The Circle is One: Step 2

2 November, 2006

Dear SRB, The verse I quoted in my last set the tone for everything that is to follow of importance. It may go unnoticed but its primary, essential message is that there is one circle which holds the TWO measures of Time, small and large. If you can understand this, you have the entire Vedic cosmology within your grasp. THE CIRCLE IS ONE. Therein or thereby we gain entry into the ‘eternal worlds’ – provided Time has become our ally.

And so we have proceeded from the first step – reorientation, reversed direction, Earth-bound and inward – to now add the great key of oneness and unity: all is contained in one single circle or wheel. The great cycles of the Yugas as well as the annual ‘journey’ across the twelve months of the year are all within this circular representative form. If you gain access to one, through a rightly poised consciousness-being, you unveil the others. It is simply a question of equivalence, – nothing more, but nothing less.

At no instance is the Rishi focussing on anything beyond that innermost point – of his soul. That is his universe; and through the Laws of Correspondence it is all the universes beyond the parameters of his individualised consciousness. He does not need a telescope because the outward direction his physical eyes would encompass cannot provide that vision of a unified multiplicity which only the Soul contains: it is his gift, his birthright as one of the Earth born. All he needs for his private ‘journey’ of exploration and discovery through these magical innermost corridors of Reality is access, to learn the code that permits entry, that opens those ‘shut doors’. If he passes through he can experience the Eternal Worlds that lie beyond. They are right here in our midst provided the RIGHT DIRECTION is assumed for the discovery, first and foremost, – like wormholes of contemporary science fiction. These dimensions, or ‘eternal worlds’, are a property of the Earth we are placed upon. There is no other way to secure access to those dimensions than by this Earth-bound direction, eschewing all temptations to go ‘beyond’, to allow ‘siderialisation’ – if I may coin the word – to contaminate one’s consciousness and pull one off this sacred course, this most miraculous Vedic Journey.

The only element barring the aspirant’s entry is Time itself, just as the Rishi indicates: it is his ally, or else his nemesis. Somehow the aspirant has to secure Time’s allegiance, the Veda exhorts. This is to be done by alignment of the Zero Point with his LIVED EXPERIENCE of Earth-based time. The cogs and wheels of this Cosmic Timepiece have to slip into place like some awesome combination lock so that the shut door to the Eternal World can be opened, that ‘world’ which is ever in existence but which remains closed until the right poise (combination) comes into being. This can happen only in the inner dimensions of the seeker’s consciousness-being which are accessed through Yoga.

This is why the Makar Sankranti is so tremendously important for Hindu Society. Yearly, with the right ‘combination’, it can revitalise its entire corpus by opening the door to that mysterious Eternal World, where, from the most ancient times of which we have memory, we have been told that the Victory was secured. The Veda tells us explicitly: it is in the tenth month that the warrior conquers definitively the obstacles one after another that Time as Nemesis has been placing on his path, until his consciousness-being had become cleansed of all that could keep those ‘doors’ closed to him. The TENTH MONTH, not the eleventh, not the last, the twelfth, or any other month/door of the journey – that is where the Victory is to be achieved. The last task for the warrior in the tenth (Makar) is the slaying of Vritra, the mighty serpent (Time?) who covers ‘the lost Sun’; or the seeker’s coveted prize.

Can you continue to ask, why the Makar Sankranti? The Veda itself lays out the path for all Hindus to this grand summit, this highest mountain peak that is ever the goal for a Vedic civilisation – in ages long past, as well as today, right now. And somehow, in spite of the greatest vicissitudes any civilisation can know, this Knowledge has been kept alive. If the cogs and wheels do not click into position permitting entry into this sacredmost of all months/dimensions, the field of Victory of the entire individual and collective Vedic Journey, then it is the duty of all right-thinking Travellers on the same path to realign those cogs so as to establish the true zero-point code for the ‘door’ to then open before us all at the December Solstice, entry to Swar or the abode of the Immortal Ones.