Also in this Series
In a very distant past Vedic civilisation sent out waves beyond the boundaries of the subcontinental mass of the Capricorn hieroglyph. These carried seeds of the culture, some of which may still be recognised. One such is the great temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I mention this particular example of Vedic culture beyond the Capricorn border because it is clear that in its construction there was an attempt to capture a most essential part of the ancient Veda. This was indeed the case as the temple of Angkor Wat depicts the wonderful myth of the Churning of the Milky Ocean at the dawn of time. There is the Mountain in the larger lines of the structure, as in all Hindu temples, and then the bas-reliefs which recount this magnificent tale. Indeed, perhaps the most exquisite is the depiction of the act of churning with its clear axial alignment conveyed in stone via the harmony of the design. There are the gods, the titans, the Tortoise upon which Vishnu conducts the operation and who is Vishnu himself, as the Serpent Vasuki is pulled and movement begins.
For this is the meaning of the myth. It is the birth of that which moves, and hence of time as it evolves in our material universe from the seed of Itself. From this churning the primordial mass then throws up diverse ‘treasures’ which can only come into being through a stirring of this mass. Statics do not create. It is only dynamism that can generate the creative Energy.
Time is the motor of this great Machine, this mighty ‘mountain’, as we have seen in The Magical Carousel. In the deepest heart of the Mountain the essence of creation is found, which is Time. The meaning is that at the core of mass it is Time’s energy which can be found and then released; similar to the release experience in the Great Churning which permits the treasures to arise.
The goal of this portion of our study is to demonstrate factually the manner in which the essence of the Veda is brought forth again in a contemporary ‘act of churning’, as it were. I wish to demonstrate with solid evidence how this is achieved not only by highlighting certain perhaps recondite aspects of the myth but also by indicating in which way this essence is ‘extracted’ in today’s great Churning. The result is the reestablishment of the Vedic Dharma in the only way appropriate to its original essence – that is, through the lived experience.
This has been demonstrated regarding myth itself and a contemporary seeing along those very lines. Now we shall carry over this vision into the actual temple; but not of antiquity. We shall locate this same ‘mountain’ in the Mother’s design of her Temple, but at the same time we shall come upon the release engendered by Time when the ‘churning’ began, or the moment the temple construction moved from its static to dynamic mode; or the transition of the construction from the plan stage to the beginning in time of the actual construction process. This was in early 1971, a most appropriate year in that it marked the beginning of the last three enneads of this millennium, 1971 to 1998, certainly the most important 27 years of our period of recorded history, though this may not be appreciated by the layman. For the importance of these 27 years lies in the recondite dismantling of the binary creation, the supreme achievement of this Age.
In a manifestation of this order there are various stages to be respected. The first is the Seeing, as when the Mother first entered this Chamber in the subtle dimension. As such it was the seed of the entire experience. This Seeing covered the first days of January, 1970. It was as if veils were drawn aside and her luminous Eye cast light into that ‘hidden chamber closed and mute’. And there lay the Treasures.
From that point the ‘churning’ began, particularly from the time the actual construction was set on its way, a date and hour set by the Mother herself. Later, on the actual foundation stone she wrote, OM.
What I wish to highlight is the fact that in a most precise manner the experience of constructing this temple reenacted the Churning of the Milky Ocean myth. Treasures arose as well as an initial poison, as the myth conveys, duly consumed by Shiva. Therefore he is known as Neelakanta, or the Blue-Throated One, because poison remained blocked in his throat and turned it blue. By this magnanimous act he saved the world. Shiva is also known as Mahakala, the Great Time. In what way might Time then be connected to the generation of poison as well as the treasures that followed? And what role might Shiva play? These questions are answered in the Puranic tales themselves. But our desire is to find the answers, the same as of old, in contemporary history in the making.
To begin, let me demonstrate how the Vedic temple is reestablished in and through the Mother’s vision, and how all its essential features are not only captured in her original plan but enhanced, rendered in stone in an unparalleled exaltation of that original truth-seeing of old.
The Churning of the Milky Ocean myth has several versions, some quite elaborate in detail. For the purposes of our study we need only dwell on certain essential features or greater lines of the tale. We note therefore that the stage is set for the act by descriptions of the great commotion among forces occupying the three worlds and that the powers inhabiting these realms, or dimensions, appeal to Brahma, the Creator, to come to their succour and put order therein. Brahma, in turn, sends them to Vishnu, the Preserver, who himself carries out the great Churning. Thus order or cosmos comes into being.
The myth is concerned primarily with establishing the central role of the Axis in creation. This much is very clear. But there is more involved and this has reference to certain important or key features of our material dimension. This simple tale in fact sheds light on the very structure of Form. Indeed this, it must be stated, is the purpose of the myth. And this feature pertains to macrocosms as well as microcosms. It pertains as well to the primordial age as well as to the stages of cosmic evolution well beyond the so-called Big Bang.
But was there ever any such thing as a Big Bang? According to the myth creation did not come into being by anything of the sort, and especially not through any process of collapse of energy. It was simply the emergence of an axis and then the conspiracy to set that ‘churning’. That the myth refers to the elaboration of the physical components of our universe is obvious from the fact that it adopts the symbol of churning the Milky Ocean, or the Milky Way, and then from this motion gradually the treasures arise as butter would from the curdled, churned creamy substance. There is, in addition, a separation process in the manufacture of butter; the same does indeed occur in the cosmic process until finally the substance of form emerges from this primordial soup, as it were, and the dross is discarded.
It is another demonstration of the consistency of the Vedic Knowledge that milk is used in this grand myth, mother of all others. For the foundation of the Seeing is ever that Sacred Cow Surabhi, as she is known, or Kamadhenu. Indeed, the very first crystallised form that emerges from the churned ‘milk’ is precisely the Cow, Surabhi.
Science must then ask what the nature of an axis is and what are its origins. We are of course aware that macrocosmic bodies do indeed possess axes and that they ‘churn away’ around their fixed poles. But how did this come into being in the first place? We seem to take for granted that axes always existed or that in some way, unknown to us, they arose simultaneously with the first crystallised substance. This hypothesis may not be sufficient to understand the nature of our physical dimension because, as the ancient Vedic Seer realised in the dawn of history, the discovery of the origin of the axis is essential both for the proper understanding of the cosmic process and evolution, as well as the evolution of smaller bodies and finally the human species. Given this central importance, the axis is found in all cultural expressions of the subcontinent which can trace their roots to that original Vedic act of seeing.
The next feature of the myth to note is the setting in motion of the churning rod. To achieve this, the services of Vasuki are demanded. The Serpent is thus wrapped around the churning stick and – please note – the powers of both Darkness and Light are employed for the great tugging of Vasuki’s head and tail. Finally they complete the labour, the result of which is the emergence of treasured Forms, first of which is Surabhi the sacred Cow.
Why a cow, we might ask? In Vedic symbolism, given the use of dual meanings of words in Sanskrit, cow is equally a ray. But, as I have pointed out elsewhere in this series, the Cow indicates that luminous consciousness of the solar world, prior to differentiation. Indeed, the churning of her precious ‘milk’ is intended to produce just that: differentiated forms. We are thus reminded of this when the Seer relates that Surabhi is the very first ‘form’ to arise from the primordial milky ocean churned so valiantly by gods and demons alike, under the beneficent overseer, Vishnu, stabilised on the mighty Tortoise.
Two points must be noted: the relevance of centrality and axial alignment, both magnificently displayed in the Angkor Wat sculptured rendition of the tale. Indeed, the perfect Centre – in this case the Mountain – is what engenders an axis. But the myth is very specific in that the involvement of Vishnu is necessary for any of this to take place. It is Vishnu, of whom the Evolutionary Avatars are said to be emanations, who not only sets the axis in motion but who, in his Tortoise form, provides the prerequisite stability.
Hence a stable point is required, a foothold, as it were. Only then can the axis be churned and order be made of the chaos. This is an ever-recurring exercise, however. Vishnu periodically is called upon to ‘put order’ in the chaos of life, of Time, and to reestablish that ‘Stable Constant’, as I have called it; or, on other occasions, the Vedic ecliptic Base. The Evolutionary Avatar is his direct instrument for this mighty periodic Churning which must take place at regular intervals if the cosmic Machine is to be kept ‘churning’.
This introduces a further element. The question of generation of energy. Indeed, every cosmic body possessing an axis and in rotation around that ‘churning rod’ is a generator of energy. This, indeed, is the deepest purpose of all macrocosmic bodies. Their revolutions generate the energy that propels material creation forward in Time (and not backward, or to collapse upon itself). But not only does the macrocosmic body serve this function. The human structure is equally a generator of energy; with the difference that our species, for example, is hopelessly aligned to produce collapse. That is, the energy turns back upon itself, consumes itself, as it were. Brought to a more appreciable level, it is a structure which does not repose upon the Tortoise, which has no stable constant or base to uphold its ‘churning’, and that therefore begins to age at a certain critical turning point in its evolution and begins to consume itself or feed upon an energy supply which has not made contact with an ever-replenishing source. Expansion is overtaken by contraction in such a situation. They are not simultaneous directions or mutually supportive.
What this means is that the churning, by virtue of a certain axial alignment, ceases to produce expanding energy or growth, if you will, the process being fed by a replenishing source of energy; contraction is then experienced. This is a turning in on itself, or a source which is not unlimited but is rather subject to the limitations of a self-enclosed system. The rest of our lives thereafter serve simply to eat our energy base away. There is no further replenishing source insofar as the Tortoise is missing. More appropriately, we do not possess an axial alignment based on centrality (Mt. Meru). Ours is a binary system by consequence of which the two directions are not mutually supportive but at odds with each other. Tension arises from the contest and this is the description of the world we have created in our own image.
The creation of a perfect Centre is then the means to make contact with the Source in the other dimension, the Vedic Solar World or Swar. In so doing, the instrument is perfectly balanced, poised not on an off-centre cross as the mortal human creation is, so accurately depicted in Christian symbolism by the Cross on which Jesus is nailed. In the supramental body the perfect Centre engenders an intersection of the two fundamental cosmic directions, contraction and expansion, mutually supportive by virtue of this centred poise and therefore possessing an axis aligned in such a manner as to be that sacred Pillar, that Skambha up-pillaring creation.
This means, quite simply, that fulness lies at the core of a sun, a material sun and a luminous sun of consciousness which is the birthright of all creatures born on planet Earth where this alignment can manifest. The generation of energy in the core of the Sun is due to the centre and axis which sustains it (the Tortoise/stable constant of the myth), and therefore no collapse is experienced. Similarly, the human being in transition to a gnostic being has to bring about a new alignment in his or her consciousness-being in order for contact with the Fulness to occur, in order to ‘become the Sun’, as the Veda prophesies.
In the myth we are shown the structure of a unitary system. More than this, the myth is a prophecy – as indeed all true myths are – which relates the actions of the Evolutionary Avatars in ‘putting order’. And, more especially, in bringing into being the unitary system based on a perfect centre; or a centering process which generates a perfect axial alignment whereby that collapse, that turning back upon itself cannot occur. This is indicated in the cosmic order by the Midday Sun, the Ray that ‘casts no shadows’.
The Churning Mountain myth is indicative of a world in chaos or on the border between a binary and unitary system. The tension described is similar to our stage of evolution. Vishnu stands for that perfect centre which comes into being in the evolutionary process – that is, in the recondite processes of time in the material dimension – through the action of the Evolutionary Avatars.
All these elements have been reestablished in the mythic dimension, as I have described in the last issue with the ‘seeing’ of The Magical Carousel in March of 1970. Now we must search for these same elements in the reestablished temple, product of the Mother’s ‘seeing’. Indeed, her act preceded mine by three months and without which I could not have seen, could not have entered my own inner recesses; or that ‘hidden chamber closed and mute’, to use Sri Aurobindo’s description from his epic poem, Savitri, which does indeed describe the true character of that ‘recess’.
The body’s rules bound not the spirit’s powers:
When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in;
He dared to live when breath and thought were still.
Thus could he step into that magic place
Which few can even glimpse with hurried glance
Lifted for a moment from mind’s laboured works
And the poverty of Nature’s earthly sight.
All that the Gods have learned is there self-known.
There in a chamber closed and mute
Are kept the record graphs of the cosmic scribe,
And there the tables of the sacred Law,
There is the Book of Being’s index page,
The text and glossary of the Vedic truth
Are there; the rhythms and metres of the stars
Significant of the movements of our fate:
The symbol powers of number and of form,
And the secret code of the history of the world
And Nature’s correspondence with the soul
Are written in the mystic heart of life.
Savitri, Book I, Canto 5, CE, p.74-75
The Mother Accelerates the Ocean of Time
When the Mother penetrated the subtle dimension and entered the Chamber, she let loose upon the world that sacred Ray. She set in motion the ‘churning’. All were gathered together, – the gods and the titans, the powers of Light and Darkness. Indeed, she was more than specific about her act when she declared, after 18 days of battling with her entourage over the question of whose vision to be implemented by the architects, hers or theirs, that she was entrusting the operation to the ‘force of Consciousness’ to sort out the energies. She used the French word, decanter (to decant), which refers specifically to a settling of sediment, leaving the pure substance free. She stated,
‘You know, I do not believe in external decisions. I simply believe in one thing: the force of Consciousness which is making a pressure like that [crushing gesture] and the pressure goes on becoming greater…which means that it will sort out [decant] the people.
‘I believe only in that – the pressure of the Consciousness. All the rest, they are man-made things. They do them more or less well, and then it lives, and then it dies, and then it changes, and then it decomposes and then…everything they have done. It is not worth the trouble. The power of execution must come from above, like that, imperative… [gesture of descent]. And for that, this [The Mother points to her forehead], this must keep quiet. Not to say, “Oh, that must not be, oh! we ought to do…’. Peace, peace, peace. He knows better than you what is needed. There.
‘So, since there are not many who can understand, I say nothing, I watch and I wait…’.
The Matrimandir Dialogues, TVN, 1/6, page 44.
In these brief words the Mother prophesied the events which were to accompany the journey of her Temple through tumultuous corridors of time and circumstance in a process very much akin to the Churning of the Milky Ocean. Central to both is the Evolutionary Avatar, emanation of Vishnu. Essential to both is Time, set in accelerated motion with the Mother’s original act of seeing which drew aside certain veils and released energy. The Act of Seeing is thus a power. Every yogic act of this order does indeed release energy. It is not simply passive, as one’s condition before a cinema screen. When a Yogi penetrates a particular subtle plane or dimension, he or she allows the essence of that plane to filter down to Earth, and, in certain highly advanced achievements of this order, to find a firm and lasting foothold here. This is especially evident when Time is an ally in the process and not the Destroyer. Then the seeds of that Seeing are carried on and on in the evolutionary process, brought to fruition as it were by Time. And insofar as we are dealing with a release of energy, it is this act which causes an acceleration.
The contemporary unfolding of the ancient myth witnessed the same protagonists as of old. Both gods and titans took part. Both engaged in the labour of churning the mighty axis of Mount Meru, utilising Vasuki – or Time. And, given the Mother’s uncanny ability to identify the forces at her disposal, she did indeed hand over to the titans the hardest part of the labour, the part which would produce ‘poisonous fumes’ thrust into the faces of these demons, possessors of unsurpassable physical-vital power. Thus, the actual physical construction was given to those in her entourage fashioned by destiny and constitution in such a manner as to permit them to carry the churning to completion in spite of those poisonous fumes they were constantly exposed to and consuming. Indeed, it is important to note that the more accomplished instruments, the more commendable in a sense were the titans, inasmuch as they possess a tenacity and will unparalleled by anything the gods can offer to the Divine Labour. But the gods too are required in equal measure, aligned on either side of the Rod so that a balanced and orderly churning may ensue on the basis of the two powers aligned along the horizontal axis. Vishnu, the Preserver and spirit of the Avatar, stands central in the vertical alignment setting the rhythm as a coxswain would of old in the rhythmic rowing of a ship. He sets the Pulse, the harmony both for gods and titans.
The Mother may also have been as naughty as Vishnu in tricking the titans, or Asuras, into accepting to hold Vasuki’s head, through whose mouth the noxious fumes were to emanate. In the myth the deception by Vishnu of the Asuras is described in delightful detail. The Asuras are fooled into demanding to hold Vasuki’s head by the simple fact that the Devas pretended to want that position in the Churning Act. Limited as the Asuras are in their vision, they immediately deduced that the head was the best position and that Vishnu would be favouring the gods if it were granted to them. They remonstrated before him, voicing their grievance and pleading for justice. Vishnu, a party to the ruse – nay, its creator – readily appeased the Asuras by granting them the Serpent’s head to hold which was being so coveted by the gods, to all appearances. The churning was thus begun on this basis, by this ruse.
Contemporary history in the making reveals a very similar ruse. The coveted position in the case of the Mother’s creation was the actual physical centre as well as the actual physical labour. That is, to hold possession of the physical construction. And that she did indeed grant to the titans who, as tenaciously as their counterparts of old, clung to the ‘head’ with all their might, never releasing it for one moment. And it is there, from that cauldron, that the fumes arose. That is, the waste, so essential a product of a true churning of time.
The entire operation must be viewed as a mighty machine, a cosmic generator of energy necessary in order to set time moving in higher gears, or to avoid collapse of energy. The period reserved for the acceleration is 27 years – or 3 x 9. In calendar time, it began exactly with the onset of the construction, 1971, or the start of the last three enneads of the millennium – 1971 to 1998. It is more than evident to even the most materially-minded observer, in whatever field of human endeavour, that this period has indeed seen the most remarkable ‘acceleration’ of our age. We have the titans to thank for this spectacular advance.
And the gods? What has been, and continues to be, their contribution, as well as their recompense? While the titans hold the coveted ‘head’ (and enjoy the noxious fumes in the bargain), what is the reward of the gods? Clearly the tail is the less important or prominent position. But in this case, being at the other end of the pole, away from that vexing mouth of Vasuki emanating poisonous wastes, the atmosphere is clear, uncontaminated, as clean as mountain air. The gods also tug, they too are engaged in the hard labour. But Vasuki does not cloud their vision with his fumes. They can thus see.
The objective of the churning is a stirring of the milky ocean. That is, the vast expanse of Consciousness. This is what the Cow stands for. With her in the creation of material things is the Horse, or force. They describe together the axis of Being of macro and microcosm, consciousness-force.
Thus the churning implies that the undifferentiated consciousness must be set in motion in such a manner as to produce differentiated forms. But the essence of that Consciousness is light. Hence Cow, go, also means ray in Sanskrit. The Cow Surabhi, first of the treasures to emerge is the equivalent of a consolidated body of Light. In more appreciable terms it is a body of knowledge, or veda. And indeed one of ‘treasures’ stolen by the Asuras at the time of the churning was precisely the Vedas. The tale describes the ruses employed by Vishnu and the gods to rescue them, which did come to pass.
On the other end of the pole is Force. Thus the churning demands the contribution of instruments for the act who embody power. Consequently, both gods and titans engage in the churning in equal measure. They set the mighty Axis in motion which requires this alignment of light and darkness, or consciousness-force, as embodied by gods and titans. The Axis holds them to itself, thereby bringing order into the chaos; or differentiating forms from the undifferentiated essence of the Supreme Consciousness.
It is clear from this brief analysis of the myth that order is synonymous with axis, and that no harmony of elements can come into being without that central Mt Meru; and for Mt Meru to serve in this noble act of creating order there must, above all else, come into being the stable constant, the base, the Evolutionary Avatar in the mythic form of the Tortoise.
The Divine Measure of the Axis/Rod
One of the salient features of this work in its third and fourth levels of manifestation is the question of filling the void; or, as is pertinent to the Third Power, the birth that fills the Void. This is equivalent to the Tortoise Avatar serving as the base or indeed filling the Void so that the Rod might be upheld. (In the 10th chapter of The Magical Carousel quoted in the last issue in regard to the experience of the Hindu Temple, the act of ‘filling the void’ was conveyed by the existence of the hole in the middle of the cavern in the Mountain, and the vision of the Time-Spirit rising into the room and ‘filling the Void’ in the ‘mountain mass’.)
The Churning myth describes the initial difficulty gods and titans experience in the exercise of churning when the Rod (Mt Meru) begins to sink, precisely because the base is lacking. Consequently, Vishnu takes the form of the Tortoise (kurma in Sanskrit) and props up the Rod-Mountain. In the Line of Ten Avatars, this was Vishnu’s second incarnation, his first being the Fish, matsya in Sanskrit. I propose further on to show how this myth is played out three times in the course of the Great Round of Manifestations, comprising 77,760 years.
Sri Aurobindo pointed out that the Line of Ten Avatars (and its accompanying mythology) is a ‘parable of evolution’. This is indeed the case and is readily apparent to the scholar acquainted with the true discipline of mythic creation and its symbolism. I would agree with Sri Aurobindo entirely, but in the process, let us carry the discovery a step further into a more detailed analysis of the cosmological content of the stories, and in particular the precise relationship with Time and the flow of the Ages as mirrored in the zodiacal sphere. I wish to make a certain distinction before all else, particularly because of recent discoveries made in the Rigveda by an Indian computer scientist working at the Louisiana State University in the USA, Dr Subash Kak. This perceptive researcher seems to have come upon a ‘code’ in the Rigveda, as recently reported in Indian and foreign newspapers and journals, which reveals the profound knowledge of astronomy possessed by the composers of the hymns; and indeed that this collection of ancient writings ought not to be referred to as hymns, given the code and the astronomy it details.
For a very long time I have been sustaining that the Rigveda describes a cosmological process and that this pertains to the macrocosm but is more especially a manual of Yoga which is modelled on the cosmic process and can confer on the practitioner the ability to establish in the individual’s private cosmos the same properties of the larger bodies; and that the clarion call of the Rishis to ‘become the Sun’ was not at all ‘symbolic’ in the manner we understand symbolism, but that it was a very real and concrete realisation. It did indeed transform the consciousness-being of the Aryan Warrior to the degree that a certain mysterious and magical realignment would confer upon the practitioner the coveted state of Immortality, the apex of the Vedic quest. This process is more accurately described as cosmological and not simply astronomy, though astronomical codes may indeed emerge from a specialised scrutiny of the text. This, however, is immaterial to the larger lines the Veda draws. They were secondary to the real pursuit.
Subash Kak has apparently come upon a code which establishes from the Rigveda the distances between Earth and Sun, and Earth and Moon. This is contained in the accurate measurement of the diameters of these cosmic bodies. The distance between the Sun and Earth would thus be 108 diameters of the Sun; and the distance between the Earth and Moon would be based on 108 diameters of the Moon.
The measure therefore is 108 in both cases, or 9 X 12. These, the student of the new cosmology recognises, are the numbers of the Gnostic Circle’s structure: 9 (planets), and 12 (zodiacal signs), and the Circle is thus a superimposition on the wheel in this manner. In other words, the Gnostic Circle describes a harmony, a measured play between these two number-powers, 9 and 12. These result in 21 by addition and 108 by multiplication. By subtraction the remainder is 3.
Interestingly, contemporary science measurements of the diameters of Sun and Moon and their distance from the Earth by such equivalents is 107.6 for the Sun, and 110.6 for the Moon. Subtraction between the two leaves us with a similar measure of 3, as with the product of the subtraction of 9 from 12.
This question of Harmony is not something the scientist of today is willing to accept, in its own right, as a valid aspect of the cosmological paradigm of whatever school. One cannot help but wonder at the dullness of the human mind in this regard when we realise what an extraordinary ‘coincidence’ of proportions had to enter into the factor of lunar and solar eclipses, for example. Precisely the diameters of the bodies involved had to be of such a harmony and the bodies themselves positioned at the very specific points in the solar system for this ‘harmony of eclipse’ to take place in the manner we know. That is, where the disk of the Moon or the Earth must be such as to obscure the sphere upon which either its shadow is projected as in the case of the lunar eclipse, or the actual body itself intervenes to produce the perfect covering of the Sun at the time of a solar eclipse. We take these occurrences for granted perhaps; but certainly the Vedic Rishi did not, if, as Dr Kak discovered, so much emphasis was laid on the diameters of these very bodies. Indeed, from those remote times until today, the measure 108 has been a revered power in many Hindu rituals and in Puranic cosmology. We encounter it constantly in any perusal of the old texts.
Given this lack of interest in Harmony for harmony’s sake, it is unlikely the present-day researcher will agree that the content of the Veda is more specifically cosmological rather than astronomical; not to speak of historical which is his predilection. The hymns have been categorised differently by various scholars who have analysed these ancient writings of another age, another consciousness, depending upon their particular disciplines or inclination. We note that they have been studied philologically, historically, and so forth. I am now adding a cosmological perspective, but I do so with the conviction that before long these revelations will help to focus attention on the unique spirit manifesting through the consciousness of the people of the subcontinent throughout the millennia.
The reason why Vedic cosmology is largely beyond the scope of the researcher, as well as the contemporary yogi, is because the ancient Rishi understood the role of axis and alignment of cosmic directions, an aspect of cosmology quite out of the parameters of the latter-day cosmologist. This might not have been the case had the Rishis limited their proclamations to a statement of fact regarding the universe under scrutiny. But the stumbling-block the modern scientist encounters in dealing with the ancient cosmology, or even its astronomy, is that the Rishis were not satisfied with an empirical externalised observation. They continuously disturb the modern analyst by perversely drawing the observation into the private laboratory of the Seer. Or else, by starting from that innermost point of observation, a positioning foreign to the contemporary scientist, though the nuclear physicist does concede that measurements of particles are disturbed by the observer. The observer is thus an intrinsic part of the very act of measuring. Verse after verse inveighs upon the Aryan to BECOME that Harmony, to realise in him or herself that same cosmological process in the inner recesses of their consciousness-being. And insofar as Time is the gestator of the universe and essential to its evolution, the Aryan must also make Time an ally – failing which the Victory cannot be attained.
I repeat, this stubborn insistency on transformation of the human being in an integral and integrated fashion which will reproduce on Earth that greater harmony and establish contact with the same eternally replenishing Source which a sun enjoys is entirely unacceptable to the scientist.
As for the modern Yogi, after the loss of the Divine Measure that practice became unrealisable. Yogas, or spirituality, as we are obliged to call the process of transformation of consciousness after the spirit/matter divide, are entirely practical. If results cannot be attained within the prescriptions of the path, the yogi will not persist. Other paths then come to replace the old which do indeed produce results.
Hence, with the Divine Maya lost, the cosmically-oriented quest became irrelevant and was soon abandoned. And yet it is universally acknowledged as the seed of all the rest, as the heart and soul of Hinduism. Consequently, the Evolutionary Avatar must appear at determined intervals to re-churn the Ocean of Milk, to re-tune the instrument and set the pulse in accordance with the new boundaries of the human consciousness.
Thus, in this 9th Manifestation we have a solar system consisting of 9 planets. This is therefore an essential ingredient in our measure. We have a measure of 12, for example our division of the year, or the ecliptic division of the Earth’s revolution of the Sun. And these are the facets of the Divine Maya which the Avatar must re-establish, with all that is connected to such an act, – i.e., the precise location of the Capricorn Solstice. Thus 9 and 12 is the measure of the consciousness of the human species in this particular Age. The enhancement involves 3 planets added to the former 6. And once again we encounter the measure of 3 between the old and the new System as with the diameters of Sun and Moon.
‘The Measure of Unity’
In Volumes 1 and 2 of The New Way, I laid emphasis on the supreme importance of the radius, in that treatment it was particularly the radius of the Earth: 3960 miles – the mile being the ‘horizontal’ measurement based on 12. I did so in order to stress the need to respect the accurate measurement of the diameter of the Mother’s Chamber, as stipulated by her in her original plan of the temple. These numbers, 3/9/6/0, in this very order, are contained in her plan on the basis of the Mathematics of Unity and the precise location of the 3 consecutive circles which combine to reproduce the Mother’s 3-part symbol in the temple’s floor plan, or its horizontal expanse, because indeed her symbol is based on the measure of 12. The total radius is 1200 (=3), the next circle’s radius is 675 (=9), and the last is 150 (=6); and finally the centre, 0. (See The New Way, Volume l, page 147.) I called the radius the Measure of Unity.
This is not far from the ancient perception inasmuch as the distance between the three principal cosmic bodies of our System are observations based precisely on radii, and then diameters. Now, if we take the Vedic measure of 108 diameters and convert them to radii, we come upon an interesting measure of 216. When adding the 0 representing the centre of the circle or orb as I have done in the above diagram, the measure is 2160. One interesting ‘coincidence’ of this particular number is that it happens to be the amount of years from the date of the beginning of the 9th Manifestation (234BC) to 1926, or the beginning of our Age of Aquarius, one of the three zodiacal signs comprising the 9th Manifestation.
In other words, for the Earth to trace her ‘ascendant’ on the constellational backdrop, 2160 years are required in order for that shaft to pass through one sign. This is especially interesting in the context of our present discussion because involved in this precessional movement backward through the signs are precisely the three bodies under scrutiny in the context of the Rigvedic astronomical code, – the Earth, the Moon and the Sun. But the especially important body is the Moon because it balances the Earth’s axial tilt and thereby creates a wobbling motion which, like a spinning top, is the movement the Earth traces and therefore produces this shaft which I call her Ascendant. And interestingly again, this number 2160 is the diameter of the Moon. (See The New Way, Volume 2, ‘The Moon and the Precession’, page 255.)
I have established many such relationships in my books in connection with the Mother’s temple, particularly in The New Way, involving this number and others of equal importance, traceable to the ancient texts. There is no need to repeat here the earlier discoveries insofar as the object of the present study is somewhat different and more expanded. My intention at this point is to draw the Vedic experience as described in the ancient Hindu temple to the present and reveal that in the Mother’s architectural plan and design of her Temple today all the salient features of the former are not only retained but enhanced. This enhancement comes about by virtue of the fact that the reestablishment carries the act of measuring to even greater heights of sophistication than attained in former times – namely because of the universality of the present exercise. This is made possible by a host of factors, principal of which is the oneness of our globe, our more universal perception imposed upon contemporary society by the discovery of the full body of the Earth and the means for almost instant communication between points across the surface of the planet and even deep into space; as well as the full measure of the solar system and its relation to the 9 and the 12. All of this is a feature of our dawning Age of Aquarius, as any astrologer will affirm. And the Age began in that year of blessed number power 1926, or the 2160th year into our actual 9th Manifestation, the period of Vishnu’s appearance as the 9th (and 10th) Avatar.
Axial Containment
The Milky Ocean myth is very precise in conveying the fact that the axis or Churning Rod is held in place by two elements. One is the Tortoise who props up the Rod from the deepest depths – hence the creature used is precisely the amphibian tortoise which lives in water and on land. But the most important aspect of this part of the myth is that it gives us the key to the stage of the process, be it evolutionary, socio-political, cultural, historical or even of the individual.
Vishnu’s first incarnation is the Matsyavatar, a wholly aquatic creature. The second stage is Kurmavatar, or the Tortoise; the development has progressed to incorporate both water and earth. We shall see now how the myth draws in another, third element, air, and in so doing how it comes to indicate a specific portion of our evolutionary experience, one which incorporates or integrates three of the astrological elements, – Water, Earth, and Air. Left out is Fire.
Interestingly, the three elements which figure in the myth prominently are the elements of the three signs which comprise this 9th Manifestation: Pisces, water; Aquarius, air; and Capricorn, earth. The Fire sign, Leo, stands in opposition to these three signs and thus enters the scheme to complete the combine in a most interesting manner. I have discussed this arrangement at length in The Gnostic Circle (Aeon Books, 1975, Chapters 5 & 6). It is what is traditionally known as the Yod aspect, or the Finger of God (here reproduced). In terms of the avataric line in its present arrangement, three of these signs, Pisces, Capricorn and Leo, refer to the three members of the Solar Line born precisely under these signs: the 9, or Sri Aurobindo born under Leo; the 6, the Mother born under Pisces; and the Third born under Capricorn. Cupped within this triadic display is the air sign of our age, Aquarius.
The air element is a prominent feature of the myth because of the contribution of Garuda, the Eagle – Vishnu’s own carrier or vahana, as it is known in Sanskrit. The story goes that after the Tortoise appeared to provide the stable base for the Churning Rod, Mt Meru, another necessity arose. It was evident that something was required to hold the Rod down. Thus the services of Garuda were engaged, who flew to the peak of Mt Meru, alighted thereupon and held the Rod in place. Thus was the air element brought into the tale. The meaning is of course the joining of the two dimensions (or three, if you will): the deepest watery depths and the supreme celestial heights, the realm of the Eagle. The connection is made by the magical axis or pillar, held in place by components of the Avataric manifestation.
Mt Meru is known to be India in the ancient geo-cosmology. Thus India, the subcontinent of the Capricorn hieroglyph, is once again demonstrated to be the link between ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’.
Vishnu’s Garuda presses down on the axis/rod. Kurma, the tortoise, props it up. There are thus two stresses, two directions: involution and evolution respectively. The creation in between, or the axis (Mt Meru) which comes into being as a result is a product of these mutually supportive directions, involution and evolution. Under another perspective, it is contraction and expansion – the pressing in and the moving out. They can only be mutually supportive and not destructive if the axis is the product of a true centre. This then engenders a Divine Measure or a ‘golden rod’, as it is known in occidental tradition.
The Divine Measure in the Mother’s Chamber
According to her original plan the Mother has provided this evolving humanity with the same Divine Measure of old. But this time, while ever being the supreme key of the Rigvedic cosmology, it has surfaced in the Mother’s plan in the central portion of her creation and in a manner which not only vindicates the apparently ‘primitive’ usage of symbols in ancient and contemporary India, but carries the symbol into greater heights and depths of its essential meaning.
Thus the Divine Maya, or Measure, of the year, 365 days, is incorporated centrally in the Mother’s chamber in precisely the descending Solar Ray (go = cow), or the axis of the Temple. Surabhi or Kamadhenu is thus the first ‘treasure’ to emerge from the churning her penetrating vision produced: the differentiation of the Light in the consolidated Divine Maya of an Earth year. Clearly for this reason the Mother was insistent on the Ray not being diffused light but falling in one consolidated beam.
The space covered by this light-ray was to be 15.20 metres. The particulars of this aspect of her plan are given in full detail in Volume 2 of The New Way. Again I must repeat that in the present context my intention is simply to reveal the manner in which the essence of the Veda is reestablished in our times, fully respecting not only the ancient symbolism but the orientation of that former path of the Aryan Warrior in his or her endeavour ‘to become the Sun’. The symbol (the Cow) is the very thing symbolised (the Ray). For in this Age the two dimensions are destined to join, the more ethereal and the most dense.
If we correlate the process with the flow of the astrological ages which comprise this 9th Manifestation, the same elements emerge via the signs to indicate with precision where our ‘labour’ stands at this point in time. Thus, we have just emerged from the Age of Pisces, on Matsya, the Fish. This period covered 2160 years (those important radii numbers once again), from 234 BC to 1926 when the next Age began, the air sign, Aquarius. We are barely 67 years into the latter, but it should console us to know that this is the period of the 25,920 years of the present Round (of 12 Manifestations = 77,760 years) in which connection is made with the heights, the ‘celestial regions’, or Swar.
During the Piscean Age indeed the Earth experienced her darkest and deepest depths. Between 234 BC and 1926, India certainly saw her darkest hour: the loss of the Divine Maya, followed by countless invasions and finally conquests lasting through the centuries. Above all, and this is the part entirely overlooked by one and all, it was the period during which the ‘ray’ was indeed hidden in the dense cave of the panis, the hostiles of the Cosmic Ignorance whose rule has prevailed for nearly a millennium. The Light was obscured or pinned under thick covers of darkness.
One of the most telling indications that this is so may be gleaned from the fact that during this period what had hitherto existed as an oral tradition was converted into a written documentation. When the Knowledge was threatened with extinction the reaction was to preserve it in various forms – i.e., the Shastras, or Scriptures, and countless cultural expressions and their respective manuals; even there came into being the splendid design and measurement prescriptions of the Hindu Temple which came to dot the entire subcontinent, some splendid examples of which still exist, notwithstanding the subjugation by invading cultures hostile to the temple’s meaning and purpose. The message was preserved even beyond the confines of the subcontinent, as we have noted in the Angkor Wat temple complex. That the need arose to record what had hitherto been oral transmission points to the decline of the Knowledge and its threatened extinction, insofar as the yogic realisations gradually decreased which were the channel for the preservation and transmission in a direct form. Finally there were no living exponents of this ancient system and the Knowledge came to be preserved in the above mentioned civilisational expressions still thriving on the subcontinent in this age.
This situation prevailed during the entire Age of Pisces. It was, however, the first stage in the Churning, the time when the deep waters are ‘gathered’ as it were into a sea. The first cosmic energies are drawn into the cauldron which must take part in any truly great Churning.
When Sri Aurobindo was 54 years old, or half of 108, the new dawn of Aquarius began and with that rising Sun the Vedic Knowledge of the solar kingdom began to permeate the atmosphere. The Light was beginning to manifest again, the consciousness of Bharat Mata was awakening. From then a series of ‘conspiracies’ were organised with the allegiance of Time to force the rediscovery of those ancient roots which had been submerged under the waters of the Piscean sea, or the dark age of the Earth.
I reproduce below the Map of the 12 Manifestations to provide a clear perspective of the cycles and the spiralling movement of Time and Consciousness. To be noted is the fact that in the quarter where our 9th Manifestation falls there are two more, long passed. Thus the quarter we are moving through is not our first passage. The evolution has experienced other ‘churnings’ of a similar order, though less sophisticated given the fact that the arc has closed in our period, the depths have joined the heights. But for that to occur, the ‘ray’ had to be lost and recovered, exactly as the Rigveda prophesies.
Thus, the Churning of the Milky Ocean occurs at three stages in the spiral: the 1st Manifestation, the 5th and the 9th, our present and last passage. This is indicated by the fact that the precessional movement which makes this action of Time possible is BACKWARD through the signs.
We move therefore from the first which in this backward precession is Pisces to Aquarius, and then to Capricorn, and so on, in reverse direction. The first experience is not Aries of the Fire element, if the order were the prescribed yearly trajectory through the signs. It is rather Pisces, a water sign; and indeed a sea, for of the three water signs which comprise the zodiac, only Pisces is this vast expanse of water. However, each Manifestation of the 12 does indeed correspond to a zodiacal sign; for example, our 9th is Sagittarius.
The individual’s progression is the yearly trajectory and the order is counter-clockwise. The vaster movement of Time though the astrological ages is clockwise, or backwards through the wheel. Essential, however, is that the two Zero or starting points of these wheels must coincide every 25,920 years. One measures everything thereafter on this basis. Hence it is imperative to have very precise knowledge of the beginning of any Age, as for example our own which began in 1926. Without that the commingling of the two cannot come to pass. Translated into more appreciable terms, it means that the point cannot be connected to the circumference. The part cannot be equal to the whole. Above cannot correlate to below. There is no possible experience of unity in such circumstances. And this accurately describes the consciousness of the human creature during the dark age of the Earth we have been analysing. For it was precisely during that period that this connection was lost when all measurement was BEYOND the ecliptic and solely and entirely constellational. Failing to respect the Earth’s own truth resulted in the loss of that Divine Maya whereby that ‘heaven’ above could be joined to this ‘earth’ below. The cogs in the mighty Wheel of Time were thus dislocated, each spinning at odds with the other for practical purposes. That is, the correct Measure having been lost, no sense could be made of the greater Harmony, much less its correspondence with the human creation in a vision of unity, harmony and integrality. If we wish to introduce a true NEW world order, the first step is to recapture this measure. The periodic ‘churning’ of the Piscean Sea is precisely in order to re-set our cosmic clocks. In the process we reestablish the Dharma because the two go hand in hand.
The Vedic ‘Measure of Unity’ Reestablished
The value of the concept of a diameter drawn across the face of a sphere and its measurement correlated by the Laws of Correspondence and Equivalency to other measurements in a contained, proportionate model such as the Hindu Temple is not at all appreciated today. And yet we have a reputable researcher, Dr Subash Kak, who has rediscovered this ‘code’, as he calls it, in the Rigveda, indicating that well over three millennia ago, at the least, the composers of the hymns laid the same emphasis on the radius and diameter as I have done in the deciphering of the ‘code’ in the Mother’s original plan of her Chamber. The point to bring forth is the similarity, nay, the identical approach of the old Seers and the new.
In the passage from Savitri partially quoted on page 24, Sri Aurobindo is explicit that there is a new code…
He could re-read now and interpret new
Its strange symbol letters, scattered abstruse signs,
Resolve its oracle and its blindfold terms….
These are the ‘secrets’, the rahasyam uttamam, or highest of secrets of the Veda, which is simply the truth of matter or the Divine Maya that becomes obscured when the great Sense is missed. The ‘code’ is then entirely overlooked and the ignorant can then heap abuses upon those who dare to see in these most profound depths what the blind ignore and perversely ridicule.
The other important point to emphasise is that in order to ‘re-read’ and ‘interpret new’ – or, in the terms we are employing, to reestablish the Dharma – it is necessary to follow the same path, albeit drawing the lines so traced far deeper and touching a horizon far beyond what had earlier been reached.
Thus, on page after page of The New Way, and now in VISHAAL, I have ‘decoded’ the Mother’s Chamber to reveal the identical experience at the heart of the vision. A key feature has been precisely the radius and diameter measurement. Now, in an unrelated line of research, we find that a contemporary scientist has also come upon the same usage of diameter measurements in the Rigveda, thus proving unequivocally the statement that the Mother’s plan is a focal point in the reestablishment of the eternal Vedic Truth.
In Volume 2, Chapter 4 of The New Way, I have utilised this ‘code’ involving perhaps the most important revelations in the book. This concerns the diameter of the chamber’s central Globe, heart and soul of the edifice, strung along the vertical leading to ‘the peak of the Mountain’ (similar to the ladder of The Magical Carousel) at the top of the room; that is, where the Sun’s Ray enters and streams down through the central axis to ‘play upon the Globe’, an image which the Mother declared to be nothing less than ‘the symbol of the future realisation’.
It was this exercise which perhaps more forcefully than any other discovery in the plan confirmed the character of divine Maya of that central shaft, which revealed it to be the ‘golden rod’; or, in this particular case, a golden chain. There are 21 ‘links’ in this solar chain when the discs of the Globe are strung up along the vertical, their circumferences touching. By the magical measurement of the Globe (70cms) in relation to all else and in particular to the height of the chamber, there are an exact 21 such discs.
The similarity with the code Dr Kak has discovered in the Rigveda is unmistakable. His key was finally the number 108, or 9 X 12, – or else, as in the Mother’s shaft, 9 plus 12 (=21). It is found therefore that this all-important Vedic key of 108 is found in the Mother’s chamber centrally, as central as it appears to have been in the Veda. But the important aspect of this discovery is that in the Mother’s chamber the formula emerges from the measurement of the Globe, the only light-filled, luminous object in the chamber and the focal point of the entire design. It is the ‘play’ of the Ray upon this object that the Mother identified as ‘the symbol of the future realisation’. When the Veda sings of the streams of light from the Sun (the Cows), and in particular the light of the early Dawn, this imagery is conveyed in an architectural plan certainly in what has to be described as an enhancement of the original Seeing. The purity of the present imagery denotes a consciousness unencumbered, free of the mists which cloud the mental and vital planes due to the turbulence of the ordinary human consciousness, a turbulence caused by the individual’s off-centre alignment.
But the Mother stood alone in her poise of consciousness. Those to whom she entrusted her vision were far below her on the echelon, and the results are there for all to see. The construction in Auroville, carried out in her name and, according to the builders, ‘…as faithful as possible to the original’, bears no resemblance to her unique design and plan.
By now it is more than evident that we are dealing with MEASURE. But measurement based on a consciousness and vision of Unity. And it is an integrated Seeing. That is, while the Globe measuring 70cms provides the key to the Geometry of Time which I discovered in the central axis of the Mother’s original chamber, and that those 70 are equivalent to 18 days (or 18 years) by this special geometric equivalence, this measurement is also the full body of Mother India: 30 degrees latitude and 40 degrees longitude. The measurement thus encompasses the full extent of the Capricorn hieroglyph, horizontally and vertically. At the same time, and this is the important factor to stress in the present context, these 30 and 40 (of the Globe) are the segments of the 9-part circle and the 12-part. That is, if we divide the 360 degrees of the circle by 9, each segment is 40 degrees; similarly, if we divide by 12 the segments are 30 degrees. These are precisely the super-imposed divisions which form the Gnostic Circle.
Thus, when I have stated that the Gnostic Circle is the new key, the new formula, the basis of the new cosmology, it is because of the enhancement it offers by virtue of the fact that with this new ‘code’ we can connect the solar system’s harmony to the calendar. In addition, when this key is revealed to be the ‘code’ of the Mother’s chamber, then the Vedic Temple is indeed reestablished in our midst and its truth is enhanced. For the foundation of the original act of seeing is respected but evolved due to the circumscribing conditions of Time’s present to attain what the Mother described as ‘a new precision’, something beyond what the mind of man is capable of attaining. She further described this new precision as the outcome of a ‘felt vision’. (See The New Way, Vol. 2, Chapter 7, page 319.) In our terms this is the ‘new seeing’, outcome of a realisation which allows us to see in understanding. It is just such a vision that gives birth to a new world order and indeed a reestablishment of the Vedic Dharma.
Whether or not a similar precise correlation with the calendar was available in Vedic times to the degree achieved via the Gnostic Circle will perhaps remain a mystery. Its attainment depends upon knowledge of the Zero, before all else, and we need therefore to pin-point when this discovery was made in India. In any case, we know that the Precession of the Equinoxes was known and its value incorporated in the Knowledge and rooted in the Hindu Temple of old through, for one, The Vastupurush Mandala which is the first step in the construction of any Hindu temple.
I must repeat that the Mother entrusted her vision to lesser mortals who, like the titans of old, could not be expected to ‘see in understanding’, much less to respect her call for ‘a new precision’. Indeed, every single item I have discussed in my works of her original plan has been lost in the actual construction in Auroville. The titans carried out the physical labour with the tenacity and perseverance known to them. But the ‘noxious fumes’ clouded their vision; hence they failed to appreciate the ‘treasures’ which the churning produced – namely, veda. Their labour has borne the predictable fruit of such blindness: a senseless object stands as a monument to what Sri Aurobindo describes as ‘the ego of the instrument’. The titan inevitably exalts in his labour, his power, his instrumentation. The Divine is beyond his appreciation except as a giver of boons, precisely as a recompense for that tenacity and hard effort. The Mother’s consciousness is indeed a ‘hidden chamber closed and mute’ which he can never penetrate because its access is through the soul, the Third Principle of creation. When brought face-to-face with that Third Power who did indeed reveal this rahasyam uttaman, who handed over the key to the chamber and encouraged them to use it in their labour, they perversely but predictably rejected the offer.
The fundamental principle of the Veda lies at the basis of that rejection. The Vedic Light is a growth from within just as the Hindu Temple is a development from the seed in the garbhagriha outward. To live these experiences one must follow that original precept of the ancient and new Yoga. One has to see from a central poise, from the core which is the precinct of the Third Power.
The Rahasyam is Harmony. The divine Maya is known by virtue of that principle. The Seer does not measure the surface of the Sun and Moon with instruments devised for the purpose. He or she simply plunges within, finds inner access to that hidden chamber and comes upon the secret vision of the Third, the soul, similar to the coveted vision of the Eleusinian Mysteries of old. Its secret is harmony, its measure is 9 and 12, as reflected in the symbols of the Third and the Mother in this contemporary enactment of the Eleusinian myth.
When the same path is followed, the same orientation of the quest as in those former times, the contemporary seer knows that the truth of Matter will manifest in some way always respecting this key. Its product may be 108, or 21; or else 3 x 3, or 3 x 4. Countless are the combinations, but the basic Law must be respected.
These Laws are the foundation of the Veda, ancient and new. I have described the process involved in the Churning of the Milky Ocean in an attempt to reveal the true content of myths of Vedic origin. This tale is a product of the Piscean Age, the night of the soul when the truth had to be covered in the cloaks of darkness, driven deep into the secret recesses of one’s innermost being. But its essential features were known long, long ago in the Vedic Age. There is a special verse concerning the cosmic process in the Rigveda, translated superbly by Sri Aurobindo. I reproduce it here to draw the parallel between that Age and the later Puranic period on the basis of what has been ‘decoded’ from the Churning myth in these pages:
‘From the kindled fire of Energy of Consciousness, Truth was born and the Law of Truth; from that the Night, from the Night the flowing ocean of being… and on the ocean Time was born to whom is subjected every seeing creature.’ (RV, X, 190.)
Thus we note that for the Rishi Time was indeed born on the ‘ocean of being’ which arose from the Night, but which was a product of that high Truth and its Laws. The verse mentions the ‘kindled fire of Energy of Consciousness’ (tapas). Indeed, this is the key to the Churning and the fire or energy it generates. There is thus no difference at all between the old Seeing and the new.
‘By the Names of the Lord and hers they shaped and measured the force of the Mother of Light; wearing might after might of that Force as a robe the lords of Maya shaped out Form in this Being… The Masters of Maya shaped all by His Maya; the Fathers who have divine vision set Him as a child that is to be born.’ (Ibid)
Here we note the origin of Form arising from the Churning, as well as the birth of the One, the Child. But the verse explicitly connects this birth with the power of a divine vision that ‘sets’ the Transcendent as a ‘child that is to be born’. In other words, the act of seeing rends the veil and draws the Transcendent from that plane to this material dimension where He emerges as the One in the form of the Son, the divine Child Agni, the first sacred Fire.
Can the subtleties of such divine Seeings be left in the charge of the titans to preserve? The answer lies in the fact that they were altogether incapable of carrying anything of that Truth and its Laws into what they have built in Auroville as ‘the Mother’s temple’ where the divine Maya was not only to be preserved but to be revealed in its supramentalised form. But ironically not only did they destroy the Mother’s contribution to the reestablishment as far as the actual physical building is concerned. They also destroyed their own contribution.
The Dark Consumes its own ‘Light’
The Mother stated that she saw only the interior of the temple, that is, the chamber, not the outer form. She stated that she was open to suggestions from the architects as to what shape this outer container should have. Subsequently (see The Matrimandir Dialogues), the architect suggested a Shalagrama, a golden Cosmic Egg, which did come to serve as the outer container of the chamber. Without realising what he had done, this form permitted Sri Aurobindo’s symbol to be reproduced in subtle lines in the plan. I made this discovery in the mid 1970s. But, as fortune would have it and true to the titans mould, the ‘lines’ of the symbol would emerge in the architects’ outer form only if the chamber’s measurements were scrupulously respected as given by the Mother in her original plan and based on the dialogues she recorded while explaining certain facets of the temple. Foremost of these is precisely the room’s diameter.
But this the titan refused to do. Adamantly. Pigheadedly. For no valid reason, he shortened the diameter by approximately one meter. Thus, his only real and true contribution to the reestablishment, which the Mother encouragingly entrusted to the builders, in contrast to the inner chamber which she insisted was to be her creation, was laid waste by the perverse decision to disregard that sacred Measure of the room’s diameter – an exact 24 meters, wall to wall.
Sri Aurobindo’s symbol as the occult but indispensable inner structure of the Temple, the form (of the Transcendent) upon which the stability of the entire creation rests, as the above verse describes and which the divine Maya shapes in this universe, was thus eliminated by the titans themselves in an apt reflection of their inability to see.
I reproduce below the diagram based on the correct measurements of the chamber’s diameter and height as given by the Mother. Indicated in the encircled portions are the ‘points’ which emerge in the chamber only when the diameter and height are precisely executed according to the exact measurements given by the Mother. If not, as in the Auroville construction, there are no such ‘points’, they cannot come into being as the occult support of the Temple. It was this special diagram that was plagarised by the Auroville architect, seeking to have the unsuspecting public believe that this sacred Symbol does exist in the shadow-temple. (See, TVN, 7/2, June 1992.)
[Insert diagram here]
The point I wish to make, apart from the above but ever faithful to the churning of the Milky Ocean myth and the mighty axis of Mt Meru, is that this diagram reveals the manner in which the Vedic ‘mountain’ is incorporated in the Mother’s new seeing, her new vision of the Truth contained in the Hindu Temple. Again we are dealing with the highest Truth; we are respecting the Law; we are founding our new Seeing entirely on those ancient foundations. But the exercise is rendered far more subtle and sophisticated by respecting the ‘new precision’ which attends the descent of the Supermind and reveals the deepest essence of the Truth-Consciousness. Mt Meru is ‘contained’ in the garbhgriha, or the womb that is the chamber. And all of this is ‘contained’ in that golden Cosmic Egg, the inner substance of which is churned to bring forth the new Time, the new precision, the new Seeing. The architects of the Matrimandir in Auroville have discarded the very ‘treasures’ they laboured so hard to extract! Thus there is no Mt Meru in their creation. There is, however, indeed an egg – or more precisely, a shell as it is referred to by the builders themselves. It is empty. It is devoid of sense, of harmony, of veda.
Let us now proceed to locate this eternal Mountain more specifically on the face of the planet. And in so doing to discuss the ancient geography of the Puranas in relation to the vision of the globe based on the Gnostic Circle formula. The dimensions of the Mountain must now be established in that womb of Mother India. At the same time, I intend to demonstrate how in this area of the endeavour again we reestablish, but without denying the ancient Laws, that eternal Truth which India preserves.
April of 1993
Aeon Centre of Cosmology
at Skambha