With the dawn of the age of electronic communications the interesting circumstance has arisen that the almost instant and universal access to information creates the impression of true knowledge available to everyone. One knows because one has limitless access to facts.
Of course, in terms of real Knowledge, as it has been understood not only in ancient times but also in the present by realised souls, this information, this accumulation of facts has little to do with higher knowledge. And yogic techniques produce this higher perception in any field onto which the gaze of the seer is turned. But this requires a certain clarification because it is not that the sage knows everything, or can know everything, or desires to know everything. He or she knows what the Supreme Consciousness wishes to reveal through that particular instrument at any given time. Thus, the only prerequisite in order to attain higher knowledge of the order detailed in these pages is the practise of a special yoga which can create conditions within the seeker that will allow the Supramental Shakti to unveil hitherto hidden dimensions of the issue in question. Similarly, it is not merely facts which constitute this body of knowledge; rather it is a condition of lived perception, the lived experience which carries one to the heart of the issue and discloses aspects of the subject not perceived by the ordinary methods. The poise to attain is one of contained power, of concentration of energy, of mobile immobility. Succinctly, it is the formation of a properly aligned axis within one’s consciousness-being.
In the previous issue I pointed out that when the Mother remarked that the Globe and Pedestal of her temple-chamber, receiving the Sun’s ray in a special arrangement of measurements (’very precise’), was the symbol of the future realisation, she was bequeathing to humanity the very exact description of the new consciousness, both individual and collective. The ray of the Sun falling on the translucent globe, held at a particular height by the solid and unshakeable stone pedestal, presents the seeker with the visual symbol of that Consciousness, as well as the means or process required to attain that superior realisation.
The Ray is equivalent to the axis in one’s consciousness-being. It must strike the globe (soul) in a direct alignment which ‘casts no shadows’. That is, the Ray is equal to the Sun’s high noon position – or the 15th degree of Capricorn. It is this time-space positioning that unveils the Core of our innermost Self, the soul with its centremost Point lodged within one’s being; similar to the deity of a Hindu temple located at the centre of the edifice and in perfect alignment with the ‘mountain’ that arises above this special sacred object. And thus, with this alignment realised, Agni, the One, the Son, is born in us.
The Core of the Mother’s vision is the structure of our truth-conscious seed of being. The contours of that model provide us with all that we need to know of the new consciousness and the creation it gives rise to. When this is established in a significant number of individuals on the basis of a conscious choice and awareness, then the true new world order will manifest. Presently, we are engaged in the formation of a nucleus and cellular mass which, because of the precision that characterises the process of its formation, is able to position itself in time and space in such a way as to offer two essential ingredients to the transformation. One is centrality; the other is growth from within. Centrality is the spatial point; growth from that centre is the action of time. On this basis, with the power of Gnostic Time as its impelling force of actualisation, the new creation is assured an uninterrupted growth from the centre, gradually displacing the old until the shadow will be completely dissolved and the whole Earth will be the ‘globe of light’.
The centremost Core of the Mother’s chamber with its axis of light informs us that before all else this axial alignment based on a new precision, as the Mother described it, must come into being individually and collectively for anything significant of the new world to emerge or be unveiled. This is the first step on the way to the supramental creation Sri Aurobindo announced as the next level of evolution for the species. It is an entirely organic process, similar – indeed identical – to any biological system. First the seed, then the process of flowering, of growth. But in the supramental yoga the important factor is to establish the right nature and quality of that seed. It must indeed be a work of precision, as the Mother foresaw. And just as her own original vision of that perfectly aligned, balanced, harmonious Core underwent a complete distortion in the temple which arises in her name in Auroville, so too the seeker is faced with pitfalls, chasms, dangerous abysses on the path to attain that shadowless poise. Therefore, the Supramental Shakti arranged the manifestation in such a manner that sincere seekers would have not only her original symbol/model to serve as an infallible guide. She allowed its shadow to arise in order to provide a more complete vision, unmistakeable in its definitive statement of just what the sincere aspirant must avoid, or what must be eliminated in order to forge that axis of light. With the two, the Light and the Shadow, we are given a guidance in the form of sacred architecture and geometry rarely experienced on Earth prior to the Mother’s impeccable act of seeing.
There is another perhaps more important reason for allowing the shadow-temple to arise. In principle, it concerns the necessity to collect energies in one central experiment, to have a focus as it were for the collective Yoga. This aspect of her work has been discussed in previous issues in detail. However, there are other facets of this process which need to be highlighted insofar as they reveal those crucial distinctions between a creation of light and one of darkness. At the same time, this discussion will enable the seeker to understand something more essential of the complex nature of a creation in matter and the laws which govern our dimension of universal existence and which cannot be superseded even by the Divine Shakti herself. Rather, she must mould the process to suit and to accommodate those laws and thereby ensure a continuity, an organic growth and evolution, similar to the entire universal manifestation.
One means to achieve this objective, and moreover to accelerate the growth and not supersede the process, has been the development of the temple pari passu with the descent of the Knowledge which was contained in the Mother’s original vision and architectural plan. Thus, the seed of that process was her act of Seeing. It was a creation of Light, and indeed it gave forth an unending stream of gnostic light with the march of time from the first moment her luminous consciousness released the energy contained in the vision and drew the chamber into the Earth atmosphere.
Since we are dealing with the physical dimension and solid objects occupying specific points in space, there is one field open to us, the densest plane of the 9 in terms of the Gnostic Circle’s scale of creation from 0 to 9, or spirit to matter. In that plane the Mother selected the 12th degree of northern latitude as the position on the globe for the experiment, for reasons which I have discussed at length in The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 9. The reason for this selection can only be properly understood with the help of the Gnostic Circle because it is not only a space positioning but a time placement as well. And this is what the Gnostic Circle indicates. Without it we would be hard put to find anything especially significant in the selection of that particular area for the location of the temple. I will deal with this Gnostic Circle correlation further on.
First we must understand the need for a physical location as centre of the transformational process. Why not simply a consciousness, an area or condition of existence once removed from the physical and therefore easier to manipulate and mould? Indeed, this was the case in the early stages of the Yoga when Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were engaged in refining the Integral Yoga as an individual experiment. That is, the Integral Yoga provides the seeker with a means to align his or her consciousness with the inner Divine and the preliminary lines are drawn whereby the sadhak is able to establish a new axis and alignment in his or her consciousness-being, or in one’s private cosmos. The Integral Yoga is the first part of the transformation – but only the first. Its aim is to prepare the sadhak for an extension of the boundaries of consciousness so that the Supramental Yoga can begin. Without this preliminary alignment provided by the Integral Yoga, the further stages cannot be established. At the same time, arresting the yoga at this first stage places the subject in an awkward position: one is neither here nor there, – in limbo, as it were.
The Integral Yoga was never an end in itself. Sri Aurobindo made this abundantly clear when he wrote of the state of his yoga during the last decades of his life which indicated he had not completed the process he knew would be needed for the full expression of the supramental truth. What he described of that final phase before his passing unmistakably pointed to the Supramental Yoga which has taken shape since then, greatly aided by the temple episode under discussion. Indeed, the sole purpose for the establishment of ‘the city’ in the 1960s by the Mother was in answer to the imperative for a new laboratory, an extended field which could serve as a vessel to contain the increase of energies which such an extension or expansion would entail. We may believe that his Pondicherry ashram with its numerous sadhaks and all the activities engendered by this collective grouping was sufficient to provide a proper field for this extension. However, this was not the case. It is not a question of quantity but rather of methodology. The temple-vision had to be the ‘seed’ for the extension; the movement had to expand from a centre. Whereas in the Ashram, in those early stages of the work, the centre was the combined consciousness of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The physical dimension had not yet been touched.
This digging into the depths, as it were, took root after Sri Aurobindo’s passing, set in motion precisely by his activity during that critical period of withdrawal. More particularly, in 1971 the connecting bridge to the physical was firmly established. This coincided with the beginning of the temple construction. The new Power became rooted in the Earth.
Sri Aurobindo’s evolving symbol: a marriage of Heaven and Earth
The yogas are not done in a void, especially the supramental yoga. For both, a physical embodiment is demanded. But while the integral yoga requires an embodiment sufficient to contain energies in transformation centred on an individual consciousness, the supramental yoga requires that, and something else. It requires a laboratory where integration can be achieved of the One and the Many. The supramental yoga can never be done individually, – that is, restricted to a single entity. Regardless what the sadhak believes he has attained in his individual capacity, it is never that next stage unless he experiences this process of integration. It is always limited to a field of the One and unable to make a higher, enlightened contact and integration with the Multiple.
The history of Sri Aurobindo’s manifestation provides ample proof of this arrangement. During his embodiment he was engaged in establishing a laboratory where the integral yoga could express itself. Similarly, he required a certain number in his entourage whose combined energies could consolidate that field. His own symbol gives us the information we need to understand that phase of the work. Its two intersecting triangles represent the call from below (the ascending triangle) and the descent from above (the descending triangle); or else, the union of ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’. At the intersection of the two stands the Square which Sri Aurobindo called the symbol of the Supermind. And within that square there is the Lotus of the Avatar – significantly formed of 9, 6, and 3 petals, to highlight the exact pattern of the avataric descent with its messengers incarnating in harmony with those special number relations, as well as the role gnostic time would play in the supramental transformation. The Lotus rests on seven waves which are the seven planes of existence from subtle to dense matter. The finality of his yoga is to construct a bridge linking all these planes precisely by the aid of gnostic time and the formula 9/6/3, just as the Lotus reveals. In this way, with this accomplished, the prophesied descent of a ‘new Heaven’ established in the soil of a new and transformed Earth is fulfilled. Sri Aurobindo’s symbol explains this prophesy in minute detail.
Ultimately, the individual is the sole and unique beneficiary of the transformation. But his or her new consciousness is intended to give rise to a new world. The new collectivity is formed of these individual energies. However, they are reformed, organised anew on the basis of a special realignment around a new axis represented in the Mother’s vision of the Chamber as the descending Ray whose light is captured in the luminous translucent globe, held in position at a very exact location (in time and space) by the stone pedestal.
To further consolidate the symbolism, the pedestal is a square, symbol of the Supermind, and it consists of Sri Aurobindo’s triangular symbol, four in number, upright, carved in solid stone. But the important feature of this sacred object is the action of the light within the square receptacle, hidden from view. For at the exact crossing of its diagonals the Supreme Power Point comes into being. This is the fount of an ever-replenishing source of energy beyond our physical dimension but connected to it through the newly-constructed bridge, access to which is through the core of one’s innermost being. It carries the seeker to the realm of immortality.
Again we may refer to the historical data of the supramental manifestation through the lives and word of the Avatars and we find confirmation for the statement I have made regarding the extended field the supramental creation demands for its expression. This confirmation comes through a careful scrutiny of certain developments precisely involving Sri Aurobindo’s symbol after his passing in December of 1950.
From the early days of their joint mission, Sri Aurobindo’s triangular symbol was formed of two equilateral triangles. These had to accommodate the central square and lotus and therefore they had to be pulled apart somewhat. Inserted in a circle on this basis, only the upper and lower tips of the triangles would touch its periphery. It is safe to state that the first symbol, here reproduced, described the purpose and methodology of the integral yoga – i.e., a yoga devised to connect the sadhak to the Divine in his or her consciousness-being. It was a process limited to this individual vessel which the earlier symbol represents. At the same time, it describes an ascent and descent, a movement involving the vertical dimension or cosmic direction. This is the first manifestation of the supramental avataric descent. The ‘field’ required for that phase is a laboratory confined to the individual consciousness. It is not concerned with an extended field. That was to come later; and indeed Sri Aurobindo’s symbol underwent a metamorphosis precisely after he had attained a realisation for the Earth whereby a connection was forged with a newly-released source of energy. The Mother would indicate this attainment ‘on the other side’ by designing the pedestal in her chamber’s core in stone and concealing therein a transmutation of energy which Sri Aurobindo had accomplished in those hidden dimensions after he left his body in 1950. The precise timing of the operation is written into that stone pedestal when the ‘new precision’ is honoured, – that is, in the twelfth year after his passing.
The Initiatic Language of Symbols
There are not many who understand the language of symbols. And practically none appreciate the manner in which the Mother used symbols to explain the process of supramental transformation, as for example the original plan of her temple; or else, how she utilised modifications in certain key symbols to announce breakthroughs or major shifts in the work. Most consider such developments ‘coincidental’ or else unimportant. All ignore the power of gnostic time in these happenings and how unusually tuned the Mother was to that power.
To illustrate, in May of 1964, the Mother revised Sri Aurobindo’s symbol. The modifications she introduced, to one versed in this special hieratic language, were fundamental and decisive. They revealed that something formidable had occurred directly involving Sri Aurobindo’s personal manifestation, and through that the areas of the work connected in a special way to his appearance on Earth. But while this may be readily accepted by disciples and devotees and might not require any particular insight to grasp, most would find it impossible to believe that had the Mother not modified his symbol when and how it was done, she could not have seen the temple’s chamber six years later. The revised symbol provided the occult structural form or skeleton of that temple. Without that the Mother could not have given the proper measurements for the chamber lodged within the outer form of that temple which would make it a womb of gnostic time, or the abode of the Time-Spirit.
We have here something on the order of, What came first, the chicken or the egg? The Mother seems to have provided the answer: A specific happening in the subtle physical dimension permits the ‘egg’ to manifest. Ironically, we are indeed dealing with an ‘egg’, the Shalagram wherein Sri Aurobindo’s symbol arises to become the structural skeleton of the chamber. The Shalagram/Symbol is the womb. The Chamber provides the channel of birth.
This is one part of the process. The main feature is what a revision of that symbol revealed of Sri Aurobindo’s work ‘on the other side’, so to speak. For the fact that the Mother was able to reshape this all-important element meant that something fundamental had occurred whose content the former symbol could not capture and convey. In the language of symbols it meant that a new form had come into being, or that Sri Aurobindo had accomplished by his passing something which the revised symbol had to indicate if it was to be a faithful element in the symbol representation of his work.
With the rise of organised religions in middle-eastern and western culture, the hieratic language of symbols gradually lost its living channels of expression. This was especially due to the condemnation of idol representation which in its higher form we find in India even today, and the rejection of the feminine power as a central feature of mystical experience. For it is only in a practice which accepts this Power that we find a proper use made of symbols. Tantra in the Indian tradition is one such path. The language of symbols in Tantra is unparalleled anywhere in the world. However, with the dawn of the new age and especially due to the expansion of the measure of our solar system from six to nine planets in orbit of the Sun, a renewal is demanded in this particular area of higher knowledge. Tantric symbolism was an especially suited channel for renewal insofar as the 9 was already enshrined as the supreme number-power of the Shakti. Indeed, Vedic Dharma in general was able to serve as a foundation for renewal because Hinduism has always sustained that there are 9 ‘planets’, – the 6 of the ancient school and the Sun, plus Rahu and Ketu, the lunar nodes. What this reveals is that from ancient times Indian wisemen have understood that what is important in astrological formulation and horoscopic readings is not the ‘influence of the planet’ as such. The inclusion of Rahu and Ketu in the measure to reach the sacred number 9 of the Divine Mother meant that they knew the key feature of cosmic harmonies was the question of orbits and not planetary influence as astrologers believe today. For the lunar nodes are indeed simply the two points where the orbits of the Earth and Moon intersect. They are not planetary bodies; and yet they were included in the list of ‘planets’, or rather items to be considered as relevant in astrological formulation.
However, in this new age of the Supermind another adjustment is demanded. It is that now the Zero must be accommodated in the cosmic harmony. While Rahu and Ketu provided the scale of 9, the full transition or adjustment must now be made in order to definitively reproduce the true cosmic harmony as it actually is. That is, the Sun must no longer figure as the One, and one among equals, or the first ‘planet’ of the scheme, as in former times. It must find its central position and be unveiled as the Zero in terms of number-power. Thereafter, each planet can find its own proper location once this centrality is established, faithful to the real character of our solar system.
If the Hermetic dictum, ‘as above, so below’, has any value, then of foremost importance must be the faithful reproduction of that ‘above’, if at all we are to find its true reflection or transposition here ‘below’.
In the last issue of VISHAAL, I described the importance of the Indian discovery of the Zero and that it pointed to a breakthrough in a sage’s yoga more than two millennia ago. There was first the breakthrough as described in the Creation Hymn of the Rigveda, which I reproduced as Appendix 2 in that issue. Then followed the formulation of a new scale, 0 to 9. The 12 scale could no longer suffice. The ‘field’ opened up by yoga required an expansion and jolts were felt thereafter until our time when the 9th Avatar took birth to resettle the terrain of yoga in a new form grounded in the ancient foundation. This newness, incorporating the old as foundation, is beautifully conveyed in the Gnostic Circle with its vertical time direction of the 9 circle, rooted in the horizontal space direction of the 12 circle.
Thus, the evolution of the symbols of the Supramental Manifestation indicates that something similar had occurred in the early 1960s to encourage and permit the Mother to revise Sri Aurobindo’s own symbol. The unusual part of the exercise is that the Mother carried out the revision when Sri Aurobindo was no longer embodied. Certainly this ought to have alerted disciples to the fact that something involving his supramental transformation had occurred, and that this process not only had not been interrupted by his passing but in some mysterious way was furthered and/or accelerated by that ‘death’. I am stating therefore that it was not a mental decision based on aesthetic considerations or geometric values isolated from the sacred which inspired the Mother. This revolutionary occurrence reflected Sri Aurobindo’s new form. She could carry out this revision only after Sri Aurobindo had indeed acquired a new form. And this occurred 6 months before the revision, in late 1963. Having successfully accomplished this passage, with all that it signified in the context of the Supramental Manifestation, the Mother then ‘saw’, and the outcome was the revision of the symbol.
Thus, the true seeker of knowledge can easily understand through this analysis of the historical details of the Mother’s work that a happening of this order is not arbitrary. Indeed, as the diagrams I am presenting here reveal, the revised symbol ‘fits’ into the Shalagram form (figure A) which was meant to contain the original chamber the Mother had ‘seen’ in early 1970, – that is, 6 years after the symbol was revised.
Again, we are faced with a rhythm of 6, recalling the powerful harmony of 6 which exists between the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s birthdays, – day, month and year. Had that revision not occurred, the Shalagram could not have served as this sacred vessel. In addition, because the Mother revised Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in 1964, she could ‘see’ not only the true and entire form of the chamber but more importantly, she could provide us with its precise measurements. For only on the basis of these accurate measurements is Sri Aurobindo’s symbol unveiled in the Shalagram as here indicated to form the occult skeleton of the chamber and temple (figure B).
‘Death’ or the Act of Withdrawal
One of the more fascinating aspects of the Mother’s spontaneous revision of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol involves the quality of the triangles, for the new design required a shift from equilateral to isosceles triangles. This in itself provides certain important clues as to the nature of Sri Aurobindo’s transformation; in particular, the new triangles indicate that he had finally completed his mission as the 9th, though this occurred ‘on the other side’. But this fact in itself should make us ponder deeply over what actually did transpire in that realm beyond.
Disciples and students of Sri Aurobindo’s life and works are aware that his ‘death’ was no ordinary death but rather a voluntary withdrawal. He was declared by the attending doctors to have entered a coma brought on by a case of uraemia. However, these same attendants related that periodically Sri Aurobindo came out of the ‘coma’ to enquire what the time was! When the appointed hour arrived, he made his final withdrawal.
From this we can learn two things. One, Sri Aurobindo’s passing was a willed act and not an ordinary death brought on by an illness; and second, that he was intent on taking his final departure at a particular time, respecting some mysterious ‘schedule’ or design.
The Mother spoke to a disciple on 19 October, 1960 about Sri Aurobindo’s ‘death’, confirming much of what I have written here:
Yes, it is just this extraordinary thing that Sri Aurobindo had. He didn’t make any effort…But he did not do it for himself.
For human beings this has been UNTHINKABLE.
He wanted to leave. He had decided to leave, hadn’t he? He didn’t want us to know that he was doing it intentionally because he knew that if, for a moment, I would come to know he was doing it purposely, I would have reacted so violently that I would not have let him go.
He did this…he bore all of that as if it were unconsciousness, an ordinary illness, simply in order not to let us know – and he left at the moment he had to leave. But…
I couldn’t believe that he had left when he did, there in front of me, it was all so far away…And then after, when coming out of his body he came into me, I understood it all…It was fantastic!
It is…It is absolutely superhuman. There is not one human being who would have been capable of doing such a thing. And what a control over his body – absolute, absolute! But in giving to others…he took away your illnesses like that… (The Mother gestures as if calmly catching the illness with her fingertips and taking it out of the body.) This happened to you once, didn’t it? You said I had done this for you – but it wasn’t me; he had done it…. He used to give one silence of the mind like that (The Mother makes a gesture of lightly brushing her hand across her forehead). It is that his actions were absolutely…. On people it had all the characteristics of a complete control…. Absolutely superhuman.
One day he will tell you all this himself. Now I know. It is for-mi-da-ble…
I would like to task you something: Why did he have to leave?
Ah, that, one cannot speak of that.
(Long silence)
One can say, but in a completely superficial way…It was because for him to do IMMEDIATELY what he had to do, without leaving his body, well…
(Silence)
One can speak of it in this way: the world was not ready. But to say the truth, it was the whole of things around him that were not ready. And so, he SAW that (this is something I understood later), he saw that it would go infinitely faster if he were not there, and he was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, it was the truth.
When I saw that I accepted it. It was when I saw that, when he made me understand this that I accepted, otherwise…
There was a difficult period.
(Silence)
It wasn’t long, but it was difficult.
I said twelve days when he left, twelve days. Actually I gave twelve days for the entire Work, to know if… Outwardly I said: after twelve days I will say whether the Ashram (the Ashram was naturally only a symbol) would continue or not, whether or not it was finished.
And after (I don’t know, it did not take twelve days: I said this on 9 December, and on the 12th it was all decided, clear, seen, understood); on the 12th I received people, met with others. All the activities were taken up again after twelve days starting from 5 December. But on the 12th it was decided.
Everything was like that, suspended, until the time when he made me understand the complete thing, all of it…But that is for later.
It is he himself who will tell it, it is true, later.
(The Mother’s Agenda, 1960.)
Sri Aurobindo was the 9th Avatar of Vishnu. His number-power in the gnostic time scale was 9, drawn from his year of birth, 1872. (The exact time of his departure was, coincidentally, 1:26 AM, equalling 9.) Consequently, the 9 provides a fundamental key to the entire Supramental Manifestation. It sets the tone, as it were, for the ensuing harmony, a rhythm expressed in the evolution of the solar Line from that year onward, especially pertinent to the time factor captured in the measurements the Mother gave for the Chamber.
Thus, in 1964 the revision of the symbol was in preparation of the Mother’s future vision. Moreover, the geometric details of the shift from equilateral to isosceles triangles confirms the 9 factor of Sri Aurobindo’s first appearance as the 9th Avatar of Vishnu, as well as his number-power in the solar Line’s descending scale of 9, 6, and 3. The base angles of the isosceles triangles measure 51˚, – i.e., 9˚ less than the angles of his former symbol. The apex measures 78˚ – or his age at the time of withdrawal. The 18˚ accumulated from the changed degrees of the base angles, are added to the apex to give 78. There are thus 18 crucial degrees which alter the shape of the triangles to allow Sri Aurobindo’s symbol to serve as the occult structural support of the Mother’s temple. As the incarnation of Mahakal, the great Time-Spirit, Sri Aurobindo demonstrated in his life and mission and final transformation that the rhythm of 9 was essential and that his appearance on Earth set this rhythm on its way as a central element in the Supramental Descent. And this is fully conveyed in the gnostic content of the Mother’s temple, for when the original plan is respected and the construction is carried out in accordance with that revised symbol, 21 diameters of the globe of 70cms fit into the central shaft of light in a chain. And when converted to the measure of our time, those 70 are equivalent to 18 days, recalling thus the 18˚of the base angles of Sri Aurobindo’s revised symbol. Indeed, his new symbol holds the key to the incomparable harmony of gnostic time in the Mother’s original plan of her temple. This harmony has of course been lost in the actual construction in Auroville, for indeed Sri Aurobindo’s ‘new form’ finds no place therein, where the law of usurpation rules.
In view of these relationships, it is quite possible to deduce that without a revision of the symbol in 1964, there could have been no ‘seeing’ of its detailed application 6 years later, in 1970, when the Mother ‘saw’ the chamber. Conversely, there could have been no revision unless Sri Aurobindo had fulfilled his mission as the 9th by a PHYSICAL transformation, albeit in the subtle physical very close to the Earth’s material plane. Indeed, in the realm of higher knowledge the use of symbols in this advanced manner is intended to remove speculation from perception and to provide seekers with a thoroughly applicable model for the yoga. The Avatar’s mission and realisation is never abstract and speculative – and we have the history of Sri Ram and Sri Krishna as examples, where they have left their stamp on the Hindu psyche in such a manner as to erase the line between history and myth. Nor is there any question of faith involved, similar to what Christianity holds as an indispensable ingredient in the appreciation of the Christ’s mission. Regarding the latter, we are also faced with a fundamental achievement ‘on the other side’. For the crucifixion, we are told, resulted in redemption of humanity’s sins, and the final resurrection of Jesus and his ascent into heaven. This glorious achievement does not unfold or come accompanied by an entire body of higher Knowledge, objective and not demanding of the faith of the devotee.
Indeed, this is what distinguishes a supramental manifestation from the common religious experience. In the former we demand objective knowledge which is perforce the very nature of gnosis. As indeed it has been the key ingredient in all true paths of Indian yoga and spirituality. Similar to the Mother’s revelation of this gnostic content of the temple, and its measurable quality, all Hindu temples can trace their origins to a yogic act in ancient times. The only difference between the two is that the Mother’s temple describes the great expansion the Earth is experiencing and the new measure of our solar system, as well as providing a working, applicable model of the Zero as womb of gnostic time, number-power of the Sun, symbol of the Supermind, as even it was for the ancient Rishis.
This is the true hieratic language and purpose of symbols. It is not found anywhere on Earth in this living, dynamic form. What we find everywhere is a mental formulation lacking power and a basis in the reality of the lived experience. Above all, when it is the true process, based on a yoga where the Shakti is central – and in this case we are dealing with the incarnation of that Power herself – there is nothing speculative involved. The meaning of the form is plain and simple. There is no abstraction. There is Truth, irrefutable and absolute. No ‘interpretations’ are possible in this realm of knowledge. And when the time comes for the full manifestation of the Supramental Shakti, then this language acquires an even greater clarity and imperative and indisputable stamp of Truth.
Thus, the new form of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol revealed the new form of himself, exactly in synchronisation with his new appearance. This may be denied and disputed by the profane, but the initiate versed in this language of the Gods cannot deny what the direct experience and seeing and its consequent knowledge reveal.
The eternal Language of the Zodiac
Apart from this decisive act, so important for the future course of their work, the Mother also disclosed the same revolutionary happening using other images and branches of the Knowledge. To illustrate, on 16 December, 1967, the Mother entered into a long contemplation for over a half an hour. Coming out of this state, she then spoke to her secretary/disciple, Satprem, of the details of a vision she had had just then, while sitting with him in her room. Strangely enough, though she always spoke to him in French, this time it was in English. I reproduce her own words as they have been transcribed in The Mother’s Agenda, Volume 8, p. 438-39:
I saw a strange being who came from there like that, (The Mother indicates her left side) made a round around you and went away. It was a horse with a lion’s head.
Beautiful beast! It was a lion, the head like that, the front form was a lion and behind it was a horse. And it was the symbol of…a symbolical animal of something. At the moment, I understood perfectly well, I said Ah! and…
Very dignified. Came from there (same gesture on the left) like that, made a round around you and went away. It was for you. Lion is power, and horse…
And like that, it seems silly, but he was very beautiful, and of a beautiful colour. And very dignified.
Tiens!… (The Mother realises she was speaking in English. The conversation resumes in French, which I translate into English.)
It was Sri Aurobindo who said all that to you (In English). It is odd how it comes like that.
It was something that had come to announce something to you. It was a being, but a being…There must be beings like that. It was all in light, and it was something…it was to announce something to you. But so real!
In this case the Mother again describes in very precise detail Sri Aurobindo’s two forms and the months of birth when these would appear on Earth. On this occasion she used the timeless cosmic script for the purpose, seeing the two zodiacal signs under which he would take birth for these two appearances, the Lion and the Horse, or Leo and Sagittarius. Not only did she see the two accurately, she also saw the correct sequence of the two appearances, – first Leo and then Sagittarius; and moreover, that they were connected, as one body, so to speak. This is perhaps the most important aspect of her impeccable clairvoyance: the images reveal more than just one fact – his rebirth. They reveal subtle features of the Knowledge which are fundamental to understand if this rebirth is to make any sense in the overall context of the Supramental Manifestation. The single-bodied imagery combining two animal forms is a formidable clue to the precise yoga Sri Aurobindo undertook ‘on the other side’ after his passing, which permitted the new form and symbol to emerge on the cosmic screen of time and space. This was the technique employed in the Sphinx at Giza where human head and lion body refer to the axis of the zodiacal signs, Leo and Aquarius, the first being the Age of creation of the colossus, while the latter, the Age of Aquarius, our present Age, is the time when its mysteries are revealed.
Regarding the Mother’s Lion and Horse vision and the ‘announcement’ Sri Aurobindo was making, again we must consider that none, much less the disciple Satprem, grasped the message. Yet it is evident that Sri Aurobindo was making determined efforts after 1963 to convey to those involved in his work that the ‘new form’ had come into being. These messages were always given in ways that would accurately inform his entourage of the supramental process successfully completed, with its attending gnosis. Lamentably, none were receptive enough to appreciate the momentous turning point he sought to convey.
There was a precise plan involved in this sequence of events. The revised symbol would become the occult skeletal structure of the temple within a short time, as I have pointed out. Resistance to the Mother’s enlightened Seeing would be formidable, as we have been able to confirm. But the knowledge content, or gnosis, of her original plan had to survive, precisely because a choice would be offered as an intrinsic part of the evolution of Sri Aurobindo’s work on Earth. This or that, – i.e., the temple of Light or Darkness: Knowledge or Ignorance, as the ‘centre’ of the new world.
The ‘core’ of the matter
The most important aspect to the revision of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol concerns a key element in the original plan of the chamber, – the Core.
The Pedestal the Mother ‘saw’ when she entered the chamber in the subtle plane consisted of four upright symbols, forming a square, whose angles were touching. This detail of her seeing, specifically mentioned by her to Satprem and thus recorded on tape for posterity, might appear to be an insignificant detail of little consequence. Yet it proves that the Mother saw the revised symbol as the Pedestal and not the pre-1964 form.
Interestingly, the Ashram engineer, Udar Pinto, with whom she drew up the plans that were originally presented to the architects for execution, did not draw the Pedestal on the basis of this revised version. He used the old symbol, obviously because having been a member of her entourage throughout the years that the former symbol was in use – indeed, when Sri Aurobindo was present in his old form – this engineer/disciple spontaneously drew the Pedestal in the manner he was accustomed to and most familiar with. This can be verified by perusing the blueprint of the original plans he drew up on the basis of the Mother’s instructions. In the right-hand upper corner there is a drawing of the Pedestal exactly as it appears below (figure C). To accommodate the separated equilateral triangles within the Pedestal, its height had to be extended. Thus, this disharmonious form emerged. But more important to note is that this construction would not produce a pedestal of four symbols with the angles of the triangles touching, as the Mother stated on the basis of what she ‘saw’. Something was fundamentally wrong, a glaring discrepancy in the design. Or else, the Mother had not ‘seen’ correctly.
Another six years transpired and in 1976 I ‘discovered’ the geometric solution to the Pedestal which would make it a faithful reproduction of the Mother’s original vision (figure D). It was simply the utilisation of the revised symbol for the construction, based on the accurate design and proportions she had given in May of 1964, twelve years earlier. With this official design, and on the basis of the vesica piscis (see The New Way, Volume 3, Chapter 3) drawn according to the given 70cms of the globe, the Pedestal could be designed so that a very great deal of accuracy would be attained and the result would be the angles of the triangles touching, just as the Mother had ‘seen’. The most awesome part of the exercise is the fact that in the 1976 discovery of the correct pedestal/symbol, to faithfully reproduce what the Mother SAW, this fidelity and application brought its special reward instantly: the discovery of his rebirth in the irrefutable language of Gnostic Symbols.
It took twelve years for this ‘message’ to find a receptive instrument. Halfway between the original revision of the symbol and my discovery of the correct Pedestal for the Core of the chamber, there was the Mother’s act of seeing, the magnificent ‘descent of the temple’. The 12-year cycle all disciples of Sri Aurobindo know was another key feature of his appearance as the 9th Avatar. In this case we encounter the same cycle again regarding the temple. It calls to mind the tale of Jesus at 12 years of age, when he was ‘discovered’ in the temple by his parents in spiritual discourse, revealing his true being and divine mission. Similarly, it was when Sri Aurobindo in his new form had attained the age of 12 (1976) that together with the discovery of the correct Pedestal – indeed, hinging precisely on that discovery – his reappearance, again involving a temple, was disclosed. That is, it was confirmed in the design, measurements, and gnostic timing of the descent of the Temple when his first cycle of twelve was completed in his new form.
Sphinx and Pyramid in the hieratic Language of Symbols
In Volume 2 of the New Way, I discuss certain aspects of the Mother’s original plan of the chamber in connection with the Great Pyramid at Giza. Indeed, her revision of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in 1964 drew this connection 6 years prior to the vision of the temple. The change of triangles from equilateral to isosceles resulted in the fact that a direct link was made with ancient Egypt, in a sense drawing that civilisation through the ages and across the globe and implanting it, via applied gnostic symbolism, in the soil of India of today. A bridge is thus forged between the two civilisations, cutting across time and space by this ‘construction’ in our 20th Century of the Giza Pyramid in the Mother’s temple, through Sri Aurobindo’s revised symbol.
There is a specific reason why at a certain point in the evolution of the Supramental Manifestation the bridge had to be formed. The announcement of this future connection was made millennia ago when the Sphinx which still stands at Giza was seen and then constructed. Similar to the announcement regarding Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth, utilising a ‘sphinx’ formed of Lion and Horse (Leo and Sagittarius), so too the ancient Egyptians constructed a colossus in a sufficiently indestructible manner to endure over many centuries, using the very same cosmic script. In Sri Aurobindo’s case the ‘sphinx’, as witnessed by the Mother, indicated the months/signs of his two connected appearances on Earth, connected in an unbroken line of time, that is. Whereas, in the case of the Egyptian creation the symbols refer to cosmic ‘months’ – i.e., astrological ages.
The Laws of Correspondence are a basic tenet of astrological tradition. Thus, there is only one circle, one ecliptic consisting of the 12 zodiacal signs. These in their annual progression are the twelve months of our calendar year. But the same progression applies to the Precession of the Equinoxes which requires 25,920 years to complete one Round, as I have called it (see, TVN, 8/6, page 11), of those same twelve zodiacal signs. Thus, one cosmic month in this equation is equivalent to 2160 years, or one astrological age.
As we find mentioned in the Atharvaveda concerning this same progression, there are three ‘hubs’ in the wheel, or three such complete Rounds of 25,920 Earth years each, equalling 77,760. These are again divided by twelve, resulting in twelve Manifestations of 6480 Earth years each, wherein the latter are similarly ‘months’, identified by the same 12 signs, though multiplied by time in this fashion.
Thus, permeating this ancient system of knowledge, in Egypt as well as in India, and other places on the globe, is this Law of Correspondence and Equivalency, where time is either expanded or contracted but the circle is ever the same.
As indicated in the Map of 12 Manifestations (see TVN, 8/6, page 11), the four Fixed signs (of Vishnu, the Preserver) form the classic Sphinx, a composite form of Bull (Taurus), Lion (Leo), Eagle (Scorpio), and Man/Woman (Aquarius). The four figure prominently in St John’s Revelation, a rather bizarre lapse of editing insofar as the Church considers astrology a heathen and blasphemous tradition:
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
2) And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
3) And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
4) And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
5) And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
6) And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto a crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
7) And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
8) And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come… (The Revelation, Chapter IV, King James Version).
This is unequivocally a description of the zodiac. Interesting to note is the manner in which the signs are divided in two parts, negative and positive, thus making twenty-four ‘elders’. This is further emphasised by the ‘six wings’ of the Beasts, indicating that each one presides over a quarter of the zodiac of three signs divided into two parts, thereby equalling six. The ‘sea of glass’ is the plane of the ecliptic extending out from the Sun (‘the throne’). But what is truly intriguing is that this document, perhaps the most prized by contemporary Christian fundamentalists because of its prophecy not only of the return of the Christ but of the Final Judgement which certain elements of the Church have utilised throughout these many centuries since the penning of this text to keep the faithful in line as it were, clearly describes the cosmic attributes of God, and that his praises are sung through the cosmic harmony. This is a thoroughly ‘pagan’ concept and finds no place in the religions of Middle-Eastern origin. One wonders how this incongruency is dealt with by Christian theologians. For example, how do they reconcile the saint’s description of the seven planets (‘seven lamps of fire burning before the throne’) as ‘seven Spirits of God’?
Be this as it may, the above text furnishes us with further proof that in very ancient and not so ancient times, the cosmic harmony was a firm pillar of all systems of higher knowledge across the globe. The Sphinx at Giza, far older than the Christian Scripture, has taken two of these forms – Lion and Man/Woman, of Leo and Aquarius – in the very same manner as Sri Aurobindo did to announce his rebirth. But in the case of the Egyptian colossus, the announcement meant to reverberate across the ages involved the astrological ‘months’ of Leo and Aquarius, or the Age of Leo and the Age of Aquarius, or present Age. The logical question to ask is what was that announcement, and why was it so important to preserve in a medium that would endure and survive the ravages of time?
In a sense we could say that the mystery of the Giza Sphinx is the redemption of the Sun, or the supramental Gnosis, in a manner reminiscent of the Isis/Osiris myth, where Osiris is dismembered and then reassembled by the Goddess. Savitri, Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem, based on an old Vedic theme, describes a similar redemption, and also by the Goddess.
If the tale is taken as a ‘solar myth’, to use the description of contemporary scholars, Osiris stands for the Supramental Light; the dismembering of that single principle of Light refers to the refracted and therefore relative truths of the Overmind planes. These single rays descending from that original Light can be found in the world’s religions, as an example. They each contain something of that solar essence, but refracted and thus isolated from every other ‘ray’ or religion. Therefore, to campaign for a world religion, or a unity of religions is a naïve prospect doomed to failure. The intrinsic nature of religions precludes any unification and will defy ad infinitum, as it has defied throughout the Age of Pisces and into our own Age, all attempts to bring about an amalgamation, notwithstanding the ecumenical drives of the past few decades. Unity does not lie within the parameters of religions. It lies beyond.
The dismembering and reassembling involves the Sun of Knowledge and points to the great upheaval I described in the last issue in which the Sun is momentarily dislodged from its throne in the 12-scale progression, and then relocated in a central position in the 9-scale circle. This redemption of centrality is the key to the new species. The announcement of the Giza Sphinx is thus the arrival of the new gnosis and the new race when the period of the Man/Woman of its form would arrive, some 10,000 years after its construction. Erected when the cosmic dial of the Manifestations was located at or around the 0 degree of Leo in the Precession of the Equinoxes, approximately 10,000 years would elapse until the dial would reach the last degree of Aquarius, based on the backwards motion of the Precession. At that prescribed point in time its secret would be revealed.
The Age of Aquarius began in 1926. In that very year the sands covering the majestic sphinx were completely removed: her form was finally unveiled in precise synchronisation with the start of the very Age captured in her symbolism. Also in that very year, Sri Aurobindo crossed a momentous threshold in his own yoga for the Earth, and by November of 1926 he and the Mother were in a position to formally commence their joint mission, the aim of which was to establish the foundations for the new gnosis and the new species.
In the interim betweens the Age of Leo and our present Age of Aquarius, a very heavy mantle of darkness has descended over the Earth. The Knowledge was eclipsed, dismembered, scattered abroad in fragments, similar to the body of Osiris. The darkness was deepest in the Age of Pisces before our own when the ancient civilisations would finally succumb to the forces of destruction and each one would pass into oblivion, leaving only traces here and there of a former glory in fragments of stone and marble, or else in unintelligible myths. All ancient civilisations except one, that is: India.
This too was announced by the Sphinx: the golden Sun of Knowledge would resurrect or rise again in the land where continuity was maintained, where the Sphinx would be actualised. That is, where the same connection and continuity would exist, in all that its form of Lion and Man signified, across the astrological ages/months/signs, as announced in Sri Aurobindo’s ‘sphinx’ of Lion and Horse. That is, a direct process of incarnation where the line of Time was not severed. This same continuity, indicated in the Sphinx at Giza, has been nurtured in India in terms of the Knowledge. India alone preserves the ancient meaning of the Cosmic Script because it is only in India that this superior Language has not only been preserved but realised, actualised from age to age through the unbroken line of the Ten Avatars of Vishnu. For Vishnu, godhead of Preservation and hence embodiment of the four Fixed (Preservation) signs of that ancient zodiacal script, is the Supreme Sphinx from whom all others have evolved. His fourfold ‘form’ is described in the Rigveda, the world’s oldest Scripture, where bull, lion, and ‘friend’ (Man) are the attributes sung in praise of this mighty embodiment of the Spirit of Time. In addition, Scorpio is clearly the zodiacal position from where Vishnu sets out to mark his famous ‘three steps’, or to map out the ecliptic for humankind. In these verses, the sequence follows in correct order from there, the sign of the Eagle.
Indeed, left out of the list of attributes is the Eagle, but this was perhaps due to the fact that the Eagle, Garuda, is Vishnu’s very own carrier, or vahana. It is also interesting to note, here and in St John’s Revelation, quoted above, that the eagle is used to indicate the 8th sign, Scorpio, and not the scorpion which is the only figure in use to represent the sign today. There is a specific reason why this is so. Indeed, this particular aspect of the ancient teachings will form the centre of our discussion further on. I quote here the verses from the Rigveda in praise of Vishnu, and, similar to the Christian text, there can be no doubt that what the Rishi is describing is the cosmic script and the heavenly harmony which Vishnu embodies perhaps more than any other of the ancient godheads:
Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self-accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement.
That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible LION that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain-tops, he in whose three wide movements all the worlds find their dwelling-place.
Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervading, the wide-moving BULL whose dwelling-place is on the mountain, he who being One has measured all this long and far-extending seat of our self-accomplishing by only three of his strides.
He whose three steps are full of the honey-wine and they perish not but have ecstasy by the self-harmony of their nature; yea, he being One holds the triple principle and earth and heaven also, even all the worlds.
May I attain to and enjoy that goal of his movements, the Delight, where souls that seek the godhead have the rapture; for there in that highest step of the wide-moving Vishnu is that FRIEND of men who is the fount of sweetness.
Those are the dwelling-places of ye twain which we desire as the goal of our journey, where the many-horned herds of Light go travelling; the highest step of wide-moving Vishnu shines down on us here in its manifold vastness.
(RV. I.154, Sri Aurobindo’s translation)
This is, of course, a remarkable testimony not only to the fact that the cosmic harmony was a firm pillar of the ancient schools in India, and therefore positioned among all the other schools of higher knowledge throughout the world which bear testimony to the same cosmic script, but the verses reveal how much more deeply the teachings had penetrated in India. Here we have a process of yoga described. Throughout the Rigveda the seers sing of the ‘self-accomplishing’, as Sri Aurobindo has translated it; and moreover, these vast movements of Vishnu are not only up above. They are to be realised here. The ‘journey’ the seeker undertakes is on and of this Earth, and the process of yoga integrates in his or her being that wide universal harmony which Vishnu embodies.
Vishnu is described as taking three steps, whereas we are discussing the FOUR fixed signs of Preservation which he embodies. As mentioned, the Eagle or the sign Scorpio is left out. But the important part is the correct sequence of the movement, similar to the Christian text only here the ‘steps’ begin in Leo (the ‘terrible lion’), and from there proceed backwards, as does the Precessional movement, or else my own Map of the 12 Manifestations, until that ‘highest step’ is reached. This in itself indicates that the seer was referring to the zodiac, since that last step is Aquarius, sign precisely of ‘the Friend’ in traditional astrology, and this is the last Fixed sign of the wheel, in the ‘highest heaven’, or the upper hemisphere. The Rishi clearly indicates that attaining this position the journey is completed. Interestingly, it is in this Age of Aquarius that the enigmatic sense and symbolism of the Rigveda are being revealed and the yoga of those former times is bearing fruit for the entire planet. In the period of the 9th and 10th Avatars of Vishnu the complete circle is drawn, forging that link from the distant past to the present, where the chasm between Spirit and Matter is finally bridged. The Rishi refers throughout these hymns to the ‘measuring’ attribute of Vishnu. Indeed, it is in this Age of ours that Maya (‘measure’) is once again divinised and restored to her throne as the great Creatrix of material creation, the Body of the Lord.
The Great Pyramid and the Geo-cosmology of the New Way
In this New Way the Knowledge is being reassembled, its many fragments are being drawn together from all the corners of the globe in this awesome age of resurrection, when the Sun of Gnosis rises again.
Egypt is an especially important piece in the mosaic of Knowledge and must find its place or be reallocated a position in the grand design. And the means to draw that ancient path into the present has been via the Giza Pyramid and the Sphinx, and then Sri Aurobindo’s revised symbol to conform with the Giza Pyramid dimensions, with the Sphinx symbolism to confirm the time period as the Age of Aquarius when that Sun would rise again.
Encompassing these formidable avenues of communication, cutting across time and space and national or ethnic boundaries, is the Mother’s original plan of her temple/chamber. The entire process of integration is centred on that great yogic feat of sacred architecture and geometry. In one decisive move – the revision of the symbol and the shift from equilateral to isosceles triangles – the Mother drew the entire content of ancient Egyptian civilisation within the boundaries of her experience in this Age of Aquarius, just as the Sphinx had been prophesying across the ages. What lies almost beyond comprehension, however, is that her entourage was so thoroughly closed to this happening and actually obstructed her at every step along the way in her efforts to cement this convergence and make of the Temple/City the cradle of all that the past has held highest and most revered. Through this something of the self-importance of the human being stands unmasked; the downright ignorance of contemporary man finds no parallel in ancient times.
At the same time, along with her yoga of the sacred Gnosis, the geo-cosmology of the New Way presents a striking confirmation of the all-pervasiveness of the Knowledge in those former times. I have discussed the question of applying the Gnostic Circle to the Earth’s geography in The New Way, Volume 2, as well as in these pages. I have demonstrated the extraordinary exactitude with which India’s Capricorn essence, if it may be so called, is confirmed beyond doubt by this newly-revealed cosmic yardstick.
Reproduced here is that yardstick: the Gnostic circle’s 360˚ laid counterclockwise across the globe as the zodiac progresses, with its 0˚ at Greenwich, moving eastward from there.
When the Gnostic Circle is laid across the globe as reproduced above, the 30˚ of each zodiacal sign are thus related to 30˚ longitude. Longitude being the Earth’s time measure (vertical), its bands are equal to this cosmic time measure captured in the ecliptic of twelve signs. Astrology of whatever school, it must be remembered, deals with time – giving sense or meaning to Time. It is Time’s own language, the world’s oldest and most universal, in fact. Thus it is not unreasonable or scientifically blasphemous to make a correlation between longitude bands and zodiacal segments. Through their relationship with Time, these apparently unrelated measures are integrated and synchronised.
Where the sign Capricorn is located in this backwards progression of the zodiacal signs through the Earth’s longitudinal bands, India, Capricorn’s purest representative landmass on Earth, begins. This position, 60/61 degrees longitude east is precisely where the Gnostic Circle’s yardstick applied to longitude indicates the start of Capricorn. The whole of India’s central body is covered by this longitude/sign. Indeed, as a further confirmation, the Capricorn hieroglyph traces the exact contours of that landmass.
The intriguing part is that the zodiac hieroglyphs are of very ancient vintage, so ancient that no one knows their country or civilisation of origin. I have proven in these pages that in India’s Vedic Age, much older than what scholars assume, this body of knowledge flourished to such an extent that as a background ideology its all-pervasiveness was an accepted equation in any of the civilisation’s most sacred expressions. This pertains not only to India but to other civilisations of equal antiquity. One encounters this underlying wisdom throughout the Rigveda; and I sustain that not only is the Rigveda the world’s oldest written book, but that the current belief that it was penned around 1500 BC is inaccurate. Time will prove this to be a correct conclusion.
And finally, the document was written long after the hymns were first composed and sung and handed down from teacher to disciple orally, according to the traditional practice in those times in India, or even in her contemporary society. Music is an example where still today there are no annotations and the guru-shishya parampar, or teacher-disciple tradition of oral transmission continues in vogue; notwithstanding the fact that Indian classical music, especially of the South, is a highly complex and sophisticated system which could have been lost at any time during India’s tumultuous experiences in the Piscean Age at the hands of marauders, invaders and conquerors from beyond her borders, unfriendly, to say the least, to her Vedic Dharma on which these multiple cultural expressions were and still are founded.
Therefore, we may safely conclude that not only is the date of original composition of the Rigveda inaccurate, according to contemporary scholarship, but the fact of this long and continuing practice of oral transmission before the written document came into existence would by itself prove the great antiquity of the text, contrary to what Indologists would have us believe.
On the other hand, we have a seemingly new path, this New Way, not only making use of those ancient symbols but in the present application confirming the accuracy of the ancient vision. Not only is the ancient allocation of the Capricorn rulership to India confirmed by the new cosmology via the design of the hieroglyph which neatly and indisputably covers the Indian landmass with great precision, there is also the correlation between the zodiac and longitudinal bands which similarly confirms the very ancient attribution of Capricorn to India, this time by introducing the Gnostic Circle for this purpose as a sacred yardstick, a ‘golden rod’, as it were. Regarding the latter, it is again a seemingly new revelation, a discovery of today and not just something uncovered of the past, a new interpretation of some relic or ancient text. The new cosmology and the New Way are products of our Aquarian Age. And fully in keeping with the announcement of the Sphinx that in this very Age a new gnosis would be revealed – for that is the significance of Aquarius.
But it is more than that: it is a new way, a new yogic path leading to the manifestation of a new world.
Still, our human minds have difficulty embracing great expanses of time and space and integrating those fragments of a seemingly lost knowledge with the discoveries of the present. For again the question needs to be asked: What came first, the chicken or egg? That is, Pyramid or Gnostic Circle? By this I refer to the fact that it is only through application of the Gnostic Circle yardstick with its zodiacal symbols to the Earth’s longitude bands that the truly awesome feature of the Great Pyramid is discovered. (Or, rediscovered?) And in this discovery again the announcement of the Sphinx is confirmed: the Age of Aquarius is the period of the revelation.
To appreciate this, to eliminate that mind-crippling disease of speculation, let me point out as I have done in The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 9, that exactly where the sign Aquarius begins in the Gnostic Circle yardstick, reproduced above, we find the Pyramid and Sphinx located, when applied to longitudes of the globe. This reveals that the construction of those colossi were the most awesome feats of sacred architecture of the ancient world, so ancient that we have no memory of the method employed to arrive at such an astounding accuracy involving not only the Earth but her circumscribing space as well. This is sacred architecture of the past integrated with geo-cosmology of the present in a form never known before on Earth. To recapitulate what I have earlier written in The New Way and to explain the accomplishment in greater depth, the Sphinx and the Pyramid were constructed on 30°east longitude, as well as 30˚ north latitude – the latter also being correlated to the zodiac through the Gnostic Circle where similarly it figures as Aquarius. Thus, in both directions – vertical and horizontal – there is Aquarius.
Prophecy and the new supramental power of actualisation
The mechanism of prophecy used in the Sphinx was remarkable, for not only was the Age of Aquarius designated in her form as the period of revelation, the colossus herself was uncovered in the very year – 1926 – that the cosmic dial would reach precisely that 30th degree in the Precession of the Equinoxes, equivalent to the 29th/30th degree of Aquarius, or the beginning of this new Age.
In the Earth’s latitudes related to the Gnostic Circle laid out over the globe in a horizontal fashion, Aquarius is ‘measured’ at its 0 or first degree by the Sphinx and Pyramid positioning; in the longitude measure and its vertical bands, it is the last degree of the sign and it is this measure that connects it with great precision to the Precessional movement of the Equinoxes which determined the start of the Aquarian Age in 1926. In other words, 1926 is ‘located’ through the Precessional movement of the cosmic clock at 30/29 degrees Aquarius. This is its gnostic time coordinate; its gnostic space coordinate is located on the globe at 30˚ N latitude.
Since 1926 we have moved through one full degree of Aquarius in this retrograde motion. In 1998 we move from this 30/29 degree into the 28th. That is, it has taken 72 years of the Precession to move through one degree of the sign and thus fully into Aquarius. Indeed, it has been during this very period of 72 years, bringing the millennium to a close, that the supramental Gnosis has descended, the gnostic temple has been revealed, the foundations of the supramental yoga for the world has been laid. These 72 have, in a very profound sense, been the time of seeding.
This is factual not abstract and speculative proof of the existence of a single body of Knowledge handed down through the Ages in an unbroken line across the globe. It is not the ‘one truth’ of the world’s religions for they are mere ‘rays’ of that supreme Light and in their isolated and fragmented condition have lost touch with that which truly connects them and which links them with that luminous Source. At the same time, this Knowledge is not dogma. It is a recurring revelation, adding by the aid of Time new wings to the original edifice. There is one base, one foundation. Upon that the edifice arises and endures through the ages, each astrological age adding its part according to its intrinsic truth. It is this Cosmic Script that Sri Aurobindo refers to in Savitri when he enumerates the attributes of the ‘…hidden chamber closed and mute…’, accessible only through yoga and reserved for the initiate of its highest Truth.
But a civilisation such as the ancient Egyptian is not justified in pouring untold energies and resources into the construction of a sphinx and pyramid such as we find at Giza, unless there was a very important sense and purpose involved. Indeed, Egypt, like Vedic India, finds its fulfilment in the Mother’s temple of today, thousands of years into the future of those civilisations, where space and time are unified in a new Science beyond the known disciplines covering both the spiritual and the material.
We have entered the age of the Truth-Consciousness, or Supermind. What the Vedic Rishis saw as ‘self-accomplishment’ for the Aryan voyager to the mountain Summit (Capricorn) is extended through the special properties of the supramental Gnosis to encompass now both individual realiser and the collectivity, the one and the many in a grand synthesis hitherto unknown to the civilisations of planet Earth. This achievement was only partially possible in those former times; and indeed, even in that reduced capacity the Egyptian and Vedic civilisations offered channels in their societies for the cosmic harmony to express itself unparalleled since then. Yet, something more was needed in order to make the Earth the planetary home where the Hierogamos of Heaven and Earth, or spirit and matter, could take place as an everlasting condition. For this the Sun was dislodged and its fragments cast abroad to become embedded in matter, thereby assuring that when awakened below they would ascend and be joined by the descent from above of that same Light, that same immortal Source, to thus illumine the intermediate planes from where waves of darkness, of unconsciousness, periodically arise to obfuscate the light of that highest Truth.
The builders of the Sphinx and Pyramid saw thousands of years into the future what the builders of the Mother’s temple/chamber in Auroville failed to see right before their eyes, though unveiled to them by the Goddess herself.
PN-B
March of 1994
Aeon Centre of Cosmology
at Skambha
(to be continued)