In VISHAAL 2/5, December 1987 (‘This Question of Purpose’), I discussed the number-powers 8 and 9 as parts of a connected process with respect to the vehicles or fields where the Integral and Supramental Yogas could be practiced. I would like to offer a further example of the connection and how the occurrence of an event on an 8-power day normally signifies that a further step must be taken; something else is to transpire which will round off that particular process.
This is most clearly demonstrated in the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. I wish to show students the very great precision of the new cosmology concerning events which fall within the ambit of the Power insofar as they constitute a unified process.
It is not possible to discover a unified process of this nature unless one is provided with the key of a higher knowledge. The Gnostic Circle is that key. It is the cosmological blueprint that formed the basis for verification of the Solar and Lunar Lines as the helical arrangement around which the Supramental Manifestation could become consolidated on Earth, and particularly in India. Thus the inner triangle of the diagram, marking off the 9, 6, and 3 powers, numbers or planets, provided the central key with which the members of the Solar Line could be recognised as Evolutionary Avatars, in no abstract terms, as well as a verification of the members of the Lunar Line with its accompanying agents, Mahatma Gandhi and Kamala Nehru.
Concerning Mahatma Gandhi we discover a certain clue in his assassination which allows us to understand that it was part of a connected process. This clue involved Time and it lay in the very date of his demise. 30.1.1948, which, by the mathematics of unity, equals 8 (30+1+1+9+4+8=8). However, with this fact alone we are not able to predict the next step; we are only given the understanding that more is yet to come in a connected sequence, that what is to come is part of an unbroken line and it must involve the last stage of the process and the number 9. And this was indeed the case.
But what lies at the root of the matter? The issue was apparently the partition of India and, to a rather superficial assessment, it was the communal disharmony that led to Gandhi’s assassination. Yet this is only partly true. The far more essential factor is the establishment of the new creation on Indian soil and India as the field where certain key ‘knots’ would be unravelled for the Earth in the evolution of consciousness of the species. The new cosmology provides us with the means to understand what the process is that allows this to transpire. Of course a major issue in this unfolding is the partitioned condition of India at the time of Independence and the method required to heal that dismembering. We must, at the same time, understand what such a shattering of the subcontinent signifies in the higher harmony of things.
Historians have given their versions of the causes of Partition and the tragic occurrences this produced among the people of India, especially in the northern sector. But in the light of the supramental gnosis these ideas are only partially true. In the context of the new cosmology and its language, they represent the peripheral play, the conspiracy of circumstances on the circumference of the circle that represents the new creation. But insofar as the Supermind is the active power in the process, this ‘circle’ is a unified multiplicity, with a central, binding Sun at its heart; and therefore we know that this peripheral play of circumstances has now been integrated into the process, that it is indeed an integrated and harmonised unit we are dealing with. Consequently, each and every event that transpires within the new system is controlled, and it is a recognisable part of a unitary unfolding. It therefore has a sense, a purpose.
But to discover what this is one must have the light of a new and enhanced wisdom and an impeccable key of higher knowledge. This eschews sentimentality and demands a courageous power of seeing and discernment. For example, one sees Mahatma Gandhi’s true role – not as the father of the Indian nation but as the peripheral agent of the Lunar Line. And, above all regarding the issue under analysis, one is able to discern just what his contribution really was and how it was an accommodation of a sort. Given the totality of conditions prevailing and the complexity of the process, and above all the demand for an integral and harmonised resolution of those problematic knots, India was unable to respond to anything higher than his moral and ethical standard and an incomplete perception which centred on an equally incomplete understanding of the policy of non-violence and its consequences.
The framework Mahatma Gandhi provided left gaps in the structure. Thus vital energies escaped the process of integration. His insistency on a certain formula of non-violence and the generation of guilt as a key factor in his programme resulted in a failure to complete the work in 1947. It left dangerous energies unintegrated, and the result was the murderous partition with its accompanying massive slaughter of Indian by Indian. I repeat, this was directly connected to a formula that was incomplete and that failed to incorporate the totality of energies it sought to integrate. For we are always dealing with energy, the student must bear in mind, in different equations and complex patterns of interrelation. A mental and moral standard is insufficient to allow the new creation to become established on Earth. It is the Supermind alone that can successfully carry the world to the next stage in its evolution. And this is a vision far above the mental formula. However, at the time of Mahatma Gandhi’s participation nothing more was possible. And on the basis of the new cosmology we have a confirmation in the very date of Independence: it was indeed Sri Aurobindo’s birthday, 15 August, but the complete tally results in 8 (1+5+8+1+9+4+7=8). Hence this fact also permits the student of the New Way to realize that celebration of the event so long awaited was part of a larger process and that more lay ahead. In addition, it allows us to realise that what does lie ahead is directly related to whatever formed the basis for that incomplete celebration. Wisdom lies in the discernment that the partitioned condition of India on 15th August, 1947, would be the underlying root of whatever else was to transpire. And finally it all converges on the deeper causes themselves of Partition.
Thus the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi shortly after Independence also fell on a day of 8 number-power, 30.1.1948 (=8). The same power of the 8 that was present at Independence was still a factor to contend with. The matter would reach its extreme, in a directly connected sequence, 36 years later with the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
Violence is ever the underlying theme. But the real problem, as with terrorism, lies with those unintegrated energies. Indeed, this can be traced to the human being and the mental constitution, – those unintegrated energies within the individual human instrument; for the knot to be undone is the same whether we view the matter collectively or individually. But an incomplete formula is not the solution. It left crucial energies disconnected from the process.
Indira Gandhi’s assassination was the outcome of that incomplete experience. She succumbed in a manner which displays with starkest exactitude the reality of this unresolved Knot and the resistant, ferocious energies which constitute its nature. But, at the same time, her demise is also a means to realise that the final stage in the process has been reached; and, moreover, that we are not likely to experience another situation of this order regarding the members of the Lunar Line if the energy released by her death is allowed to fulfil itself.
The date of Indira’s assassination was 31.10.1984. Students of the new cosmology cannot fail to note the importance of this date in the overall unfolding of the Manifestation. First of all, we may take the year itself, 1984. It represents a reversal of the year of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, 1948. However, what his reversal of numbers signifies is that a multiple of 9 is involved; that is, a cycle of 9 years, as in all other cases where the final two digits of the year are reversed. But this particular multiple of 9 adds weight to the thesis that we are dealing with a final step in a connected process, insofar as between 1948 and 1984 there are 36 years, or the 4th multiple of 9. Students of the new way know that this denotes a fourfold passage and hence a certain completion in a structure whose basic form is a division into four parts.
But the actual date of Indira Gandhi’s demise is the most revealing factor to establish a connection with Mahatma Gandhi’s. 31 October would be exactly 9 months after 30 January. Thus her death would not only fall 4×9 years after Mahatma Gandhi’s, but 9 months as well; with one additional day, however.
We must ask why there is a discrepancy of one day in so exact a pattern. The answer lies in the significant passage from 8 to 9. Had Indira’s assassination fallen one day earlier, to place it an exact 9 months after Mahatma Gandhi’s on the calendar, given the nature of our number system it too would have taken place on a day of 8 number-power. Whereas, the addition of one day, coupled with the 9 cycle of 36 years, presents us with the image of a completed process. That is, those unintegrated energies that found no adjustment or place within the former incomplete formula of non-violence, by 1984 had reached an explosive peak which demands integration. The indications are that only now can that knot be undone. This lies at the root of the problem Rajiv Gandhi, fourth member of the Lunar Line, faces in the Sikh conundrum.
It is also well to point out that 1984 marked the half-way point in the three final decades of this century, beginning with 1971 and ending in 1998, a year which coincides with the termination of the first 72-year cycle of the Aquarian Age. It is time now for a positive energy to manifest which can resolve these conundrums in unanticipated ways.
The passage from 8 to 9 describes the change which the human race is compelled to make for its survival. But survival does not consist in a continuity of the species as it is presently constituted. What is demanded is the introduction of something new, hitherto unmanifest, which will constitute the enhanced foundations of a new race. For this to come into being the present boundaries of consciousness, and by consequence the condition of the human instrument, must be extended. This extension is conveyed in number-power by the passage from 8 to 9.
It is a critical passage, fraught with danger, for when this stage is reached it implies that either a new creation comes into being or there is a total collapse.
The human being has never successfully accomplished this crossing; but it can no longer be postponed. An indication of this imperative need, represented by these number-powers, is the unusual interplay between Neptune, the 8th planet of our System, and Pluto, the 9th. The latter, because of its erratic motion, has swung into Neptune’s orbit and, for a time, has displaced it from its eighth position. It has thus intertwined itself with the 8th power. This situation will last until the end of the century. It is a clear representation of an interlinking, of a joint process which we cannot escape. The demands of the 8 must be met and integrated if we are to reach the 9 apex successfully; and this must be a joint process.
In the larger boundaries of the Earth’s age, we also face the same passage. We emerged from the 8th Manifestation in 234BC, when the ‘void’ became the favoured experience of the then spiritual elite. That Void is descriptive of the present impasse and the choice we face of either creation or destruction.
We are now in the 9th Manifestation, the culmination in a cycle of 77,760 years. It is the time of the great Birth. The consciousness which the Earth has been gestating is finally born. And within this critical Manifestation the Age of Aquarius is the most dangerous and, at the same time, the most significant and inspiring. For the 9th Avatar takes birth in this Age to complete the crossing, to secure the Victory.
There are two sections of the Gnostic Circle which demonstrate vividly this extension. Of particular interest is the passage through Scorpio, the 8th sign at the end of which lies Saturn, and into Sagittarius, the 9th. In Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem, Savitri, these are equally critical portions, for the 8th Book is the Book of Death, and in the 9th Book the Goddess follows Death beyond the boundaries set for the human being. She wilfully transgresses those limits and defies Death’s sombre warning.
Yet those are the very boundaries that we must now cross so that we may enlarge the present limits of our destiny; indeed, so that we may experience a higher destiny. And this is the crucial act of choosing that is demanded. In order to make this passage the act of choosing requires a conscious process which holds the key to a special release of energy for millennia closed in the dark cave of Scorpio, or the lowest centre of the human instrument, the sex centre. When this energy is released and utilised to create a new axial balance, this becomes the pivot around which the higher destiny can become organised because the true centre has come into being. It is then that Whole Time, or the full circle, can be the integrated experience of the individual and of civilisation, a condition never before known. Thus the final quarter of the Circle, consisting of the 10th, 11th and 12th signs, has always been the unknown, the ‘heaven beyond’, because the Void has consistently devoured the energies that are needed to effect the crossing. This is the ‘error of the Buddha’ which Sri Aurobindo announced would be rectified by Kalki, the Evolutionary Avatar who represents for humanity that victorious crossing.
Using the Lunar Line as an example, the student can better understand the danger we face as a civilisation through an enlightened examination of the conditions surrounding the deaths of Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, and of all that has transpired during the 36 years which have separated these two events. But of special importance is one factor – indeed, the factor that changes everything. It is the continuity of the Line, which was not truncated with the death of Indira Gandhi but which, facilitated by the conspiracy of circumstances that resulted in her assassination, saw the rise to power of the 4th in the Line.
It is this sort of continuity that is required for the successful passage and extension, a continuity that the very nature of the crossing demands. It is not the continuation of any particular party, political system or social structure. Rather it is a line drawn by Time through the corridors of destiny which must at all costs be maintained in order to secure the ultimate victory.
(For a more detailed analysis of the significance of Indira Gandhi’s death and its consequences for the Lunar Line, see VISHAAL 0/1, October 1985, ‘The Nehrus and the New Cosmology’.)
On the basis of the new cosmology it is possible to present even greater details in this matter, incorporating other dates and factors regarding the process India is living for the world. But for the time being I will limit myself simply to drawing attention to the exacting control of the Supermind, using Time as its executive Power, and its consequent ability to create and to organise the conditions for its own fulfilment, using all circumstances – positive and negative – for its ultimate and total victory. In 1968 the Mother realised that the new Power which had manifested by then would display a ‘new precision’ quite different from the mental exercise and the science which it has produced. [See, The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 7, p. 319.] The precision she spoke of would be a power of seeing that could harmonise and integrate events in a related and interconnected form. To demonstrate the truth of her statement, periodically I present students and the sincere seeker with means to verify concretely and non-speculatively just how this new Power is expressing itself in the world today and the exciting manner in which the Supermind, armed with this new Power, has been organised for Earth use. The tools we are given as precise keys of knowledge themselves verify the Mother’s statement in a manner that leaves no scope for scepticism or despair and eliminates the old foundations of faith and blind acceptance.
However, a process of Yoga must accompany the usage of these keys of knowledge to provide for a direct experience, because the inner truths they hold will only be revealed in the course of a serious practice of the supramental yoga and a conscious participation in the foundation-laying of the new world.
P.N.-B.
‘Skambha’
25 December, 1987