Truly new doors of perception have opened. All one has to do is observe the surrounding circumstances of the work at Skambha with the newly re-focussed lens, and without fail it is an engagement of equivalency and correspondence, as it was for the Rishis of old. Because of the latest breakthrough, last night, so completely I ‘felt’ surrounded by the Rishis who were all smiling…

This has been a special moment at Skambha and those who were able to withstand the intensity benefitted from being here. But even those who could not, who fled, can benefit from observing themselves and their responses to the pressure of Contraction – namely M and F.

Through them and their respective responses to the pressure – atmospheric pressure (AP), shall we say – I understood more deeply the world situation and perhaps what lies ahead. M’s response was immediate, impelled from the vital, unreflecting flight; and his profession has certainly reinforced the tendency. On the other hand, F was also overtaken by the urge to flee; but his response was more mental rather than vital as it was in M’s case. He reflected, calculated his moves carefully. In both cases I was given to see the state of the world – i.e. what historians call the old world and the new; or Europe, the old world (and Asia as well, but not exactly defined in the same way because of the limbo Asia was nestled in while Europe dominated the world); and the Americas, the new world. I believe that having these two ‘continental representatives’ at Skambha in this pregnant moment was carefully arranged to show me what lies ahead. What emerged was a penetration more deeply into the essential being of these two ‘worlds’, their pulses, as it were.

Once again these reflections brought forward what I have long known: the geographic births of each member of the Solar Line was also carefully crafted to highlight the two worlds, old and new; or the two ‘creations’ within which each member must carry out their respective labour/yoga.1

Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were products of the old world – the Mother by virtue of her birth in Paris which in the 19th and early 20th Centuries was the cultural hub of the world. Sri Aurobindo passed all of his formative years in the old world, though having been born in India. This piece of the mosaic is important because it reveals how India straddles both worlds – old and new. To bear in mind is the fact that Sri Aurobindo’s birth occurred when India had become an extension of that old world. It was the prized ‘jewel in the crown’ of the imperialistic power, of which it was said the Sun never set on its empire. Clearly his birth in the midst of that culminating falsehood, the last gasp before dying of the prevalent Piscean colonisation culture, was purposeful. India witnessed through this exercise the great shift from Pisces to Aquarius in 1926.

The two Continental Representatives at Skambha during these momentous days responded according to the essential nature of the old and the new worlds. The difference lies in a culture dominated by fear (the old world) and hence favouring the status quo; the other is characterised by an unthinking recklessness having no fear, plunging ahead on the basis of that innate fearlessness.

The question of an Anchor assumes importance in this observation. In the new Age of the Supermind the goal is to ‘anchor’ the world in the true Centre, geographical and the subtle Point that serves to connect the continents to the ‘other side’ of essential being. This had not existed in Sri Aurobindo’s time: India was void, but like unto a womb ready to give birth. His and the Mother’s Yoga was essential to permit the birth of the New Way, the new world, the new creation. It was only in 1983 that the Anchor was lowered into the womb of essential Time and India became firmly rooted – but still in time essence only. In 1986 its ‘space’ began to expand or extend that Time-Seed, but now firmly anchored to become the Stable Constant of the new creation. The Yoga of the Chamber in that special ennead, 1980-1989, was the anchoring process via the yogic construction of the Mother’s architectural plan that was the new model of the universe. Due to this fact the chamber is known as the Stable Constant at the centre of the new city-consciousness.
It is evident that the 6 and the 3 are the feminine powers suited to deal with matter, with a ‘creation in matter’, as the Mother described of the number 9. Without 6 and 3, the 9 indeed remains ‘up there’, unfulfilled, unextended, or ‘spaceless’ because Time has not crossed the threshold to reverse and extend itself and thus give rise to space. The 6 provides the horizontal expanse of 12; the Third the 9 of the temporal deployment through the year. Indeed, it is the Year that unites the two, 9 and 12. Therefore the Year was honoured above all else in the Vedic Age, as well as in the Mother’s chamber.

Over the years since 1986 Skambha has matured. As I wrote earlier, its power has increased significantly; its essential nature of Contraction – being linked directly to the Source – is felt ever more intensely. Therefore our Continental Representatives could only react as they did under the circumstances – for that power of Contraction is the same force that causes death in a mortal creation in orbit of the Void. Thus, when its power becomes more intense, instinctively the situation appears to be life-threatening. In both Representatives the responses were indicative of the continents – old and new – which they brought into the mix at Skambha by their representation at this special moment. As representative of the old world F responded as we would expect: he clung tenaciously to an anchor in the old world. Important to note is that fear coloured his response, but it did so cunningly, as we would expect of such a representation. It is the response of Europe in situations that arise where its existence is threatened.

Regarding its contemporary history, the ‘European Union’ is doomed to fail because it is, precisely, a union, and not a conglomerate of nations based on unity. Therefore there is no essential experience of such a unity that alone can be the binding adhesive of nations. The grouping can involve only superficial layers of society – i.e. an economic accommodation based on vested interests. This cannot answer the demands of the new creation that seeks to take shape. Unity can; union of vested interests cannot. In the process fear was the uppermost response in our representative of that world. To protect the vested interests of a dying world, it was necessary – nay, predictable – to resort to cunning. This is what the Mother meant when she stated that the British left something ‘rotten’ (rotting) in India (‘…quelque chose de pourri’). And this lies at the root of the divide-and-rule tactic England used to cunningly preserve its rule. After all, a world in disarray, wracked by divisiveness and strife, would ultimately benefit that dying empire. In departing the cunning tactic was to splinter, to tear asunder what it had possessed but which it was forced to leave by the mounting tensions on the world stage of the dawning New Age. This cunningness was fully on display in our continental representative’s response to Thea’s act of Seeing, even to the extent of divide-and-rule by seeking to tear the Solar Line apart, pitting his inner ‘Mother’ against Thea.

On the other hand we have the response of the representative of the new world. There was no fear present in his flight, nor for that matter any anchor. There was, however, a reckless fleeing into the arms of the Unknown, but nonetheless ultimately seeking comfort and some sort of anchoring in the known – which, ironically, for him was situated in the heart of the old world.

This is an example of how observation, when anchored in the true Centre, can reveal in the play of circumstances what IS beyond surface observation. This is the character, or the blueprint of the collective Yoga of Skambha which even its residents of long-standing miss – seeing trees, overlooking the forest. Can there be any more sublime collective yoga than what the New Way offers, where each participant is elevated, in due course of time, to the coveted status of Individual with a COSMIC PURPOSE? This is the function of the City-Consciousness, at the centre of which stands the Centre.

Bear in mind that Thea is that Anchor because she is the Centre. She brought it into being in this material creation of 9 from the plane of essentiality. It would not ‘exist’ but for her engaging in the birth process ceaselessly – the births that make all things new. Thus when her vision is rejected, that anchor is uprooted for the participant in question. The play of circumstances takes over as delegate, once Thea is rejected. The removal of the Centre is the definition of chaos – witness Auroville.

Representations, equivalencies, correspondences take place only in a true Centre. It is there that a microcosm can be equal to the macro, allowing the Seer to peer into that reduced space to understand the conditions in the larger body and to bring about changes therein. All who participate in such an exercise ‘serve the One’ in this special and sacred endeavour.

In like manner, the physical embodiment of a Centre offers a unique grace, facilitating the act of Surrender demanded in this transitional period. That embodied Centre holds the parts and the whole together seamlessly, as is the case with all circles and their peripheries. The central Point gathers (or gives birth to) the 360 degrees in toto that surround it, as well as each individual degree and/or their respective groupings – i.e. the Gnostic Circle with all its divisions.

This describes the supramental action in the world and explains why embodiments of its foundational components are necessary – some serve positively, others negatively; but all are nonetheless at the service of the One. In this instance we have been given clear indications of the approaching denouement or unravelling of the old creation, as the new rises and pushes aside the detritus of the old in an increasingly obvious manner. The weaknesses our Continental Representatives displayed will be the gaps where wedges can be driven to weaken and finally bring down the old structures. As was seen through our Representative, America’s ‘flight’ pattern is reflected in her unwillingness to have been involved in past conflicts on the world stage; hence, the need for ‘shocks’, such as in 1942 and then in 2001, to compel this involvement for the greater good, and to add its courage and daring to become the Centaur Saviour, for a time, of a world at the mercy of the Hostiles.

This exercise also shows us how to find strength in the transition by not giving in to the respective weakness. America, for example, must not allow the current economic crisis to instil the fear that Europe experiences when its boat is rocked. America, because of its ‘baggage-less’ condition, unburdened by a hoary tradition can continuously remake itself, drawing from its pool of youthful unencumbered energies. Its ‘pulse’ falls in the second quarter of the Gnostic Circle – that is, the sector governing economics, banks, energy resources, industries, and so forth. Therefore the current economic collapse can make or break the nation since at stake is indeed its survival, the health and vigour of its original Note, or its slowly diminishing power leading finally to collapse.

The situation for Europe is far more complicated because of the artificial construct of a ‘unity’ that is no unity and a oneness that does not effectively exist. Therefore each component must deal with the denouement individually, primarily by discovering that individual pulse on an individual basis. It must first recover completely from the disease of hegemonic drives – political, economic, cultural or religious – on which it had thrived in the colonial period of the Piscean era. This is the first step on the road to a real unity that goes far beyond economics. Each one must find its place within the Whole, find its individual contribution as the foundation for the manifestation of the true world unity that is striving to emerge.

A word needs to be stated regarding such times in the course of one’s development, times which are known in the Tradition as ‘moments of truth’. In this instance we could say we are going to examine the ‘tree’ apart from the forest. Negative responses do serve the purposes of the One, but what might be the effect on the individual? Each one must deal with the issue as best he or she can – but one thing is certain: a set of circumstances is set in motion from that moment onward based on a disconnection from the true Centre, or an interruption of the contact. The choice in such a situation is usually based on self-indulgence and ego drives and satisfactions. These are often couched in terms the ego concocts such as ‘zones of comfort’ – i.e the comfort of the past. In our particular case, both clung to their ego demands, ignoring the fact that their presences at Skambha were needed for certain specific tasks to be done. But neither could relate to that greater Good (the forest), even though the hand of the great Controller was unmistakably evident in the careful ‘set-up’ a ‘moment of truth’ requires. In other words, things were made exceptionally clear and simple: this or that. All the help had been given to overcome the lesser drives of self-centredness and to serve the higher cause positively.

Such moments of truth are rare; they do not visit everyone, only a select few. In the Gnostic Circle this would be encountering the 7 Point and being invited to ‘enter the Mountain’, those innermost reaches wherein the Axis can be forged that connects one to essentiality of Being (Omanisol). The ladder in The Magical Carousel in Capricornland is a visual image of that special axis joining the Source and its extension as a conscious state of being. Especially important is when there is a guide to help us face this moment in the best poise possible; and the recognition of such a guide is based on one who has the capacity to arrange a ‘set-up’ which will be able to serve the aspirant in this difficult moment when all is lost or all is gained. The key realisation for this purpose is the capacity to hold. One always stands alone in the Mountain Chamber. That is what is demanded of all Initiates. Only in that solitude is the Axis forged.

There is neither negative nor positive judgement when the choice is made. There is simply WHAT IS. And the negative serves the One when there is this Moment of Truth and all is brought to the light of day, when we stand naked beneath the ray of the midday Sun.

1 In a similar vein, the connection of the Lunar Line with Kashmir was pivotal when we consider the role Kashmir played from the beginning, with the Eye of Shiva therein.