make it almost impossible to realise where the root lies and what is the true objective of the hostile campaign, or even to pinpoint the real adversary. In contemporary society with its shallow yardsticks this strategy was a simple but fundamental one: to place the outer garment donned by the Sanatana Dharma – that is present-day Hinduism, the attire it adopted for itself during this 9th Manifestation of 6480 years (starting in 234 BCE) – on a par with the Abrahamic and exclusivist religions which are late-comers, having arisen as recently as in the past Age of Pisces (234 BCE to 1926 CE). That outer garb may be put on a par with religions – though scholars agree that Hinduism, even as it stands today, does not fit into the category of religion – but in no way can the Sanatana Dharma (the perennial knowledge) be categorised in this fashion. Having fully attained the objective of parity the forces hostile to its survival have succeeded in diluting the Dharma and obscuring the real issue: that India was entrusted with its survival, being its only living and flourishing example.

The truth be told, this could only come fully to light in the present millennium, after the battle lines were fully drawn, resulting in the extreme polarisation we observe today. We bear witness to this monumental occurrence. It is a battle being fought on this soil, at this very time. And, I repeat, it is equal to the stakes at play during the Second World War. This is not a struggle for survival of Hinduism or Islam or Christianity, or whatever. India’s struggle is, and always has been, for survival of its very raison d’être: the Sanatana Dharma, well beyond all religious creeds and the societal structures they have given birth to across the globe. Still of greater importance is the survival of the Earth herself: the Sanatana Dharma is the repository of knowledge (veda = knowledge) that explains the destiny of our very planet because it is the involucrum of the soul of the Earth, its direct expression, as it were; in mythology (the language of the soul), this eternal soul-essence is captured in the Daughter Principle of the hierarchy, better known as Durga, or Bharat Mata herself.

If we do not understand what lies at the root of these pernicious efforts to undermine the rise and flowering of the Indian soul, we will fail to gain focus and determination in the battles being waged in the external strata – in the political sphere, for example. Yes, not allowing the Modi government and associates to succeed is the goal set by the adversaries. However, as Anantha Nageswaran elaborated so well, this is truly a last-ditch attempt to squash Hinduism, its contemporary avatar, because the nation cannot rise to its pre-destined heights while 80% of its population continues to remain trapped in the cage of an inferiority complex. Centuries of condemnation of idol worship (the principal target) have seeded and nurtured a sense of inferiority – though it must be understood that this could never have happened if the knowledge (veda) foundation of the Dharma had not been contaminated. But what does deep thought reveal of that negation? Again, it is suppression – nay, extermination – of the Goddess because she is the giver of all Form, be it the human form or the carefully-crafted murthi that is housed in the most sophisticated and sublime conceptualisation of sacred architecture of all times – the Hindu Temple, itself the repository of all the veda contained in the Sanatana Dharma. Passage in and through the Dark Ages resulted in this magnificent feat of preservation, of these exquisite paeans to the sanctity of Form in its myriad manifestations. And indeed, similar to Hinduism during that dark era, the temples themselves were targeted because they upheld Form, the preserve of the Goddess, no matter which godhead the temple housed. All, every such manifestation is part of her undivided Being. She embraces all because all are her cosmic expressions. It is time to call a spade a spade: the Goddess herself was the target across the ages, regardless of the gender of these idols. These are eternal truths that only India still cherishes.

In the first half of the last century, Sri Aurobindo embarked upon the agenda set for him to re-establish the Dharma by bringing down the power he knew to be the transformative agent required for the endeavour. This was the supramental Truth-Consciousness, known to Rishis of old but not incorporated by them into the evolutionary matrix since that was not their objective. Time had to fulfil itself. This did happen at the outset of our current 9th Manifestation. But since his efforts would mark the next leap in evolution from a race under the rule of Mind to Supermind, naturally the forces entrenched in the old consciousness would rise up and defend their hitherto unchallenged fiefdom. Together with the Mother, his co-worker and perhaps the most adept occultist the world has ever known, they set about their task with Sri Aurobindo going into seclusion right at the onset of the new Age of Aquarius, 1926. The first serious threat to their evolutionary undertaking came soon after with the rise of Nazism at the very time they joined in their mission, the second half of the 1930s. They realised that the Evolutionary Yoga they were engaged in for the Earth, with its promise of a grand new order, had to be set aside because of the threat Nazism posed.

This is a perspective closed to most thinkers; though Sri Aurobindo is appreciated for his nationalism and wisdom, hardly any are aware of just who he was and his own very special mission. It is cosmic and global, not trapped in parochialism of any sort, even of the Hindu brand – an oxymoron, where Hinduism is concerned, it needs to be added. Indeed, when veda is absent, the thrust for survival degenerates into fundamentalism: forces take over, filled with good intentions and zeal, but without a basis in sound knowledge, as contained and preserved in the Sanatana Dharma, the movement is led by those unable to bring to the agenda that wide consciousness which alone is capable of re-establishing the very Dharma they seek to uphold, protect and further. Inflicted as the entire nation is with the fixation of parity, as I call it, lamentably they become reactive, which results in the true character of the Dharma becoming perverted in order to react to the hostile avalanche of abuses, pulling it down to a level where Hinduism does not belong. Indeed the parity fixation is a trap almost all have fallen into. This is where the champions of the cause presently find themselves; it is a black hole that must be resisted at any cost.

Here is an extract from The Mother’s Agenda, Volume II, 1961, where she speaks of the threat the Second World War posed (translated from the French):

That is why the war started: it was to halt the Work [the Evolutionary Yoga of Transformation]. Because at that moment there was an extraordinary descent of the Supermind; it came like that (the Mother makes a gesture of a massive descent). What a DESCENT! It was exactly in 1939. Then the war started and brought a stop to it all. Because if we had continued the work (of transformation) regardless, we were not sure of being able to finish it before ‘the other’ would not have made a mishmash of the earth, and then that would have brought a set back to the whole thing for centuries. It was necessary BEFORE ALL ELSE to stop that action of the Lord of Nations, the Lord of Falsehood [a title given in occult circles to the predominant Asura of our times, at that point consolidated in and working through Nazism].

In their wisdom the Mother and Sri Aurobindo knew that if in India the new Power could not be rooted and activated, the entire planet would be swallowed up by the Asura, just as the myths describe. (For this reason I call myths – recurring history.) They were criticised by many because of their apparent support of the Allies during the Second World War; the above quote provides a better explanation. In this light recently I wrote a four-part series entitled A Cosmological Perspective, the Time-bound Necessity of War, in which I refer to the same action of that hostile Power, but from the cosmological angle, the point being to present to the public a basis in knowledge for statements, perceptions such as these which might elude the capacity to understand these subtleties by the layman. It is a language that pre-supposes a certain yogic background. I quote a relevant portion:

Usurpation is the keyword. The strategy is to use accepted symbols of higher goals based on the sacred sciences. We recognise the tactic without any difficulty regarding Nazism; but how many really question why those sacred Vedic symbols became the emblem of that entire movement? We must now question: How is it that Hitler came to adopt the Swastika as his signature among all the symbols at his disposal to choose from? Nazism was rooted in Christian soil, not Indian; and yet, not only was the Swastika adopted but the usurpation extended to the overall goal of his movement: the establishment of a superior race, the Aryan. This choice touched the heart and soul of the Veda and made the label ‘coincidence’ unacceptable: the only Aryan worth mentioning is the victorious Warrior of the Rig Veda – the world’s oldest Scripture…

Here again we are faced with a ‘gap’ due to unknowing, similar to the opening left in the time-fabric by the event of 1938 [the massive descent the Mother mentioned]: a cloud hangs over the significance of the Rig Veda. To date there is no consensus on the real meaning of its enigmatic verses. That unknowing, that unconsciousness permitted not only Hitler to usurp the Aryan as symbol of the superior race he intended to establish in Germany, but Indologists joined in the chorus, some of those of most repute from Germany itself. They not only fanned false ambitions by their interpretations of the Rig Veda, they also contributed to a persistent North-South divide on the subcontinent.

The point I am making is to recognise how precariously the Earth was poised on the brink of a sombre abyss at the border of the new Age, due entirely to ignorance – of a cosmic status – indeed, the Cosmic Ignorance that must give way to the Cosmic Truth of the Vedic Age. And India stood then, and continues to stand, at the heart of it all. (A Cosmological Perspective, the Time-bound Necessity of War, Part 3, ‘India as Centre-Soul’. The entire series can be found at:www.puraniccosmologyupdated.com.)

This vision is based on objective knowledge. It is part and parcel of the updating methodology central to the Sanatana Dharma, for which reason it is able to survive and refurbish itself according to the demands of the new Age. It is knowledge rooted in the cosmic harmony, and as long as that lives, so long will the Dharma live and thrive. But to bring it to an end, the seemingly unbeatable weapon has been the strategy of derailing used by the adversary for the past two thousand years. The main objective, apart from a pernicious undermining, has been to disconnect the Dharma from its cosmic moorings, the preserve of the sacred Feminine. In this way, no sense can be made of the role India plays for the world which then helps us understand why I can make the statement that our times are the equivalent of the Second World War. Indeed, out-and-out brute force and usurpation was not the solution then to destroy the Dharma, so this time a more subtle strategy has been evolved, utilising the contemporary social and political structure as an almost infallible weapon to achieve parity. Once that is accomplished, for the wrong reasons, the Sanatana Dharma is lost forever and India’s reason for existence is obliterated. All the forces worldwide were marshalled to attain this aim when Narendra Modi began his rise on the political stage. It was an open and undisguised assault, impossible to ignore. Anantha Nageswaran described the operation accurately. But the people of India knew in their hearts what was at stake and defeated those forces at the polls. The Bharat Shakti made sure that her command would prevail. We may analyse all the troubling aspects of current world affairs and the root cause will always be found to be the same. In India, as explained so eloquently by Anantha Nageswaran, the battle lines are obvious.

There is a persistent underlying thread running through the Sanatana Dharma, as well as a unique methodology for perennial renewal and re-establishment. This is precisely what we are experiencing today: the re-establishment of the Eternal Truth. Therefore it can safely be stated that when the war with the dying old order is over, and Knowledge (veda) is finally victorious, the Earth will be the home of the new and most luminous creation ever conceived. It is India’s destiny to introduce that new order, the New Heaven and the New Earth, of the Veda.

More conclusively, in my article I point out the unusual fact that Nazism adopted entirely Vedic symbols for their movement. This is the most revealing fact that India’s destiny to preserve the Santana Dharma was the target at the onset of the new Age, beginning in 1926. Usurpation of its sacred-most symbols was the means, the implication being that they inspire and engender the worst evil the world has ever known. Apart from the Swastika, sacred to Ganesh, their attack on Jews would seem to have had an occult origin and strategic purpose as well because the symbol sacred to ancient Judaism is the two interlaced triangles and which graces even the national flag of Israel; this is the symbol sacred to the other son of Shiva, Kartikeya. But as mythology records, together with his mother, the evil forces out to take possession of the Earth are finally and conclusively vanquished.

Each nation is a Shakti or power of the evolving spirit in humanity and lives by the principle which it embodies. India is the Bharat Shakti, the living energy of a great spiritual conception, and fidelity to it is the very principle of her existence. For by its virtue alone she has been one of the immortal nations; this alone has been the secret of her amazing persistence and perpetual force of survival and revival.

(Sri Aurobindo, Foundations of Indian Culture, The Sri Aurobindo Library, Inc. New York, 1953, p.5-6, original edition; later published as The Renascence of India.)

Sri Aurobindo wrote these words in the beginning of the last century. They are more pertinent now than ever. Could he have imagined that the polarisation brought about by forces seeking hegemony over the very soul of the planet would reach the extremes we witness today? Being the 9th Avatar and conscious of his mission, he certainly must have. The entire volume from which this pertinent portion has been extracted should serve as the holiest of Holy Books, the virtual guidebook for the nation as she moves through the tumultuous upheavals that lie ahead in her struggle to virtually hold her own amidst forces that are intent on drawing her off course. In this regard, it ought to be mentioned that Hindus are to be admired for their courage across the centuries in face of untold brutalities inflicted on them because of their ancient beliefs and culture. They have held firm – and they must continue to do so because we are in the midst of the most conclusive battle the civilisation has ever known; it is not to be taken lightly. Confusion reigns supreme because enemies are within. The order of the day – indeed, the main characteristic of the new order – is the all-embracing quality of the Goddess and her cosmic manifestation, the Body of the Supreme. It is transformation not destruction, not marginalisation but the wisdom and the courage and the ability to put each thing in its place. Blanket parity is not the enlightened way. The victory would mean an atmosphere established across the country where each section of its society can be accommodated in such a manner as to be able to contribute its best to the overall harmony. The cosmos is truly the greatest demonstration of diversity in unity imaginable. The Dharma has suffered undeniable scarring, but in spite of it all it has not perished. This is the gift Hindus can proudly offer the world. Some day what that exactly means for the Earth will be understood by all. The planet is blessed by the fortitude Hindus have shown.

In his quoted words Sri Aurobindo makes a fundamentally important point. He states clearly that ‘each nation is a power of the evolving spirit and lives by the principle it embodies’. The issue of course is that hardly any nation is aware of what that embodied principle might be. All are infants in the ability to perceive the contours of destiny, for example as laid down in the simple Vedic aphorism vasudhaiva kutumbakam, the whole world is one family. The nations of the world cannot even reach the point of acknowledging that we are allequal parts of that One Family. The division between large and small, big economies and minor, north and south, and so on, reflect this limitation. The true cosmic harmony is now being unveiled as the model to follow – and it is Indocentric. The Eurocentric is over, but it is not going to gracefully withdraw. The way to face any onslaught is armed with the only Powers the Goddess knows best how to wield – the Power of Truth, of Knowledge: they are invincible.

Let us look at it in terms of our Solar System. No single planet in the System, be it large or small, claims a right to hegemony of any sort. Size and lustre make no difference in the grand scheme of things. It is exclusively the totality that matters, the whole; and each planet plays its own particular role within that concert, no single unit houses a greater purpose than its companions in the cosmic scheme destiny has mapped out for our unique System. It is the duty of a more mature civilisation like the Indian to understand Sri Aurobindo’s words and to use them to forge ahead into the new times in the fulfilment of her destiny.

Simply put, each thing/planet/nation must find its true place and value in the grand scheme of the Earth’s destiny. Each nation is a part of the whole and together this concert of nations can create a symphony the harmonies of which have been heard (sruti) and understood only by the most evolved souls (the Rishis). Modelled after our very own solar system and as its third planet, the Earth’s own Dharma is to foster the Soul, to provide the field – unique in this System and perhaps in the entire galaxy – where the Soul can be unveiled to play the role for the whole of humanity that it plays for each individual. The individual centred on the psyche can never serve lesser powers but only the highest, just as Sri Aurobindo wrote a century ago, and give expression only to THAT in all aspects of life.

The Earth herself is the Chosen One – not any one philosophy, any single creed or religion or ideology – but this third planet we inhabit herself: We incarnate here to help the Earth realise and fulfil her destiny – nothing more, nothing less. We hear the slogan service to the nation often enough. This is a call to serve the Earth, to helpher fulfil her noble task.

To this end, this grand Lila is reaching a culmination, a now or never moment in a very long and seemingly limitless evolution of the spirit. It means that now is the time to become aware of the stakes, higher now than ever they have been, and to become conscious instruments in the hands of Bharat Shakti. In this exercise India plays the role of the Sun in our solar system. She is the Centre – not a superpower let it be stated clearly – but the unique soul-centre of the Earth, where the Supreme descends yuge-yuge to re-establish that which is eternally true.

India alone, when she finally takes possession of her centre-ship, can allow each nation to find its place in the grand Harmony and to contribute its unique worth to the Whole. She cannot allow herself to be pulled off-centre – because that is the goal of the adversary, which would constitute victory for the forces hostile to the Sanatana Dharma: to engage India in a lesser hegemonic struggle. But India must see more deeply into the essence of the struggle; for forces hostile to the Dharma the objective is indeed to ‘harvest souls’. I say, let the harvesters reap whatever they like. But India must penetrate into the heart of the matter. She must see the potential contribution of those very antagonists that seek to destroy her before she can bring her age-old Dharma to express the glories it holds for the whole Earth.

The West, after passage through the Dark Age with its history of abolishing all pagan cultures, has embraced the Judeo-Christian ethos. This choice has resulted in a civilisational expression apparently at odds with the spirit and soul of India. Be that as it may, that choice resulted in a marked affinity with matter and the external dimensions of life, out of which evolved the current political ideologies as well as the concept of secularism that bears little relevance to a Vedic culture. It enjoys a prosperity India cannot seem to parallel, try as she might. But is this commensurate with her true destiny? To follow the lead of the West and extend the life of a dying consciousness?

Let the West, now led by the United States of America (and this too is in the just order of things) continue to support with their wealth and rajasic missionary zeal the less materialised nations. Let a thousand Mother Theresas come to Indian soil and ‘harvest the poor’, certainly not those souls who belong to the Sanatana Dharma, but the poor, even the poorest of the poor. It is their dharmic obligation to do so; even as it is India’s dharmic obligation – the whole of India, all Indians included – to uphold and to protect that Dharma. The Harvesters know nothing of the other, the ancient Dharma that India has held from time immemorial in her sacred Bhoomi. Leave that to the care of the wise, to the wisdom of the Mother – for she alone knows what is best for her children.

Thea
Aeon Centre of Cosmology
at ‘Skambha’ Palani Hills, South India
14.5.2015
www.aeoncentre.com

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