‘A centre precludes any other possibility,

      but its own central divine Purpose.’ (1.8.1994)

 

 

It is necessary to regress in time in order to provide a background for the contents of the experience I had after the intense act of compressing the consciousness to a point which I described in the concluding part of the last issue, with its attendant passage into the sacred chamber of the soul. The following involves indeed a horse, the first to become incorporated in the Yoga. It was in 1982. I named him Swati because of his cloud-like whiteness, since the Sanskrit root of the word means white. But at the time of naming him I did not realise that Swati is also the name of one of the 27 nakshatras of Hindu astrology. The year is divided into 27 segments in addition to the 12 months. Interestingly, while I called this gift-horse, first Thoroughbred racehorse (retired) in our midst, Swati because of his whiteness, he did indeed come to me during the nakshatra Swati. Its period embraces the sign Libra and the 4.5 Orbit of the Gnostic Circle.
Swati led me on the path of the new yoga. With him I was able to draw the first lines of the yoga of balancing and centering. I have written something of this elsewhere, and also the unusual circumstances of his death (see ‘Animals in the Emerging Cosmos’ TVN 3/4 and 3/5). But what I did not relate then were the experiences I had in the days following his abrupt departure on 24 July, 1984.

Several days after his death, Swati’s consciousness flooded my being and he ‘spoke’ to me from deep within. He promised his ‘return’. I asked in what form. He replied, ‘As a horse, I will always be a horse and I will always be with you.’

I understood from this deep inner contact that it meant the spirit of the Horse, and this is the way I described the matter to those who were studying with me at the time. Moreover, this contact convinced me that not only would another horse come soon but that there were likely to be many! It must be noted that at the time of this experience Skambha did not exist in the panorama of our work and therefore the likelihood of having ‘many’ animals of any sort seemed absurd. Yet the impression left of this encounter and message was so strong that I felt no compunction in announcing this absurdity to others. And indeed, within a matter of days of this communication and shortly after an intensely emotional meeting with Swati on the subtle plane, the means for these ‘many horses’ to come began to take shape when I was offered a Thoroughbred mare for riding by the same stud farm that had gifted me Swati. I was then convinced that Swati would indeed return, possibly through this gift-broodmare.

The meeting with Swati on the subtle plane was filled with emotion. It proved to be a final farewell (in that form). The experience was so intense, so real, vivid, lived, that for days thereafter it lingered on and I was in a highly emotional state, as if the vital being was queered  to a pitch of intense vibration.

Thus, Swati had promised his ‘return’ at some indefinite point of time, and I felt it to be more a question of the Spirit of the Horse. It need also be mentioned that by then, after the yogic process of realignment, balancing and centering that this exceptional creature had guided me through, I was well aware of the role of the Horse in the work of the Third Power, and hence of the Vedic wisdom in singing praises to Agni in the form of a White Horse, vahana sacred and supreme of the divine Dawn of the Earth, Usha. For Usha is the Vedic equivalent of the Third Power in the supramental Descent.

The question of vahana or carrier of the Gods and Goddesses is a most important feature in Hindu tradition. In contemporary times we encounter a similar concept in the teachings of the Toltec Master, Don Juan, and the role animals have played in his work with students. The point is that when one touches the extreme innermost depths of the soul, there can be an opening to that essential Energy which feeds one’s being and with which we can scale the summit in the drive to develop our truest and fullest inner truth and inherent potential. In some cases this can reveal itself as a vahana like the horse. To understand this it is required that we understand what the Horse embodiment truly signifies. For example, Sri Aurobindo described this creature as the prototype of the supramental form.

 

A contemporary ‘Ashwamedha’, or Horse Sacrifice

 

In these pages I am revealing the singular and precise manner in which the Horse does indeed stand central to a supramental process. Only this animal, as the materialised differentiated Energy (in contrast to the Cow as the undifferentiated Light-Consciousness) can serve us in this manner. In addition, this saga can throw light, in a non-speculative manner, on the countless spiritual insights which for thousands of years shaped themselves in some way around the figure of the Horse. It is because we have moved so very far away from the poise of consciousness of the ancient Rishis that we fail not only to understand their cryptic verses but in our present poise we cannot repeat the same yoga that inspired their hymns.

In the evolution of Hinduism this is particularly clear. Since the advent of realisers who sought to and succeeded in drawing seekers along avenues of a different mystical and spiritual experience than the early Rishis and thereby introducing a cleavage between Spirit and Matter, the capacity to SEE in this essential way, on the basis of the truth-conscious Light, was lost. But, as I have written time and again, this Light and Truth was preserved most faithfully in Myth. Regaining this poise even today, in the midst of a society seemingly alien to the ways and values of old, is possible. The horse can, once again and together with other sacred symbols, become the living embodiment of that highest truth, a truth which caused the ancient Rishi to see the entire universe precisely in the form of a Horse (see the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad).

With this new cosmology and its sacred formula, it is a simple matter to dissect that Seeing and to follow the Rishi step by step in a movement of yoga which caused the sage to see the universe in this form. In so doing, we realise how accurate his yoga was and that it was true and faithful to the highest revelations of the Supreme Consciousness. For if, as I have recorded in these pages, the consciousness of the experiencer is aligned in a certain manner, the circumscribing energies of which the seeker stands central, press in spherically, not allowing the realiser any avenue of escape via the expanding movement of consciousness which results in dissolution, nirvana, and similar realisations. Their aim is precisely to disengage the seeker from this pressure of a circumscribing network closing in and from which no escape is possible in a process of yoga based on a harmony of the Being and the Becoming as equally valid constituents of reality. The only direction allowed is inward, with the consciousness-being of the yogi compressed to a Point.

It is this Point that contains the essence of what the Horse symbolises. When Sri Aurobindo explained the Mother’s passage to the highest realms, and her encounter at the ‘borderline’ with a stallion as the ‘prototype of the supramental form’, in his own way he was repeating the Rishi’s seeing when he too came upon the essence of the universe and saw it as a Horse. The reason is simply what I have stated time and again: the innermost, sacred-most Point, reached by the realiser through compression of the consciousness, forcing a plunge into that Point via the chamber of the individualised Soul, can be ‘seen’ as the Horse because this animal represents the embodiment of that primordial, pure Energy, and therefore the base (Skambha) of our material world. In other words, while the physicist and the scientific cosmologist search for the truth of our origin in a Big Bang and similar theories, the Rishi of old and the contemporary realiser of a supramental yoga will search for the truth of that same Origin through the yogic experience; and this, if indeed it is of a supramental order, will perforce reveal the Point, or the One, as the foundation and first Cause of our existence in this material creation of 9.

But this 9 is the densest form of the 0 essence. Therefore it is a movement from the outer circle of 9, through the 6, and then to the 3; and finally the centre point, or the 0. Plunging into that sacred compact Fulness, or the innermost chamber within the soul, the reversal of consciousness causes the compression or contraction to produce a reversal. Thus the One is ‘born’ of the Zero.

In ancient times the Horse was a living symbol of this truth. The Vedic Ashwamedha was a ‘sacrifice’ similar to our Thoroughbred racing saga of today. That is, the Horse was the One then, as now, and by means of which the field (of the kingdom as symbol) was ordered. Similarly, our racing saga has reached the point where the Horse is the central protagonist of the Sacrifice for the purpose of putting order in the field. This means that from Skambha, where the centre was established through the Yoga of the Chamber and via the collaboration of Swati, these horses, identical to their ancient counterparts in the Ashwamedha, are sent abroad to the outskirts of the ‘kingdom’ (the periphery of the circle, central to which stands Skambha) so that a similar process of ‘conquering’ (read ‘ordering’) can ensue. The student can appreciate by this that it is not an impossible task to transpose the very same experiences of old into modern times with considerable success. Indeed, given the accumulative action of time over the intervening centuries and millennia, the experience today is richer and more promising given its global potential. That is, while in ancient times the field was limited to the known parameters of a particular kingdom, or the ‘field of consciousness’ central to which stood the Rishi, today that ‘field’ has been expanded to embrace the entire planet. We can, given the new cosmology, conceive of a global transformation by which the whole Earth becomes ultimately the one Field.

We may go further in this act of dissection of the ancient experience and by the aid of the new cosmology applied to our Horse Saga, we can understand more of the former symbols without ambiguity. For example, the Vedic image of the Goddess Usha, the Dawn, being ‘carried’ by Agni as a white Steed is a beautifully inspired vision of the direct relationship between the Earth (Usha in her most resplendent and pregnant aspect), or the third planet from the Sun and hence the Third Power, with the Fourth, as the One. And this expresses itself through the form of the Horse. For Agni, according to the ancients, is associated with the planet Mars, and he is also the divine Son. He is, moreover, leader of the hosts and first of the Gods. All these designations are perfectly clear, perfectly true. They speak of the same attributes of the Fourth Power in the supramental Descent, as the One, the Son, the FIRST after the Reversal, which therefore places him in the position of ‘leader of the hosts’ to follow in a horizontal movement after the vertical Descent. These are no longer arcane mysteries when we have a new key of Knowledge such as the Gnostic Circle and the formulas of the new cosmology which we can apply to our contemporary experience and verify in our own society, ostensibly very far removed from the civilisations which produced these ‘symbols’. They are as pertinent today as ever they were in the past. Indeed, our present application is far more all-inclusive and ‘scientific’ (meaning open to scrutiny by all and not reserved for a spiritual elite) since we can relate the formula to the passage of time via the calendar, or the ‘order of events’ as described by the Mother in her 5.2.1969 narration (see TVN 9/6, February 1995).

There is thus no need for recourse to now outdated systems of knowledge based on partial spiritual experiences whose exclusivity perforce created a distorted view of creation – indeed, denying creation any right to a place under God’s truth-conscious Sun at all. Anything but the supramental Gnosis stands exposed today as a partial seeing and realisation. But the old paradigms and habits are difficult to transcend nonetheless, the reason being that to do so requires a genuine effort and sincerity of purpose on the part of the seeker. One must not be satisfied with anything less than the fullest revelation today, if we are to bring about that life divine on this planet which Sri Aurobindo has promised as a thing inevitable in the destiny of the Earth.

 

‘Savitri’ revisited and the Mystery of Release

                                  

If we would appreciate the place of the Horse in our discoveries, we must accept the position and role of the Third Power in the supramental Descent. That is, the individual soul and its sublime ‘purpose’ in the scheme of creation. For the Horse as an embodiment of the One is nothing other than that Purpose. Thus it is said that the Third gives birth to the One who in turn is the Fourth. Or, as Sri Aurobindo so magnificently described in the final book of his epic poem Savitri, the Goddess carries back to Earth the soul of Satyavan, or the divine Son, and in her descent takes refuge in a ‘mother’s breast’. Sri Aurobindo explicitly describes the Third in those lines, who is Savitri after her sojourn in realms beyond and who takes birth, carrying the soul of Satyavan within and back with her to take birth on Earth. There are two phases to the mission of this figure in the epic. The first is her sojourn on Earth as consort, or her union with Satyavan; and then her pursuit of Death into those realms beyond, being warned by the Dark Lord that she cannot return from there with her mortal form. And the second thereafter is her return to Earth holding within the soul of Satyavan retrieved from Death now conquered by her power, her subsequent ‘descent’ into ‘a mother’s breast’ and assumption of a new form through which Satyavan, also in a new human form, may be reborn.

These are not enigmatic passages or obscure prophecies which may be interpreted one way or another in order to suit subjective needs of the moment with little basis in the true Seeing and realisation. Once the formulas are known and time has fulfilled itself and those realisations have occurred, the explicit significance of Sri Aurobindo’s words require no contorted interpretation: exactly what he described has come to pass in the precise manner foreseen by him in the first half of this century. But if we refuse to accept the terms of the Descent and insist that only two powers are sufficient for a full transformation, then we are blinded by our intransigence and obscurantism and forfeit our right to ‘see along with the Supreme’ while the supramental creation takes shape in our midst.

In the sculpture I discussed in the last issue, reproduced here once again, the roles of the 6 and the 3 are made clear. The 6 (the Mother) is reposing on the 9 (Sri Aurobindo). These two figures are directly connected, as indeed the 9 and 6 were during their sojourn on Earth in the fulfilment of their joint mission. In addition, the 9 supports the 6. This detail of the sculpture is especially accurate in describing the quality of the Mother’s incarnation and yoga. As the 6 and born under the sign Pisces, she embodied the last of the gunas, Tamas, whose special attribute and contribution in the scheme of creation is a total and most perfect surrender. The whole of the Mother’s life and work, especially noted in her Agenda, published in large part posthumously, bear testimony to this unique attribute, so clearly detailed in the sculpture when studied on the backdrop of the Gnostic Circle’s sacred triangle.

On the other hand there is the 3, behind both 6 and 9, in a sense alone in her representation. Yet while not being directly involved in the play between the 9 and 6, her role is seen to offer as well a support. This time to the 9. Indeed, the sculpture reveals that the 3 sustains the 9; her position behind his figure indicates the unknown element, the hidden support of the 3. The 9 rests on this support. At the same time, the triangular shape of the interplay of these three figures reveals the mutually-supportive roles they play, where eliminating any one would cause the form to collapse.

Regarding Sri Aurobindo’s epic Savitri, the 6, reposing on the frontal plane of the 9, participated with him in the overt joint mission. The 3, the overlapping second portion of the manifestation of that Power, comes from behind, the other side of the boundary of life and death. This is most clearly revealed in the pertinent verses from the epic.

When Savitri follows Death into his kingdom, into the beyond, and must take birth again after that experience, it is difficult to understand how these specific details can be overlooked or interpreted differently, if indeed we consider Sri Aurobindo to have had a superior visionary power and that his epic is the work of that superior act of revelation and consequent prophecy. In point of fact, his vision was the true Seeing, and events have taken shape exactly as he had foreseen. Sri Aurobindo’s epic was faithful to the highest truth of the Supermind. He saw ‘what none have eyes to see’, for he saw the Third, the second overlapping feminine power, carrying that One, or the Fourth Power, within her and back to Earth through the channel of her own physical birth. He ‘saw’ the two, 6 and 3, as channels for the return. To that effect, Sri Aurobindo records the ‘fall’ to Earth for rebirth in the following memorable passages of the 11^th Book:

 

Amidst the headlong rapture of her fall

Held like a bird in a child’s satisfied hands,

In an enamoured grasp her spirit strove

Admitting no release till Time should end.

And, as the fruit of the mysterious joy,

She kept within her strong embosoming soul

Like a flower hidden in the heart of spring

The soul of Satyavan drawn down by her

Inextricably in that mighty lapse.

Invisible heavens in a thronging flight

Soared past her as she fell. Then all the blind

And near attraction of the earth compelled

Fearful rapidities of downward bliss.

Lost in the giddy proneness of that speed,

Whirling, sinking, overcome she disappeared

Like a leaf spinning from the tree of heaven,

In a broad unconsciousness as in a pool;

A hospitable softness drew her in

Into a wonder of miraculous depths,

Above her closed a darkness of great wings

And she was buried in a mother’s breast…

                                   

Thus, as embodiment of that Third Power, it is understandable that plunging within according to the ancient Vedic creative process, or indeed as Sri Aurobindo has described above, would have triggered an ‘encounter’ with what that Third holds most dearly and closely within: the Fourth Power, the One, and hence the Horse (for this ‘return’ of Satyavan, it must be remembered, did indeed occur during the zodiacal month of the Horse). Swati, the white Horse, symbol of that Spirit, had thus ‘returned’. In other words, like Satyavan, like Sri Aurobindo himself, such a contraction (of death) must produce a RELEASE of that compressed power.

Death is a force of extreme contraction. It is because the binary poise of the human being cannot sustain that contracting pressure in the present physical structure that one succumbs to a loss of conscious awareness and continuity in time and space that we enjoy before death sets in, or presses in. Changing that poise, re-structuring the consciousness is the way to conquer Death. With this done, with the centering and realignment I am describing in these pages, this spherical pressure can be withstood without escape – through a central void – simply because the void has been filled through birth of the One. This is what it means to ‘conquer death’. The intense contraction in a binary poise cannot be sustained; the pressure must produce collapse upon itself because a binary structure implies a central void. Thus, collapse into that Black Hole at the centre of our consciousness is inevitable. This, succinctly, is the description of a mortal species.

On the other hand, with centering and realignment the centre is no longer a void but is filled by Skambha, the support of the worlds, the One, the sacred male Child. The release of energy, or contact with an immortal and everlasting Source, is what the Horse symbolises. Hence Sri Aurobindo was accurate in describing the stallion at the borderline of the Mother’s experience as the prototype of the supramental form.

This is all a play of Energy. A void means a vacuum, a hole, an empty space, – i.e., without the support of that ‘release’. The ‘pillar’ or Skambha we write of is simply aligned energy resulting from a perfect intersection of cosmic directions on the basis of a true centre. This is the Axis, the Pillar of the universe, indeed – axis mundi. All of this is captured in the Vedic references to Agni, as the One, as pillar, as navel of the world.

And when that ‘release’ comes about causing a ‘return’, as in the case of Savitri and Satyavan, or in this Horse Saga and the return of Swati as the Spirit of the Horse, meaning a particular distillation of that supreme energy the horse embodies, the inevitable outcome is a pouring forth of the light of Gnosis. Thus, immediately after this meeting with Swati on the subtle plane during the early hours of the morning, at 9 AM I began recording in my journal the results of the new ‘birth’. From this point onward I will let this and further entries carry our story forward.

 

Swati, you HAVE come back! My Lord, how you cried at having been away. And then I ‘saw’ your human form – tall, handsome, athletic and muscular – but kind. It is so hard to remember, there was so very much going on – after 2 AM, after the ‘creation’ probe. I ‘opened’ something. This is the way in this yoga – no forcing but probing, asking, attentive to the answer, the unfolding answer. While I am here I will do this. Then maybe when I return we can start something. It has to go slowly though. This week I will work it out – for I must REMEMBER everything that happens.

The Horse with me the whole time in one way or another – there – the girls…Something big is happening. Let us see.

Why Skambha? Because this helps us to understand the nature of that Point: upheld, propped up but by what? Whom? This is the point. It is suspended. Something sustains it. What is that? According to me it is the forces, directions, pressing in, pushing out. Those (Rigveda) lines about…‘bearers of seeds there were and mighty forces thrust from below and forward movement above…’ This indicates those forces and their interplay which sustains, upholds the Point. But we think of it as linear. Instead it is spherical. But how to convey a spherical point being upheld from all sides? The pillar is the metaphor.                                    

      ‘Bearers of seeds’ = the WOMB IMPREGNATED

      ‘Impregnators’ = indeed, impregnating the womb, meaning filling, pressing in.

     ‘Thrust from below and forward movement above’ = clearly
meaning CONTRACTION AND EXPANSION; forward movement is expansion

     Upward (from below) is contraction

That lay concealed by endless fragmentation means the Transcendent
undifferentiated – SPREAD OUT.

‘Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,

And all was water indiscriminate. Then that which was hidden by
the Void, the One, emerging.
Striving through power of ardour, came to be’

This power of ardour (tapas) is that compression leading to combustion.
It is COMBUSTION, and this only comes TO BE when there is compression.
       If there is breath that goes nowhere then that creates combustion,
like holding one’s breath, one bursts. That ‘breath’ held in. It is the opposite
of the 9/apex, its shadow, its void where breath is compressed and bursts.
This is the beauty of the Gnostic Circle. One can SEE this.

                                   The reversal is where the change comes from exhalation to inhalation. The apex/9 is the suspension between: it rises to a peak, plateaus and then slowly releases. But at the 4.5 there is something else. Yes, one is a movement in FULNESS; the other is void, EMPTYING. Hence, if Buddhism stopped at the 4.5 it would end on that note of SHUNYA, the Zero depleted of its fullness. But the movements start at the apex, not the 4.5. That is only halfway in the movement of the Fulness.

Thus indeed the key lies in what happens DOWN THERE, in the bowels. For the human being it is the sex centre and below – the lower chakras in general, from the navel and below.

I know the alchemists and the hatha yogis had this = it is pressing the breath DOWN. I remember something of that: pressing the breath down at exhalation.

I think that the pressing down, moving the breath inside itself as it were, makes in-roads into that emptiness and releases ‘something else’. There is something hidden IN THERE – it has to be released. I have done this by the pressure of circumstances caving in from all sides and then pressing into existence that Point pilloried up – something then presses out in COMPACTNESS. From a sort of COMPACT FULNESS. It is as if the 4.5 is not really an emptying but a compression of the fullness. This is where they made the mistake. Breath appears to empty out leaving a void. But this seems to be only when you start with a void. An empty vessel as it were. Here we are dealing with a womb, a fulness in itself. We want to MOVE that in a trifold rhythm and compress THAT, not empty it.

It becomes clear if we just realise that the womb is of the same essence as that which moves. In other words, the equality of Being and Becoming. It is only when we separate the two that the difficulty arises. Then it is a vessel filled and emptied. But what holds that movement?

The realisers then became fixated on that empty vessel within which the gunas were played out. Since the vessel was empty and extra-cosmic, that was the reality to fixate on. The movement inside the vessel was impermanent, changing, finite. It is sometimes full, sometimes empty. One could disregard it entirely.

But if one SEES that it is fulness by self-law, the power of Ardour, which moves itself in the Becoming without separation, then we realise that the 4.5 is only the point of compression, of compactness of the Fulness which then, by compression (tapas) releases energy. Fulness is transmuted, alchemised to create compactness and then release.

Like breath. One has to press down at the 4.5 of breath. Then the capacity to rise above should be more. This is the principle of interval training – building on that. So true.

                                   

10 AM                                    

I have got it. That upholder of Sound (and Silence) is what BECOMES. It is that Transcendent and then upholding as a vessel (…‘darkness wrapped in darkness’…‘indiscriminate’) becomes the substance in the vessel. ITSELF pressed through to the Point, the immanent One.

9/6/3/0-1. This is the supreme Formula. It starts with the all-encompassing, appears to empty out, but really it is compaction – only in this way does the Zero come into BEING. Being has to be related to that Point, not the indiscriminate Vastness. The hymn tells us this: In the beginning there was neither Being nor Non-Being. The whole point of CREATION is the coming into existence = BEING. This is the truth of our material universe which as a vessel houses this eternal process.

The void indeed HIDES Guha and the One. In that ‘void’ one finds the One. If one stops at its portals and does not PRESS IN, one misses the Point. But the only way to get beyond that is by compression inward. This is what none want to do for one has to pass through that zone where one is cut off, like the Hymn tells us…One has to be ALONE. Difficult.

Perhaps this is the fate of the 3. To do her job, to give birth to that Point she has to be ALONE. She cannot be accompanied by the 9 and 6. Alone.

What of F3? Alone somehow, giving birth to the process for the One. She was alone in the beginning indeed. But it seems to have created a bad imprint, that is all.

Clearly this process of an ancient and now forgotten Yoga was a turning point in our racing experience. I returned to Skambha thereafter and continued recording in my journal:

 

5.7.1994 – 11 AM

                                

     It seems to be a mess, all is crumbling. But now back at Skambha a very solid mass is felt inside at the heart centre. Firm. The vital is quiet, calm, determined
    I believe firmly that my seeing is true, right, just. I hold to that. If this experiment is  meant to succeed, then all will fit in place RIGHT ON TIME. If not, all disintegrates equally right on time.

We have indeed reached that momentous time of SHIFTS. Either all falls in place, or it does not, it falls apart. It falls IN PLACE, or it falls APART. I know that my role is simply to hold firm. This ‘holding’ is what assures that the thing does not fall apart. It is this YOGA that assures us of success. This is all one has to do. HOLD FIRM.

Once all the energies are gathered together – meaning in the centre of the field appropriate for the yoga, in this case Bangalore – then holding firm becomes not only essential but it is the only time any holding can be done. That is why everything is surfacing only now. So, the key is to hold firm.

I do not know what ‘success’ means, but I do know that I will be successful, I AM succeeding right now because what I am called upon to do I am doing. If one does what has to be done for the process at every step of the way, then success is assured. Therefore it is important to have someone at the centre who SEES, meaning who knows what to do by knowing at what stage a process is.

I pray for health, happiness, victorious racing for my girls. I pray that no harm comes to them at all in this difficult passage.

            

12:45 PM

                        Skambha gives clarity.

                        Calmness has returned. All is well. Confidently we go ahead.

                                   

11.7.1994 – 2 PM

    It does indeed seem as if we are in the midst of some converging. Something is shaping up to shift in place ‘right on time’. Or out of place? And it seems a part of the convergence is Eve’s removal of her cast. Or is it when she rides again?

…Perhaps before the end of the season. We shall see.

2:45 PM

 

Time and space are indispensable for KNOWING. Being does not permit knowing. Hence it is that we state: To become is the purpose of our existence.

Without movement/becoming there is no distance; and it is only distance that permits us to know THAT.

The ‘purpose’ of the material manifestation is for THAT to know Itself. Therefore Time and Space are the great tools of Knowledge which make of the human being God’s image. As humans we have the capacity to be CONSCIOUS channels for the act of Knowing. Through us the Supreme knows Itself. That is, there has to be a certain threshold in the emergence and evolution of a species where this self-knowledge becomes possible.

Thus, if we talk of evolving animals to a higher level, it is foolish when we know that anything higher would require self-knowing. Rather, as we move up we permit animals to experience wider levels of their own species and purpose. This is proven by the horse saga. Their purpose is not to be conscious but simply to be clear channels, indeed VAHANAS, for this act of knowing which the self-conscious species can do.

But Supriya (the dam of the fillies) ‘knew’. She knew me… Yet that was out of the body. Only then could she experience back to herself that knowing. 

So, Time and Space are the channels. And it is precisely the ‘substance’ of the Zero = compressed essence of the Transcendent which when it is pressed into our dimension extends, moves as time and space. It is all in the ‘seed’.

 

 

The 0 is not a number, properly speaking. It does not define quantity. It cannot be divided or used to divide. It is whole in itself. It is never diminished or increased. It is a CONCEPT. Being beyond the threshold, or the ‘event horizon’, it can be ‘known’ here only by its extensions, by that to which it gives birth. The 0 is the womb-upholder.

In the Gnostic Circle the 0 has no place in the circular progression of numbers from the Apex. It is the Centre. That is its position. The whole of the Gnostic Circle is the extension of the 0. The Apex is often noted as 0/9 – but in effect the 9 takes the place of the 0 in the material universe. On this side of the event horizon we ‘know’ the 0 by its whole extension which is the 9. Hence the 9 is defined as creation in matter by the Mother. Stressing it as a ‘creation in matter’ implies that there may be another ‘creation’ not material. This means the 0 on the other side of the event horizon, before birth of the One. It is the same action of creation; only deprived of a material ‘body’, a universe of time and space.

The greatest aberration of spirituality was the designation of ‘illusion’ or maya to all that moves. The Supreme Consciousness, the Transcendent must KNOW Itself through the becoming which is the extension of Itself in its fullest vibratory essence of 9.

The 0 can never be shunya, emptiness. That is the next aberration. The ‘concept’ can only have arisen in a civilisation which was founded on Fulness – i.e, the Vedic. A Buddhist civilisation could never produce the concept of 0 since the existence of the concept alone negates all nihilistic philosophies and spiritual experiences of the Void and Nothingness. The 0 cannot be equated with Nothingness since it IS. It can never be divided. We cannot know it by its ‘parts’. We can only know it by the extension of itself which is our universe, whole and entire. Each ‘part’ of itself beyond the event horizon is thus the whole 0. Never divided. Always the complete seed-essence of the Transcendent. This is the meaning of centering and sphericality.

 

Things fall apart…

 

It was just a matter of days before the above entries were proven true, and with an impeccable ruthlessness so characteristic of the Power guiding our affairs. The sequence of things ‘falling apart’ began with the publication of a letter in a prominent Thoroughbred racing magazine. The genesis of that letter was F1’s last race in Madras in February (see TVN, 9/5, December 1994). The student who accompanied me to that race was so disturbed by what she saw that she wrote a letter to the Stewards of the Club, complaining about the conduct of the race and the over-ruling of the objection raised by Eve. It was a very strong critique of the entire set-up, the jockeys’ behaviour on the track, the administration of the Club, and the general condition of racing at that centre. This letter then found its way to the magazine. It appeared five months later on Derby Day in Bangalore.

The news of the famous letter spread like wildfire throughout the racing establishment. Its contents were not a surprise since everyone knew the position there well. What was shocking beyond belief was the audacity to write this out and brave the consequences. Since that racing establishment was the domain of Magog, and the horses involved in the critique were his, the letter’s publication appeared to be a direct attack on him, though his name was not mentioned. His fury knew no bounds. And since Eve was the jockey in question and had obtained a licence to race from that very club, he seemed bent on revenge. Moreover, he was convinced that she had engineered its composition as well as its publication. He was therefore determined to bring her racing career to an end.

In actual fact, Eve had nothing to do with the letter and never knew of its existence. She was as surprised as everyone else at its publication. But the TIMING of its appearance was the key to the entire drama. In the extracts from my journal quoted above, I had written that I felt things were going to ‘fall into place’, – or indeed ‘apart’ – very soon, and that this would be ‘right on time’. The letter had been sent in February to the stewards; but its publication took almost five months. The issue appeared in mid-July. Very shortly thereafter Eve was to have her cast removed. She would then be in a position at least to start exercising horses on the track though not yet to race for the remainder of the summer season which was nearing its end. But Magog had other ideas.

A campaign was mounted against Eve. A number of jockeys joined in unison to demand her expulsion from racing. Dire threats were heard from different quarters, among which was the threat to her life on the track. Those who felt a certain compassion for her plight over this gang-up advised her to quit racing at once; they sought to convince her that she would never be allowed to succeed, and that even her life was in danger. Was it worth it at her age?

At the centre of the storm was, of course, the famous race and the catalytic input of F1. The video tape of the race was available but it was purported to hold the proof that the person who wrote the letter was an ‘amateur’, and knew nothing about racing. Even with visual evidence the truth of her complaint was sought to be denied. Moreover, this companion of mine to the race that day was proclaimed a fictitious entity. The word was circulated that Eve and I had written the letter and that this mysterious person whose name was used did not really exist.

As fortune would have it and for no apparent reason, without knowing anything of what was transpiring in Bangalore, I invited that same person to accompany me once again for F2’s 17^th race which was to be run on the 17^th of July, that is, just a few days after the letter appeared. We reached Bangalore on the 16^th. The fictitious Madam X was therefore on the scene in the midst of the explosion her letter had caused and able to prove her existence. Once everyone was convinced that she did indeed exist, and once she circulated a statement that she was ready to be questioned further on the race, the steam went out of the threats to sue and all guns were again turned fully on Eve.

At the root of the overreaction of many of the jockeys was Eve’s retainer as main rider in Gog’s stable. Indeed, from the first day her appointment was made known she became the target of jealousy, mostly from the younger jockeys. But even some senior jockeys were upset that a newcomer like Eve should be given a position which would normally go only to a top experienced and seasoned rider. Making confusion worse confounded was the fact that this was the only woman rider in their midst. Hence the ‘affront’ was especially intolerable. The gang-up Eve was subjected to, fuelled by Magog and his men, was in large part due to this smouldering resentment on the part of many of her companions on the track. In the bargain, the time had come for Eve’s cast to be removed, which meant that she would soon have to take up exercising Gog’s horses during the morning workouts, though not permitted to ride in a race until the surgeon had issued a fitness certificate. She would therefore be thrust up against their antagonism daily.

When I arrived in Bangalore, knowing nothing of what had erupted just a few days before, I found Eve without her cast, much to our mutual joy, but in an evident state of emotional distress. When questioned, the first announcement she made was that Gog had fired her the very day her cast had been removed, – 15^th July, a day of 9 number-power. This needs to be mentioned because hereinafter the power of 9 continuously came to the fore.

Magog had secured his ‘pound of flesh’. He had not succeeded in getting the Club to revoke her secondary licence which permitted her to ride in Bangalore, but Gog had succumbed to intense pressure and fearing to make an enemy of Magog, all-powerful as he was, he obliged and broke his contract with Eve. Having done so on his own – claiming that she was ‘too controversial’ due to her association with me – created the situation that he would have to honour the terms of the contract until its expiry in March of 1995. That is, while removing the transport facility he had provided for Eve for her use, he would nonetheless be obliged to continue paying the monthly rent as well as the monthly retainer fee. In this sense, nothing at all had changed.

But Eve was visibly distraught. I sensed immediately that she had been put through a very taxing few days and that she was nearly collapsing under the weight of it all. But more distressing for her than all the animosity, it seemed to me, was the loss of her job. She had become greatly attached to her new experience and the importance it gave her on the track, especially since it was proof of her talent as a rider as well as a means to maintain her ‘independence’. In spite of her cast she had been regularly visiting Gog’s stables, trying to sort out his problems there. But the opposition of his trainer had finally made her daily appearances impossible. She was therefore giving more time to observing the training of my fillies since there was little else for her to do under the circumstances. When her cast would be taken off she would, of course, start riding Gog’s horses again, as well as mine. It was a mystery to all of us, however, how this would work out given the unwillingness of the trainer to accept her presence. Gog was insistent though that she should continue. But when the ‘scandal’ broke out the opportunity was seized by the trainer as well as the jockeys to mount a campaign, fuelled by Magog and his men, and Gog submitted to the pressure and fired her.

At the same time, the campaign continued to have her removed entirely from the racing scene. Gog’s failure to support her in her moment of need exposed his own failings. Indeed, at moments of truth such as these, everything and everyone stands exposed in the naked truth of one’s being. Each day that passed brought further exposures. Magog was like a raging lion and the whole racing establishment trembled with every roar. We had suddenly become pariahs since association with us might induce another great roar. Adam too felt the fall-out. The offer of a horse to help make up his count of ten for a licence was withdrawn, with the owner unabashedly stating his need to ‘survive’ as the reason. We had, without a doubt, rushed in like the proverbial fools where none were daring to tread.

The result of this untimely explosion could not be overlooked in the context of the formation of our team-centre: Eve lost her ‘independence’ and found herself thrust back into the centre, her rightful ‘place’.

 

Things fall into place…

 

It had never been my intention to deal with the force Magog represented directly, largely because I did not feel any direct confrontation would be necessary since his operation was not based in Bangalore. Indeed, it was this very fact that gave me a measure of confidence that nothing untoward would happen to any of us. This confidence was born largely of cosmological considerations, a question of ‘strategy’ and the nature of a centre, both in the deeper sense of the yoga as well as the more surface meaning. Magog was not on his ‘home turf’, as it were. But I was on mine, and with me stood my team. I felt confident that he was weakened by this ‘off-centredness’ and that our Club would not wish to fight his battles for him by obliging  to remove Eve from its list of jockeys.

Moreover, I had already done considerable spade work in this regard. Our position vis-à-vis the parent club was gradually being harmonised, in particular after the dreadful experience of seeing the catalytic F1 whipped mercilessly in her March 18^th race because of a clever manoeuvre to keep Eve off her in that race. I had mounted a campaign threatening the Club with exposure since these accumulated actions to impede Eve from riding, particularly her restriction to a ten-horse field, could be interpreted as gender discrimination. They were thus unwilling to add another issue to the list of my complaints.

Over the days I spent in Bangalore while the storm was raging and the campaign against Eve was gaining momentum, my only question was her assessment of the behaviour of the stewards in her regard. As suspected, she replied that they seemed quite normal and unperturbed by the matter. Thus, my assessment appeared correct: Magog was out of his centre and his powers were thereby greatly diminished. But his horses were among the very best in the country and his breeding/racing operation was one of the biggest and most successful, not to speak of his prominence in many other areas. In other words, weakened or not by being ‘off-centre’, his was a considerable force to reckon with. Moreover, his reputation was of devastating ruthlessness where racing was concerned; hence the fear he engendered by the pressure he was able to apply was well-founded. Magog could stand as the prototype of the Toltec master don Juan’s petty tyrant with unlimited power.

It was also not exactly a surprise that the third element of our team, the jockey, was under severe attack just when she would soon be riding again. The precise timing of this latest episode, just when her cast came off, convinced me that there was far more to the matter than appeared on the surface. I sensed the Power in full ‘control’ of each and every detail of this drama. The very fact that the letter had mysteriously surfaced five months after it was written and its publication coincided with the removal of Eve’s cast, left me no doubt but that something was brewing. The ‘falling apart’ might take an unexpected turn at any moment. Furthermore, the presence of the 9 number-power in the midst of it all added to my confidence of a ‘happy ending’.

But I could not ignore the human element. Eve was visibly miserable at having lost her job, and there was no denying that I and my group might be held somehow responsible for the infamous publication. Nonetheless, she valiantly braved the storm since by that time, given the pressures and ‘controlled blows’ she had already received, she too sought to understand the strategy beneath the appearances and not resist the inevitable. She was not able to ride in a race since a fitness certificate had yet to be issued by the attending doctor, but she still went about exercising my horses assiduously in morning workouts. The two jockeys who had been mentioned in the published letter were also exercising Magog’s horses which were based in Bangalore, since there was no racing in Madras. And they were determined to make Eve’s life a misery under any possible pretext by lodging complaints with the stewards for any lapse she might make, real or invented.

Since we had reached the point of a final consolidation of our team-centre, it seemed as if a host of forces were being unleashed, on the order of a final gasp before death. It seemed quite certain that racing promised to be a transformed sport once such a nucleus of truth would stand in its midst. This would be the surface assessment; it involved the ‘sport’ of Thoroughbred racing. But there was a deeper level to assess, the fact that such a nucleus would perforce have an impact on the macrocosm the nucleus was central to. The impact would ultimately be felt throughout this larger ‘system’. Thus, that such a virulent upsurge of opposition and unleashing of destructive forces surfaced right then was understandable given the structures of various hues and dimensions which might be threatened by our consolidated presence. In the final analysis, the jockey is the most vulnerable component of the triad, on the ‘battlefield’, so to speak, given his/her prominent position and the fact that everything is decided in the race on the basis of the performance of jockey and horse. At the same time, in the social ladder of the racing hierarchy, the jockey stands at the lowest rung. A strong-willed confidence and upright stance at this lowest position is the gravest affront to the powers-that-be. All of this played upon the situation throughout the remainder of the summer season, with no respite even for a minute. Indeed, its repercussions would be felt perhaps for the remainder of our racing experience.

The very next problem to surface concerned the catalytic F1 directly. The time had come for her second sweepstakes race. It may be remembered that a new regulation had come into effect, stipulating that out-station horses could participate in Bangalore racing only if they were entered in at least two sweepstakes races. F1, in my understanding, did not qualify for any race other than handicaps, given her unknown pedigree status. Be that as it may, both her entry fees had been accepted and not contested by anyone. She was thus taking part in the season’s races as she had always done. But without Eve exercising and riding her, she had not accomplished much at all in the two or three races she had already run.

It may also be remembered that the date of the first sweepstakes had already come up, but the new trainer had scratched her, as well as F2, considering them ‘unable to compete’. Therefore, F1’s participation in such a race had not been challenged. On 23^rd July the second sweepstakes was to be held for which her entry fee had been accepted with no objections from the stewards. The new trainer again felt that F2 ‘could not compete’ with the superior Class 1 horses and should be scratched (she had been entered in the same race), but he agreed to let F1 participate in order to set the precedent I was interested in establishing given her unknown pedigree status and the limitations this engendered. Thus, her name was left in.

There was another point in addition to the above: I had been obliged to pay heavy entry fees for these sweepstakes for both the fillies, yet each time they were scratched these fees were lost without my horses having the opportunity at least to place in the race and thereby cover those high costs. I was determined not to let this happen again. If at the last minute objections would surface, the fact that the entry fee had already been accepted without objection would oblige the Club to reimburse the entry fee in full.

The storm was still raging as the day of the race approached. I was uneasy because F1 was not in her best condition and certainly did not stand a chance against the calibre of horses she would meet in the race. It was important to set a precedent, but I feared that the strain might cause her an injury or some other untoward experience. Thus, on 20^th July, just before the last date for scratching, I wrote in my journal,

 

9:15 AM

 

What a mess – mainly the sweepstakes. With F2 it was not too bad. With F1 it could be a disaster. I pray for help to force me to do what is right, best, true, wise for her, no other consideration. I have no illusions about placing. I only want her to do a good race FOR HER. But if even this is not possible, then help me to withdraw her by arranging things to happen that way. I am not going to withdraw her on my own because I just do not know what to do. If in light of the above she should not be in that race, then do the needful through the stewards or whoever (just spare harm to her…). I am helpless.

Help us, all of us, animals and humans involved in this experience, fighting for the good and the true, struggling to forge the nucleus. I have seen more clearly than ever the truth of this process and how important it is to leave EGO out of that inner space. It is hard and it is easy. All one has to do is centre oneself in the Divine Purpose, on that something outside oneself, bigger than one’s small self and one’s isolated, petty concerns. In Eve’s case it was so very clear. Her involvement with Gog was HER thing, her separate world, her anchor OUT THERE, outside of the nucleus. That simply had to go, and she would never have done it on her own. It had to be ruthless. She would not have resigned, always using money as the excuse. It had to be DONE, and right on time.

I must centre myself. I must hold firm. I must realise that all this is happening just to get Eve out of Gog’s world and centred in the process, the three elements in the nucleus. All the threats, all the fall-out, court cases, deaths, etc., are nowhere in the picture. It will fizzle out if I do not feed it. I am convinced of it because there is no question of transforming (Magog). I knew better than anyone else that you do not change that force by a frontal attack. You change him by rendering him irrelevant. This the Force can do once the nucleus at the centre is in place.

I see it now. I must hold to this seeing. No feeding the monster because it is not a question of truth or falsehood winning or losing. It is just a function to get Eve into the nucleus. Once this is done the rest is superfluous. One does not attack a Magog type head on. One renders him irrelevant. And this is happening now. This is his despair. The centre he controls entirely is irrelevant. But he cannot get out of the bind. Let him be. He will scream, howl, threaten – only because he knows he can do nothing. If he really wanted to finish us off he would DO it, not SAY it…

…Now, all energies must be directed toward the forging of the nucleus.

                        

   6:05 PM

 

At least if the Power would collaborate once for a spectacular fairy tale race, the kind in kids’ books, the magic of a rank outsider winning! Forget placing. Winning! Mon Dieu, what a dream come true…

But I suppose just the fact that I ask this means that I have not understood why we are here. For, after all, are we meant to win or place in a sweepstakes? Is that part of the ‘plan’, or the process? Surely not. We are here just to consolidate a nucleus with a centre that HOLDS. We are here to transmute those Mars energies and resuscitate India in the process. We are here to redeem the energy in money and release that power. But it seems none of this has anything to do with winning much less a sweepstakes. Or does it?

How are we to gauge the process? All gathered together? That is just one part. There is the training, and what is training for? It is to extract the most of a horse – meaning to win. But for that she has to be in her true class for her true potential. I have always felt that her true class was 1. Perhaps now we shall see…

                        

21.7.1994 – Noon

 

…I pray with all my heart that nothing untoward happens to F1, or any of the horses. But if these ‘sacrifices’ have happened before , why not now? Before they were to protect me, but now?

Perhaps there is no logic in a ‘sacrifice’ now. Perhaps we are not in physical danger. Surely (the control over) Eve’s accidents seems to indicate that we should be confident, trusting. Have I brought these horses here to have them harmed or killed? Have I got Eve into this to have her ‘finished off’? Surely this cannot be. As I see it we need these elements to form that nucleus – 3+3, insofar as they are the triune powers. What is the point in breaking that up?

                        

22.7.1994 – 8:10 AM

                                                

What seems incredible to me is that all this might end in a splitting up of the nucleus rather than a consolidation. But is that what has been planned? I had seen that Eve would not ride for Gog and that he was just used to get her here. This being so, everything happening now is consistent with that seeing. The only problem is the danger…But is that ‘gathering together’…I do not believe we have come this far, against all odds, just to fail. We are meant to succeed, and any of us (the girls included) who are eliminated from the nucleus means failure. Since this is not to be, then somehow we will get through.

I succeeded in the Skambha consolidation when everything was against me. Everything and everyone. Once that was over we could seriously begin the work here. This is simply an extension of that. Clearly this was not possible until that consolidation had occurred.

If the method works and the formula holds, then it means that the centre of this affair is a very solid SKAMBHA (pillar). This is unshakeable. It means all I have to do is HOLD FIRM. Then ALL this serves the purposes of the One. It means that whatever peripheral agitation there may be, it will always end in serving our purposes.

At Skambha we were similarly in the eye of a storm. Everything ‘they’ did, once out in the open, turned against them. And when in the open it went faster. This must pertain here. We are all in the middle of danger. But surely these characters are not meant to succeed in finishing off the nucleus. So, it means that ALL their attacks must serve to expose them more and more. If I hold firm we are saved. Me. Anyone central.

                        

On the morning of F1’s race I went to the track. There I saw in the race book that though her name was listed along with the other horses, she had not been allotted a starting number or a gate position. Something had happened, she had been disqualified. I then learned of the shower of protests over her entry, an ‘unknown’ in a sweepstakes race. These protests had apparently come mainly from Magog’s corner. Indeed, a prized filly of his was entered and favoured to win. And so, once more Magog had made his power felt.

But what none knew was that this protest had served out purposes well. F1, as I wrote above, was in no condition to take on such competition without Eve in the saddle. Therefore I was greatly relieved that she had been disqualified. While still at the track I was given a letter from the Club. A mistake had been made, her entry should not have been allowed, therefore the fee was being returned in full. All was as it should be.

 

I returned to Skambha leaving behind a situation which continued to cause deep concern. Since Magog had not succeeded in getting Eve out of racing, nor was the threat to sue a real alternative, what was left was the direct threat to the jockey on the track. At the same time, I was concerned that we were not yet in the right harmony and interrelation as a nuclear compound in order for a certain protection to be active and permanent. The attacks Eve was subjected to in a sense served to fortify the binary polarity she shared with Adam. This was not conducive to the smooth action of the Supramental Shakti; nor was it wise under the circumstances when only something of a higher power could provide real security via a vast and wide ‘seeing eye’, as it were.

It was all too clear that a proper alignment in the nucleus, formed as it must be of three elements, is difficult to achieve when two of these are mutually supportive of each other. In a situation of this order, the ‘purpose’ which binds the nuclear elements together from its centrepoint is undermined. It cannot serve as pillar, as ‘support’ in such a process. Instead of turning to that Support, the binary elements lean toward each other thereby creating an imbalance, an undesirable tilt.

Thus, during this period I found myself in the unpleasant position of having to focus my attention on disengaging the energies caught in this binary polarity so that the required harmony could ensue. It is for this reason that in normal circumstances a process of this nature cannot succeed when a strong emotional bond exists between any of the nuclear components. At the same time, the task at hand was to extend the consolidated Skambha ‘centre’ into the world by stages. That is, the 3- and 9-part symbol of the Third Power, which I reproduced in the October (TVN 9/4) issue, had to be forged out there, as an extension of the periphery of the original circle. Thus, elements out there were required. They could not be yogis, or recluses, since the method for this activity involved a lived experience in life and in the midst of the old which we seek to transform. The question is logically, What does such a transformation mean?

For a supramental transformation to succeed in this transitional stage the key to success lies in obliging the energies in the extended field to serve the purposes of the One, even while remaining totally unaware that any such process is transpiring and that they are participants. This is required because ‘serving the One’ means that a COSMOS has come into being, a movement out of Chaos. This is the first definition of a higher process and a true new world order on Earth.

In this type of establishment, success can be gauged in a sense when a certain threshold is reached and in rapid succession ‘things fall into place’. What this means is that the nuclear components lock into ‘orbit’ as it were, binded by the Centre which ‘holds’; and this permits a series of engagements, of interconnections to precipitate.

I realised that the drama we were living through, particularly Eve’s distressful  experiences on the track, were engineered to thrust us back upon ourselves, riveted to that central divine Purpose, eliminating all that might stand in the way such as Eve’s attachment to her independence and therefore to her position as Gog’s jockey. But I was also aware that this sort of extreme insecurity generated for the purpose of disengaging energies, for those who are unfamiliar with systems of self-perfectioning  such as the Integral Yoga, tends to call forth a contrary response. Thus it was clear that the binary polarity was being strengthened, since to expect participants of this unorthodox team to understand and to accept the Divine as sole companion and support of one’s life is perhaps too much to ask. Yet it was clear that without the proper poise between us and then to that central Purpose, we would fail in our endeavour.

There was, however, one key which was at out disposal, one item which served to bind us on the human level. This was our common love for horses, and in this particular case, the near devotion we all felt toward these fillies who were indeed the embodiments of something quite unique and compelling. This love outside ourselves and the dedication it commanded was a powerful component of our unusual enterprise. It signified, for one, that our approach to Thoroughbred racing had as its central motivation this love above and beyond all else. And in my case, I could not fail to stand in awe before these creatures who were constantly revealing themselves as vessels of a power and light that moved in them and through them with a purity rarely seen elsewhere. At every moment they were limpid channels of the Supramental Force, and as such the yoga could be learned through them, as indeed through Swati earlier on. The question was, How to carry this purity over to the rest of the protagonists so that no contamination would undermine out work which was clearly poised to cross a formidable threshold?

Thus, back at Skambha I was absorbed by the problem of having to use instruments who were ‘of the world’, as it were, and yet respect the demands of the process and its stress on a central purity and turn to the Divine. On 25 July, I wrote in my journal,

 

      I remember how my vital was tamed. It too was like an obstinate horse. Not wild but centred on its own ‘purpose’, not integrated, not the vahana along with the physical. All that changed in Rome in just a matter of months. Since then this vital has always been given to the Divine. Even in situations where one could say it was drawn out to the fulfilment of its own purposes, it was never ‘out of my control’. Never. Always the Divine Purpose was central and finally determined my choices. But they were no choices really. That original surrender never budged.

I was ‘tamed’ by the Presence, the power of the Supramental Shakti. In Eve’s case I pretend to do the same thing human to human. It seems impossible. Yet I am given help by the force of circumstances. They work for me in the taming process. I also remember how everything had to be knocked out to give that complete surrender, make the full turn to the Divine. Or rather, the whole being centred on That, not the human.

     This is why I attack the Adam connection so persistently. It is because while it is central to her involvement, the other can only be peripheral. If involvement from the beginning was because of him, as it seems, then is there any hope of succeeding?

Now I really do not know what to expect. It seems that will not change. I have no power to change it. And if not, this will reflect on the Process. This means a central contamination. Yet I am helpless. I can only bring pressure to bear and pray that this is sufficient to get the right thing done. What I do not want is any interference from my likes and dislikes. It is unthinkable that any such ‘contamination’ would exist. I refuse it.

What was present in my yoga and helped me through was the Power of Love. Perhaps I should make use of it more. But if it is not psychic then there are even bigger problems. It has to be centred there, not elsewhere. Then it conquers.

30.7.1994 – 9:25 AM         

                     

Everything is so blocked, and continuously. The adversaries are exalting – or are they? Clearly they have got what they plotted for: Eve off the course through trying to pin the letter on her. Now they can only try to trip her up at every step of the way. And she does not help by her foolishness…

…The fact is that with Adam there and me, it is hard to get Eve. She is supported in and by the trinity. Therefore these powers attempt by all means to shatter the nucleus before it becomes consolidated; for once that happens we cannot be harmed or dislodged. Obviously they will try to impede Adam from getting a licence, but that too will fail.

Interesting how Gog was not permitted to be a part of this process. When the crunch came, the time to forge the nucleus with Adam at Bangalore, Gog was pushed out… He could not be there to give ‘support’ because the only support for this nucleus lies in the power of the One. The nucleus generates its own power of protection from WITHIN ITSELF. As before, so now. We are vulnerable, fighting a formidable gang-up of forces, just like before. The only support then was in holding firm to THAT, that Axis of Light.

Now it must be the same thing. We are not going to have support in anything but THAT, the power of Truth. Somehow circumstances will have to arrange themselves to permit this Power to do its job. It is a VICTORIOUS power, it knows not defeat. Delay perhaps, retreat perhaps – but not defeat. We will conquer. We ARE conquering right now…

…It has to be a consolidation of the nucleus and no support from outside.

Yoga in the Core of Simultaneous Time

 

Things at the track took a rather bizarre turn at this point. The antagonistic jockeys who were trying to get Eve’s licence to ride withdrawn, made a serious attempt one morning to engage the help of the stewards in their nefarious machinations. They did not succeed, of course, but this latest attack served to fortify or consolidate within Eve a determination to succeed and to overcome all adversities. What was needed was clearly a means or a ‘strategy’ to bring out a certain fierce determination FROM WITHIN herself. An inner strength of this sort, indispensable for her as a jockey in a high risk sport, apart from all other considerations, could not be planted in her from outside. It had to be instigated, driven out from the deepest part of herself. This was achieved by the latest attack, proving in the process that all, negative as well as positive, was indeed serving the purposes of the One.

On my part, my own participation had reached a critical turning point. The probing I was engaged in, the questioning, the awareness of the levels where real success could be attained, was becoming clearer by the minute. Thus, at the very time Eve was being put through her most taxing test in Bangalore, perhaps the moment of her definitive breakthrough to another category as a professional, I was engaged in what later was revealed to be the decisive movement of Yoga which carried us across the threshold and reversed our miseries into moments of supreme joy and fulfilment. Our darkest hour was transformed into our moments of most resplendent Light.

On the first day of the month of August, I began recording certain movements of yoga in my journal, starting at the surface and then moving deeper and deeper into the heart of our ‘purpose’. The discoveries I made then, though not new as such, were seen in such a new light that a formidable power was released; and this power became the fuel, as it were, for our subsequent crossing. Though I was aware of the difficulties Eve was facing, at a certain point communication between us was cut off and I had no direct news. But in the subtle atmosphere that surrounded our mutual participation, she ‘received’ this force and it served to help her forge that determination which was vital to our endeavour.

The position of the racing experience was that Eve was exercising the horses, but nothing else. She was still to receive a fitness clearance and the end of the season was approaching. F2 had been entered in an important race for the last day. Subsequent to that, in the hands of the jockey all had hoped would bring about a win, she continued to fail in the last 200 metres. Eve, as well as I, explained to him what was needed for her to win. But he seemed incapable of understanding, though he was an experienced rider with many wins to his credit. Eve wanted him to give the filly a ‘breather’ after the steep rise for which Bangalore track is notorious, and then ask her to kick off again in the final stretch. Eve was certain that the filly would respond. She knew her well. She had brought her her first win. But time and again the jockey would fail to execute the strategy.

F2’s races followed a consistent pattern. She would be the first out of the starting gates and immediately take the lead, setting a gruelling pace for the other horses. Her initial speed was becoming legendary and none, even the best, could keep pace with her. But such speed cannot be kept up relentlessly; there was to be somewhat of a pause, especially after the steep incline of that particular turf. But with such a lead this would normally not pose any problem. However, the jockey seemed unable to contain his anxiety, relax the filly and allow her to replenish her breath.

Finally she was once again the favourite, and when his failure to listen to these simple instructions brought the same results, we decided that in her last race of the season, another jockey should be called in. F2 was in the best condition of her career; it was pathetic to see this wonderful creature mishandled. She had finally been promoted to Class III, but not through a win. Rather, her handicap had increased with each second and third place, until finally she found herself at the top of the scale; with her latest second, she was promoted. In other words, she seemed incapable of actually winning a race in that lower class and had to reach Class II in this unspectacular fashion.

Eve, of course, could not take her in the race as yet. In the meantime, she was being attacked severely by the two jockeys who were determined to see her off the course. Meanwhile, at Skambha I began the decisive movement of yoga:

 

1.8.1994 – 1:15 AM

      It seems we are really in need of help. Out there it is tough. It looks like we are going to collapse under the weight of this. There are so many dangers lurking everywhere to humans, horses. I call for your protection. At every moment the Divine Grace must be with us, overseeing everything. I call upon You to be with these people and animals who are up front.

We are so vulnerable. Anything could happen. Our enemies are so, so powerful…How can I succeed with such vulnerability? It is only possible if the holding firm is a fact and is sufficient to keep us rooted in the process and by this centrality the attacks pass us by without harming us, any of us.

But with such viciousness out there someone will have to absorb that. In the past the animals did. Will it have to happen again? Does it mean that we have made no progress at all?

Surely if the work at Skambha succeeded then the transposing to Bangalore is as controlled as this, a mere extension. It means that there is only one centre and that lies here and in me. It means that it is this holding together. The work of centering is done. Bangalore is possible only because of that accomplishment. Indeed, everyone was being made ready to then converge in Bangalore.

When I look back it is clear that all this was planned long back. It means that success at Skambha was certain, therefore all of them were being readied – horses and people. And when that was over and done, they were drawn to Bangalore. But they were waiting in the wings as it were. Ready and waiting.

This therefore will not fail. If failure was a ‘possibility’ then there would not have been the ability TO HOLD. The centre would not have been forged. I see this clearly now: a centre precludes any other possibility but its own central divine Purpose.

This is an amazing discovery. How is it that I never came upon it before: the coming into being of a centre means that there is only one truth central to the cosmos, and it is only this that can evolve in that cosmos.

So, we seem so vulnerable and foolhardy. The reason is that only we are protected by the nature of the cosmos which is not accessible to the attackers. Rather, it is foolish of me to doubt because there can be no doubt once the centre has come into being, once the centre IS. This is why TRUST IN ME was always the message. It cannot be otherwise. That is, the control over every detail in the cosmos is ineluctable once centrality exists, is. Only then is EVERYTHING at the service of the One.

I know this was DONE. Because it was, we are engaged in the present war. Therefore we will win because we have already won. The central Purpose IS. In that sense it is BEYOND time and space because it is in the centre of simultaneous time. It does not require time or space TO WORK OUT its truth. That truth IS. Time and space are then needed TO MANIFEST that truth – not to work it out susceptible to many possibilities.

Therefore the outcome of such an uncentred experience has to be unpredictable. The only time prediction is possible is when the person by the force of circumstances happens to become aligned with his innermost central truth. This is not often but it does happen in the course of one’s life.

I feel replenished now, able to do my job. I only wonder why this had no effect on the temple episode. I could never bring the victory THERE. But who knows, maybe there is more to that. All may not be said and done.

            

1 PM   

                                 

     The more news that comes in the more inspired I get to pursue the matter to the finish. Who is going to be finished off? The more powerful the opponent, the greater the meaning and impact of his defeat…

…But I am now fully inclined to believe that all this has been meticulously arranged to provide me the circumstances to conquer. That is the point. The control over the circumstances is in order to arrange the field, the periphery so that it is the proper container or arena for the Purpose to manifest. NOT FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

That is why this seemingly horrible stuff, beginning with the letter, happened. The letter was the catalyst to start arranging the circumstances in Bangalore for the Victory. Nothing else. The timing was perfect. They do have power, but that is part of it: Ilvala (a mythological titan) has to release it, hand it over to the Goddess Saraswati (the sage Agastya, see TVN 9/3, August 1994). A weak opponent is meaningless. That is why Durga takes on Tarak, mightiest Asura of them all. When she conquers, his power goes to her…

Now it is Magog. ‘Before him all trembled…’ Well, I cannot back off now. I can only go forward. But I do so now greatly replenished in strength and conviction. I see clearly now that the mechanism is holding. That the timing and control are perfect. This means that all that is arranged in order to give us the field exactly right for the Victory. The problem concerns India. It is indeed Mars and the Kshatriya caste…All this has to be redeemed. And it will be so. It will be so simply because IT IS SO.

This is the beauty of simultaneous time. When one sees into that core, like a crystal ball indeed, there is great power. The Power of Truth is this knowledge into the Divine Purpose. If one SEES that divine One, that Child, then one moves along very confidently. One knows WHAT IS. Then the circumstances can only arrange themselves to allow that to manifest.

Negative and positive are used. Eve no less than all of us. The stakes are big, tremendous. But the winner has already won!

Firm as a rock. I feel my whole being firm as the rock of the Skambha Falls. This is all these people need. If I hold FIRM like this, they need nothing else, no other help. And it is done.

It was at the time I was living these experiences that Eve was right then being subjected to untold misery on the track by the gang-up of jockeys hostile to her, and our endeavour in general. But it soon became very clear that this too was part of the ‘control’ over the periphery. Indeed, it was this final gang-up, with the jockeys insisting that she be allowed to trot horses in the school only and not gallop them on the track, for which she was, in their view, incompetent, that finally instigated her to forge that inner determination and strength she needed to graduate to another class as a jockey. All sentimentality, timidity and a certain common female desire to be liked and accepted, in this case to be one of the group vanished. The experiences I was having, the act of ‘holding firm’ which I felt was the only means to instil the strength in the instruments up front was immediately felt by her. She later reported that indeed new strength filled her being and she was able to deal with the situation in a way she could never have done before. As far as the actual racing was concerned, this was the final ingredient needed. The rest followed suit and all the pieces began falling into place in rapid succession. But at Skambha I had no news of the details of what was transpiring in Bangalore. Meanwhile, I continued the entries in my journal that evening:

 

7:30 PM

                                    

The fact that we call it centering is what means no possibilities – only the One, the Divine Purpose. It is because we think LINEARLY that we cannot understand a spheric process. Spheric means a centre exists like the core of the Sun. Then it means that there is only one POINT from which the involved manifests. A centre indeed precludes failure of the Purpose, failure to hold.

When people refer to evolution, or even ‘working out’, it is always an unknown. Anything is possible because linear processes are susceptible to OUTSIDE forces. A centred process is susceptible only to its own compulsions. A truth of this nature MANIFESTS, not evolves.

The new prediction is not what will happen alone but the process to that. In this one can predict very accurately. Vulnerability of the Warriors is what draws the opponents out, this is what EXPOSES. And exposure is important because it weakens the opponent. But it can only be done when they attack a void. Otherwise we could not hold firm, be still, and let it all happen. As they plot, rant, rage, they are serving the Purpose, they are creating the proper conditions for this VICTORY – because the Victory already IS, in simultaneous time.

The SEED. It is all in that. Eve could know her participation by the seed. All that has to come out. But the important thing is a CENTRE THAT HOLDS. This is the very most important thing.

(I do not know what is going on out there. And indeed, we are kept incommunicado.)

The key is growth, or manifestation from within. A child grows from a sperm and egg. But when it is born its environment plays upon its evolution, its growth. The food it eats, the air it breathes, etc. But that child does not have CONTROL over its ‘field’ of life. Whereas, the gnostic being, because it is born differently, can arrange those circumstances so that his/her inner Truth manifests.

In the Supramental Creation the One and the Many must be harmonised and integrated. The reason is that without that there is no possibility for the inner Truth to manifest. It would get deformed by the play in the periphery.

The shadow-temple’s walls show the way. Since they cut into the space of the room, the distortion of the inner truth was inevitable.

A new world, so true. We cannot conceive of this possibility: a creation which arranges its own circumstances of manifestation. NO SEPARATION. These words are so misunderstood, misinterpreted. No one has any idea what these words truly mean. It is always subjective, never objective.

This is why, while there is growth of the seed, at the same time we work to PREPARE the field. In the Gnostic Circle it is the three months before the 9.

                                    

8:15 PM

                                    

It is clear that these are things I should not speak about, at least not here. Now these days are a time of HOLDING, not speaking, explaining. Perhaps there is much more coming, more to see, understand. Then I can speak. Perhaps by the time I go to Bangalore. Perhaps that is where I have to speak. Not here…

Even I am cut off from Bangalore. It means that it is a time simply to hold, to concentrate the power. This is clearly what is needed now.

…I was held back this evening from throwing out ‘pearls’. The wisdom stays in here. Concentrated. It has a power. To see what IS, into the core, is like releasing the power in Time. Time’s energy is the becoming of itself, the energy of manifestation. Seeing THAT means tapping that source.

…I feel there is more in these days to see, to understand. And this is perhaps because the process there is reaching a culmination. Time approaches, therefore I am called upon to inject the fuel of seeing.

No, we will not fail. We conquer, right now…But what does ‘conquer’ mean?

For me, for the process it means the consolidation of the nucleus. Perhaps there will be a consolidation simultaneously – that is, Eve racing again and Adam getting his licence. But how is this going to take shape?

We stand alone. Naturally. We are in another dimension and there are no people there. Everyone is in the old. That is surely true…                                  

 

For F2’s important last race of the season, no acceptable jockey could be found. Eve was thus forced to press for a fitness certificate earlier than planned; and it was granted. Reluctant as she was to race so soon after removing her cast and not being able to consult me on the matter, she had no choice but to agree to ride F2 in her 18^th race. When I reached Bangalore before the day of the race, she presented me with this ‘surprise’. It did not escape any of us that this would be the last racing day of the summer season, while on the very first day she had been ruthlessly removed from competition at the starting gates before the race had even begun and before she had had a  chance to ride for Gog. It also did not escape my notice that this 18^th race, or the second multiple of 9, would fall on a day of 9 number-power: 5.8.1994 (=9).

 

Once upon a time…

 

The fairy tale began to unfold and the fullest power of the 9 and the Supramental Shakti were displayed in a grandiose culmination which began that last racing day of the season. But it was only the beginning. A series of races were to follow, all held within the magical embrace of the Power as in race after race F2, with Eve steering her, climbed to the top displaying that superior potential I had known to exist from when she was a foal.

With this culmination a subtle shift was felt in the rhythm we had been following from the beginning of our racing experience. All along I had been monitoring the passage through the Gnostic Circle on the basis of races. For example, F2 was entering her 18^th and therefore at the 9 point of the Circle. But I realised that there was another rhythm displacing the former. It was not a question of WINS. We had been halted at 5 wins: 3 for F1, and 2 for F2. Somehow, we could not gather enough force to complete the circle; there seemed to be insufficient FUEL to carry us to the apex of the wheel. We were bogged down at the nadir. But no sooner had Eve taken F2 in her 18^th race, precisely opening the way to the final quarter of the Gnostic Circle by way of wins to the culmination of the process, that the effects of the consolidation of the nucleus were confirmed: a formidable RELEASE of energy occurred signalling a convergence of Time. F2 seemed to translate that release into her performance on the track. She appeared to house a boundless source of energy. And Eve seemed to be the only rider able to tap that source.

Adam’s training produced a filly in exceptionally good condition for Eve to ride that first 9-power day of August and the last day of the summer racing season. When she entered the paddock before the race she was singled out as the best by the connoisseurs. However, the betting public at large could not imagine that Eve would be able to produce a win with the filly, when the more experienced jockeys had failed time and again. In addition, this was Eve’s first ride after a long gap and her first in Bangalore after the letter scandal and the loss of her job with Gog. She was the underdog, to say the least. Not many expected anything different from F2’s performance than what had already been seen. Moreover, in the field there were exceptional horses. One in particular, the favourite, was an extremely well-bred, high-priced, three-year old filly from Bombay, where India’s best horses compete, prepared by the country’s top trainer. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this filly would win, followed in the line-up by several other three-year olds of equally good breeding and proven performance. In addition, they were ridden by jockeys with far more experience than Eve.

On my part, however, after the experiences I had been having and the inner breakthroughs which I knew had taken place, I was confident that Eve would do well and would possibly win. Upon my arrival I had read out to her the above extracts from my journal, since I felt they were relevant to what she was experiencing. The fact that as a trifold nucleus we were functioning at the centre of our endeavour meant more to me than what the record books had to say of all the competing horses. But even this confidence did not match what transpired in that race. Eve and F2 made history that wonderful 9-power day.

As usual, F2 was the first out of the gate. Her pace was so fast that she easily reached the front and established a good lead. The favourite from Bombay was being ridden by India’s champion jockey. He felt confident that he could stay in third or fourth place until after the steep incline at the 600 mark, and then, when F2 faded as was her habit, he could begin pressing his mount to come up forcefully and pass F2 as well as the rest of the pack.

But in the hands of Eve who knew just what F2 required to make her hold her pace throughout, with some reserve for the end, nothing of this transpired. After the rise Eve was seen to relax the reins as we had discussed time and again, she let the filly catch her breath without pressing her to continue at that gruelling pace. This allowed the other horses to approach, but with one signal-stroke of the whip the filly responded with a kick-off that left the rest of the horses trailing behind by several lengths. At that point, the champion jockey on his champion filly realised that he would have an impossible task to overtake Eve. He did his utmost but finished behind by two lengths, while Eve carried F2 across the finishing line to the roaring cheers of the crowd. It was finally the fairy tale come true.

 

 

 

F2 with Eve astride, Mysore, 22 September 1994

 

 

There was so much packed into the 1.12.9 minutes of F2’s timing which turned the tide of our racing experience exactly when the Centre was made whole by a balance of its trifold energies. It was not just a race won but the nature of its attendant accumulative circumstances from, we could say, the very beginning of the process in 1989. It must be recalled that a key feature of this New Way is the establishment of a life divine on this Earth in accordance with Sri Aurobindo’s prophecies regarding the inevitable manifestation of a gnostic principle to allow for a new and superior species to replace the old. We are interested, therefore, in knowing in what manner this species will differ from the actual highest specimen our evolution has thus far allowed.

To begin, and this has been the main focus of our work so far, a means must evolve in order to allow the individual’s innermost truth to express itself in life. One’s fullest and truest potential must come forth; whereas until now this involved condition of the human being has not been able to break through the crusts which time and circumstance have imposed. It is as if the seed of the species has never been able to overcome the obstacles and impediments which it has been facing while it strives to rise in the ladder of creation to something substantially improved and fulfilled.

And if we write of a seed and a growth from within, we understand that a new and gnostic being must respect this question of centrality and extract from within anything  higher to replace the old. In other words, nothing comes from outside – as the fanciful science fiction writers might have us believe. For the Earth, whatever of a more enlightened nature that must take its place in the evolution of the species has to do so by the principle of the manifestation of an inherent truth, or of involution of that truth and its consequent evolution. It must, therefore, follow the principle laid down in these pages of a centre out of which emerges an axis and a consequent ability to control the energies in the field in which that ‘seed’ has been sown.

Thus, regarding this racing experience, the important question from the beginning was the expression of that inherent potential. To allow this to come to pass certain elements had to be drawn together, take their proper and predestined places in the scheme of things, and once that was done, and only then, that potential would be able to express itself. More than that, it would be a mathematical certainty.

F2 demonstrated the exactitude of this new applied cosmology when she revealed her full potential that August afternoon, on that 9-power day. We would not have appreciated the depth and breadth of her potential had this culminating achievement not taken place after a series of ‘just misses’. In this way two points were made. One was that such a culmination could only come to pass when the full components of the nucleus were in place, harmonised, and balanced around the central divine Purpose rather than egocentric interests; and second, that the movement is spherical, a circular convergence in time. This means that the control I am describing works on all things simultaneously, each point in the circumference of the emerging cosmos. When this tilling of the soil reaches a maturing point, a critical threshold so to speak, the seed-centre, as if with the greatest ease, pushes through the now loosened crust of earth and begins its upward march and to reveal itself in its nascent and naked truth of being.

For this reason we witnessed a series of ‘just misses’ before the fairy tale could play itself out, with each and every jockey unable (or unwilling) to bring out the best in F2. The nucleus had to complete itself; then the rest was a mathematical certitude. In the meantime, while F2 was struggling with the limitations of the field and the lack of components by which means she could succeed in drawing to the surface her inherent potential, jockey, trainer and owner, or the triadic powers of the Centre, were being moulded into a harmonious whole in the effort to bring into being a centre. For that, elements in the field were utilised with meticulous care, – the Gogs and Magogs, jockeys, stewards, and so forth. Each played his or her role to perfection. Meaning, in this case, to serve as powers of contraction creating circumstances which would press in upon the central components from all sides thereby causing a predetermined balance of powers to become established.

With this accomplished time locks into another gear, a ‘high gear’ indeed, and the operation seems to move forward at great speed and effortlessly, just as F2’s race displayed. If I felt certain that the condition or performances of the horses in this process would give us an indication of the stage and work accomplished, that race fully revealed the exact ‘mathematics’ I have described. In the process, F2 surpassed the best and set herself up as a force to contend with. She not only beat several Derby contenders, foremost of which was the filly from Bombay who entered the race with an already awesome track record, she just fractionally missed breaking the season’s record for the 1200 metres. It stood at 1.12.8, whereas her timing in this race was 1.12.9. Had Eve not eased her up over the last 20 metres or so, F2 would have effortlessly broken the record which had been set earlier in the season by India’s proven top sprinter.

At the same time, she did prove in that one race to be the better sprinter in Bangalore since in another Class 1 for sprinters (hers was Class III) over the same distance that same day, won by the proclaimed best sprinter of the Club, the latter’s timing was 1.13.6. Considering the lower weight F2 was carrying, it was calculated nonetheless, kilo for distance and timing, that F2 would still come out ahead.

As for Eve, this was indeed the fairy tale of racing. She was besieged from all sides, a woman alone in a man’s domain, and one where machismo is especially prized. Magog was set on finishing off her racing career. She had been sacked by her owner who ought to have stood by her in her moment of need, especially in view of the special circumstances in which he had hired her in the first place. It may be recalled that hiring Eve was Gog’s ‘statement’, his protest against the misdeeds or mishandling of his horses by the then retained top jockey. In the present circumstances, Magog’s riders were being accused of equally dubious practices, thus to support him in any way was a contradiction of that earlier ‘statement’. Eve was not in the centre of a storm for misdeeds as a jockey. Just the contrary. She was seen as the victim of such practices which Gog was ostensibly protesting against. In fact, she had not even ridden one horse of his in a race, therefore her record as his jockey was unblemished as she left his stables. Ironically she was sacked because of her reputation of being ‘controversial’, which meant honest and straightforward. Gog came out of the affair in the poorest light, while Eve, especially with her fairy tale win, ended the season fully vindicated as a professional while exposing the questionable handling of F2 by some of the best. The public was well aware of the fact that this was a newcomer, and a woman, able to ‘deliver the goods’ where all others had failed, leaving a great question mark over F2’s former races, especially those in which she had been the betting public’s favourite. In the bargain, the Bombay filly was ridden by India’s champion jockey. Thus, Eve’s ability as an athlete now stood beyond dispute.  First woman rider in Bangalore, she was now the first to win.

As for F2, the type of race she ran would become a hallmark in the Club’s plethora of sprint races, and indeed throughout the country: a formidable unbeatable initial speed over the first 600 metres, thus driving the front-runners into fatigue, followed by a final kick-off in the last 400 metres, decisively burying any remaining competition. Such a style of running is the ideal for the sprinter, but it is difficult to come by.

F2 had displayed precisely the mathematical equation of a release of energy when a centre comes into being. It means contact is made with a replenishable source of energy of a superior quality. Its superiority lies in the nature of our cosmological process: no violence is done, – that is, no imposition from outside. The contact with the source is the direct outcome of the ‘birth that fills the void’. In other words, the draining ‘hole’ or ‘void’ at the centre is ‘plugged up’, as it were. There is no collapse. An infinite source of energy lies at the disposal of the instrument as a natural, organic consequence of growth and flowering from within.

In Thoroughbred racing as it is practised today, this is a potent, and threatening, statement to make on the turf. That is, nearly all horses today, in some form or other, participate through a violence done to their inherent potential. Race training relies almost entirely on drugs or enhancers. Without these substances trainers believe they cannot compete. Thus, the horse is pumped with these drugs and does indeed produce wins as a result. But there is an imbalance created by this artificial imposition. It is not an organic process, extracting the horse’s potential in a measured way based on a progressive loading in the training. The horse is literally forced into a performance that it may not be ready for, even though the capacity to win may be inherent in that animal. The result is that breakdowns occur more regularly today. We see horses competing beyond their preparation and inherent capacity, and then collapsing. Especially when, for reasons of detection, the drug has to be withdrawn sufficient time before the race. Such horses are like inflated balloons collapsing the minute air is released.

Thus, F2’s performance posed a threat on many fronts. There was the threat to the big breeders who demand increasingly high prices for their yearlings and who feel free to do so when such high-priced animals do indeed ‘deliver the goods’. When an upstart like F2 beats the very best, with a good but not fashionable pedigree, meaning an imported sire who commands formidable covering fees while standing at the fashionable stud farms, then breeders will begin to feel threatened. Racing is an industry where millions are invested. In the case of our fillies, we were dealing with pets, bred privately, with no investment at all other than their upkeep.

Trainers felt especially threatened by Adam’s obviously superior talents, demonstrated in a startling manner from the day he took charge of F2. Though raced under the new trainer’s name, since Adam did not have a licence in Bangalore as yet, all knew the training was his. Similarly, trainers were aware that drugs were taboo in our operation based on a mutual understanding between trainer and owner. Thus, if this filly of not-so-special breeding could win so effortlessly and without illegal substances, the threat to the entire foundation of present-day training was serious indeed.

And finally there was the threat to jockeys, for Eve’s handling was not only of the best quality, her honesty stood as a solitary star in the dim night of the racing firmament. Thus in one brilliant performance F2 had set the stage and established the conditions for our process thereafter.

 

The Fairy Tale endures

                                    

For a number of days after F2’s race there was talk of little else at the track. A better set of circumstances could not have been arranged to put F2 and Eve in the forefront. Above all, the talk was generated by the calibre of horses in the race, most of whom were up-coming 3-year olds from the best stables; whereas F2 was a 4-year old with already a year and a half of racing of little consequence behind her. Officially in the record books she had been categorised as potentially a top racehorse when she arrived for training. But until that 5^th August race she had failed to live up to these official estimates of her capacity. All of that was now a thing of the past. She had solidly beaten one of the best fillies in the country who was expected to breeze through the race to a comfortable win, so much better was she considered than the rest.

But in racing memories are short. It is said a horse is only as good as his last race. This is, in fact, its value as a field of yoga, especially of this New Way, since one is never allowed to stagnate or bathe in the glory of a breakthrough or a win, as in this case, regardless of how spectacular or fairy-tale like it may be. One has to start preparation for the next race immediately after, and the one after that. Quite often horses perform well in one or two races, only to fade out and into oblivion thereafter. For example, it was thought that F2 had ‘peaked’ and that therefore this win was a result of a combination that would not in all likelihood be repeated. In addition, she was carrying a rather low handicap (51.5kgs.). The jockey who had failed with her in her last race, feeling the brunt of the affront Eve’s easy win caused him by way of comparison, defended himself by claiming that ‘the filly cannot carry weight’ (He had ridden her in his last race carrying a 59-kilo handicap). Very few were prepared to accept that Eve’s riding was the reason for F2’s spectacular success. I repeat, there are races won, many in fact, but some are especially significant in the career of a racehorse given the particulars of the race in question, the calibre of the competitors, the weight carried, previous performances and the nature of the win itself such as distance and timing. On all these counts this proved to be a landmark for F2.

In terms of our process, what happened that day had even more spectacular and far-reaching implications. In particular, this was due to the yoga performed leading up to the race and therefore the mathematical precision involved. Given a certain input and certain conditions fulfilled, there could only be one result: a formidable RELEASE of energy. That was the key feature of the ‘fairy tale’. It did indeed reward the instruments in the front line-up, but it did so only when the conditions on the deeper levels were met. In this case the fairy-tale win served as a confirmation that the nucleus had been formed by a correct poise and mutually supportive balance of the three central components; and that given this fact the Horse, or the One, could not fail to respond accordingly.

F2 continued in her daily workouts and general condition to reflect the harmony that had been attained. She improved by the day; and when she appeared in the paddock before the next race, she was the talk of the establishment. Jockeys considered, as one rider put it, that she was a ‘transformed filly’. On their part, trainers were determined to find out what Adam was doing or giving the horse, that he was ‘on to something’ none knew about, some special feed, special nutrient, special training. For even the steroids and other drugs commonly used on tracks throughout the world would not have the effect witnessed in F2’s physical condition. They wanted to know the ‘secret’.

It was true that Adam had been perfecting his contribution to our team during the months leading to this breakthrough. Nutrition-wise his programme was also the best among all the trainers. The shoeing of the horse was not matched by any; and the exercise programme, though still in the process of working out the details, was nonetheless better than what most horses were receiving, with little concern for the scientific knowledge we were in the process of collecting and implementing in our work with these horses. All this played upon the success obtained.

But these conditions were present already before Eve took F2 in that race. It was clear that the final component, the jockey, had to be ‘put in place’ before these ingredients – the yoga included – could bear fruit. What this revealed was the simultaneous convergence of the SPHERICAL nature of the process we were engaged in: all things brought into orbit and harmonised in a circular, converging development. It proved as well that the energies in the periphery were used to create a contracting action whereby the inner components would simultaneously find themselves in the correct poise to allow Time to do its work. All of this converged on the Horse, causing a release of energy.

The summer season closed that day and racing shifted to the neighbouring city, Mysore. It was the scene of Eve’s first ‘accident’, when F2 was instrumental in removing her from racing for several months, given precisely the lack of correct poise and the extreme egocentrism of all the parts concerned. Needless to say, there was a certain trepidation in returning to the scene of that dramatic event. The date for the race was 16^th August and it was not this time a 9-power day. One wondered what the outcome would be.

By that time, F2’s fame had begun to spread far as the vanquisher of the Bombay filly. But the sceptics still abounded. Moreover, there was her former jockey’s statement (‘that filly cannot carry weight’), and since she entered the race with the highest handicap, many believed she would be unable to register another consecutive win. This was a Class III race which, if won, would thrust her immediately into Class II.

The strategy for the race was the same, since F2 had a style of running that left little room for manoeuvre. In fact, it ought to be explained that she was a carefully chosen instrument for this phase of the process in that, it may be recalled, Magog’s men were constantly harassing Eve. His two jockeys, whose behaviour had been vigorously criticised in the July publication, were still set on proving a point by constant threats in one form or another. Therefore, it was worrying to see Eve enter a race and be ostensibly at their mercy. Race riding is both difficult and dangerous. It is a simple matter to create obstructions to other runners, especially if more than one jockey in a particular race has orders to do so. Not only can they successfully restrain a horse from winning, they can also cause damage to both horse and rider. There have been cases where deaths or serious injuries have occurred on the track due to this sort of premeditated interference, an outcome of a desire for revenge precisely of the sort Eve was being subjected to. But F2 was the ideal ride under the circumstances. Her jump out of the gate was such that none could catch up with her. She was in front of the other horses before they could even realise that the race had started. F2 was thus protected by her inherent talent which became even more pronounced with Eve’s gentle handling and sensitive riding.

Thus with ease and majesty F2 won her second consecutive cup race, with Eve steering her again as she gave the final kick-off in the last stretch and cruised past the winning post three lengths ahead of the other horses while the public roared and cheered. The commentator bellowed out, ‘She is simply trouncing the opposition!’ The lie was thus given to the contention that ‘she could not carry weight’, and this accomplishment brought F2 into Class II, just below the top where I felt she belonged from the beginning.

Her next race was scheduled for September 22^nd, the Equinox, and a 9-power day. I must stress that I never planned these synchronisations and number harmonies. Indeed, it would have been difficult to do so since only a limited number of races were available for her distance and class. The task of selecting or suggesting was left to the trainer in large measure. I was intrigued by this particular selection since it seemed significant in more ways than one. It would, in fact, mark the first anniversary of Eve’s ‘accident’ occasioned by F2 the year before at the same venue. This would be a difficult race with increasingly stiffer competition. We were therefore somewhat apprehensive about the results.

Mysore racing had been in large part dominated by trainers and their horses from Madras since the season there would be resumed only in late October. Thus, each race saw several of Magog’s horses competing. For F2’s third attempt at a cup-race win,from his stables there was an especially good filly entered from his stables, of F2’s same age-group. She had, in addition, won Classic races; therefore Magog certainly expected her to win. Apart from the fact that we were beginning to pose a serious threat to breeders and trainers alike in that this ‘pet’, privately bred, was ‘trouncing’ some of the best horses in India, there was the threat of facing one or more of Magog’s men in a race. His filly was also known for her initial speed as a front-runner; clearly the race would be between Magog’s Classic winner and F2. And he was more than ever determined to win and put both Eve and F2 in their rightful place, – i.e., behind his horse.

By then the potential of horses was being assessed with respect to their performance in F2’s races. The filly from Bombay, for example, had been assessed the favourite to win the Derby insofar as she had been beaten by F2 who in turn went on to win her next race. This was thought to increase the chances of the Bombay filly winning the Derby, since F2 had proved her superior quality. Coming second to F2 was no mean achievement. Magog, together with other breeders, owners and trainers, was not taking these matters lightly. I sensed that there was a considerable line-up of ‘forces’ determined to put a stop to this winning streak, insofar as we had now entered the highest class. Beyond Class III, the mid-point, the horses we would meet could be high-priced Classic winners; all had won at least three races to reach anything beyond this mid-point. There was no sign though that there was a horse capable of coping with F2’s style of running. Up front in all her races, and not fading in the hands of Eve, no obstruction tactics would be possible: there was no horse in evidence who could match her initial speed to do the obstructing!

To protect the turf, all clubs install false railings during the season. This practice increases the distance of races, especially difficult for sprinters. In this Equinox race there were 5 metres of false rails, a significant addition. But I was confident that F2 could cope with this increase since she had almost won a 1400-metre race in Bangalore at one stage of her career. But when I instructed Eve to ‘go for timing’ in this particular race, since she had already proven herself capable of beating the best and in that regard there was little left to prove, I did not realise the toll this would take on the filly, in particular given Magog’s entry and strategy.

The worse part was the condition of the track itself. There had been no rains and therefore the ground was hard. The Mysore track is notorious for its bend which slopes to the outside, causing high-speed runners to drift out at this bend. The horse has to make a supreme effort to keep its position close to the rails. The toll on its left fore is hard. Ignorant of this fact, the advice to Eve to ‘go for timing’ was foolish. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that Eve could have done other than what she did. Magog’s jockey left her little choice.

Magog’s filly was also known for a fast jump out of the gate and an unmatched initial speed. Thus, both F2 and Magog’s filly went to the front immediately. As luck would have it, riding Magog’s entry was one of the two jockeys mentioned in the infamous letter, and one who had been known to threaten Eve in the past. He was especially keen on overtaking Eve and setting a pace which he felt F2 could not sustain. But contrary to his expectations, F2 did not allow his mount to pass. She kept the lead and the two pulled in front and away from the rest of the pack by a  distance. The pace set was blistering, never before seen on that track, according to reports after the race. In the true spirit of a superior athlete that she is, F2 did not falter until Magog’s filly was driven to exhaustion. Not satisfied, after the usual breather and with several hundred metres left, Eve signalled to F2 who kicked off again, leaving the horses four lengths behind as she passed the winning post to the resounding cheers of the crowd. Eve, for the betting public, had become their darling since she was continuously carrying their favourite to a win. Magog’s filly, on the other hand, ‘finished in the rut’, as the commentator announced, – that is, driven to fatigue, she had finished last.

 

Fairy Tale gives way to Myth

 

There may be good sprinters with initial speed, especially fillies. But it is rare to come across one such as F2, who is able to set a pace none can match in the first half of the race and still have fire power left to accelerate toward the end, after fatigue has set in and overtaken the other runners. Thus, gradually F2 was gaining the reputation of being one of the best sprinters in the country, and certainly the best in Bangalore. She had beaten top horses. She had set good timings. She had won three cup races in a row, the last being a gold cup. And she had not so far let any horse pass her in these three races. She was a force to contend with. Indeed, F2 with Eve guiding her seemed unbeatable, – and hence a real threat to the numerous vested interests which abound in the ‘sport’ of racing. At the same time, contrary to what one sees in horses fed all sorts of unhealthy and often illegal substances, transgressing standards and regulations, F2 was improving with each race. Her condition, already impressive when Eve first mounted her in the paddock on 5^th August, was now improved beyond belief. To witness her entry into the paddock for the pre-race parade, was thrilling as well as inspiring. Beyond any doubt, she was every bit the Class I horse I had assessed her to be.

But handicap races are one thing, with horses moving up the ladder from Class V to Class I, as the case may be. It is another thing to win sweepstakes terms races in which the handicaps are allotted according to the age and stake money of races won. That is, in this category of race one meets not just Class I horses but the very best of that highest category, those which have won and placed not only in sweepstakes but possibly in the Classics as well, another category entirely.

Such a race was approaching. It was scheduled for October 8^th, 1994, there in Mysore. I was determined to enter F2 in that race, and this time, who would dare object?

But there were certain constraints. The first was that F2 had not been entered in this sweepstakes on the due date, given the reluctance of the trainers to oblige. Therefore, she would only be eligible if I paid ten times the fee in what is called a ‘final entry’. To begin, a sweepstakes entry in India costs approximately ten times the amount of a handicap race; in this case, a final entry would require an additional ten times the normal sweepstakes fee. But since she had won three races in a row, there were sufficient funds from her own earnings to handle the high cost; but in the event of losing, all profits from these wins would be lost.

Apart from this consideration there was the more serious problem that F2 had slightly injured her left fore and shoulder, given the vigour of the race and the hard ground she had to cover. The Mysore season, I had been warned, sees many horses break down. I was able to prove this with my own fillies, but in the case of F2 the problem was not serious enough to stop her from her daily exercise programme. It was just enough to make the filly hold back from giving her best in the effort to protect herself from further damage. More often than not, especially when a horse reaches the top echelons, one has to contend with some problem or other, and racing goes on nonetheless. However, care has to be taken and the judgement of the trainer has to be honed to know just how far he can press the horse and what he can expect.

Thus, the question of whether or not to enter her in this special race and to continue proving that my horses could compete with the best hinged on the condition of the filly. A final entry fee was a risk to run, even in the best of circumstances, with a horse in top condition. Regarding our filly there was a definite problem. With Adam in charge and Eve riding her, I was fully confident that the right decision would be made. Moreover, F2’s performance in those last three races was so superior to all the other horses that it seemed she could handle the competition even if not in top form. The important thing to bear in mind is that though still in condition to race, when a horse has a problem, small as it may seem, the strain of the race can cause a greater injury of more far-reaching consequences. With any other jockey riding her I could not have considered taking the risk. But with Eve it was different. She was too sensitive and balanced a rider to press the filly to the point of causing further damage. If entered, I felt certain that F2 would come out of the race in the same condition she entered, not worse. But still we had to be reasonably certain that she would be in sufficiently good condition to merit the high cost of the final entry fee. And there were but two weeks between the races to prepare her, while the final entry due date was a week before the race.

We had entered a different category in our racing experience for all concerned. For me as breeder/owner, it meant, as stated earlier, that a threat was being posed to the vested interests of the breeding industry, as well as to the owners who were spending millions of rupees on horses and in many cases were not reaping the benefits such huge sums promised. Regarding Adam, he was now poised to enter the category of a trainer able to prepare horses not just for handicap races, but for sweepstakes as well, if not the Classics yet. His reputation as a first-rate trainer was growing with every performance of F2. Her ‘transformation’, as it was called, was the best advertisement for his talent.

In this area also it seemed clear that just as the horse was responding to the consolidation of the nucleus, so too would the human elements involved. Each one seemed to be able to demonstrate or draw forth the best from within. Both Adam and Eve, as professionals, were making significant improvements. I knew this would increase; and certainly, preparing F2 for this particular sweepstakes race, given the pressures of costs and condition of the filly, would test this premise to the utmost. If indeed I would enter F2 in the race, this would create a pressure on both trainer and jockey never before experienced by them. It remained to be seen whether or not they could sustain it.

Magog cannot have been pleased with the performance of his champion filly and the results of the Equinox race. While the Classic horses of other owner/breeders were being vanquished by F2, it was still tolerable. But with the defeat of his best sprinter, who had even won Classics, one sensed that an unspecified certain limit or border had been transgressed. On my part, I felt an upsurge of forces of a subtle order, pernicious and determined. It remained to be seen in what way these forces would operate to halt us on our way.

I had my own method of assessing the wisdom of entering F2 in this special race. I realised that she stood before her 21^st run and that the three wins in a row, two of which were on 9-power days, covered the last quarter of the Gnostic Circle, by way of races won. Exactly in accordance with the dictates of the Circle, the release made itself felt at the 6 Point and the 6^th win. That is where increased fuel is needed in order to move through the sign Scorpio and into Sagittarius and there extend boundaries. The reversal at the 4.5 Orbit creates combustion. This is then channelled in a particular direction: into the cosmos rather than dissolved in the Beyond, as in death. The result is an increase, a widening, an extension of the limits of destiny. To be more specific, it is a certain hitherto unexplored or untapped layer of energy in the folds of one’s destiny which permits a deeper expression of an inherent potential. Under normal conditions one may never tap this potential.

When there is a void central to one’s consciousness-being, there is a seepage of energy. One cannot concentrate enough power to bring about this increase. Indeed, to sustain the pressure whereby the direction inward is maintained. One escapes the pressure by dissipating the energy. Or else, as when Death presses in, one collapses given the binary structure of the species. On this basis the theories evolved of salvation in a beyond and outside the cosmic dimension. That is, one is contracted to extinction from this material dimension.

On the other hand, when the Void has been filled as in this case by the consolidation of the tri-part, properly poised nucleus, this seepage is arrested. The released fuel is then utilised in a new way: for increase, for extending the boundaries of one’s destiny proportionate to the compact essence of the Seed.

F2 demonstrated this correct utilisation exactly in accordance with the Gnostic Circle process. The consolidation took place just as she stood poised to enter her 18^th race for the 6 Point win at the portals of the sign Sagittarius. The results were immediate and decisive. Thereafter, the 19^th demonstrated that extension in that she carried the victory to another racing venue, conquering that field as well. Finally there was the 20^th, the 8 win of the equinox race on another 9-power day, which completed the rise to the summit of the wheel, but did not close the Circle as yet. That is, the 8^th closes one cycle and opens a new one. She was swept to the top of the wheel in this fashion, on the basis of the potent nuclear release at the 5 Point (Jupiter), which was sufficient to carry her through the remaining signs and orbits with the greatest ease. Indeed, the ease with which she scored her wins indicates the power generated in proportion to the quality of the Seed. The One in such a process is a mathematical result of the quality of the trifold energy base in the nucleus.

Thus, I realised the 8^th win (5+3) left matters incomplete. One more of the sequence was required. I felt this would have to be the sweepstakes, the last for her of the season which would close on 21^st October, a 9-power day. I felt confident that true to her capacity to draw in the elements required for fulfilment, F2 would ‘arrange’ the circumstances to permit her to play whatever role intended by the release.

With extreme care, Adam was monitoring her condition daily. Both he and Eve finally came to the conclusion just before the closing date for the entry that she could race. In effect, even if she placed second all the costs would be covered with something of a profit. Thus, F2 was entered, sending out the signal to all by investing this large amount that I was confident of another consecutive win. It remained to be seen whether my confidence in the abilities of the members of our team, equine and human, would be rewarded.

Throughout this discussion it may be noted that I have preferred to describe the tri-part components – both human and equine – as 9, 6, and 3 – while they are the first, second and third in the progression. The reason for doing so is that with 9-6-3, participation can be related to the Gnostic Circle. This then tells us in great detail and with accuracy what the true input will be of each component. So far we have been following the racing careers of two horses, which would be the 9 and the 6, or the first and second fillies. Indeed, when related to the Circle, we find these creatures fulfilling their roles of 9 and 6 to perfection. And we learn that the circumstances for their participation have always served to assist them in realising their contributions of 9 and 6.

For example, F1 as the first, or the 9, always demonstrated an aloofness which seemed to reflect the transcendent quality of the 9. Indeed, in the trinity the 9 corresponds to the Transcendent Divine. Regarding the Solar Line, a similar descending order of manifestation, the 9 was Sri Aurobindo. His ‘aloofness’ is now legendary, though in yoga we would call it detachment to the results of one’s efforts, or equanimity. This was also noted in that he remained withdrawn for the better part of his yogic life and mission. Sri Aurobindo stayed self-confined to his room for the last 24 years of his life, while the Mother, the 6, carried forward the work of the Ashram and established its character and ‘boundaries’; very true to her contribution as the 6.

In our equine ‘descent’, we have F2, the 6, playing a similar role. On the basis of her contribution the parameters of our racing experience have become established. She evolved our boundaries by her performance and revealed our limits, whatever these may be. The Mother, for example, not only set up the Ashram as the field of their yoga, she also extended that field for a new boundary toward the end of her life.

Both our equine participants have displayed similar characteristics when related to the Solar Line. F1’s aloofness and her capacity to transcend the field of her input entirely by closing it out, turning in on herself, may have been a protective device engendered by early mishandling, but nonetheless it served to assist the filly in remaining true to her 9 function without overstepping the boundaries inherent in this descending order. Given this circumstance, it was left to F2 to ‘hold the fort’, as it were. She had to keep the experience grounded and centred, very similar to the Mother’s function in the Ashram to accommodate Sri Aurobindo’s withdrawal, like F1 withdrawing into herself and detaching from the field of her experience. These characteristics could not be appreciated without the Gnostic Circle and the knowledge it provides of the Sacred Triangle, its angles of 9, 6, 3 and their special attributes and functions.

If we move up the ladder from 1 to 2 to 3, or down the scale from 9 to 6 to 3, we note that something interesting happens at the third level. The two directions converge at the 3 Point. Whether in the upward movement or the descending motion, the 3 Point is where the two converge. This indicates that the 3 is indeed the ‘bridge’ linking the two planes and is therefore the position which promises the true fulfilment of the seed-potential in that the 3 is self-contained and less dependent on the play of circumstances for fulfilment. The 3 is in a better position to create NEW conditions.

But this discussion is carrying us beyond the parameters of our saga to date. What interests us most for the present is the assessment of F2’s contribution in that at last something of the true seed-potential had succeeded in coming to the fore. But this bore certain limitations consonant with F2’s role as the 6. The highest she could go in the display of her talents would be sweepstakes races. The Classics were closed to her. For F1 the limitation was due to her unknown pedigree because of which she was restricted to handicap races exclusively. This was the limitation imposed upon her from outside, so to speak, before birth, in the ‘beyond’, – i.e., the ‘transgressions’ of her sire and dam. This lay beyond her control or beyond even the qualities she expressed as a racehorse in a race. No matter how well she performed, or how high in the scale she went, under whatever circumstances her destiny would present during the course of her career, she could never surmount this in-born ‘handicap’. The conditions of her birth automatically precluded any expression of her true potential which surpassed even F2’s in fact. The ‘field’ could in no way accommodate or mould itself to her inherent potential, thereby fortifying her ‘closed in’ condition. Everything remained locked within and there seemed little point in opening it up insofar as being of Classic potential, or at least a winner of sweepstakes races, she was out of harmony with that seed-potential by way of her 9 status. At her level we stand far from any such harmonisation of the Point and the Circumference, or the Being and the Becoming. And it may be recalled that disciples of Sri Aurobindo anticipated his ‘return to the world’ once his yoga was finished, a promise he never fulfilled in his lifetime in that form, thereby leaving this world with his fullest potential veiled until another appearance.

Our saga is a manifestation in stages, each one building upon the others. Similarly, had Sri Aurobindo as the 9 stood alone in his mission, nothing of the supramental would have descended. He required the 6, and ultimately the 3 to root this new principle in matter.

     With F2 we note something of this order transpiring. Her limitation was not by birth. She was a duly registered Thoroughbred racehorse and thus the full range of races was open to her in principle. Her limitation was met in the course of her contribution by the incompleteness of the base and the demands put upon her to draw elements together for the fulfilment of her destiny as 6: that much more rooted than F1 before her. These constrictions expressed themselves as a sort of self-imposition due to an inherent potential, – i.e., a capacity for sprint distances and not for Classics which require more staying power to cover at least eight furlongs. And then by her age. When finally she had succeeded in drawing in the nuclear components needed to permit her seed-potential to flower, she was beyond the age limits for anything other than sweepstakes and terms races of this order. The Classics were not open to her when that work was done.

But we see here at least the beginning of a harmony between the Point and the Periphery, the centre and the field. Something was indeed made ready by her input, but not the fullest as yet.

It is at the level of the 6, the Cosmic Divine of the trinity, that the forces operating in the universe enter the picture. Here good and evil as opposing forces begin their play, in the great act of division and separation that a creation in matter engenders, on the road to unity of the Being and the Becoming. These forces struggle for supremacy, both in one’s being and in the world at large. Here we meet the demons and the titans, as well as the gods. Herein lies the origin of Myth.

 

Durga contemporises Myth

 

The atmosphere surrounding our work was becoming thick with the play of ‘forces’, some creating obstructions while others were felt to ease the way and remove obstacles. The contest we had become engaged in, while ostensibly centred on a racing experience, seemed rather to embrace a larger sphere, an activity or action of a subtle order, a confrontation of forces of division as opposed to those striving to bring about unity and harmony.

On the human plane we were indeed engaged in a struggle to establish a new boundary which seemed to hold the promise of the fulfilment of our long labour of striving to set our team in a field largely inimical to the appearance in its midst of anything that might threaten the existing order in a significant way. As reported, our successes automatically endangered the ‘sport’ as it is being practised. To begin, and apart from any arcane consideration, our success meant a great boost for racing precisely in the area of sport. We were possibly the only team of the three essential components – owner, trainer and jockey – which truly dealt with racing as a sport, striving for excellence in a competitive endeavour where money and the easiest way to secure it was the main consideration. There was nothing else binding us together. None of us gambled, none were especially ambitious and desirous of success, of fame and wealth, except to the extent necessary to sustain the effort required in our enterprise in order to succeed in a sporting endeavour of high competitive energy.

The surcharged atmosphere was also the result of the increased pressure due to the elevated entry fee and the consequent risk involved, especially in view of F2’s physical condition. Right after the entry had been made she gave increased signs of a nagging problem. Regardless of the final entry having been paid, it would still be possible to withdraw her two days before the race. But the assessment of her physical condition did not merit a withdrawal. Nonetheless, it was clear that she needed more time than we were in a position to give her to recover to the extent that a win would be more likely. As it stood, we were not quite convinced that she could handle a race of that calibre.

She would be competing with the best sprinters Bangalore had to offer, particularly one whose style of running was similar to F2’s. The only difference lay in their respective timings. This was the filly who had raced on 5^th August, the day of F2’s first win with Eve when together they vanquished the Bombay filly, among others of repute, with F2 setting a timing that day that only fractionally missed breaking the season record for that distance. The filly she would be meeting in this race never matched F2’s timing that day over the same distance, or ever. At this level of competition, the records give a clear indication of what to expect. And as far as the track records went, I expected F2 to win. There was, of course, her ‘problem’ to consider.

After the Equinox race, when the hard ground had provoked the stress which caused her physical problem one of the conditions I had set for entering her in the following sweepstakes was rain. If the ground was not softened before the 30^th September, the date of the final entry, there was no question of exposing her to the same hard track and the likelihood of a more serious injury. The Bombay filly she beat on the 5^th of August had, in fact, sustained a similar injury to her shoulder in the Derby she won in Mysore on 9 September, the same day that F1 had injured herself in a race there in which she finished third. The Bombay filly was yet to recover and would not be racing for a considerable time to come, similar to F1.

But the Gods seemed to be rooting for us and our cause, when almost the day after the Equinox race rains began on a regular basis over the entire area, right up to Bangalore, where the fillies were stabled and trained, and then transported to Mysore the day before their races. By the date of the entry the ground was softened to the precise degree required. Thus, one of the main ‘conditions’ had been fulfilled. This,  with other ‘signs’, encouraged me to pursue the matter regardless of the financial risk involved.

With each race run and won by F2 there seemed to be a tightening movement, as if we were being drawn deeper into a spheric convergence, as if spiralling inward to a central point. In a sense this could be explained by the tightening of competition: each race won eliminated that many more contenders to the throne of best sprinter. Reaching Class I in itself meant that dozens of horses had been successfully eliminated as real challengers. But in this race there was our main competition who had been reigning over the sprint class from almost the beginning of her career. She had been in Class I for close to a year. But in 1993, F1 had challenged her in a Class III race when she introduced Eve to Bangalore racing. She came second to this filly in what was perhaps one of the better races of her career.

Now it was her sister’s turn and this time the stakes were high indeed. None of us, owner, trainer and jockey, would have felt any anxiety but for the filly’s condition which kept us in a state of unknowing and concern throughout. What indeed would her performance be like in such circumstances?

I felt that the experience was an excellent training and testing ground for both Eve and Adam, especially the latter. In this case, it was the trainer’s task to draw upon his best resources to help the filly reach the racing venue in a position to sustain the rigours of such a race in spite of her ‘problem’, and to stand a reasonable chance of winning. Under normal conditions, an owner relies on the competence of the trainer to make such decisions as the one required for this sweepstakes, where considerable money is invested precisely on the basis of the trainer’s advice. Thus, Adam had the additional pressure of a final entry fee to contend with. It had been agreed beforehand that in the event of the filly’s deterioration just before the race, when still there was time to pull out though the fee had already been paid, he was free to do so even if it meant losing the entire amount. Of course, feeling the responsibility of his position, I knew he would exert himself to the maximum in order to avoid this recourse. It was a test of his talents and stamina and a means to draw out of him what I knew he had within: a trainer of superior potential and dedication. Indeed, he lived up to these high expectations and did not disintegrate under the weight of these pressures considering  his limited experience.

The day of the race was upon us. Adam was lamenting that more time was needed for the filly to fully recover, at least to the point of having a real chance of success. But there was nothing to be done. Her condition did not warrant withdrawing her, but a few days more would have been ideal. There was, however, nothing we could do to accommodate this need but cope with the serious handicap of too little time between races.

In the midst of this intense activity, all of India was experiencing a progressive ‘loading’ or stocking up of energy, if it may be so called. This occurs each year during a particularly powerful cultural festival: the yearly Navaratri, or Nine Nights. This is the 9-night festival of the Goddess Durga, Shiva’s consort and the divine Daughter who is as revered in Hindu tradition as the divine Son, perhaps more so in fact. This worship is especially intense in Bengal, Sri Aurobindo’s birthplace; and it was celebrated in his Ashram each year. Indeed, the freedom movement which was fuelled in large part by the Bengali contribution, and in particular Sri Aurobindo’s, centred on this particular aspect of the Divine Mother. Bande Mataram, or ‘Victory to the Mother’ was the theme song that came out of Bengal during the freedom movement, a poem set to inspiring music extolling the country as the body of the Mother herself, victorious over all adversity and adversaries. Even today it is sung throughout the land and some believe it to be the true national anthem because of its role then.

Indeed, Durga as Goddess who single-handedly vanquishes the mightiest asura, or titan, Tarak, stands for that supremely victorious Energy, the energy that conquers and saves. Durga was sent to the Earth by Brahma when the Gods rushed to him, imploring that he intervene to save the Earth from Tarakasura who was threatening to engulf the entire planet. Brahma, moved by their plight, conceded and commissioned a particular aspect of the Divine Mother to conquer Tarak. This form was Durga, renown for her devastating power to conquer as well as to protect. She is an especially forceful aspect of the divine Daughter, Parvati, and is by far the aspect most revered throughout India.

Apart from Bengal there is another place where this worship is especially intense. This is Mysore, precisely the venue of our racing experience. Indeed, the sweepstakes race we were preparing for would be held on 8 October which in 1994 was the 4^th day of the Festival. That is, it was its 4.5 passage, or the midpoint of the 9 Nights.

Given the prominence of the 9 in this new cosmology, its primary number-key in fact, it is not surprising that the Navaratri or Nine Nights of Durga should have held a special place in my yoga and work from the very beginning. I have documented this fact in an autobiographical study, The Tenth Day of Victory, which refers to this celebration based on the measure of 9. The 10^th day is the close of the festival, or Victory Day, when the Goddess returns to her parent’s abode after her victorious conquest during the previous nine nights, the last of which saw the complete vanquishing of Tarak, mightiest titan of them all.

The dates of this festival change each year since the start is fixed by the new Moon in a certain nakshatra of Hindu astrology. Nine days thereafter the Moon enters Capricorn and culminates in the Goddess’s victory, being precisely the zodiacal sign of the Divine Mother’s victory. In the Capricorn chapter of The Magical Carousel, I have portrayed this Power, Omanisol, seated on a mountain peak, presiding over all of creation laying at her feet and extending wide in all directions.

This circumstance seemed to be reproduced quite accurately in our racing experience in Mysore, for the race course lies precisely at the feet of the Goddess Chamundeswari, a name of Durga, the daughter aspect of the Divine Mother, or Omanisol of The Magical Carousel. From the track one can see the temple of Chamundeswari atop a nearby hillock, indeed overseeing all that transpires below, presiding over the whole area extending in a vast plane on all sides of this especially sacred hill which is her abode.

Mysore is a cultural centre of renown. Its history is replete with cultural contributions of a superior order, particularly in the field of classical music. Some of the most illustrious exponents of South Indian, or Carnatic, music have come from Mysore; or else they have studied and perfected their art in the court of the Maharajas who ruled over the state for centuries. Since Independence and the abolition of the princely states, Mysore has experienced a certain decline unfortunately, but something of its former glory does indeed surface each year during the especially meaningful Navaratri, pregnant with the power of Chamundeswari, Mysore’s reigning deity. The festival is celebrated each year with cultural programmes every night in the palace which are open to the public free of cost, in the tradition of old. In this way the entire population can enjoy the performances of the best musicians and vocalists of Carnatic music. Or else there is the elaborate procession with numerous caparisoned elephants, camels, and the like, and other sumptuous regalia.  It is held on a certain day of the festival when the Maharaja would be carried atop one of the elaborately decorated elephants to the temple to pay homage to Chamundeswari, along with all his court. It is only at this time of the year that one can experience the splendour of the palace, alit with thousands of tiny lights, entirely outlining its exquisite architecture. This would be fairyland, if ever there was one.

I was especially excited over the idea of at last visiting Mysore during this special festival for which it was renowned. There would be scores of people from all parts of the country; but the really large influx was likely to take place further on in the festival when the culmination would be reached from the 6^th to the 9^th nights. Throughout there would be recitations by the pundits of the Devi Mahatmaya, the ancient verses detailing the Goddess’s fierce battles with the asuric powers, leading up to her great victory over Tarak on the 9^th night. Indeed, throughout India, if one is sensitive to these subtle movements of energy, the progressive increase of ‘combustible’ force is palpable.

I was therefore especially pleased that the race was scheduled during the Navaratri, which would give me the opportunity to see Mysore at its best. In addition, and this was certainly of greater significance, 8 Ocotober happened to be the anniversary of my first meeting in India with the Mother, twenty-three years earlier, after a process straddling 9 months, each of which seemed to encompass one of the 9 nights of the festival. The 9^th month of the year, September, found me whisked away from Rome, where this ‘initiation’ was taking place in the true tradition, to India. And in the 10^th month, October, similar to the 10^th day of the festival, I knelt before the Divine Mother, the ‘daughter’ returning ‘home’ after a victorious conquest on the occult planes of the forces opposing the power of the Goddess.

Indeed, it needs to be emphasised that Myth, and in particular of this order, involving the Third Power, or the Daughter Principle, is played out on the subtle planes. The Durga Myth is especially connected to the vital plane. It is there that the Daughter conquers the forces of destruction. Thereafter that victory bears fruit on the physical plane. The birth of the divine Son is a result of that victorious achievement in the vital dimension of being. The Third Power is entrusted with the task of ‘putting order’ in that subtle dimension. The main weapon she uses in this conquest is the Trident, given to her by Lord Shiva. Its trifold form is significant of her position as third in the Trinity, which the trident itself symbolises. Moreover, and this is especially important to note, Durga or Chamundeswari is depicted in Hindu iconography as holding this sacred weapon over the head of the Asura in a descending, downward direction. This refers to her role and the others of the Trinity, the 9, and 6, descending, contracting and compacted into the Zero for the birth of the One, the Son.

On the other hand, the mythic equivalent of that One, Skanda or Murugan, the divine Son of Shiva and Parvati (Durga), holds a single-bodied weapon with which he too conquers. In the iconography he is depicted holding the Vel, or sacred Lance, pointing upward not downward. As I have indicated time and again, this refers to the Axis which evolves precisely out of the perfect tri-part Centre, of which Durga is the Third Power. These iconographical details are exact representations of the highest Knowledge, and they are corroborated by the lived experience today of this new and applied cosmology.

Thus, the atmosphere throughout the country and especially in the area of our racing experience was being charged by the onset of the Navaratri, increasing with each night that passed. From Bangalore we set out for Mysore by car in the afternoon of the 7^th, several hours after the horse float had left, carrying F2 and five other horses being transported to Mysore for their respective races the next day. However, there was great agitation in the air, we soon discovered. The atmosphere was not only charged with the fervour of the approaching culmination of the Durga Festival, but also because of tension created on the political level. Protests had been going on because of a certain policy recently implemented to transmit news over national television in Urdu, the language of Muslims in the subcontinent. Without going into the pros and cons of these developments, suffice to say that when I reached Bangalore one wondered whether races would be held or cancelled, given the tension prevailing throughout the area. Only under the most unavoidable circumstances will races be cancelled or postponed; schedules are set long in advance and the racing dates are published before the season starts. Threats and counter-threats were heard each day, each side seeking to force the Government to cancel or to maintain the transmission, as the case may be.

But the races were not cancelled and we set out for Mysore that afternoon by car; owner, trainer and jockey, following F2 who was not yet up to par in her preparation for this most important race of her career to date. The city was in the grip of a mounting tension, similar to the growing tension or accumulation of force on the vital plane due to the Navaratri, then in its third day. As we proceeded toward the road leading out of Bangalore to Mysore, we were stopped by youths running toward our car, signalling us to go no further. We continued, only to encounter more such groups fleeing in different directions. The air was charged with the atmosphere of riots. We began to see signs everywhere of the anger of the protesting mobs: buses were being burnt, cars and transport vehicles had their windows smashed, people were rushing everywhere. We were forced to stop, turn back, as right in front of us the windows of a bus were being smashed by a frenzied group of youths; even private vehicles were not being spared.

Our car made its way safely through this mayhem in a maze of side- streets where we came upon several horse floats from the Club, stationed by the side of the road. Their windows had been smashed and the drivers were forced to turn back and take refuge in these residential areas off the main roads. The horses being transported for their races in Mysore were still inside; they had been in there since early morning. The grooms and handlers could do nothing for them other than provide water and feed. There was no question of unloading them in the middle of this tension and agitation, though there had even been threats of burning the floats with the horses inside.

It was a dreadful situation. The three of us were overcome with anxiety about the fate of F2’s float. The drivers of the floats we met had no idea what had happened to the others which had left the Club somewhat later.

We hastened to find a telephone and found one in a more secluded area, a shop which luckily had not downed its shutters at the onset of the riots as almost all others had done. Contacting the Club, we were informed that F2’s float had returned safely hours earlier. Having left somewhat later than the others, this convoy was able to gauge the situation and turn back in time, before finding itself in the thick of the trouble, unable to go forward or turn back safely like the vehicles we had encountered. Others found themselves out of the city and on the highway to Mysore when the situation went completely out of control. One such was the float carrying F2’s main competitor. The astute driver, instead of proceeding and risking damage or being burnt, took refuge in the premises of a nearby biscuit factory where he had to wait until nightfall before returning to the Club. The horses were enclosed inside the float for perhaps 12 hours, a significant stress on these performing athletes, charged for a race.

F2 had escaped these hardships. For her the only confusion was that she had been loaded in the float, signalling to her that she was being sent out for a race, only to find herself within a short time unloaded and back home!

But for us this tragedy, in which dozens of people were killed and countless injured, was a bizarre blessing. The race was called off. But since F2’s sweepstakes race was a sponsored event with the highest prize money in that category for the season, it was unlikely that the card for that day would be cancelled entirely. In the meantime, we had a grace period of several days until a new date was set. No one was sure when that would be and various possibilities were mooted. But there was a 9-power day approaching, – the 12^th of October. I sensed that this would be the day. Moreover, I announced that if indeed the race was re-scheduled for that day, F2 would win. There was no doubt about it, she would win. It was not because this dramatic turn of events had given us a few more days to prepare the filly, who was badly in need of more time, that I made this categorical statement. Rather, it was the power of the 9 that encouraged me to believe we were in the midst of one of those rare and decisive ‘convergences’ of time and circumstances, and that a Power was ‘in control’ of events beyond the scope and wisdom of mere mortals, and that we were in the protective embrace of Durga/Chamundeswari whose conquering force was moving all things and all beings according to her divine plan. A new date set on a 9-power day was her signature.

This, of course, is not a simple matter to discuss or seek to explain ‘rationally’. In the first place, are we justified in being so arrogant and hardhearted as to believe that the Divine Mother had instigated an agitation in all of Bangalore, but especially right on the road to Mysore, the hub of the agitation, just to give us more time to heal and prepare F2 for her up-coming race? Is it proper to hold such beliefs which might, in fact, be deemed fanatical, or even dangerous? At the same time, these unexpected events did occur in the order I have described, and they did contribute to providing those few extra days we were desperately in need of.  Indeed, it was this turn of events that gave not only our team but astute observers of the racing scene a greater confidence in the performance of F2. Trainers who were seeing her condition and observing Adam trying to do his best to get the filly in shape for the race, were all aware that the Gods were smiling on him and had blessed his dedication and determination by this fateful happening.

It would be too simplistic to attribute all this to a response of the Supramental Shakti to our prayers, or a reward for our dedication or honesty or truth, or whatever of the moral attributes which the faithful believe causes the Divine to respond. This may be sufficient to satisfy the religiously fervent, but not a student of this New Way. Rather, the answer lies in a more mathematical accuracy which may or may not satisfy the emotional nature of the devout. And yet in this supramental work the emotional content, the bhakti or devotional, mystical part is not made to suffer or be impoverished in the effort to lay a more scientific foundation for our work. On the contrary, these aspects of the quest and parts of the being are often raised to the highest level of mystical, devotional fervour, while at the same time answering the needs of level-headed, grounded ‘science’. Indeed, this was the case when in the midst of the upsurge of violent, destructive forces one took refuge in the warm and protective embrace of the divine Durga, with the certainty that all was ‘under control’ and that everything, positive or negative, would serve the purposes of the One.

That ‘one’ held the key to the entire affair. At the centre of this newly-formed convergence of three powers, 9/6/3 of rajas, sattva, tamas, stood the Horse. The RELEASE occasioned by this compaction and the consolidation thereby of the Zero-nucleus was such that it could hold in the midst of the greatest agitation and turmoil. It was its own protection by virtue of this centering which placed it in another dimension, governed by other laws, where destructive forces such as those unleashed throughout the city could not impinge. It is not that the riots came because F2 needed more time before her race, and that this was the answer to our prayers. It was that F2’s poise and the existence of a Centre MADE USE of all converging and circumscribing circumstances to further its purposes. It is a question of the Centre able to organise circumstances for its expression, in this case the conditions to allow F2 to release that new-found energy.

Above all, it must be borne in mind that the work at this stage of the Descent, involving this question of centering and realignment, deals with the vital plane in large measure. Right now there is a tremendous re-ordering transpiring on that plane, in close proximity with the physical. This is the definition of the ‘bridge’ I have referred to time and again, which the Third contributes to the Work. The ‘order’ established in the vital plane, the ‘field’ of the Third, is that Bridge. It allows the new world to be born which is characterised by a self-engendered protection due to its centrality which places it in a dimension beyond the play of forces inimical to its existence in the physical dimension. The laws by which it is governed place it beyond the reach of the old creation. Indeed, the existence of such a centre in its midst is the signal that the old is destined to be transformed by a process which, under the circumstances, it cannot avoid. The forces of the old creation are doomed to play the role of ‘serving the One’, – whether this be positive or negative, as in the case of the riots which served F2 in her hour of need.

To perceive the workings of the Supramental Shakti requires a consciousness that is all-encompassing and untouched by the limitations a sentimental viewpoint imposes. A reading of the Devi Mahatmaya, with the details of the exploits of Durga in her 9-night siege of Tarak, is sufficient to establish this premise. We are dealing with powerful energies in these matters. Hence the wisdom of the Vedic tradition lies in its formulation of the Vir Marg, or Path of the Hero. Only a warrior of the Divine Mother can withstand the impact her sometimes ruthless actions provoke without flinching. And yet compassion must reign supreme, for this very Mother, ruthless at times and devastating in her use of force, is also the giver of the greatest boons. We were soon to appreciate this benign attribute as the newly-scheduled day for the race approached: 12 October. Indeed, a 9-power day as I had anticipated. The victory, as far as I was concerned, was thus certain.

 

At the Feet of Sri Chamundeswari

 

During the two months from F2’s sensational triumph on 5^th August, I noticed persistent, annoying interferences whenever I would set out to attend her races. This was seen to increase with each win, almost as if there were forces, energies, even little ‘beings’ deputed to place obstacles in the way. An example might be a punctured tire, or some other annoying situation intended to delay arrival. The matter was especially made evident when we left Bangalore for Mysore the very morning of the Equinox race. A punctured tire almost made it necessary to locate another vehicle in which Eve might continue the journey (Adam was already there) so as to reach the race on time. Fortunately the matter did not reach this extreme.

Thus, there seemed to be an increase in such ‘tactics’ the higher up in the scale F2 went. For this sweepstakes the whole area was ablaze, as if a gigantic culmination had been reached and powerful combustible energy had been set off. The intensity and suddenness of the eruption seemed disproportionate to the issue. And because of continuing violence especially along the route to Mysore, the day after F2’s postponed race the floats and trainers had to travel in a convoy with police escort. But by the 12^th everything had settled down and calm returned. There was a card scheduled for that day with a race in which Adam’s favourite gelding had been entered. To accommodate F2’s sponsored sweepstakes, that entire card was cancelled and all the races scheduled to be held on October 8^th were shifted to the 12^th. Adam targeted another race for his gelding: the last day of the season, 21 October.

In the meantime, I had returned to Skambha only to receive the news on arrival that F2’s race had finally been re-scheduled. I therefore set out for Mysore directly from Skambha, together with two other members of our Centre. We reached Mysore in the evening of the 11^th, the 6^th day of the festival and the beginning of its culmination. We were treated to an exotic display of India at her very best, because Mysore was a delight to behold and fulfilled any expectations we might have had.

We discovered when we arrived that there was to be a veena concert at the palace, open to the public. The veena, an ancient stringed instrument, is the most cherished instrument in South India, revered in fact because it is the sacred object of Mahasaraswati. In Hindu iconography, the Goddess is depicted seated on a lotus, holding this instrument in her lap. Approaching the venue, it was difficult to imagine a more elaborate setting for a concert. At one point, while engrossed in the inspired music, we were stunned by the appearance behind the dais where the musicians sat of a procession of elephants, camels, and even cows, all decorated tastefully, accompanied by nagaswaram players (a type of long-necked oboe, especially played on such occasions), drummers, and the like. Temple bells resounded through the air, but the veena concert went on in the midst of it all! The procession was winding its way beneath the arches of the interior of the palace, moving behind the dais and then out into the grounds in front. It was more than fairyland. This was the India of legend come alive before our eyes, as it was perhaps thousands of years ago. The palace itself was not as ancient as the rituals, but its Mysore-style architecture was lit up with thousands of tiny lights outlining its entire body against the deep night. The vast expanse filled with this ‘palace of light’ was awesome.

The setting seemed to enhance the magical atmosphere which had come to characterise our racing experience from the time Eve began to ride again, completing the tri-part nucleus and releasing that precious fuel which F2 seemed especially adept an instrument at utilising. It remained to be seen whether or not her physical condition would permit a fourth consecutive win. She was not the favourite this time. Rather, it was her main competitor who, in addition, was to be ridden by a top jockey. The filly having already won a number of races of this calibre, the public had more confidence in his mount, and this showed in the betting.

The next day, after that magical night in the palace, moved to the core by the sounds of the Goddess Saraswati’s sacred instrument, and in that special setting, the time of the race approached. When F2 entered the paddock, once again she was the object of everyone’s admiration, – public, trainers, officials. After three hard races, reaching the top class, there were no signs of deterioration at all. On the contrary, she continued to improve with each run. But this time we did not know what to expect. The four extra days had indeed been a great boon and were well utilised. She was that much better as a result. But her jump out of the gate was not as clean and as fluid as her other races, indicating a certain reluctance or reticence, and a desire perhaps to protect her left shoulder. Nonetheless, she was able to position herself in front and set her usual fast pace.

Her main competitor, the favourite, was in the hands of an experienced and talented jockey. He knew better than to challenge F2 for the lead at that pace, since his mount could not match F2’s initial speed. Instead he stayed just behind her in second or third position throughout, waiting for the pace to slow down. F2 kept the lead, but in the final stretch one could see that she was not going to relax and then kick off again, picking up speed. Eve rode her out but did not push her in excess. She kept herself still, steady, so as not to unbalance the filly, at a fast pace but without any noticeable acceleration. Yet that seemed enough. The other horses were still unable to reach her. The favourite was just behind in the final 100 metres, but given the pace she could not muster up enough fire power to pass; all her effort had gone to catching up.

Suddenly, with perhaps 50 metres left, another filly came from fourth or fifth position, moving at a terrific pace, gaining speed with each stride, as they all approached the winning post with F2 still leading and the new contender pressing ahead a full force. The crowd began to roar as this filly and F2 were careening neck-and-neck toward the winning post. With F2 barely a head in front and the favourite in third position a length or two behind, what looked like a near-miss turned into a victory. The race had almost been lost, but Eve and F2 had secured a well-deserved fourth consecutive win. The public showed their appreciation as filly and jockey came out of the race to resounding cheers.

It was the type of race that leaves one staggered, drained. By a head it was won, but if there had been a mere 20 metres more to cover, perhaps even less, F2 would have lost. As it was, the distance was not a true 1200 metres. Surprisingly for such a special race, false rails had been set inside the regular rails by 4 metres throughout, thereby increasing the distance accordingly, benefiting those horses who require more distance to catch up with a true sprinter like F2, similar to the filly who almost overtook her at the end of the race.

Eve knew better than to press her mount excessively, given her delicate condition. She rode a masterful race under the circumstances and brought F2 out in just the same condition as she went into the race. She kept her at a fast pace, enough that when fatigue had set in, and with it the real danger of injury, she was well in command and able to guide her steadily to the winning post just that much ahead of all the others to secure a hard-fought win.

In spite of all the obstacles, some covert, which would only come to light later on, F2 had drawn our racing experience into another category. She was not just a Class I horse, – indeed by then at the top of her class. She was a sweepstakes winner. I had always upheld the talents of my fillies, even in the face of their mediocre results and the derision of all. But when F2 steadily moved past the winning post on that 9-power day, not having allowed even one horse to get in front of her in a consecutive four races, along with the rest of her fans I was overcome with admiration and awe. Here was a horse which had been registering meagre results from the beginning. Suddenly, midway through her career and in a brief two months, she was contending the position of top sprinter of the country. In racing, this is indeed the stuff of fairy tale.

 

 

 

F2 exiting her sweepstakes race, Mysore, 12 October 1994

Temple of Goddess Chamundeswari in the background

 

 

The next morning we made a pilgrimage to the temple of Chamundeswari at whose feet this entire episode had unfolded, from the time of Eve’s first ‘accident’ on 22 September 1993. En route, there were pujas to the Goddess being celebrated everywhere, throughout the city, in streets, shops, little shrines, even service stations; wherever one went, her worship was going on. We had very special reason to give thanks by making our way to her sacred abode overlooking the race course on the plains below. F2 had caused Eve agony then, and ecstasy now. With this same creature Eve had known the abyss and the heights. We all had much to thank the Goddess for on that 9^th day of her festival, its culmination. It was, as well, the day pujas are done to Saraswati, since the last three days are dedicated each to one of the three Goddesses; Lakshmi, Kali and Saraswati.

Our racing cycle was thus closed with these 9 wins, – 3 for F1 and 6 for F2, only to open a new one. But the imprinting was done. The new boundary had been set, the spiralling out at the 9 Point had been masterfully accomplished. The dimensions of our racing endeavour had been enlarged and all was perfectly as it should be within the context of the new cosmos we were establishing. The lived experience followed exactly what had been defined by the supramental process: given certain ingredients, a certain alignment and balance, a particular release of energy must take place. Indeed, the precise quantity to reach the 9 summit.

This describes the path of the gnostic being. He or she must find the way to this release and on that basis the individual and collective boundary of destiny can be enlarged. The final quarter of the Gnostic Circle must be unveiled and integrated into our lived experience on this planet, which defines Sri Aurobindo’s promise of a life divine for this Earth.

 

The purpose of this saga is to provide a complete example of a supramental process, through to its culmination, – at least one of its culminations. For this does not mean the saga ends here. Not at all, since there are two more stages to cover with the third and fourth equine athletes taking part, and more to come regarding the contributions of F1 and F2. But one thing has been established: the foundation is laid and it is indestructible. This is the goal in our transition to a life divine.

There were certain matters left to complete the operation and make it ready for the next phase. There was Adam’s licence to secure somehow, which, when concluded, promised to open a new chapter. His talents were being widely acclaimed given F2’s spectacular performance. But the filly had run under another trainer’s name, since Adam was yet to receive a formal licence to train in Bangalore. For that he needed to secure ten Bangalore-based horses. In this context there was still one more item to ‘set in place’ in order to make our nucleus fully operational. Adam had to be centred on our work together, above all the rest. And this involved the horses he needed to make up the stipulated ten.

Previously, when based in Madras, he was training exclusively for his brother who had given him 22 horses. But in moving to Bangalore, his brother was reluctant to provide full support, considering perhaps that Adam would not be successful in gaining a licence in a centre coveted by many trainers. There were good grounds for his reluctance in that he knew Magog’s far-reaching power, and it was widely known that he was opposing Adam’s application in whatever way he could. His brother was therefore slow in offering horses. But he had placed four with him, one more than my three in his care.

Nine days after F2’s sweepstakes win, the last day of the season and a 9-power day, right after the races were over and Adam’s favourite gelding, who belonged to his brother, failed to win, Adam was informed that two of these horses were being given to another trainer in Madras. They were to be removed from Adam’s list of ten immediately, since the float was leaving that evening and these horses were included. Among the two was Adam’s favourite. Thus, unexpectedly he was left without the full count of ten and with hardly any time left to secure  horses from another owner before his application was to be discussed by the Board. But by far the most difficult part was the sudden loss of his gelding, transported off to the unknown, to the care of someone less sensitive to the needs of this particular horse, to whom Adam had been dedicated for so long.

This was the final ingredient and another ruthless display of the Power. Happening on a 9-power day, and 9 days after F2’s culminating win, I realised that this was indeed the close of the season, as well as the end of a chapter. The logic in this latest move seemed quite clear: our racing experience together had to be completely poised around the tri-part energies offered by the three fillies; all the rest was secondary for the time being. If Adam’s brother was to have four and more horses in his stables, and Adam would present  his application for a licence on that basis, with his brother as the main owner, that would not reflect a work balanced around a single point, centred on a unitary principle. There would be two foci and not one. This could not be. In spite of the pain at seeing his favourite gelding depart into the night and handed over to someone less caring and competent, and in spite of the unknowing this produced in the material details of his application for a licence (after all, his future hinged on that application), the Power established the correct basis for our work, seemingly with little care for these mundane details and human concerns.

These are harsh experiences, but in the context of yoga they have great value. They forge an inner strength, a steel-like determination. They thrust us back upon ourselves, because of which we are stimulated to extract a hitherto untapped source of energy and potential. Another value lies in the realisation that there is a Power in control and to which we must offer ourselves in a movement of conscious surrender. This is made simple when we have a gnostic key at our disposal with which we can monitor the often elusive movements of the Supramental Shakti and verify her influence and presence and actions – a key such as the measure of 9 and the Gnostic Circle. In Adam’s case, this Power was especially prominent. Or else, when one undergoes experiences such as Eve’s and the misery of two accidents so minutely controlled that it is  impossible not to SEE the Power behind the affair, arranging each small and larger detail, it is impossible to continue viewing oneself as the doer and ‘in control’ of one’s life, or even in control of the losses or wins in a race. One knows oneself to be a mere puppet, when ignorance prevails and gnosis is absent. Otherwise, when there is a certain illumination, one is a CONSCIOUS instrument and possessed of a conscious awareness. In both cases, Eve’s as well as Adam’s, the harshness is compensated for by the accelerated progress and the ecstasy of ‘seeing what none have eyes to see’.

Without this understanding, it would seem that these are insignificant details, too small to be worth the trouble to describe. But in a new world the result of a new Seeing, ‘everything is symbolic’, as the Mother said of her temple. Yet in this saga we are even redefining the word ‘symbol’. It is precisely this new definition that sets certain demands upon our work which formerly were considered insignificant, having no bearing on a spiritual work. We appreciate by this that indeed we are dealing with the Goddess Saraswati, renowned for her perfection of detail, her meticulous talent for ‘putting each thing in its place’. Sri Aurobindo stated that the presiding deity of this Age was Mahasaraswati. His statement is corroborated by this new cosmology. Mahasaraswati does indeed preside over this 9^th Manifestation of 6,480 years. Science is her child. Art and music as well. But there is more. She gives us the process of things supramental, the minute control over every little detail so that no contamination is found at the heart and in the seed of our new world.

We have seen this Power in action throughout our Saga. Even to the seemingly insignificant question of the amount given for the final entry fee which occasioned so much additional tension, and yet which followed the pattern of a gnostic formula. The fee was ten times the normal 3000 rupees. In a sweepstakes there is a certain amount guaranteed by the sponsor. In addition, there are the accumulated entry fees of all the participants at 3000 each. But my final fee added 30,000 more. The ‘perfection of detail’ was witnessed in the actual cost of this entry, a ‘harmony’ that was complex to arrange since the total stakes can only be tallied once the horses are all entered. Some are withdrawn before the entire amount is paid. Therefore, one cannot be sure until two days before the race just what the full stake money will be. The winner then receives 60% of that total. 30,000 was my contribution, 60% of which is 18,000 (9); and this would come to me by way of the win, leaving 12,000 (3) in the pool to be distributed to the second, third, and so on. Deducting the normal fee of 3000 which I would have had to pay had we entered F2 on time, this leaves 9000 as the actual amount ‘lost’. Indeed, had F2 lost the race, of course our loss would have been the full 30,000. But given the power of the 9, or the Goddess, clearly this was not meant to be. 9000 was more in harmony with the formula, 9, 6, and 3, as were all the numbers involved.

It is this sort of seemingly insignificant detail that one refuses to accept as relevant in a spiritual endeavour. One labels these details ‘coincidence’. Yet how many such coincidences are required before our scepticism is dissolved and one begins ‘to see in a new way’? In that vision with its compelling breadth and profundity, the mosaic is formed of countless little details of this order, without which our aspiration for a harmony of the One and the Many would not be satisfied. Life in the universe of 9, this material dimension, is a symphony of Number, formed of a thousand million minor and major harmonies, each note of which is related to the whole and consonant with the totality of notes we can ‘hear’ when realigned according to the supramental way. We do not ‘hear’ this harmony because we have no tool to do so. We are closed in our egocentrism and its binary prison, whereby nothing exists that cannot be cramped into the space of our impoverished ‘system’ of meagre energy and dim light. From this prison we view the world and on the basis of which we act, we pretend to evolve and move up the ladder of creation to something more refined and worthy of a species made in ‘God’s image’. But we believe that only OUR will prevails, only OUR mental judgements and mental ideas are valid and real, OUR life as we know it and live it alone is true. The rest is illusion, superstition, even dementia. We cannot perceive the Divine Maya executing the plan of a divine Harmony through us. We cling to our impotent condition because we consider only ourselves the originators of all that we can know with our senses made dull by a constant depletion of energy due to our binary condition.

Instead, the Goddess does it all, arranges each little and large detail. We are privileged to be her instruments in this grand Harmony and to see what none yet have eyes to see, but which Sri Aurobindo has ‘seen’ of Mahasaraswati, recorded in his collection of essays, The Mother. It was to this Goddess, as he has described her, that we paid homage in our pilgrimage to Chamundeswari’s abode the 9^th day of the Festival, Mahasaraswati’s day. Thereafter, the victorious ‘daughters’ returned ‘home’.

 

‘Mahasaraswati is the Mother’s Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order. The youngest of the four (Mothers), she is the most skilled in executive faculty and the nearest to physical Nature. Maheswari lays down the large lines of the world-forces, Mahakali drives their energy and impetus, Mahalakshmi discovers their rhythms and measures, but Mahasaraswati presides over their detail of organisation and execution, relation of parts and effective combination of forces and unfailing exactitude of result and fulfilment. The science and craft and technique of things are Mahasaraswati’s province. Always she holds in her nature and can give to those whom she has chosen intimate and precise knowledge, the subtlety and patience, the accuracy of intuitive mind and conscious hand and discerning eye of the perfect worker. This Power is the strong, the tireless, the careful and efficient builder, organiser, administrator, technician, artisan and classifier of the worlds. When she takes up the transformation and new-building of the nature, her action is laborious and minute and often seems to our impatience slow and interminable, but it is persistent, integral and flawless. For the will in her works is scrupulous, unsleeping, indefatigable; leaning over us she notes and touches every little detail, finds out every minute defect, gap, twist or incompleteness, considers and weighs accurately all that has been done and all that remains still to be done hereafter. Nothing is too small or apparently trivial for her attention; nothing however impalpable or disguised or latent can escape her. Moulding and re-moulding she labours each part till it has attained its true form, is put in its exact place in the whole and fulfils its precise purpose. In her constant and diligent arrangement and rearrangement of things her eye is on all needs at once and the way to meet them and her intuition knows what is to be chosen and what rejected and successfully determines the right instrument, the right time, the right conditions and the right process. Carelessness and negligence and indolence she abhors; all scamped and hasty and shuffling work, all clumsiness and à peu près  and misfire, all false adaptation and misuse of instruments and faculties and leaving of things undone or half done is offensive and foreign to her temper. When her work is finished, nothing has been forgotten, no part has been misplaced or omitted or left in a faulty condition; all is solid, accurate, complete, admirable. Nothing short of a perfect perfection satisfies her and she is ready to face an eternity of toil if that is needed for the fullness of her creation. Therefore of all the Mother’s powers she is the most long-suffering with man and his thousand imperfections. Kind, smiling, close and helpful, not easily turned away or discouraged, insistent even after repeated failure, her hand sustains our every step on condition that we are single in our will and straightforward and sincere; for a double mind she will not tolerate and her revealing irony is merciless to drama and histrionics and self-deceit and pretence. A mother to our wants, a friend in our difficulties, a persistent and tranquil counsellor and mentor, chasing away with her radiant smile the clouds of gloom and fretfulness and depression, reminding always of the ever-present help, pointing to the eternal sunshine, she is firm, quiet and persevering in the deep and continuous urge that drives us towards the integrality of the higher nature. All the work of the other Powers leans on her for completeness; for she assures the material foundation, elaborates the stuff of detail and erects and rivets the armour of the structure.’

 

The Void gives up its Dead

 

The ‘daughters’ returned home for the 10^th Day, when traditionally daughters in Hindu society do return to their parents abode for the Vijaya Dashami, or the 10^th Day of Victory, in yearly commemoration of this hallowed myth. It had been played out in full, forces in opposition were conquered, but not for the usual purpose or to serve moralistic needs. This conquering, as Durga achieves over Tarakasura, is also ‘with a purpose’. That is, to serve the One. In the New Way, victory over those hostile powers is achieved when they are made to serve that One: they are organised, ordered, set in place. That is, they are INTEGRATED into the new cosmos. Otherwise, what would be the point?

If this Yoga of the Horse was simply the victory of good over evil, there would be no newness about it. Succinctly, it would mean that there was no birth of the One; or, as in the case of the Parvati/Durga myth, no birth of the divine warrior Son of Shiva. That having happened, the Goddess’s exploits cannot be of the order commonly found in myth. There has to be ‘something else’.

In this Yoga of the Horse, the Point, or the One, exists or came into being: the centre was forged at the heart of which stands that One. This is the ‘core of a divine Purpose’. It alters the entire panorama of our quest. Thereafter, everything has to be set in place, the energies circumscribing that core. This means that the Core does not bring a destruction of hostile powers. For if that were the case, then the method employed would have to be the old one, the one that has spawned a whole creation characterised by mortality, decay and collapse.

On the other hand, we are describing in these pages the new way, the way of harmony and integration. This means that Destruction, the third mode of the trinity, is TRANSFORMED. Dissolution is the new mode. This indicates another mechanism in operation by which energies are unknotted, if it may be so called. They are no longer isolated pockets in orbit of a void and hence able to create havoc, similar to a fragment from the Asteroid Belt without any binding core. Rather, the existence of a centrepoint means that there is a compelling mass which acts like the core of the Sun. And this has the power – i.e., concentration, or mass – to draw into its system or the emerging cosmos, those uncentred pockets of isolated, hardened energy. In the system they are OBLIGED to serve the purposes of that centrepoint; and indeed to further that purpose. We may even go so far as to state that in many cases their ‘service’ is, if not more precious, at least more decisive, since these pockets of hardened energy, which we call ‘hostile powers’, have trapped more energy than the other elements of the cosmos. It is a sort of ‘dark matter’ and this hitherto rebellious energy must be ordered, drawn into orbit of the centre-core and made to release its energy into the system which then accelerates the process, speeds up the manifestation from that Centre.

This is the meaning of Dissolution. What is dissolved is the ego structure which imprisons energy in orbit of a void: purposeless. That is, division, separation – not integration and oneness. The binary structure gives way to the unitary. In such a case, the ego function is superseded. It is no longer the mechanism to further evolution – as, for example, the current method of procreation which the ego structure, or the binary system utilises to facilitate and ensure continuity of the species. This new creation is propelled forward in its growth differently. It manifests from the centre, and from centre to centre. That is, a centre comes into existence, and another, and another. Right within and in the midst of the old. These centres usurp energy for their self-expression. That is, while fed by an ever-replenishing inner source, the cosmos of which they stand as luminous suns draws to itself by attraction those hardened pockets of dark matter ‘out there’ and dismantles the resistance which arises from energies in orbit of a void; and then that RELEASE is utilised to drive the manifestation. Like the recent discoveries regarding gyroscopes which have been discovered recently to propel a mechanism, seeming to contradict the laws of physics, this system is powered by balance and speed and alignment just like the cosmos we inhabit. And this is the way the world is transformed. Our moralistic ideas, or the attainments of the old spirituality, are useless for such a task. There has to be a mathematical, cosmological process to transform the old. Meaning, somehow the old has to ‘give up its dead’, to quote St John’s Revelation.

This is the New Way, the way of Dissolution and no longer Destruction: the truly non-violent way. Its keyword is control, which comes about only when there exists a centre and then an axis. On this basis, as I had explained in the early part of this study, the Supramental Shakti can ‘intervene’ because there is an emerging cosmos and centre-axis through which and by means of which, intervention produces action which is non-violent because it does not destroy or impose itself or force its way from the periphery upon all things in the cosmos.

This is the definition of Harmony: all things held in orbit of the Sun of Truth-Consciousness, to further the purposes of the One. There is no cacophony in such a system. What is being described here is simply the Cosmic Harmony. Can we say that the music of the spheres is a disharmony or a cacophony? The theme is the One, the essential Raga. The improvisation is the contribution of individual souls in orbit of that One, enhancing, embellishing, re-discovering the true divine Theme, expressed in multifarious new ways.

The Saga continues and we move forward in the discovery and establishment of that new supramental way for the world. The entire racing experience hereinafter could be more mathematical – arcane as well as mundane. The reason why it could not be prior to our consolidation was due to ‘gaps’ left in the nuclear structure. This meant  imbalance and indeed gaps through which unforeseen elements could enter the system and overturn calculations. There is the esoteric or deeper significance to this, – that is, relating to the cosmos in formation and the mathematical precision with which one can foresee with power the future course. For it is not a question of prediction based on a selection among numerous possibilities which, in this case, must also take into consideration the volatile, impressionable and unpredictable nature of the horse in addition to all the rest. In this New Way there is no such circumstance beyond the ‘control’ of the Centre. Horse included. Indeed, the horse is perhaps the least likely to step out of the harmony or permit an unexpected and unforeseen ‘asteroid’ to create havoc, as when a void lies at the centre.

In future issues, we will go deeply into these ‘mathematics’. I will discuss the workings of simultaneous time, or what Sri Aurobindo refers to as trikaladrishsti (‘three-time vision’) in the final chapter of his Synthesis of Yoga, which he entitled, ‘Towards the Supramental Time Vision’. Not clairvoyance, but by seeing that is power, when time is experienced in the Core. This is the property of a centre with an axis – the theme of our next treatment of the Yoga of the Horse.

 

 

February of 1995

Aeon Centre of Cosmology

at Skambha

 

 

 

 

Sri Aurobindo

 

 

‘The Mother’

from Chapter VI

 

…If you desire this transformation, put yourself in the hands of the Mother and her Powers without cavil or resistance and let her do unhindered her work within you. Three things you must have, consciousness, plasticity, unreserved surrender. For you must be conscious in your mind and soul and heart and life and the very cells of your body, aware of the Mother and her Powers and their working; for although she can and does work in you even in your obscurity and your unconscious parts and moments, it is not the same thing as when you are in an awakened and living communion with her. All your nature must be plastic to her touch, not questioning as the self-sufficient ignorant mind questions and doubts and disputes and is the enemy of its enlightenment and change; not insisting on its own movements as the vital in man insists and persistently opposes its refractory desires and ill-will to every divine influence; not obstructing and entrenched in incapacity, inertia and tamas as man’s physical consciousness obstructs and clinging to its pleasure in smallness and darkness cries out against each touch that disturbs its soulless routine or its dull sloth or its torpid slumber. The unreserved surrender of your inner and outer being will bring this plasticity into all the parts of your nature; consciousness will awaken everywhere in you by constant openness to the Wisdom and Light, the Force, the Harmony and Beauty, the Perfection that come flowing down from above. Even the body will awake and unite at last its consciousness subliminal no longer to the supramental super-conscious Force, feel her powers permeating from above and below and around it and thrill to a supreme Love and Ananda.

But be on your guard and do not try to understand and judge the Divine Mother by your little earthly mind that loves to subject even the things that are beyond it to its own norms and standards, its narrow reasonings and erring impressions, its bottomless aggressive ignorance and its petty self-confident knowledge. The human mind shut in the prison of its half-lit obscurity cannot follow the many-sided freedom of the steps of the Divine Shakti. The rapidity and complexity of her vision and action outrun its stumbling comprehension; the measures of her movement are not its measures. Bewildered by the swift alteration of her many different personalities, her making of rhythms and her breaking of rhythms, her accelerations of speed and her retardations, her varied ways of dealing with the problem of one and her gathering of them together, it will not recognise the way of the Supreme Power when it is circling and sweeping upwards through the maze of the Ignorance to a supernal Light. Open rather your soul to her and be content to feel her with the psychic nature and see her with the psychic vision that alone make a straight response to the Truth. Then the Mother herself will enlighten by their psychic elements your mind and heart and life and physical consciousness and reveal to them too her ways and her nature.

Avoid also the error of the ignorant mind’s demand on the Divine Power, to act always according to our crude surface notions of omniscience and omnipotence. For our mind clamours to be impressed at every turn by miraculous powers and easy success and dazzling splendour; otherwise it cannot believe that here is the Divine. The Mother is dealing with the Ignorance; she has descended there and is not all above. Partly she veils and partly she unveils her knowledge and her power, often holds them back from her instruments and personalities and follows that she may transform them the way of the seeking mind, the way of the aspiring psychic, the way of the battling vital, the way of the imprisoned and suffering physical nature. There are conditions that have been laid down by a Supreme Will, there are many tangled knots that have to be loosened and cannot be cut abruptly asunder. The Asura and the Rakshasa hold this evolving earthly nature and have to be met and conquered on their own terms in their own long-conquered fief and province; the human in us has to be led and prepared to transcend its limits and is too weak and obscure to be lifted up suddenly to a form far beyond it. The Divine Consciousness and Force are there and do at each moment the thing that is needed in the conditions of the labour, take always the step that is decreed and shape in the midst of imperfection the perfection that is to come. But only when the supermind has descended in you can she deal directly as the supramental Shakti with supramental natures. If you follow your mind, it will not recognise the Mother even when she is manifest before you. Follow your soul and not your mind, your soul that answers to the Truth, not your mind that leaps at appearances; trust the Divine Power and she will free the godlike element in you and shape all into an expression of Divine Nature.

The supramental change is a thing decreed and inevitable in the evolution of the earth-consciousness; for its upward ascent is not ended and mind is not the last summit. But that the change may arrive, take form and endure, there is needed the call from below with a will to recognise and not deny the Light when it comes, and there is needed the sanction of the Supreme from above. The power that mediates between the sanction and the call is the presence and power of the Divine Mother. The Mother’s power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal’s Ananda.

 

 

 In a cosmological process bearing an impact on the evolution of consciousness on this planet, affecting its higher species in a significant way, there are two aspects to the formation of the mechanism that is able to bring this about. We have first the formation of a ‘centre’ on the basis of a harmony of a threefold nature: the OM of the mechanism, to borrow the Vedic terminology. Three energy modes must be compressed into the Zero for a centre to come into being. This action is on the order of a contracting movement or direction. Pressure is thus exerted in order for this Zero/Centre to emerge.

 In a given situation for a ‘cosmos’ in formation, there is a particular boundary to be respected. Within that a certain quantity of energy is contained. In the early stages of the process those energies come to bear a pressure on the components of the nucleus so that it is purged of any contamination which would impede the future manifestation of the inner truth of that ‘seed’. Thus, for a given period until maturity is reached, or a critical threshold is crossed in time, the element or elements to be involved or compressed in the Zero are the target of the pressure for the purpose of extirpating any impurities which the ego inflicts, given its binary and not unitary condition.

We are describing here the method placed at the disposal of seekers to affect a real and not illusory transformation of society, based on a principle which applies to the individual as well as to the collectivity as a whole. This method is devised to bring about a shift from the actual binary status of the human race to a unitary structure which then alters entirely the conditions of collective living on Earth.

The first major effect of such a shift is the factor of a spherical as opposed to a linear progression. And the immediate change this brings into our affairs is that we can no long speak of evolution to describe this progression. When the shift is made the growth process undergoes a notable change: it is then a flowering from a central ‘seed’ in all directions simultaneously. In the old creation the movement has been linear. This means that one sets out from one point to reach another, in a linear direction rather than spherical. In such a condition nothing can be ‘predicted’. We are in a relative world of probables, only because anywhere along the trajectory ‘possibilities’ which are ‘unpredictable’ can enter or penetrate the environment of the system, introducing an indeterminate equation.

In a spherical growth process this is not possible since the movement is from the centre outward, – a movement of expansion from a central point. That is, what is contained in that seed is impelled from within by the power of time to develop its inherent potential or character into a predetermined element. Conditions encountered in the course of that manifestation can play upon that seed/centre, but not significantly enough to alter entirely its essential content, for reasons I will discuss anon.

Indeed, this describes only a part of the process – the emergence of a centre disconnected from the circle’s periphery; or the field in which the manifestation arises. In the last instalment of our Horse Saga, I discussed at length the Mother’s narration of her penetration into a centre, a compaction of time and space BEFORE the critical threshold had been crossed to bring into being extension or expansion of what had been compacted. Therefore there was no ‘goal’, no ‘purpose’, to quote the Mother. Indeed, no movement essential for these components to express themselves. What I am describing in these pages is precisely the next stage after compaction. While describing the creation of a centre (which the Mother explored), I am also carrying the discussion further to the creation of a new cosmos, the extension of that centre/seed. This would be the method that ensures us of a means to utilise this initial experiment for the transformation of society. In these pages I am able to offer a very minute, detailed description and analysis of the process which will be the model for a new world to come into being.

Thus, in a spherical progression there is a notable difference with the linear evolution of the old creation. In the first place, the question of ‘improbables’ and ‘unpredictabilities’ ceases to pertain. Indeed, if we penetrate into that seed/space we will be able to foresee the precise lines of development because we know that out of the seed of a tree we cannot expect a rose to emerge. The question would then be, How to penetrate this recondite space from where the lines of destiny are drawn?

But this too is only the first step. It involves the formation of a centre. Thereafter, a further stage presents the necessity to organise the field wherein this seed-essence is to take shape. The necessity for this further stage is obvious in that the periphery, or the field, can distort or influence negatively the contents of the seed unless a method arises which ensures it a terrain congenial to its innermost truth.

 

Definition of an Axis and the functions of a Field

 

There are two functions of the field. One is to create pressure so that the centre in formation is purified of all ego elements, – i.e., the characteristics of the binary creation; and this is an action of compression, a pressing in upon the centre from all sides, as it were; and second, when that centre is finally forged an AXIS arises based on the harmonisation of the two converging directions, contraction and expansion. The axis then allows for the real and true transformation of that particular field. Without the axis no such transformation is possible since the centre holds the periphery to itself by virtue of the converging lines which arise from itself, the extension of which is an axis. The axis is then steadied by this centrality. Energy wraps around itself due to a reversal brought about by the power of time, a turning around itself as it were. And this is the definition of an axis in the new cosmology. Its composition, measurement, the extension of its ‘influence’, or holding power, and its power to organise, are determined by the centre itself and the spherical boundaries of which it lies at the heart. The axis will be proportionate to this measurement. An individual’s soul-power, in common parlance, would determine the measure of one’s axis and consequent ‘influence’. In the terms of this new cosmology we refer to it as ‘mass’.

In the second phase, once the centre has been forged on the basis of pressures on an uncontaminated balance of triune energies, the field can be dealt with and transformed. Until that time there is no question of a transformation of the field. And yet the field is an integral part of the cosmos and is utilised in full for its processes. Before the centre is forged, however, the field is utilised only to create conditions whereby the centre is purified and the harmony of its parts comes into being. That is, the question of its own purification or transformation does not arise. Hence we say that in this stage of the process both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE serve the purposes of the One.

The service rendered by the energies of the field, or the periphery, is invaluable in this early stage. Without those energies organised to create conditions for purification and emergence of a true centre, nothing could be accomplished. The very notion of a centre itself arises from the compression of the Transcendent Divine into the immanence of Itself. It is this ‘seed’ that lies at the root of all Being. On this basis, the divine Purpose, or the One, attracts to itself the energies or elements necessary for its emergence at the heart of a nucleus formed of the triune energies which are its vehicle of extension or expression in a material creation. In this early stage the centre has only sufficient ‘mass’ to attract or contract upon itself the energies within the boundary of the emerging cosmos; and these are utilised to bring about the proper alignment WITHIN THE CENTRE so that its future manifestation is secured on the basis of a superior cosmic harmony. It is only when this alignment of energies is complete within itself that the compression becomes inverted, as it were, and the reversal brings into existence an axis. Thus the first step is the creation of a true centre at the heart of the emerging cosmos of an as yet untransformed field.

However, if we leave the field to the Ignorance indefinitely, or to its ineluctable fate of collapse, there would be no means to transform conditions on Earth so that a new creation can replace the old. The present impasse is an evolution caving in on itself. Destruction is overpowering and threatens to engulf the creative energies and bring about a cataclysmic pralaya, to use the Vedic terminology. When we state that it is growth of the light in the Core which dispels the darkness and conquers more and more of the field now under the rule of the Lord of Ignorance and Falsehood, we mean that after reversal the axis comes into being which can then bring order into the periphery for its purification. It too must be brought into the Harmony as an integral part, an integrated part of the full transformation.

To provide an example, Eve’s latest accident, timed to halt before she had even begun any participation in the summer season of racing under the banner of Gog’s stable, was the latest in a series of pressures exerted by the play of circumstances proper to the action of the field. These pressures converge on the elements of the nucleus given its restricted ‘mass’ to bring about the correct alignment and balance of its energies. Whatever is not properly aligned must be pressured, by the compulsions of the nucleus in formation, to re-align and form a true and pure and integrated component of the central harmony of the Seed.

In the last issue, I reproduced a chapter from Sri Aurobindo’s collection of essays entitled, The Mother. The process of purification and correct alignment he describes therein refers to the individual’s poise vis-à-vis the Divine Mother. He did not describe the next stage when the individual must become integrated into a supramental process or yoga for the harmony of the One and the Many, or the Being and the Becoming. This latter has become possible only after the Supramental Manifestation of 1956, and the accelerated movement of the process from 1971 to the present. Nonetheless, the lines of the yoga Sri Aurobindo enumerates, the stages in the individual transformation are the same for the collective experience. The centre/axis is the same. Indeed, when an individual accomplishes this transformation, he/she can then serve as a spark around which another cosmos is formed and the process is extended into ever wider spheres, or draws into its circumference more and more energies to be realigned.

With this understanding of the larger lines of the Yoga, we can analyse the particulars of this Horse Saga, dramatic as they often have been, in the light of these larger questions of the cosmos in formation which are sought to be elaborated in this analysis. All the elements of the tri-part nucleus were under relentless pressure engendered by the play of energies in the field to bring them into alignment for the establishment of a nucleus, out of which the whole experience would then evolve as an intrinsic component for the wider transformation. Eve’s accident at the very start of the race, – nay, before even the race had begun – made riding for Gog impossible in that new summer season, due to a carefully controlled happening, unpleasant as it was, in order to exert pressure on the consciousness of this particular element to bring it into a proper alignment. But this was only the first in a series of unusual and unexpected happenings, all ‘serving the purposes of the One’.

 

Precision of the Triads

 

As students of the New Way know, I have allotted the action of reversal to the 4.5 Orbit in the Gnostic Circle. The reasons for this are obvious, given that it marks the mid-point in the circles of 9 and 12 which constitute this design. I have also connected the One, or the birth of the Son, fourth in the line, to that same location, the 4.5 Orbit. Indeed, the reversal is what allows the immanent Transcendent to cross the Zero threshold, after compression, and enter the material universe as the Point, or the One, fulfilling thereby the formula 9/6/3/0-1. The essence of that Point, or the One, is what I have called the divine Purpose. In other words, this ‘principle’, or first Cause, lies at the heart of everything we can perceive in this material creation, since from that Origin in the One the universe had its being.

But the multiplication of that Seed, so to speak, depends upon the power of time in space, and hence movement which is regulated by time. The Horse as symbol of this movement is therefore known as a form of Agni, first of the Gods in the Vedic pantheon, and carrier or vahana of Usha, the divine Dawn. It is this symbol that becomes the thing symbolised in our saga as the vehicle of that One, or that divine Purpose. As stated, this emergence is the product of passage over the 4.5 Orbit. In other words, once the midway mark is crossed, the higher hemisphere of the circle is entered on the basis of a new principle of fullness due to the birth of the One which has filled the zero-void.

This was the first condition in the ancient Vedic realisation of Immortality. In our saga the translation of that condition is as mathematical and exact as everything else has been in the fulfilment of the divine Purpose we are called upon to carry forward.

To illustrate, there is a lower and a higher hemisphere, each composed of six signs of the zodiac. In turn, these signs correspond to one of the three energy flows, rajas, sattva, tamas; or, cardinal, fixed, and mutable, as these ‘qualities’ are known in  astrology. The signs of the higher hemisphere which begin right at the 4.5 Orbit of the Asteroid Belt, or the 7^th zodiacal sign, Libra, is illustrated below:

 

 

I had pointed out earlier that the fillies by their dates of birth covered the three energy flows: F1 as rajas or cardinal; F2 as tamas or mutable; and F3 as sattva or fixed. Their positions are indicated in the above illustration. Left out, it can be noted, are the remaining three signs of the higher hemisphere, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn. Interestingly, and true to the exactitude of this new cosmology, owner, trainer and jockey, by their birthdates, do indeed complete this zodiacal/Gnostic Circle mosaic with trainer born in Scorpio, jockey in Sagittarius, and owner in Capricorn. Therefore, these six elements cover the entire higher hemisphere, entered into after passage over the 4.5 Orbit, in this precise manner.

It would have been quite possible and not so extraordinary a circumstance for the fillies to cover the three energy modes since most Thoroughbred births occur in the early  months of the year. Covering of broodmares is done to ensure birth as close to the start of the year as possible in order to have the advantage of a few months of extra growth with respect to the other equine competitors who might have been born later in the year. Mares are not covered before mid-February and after mid-July, at the latest. The gestation period of the foal being eleven months, this late covering would mean birth in June, perhaps 5 months later than the early foals and hence place the new-born at a disadvantage for racing.

If F1 had not been ‘unplanned’ and her birth ‘unexpected’, she might have easily fulfilled the triune formula by birth in January, let us say, under the sign Capricorn which is also Rajas or cardinal, similar to her actual birth sign, Libra. But had that been the case, we would have had a doubling of Capricorn and the design, covering the entire higher hemisphere, would have been disturbed. Libra would have been missing.

It is needless to point out that considerable ‘strategy’ and ‘pre-planning’ was required for the successful composition of this mosaic, involving births strung out over numerous decades of this century, starting in 1938, up to 1992 and the birth of F3. Within these 54 years, or 6 x 9, six births took place, all connected, all destined to converge at a given moment in time to fulfil the commands of the Supramental Shakti in the predetermined roles she had devised for each one in this new cosmic process.

But the ‘coincidences’ do not stop there. F3 was indeed the third in the line of fillies, and her birth took place precisely in a year of 3 number-power, 1992(=3). With that, the 54 year cycle of 6 x 9 passages through the Gnostic Circle was completed. But then there came a 4^th in 1993, or a year of 4 number-power. The birth of this colt, fourth in the line, fulfilled the formula of 9/6/3/0-1, with the birth of the One as the ‘son’, after the compression of the three components of the Zero. And this did indeed take place in the 55^th year from 1938, or the 1 after 54. The details of his participation, as well as that of his sister before him, await the fulfilment of time’s mysterious ‘purpose’.

 

Precision of Time and Number: the Supramental Manifestation

 

We learn by this divergence into these cosmic patterns on the backdrop of the Gnostic Circle, that the destiny ties of all the protagonists of this saga were decreed and simply awaited a ripening of Time to unfold. We learn also that there is a controlling Power operating in the universe to fulfil this destiny-pattern and arrange circumstances to allow these patterns to play themselves out. Further, we learn that the basic formula of our cosmology, 9/6/3/0-1, is a solid foundation of the new gnosis Sri Aurobindo prophesied would descend, and that ever so many aspects of this emerging cosmos are bound to the lines of this formula and harmony in time. To explain why this is so I will reproduce a narration of the Mother, recorded on 5 February 1969, in which she describes the exact, unmistakable formula of the new cosmology which was only to be revealed several years after her ‘seeing’, in 1971, to be precise. She describes the existence of the two ‘lines’ of our cosmology, their composition and intrinsic qualities, essence and function. She describes the principles to which they apply. She speaks of the role of ‘planets’, or ‘number’, all with her usual impeccable clairvoyance, – nay, her power of revelation. More than that, for the operation she describes was not simply a seeing of the lines of a new cosmic formula, she insists that these ‘numbers’ and the patterns which she arranged or organised, had POWER, a power of realisation and actualisation. (Translated from the French, L’Agenda de Mere, Volume 10, first published 1981):

 

…I remember a vision I had during the night where I was doing a work with numbers, and I was putting them – the numbers and groups of numbers – I was putting them in a certain position…

It is associated with groups of people everywhere, groups of people who are spread throughout the world and in connection with…which planet? Planets? I don’t know. And I remember that I told myself (all of this during the night, not in the waking state), I told myself while I was making this arrangement…I still see the arrangement of numbers that I was doing, which were entirely living – the numbers were living things – these groups of numbers that I was arranging like this…(the Mother seems to be moving pieces in a puzzle). You were there and I was telling you that when it is like this (the Mother indicates a certain arrangement) it expressed a certain thing, and when it was like that (another arrangement of the puzzle) it expressed something else. And at the same time I was saying: ‘It not only expresses, it has the power to realise that thing.’

All of that (the Mother makes a gesture behind her head, as if to indicate a memory behind)…it is there somewhere. And it was in connection with groups of people in different parts of the world.

And it was…Yes,…it was the expression ‘in numbers’ of the application to life in a coming realisation: a future life, but not too far ahead; for example, in the approaching centenary (Sri Aurobindo’s centenary, 1971-72) which is starting now.

 

The Mother’s vision was so exact that not only was she able to describe the role of Number in the ‘realisation to come’, she even gave the correct time frame. That is, 1971, or the beginning of Sri Aurobindo’s centenary year, for that was precisely when the Formula based on this mysterious ‘arrangement of numbers’ was revealed. The Mother continues:

 

     So, it was probably that that stayed in my memory and which left the impression that I had to tell you something. But the arrangement of numbers, I still see it. I spent a long time – long, arranging these numbers, long.

A truer application, more universal, and with a spiritual knowledge: the principle of the position and utilisation of individuals on Earth. I don’t know why, this interested you. You were with me, with that arrangement of numbers, and I was showing you (the same gesture of moving pieces of a puzzle)…Two columns here and a column there. But living columns: it was not on paper – not on paper but in the air. I don’t know how to explain that, it was in the air and I was arranging, I was moving these numbers about like this (same gesture). And these were LIVING numbers, not writing on paper.

There were groups of numbers (the Mother tries to remember). Yes, there were two groups of numbers: one was blue, dark blue, and the other was golden yellow, and (How to say?) it was not masculine-feminine, but it was the two principles – the principle…not of the creation but of the conception (gesture of a descent from above) and the principle of realisation.

 

Students of the New Way and this new cosmology can recognise instantly that the Mother was describing the Solar and Lunar Lines, the former of the colour of the Sun, golden yellow, and the latter the colour of night, dark blue. She also specifies the function of these Lines, or ‘columns of numbers’, as she describes them, in that to one she attributes conception, and to the other realisation. I have often referred to the ‘inspirational’ quality of the Solar Line and which is indeed a ‘descent’, as the Mother indicated by her gesture in this regard; while the Lunar Line was the actualising power. This was made evident in the details provided in The New Way of the application of this new number-power with the Solar Line, starting with Sri Aurobindo, as the creative principle inspiring and initiating a certain action which the Lunar Line of the Nehru-Gandhi family actualised on the political stage of India. But this ‘formula’, as we have seen in this Horse Saga, is found present or repeated in any process where that same supramental action is to be found. Or, as I have described it, where a new cosmos must come into being, based on which the transformation can take place.

In addition, the Mother’s knowledge of what was to be revealed in great detail within a very short time of her vision was so remarkable that she specified the nature of ‘principles’ these Lines encompassed, and that it was not ‘feminine-masculine’, but ‘conception’ and ‘realisation’. The point to be noted here is that since it is a question of TWO lines, the usual description would be in terms of masculine and feminine, since this is the manner in which a dual system is always defined, – for example, Yin and Yang of the Chinese tradition, or Purush and Prakriti of the Indian. But this definition does not hold in the new Gnosis. Something entirely different is in the process of becoming established. The Mother made this clear when she clarified what ‘principles’ these ‘columns of numbers’ corresponded to. It is the little details, the elusive nuances such as these in the Mother’s narration of her experiences, which place them out of the category of ordinary mystical and spiritual perceptions and realisations, and into a dimension far beyond anything we have come to understand as ‘higher knowledge’. What the Mother is here describing is the foundation of the new supramental Gnosis. The proof is that this ‘arrangement’ is found again and again in this cosmic process out of which the new creation arises.

 

I am totally conscious when I do that. It is not a dream (I do not sleep in the normal sense, I am as if asleep, but I am not sleeping); and I do not ‘dream’. I DO, I ACT, I am fully conscious, the same as in the waking state – not dreaming…I was explaining to you how all those numbers were organised and that they determined future happenings.

 

I have often referred to the Supramental Shakti as the ‘power’ organising the often spectacular and even the sometimes unpleasant details of our saga, with a perfection of detail and a uniqueness of imagination and ‘strategy’ not encountered in ordinary mental processes and actualisations. The Mother is revealing her role in this arrangement in that she specifically states that she DOES, she ACTS, in the subtle realm where these ‘arrangements’ are brought about. It is this power of the Mother that I have been referring to; and indeed, she does use ‘number’, as measured in our calendar time with its related number-power, to express and REALISE that harmony of a higher order which we are privileged to witness and be a part of. Further on, we shall see how very accurate her utilisation of number through time has been, when the saga reaches a culmination in which number-power was central.

 

      When I wake up, rather when I get up and start my activities, it goes, – it ‘goes’, not that it stops: it stays in its world. And it is only now, because you are present, that it comes into contact with my memory.

This lasted several hours. It was not the ‘conception of a work’. It was the work itself…as if there were knobs and things which one moves, and this made it start working (the Mother indicates a large control board). Something like that, but not that at all! It was the organisation of those groups of numbers which determined events and the ORDER of events (above all the order of the events) and the location on Earth…

 

In this manner the Mother expresses the relation to Time of this formula, or ‘arrangement of numbers’. She is quite specific: it is the ORDER of the events that this ‘organisation’ set in motion which was of prime importance. Coupled with the location on Earth. This is the harmonisation of time and space in the new cosmology.

 

     I do not sleep but I am active, absolutely active in the… (the Mother tries to situate the zone of her activity)…what is being prepared to manifest on Earth. I do not know if it should be called the ‘subtle physical’, or…It is the creative zone of the physical. That is it. And then, since I cannot move about from one place to another, what I do is connected to numbers like that – living numbers.

 

In other words, the Mother is explaining the role of what I call number-power; that is, numbers become vahanas, or carriers of force with the special quality of order added.

 

     …Living numbers: I organise them, I group them together; and I remember what I did the night before, and then I say, ‘No, yesterday it was like that, now it must be like this.’ And with the knowledge that tomorrow another change must be made. And that is what determines the events. But the consciousness (the waking consciousness, or the ordinary consciousness) must not know what is decided there. It must only know a small portion, what is necessary for the execution. For this reason there is a break: it continues to live there (gesture behind her head) but it doesn’t pass through.

 

This is an interesting point the Mother makes because it has often perplexed disciples that she appeared not to know what was to take place, when they expected her to be omniscient of every circumstance. In our work as well, there has often been what seemed to be a deliberate, willed, and sometimes exasperating ‘silence’, or ‘veil’ hanging over the events. One felt them there, just behind the veil; and that everything was controlled and prearranged, and therefore should easily be perceived or foreseen. But this unknowing, it has since been revealed, and confirmed by the Mother herself, is an intrinsic part of the unfolding insofar as spontaneity and plasticity are key elements of this supramental process.

 

      It is only because I had taken the decision to tell you about it that I could recall it. Though I see, now I see the numbers and therefore I can describe them, they have no meaning for me. And I am not sure if they are numbers or letters…It was numbers, I know they are numbers: there were golden and blue numbers (but not our material colours; they were neither of our substance nor of our material colours). And I was always arranging them, one group like this, another like that; and I was choosing. It is curious. I must have been very big because the numbers were big, and I was taking them and placing them on this large surface. As they were placed this made a communication and it organised events in the immediate future.

I know I do this every night, but this night there was a sort of aspiration in the body to know what the functioning, the action of the Superman Consciousness would be. It is not enough to have this Consciousness around one like a rampart; it is necessary to know what the changes will be in the body’s functioning and in the work, in the way it works.

Then this experience with numbers came as a response to teach me somewhat how it will be. But it is curious, I was doing this just like they do with those big electrical machines with all sorts of knobs…I moved them around…Only I think I must have been a bit bigger than I am, I don’t know. In any case, I was placing these objects…They weren’t objects, they were something…But it was something fixed in form – it was fixed – and there was like a reserve not a store room (I don’t know what to call it), a reserve where I placed these things, then I put them, arranged them like that. And there was an arrangement which was continuous in the whole but with changes in the details.

 

At this point, the disciple interrupts to speak of his idea of the ‘downfall of science’, as he perceives it, missing the point entirely, it would appear, of what the Mother was explaining so carefully. He continues pressing his point about the ‘downfall of science’ without realising (or hearing) that the Mother was not describing a collapse but rather a creative process of something essential to Sri Aurobindo’s work. Indeed, in a footnote to his interjections, he even refers to his book, The Mind of the Cells (1980) which he considers to be the answer to the ‘problem’. Though I have not seen the publication, I feel certain that nothing of this experience of the Mother’s with Number found its way into his book, though from this narration it appears that she was seeking to guide him on the correct path of discovery. (It was this same disciple who failed as well to understand the implications of the plan the Mother gave him of the inner chamber of her Temple, with all its consequences.)

The point to be made is that few among the Mother’s disciples were able to appreciate that the new cosmology was an exact formulation of this ‘functioning of the Superman Consciousness’, just as she has described it. Moreover, and no doubt this is what made the disciple take her experience lightly and press his own point, he undoubtedly considered that what she was describing was ‘symbolic’ and therefore ‘up there’ and could be transcribed here below in a language and form more suited to his mentality, and indeed to the reigning perception of spirituality where symbols are abstracts and relative and therefore of little value in the true experience. The Mother returns to the narration of her own experience, determined, it would seem, to convey the message.

 

      It must be an activity of that Consciousness (of the Superman) because it is not something I have been doing for long. Last night I knew I was doing it regularly, every night, but not as of a long time. It must have come with the arrival of that Consciousness (1.1.1969).

I should also say that yesterday (when I was in the ordinary consciousness) there were two things: I thought of you and I said to myself, there was something that wanted me to know how that Force (of the Superman) works on you; it was in reply to this that I saw you last night and I was explaining the way it functions; and you were participating consciously; that is, you understood perfectly well what I was doing. You were consciously participating.

 

(The disciple): But it is strange, it is not at all ‘me’: it is really as if I am being pushed toward this problem, the solution of this problem (the downfall of science). Why? I do not know.

 

Yes, that vision was like the application of scientific methods but totally different. It was based only on…Not thought, not reasoning, nothing of that. It was a FORCE which did this (gesture of a descent imposing itself), as it always is, and it CAUSED action. I was looking; I was seeing, I knew what had to be done, and I wasn’t thinking at all but I could explain why. That is, I could say in advance that this was for such and such a thing.

It was the combination of the two colours of numbers (perhaps this was the translation in my mind…anyway), the blue numbers and the golden numbers. The priority for action was always with the golden, and the blue were there as if to fill in a hole…

But it has a strong action; that is, it COMMANDS action on Earth, but not in a submissive way, connected to something below which holds it. It is like this (gesture of a descent imposing itself). And it constantly receives the WILL or the POWER of action from above. Not ‘from above’. It is not ‘above’. It is… (the Mother makes a sort of gesture signifying that it is ‘inside everywhere’). ‘Superior’ in the true sense of the word.

And the body RECEIVES these things…Suddenly it felt the need to know how the functioning of this Consciousness would be. And then for you I thought, ‘When and how does this atmosphere work?’ And that is why I had this experience…it was to draw my attention to the fact that I needed to know. Strange…

 

Clearly the need to have this experience recorded corresponded to the necessity to leave a record of the ‘unorthodox’ workings of the Supramental Shakti. To date disciples have not accepted the Mother’s unusual experience as just what she declared it to be: the functioning of the Supramental Consciousness, working through two ‘lines’, Solar and Lunar, or golden and dark blue in colour; and that these ‘lines’ worked through number as POWER, revealed in the formula 9/6/3/0-1. Moreover, this number-power created a superior ORDER, and it was responsible for future events based on this characteristic ORDER.

This indeed has been the case. In the Horse Saga we are revealing the precision with which this Consciousness can express the intricate details of this formula in the midst of an ordinary and unknowing field of activity, very far removed, it would appear, from the world of the Spirit. For if the descent of a power has been prophesied which would transform life on Earth, and that this power is unlike anything known in spirituality to date for its perfection of detail and therefore the ability to alter conditions even in the most material dimension, on the way to a total transformation of the physical itself, then the Power itself must arrange for a means to establish the proof of its activity within the boundaries of the Knowledge it has consolidated for this purpose. This proof has come through the unexpected and unorthodox field of Thoroughbred horse racing. Certainly a most unlikely ‘field’ for the revelations of the Supramental Shakti.

Nonetheless, unorthodox or not, this has been the prearranged laboratory of our work in this most important ennead of the century, and perhaps of the millennium itself: 1989-98.

 

Pressures with a ‘purpose’

                                    

The news of Eve’s accident reached me just before my return to India. When I arrived in Madras in the very early hours of the 20^th May, I set out from the airport for Bangalore to see for myself what the situation was for both Eve and the three fillies. The news I was receiving abroad was not good. Eve’s accident was the last in a series which caused me concern about the future of our racing experience, not to speak of the cosmological process. The idea that by virtue of the ‘contract’ Eve would finally be based in Bangalore with all her material needs taken care of and thus be in a position to exercise and race my horses had, at least for the summer season, proved to be a chimera. Indeed, her accident confirmed certain misgivings I had about this seemingly fortuitous turn of events: we had, as I had perceived, taken into the heart of our endeavour energies which perhaps we were not in a position to handle adequately, given our own unstable condition.

Once in Bangalore I realised just how unstable our nuclear base was, and how far we were from any real consolidation of our team. Eve, though sporting a cast and unable to ride, was nonetheless complying with the terms of her contract which included supervision of the shoeing of Gog’s horses, insofar as his trainer was not proficient in this aspect of equine care, similar to almost all trainers. Eve, on the other hand, was an expert in this matter, having had to attend to the shoeing of her own horses for many years. But this was clearly overstepping the normal duties of a jockey. The trainer considered this an infringement of his position and resented it deeply. There was, in addition, the resentment of the stable’s veterinarian to contend with, who, for his own reasons, disapproved of Eve’s presence in their midst and not restricted to the track. Gog expected Eve to sort out these problems, or at least to keep him informed of what was transpiring in his stables.

This produced an untenable situation. Apart from the unusual nature of the demands for a jockey, lowest in the rung of the racing hierarchy, there was the fact that this was a woman seeking to carry out these unconventional duties; and that brought its own measure of resentment.

Thus, when I reached Bangalore I found Eve completely swamped by these concerns, with no ‘space’ left for our work together. Her contract still prevailed; it had been agreed upon for a year, – i.e., until March of 1995. Therefore she had no major material worries. But the negative happenings in her new environment served to involve her even more in the polluted atmosphere of Gog’s operations. She was carrying this atmosphere with her constantly and spoke of little else, even though the accident kept her from her main duty as a jockey.

To compound the difficulties, the word was going around that she was ‘accident prone’. Certainly this did not seem to be an exaggeration given the fact that she had had two accidents within a brief 7½ months of each other, and all within the space of her very first year in racing. Gog was as convinced of this propensity as everyone else and seems to have consulted his astrologer on the matter. Perhaps it was on his advice that no sooner had Eve been put out of action than it came to light Gog had secretly contracted to bring another jockey from abroad to ride his horses. Eve was thus relegated to second place, when she would be able to ride again, though the terms of her contract were otherwise. On my part, just before her first accident in Mysore on September 22, 1993 (see TVN, 8/5, December 1993), I suddenly and for no apparent reason became curious about Eve’s horoscope. What I saw did indeed indicate accidents (and had she already not had numerous  while riding her own horses over the years?). However, together with this difficult planetary configuration there were several other exceptional aspects indicating a divine protection over her. As well, knowing the Power guiding our affairs and the supramental ‘control’ over everything connected to our cosmological experience together, I felt confident that the positive would override the negative. With Gog advising Eve to ‘consult an astrologer’, it seemed, however, that we were headed for a battle of the Stars!

Certainly to all appearances Gog’s astrologer was the one to follow; and Eve would have to live with the situation of having exercised his horses for two months in preparation for the new season, only to have ‘fate’ intervene and see another jockey step in and reap the benefits of what she had laboriously sown.

But the accident also served to keep Eve off my own fillies. This may have been a blessing in disguise since the negative atmosphere she was carrying with her at all times due to her involvement with Gog’s problems would not have helped our own endeavour.

As for Adam, who had moved to Bangalore exactly at the 4.5 passage of his 3l.5^th year, nothing in his comportment gave me hope that our team was taking shape as anticipated. We were indeed gathered together in one spot physically, but not in spirit. Each one seemed wrapped in a sort of cocoon; the isolation was palpable. Added to the focus on egocentric concerns, heightened by the general insecurity of the situation, there was the factor of a strengthening of the binary polarity they brought to the affair, almost as a protective device. I found this polarity far more entrenched on my return than ever before. There was only one area which offered some solace: with Eve based in Bangalore I at least had a source of information regarding the condition and care of the fillies.

Indeed, this was the area of greatest shock on my return. F3 was in a deteriorated state. She had been put on a diet in order to reduce her size, which was enormous for a 2-year old, by any standards. Her feed ration had been reduced even before I left for my trip. Sensing the filly’s resentment over this fact, coupled with the aggravation of finding herself stabled for at least 20 hours of the day when at Skambha she enjoyed many hours of free roaming in the paddock, I ordered an increase in her feed and a constant supply of freshly cut Lucerne (alfalfa). Eve was to call in at the stables, next to Gog’s for convenience sake, to assure that this increase was maintained while I was away. I could not rely on the new trainer since he absented himself continuously from Bangalore and left the care of all his horses to an assistant. In addition, this was summer in the subcontinent. The heat of Bangalore was another shock to F3’s system; in particular the dust on the track was a problem insofar as rains would come only at the end of May to relieve the condition. This had produced a chronic cough which made it necessary to keep her confined and which, in turn, aggravated her boredom and despair over this ‘boarding school’ she had been sent to. She made her disapproval known to me every time I visited her. Being an excellent eater, the worst ‘punishment’, as far as she was concerned, was the decrease in food.

On the other hand, F1 and F2 had spent the time I was abroad at Skambha and when back at the track they were in far better shape than their sister. F2 had benefited the most since this was her first ‘return to the source’ from the beginning of her training in July of 1992. It served to change her outlook entirely. She was, as I have written earlier, a transformed creature. An impressive one-pointed determination, which was her main feature from the beginning of her career and characterised her input to our endeavour, was reinforced. If there was any hope of success it seemed to be centred on her. But there was still her physical condition to contend with, and this left a question mark over her future as a race horse. Her lung bleeding had been treated at Skambha and she had been given workouts up and down the mountains to strengthen her cardiovascular system. But we were not sure yet if the bleeding would return once she was put into fast work on the track. The new trainer and I decided to proceed slowly, not pressing her more than we felt she could sustain for the time being.

Adam, for whom I had arranged a place in the new trainer’s stable and whom I hoped would take a keen interest in the fillies, was closed in a strange dimension of himself. He had brought with him only one horse from his stables in Madras, his favourite gelding who was given permission to ride in the summer season in Bangalore and who had been entered in a forthcoming sweepstakes for sprinters. All this attention was thus centred on the preparation of this horse for that race, to be held on June 5^th.

It turned out that both my fillies, F1 And F2, had been entered in the same race, as well as another sweepstakes further ahead in the season. In view of the negative experience I had had in this regard with the previous trainer, I had given instructions from abroad that F2 should be entered, but when I reached Bangalore I found that F1 had also been entered for this and another sweepstakes race. This was due to a new regulation which had come into effect that out-station horses could participate in the summer season only if they were entered in at least two sweepstakes. Thus the trainer entered F1 along with F2 in these sweepstakes races, one in June and the other in July.

According to my understanding, F1 did not qualify to be entered since being of ‘unknown pedigree’, she was restricted to handicap races only. The fact that her entrance fee had been accepted, gave me hope that perhaps the rule had been changed. I did not expect her to do much without Eve riding her in these races, but I intended to leave her in just to set a precedent for the future.

As for F2, having just come down to the plains from the mountains and given her re-charged body and spirit, I felt that with proper care she could do well in this sprint race. If she were even to place, that was sufficient and would bring us better returns than an ordinary handicap race.

Adam’s disbelief in the capabilities of my fillies surfaced in full at this time. In addition, there was now a conflict of interests since his favourite gelding was entered in the same race and was the centre of his world. This disinterest was a great stumbling block since then I had no ally to support my position. It may be recalled that I took my horses away from the last trainer in March in part because he had not followed instructions and had failed to enter F2 in a sweepstakes race. Now, because of the new regulations, the trainer was obliged to do so and I was thus assured that the entries were done, but it was evident that neither he nor Adam were convinced about the matter and cooperative, – Adam because of self-interests and disbelief, and the new trainer who was allowing Adam to use his stables and facilities, because of his evaluation of my horses. He did not consider them of a quality which could allow them to compete in such races.

Eve, on her part, was entirely engrossed in Gog’s world and out of service as a jockey in the bargain. I was thus left with the dismal truth that we were completely without allies ‘out there’, on the battlefield. By then this was more than a sports arena: it was decidedly a field where a very great contest was in progress, calling up the more combative, warlike spirit of Mars, rather than its characteristic of planet involved with sports. This initial assessment of the situation upon my return was compounded with each trip I made to Bangalore thereafter.

Indeed, the next two months saw me totally immersed in this problem with no respite, dividing my time almost equally between Skambha and the track in Bangalore. Never had I spent so much time there. Never before had I felt the need to do so, since it was by then clear that without a centred power right there, our endeavour would come to grief.

The first clear sign that this was truer than what I wished to believe was fast in coming. Races for the fillies wee being scheduled, all of little consequence since the available jockeys did not seem capable of bringing out their best. By this time F2 was running for the 14^th time of her career on 29^th May; her recent passage over the Gnostic Circle’s 4.5 Orbit (13^th to 14^th race) did indeed bring its own measure of ‘scattering’ and ‘stripping away’ in that she was in the care of a new trainer. F1 soon thereafter would see her 35^th run. For F2’s races we had agreed upon a particular jockey who seemed capable of handling front-runners like herself. But F1 posed the more serious problem not only for this race but in the daily workouts as well, since Eve was nursing her broken arm and would not be riding for the rest of the season. Therefore, the usual rider conundrum presented itself with even greater force, just when I had felt it would be resolved.

But the real blow came when I received a telephone call from Eve informing me that both the fillies had been scratched from the sweepstakes I believed they were being prepared for, without any prior approval on my part. The new trainer felt they could not compete in such a race and took the decision on his own. Within me I was convinced that his unconventional behaviour, contradicting the norms of traditional protocol between owner and trainer, was due in part to Adam’s open stand that F2 should not be left in a race with horses of Class 1 calibre, such as his own which was indeed in Class 1. We had had an open confrontation on this very point, therefore my suspicions were well-founded. But whatever or whoever was responsible for this turn of events, the fact remained that nothing had changed with the arrival on the scene of these two essential components of the nucleus. We were farther away from the goal than ever. Experience had already proven that a horse will perform as good or as badly as the trainer believes his potential to be. What I was hoping for was that somehow, in spite of this entrenched disbelief, the fillies would reveal the potential I still believed them to possess.

But I knew, and this was being confirmed daily, that a process such as we were carrying out could not succeed if there were contaminating agents bought into the tri-part centre. In my assessment, both Eve and Adam were by then in a state of total egocentrism, each one centred not on any common endeavour but on their own self-interests. It might appear that at least where Adam was concerned this was not so: ostensibly he had agreed to move to Bangalore at my behest. But it was more likely that he was simply following the movements of his ‘rib’: where ‘it’ went, he was obliged to follow. All of this would have to be dealt with in the coming months. Nothing positive would surface until these isolating interests were removed.

In fact, I was convinced by then that we would not be allowed to continue in such a condition. Eve’s accident was already an ominous signal that a power was at work to secure a true and properly poised nucleus at the heart of our racing experience. Eve was also aware that a ruthless NO seemed to lie at the root of her latest accident. She felt it to be entirely different than the last, since she now believed she was fulfilling the commitment made to give priority to my horses. But she could not see herself and the condition of her consciousness which was ego-centred to a greater degree than ever, especially since this new professional achievement had given a formidable boost to her self-confidence and self-esteem, which, more often than not, fortifies and strengthens the sense of an isolated and self-fulfilling ‘purpose’.

An entry in my journal on 25^th May, upon returning to Skambha after being abroad and then in Bangalore, reveals the apprehensions I felt, given the poise of consciousness of the components of our ‘team’.

 

       I see clearly the problem. The latest injury is (Gog’s) karma. She has taken on his karma, not this Purpose. All because of refusal to belong, to be a conscious, committed part of this affair. And why? What is gained, what greater joy and ‘fun’ than this?

So, the work gets done, but at what cost? And now we have no jockey…Can we expect the Force to be with us over these next days and throughout this season? Can we hope for Grace?

…The heartache, the impotent feeling. Lord, is it time to pull out? Let me do it NOW if there no further purpose in continuing. Now I am even doubting that there is anything like a ‘Yoga of the Horse’. Perhaps it was an illusion, a concoction of my own…After all, it is just a case of interpretation. What else is ‘seeing’? One has to translate the thing seen. It goes through one’s consciousness like a filter…

…If I should pull out, make this absolutely clear. If not, if there is that PURPOSE and for that reason we are in this, then make THAT absolutely clear, – for such being the case the hardships can be tolerated.

 

And the next evening I wrote on in this vein when I realised that again I was faced with the usual trainer disbelief from Adam as well, and therefore that encouraging him to move to Bangalore and apply for a licence to train there, seemed to have no meaning at all. Who else to turn to then, who else to rely on?

 

…What am I to do now? How am I to go there? If and when I do it has to be to remove the horses, otherwise even that goes, – one’s ‘self-respect’. Nor can I pray for guidance – that CONTROL. What control can there be if there is no purpose. Control presupposes a Purpose.

Suddenly I begin to feel that a force is taking over our operation, a sinister force. I believe what I ‘saw’ earlier was very true: I am drawing that dark force into the heart of the yoga. Not I. It is through Eve. Since this happened things have gone worse and worse. On the one hand we labour and this bears fruit. But there is no outlet. And Adam is possessed by that force. Possessed. He has lost all contact with what is true, what we were doing and going to do. Everything indeed stands shattered. While at the centre of it all there are the Three: 3 forces, Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas. But we cannot get this to produce a CREATION, an immortal and invincible creation. All stands shattered like the Asteroid Belt.

It needs to be mentioned that this period of the year, from about 18 to 26 May, would be the 4.5 Orbit, or halfway mark of the first nine months of the year, the period of ‘gestation’ of the Seed of the new year. This period of May seems always to offer a sort of crisis to be met and overcome. It is on the order of a catalytic point.

 

Balance, Harmony, Centering

 

But what is the real purpose of this sort of constant pressure applied to the components of a nucleus in formation? I have written at length about the poise of the individual vis-à-vis the Divine. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother formulated the integral yoga for this purpose. But there were necessarily restrictions by way of the limitations of the field. With the laboratory they were provided, just so much could be achieved; that is, the method for aligning the disciple with the Divine Consciousness as an inner condition, with elements in the field utilised to bring this inner condition into being. This could not be integrated into the larger field, which in any case did not exist then, because for such an extension to come about an ordering of a special type was required. This could only be done once the formula was complete by way of incarnated powers: 9/6/3/0-1. On this basis the laws operating in the new creation could be formulated and the field of the yoga extended accordingly. The signal that this was done came when the Mother began talking of a ‘township’. She wanted to construct this special place precisely as an extension of the laboratory.

But the fate of that particular experiment gives us an indication of the conditions that need to be transformed. Just the fact that her own explicit plan of the heart of the project, the temple, was dismantled item by item within 18 days of its revelation – indeed, at the hands of the very disciple she informs us was ‘consciously’ organising the future events with her in her 5 February 1969 narration – reveals the true state of affairs and what we have to contend with: the world is indeed under the entrenched rule of the Ignorance and the Falsehood.

The Ignorance is largely an unconscious force; while Falsehood is a more conscious device to disfigure and thereby usurp. In a situation where Ignorance is prominent we have a degenerate tamas guna in evidence; that is, passivity, inertia, a caving in or collapse, which allow for the corruption. But where the Falsehood is prominent, disfiguring is done through an unregenerate rajas. In other words, an active force rather than passive. The distinction is important to make at this juncture because our Horse Saga has been revealed to centre on the play of the trigunas, or the three ‘qualities’ of astrology, Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. As we have seen, this trifold play or utilisation of energy has been repeated twice, in the human and animal triads. The presence of such a neat ‘order’ in the midst of our story is a clear indication of the focus of the sadhana in this extended phase.

The distortions that found their way into the Temple at the heart of the Mother’s project when she herself was overseeing the work, indicates the obstacles and difficulties we have to expect. That knowledge and light were not able to transform that field and undo the Falsehood, or arouse the Ignorance from its passive and inert slumber, reveals the true conditions of the work. In our saga, the deeper we went the more evident it became that we would have to take on a work never before completed successfully insofar as the same powers of Ignorance and Falsehood were as entrenched in the larger field as they had been in the smaller. Indeed, it was made evident that the work at hand was to utilise this new field as a laboratory for putting into effect the lines and laws of a new supramental yoga where the harmonisation and integration of the Being and the Becoming could ensue.

The individual is always central in any such transformation, since ultimately it is a question of a consciousness of enhanced capacity and awareness replacing the old binary poise; and therefore the nexus of awareness in an individualised consciousness must be the channel for the enhancement.

Thus, to return to our saga, the pressures applied on the nuclear components had the specific purpose of aligning them in such a way as to allow for a COMPLETE process of this sort to take shape. For this the base of foundation had to be pure and uncontaminated. Indeed, this too requires a certain elaboration. What do we mean by ‘purity’ in the context of the New Way?

In this question of ‘purity’ or no contamination, the gunas are the focus. When we write of contamination, it refers precisely to an imbalance and hence a distortion in the play of the trifold energies. In the individual this manifests directly in his or her capacity to serve as an instrument in such a process. The ways in which contamination or distortion are introduced are many. But the first item to be dealt with is the question of separation, division, and finally disunity. In an individualised consciousness and a process centred on one element, for the purpose of bringing about such a harmony or balance, it is a question of union with the inner Divine. Consciousness and surrender to that Power. The surrender, however, cannot be passive, or a distortion of tamas, last of the gunas. In such a case we have resignation as a result. This implies a will-lessness where rajas is depressed. The movement is overtaken by tamas degenerate and the surrender is in a state of ignorance. This is one of the main distortions of the tamas guna: ignorance.

On the other hand, rajas unregenerated sins by excessive will, a consciousness constantly imposing ITS ways and demands and haste. In this case the sense of being the doer is always prominent and is the most difficult part of the yoga, requiring a constant vigilance to subdue and restrain impulses which can derail the sadhana entirely.

There is no question of a spiritual realisation based on or using primarily these gunas. Rather, they are considered the cause of a tilt toward materialism in the individual’s temperament. Thus, to be ‘spiritual’ has always implied a positioning of the consciousness in the sattva guna, the middle poise which after the degeneration and the split between spirit and matter became elevated to first place, and the only guna worth the trouble to cultivate. Rajas and tamas were thrust in the cosmic waste bin along with the whole question of movement of energy of any sort.

The problem lies in the difficulty in achieving the balance I write of. For the fact is unless this comes to pass we cannot speak of a supramental realisation. This Horse Saga, for example, can be described as a supramental process or experience involving the question of integration and harmonisation of the Being and the Becoming. But the participants in this process cannot be considered supramentally-realised beings. They are the instruments for THAT to take place. Through them IT is being done. The question of supramentalisation arises when there is a conscious awareness based on the truth-consciousness, or the supramental Gnosis. Then we can consider ourselves transformed in that gnostic way.

In this transitional stage the difficulty lies in identifying the areas which leave openings for the old responses or the old habits to remain entrenched. These are so ingrained now that a complete re-conditioning has to take place, a new seeing must replace the old. This pertains to spirituality first and foremost, where any mention of the gunas other than sattva brings an immediate recoil.

Our Horse Saga is not centred on an individual but a group of individuals. The Mother refers to this arrangement in her talk on 5 February 1969 reproduced above. What she describes there is precisely the pattern for a transformation, and she specifically connects it to the functioning of the new gnostic consciousness. Her role as the Supramental Shakti is also made evident.

The Mother does mention that the form the vision took might be her transcription and in this sense somewhat subjective, for indeed the experience seemed highly fanciful, what with electronic control boards, knobs, and so forth. Yet the purity of the Mother’s consciousness is revealed in precisely the accuracy of the transcription, fanciful as it may have seemed, since it was entirely faithful to the future unfolding on the physical plane. Indeed, she even specifies that this ‘work’ was in the creative zone of the physical and that the future events in a given ORDER were arranged therein to later manifest on Earth.

There is an important element in her narration which might have escaped our attention had we not had the Horse Saga to help us understand. When the Mother dwells at length and throughout the narration on the fact that the disciple was with her in that control room and ‘participating consciously’ in this unusual work, she is informing us of the goal to be attained, for she states throughout her description that this is the ‘functioning of the Superman Consciousness’.

For the fact is that without a CONSCIOUS participation we are indeed far removed from the goal. The disciple could have had all the experiences in the world but if he was not able to construct that ‘bridge’ which would permit him that ‘conscious participation’, there is little to be expected of his sadhana.

This is why a transformation of the gunas is essential. Degenerated tamas implies ignorance, darkness, inertia. It is responsible for our unconsciousness, our slumber, our failure to SEE. In such a state we find disciples hiding behind the protection that sleep and inertia provide. We hear the old response, ‘We cannot know, only the Mother can know’. Or else the tamasic surrender which is content to avoid responsibility for one’s actions by taking shelter in the cave of ignorance and darkness and a passive surrender. The unregenerated rajas guna, for its part, is combative and refuses to let go of the notion that one is the doer and ‘in control’.

Both these conditions create disturbances in the field which impede a smooth and accelerated unfolding of events with no wastage of energy. And even when there is an aspiration to attain the right poise, often this takes the form of the old conditioned responses and in its own way represents a wastage or poor utilisation of the available energy. This is seen in an indulgence in remorse, or guilt, or of course self-pity; often these are the outcome of the sadhak’s realisation of his or her failure to be a proper instrument and the sense of defeat this engenders.

The Horse Saga has proven, and this will become even clearer in the course of this analysis, that there is an impeccable control over the events or circumstances falling within the orbit of the process, within the boundaries of the emerging cosmos. Such being the case, the participant cannot be justified in giving in to these negative, depleting feelings since they imply that the instrument has the power to control events and his or her responses can introduce an unforeseen element beyond the purview of the control we know to be one of the principle characteristics of a supramental process. This is, in its own inverted way, an indulgence of the ego which persists in seeing itself as the doer and impervious to the controlling power of the Supramental Shakti. This indicates separateness not oneness, the main scourge of egocentredness.

The problem is difficult enough when one individual is the target. It is significantly compounded when involving a group, since not only must each component be brought into a certain alignment within himself, there must as well be a mutually compatible alignment of the parts within the whole, offering a collective or group alignment by which means the Supramental Shakti can carry out her plans for the transformation we desire.

This sort of alignment cannot be done in ignorance, in darkness. There must be a ‘seeing eye’ central to the operation since this is what distinguishes our work from the old ways, as spiritually enlightened as they may have been. Hence it was that the Mother, while disclosing for the first time the remarkable details of the way the new Consciousness would function, pressed the point that the disciple was there ‘in that zone’ with her, participating consciously. What this revelation should have inspired was a sincere and relentless pursuit of a sadhana for the purpose of filling in the gaps in his consciousness, or constructing that ‘bridge’, as I have called it, whereby the area of tamasic darkness could be illuminated and that conscious participation made a fact in this physical dimension.

The work has matured considerably since the Mother’s first momentous revelation in 1969. The Bridge is constructed and that functioning she described then has been witnessed on Earth in the precise order and pattern she indicated in her revelation. The focus of our present endeavour is to present the details of just how the Supramental Shakti brings an individual alignment into a collective harmony in the form of a tri-part nucleus or centre for the purpose of effecting a decisive transformation of the microscopic field of which it stands as hub. Everything the Mother described in her admirable experience has taken shape in this Horse Saga as a collective experience, and before that in the descent of the Solar Line and its horizontal extension in the form of a Lunar Line. The formula 9/6/3/0-1 has been prominent in each.

 

Contraction pressing the Centre into being

 

To return to the details of our saga, the entries in my journal throughout the 2½ months of the summer season of racing reveal the emphasis on the question of attaining the proper alignment and harmony between the components of the Centre in formation. The first indication was Eve’s accident, ruthless in its message that no contamination of the nucleus would be allowed. I witnessed during those two months a meticulous guidance, or, as the Mother described it, a power imposing itself on these components so that in spite of themselves the work would get done.

The next indication of that ‘imposition’ was felt by Adam. The pressure was clearly to bring him into the nucleus centred on that one Purpose, similar to Eve whose accident was the first sign of a pressure to disengage her from everything that was not central to our common goal. Adam, it may be recalled, was focussing his attention on his favourite gelding, disregarding the care of the fillies who were the key elements in the tri-part foundation of the Core, almost as a sort of protest or display of independence, similar to Eve. To begin disengaging him from this focus which symbolised in full his separateness, the sweepstakes race he entered the horse in was the occasion for the first revelation that Adam, no less than Eve, was the target for alignment according to the dictates of that ‘imposing power’. The gelding sustained an injury in the race, not serious but sufficient to impede him from placing and thus to fulfil Adam’s hopes of establishing his reputation in Bangalore as a competent trainer through this horse. With the outcome of this race, it was clear that given the month or more for healing, this channel would be closed for the fulfilment of his isolated ‘purpose’. Adam was left with little choice but to give more attention to the fillies. In addition, it must be recalled that he had supported, if only tacitly, the scratching of F2 from that very race, sustaining that she could not compete with the superior horses who were entered, among which was Adam’s own.

All during this bleak and extremely taxing period I was fully conscious of the need to bring everyone into proper alignment and that the ruthlessness of the Power was for this purpose. I collaborated equally consciously in this process of alignment by constantly attacking those elements which were the points of refuge or where one could take refuge from the pressure. In this case it was largely in the comforts and securities a binary relationship provides, where the dual subjects are reinforced by a mutually supportive system. Thus the focus was constantly on an un-gluing, if it can be so called: one had to dismantle, to the degree possible, the binary poise of these two components so that a balance of three energies in equal proportion and relation to each other could come into being. Without that there was no true centre to speak of, and there would thus be no question of the true potential of the fillies coming to the surface or the inner truth of the nucleus manifesting.

Together with this work there was another. It involved knowledge and the yoga to attain or to bring into the process the illumination sufficient to dispel the darkness and thereby qualify our endeavour as a supramental one, but yet not a complete removal of the veils which would eliminate the necessary ingredient of unknowing which the Mother indicated was indispensable in the functioning of the supramental consciousness at this stage of its manifestation. It will be shown in the course of this analysis that before any breakthrough was made there was a yoga prior to the happening which made it conscious and luminous. Knowledge was always the gateway through which we had to pass at each successive stage. Entries from my journal of the time will be reproduced to illustrate the point.

 

The Formula of Time and Number

 

The roles of each component of the nucleus were clearly defined. They were defined by the formula of the new cosmology and reproduced with precision. I have pointed out that all six – three humans and three animals – cover the six signs of the upper hemisphere of the Zodiac. In calendar time this would be from the September to the March Equinox. In terms of the Gnostic Circle’s measure, while starting with 0 degree Libra, moving through the wheel to 0 degree Aries, indeed Equinox to Equinox, in its measure of the 9 the movement is from the 4.5 (Asteroid Belt) to the 9 (Pluto). That is, 4½ stages in the cosmic process measured in orbits. We shall see further on how this measure brought the much attended breakthrough.

At the same time, these two triads comprising six zodiacal signs of birth, offer two triads of energy flows – rajas, sattva, tamas, or Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable qualities. But there is more involved, still using the triadic flow of the new formula for expression. This is in relation to the original Solar Line, first to establish this formula or imprint it in the evolution via time and hence destiny. Thus, we have a reproduction of the year powers of the three members of the Solar Line in our trinity of trainer, jockey, and owner. In the Solar Line the formula took shape in the following manner:

 

       Sri Aurobindo – 1872 = 9

The Mother     –  1878 = 6

The Third       –   1938 = 3

In the racing triad the very same equations were reproduced:

 

       Trainer               – 1962 = 9

       Jockey                – 1959 = 6

       Owner                – 1938 = 3

 

The pattern is reproduced but not involving the respective years of birth only: there is also a pattern of masculine and feminine with respect to the gunas. Sri Aurobindo, the 9 of the Solar Line, is sattva (Leo), or Fixed quality, and he is the only male in the Line. This is matched by the trainer in the racing experience, again the only male, also born in a 9-power year and sattva (Scorpio), or Fixed.

The Mother, female, is the 6 and tamas (Pisces), or Mutable, similar to the jockey (Sagittarius), also female, and tamas/Mutable. Then there is the Third who transports that third element of rajas/Cardinal (Capricorn) from the Solar Line into the Yoga of the Horse. We have thus a perfect reproduction or transposition of the original formula 9/6/3/0-1 in this Horse Saga, with the horses as the 1.

This arrangement of 1+2 derives from the creative process itself. It is not a question of social or religious equations in which women may be considered somehow incomplete or inferior to the male of the species and therefore two are required to equal that one. Rather, the line of 9/6/3, last two of which are feminine, refers to the nature of Reality and the creative process. These numbers correspond to the essential Trinity: Transcendent/Cosmic/Individual soul; or God, Nature and human being. The 6 and 3 are the emergent Powers active in the material dimension, when energy is to be differentiated and formative action is required. Indeed, when MOVEMENT begins. Traditionally, because it has been based on a deep insight into the creative process, India has ‘seen’ these formative powers as feminine expressions, – i.e., the Divine Maya of the Vedic exposition, and the numerous Goddesses, all of whom refer to manifest Powers in the denser planes of material creation.

This essential reality can also be intuited spontaneously and in the midst of a society in large part alien to any such concept. To illustrate, in the late 1950s, I was engaged in the art of sculpture. One of the last pieces I did while living in South America was a triangular composition of three figures: one male and two female. This was done at a time when I had no conscious understanding of cosmology of any tradition, much less the Eastern. Nonetheless, deep reflection produced this piece. It is clear that some dimension of the soul was explored and the result was an exact construction in sculpture of what would later, more than a decade in fact, become the most important feature of my destiny and work. Not only did I portray the two feminine forms joined to the male, but the figure was given a triangular shape; and years later I began referring to the formula as ‘the Sacred Triangle’. It became the first foundation of the Gnostic Circle.

In addition to the above, there is the direction of the movement of the figures, clearly indicated as clockwise. This is precisely the feature of the Descent which moves VERTICALLY and in the Gnostic Circle is described as 9 to 6 to 3 in this clockwise fashion to distinguish it from the linear or horizontal movement of the progression of numbers from 0 to 1 to 2, and so on. The Gnostic Circle’s harmony and balance rest on these mutually-supporting three powers in the exact arrangement detailed in my sculpture years before its discovery. Therefore it can be appreciated that the formula is a property of the soul. Tapping that source, probing into its innermost recesses, anyone can come upon the same truth. Reproduced here are photographs of the sculpture together with the Gnostic Circle diagram.

 

 

It must also be borne in mind that the formula 1+2 in this fashion is the structure of the individual soul and therefore each of us bears this harmony within which is actualised in the world in the form or rhythm of the three gunas. Male or female, our individualised souls are of the essence of this Trinity compressed to a Point. From that, when we evolve past the critical threshold of our destiny, the One can be born. Consequently, many traditions throughout the world speak of the sacred birth of this male Child in one form or another. It may take the form of a Messiah, the birth or the return of the Christ, and so forth. We do not find a female birth in this context in any tradition, to my knowledge. But in India there is great emphasis on the descent of the Goddess, corresponding to the Daughter Principle, or the 3. But her action is largely connected to the vital plane, a ‘sorting out’ of energies therein, close to the physical, precisely in order for the Birth of the One to occur.

Returning to our racing saga, the first two of this metamorphosed cosmic formula were, as I have written, targets of the pressure to relinquish egocentric concerns and become integrated, harmonised and balanced within the trifold nucleus as equal parts with well-defined duties. Having named these participants Adam and Eve, the point was thereby to illustrate their binary status, and as such their connection with the old creation, – precisely the pattern we seek to overcome via this Yoga of the Horse. Interestingly, I have often written about the same constraints Sri Aurobindo and the Mother experienced, not by their poise of consciousness, to be sure, but by the parameters of the work they were entrusted to carry out during their lifetimes which was firmly controlled by the Time-Spirit. The ‘boundaries’ of the work are precisely time rhythms and relations, just as the axis in the Mother’s temple (as well as in the transformed individual) is the measure of the year. That is, time is that axis, just as time is the boundary of the cosmos. This is possible by the Transcendent’s inversion or immanence: the Point and the Periphery, the Being and the Becoming. The essence or substance is the same: Time contracted, Time extended or expanded.

Thus, time confined Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to the limits of the old creation, – i.e., before the ‘bridge’ was constructed joining the Point to the Periphery, or ‘bridging time’, as it were. And they too are the 9 and the 6 in the Solar Line, just as Adam and Eve in our saga are the 9 and the 6.

In western civilisation as it stands today, the binary creation is parented by Adam and Eve. In India we have the old creation parented or described by Purush and Prakriti; or else Shiva and Shakti, until Parvati came along and through her the Fourth was born, the divine Son. The myth thus prophesied passage to the new creation from the old in precise detail.

Thus, it is arrival of the Third on the scene that sets time moving in a different gear, shall we say. Parvati indeed is renowned for having drawn Shiva out of absorption in his tapasya; since failing to do so and failing to produce the divine Son, the myth tells us, the world could not be saved from the powers of Ignorance and Falsehood.

Shiva, prior to Parvati, stands for the old creation in his own right. That is, he represents the old spirituality which is part and parcel of the old creation – indeed, it was its inspiring principle. An indrawn, self-absorbed, transcendentally-poised Shiva, closed to the turmoils and ecstasies of the world, distant, in the static heights of samadhi like a Himalayan peak, removed from the hustle and bustle of life, gave us the heights and depths of the old creation: its glories and its tragedies. Shiva is, after all, the third in the creative trinity of Creation, Preservation and Destruction of the Hindu Pantheon, corresponding to rajas, sattva, tamas. To transform that principle of Destruction the ‘Parvati factor’ had to appear on the scene.

Sri Aurobindo was aware of this when he stated that but for the Mother his realisation would have remained ‘above’ and his yoga would not have become rooted in material creation. But one feminine power is not sufficient to do the job, insofar as the rooting process has to move through the cosmic dimension before it can reach the dense plane of the physical in this material universe of 9. When that cosmic plane is engaged, then the Bridge must come into being, connecting the Transcendent (Shiva) to the Immanence of himself (the Fourth, the Son, or the Point). And this passage describes the very essence of ‘the bridge’.

The Third therefore brings into being the Centre or Point. This was exactly what happened in the Horse Saga; for while Adam and Eve were pressured by the contracting action of the play of energies in the field, this same pressure was felt by the third of the triad precisely to forge the Centre. It was not a question of relinquishing ego concerns since these did not exist. All the focus was on that Divine Purpose from the beginning and the alignment of consciousness was constantly monitored to assure that there was no ‘tilt’ of any sort. The actual bringing into existence, or the act of birth, as it had been experienced in the solar Line was the same in this Yoga of the Horse. While the 9 and the 6, in this case Adam and Eve, stood poised as if in the old creation, the 3 had to engage those powers for the construction while ensuring that no contamination would abort the process or produce a disfigured ‘child’. This required a careful, meticulous and relentless work to secure the cooperation of these two representatives of the old creation; and to avoid contamination, that collaboration had to be ego-less, howsoever that could be achieved. The two participants had their respective ‘knots’ to contend with, each of his or her own individualised brand, while the third participant had to construct the bridge from within this old-ness to the new. The third element actually ‘gives birth’ to that Centre. And being a birth process similar to the human, contraction, like the contractions of labour, is the direction of the pressure.

But while the work of trainer (9) and jockey (6) was clearly defined and was evident in their respective inputs in the racing experience, the owner (3) had a more recondite ‘duty’, of greater importance than the outer at this stage of the process. For the only means to bring into existence a true centre in the supramental sense, is through Gnosis. The new creation is distinguished from the old by this factor: knowledge must replace ignorance. That is, for the Third in both processes, the question of ‘contamination’ means ignorance, darkness, like stains on the Sun of Truth-Consciousness, marring its purity and hence diminishing the light and power of the nucleus. For finally, when the axis arises out of such a nucleus or centre, its tilt is determined by the degree of contamination. When we speak of a gnostic or supramental consciousness, we mean, to quote the Mother, a consciousness which ‘casts no shadows’. This means an axis identical to the ray or shaft of sunlight in the Mother’s Chamber, falling on the Core in perfect alignment so that the Globe (centre) it illumines or plays upon indeed does not cast shadows.

This process was respected implicitly in the Yoga of the Horse. Together with the pressure to realign trainer and jockey, the owner, in this case the Third, underwent contraction of the consciousness in a very carefully controlled and guided experience using Knowledge, whose aim was to bring into existence a centre on the basis of the trifold energies available for the purpose. The first clear indication of this operation having begun came during this period, as early as June 5^th, when I realised the difficult times that lay ahead in order to realign energies. However, on that date I felt a tremendous ‘descent’: energy flowing in through the top of my cranium. This type of ‘descent’ was not unknown to me. It always preceded an influx of Knowledge and was often the signal that I would soon be engaged in formulating that Knowledge as a result of that descending force.

But this time there was another quality to the descent. It was a determined power of acceleration. Or, as I wrote of it, ‘going into high gear’. I was in Bangalore at the time, and I remember telling Eve and then Adam when it happened that this was my impression of the experience, It was too powerful and emphatic to be ignored.

Of course, our work at that time was anything but giving evidence of that ‘high gear’. Rather, we were stagnating and bogged down in the mire of the ego’s shadow-play. Nonetheless, I had ‘felt’ this shift and I knew better than to disbelieve. Sooner or later it would take shape in the circumstances of our work. And indeed, shortly thereafter the intense movements of the Yoga of the Horse began, which resulted in the creation of a true centre at the heart of our racing experience.

 

The Enneads revisited

 

It was on the 16^th of June that I began recording in my journal details of the shape the movement of yoga was taking which proved later to be the manner in which the centre was brought into being. In the beginning, however, I started reviewing the work accomplished in the past using the same process. That is, using the Gnostic Circle as a backdrop to understand the yoga, as well as to be able to predict the outcome of the process, as it would be played out in the future on the basis of this key of knowledge.

As I have pointed out in past articles, the Gnostic Circle is not a tool of prediction in the way astrology is used today. The emphasis is on transformation, and that too of a very specific order, the order the Mother detailed in her 5 February 1969 narration. But when certain ingredients are known and the movement of yoga can be measured with knowledge of the Zero Point – that is, WHEN to commence monitoring – then we can be reasonably certain of the outcome; and in this sense prediction is possible. However, the small details of the future event may not be known; again, it will be all that is relevant to the completion of the task at hand in accordance with the ‘boundaries’ of the cosmos in question, – i.e., the particular ‘system’ that is involved in the process.

When reviewing the enneads prior to the present one, what was more than clear was the role of the third power in the yoga of transformation. Each ennead presented the same pattern: bringing into existence the One, giving birth to that One who fills the Void. Succinctly, this is the purpose of existence of the Third Power. And in this lies the newness of our yoga, insofar as there has not been a record of this process except in myth, such as the tale of Shiva and Parvati and the birth of Skanda, the divine warrior Son. However, this is not entirely true. There has been a very detailed description of the process of ‘filling the Void’ and the birth of the divine Son. This we find in what is called the Creation Hymn of the Rigveda. Presently, I will explain this in detail, quoting extracts from my journal in order to reveal that that Hymn provides us with important evidence to support my contention that the ‘creation’ of a cosmos is not simply restricted to the Origin of our universe but can be repeated endlessly wherever and whenever that same ‘centre’ has to be forged as the basis of a ‘new creation’. Thus, on 16 June I began writing in greater detail of this act of ‘filling the Void’ of our actual ennead and how it was always the same ‘force’ that had to be conquered.

 

 …My feeling is that in these three decades I am given the exact means to conquer that force. The first decade (1971-80) was the base IN KNOWLEDGE; the 80s was the base in the Yoga, or APPLIED knowledge or cosmology; the third decade, our own, is the affirmation, the knowledge and yoga as instruments for the conclusive Victory, central to which is perforce the Temple since that is my ‘field’. And that victory automatically opens the portals of the City as ‘field’ for the yoga of the 4^th.

 But right now we seem to be receding not progressing – in some ways – i.e., the inability of the horses to win, to affirm their true potential. On the other hand, the three are forming the nucleus of the Zero and they offer the three energies. They open the way for the 4^th, and he carries us across the threshold of the Age degree, and the millennium.

 It is not correct to view this activity as useless inasmuch as it is the activity itself which will open the way to victory, to affirmation of this Truth.

  And what is that Truth? It is exactly the opposite of what is THERE, in the shadow-temple. That is, fullness and not emptiness. I must focus always on that: filling the void. We have not done that yet. We are in the process of doing that by filling the Bangalore void. We have progressed enormously. We have only a small way to go. No doubt that final crossing, or ‘filling’, will be indicated by Eve’s return to the saddle. After all, that is the signal, when the jockey RIDES AGAIN.

  I believe Eve was knocked out of the saddle to keep in tune with THIS rhythm. She is not there to bring Gog wins, as she would have done. She is there to help fill the void, to be a part of this triune nucleus. Indeed, the three of us are also the three energies, with the two females as Rajas and Tamas, and the male as Sattva, just like Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and me.

  I can see quite clearly that the Yoga of the Chamber signified first the filling of the Void; and all during that time the ‘centre’ in the shadow-temple was indeed a hole. That Yoga meant simply the installation of the Centre. It is similar to the installation of the deity, the first element in a temple.

The Yoga of the Chamber, concluded successfully in the 1980s, was simply the ‘construction’ IN YOGA of the Mother’s Chamber according to the original plan she gave, which became a sort of map or blueprint for the process. The ‘hole’ referred to was the fact that the architect of the shadow-temple had indeed left the centre of the room he was constructing VOID: it was a three-metre circle left ‘void’ during the entire construction period. My feeling from the beginning was that this ‘hole’, this void in the shadow-temple, provided me with the ‘field’ for ‘filling the void’. If that had not existed, I might not have needed to do this Yoga. The process I am describing involving the Horse was exactly the same as the one for filling the void of the temple, with all that that signifies in the larger context of the work.

 

      When that ‘centre’ came into being, Skambha followed: my ‘place’, my physical ‘space’. But that was not AFFIRMATION. Yet once the centre existed at Skambha, right then the elements were being drawn in to provide a field of yoga for Affirmation. This started in 1986 and went on until the next 3 year, 1992 (and 1993) brought the same victory. 1982-3 allowed for the Centre; this 3-4 year allowed for the Affirmation. In the 1980s, notwithstanding the accomplishment of 1983-4, it was not until end 1985 that Skambha surfaced, though directly the result of that Yoga…

That period would correspond in this ennead to 1994, the last three months. In what way will the victories of 1992-3 translate themselves into some specific accomplishment?

The Horse is central to all this, as is Skambha. But can we separate the Horse from Skambha? Or from the process pertinent to both? No, we cannot. Thus both will figure in what is to come in barely 3 to 6 months. Something is imminent and no doubt the experience I had in Bangalore on 5 June of going into ‘high gear’ is connected to what is to come.

Therefore in this new field where the question of Affirmation is to be settled, we are SETTING IN MOTION EVENTS, and not vice-versa. We are not reactive but active. The rest hinges on us, on this happening. The reason is that only this harbours the true Centre. The rest do not. They are all peripheral. So, when something occurs IN THAT CENTRE, then it must affect everything in the immediate periphery, just like in 1983-4 the Yoga brought an end to the binary system and immediately the results were felt in the international system.

Nationally there were effects too. The Ram Temple saga began then. But it was clearly just the beginning, being made ready for the 1989 ennead. By end 1992, that 3 year, the walls came tumbling down.

Where to now with all of that… But the Yoga of the Horse goes on. The Girls’ (meaning the fillies who were always referred to as ‘the girls’) first victories were precisely in 1993, at the 4.5 Orbit of the year, of a 4 year, companion to the 3. But what now? Still central to it all is the Horse. 1985-6 brought Skambha, home of the Horse (and the Cow). But that was the first base for the Births, our own products out there AFFIRMING.

Interesting, 1995 embraces the letters-numbers of THEA. F3 will be debuting. She and the 4^th AFFIRM. But the 1 and 2 must also make their mark as first-class horses. And they will. When they retire they must be known as the best in their calibre. They have to fulfil their potential because only that allows the 3 and the 4 to perform. Perhaps this is why F3 is so backward. She is waiting for that INPUT from Rajas and Tamas. She needs those releases as fuel for ACTION. Therefore the true Sattva can never stand alone. She has to be fuelled by the flanking energies. Thus India (also formed of the three gunas) is destined to depend on those flanking energies (Pakistan and Bangladesh); and since it cannot be positive and collaborative, it has to be negative and combative.

F3 feeds on the flanks, on what she receives from them. She can only find impulse when they are releasing. This means that while they were out of the field, on the farm, she could not function. And she did not. Only when they returned to the centre/field did she truly start. She could easily have stayed home till then. The field must be congenial, conducive – proper to the experience.

 

17.6.1994

 

It would seem that F3 is totally dependent on F1 and F2. Whatever they RELEASE she utilises in the Zero. If they do poorly – i.e., release little – she will perform in equal measure. Thus, the higher they go in harmony with Gnostic Time, the better she does.

It will not be long and I shall be able to prove this theory – one way or another. If they perform really well next week, then according to this theory she too should perform well. If there is a win, for example, F3 should make a tremendous progress almost immediately. Let us see.

But if not, if their performances continue to be mediocre, it seems she is destined to this mediocrity, to working with inferior or insufficient ‘fuel’.

Is this meant to be? Is this the way the destiny of the Zero goes? If I use the Solar Line as an example, what do we conclude about the Horse Crossing?

I have been the outcome of the yogas of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Whatever they have accomplished, I, as the third, have realised. But we cannot gauge the success or failure of the theory by material gains. What I receive (in energy) is Knowledge, fruit of the supramental yoga. And that has been formidable. Nothing like it. A full-fledged Classic winner!

F3 is also the third in the Horse Line. Therefore she too is the fruit of the yoga of 1 and 2. But their participation is still going on. But it seems clear that she can do only what they permit.

However, I see that their input will be absorbed by F3 in terms of the Zero-training. They opened the way for that. Their distilled experiences have fed the Zero to make it ripe for the new training. F3 in this sense is nurtured by them. Whatever of the new is incorporated by F1 and F2, the better it is for F3…

Two days later, 19.6.1994, the entry I made was truly of prime importance. What I wrote was in a sense seminal: a full six months would be required before its import would be fully understood. It did not have a direct bearing on the creation of the Zero-Centre, as such, and was connected instead to the stage we would enter once that Centre was fully established. But the fact that I had to understand something of the future stage even before the present one was concluded indicates that for a proper understanding of the experience of today, we must have a general knowledge of the larger sphere encircling the actual experience. I had to step into that as a previsionary experience, in order to RELEASE ENERGY there, as it were, in the womb of the future, so that it could feed the process and draw it into that future by way of this release.

Though this ‘seeing’ became relevant only later, as I have written, I am including this entry because it highlights the difference between the Zero-Centre and the Axis, something which I alluded to in the beginning pages of this essay:

 

      It would seem that creation of the centre is only the first step. Important is the axis. It is the axis that indicates a cosmos, elements IN ORBIT of the Centre. The axis is what brings a harmony of the One and the Many.

Skanda (the divine Son of Shiva) holds the axis. This is his Vel (lance). I was entirely correct in deducing that the Vel is the axis of the Earth – but it is not just that Earth. It is any cosmos. The axis indicates movement in harmony, a particular rate of movement and tilt. The tilt is the alignment vis-a-vis the Sun of Truth. That depends on the seed-centre. Thus, if it is a seed of Truth, the resultant axis must be positioned so as to cast no shadows. If off-centre, then shadows exist but nonetheless they must be harmonised. They must equally contribute as a part of the harmony of the cosmos.

Without the axis we have no harmonisation between the One and the Many. The axis extends out from the centre, like the diameter of the circle. The periphery is involved in the harmony through the axis and alignment. Without the axis the centre is barren, the ‘tree’ has not sprouted.

Skambha as ‘pillar’ represents that. The 4^th born of the 3^rd is precisely that – hence his symbol is the Vel. And he is indeed Leader of the Hosts. His field is the City, meaning the collective organisation around and from the centre-temple.

The important thing in the Chamber is its faithful reproduction so that Truth without mixture is the quality of the Supramental Seed. If that comes into being then the right axis arises which holds the energies to itself in the mode of Truth. The absence of shadow in the central axis/core simply means that the zero-seed-core is PURE, uncontaminated. This is the most important thing. How to achieve that?

Our racing experience is at the stage of the Zero. The energies were located in the first years, but now they are brought into the Zero to form the nucleus, hopefully uncontaminated. This is the point. How to be sure?

Instinctively I feel Gog brings contamination…as such he will not be a part of the nucleus, only an element in the periphery. The nucleus is us and the new training is its ‘axis’. What we draw in depends on the quality of the Zero.

                                    

As one went deeper and deeper into the structure of the Yoga, based on past experiences in the field proper to those experiences and in the harmony of Gnostic Time, a new mood was setting in. I have always held that the Mother’s original plan of her Chamber is the blueprint of the supramental yoga in this transitional period. The fact that at each stage I am able to refer to it for confirmation or indication of the work at hand, and that this then becomes integrated into the experience with concrete results, is ample proof that this is so. On the basis of that blueprint, the Yoga of the Horse developed, reproducing the same cosmic design or lines of the blueprint once again. This clear perception was the means for a greater conviction that ‘the work is done’:

 

      …Just felt the need to record the wave of hopefulness that came over me a moment ago and still lingers. I felt/feel that a very bright future awaits us, that the horse training/zero formation is on its way and very soon will produce the results we desire and require for the Victory.

I cannot say what it is exactly but there is an immensely hopeful wave and feeling in the air. A period of ‘high gear’ I believe is upon us. Perhaps in my next trip to Bangalore this will be clear. Perhaps by the time I get there it will already be in motion.

…My fervent prayer is that both these splendid creatures reach their maximum potential and that that be as I see it to be: Class 1.

But the facts reveal what is. If they are Class 1 horses they must perform like Class 1 horses. Let us see what this next week brings…

 

The Yoga of the Rigveda actualised

                                  

The next entry was made in Bangalore on 27 June 1994. It marked the definitive turning point in the Yoga of the Horse, a before and after, as it were. The movement of yoga that started then, just after midnight, was caused by the blockage we were experiencing. Though Adam was by then in full charge of the three fillies, who were improving under his care day by day, there were no results on the turf. F2, on her part, was in top form, but she was still unable to win a race. She would place often enough, usually second. She had just run her 15^th race on the 11^th of June, in the hands of the same jockey of her previous race. She placed third. But for some reason that last effort would not be made and she could not cross the winning post first. Each time one could almost sense an exasperation in the public, because in Adam’s care when F2 would enter the paddock for the pre-race parade, she looked by far the better horse in the field. Adam’s participation was indeed improving their condition, but the gap in our team was clearly the jockey. While Eve was unable to ride, it seemed obvious that we would not succeed, regardless of the superior training and care they were receiving. We were blocked at five wins, three for F1, and two for F2.

There were other difficulties surfacing in full at this time. Adam was working with the fillies out of the new trainer’s stable. All racing was done in the latter’s name since Adam had not yet been granted a licence to train in Bangalore. To apply he had to have ten Bangalore-based horses in his care. During this time he was assiduously engaged in trying to gather the prerequisite number and thereby to be able to present his application for a licence. This was fraught with difficulties and created in him a sense of insecurity. It also brought its own contamination into the nucleus because his energies were dispersed in this endeavour. He had his own ‘purpose’, as it were. And this was to secure his place in the new club, with all that this signified in terms of an isolation rather than a consolidation.

The pressures we were all subjected to were intense. On my part, there was the financing of the operation to attend to. Never brilliant in the best of times, during this period finances were especially scarce, creating its own pressures on me and the entire situation.

As for Eve, she was still totally immersed in the atmosphere and problems of Gog’s stables, still under contract with him, still sporting a cast and thereby unable to ride. In all ways she was absent and in a position to contribute very little to our endeavour.

It was in the midst of this situation that I began seriously questioning within not only where we were going in our work but, more importantly, how could I gauge the progress, if any at all. We were physically in the same locale but not yet joined as a nucleus. The jockey, third element of the team-centre, was lacking. My question on the night of the 27^th, after another just-missed win, was precisely what the signal would be that the process was moving forward on its prearranged course as it should, and what the nature of the ‘victory’ might be, if there was to be a victory. In other words, how could we know, non-speculatively, that a breakthrough had occurred? Was winning a legitimate aspiration under the circumstances, or was it simply a matter of gathering all the energies together to form a centre of this emerging cosmos. But if that were the case, then why was Thoroughbred racing the chosen arena of the new yoga? In this ‘field’ victories are plain and simple: whoever gets past the winning post first. The bringing together of the three elements had to make some impact.

With the horses as the One emerging from the compressed 9/6/3 in the Zero, their performance would have to reveal much about the condition of the work. To me it seemed evident that these creatures were mirroring the progress of formation of the nucleus. While we were not together, consolidated, with all our energies centred on the One, the fillies would do no better than they were right then doing. Thus, just after midnight of the 27^th June, I wrote,

 

       Racing is for winning. How else to gauge the ‘success’ or failure of the work; like politics. Finally it is the win that counts. But I am going backward. Race after race we go nowhere. If there are no wins, how can I be still ‘in the fray’? Je ne comprends pas…

 Is all this just to get Adam and Eve here? Surely not. All that had ‘a purpose’ and still seems central to the exercise. But for that to continue and make sense, the girls HAVE TO PERFORM. They are not at all performing. And if it all awaits Adam, then why bother?

 The suggestion seems to be still, do nothing until then. So, after this next weekend, that is just what I am going to do till Eve is back in the saddle again. And when will that be? …At the same time, one does feel that some ‘higher power’ has its eye on the right timing of things…

 

I then began feeling the weight of the moment. That is, how much longer could I wait? For how long could I carry the burden of this experience forward in terms of financing the operation when we were earning so little? But I also realised that the pressure the lack of money was creating had its own ‘purpose’.

 

      I need a win, or good stake money. Then I can AFFORD to retreat. Right now I have to keep trying in order to earn the money we badly need. If I had money who would bother. But is that the way the Zero is formed? Pressure is needed. In this case it seems lack of money is one of the pressures. The whole situation is a pressure, a weight indeed on all sides. Can the Zero/One be ‘born’ in another way? What of the Transcendent? Is IT ‘born’ differently; or else, what would be the ‘pressure’ for the transcendent? The Mother. But what gets HER going to PRESS in? Where is/was she at that time? Indeed, the sages knew the difficulty. ‘Who’ was there, if there was no one? It is not NOTHING, but NO ONE. No  ONE. The One means the ‘thing’ IS. Without the One NOTHING IS. This is why they became fixated with Nothingness – because the One not BEING, nothing is. So, ‘the only security lies in nothingness’, said Mr K.

In the time of the Buddha the coming of the 9 was imminent, but it had not happened; hence the Nothingness must have been prominent in the spiritual firmament. So, what I am doing in ‘filling the void’ is tremendous. Tremendous.                

There is an interesting aside to this introspection. Just as I was leaving Skambha for Bangalore, I was gathering some papers together to take with me for editing during my stay. In the process of packing, I noticed that on the reverse side of the drafts I had typed out there was the Creation Hymn of the Rigveda. Because of this I had three translations of the text with me. I felt that I might be making use of that text during my trip in some way. Indeed, the yogic movement that had begun was taking the shape of precisely what is recorded in that Hymn but which is not currently understood or incorporated in a yogic process of any sort today.

 

Who exerts pressure for the 9? Or what? By SELF-LAW. Mon Dieu, the sages SAW. How extraordinary. Self-law. It had to be. But what is that?

Yes, desire, will = self-law. IT wills itself into ‘existence’. But who/what wills? …‘Even he does not know’… The most profound Scripture in the world. This country is the greatest in the world because none have SEEN like India has seen.

Perhaps the problem lies in beginning and ending. This is what makes it impossible for us to know ‘who’ or ‘what’. Simultaneous. All IS. We are all within THAT. And THAT is unknowable because it is EVERYTHING. One can only know it by KNOWING EVERYTHING. But our consciousness does not permit this…Perhaps indeed the Trinity is the answer = perfect balance. 3 to 4.

This describes the birth: triangle to square. So simple.

 SKAMBHA – the most profound concept of all times. I am pretending to do THAT: to actualise THAT. Mon Dieu…

                              

The intensity of the experience began to increase at this point. For a while I was still able to jot down what I was distilling as the pressure to plunge inward increased. Later, it would be impossible. What was becoming clearer by the minute was that this was the same experience the Rishi, or Rishis had had when [had when?] the so-called Creation Hymn was composed thousands of years ago. Indeed, it was the same experience of the Transcendent on the way to Immanence – the birth of the One. This experience lies at the root of all creation.

 

      My Lord, in this moment I am almost THERE. Almost got it: compression, concentration, tapasya, power. All this is like combustion engendering movement. WITH MOVEMENT COMES KNOWING. Because you need distance, some separation. To deny time and space is indeed to deny the Supreme the act of knowing Itself. That is what we exist for. My Lord, so that you may KNOW and not just BE.

They came upon a stone wall in their quest and called it the Void, Nothingness. They knew: it cannot be ‘known’.

I think the key lies is something so simple as ing.

            See/ing   Be/ing   Know/ing

‘Sat’=BE/’Chid’=KNOW/’Ananda’=DELIGHT

            Be/ing   Know/ing   Delight/ing

The ‘ing’ is the Becoming. This moves IT so it can ‘ing’.

 

Then the power of the Rigveda began to resound forcefully, and I went deeper and deeper into the experience that brought forth the recollection of those verses:

      In the ‘beginning’ there was that of which breath is – nothing else: One breathed without breath by its own self-law. So, only the law of the gunas was at the origin: ‘without breath’ it breathed. The gunas were. This is what constitutes that ‘own impulse’, or ‘self-law’. The action was – not the breath that fills. Rajas/inhalation – Sattva/suspension – Tamas/exhalation…the nadir is the 4.5 mystery, or the mysterious fourth, the suspension before inhalation begins again. Sattva is on top of the breath. What lies below? Emptiness, fulness is above, THAT full of Itself. The 4.5 emptied.

Who fills that breath (Rajas)? What is that inhalation? It draws from where that which is inhaled? Exhalation is releasing that inhalation – one is full of breath and that is exhaled. But ‘below’ emptied of that, what fills it again? What is that essence of breath? Where does it come from?

So, ‘one breathed without breath’ is a very pregnant phrase…‘by its own impulse or self-law’…

So, the ‘emptiness’ is filled with a pulsation and that describes Self-Law, – own impulse. Other than that there was nothing. Pulsation.

India (the land) is the breath of God. For sure. The south is the Sattva/suspension. The Void is above, opposite peak = Kashmir. Inverted triangle:

That line, a ‘crosswise’ bar they spoke of. It indeed divides Being from Non-Being. But also Fulness from Emptiness. The ‘Eye of Shiva’ is that ‘WILL ABOVE’. The pulse is there – ‘seeds below’. India is a perfect description, even as the Gnostic Circle is the perfect description. The gunas are the breath, or the action of breathing: Self-LAW. But what is breath itself?

Indeed, it is easier, far easier to know the Unknowable than it is to get my horses to win. That is the joke of it.

 

Several hours passed in this state, always going deeper into the ‘centre’, compressed to a point. For that was the story of our endeavour: to create that ‘centre’, the nucleus. And it was being done in this ancient yogic way. As the night passed in the magnificence of this Seeing, something gave way, or opened within. I felt I had reached a depth never before penetrated, at least not in this conscious way, with almost every movement ‘known’ or ‘seen’ as the experience progressed deeper into itself. And when I fell off to sleep several hours later, it was not a true sleep. It was something else. I had penetrated the soul’s chamber, which in the Gnostic Circle is described as the 3 Point. In that ‘space’ one comes into contact with the deepest essence of oneself. Strangely, this brought me to the Spirit of the Horse.

 

 

 

 

January of 1995

Aeon Centre of Cosmology

at Skambha

 

 

      The universe is certainly or has been up to now in appearance a rough and wasteful game with the dice of chance loaded in favour of the Powers of darkness, the Lords of obscurity, falsehood, death and suffering. But we have to take it as it is and find out – if we reject the way out of the old sages – the way to conquer. Spiritual experience shows that there is behind it all a wide terrain of equality, peace, calm, freedom, and it is only by getting into it that we can have the eye that sees and hope to gain the power to conquer.

 

 

                                    *

 

      No, the Supramental has not descended into the body or into Matter – it is only at the point where such a descent has become not only possible but inevitable; I am speaking, of course, of my experience. But as my experience is the centre and condition of all the rest, that is sufficient for the promise.

My difficulty is that you all seem to expect a kind of miraculous fairy-tale change and do not realise that it is a rapid and concentrated evolution which is the aim of my sadhana and that there must be a process for it, a working of the higher in the lower and a dealing with all the necessary intervals – not a sudden feat of creation by which everything is done on a given date. It is a supramental but not an irrational process. What is to be done will happen – perhaps with a rush even – but in a workmanlike way and not according to Faerie.

 

                                                Sri Aurobindo

1933

           

 

 

                                   

           

 

 

 

There are two yogic experiences of the Mother which I shall discuss at length in the course of this analysis, insofar as they are relevant to our study, though initially this may not be apparent. The first, recorded on 25 April, 196l, throws light, though indirectly, on the importance and accuracy of the Horse as a key symbol in the Supramental Manifestation. The Mother’s experience reveals in astounding detail the contours of the Point in which, as she describes, ALL of creation is contained. And as the student has discovered, the Point is related to the Horse via its connection with the One.

But the most significant aspect of her experience is that her consciousness entered that ‘point’ and from her description in the light of the revolutionising event which was to take place just a few years later, it was devoid of all movement. The Becoming had not yet been integrated in the manifestation of the Supermind.

The Horse enters as symbol once the ‘reversal’ has taken place. Or, in the language of our new cosmology, once the 0 has given forth the 1.

Another example of fidelity to the experience, which is the hallmark of any true yogic realisation of any school, involves The Gnostic Circle itself. I wrote the book in 1974. This was two years before, in my own experience, the 0 had given forth the 1. But it can be observed that I divided the book into four sections, 9, 6, 3, and 0, with verbal codes pointing to the inner essence of these four constituents of the Knowledge. Because of a similar restriction as the Mother’s, it can be noted that the essence of the 0 was seen as ‘…the Womb, the cradle, the upholder – the Centre’. Which indeed it is. But ‘the cradle’ was empty. The ‘birth’ (in knowledge) had not taken place yet. This occurred two years later. At that point the complete formula was ‘born’: 9/6/3/0-1. The ‘reversal’ had occurred from Vertical to Horizontal. And out of that came the One.

Regarding the ‘upholder’ in the code, this too became realised only when the ‘void’ (0) was filled with the birth of the One – i.e., Skambha, pillar, support, the upholder of the worlds. All this was contained in the 0 waiting to be ‘born’.

It is an extremely interesting exercise to study the Mother’s experience because we have for the first time in the annals of recorded movements of Yoga, a faithful and true revelation of just what that ‘new’ zero is. Being the embodiment of the Cosmic Divine, or the 6 in the cosmological formula, and as such the very essence of creation, it is to be noted that though devoid of movement, the Mother is emphatic: it is not Nirvana, it contains even Nirvana, it contains all of creation, – everything.

In other words, the Mother was experiencing for the Earth the very first steps along the way to ‘filling the Void’, or shunya, emptiness, as the zero had come to be known.

But her experience did not reveal the passage from Zero to One, simply because that stage of the Manifestation had not arrived. It was only in 1963, on the basis of Sri Aurobindo’s yogic achievement ‘on the other side’, as it were, when he returned precisely as the One, that the possibility arose of registering this breakthrough via the yogic experience on Earth. It was then that the Horse could become the symbol of that transition – from stillness to movement; and Sri Aurobindo drew this connection in the deepest layers of the evolution of the species by re-entering the Earth plane precisely through the gateway of the zodiacal sign of the Horse, in an unbroken line of time with his former incarnation.

Prior to this spectacular achievement, the Mother began to probe these recondite dimensions of the Manifestation and with a fidelity to the Vision rarely encountered, even in the highest of the world’s spiritual luminaries, she unveiled the state of the process up to that year, 1961. That is, Sri Aurobindo was yet to make the transition physically, but nonetheless by that time the void had been filled. The Zero was restored to its status of fulness.

However, this was still on the other side. The Bridge had to be constructed and linked to this material plane on Earth. For this the Third in the Descent had to become involved, through whom the ‘birth’ was done. In late 1963, the Zero gave forth the One, – the Becoming was on its way to being integrated with the Being.

This is, of course, the real condition of our material creation. It is not that only in 1963 the Zero became the fulness and until that time it was ‘emptiness’. What is required is that this reality, this true and uncontaminated Reality has to be earned by the species in evolution, because each such perception removes veils in consciousness. The goal is to become that Seeing. This means that what is seen becomes the state of consciousness of the species. The human being then must grow into that Vision. While shunya describes the Zero in our consciousness and Nirvana, or dissolution, is the goal, then the species must reproduce that Seeing and spiritual attainment in society and civilisation. Thus, the Supramental Descent consists of four members who will not only enact the true creative process and thus imprint this reality on the consciousness in evolution, they must also provide the new Knowledge on which basis alone the process is integrated and made the foundation of the new world being born.

By this I seek to impress upon the reader the importance and true purpose of the Mother’s experience, as well as the necessity to record the achievement, because today it stands as the seal and sanction of the Supreme Mother on our work. This transcript was published only in 1978, two years after the veils had been drawn aside covering Sri Aurobindo’s achievement, and 17 years after the Mother’s first access into those recondite areas of the Manifestation. Of this experience she states (translated from the French),

‘The normal state of consciousness is to do something for something (else). For example, all those (Vedic) Rishis, they composed their hymns to reach a goal; life had a goal. For them it was to discover Immortality, or the Truth. But at every level there is always a goal. We here speak of the ‘supramental realisation’ as the goal.

‘But just lately – I don’t know what had happened, it was as if something had taken possession of me, I don’t know – with a (how to say) a perception of the Supreme who is all, everywhere, does all, that which was, is and will be, what is being done, all, all… Suddenly there was a sort of…it was not a thought, nor a sensation, rather it was something like a condition: the unreality of the goal. Now ‘unreality’: the futility. Not even futility: the non-existence of the goal.’

It is important to note the word which the Mother had finally accepted to describe her perception: non-existence. For indeed, in the ‘infinitesimal point’ before the transition is made, it is correct to describe its contents as non-existent. They have yet to cross the threshold into existence. She describes here the compressed contents of the ‘seed’.

‘It is like a means which existed and had its reason for being, and for that reason it persisted: do this to arrive at that, this leads to that (but it is not even that, it is more subtle than that)… And that ‘means’ seemed suddenly to become non-existent because it became useless.’

 

The point to note is that the Mother is clearly indicating a new poise. In other words, the old method disappeared because something had rendered it ‘useless’ and driven it into non-existence. Indeed, the shift that has taken place over these last decades of this millennium has introduced that new poise and extended our boundaries of consciousness whereby the old ways are no longer adequate both to describe the Reality of which we are a part, as well as to experience the newness we are in the process of establishing as a basis for the new world order, embracing all levels of existence on this planet. The Mother continues,

‘Now it is a sort of absolutism’ of each and every second, each movement from the most subtle, the most spiritual, to the most material:  it is the connecting links that have disappeared.  The connecting links have disappeared.  This is not the ’cause’ of that, and that is not done for this, one does not go ‘there’ – all of that has disappeared.’

This absolutism of each moment is precisely the character of that new foundation because of which we can move from ‘truth to greater truth’, in the words of Sri Aurobindo. Further on the Mother explains in very exact terms the contours of that absolutism with respect to the Point:

      ‘Perhaps that is how the Supreme sees? Perhaps it is that…
the perception, the supreme perception: an absolute.

‘It is very strange.

‘An innumerable and perpetual absolute, simultaneous.’

This is the accurate description of what I have called simultaneous time, or Time unextended, compressed. Exactly 9 years after the Mother’s experience, perhaps to the day, I recorded that same perception in our contemporary myth, The Magical Carousel. In the tenth chapter describing the Capricorn experience, there is the same perception of penetration into that ‘space’ of total stillness, yet it too was not a void. And within that compact mass ALL of creation was contained (of the individual in question) in the unextended destiny. The significant part of that mythic Seeing was the magical Clock which bore on its face the symbols of past, present and future, ‘…But there are no hands pointing anywhere as one would normally expect’    And yet there was a ticking, – the pulsation or heartbeat of the Supreme. In that ‘space’ one came upon the absolute truth in the core of simultaneous Time… ‘an innumerable and perpetual absolute, simultaneous…’.

‘The feeling of a connection is gone, of cause and effect. All of that belongs to the world of time and space.’

Indeed, the Mother had plunged into a compaction of space and an unextension of time. Space and time, as we know them, are identified with movement, linearly, it must be stated. Without that they do not exist. Formerly, to escape time and space the yogi extended his consciousness outward (the direction contrary to the Mother’s experience) to the point of dissolution (nirvana); and thus time and space were obliterated along with the nexus that connected his consciousness to the network of this material creation. In this case, the Mother is making the same distinction – beyond the world of time and space – but with a special and particular difference: She is not DISSOLVING that nexus. Rather, she is penetrating into the innermost, sacred-most depths of creation to the point of its total containment. Indeed, this is how the supreme ‘sees’, for it is the ‘awakening’ of that Eye which becomes the creation. What the Supreme sees, is.

 

    ‘Each…each what? What is ‘that’? One cannot say ‘movement’, one cannot say ‘a state of consciousness’, one cannot say a ‘vibration’ (all of that still belongs to our manner of perceiving). And so, one says ‘thing’ (thing does not signify anything). Each ‘thing’ carries within itself its absolute law.’

 

Surely there is no other sentence that best describes the essence of our work and the foundation of this new cosmology: each ‘thing’, which I have called ‘centre’, based on the new revelations of this unitary system, carries within that absolute truth, or ‘law’.

 

      ‘But what is entirely clear is the total absence of cause and effect and goal, intention: purpose. That type of connection does not exist (the Mother makes a horizontal gesture). It is like this (she makes a vertical gesture that dominates and embraces all at the same time).

‘This can translate itself in one’s consciousness as an infinitesimal point, which is a physical body and everything that depends on it, but which is exactly the same as the Supreme Point and everything that depends on it. It is the same thing. It is only like the shift of a glance (if one can call it a ‘glance’) which would be like a needle which does not occupy any space. But it is the same consciousness. ‘Consciousness’, is it ‘consciousness’?…Something like that. It is not ‘consciousness’ as we understand it; it is not perception as well: It is a sort of…willed seeing (my Lord, what words!). And then with a freedom and an absolute omnipotence, it can be this, it can be that, and it is exactly the same thing.’

With these remarkable words the Mother is describing the most intricate aspects of creation, or the essence of our material universe, – its origin, its process. It is indeed a question of seeing and will. These would accurately describe the third and fourth stages of the supramental Descent: the Third sees, the Fourth is. The Mother describes the passage from Transcendence to Imminence. There was no ‘big bang’ at the Origin, where things have their true beginning. There was will, there was seeing. These are the essence upholding everything we can perceive in this material dimension. And indeed, the ‘point’ is equal to the ‘whole’. The Mother exclaims,

 

       ‘Do not try to understand! It is obviously untranslatable.
       ‘But what can be translated is the sort of sensation that the connection
of cause and effect and purpose, goal, appears to be very far down, very, very far away…very human…
       ‘All that seems unreal. How strange.
       ‘It came during the night, slowly but very powerfully: no more connection, no more cause and effect, no goal, no purpose, no intention – a sort of absolute. And which does not exclude creation. This is not Nirvana, it has nothing to do with Nirvana (I know Nirvana well…). It is not that; it is above that, it contains Nirvana and it contains the manifest world, and it contains everything, the appearances (of the worlds) and the disappearances. All that is there…

‘Something that…has neither cause nor effect nor extension (the Mother makes a horizontal gesture), nor purpose, nor intention – intention of what? There is nothing that is to be done! It is like that (the Mother makes the same vertical gesture as before).
     ‘What is interesting is that everything stays the same – you see, I can do everything, I talk, I joke…Everything stays the same, it does not change anything (this seeing). But my problem starts when I ask myself how all this is going to change.’

 

Indeed, unless the transition from compaction to expansion or extension is made, all this cannot change. And it must be done in a ‘new way’, on a different basis entirely than before. The Mother is describing BEING. Her question to herself is most pertinent because that was then the great Secret: How was this essential seeing to express itself in the world if there is no extension, movement?

Ours is a world of time and space. Our universe balances itself on these cosmic principles. They are the vehicles for the Becoming; and while we remain rooted in the Being, or poised exclusively in the point of Unity, we cannot integrate the many levels of consciousness-being which are the vehicles for that Becoming in material creation, – i.e., the vital and the physical.

The passage or transition is the great key of the supramental realisation. Movement is the vehicle – that is, speed. It is a question of increasing the speed of the consciousness; and that acceleration is what the Horse as symbol embodies. Hence Sri Aurobindo stated that the Horse is the ‘prototype of the supramental form’. In other words, the symbol being the thing symbolised after the transition, this Horse Saga explains the new workings of the Supramental Shakti and the minute details of the mechanism by which this integration and harmonisation is accomplished.

The Horse embodies the One, or the divine Purpose. While there is only the Zero disconnected from the One, there is, or appears to be, no purpose. Indeed, if, as the Mother states, there is no extension – then there can be no purpose which is the upholding essence of the Becoming. The two go hand in hand.

Thus, in these pages we are exploring the Becoming as a minutely controlled process to render the symbol the thing symbolised, and to establish beyond any doubt not only the existence of the power which we describe as the Supramental Shakti, but to explain the manner in which the transition from the state of compact fullness which the Mother experienced in April of 1961 has taken shape in our world via the instrumentation of the Horse.

 

Sphericality replaces the Linear

 

One of the most intriguing parts in the above transcript of the Mother’s experience did not involve words at all. It was her gestures – vertical and horizontal, as described by the disciple who was present then. As the student of the New Way knows, I have often referred to these two ‘directions’, in particular regarding the ‘formula’: 9/6/3/0-1. The descent of 9-6-3 is the vertical direction (it is also related to Time). The movement of compaction or compression is the descending 9, 6, 3. These ‘press into’ the Zero, compact there; and then ‘reversal’ assures that the 1 is ‘born’; at which point the direction shifts to horizontal.

The Mother, faithful as ever to her seeing, emphasises the vertical direction by her gesture. Indeed, inasmuch as her vision involved the compressed Zero and not the One, the direction was perforce vertical. The horizontal is integrated once the transition is made.

Something else occurs when this transition is completed, something that distinguishes the new creation from the old. The linear progression becomes spherical. The totality of conditions operating in a given process is acted upon spherically, so to speak. This would be on the order of a series of concentric circles held together by a central Point. The progression through time and space then integrates these circles, draws them into a closely knit organism or system. These peripheries are held together and converge on the Centre. A ‘movement’ in that Point sends ripples throughout the system which consists of these various circles.

The human vision and perception is entirely linear. Our consciousness cannot function spherically, and therefore we can only refer to certain inexplicable happenings as ‘miracles’ because they cannot be accommodated within the linear paradigm. Or else we describe them as ‘coincidences’ for the same reason. The connections between these ‘coincidental’ events appear to be lacking because of our linear functioning which does not include a spheric mode. The connections do exist but they are on the order of webs of time in space extending from a centre. If one’s consciousness is poised centrally, or centred, then the connections in this spheric network are perceivable. Being centred is the key, however. This indicates that one stands at the heart of the cosmos, so to speak, like the Sun in our solar system. Only a person whose consciousness is thus poised can follow the movements of the Supramental Shakti which are entirely spherical and never linear.

The Mother emphasised on the basis of her penetration into the ‘infinitesimal point’ that there were ‘no connecting links’; all of that had disappeared. Indeed, as stated, those connections between things require time and space, which were excluded from the Mother’s experience. She was in the compact zone where there is no ‘space’ and hence no time, the power of the Divine Maya required to weave that web of connections with the tissue of consciousness. The Mother’s seeing was the step BEFORE that shift from vertical to horizontal. More precisely, it is not that they are consequential directions. They are simultaneous. But the transition from 0 to 1 is essential as a method of integration. 1 stands for the power that integrates. Then the 0 serves as the source of energy, a continuous supply feeding the system from ‘the other side’, so to speak.

The noteworthy aspect of the Mother’s experience is that she was opening the way to a supramental action on Earth. The distinction with the old way lies in the poise of the experiencer. In the Mother’s case, she was experiencing and describing the first step toward centredness, as I have called it. That is, the shift ultimately from linear to spherical. A person thus centred becomes the Sun, sees as ‘the Supreme sees’. Then the connections are perceivable but in this circular sense. Then one can see what none have eyes yet to see. We could say that the Mother was planting the first ‘seed’ of the future realisation and opening the way for the action of the Supramental Shakti. Or rather, through yoga she was opening the channel for the connecting Bridge to become established and operative on Earth, – what Sri Aurobindo referred to as ‘Supermind organised for Earth use’.

Further on we shall analyse another recorded experience the Mother had in 1969 in which she gives very accurate details of the ‘network’ consisting of two strands or lines, which I have called the Solar and Lunar Lines. She explains the place of number-power and the very specific operations of the Supramental Shakti. Between 1961 and 1969 many ‘shifts’ and ‘transitions’ had taken place. It was then possible to give specific details of the action of the Supermind on Earth via the instrumentation of the Supreme Shakti.

Thus, over these three final decades of the millennium, certain yogic achievements have established a new modus operandi in the world. This entails sphericality as opposed to a linear progression. It also entails a centred consciousness needed to perceive the action and thus collaborate consciously in the process, if a life divine is to be established on Earth, as Sri Aurobindo had foreseen it would.

The Divine action has of course always been spherical. When the Mother questions, Is this the way the supreme sees?, she is disclosing the primary difference between human and divine. But the importance of our Age is that on a collective basis and founded on an exacting ‘science’, or a body of higher Knowledge, we can now ‘see along with the Supreme’. The Mother and others of the Solar Line must open the way to this new capacity so that the human being can now extend the boundaries of consciousness and allow that Knowledge to be the new foundation upon which a new world must be built.

We engage in endless debates about the sorry condition of the world, embracing all aspects of life. The final answer, we all agree, lies in a ‘new consciousness’. Everyone is engaged in its elusive pursuit. One cannot take objection with that; however, none have provided a new blueprint, an applicable method whereby the human consciousness can acquire a more divine quality and on this basis affect conditions around us realistically. This is not done because in the first place none have truly and exactly dissected what that superior quality we yearn for might be, – much less to provide a methodology by which the human being can him or herself attain that superior status.

In her experience the Mother does just that. She describes how the Supreme SEES. This was the first step, since perception, or SEEING, lies at the root of all Being. Since then many more steps have been taken along this path. They have carried us to the point where now, in these closing years of the millennium, we can utilise the Horse to carry us across the threshold of an Age and into the new world that awaits us, with a carefully documented, methodically analysed and described supramental process.

Technology has carried us to the threshold of this attainment. But it cannot move us across that border and into the new creation simply because its creator is Mind and its methodology is therefore linear. It does not have the integrating capacity which binds the vertical and the horizontal. Above all, it does not have the creative power to arrange a set of circumstances spherically but from a central point of control. It cannot operate on the CONSCIOUSNESS LEVEL, only the mental at best. But it is through the medium of Consciousness, for lack of a better word, that the Supramental Action takes shape. It operates from centre to centre, from human to human through a channel above Mind, though this element is as yet unacknowledged in human consciousness, which integrates and harmonises. This is the new medium that will be utilised in the next millennium, represented planetarily by Venus and its higher octave Neptune. Cosmic harmonies will be central to that unfolding.

In the meantime, in this essay we set before us the task of providing seekers with the first and only minutely detailed and documented action of the Supramental Shakti on Earth – as a harbinger of things to come. The Horse is the key protagonist because, as the Rigveda describes, this is Usha’s carrier – the Divine Dawn. As we move into a new Dawn, we do so with Agni in the form of the Horse illuminating our way into this new future.

We must therefore present the minute details of our story because almost each and every detail becomes a piece in the extraordinary mosaic the Shakti created as a first detailed testimony of her actions on Earth involving a group of individuals and not simply one person, as was the case for example in The Tenth Day of Victory. It has always been my preference to transmit the Knowledge in an impersonal manner as far as possible. I now find myself constrained to discuss this magnificent collective yogic movement with very personalised inputs. The need for this is also a part of the process insofar as we move out of the sphere of the personal in a transition of this nature, and we become, as Sri Aurobindo has written, the real Person. The distinction is fundamental for it incorporates the main problem we as humans face in our endeavour. It is, quite simply, the supersedure of the ego as our driving mechanism and the apparatus on the basis of which we focus our lens of perception. Everything we know, see, do on this planet is impelled by the ego through a species in orbit of a Void. This describes the innards of the ego mechanism. To move to a higher level of evolution, we must learn to function on the basis of something transcendent to the ego but which, at the same time, incorporates its function though in a higher and wider scheme of things.

The ego was indeed ‘the helper’, as Sri Aurobindo has written. But it has truly become ‘the bar’. Yet if it persisted for so long and became the foundational principle of an entire species throughout countless ages, it had to have fulfilled an important and indispensable function. Thus, if we wish to supersede that principle because we have perceived its limitations and therefore the collective necessity to do so, as a sort of survival response, we have to introduce another principle which attends to the earlier needs and functions, albeit on a new and enhanced basis. It is then that the person becomes the Person.

 

The higher functioning of the Person

 

Because of the need to raise the level of consciousness consciously, and in the process to describe the passage from an ego-impelled humanity to a species poised to ‘see as the Supreme sees’, it is necessary to provide many particulars of the experience which I might normally have preferred to leave out. These details may appear commonplace and too small for so noble and expansive an enterprise, since they involve the level of the personality which in a yogic endeavour is often considered unworthy of attention. Precisely because of this age-old split the lesser arena has been left under the control of the Ignorance. This ‘field’ that is our planet Earth has been consistently under the rule of the Ignorance because it has yet to house a species which operates from a poise other than the ego-centred.

The result has been that every aspect of society bears intrinsically the stamp of the ego, and hence the Ignorance. No matter how lofty our ideals, no matter how noble our thoughts and aspirations, the result is a global civilisation at a crossroads: destruction appears inevitable unless a new creative principle comes to our rescue which is able to erase that contaminating grain running through all our creative activity.

This essay seeks to present an example of that new and higher modus operandi based on the Gnostic Circle, the new key of Knowledge for the new species. The main objective is to provide proof both of the supreme inner guidance we have access to now, as well as the mechanism used by that Power who guides our endeavour. In the process, this saga will reveal the means to attain that superior creative poise whereby the person can become the Person. That is, an instrument of the Divine, centred on the divine Purpose of any given system, and no longer on the ego. The protagonists of this drama were not consciously aspiring for this superior status. They were, however, destined to serve the purposes of the One. They had no ‘choice’ in the matter, as indeed the Earth herself has no choice but to house this superior species. This essay reveals the ineluctability we are subjected to, and the benefit we would derive from a conscious and knowledgeable surrender to the inevitable. Furthermore, it will reveal how the fulfilment of that divine Purpose is infinitely more satisfying for the participant in such a process than any ego-centred attainment might be. The ‘rewards’ for such an adherence to a higher Cause were unparalleled in their all-inclusiveness, covering countless dimensions and every corner of one’s being, each with their own particular aspirations. Nothing was left out in the final tally. All got their just dues and reaped a cornucopia of blessings, material and spiritual.

But the human being fears the unknown. Hence resistance to that one divine Purpose was a constant obstacle along the way. And the need for this detailed account is to provide a clear and indisputable example of the wisdom in the dictum, TRUST IN ME.

We return then to the minutiae of our analysis, realising that each little or larger item of the story had an intrinsic bearing on the final denouement, and without those ‘little details’ the Supramental Shakti’s masterful achievement would have been that much poorer. Multiplicity in unity, diversity in oneness, – these are the keys to integrality. And Harmony is the overall principle: each thing in its place within the whole of an enchanting mosaic never before ‘seen’.

 

Chaos in search of an Axis

 

In the last issue of VISHAAL, we left off our story with the first in a series of rather spectacular interventions by the Supramental Shakti, – i.e., jockey Eve’s retainer by one of the more prominent racehorse owners in India, a position coveted by all, even the senior-most jockeys. This irresistible offer could not be refused. Indeed, the Mother did not intend to have it refused, as we later came to appreciate, insofar as this intervention was a turning point and a key piece in the design.

Thus, Eve took F1 out in her last race in Madras on February 18^th, after which she moved to Bangalore. Interestingly, F1 also returned to the centre-base in Bangalore immediately after Eve’s departure, thereby fortifying the impression I had of her sojourn in Madras as being on the order of a lasso cast out to draw certain elements into a closer orbit of the central Sun of our endeavour; while on her part, F2 gave the impression of being a fixed pole, firmly ‘holding the centre’. Her intensity of purpose was both inspiring and poignant since the effort seemed to be taking a physical toll. F2 was wasting away. Something had to be done to halt the decline.

A series of events did indeed bring about a radical shift. Toward the end of November, I had instructed F2’s trainer, the third of her brief career, to enter her in two sweepstakes races before the closing deadline, and of course to prepare her accordingly. Not only did he ignore these instructions, without informing me, but he set about to prove the inadequacy of the filly and hence to expose my own eccentric foolishness. Apart from the decreased feed he was giving her which diminished her potential considerably, he also instructed the jockey to ride her in such a way as to ‘blow her out’, to use the turf jargon, in the first half of the race. F2 possesses natural initial speed, a coveted quality in a racehorse. But if improperly cared for and mishandled in a race, this precious gift would turn back on the horse and prove its downfall. A Thoroughbred cannot sustain such high speeds for more than a certain distance. And with the inadequate feeding and training programme she was receiving, sustaining the effort was an impossible feat.

This state of affairs continued for several races, until I finally insisted that she should be entered in a longer race, not a sprint, to prepare her for the up-coming mile sweepstakes, for which I believed she had been entered. I repeat, to prove my foolishness, the trainer instructed the jockey to extract the maximum speed from the beginning, certain that she would be too exhausted to cover the longer distance. But F2 surprised both trainer and jockey when, in spite of this initial burst, she kicked off again at 100 metres before the winning post and placed second. She proved that had she been ridden properly, she might even have won the race.

Given her performance and the fact that I was satisfied with only a place position in the final tally, not even a win, the trainer had no excuse to scratch her from the upcoming sweepstakes race. And thus it was exposed that she had not been entered at all. This went against all established conventions between trainer and owner in Thoroughbred racing. I had no option but to remove her from his care.

During this period, Eve was riding for Adam in Madras and there was therefore no jockey with whom I could tackle this hopeless situation as an ally. I put F2 in the care of another trainer, younger and more idealistic, explaining to him that as soon as Adam came to Bangalore she and her sisters would be transferred to his care. He accepted these conditions and seemed delighted to have the fillies, if even for a short time. Indeed, he even agreed to let Adam take charge of them while in his stables. The arrangement seemed a perfect one. The question was, where was Adam?

The last race that F1 ran in Madras merits some discussion because of its central place in the unfolding of events which brought about a radical change. Eve had worked hard to bring F1 to the point of a win. In fact, when she entered this race all expected the filly to succeed, particularly in the expert hands of her favourite jockey. It was a 1600 metre race and she had been carefully prepared to handle the distance. Up to that point, I was not facing the usual trainer indifference in Adam that I had to deal with in Bangalore. But soon enough, Adam too would follow suit. Nonetheless, at that point of time he put his maximum effort into this race for a win.

But fate willed otherwise, as so often occurs on the racetrack. Two jockeys from the stables of a person who dominates the racing scene in Madras, whom I shall call Magog in this essay, succeeded in blocking F1 throughout in one of the most obnoxious and outrageous acts of obstruction ever witnessed. F1 with Eve steering her fought the onslaught bravely and determinedly. But the obstruction was so severe that she risked clipping the horse that finally jumped in front of her with barely 50 metres left in the race, while his companion from the same stable and the same owner was allowed to pass and win. Moreover, the two horses which placed first and second were from the highest class, brought down to this lower class for an easy win. Eve raised an objection, but, as we all expected, it was overruled. The places were left unchanged in spite of these blatant acts of relentless interference and obstruction from the beginning to the end of the race. F1 was in fine form and could have won. Not once did she flinch and back off from the challenge. Indeed, she seemed to enjoy the wildness of it all and was determined to press on. But Eve was also obliged to look out for the safety of both herself and the horse; thus, when the obstruction became too dangerous, she had to check the filly and thereby forfeit the win.

On my part, I halted any further participation of F1 in future races there. Not because she had been shamelessly deprived of a just and well-earned win, for after all, had this not been the case all along in her career, though not as blatant? By then we were accustomed to this sort of treatment meted out to her. Rather, I halted further participation because of the danger to rider and horse. Thus, shortly thereafter Eve left for Bangalore. F1 followed on her heels, having been entered in a race there to be run on the last day of the winter season, 19 March. The circumstances of that race proved that not only would we pose a threat to the racing establishment by our honest running and good horses, I, personally, would have to tackle another serious problem which surfaced fully in that race: the recalcitrant egocentricity which makes a work of harmony and integration impossible. I realised fully then that while the ego was in command and determining the course of events, our ‘team’ would never succeed in gathering together at the centre. Or if it did, it would be as it was for Eve, a peripheral engagement and not a central focus.

At about this time an acute anxiety descended. I had no certainty that F1 would be re-accepted in Bangalore once again. I knew that she could be given permission to participate in a race or two as an out-station horse, but with no assurance that once the Winter Season was over on March 19^th, the date of the race she was scheduled to run, that she would be allowed to stay on in the new trainer’s stable as a Bangalore based horse once again. Out-station participants are normally returned to the home base as soon as their race is over, given the scarcity of stables in most of the racing centres in India. But I had no intention of returning her to Magog’s turf, especially without Eve who was then riding in Bangalore.

More importantly, about this time another esoteric factor served to increase the  anxiety. I came to realise that these fillies covered within and among themselves the three gunas of Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas. On the basis of certain experiences regarding the future realisation introduced by the Supermind as an organising principle in creation, I suddenly understood a very deep ‘principle’ in the arrangement of this unique racing experience. Not only had F1 cemented by her birth on 1^st October the Gnostic Circle’s complicity in the matter, but the other two fillies who were to participate in a sequence after her would also serve to establish the new cosmology as a guiding principle in our endeavour.

In astrology as it has been practised throughout the ages and across the globe, these are the three modes of energy, called, Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable. They are the exact translation of Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas of the Vedic Cosmology and yogic systems. The gunas are the pivot of these systems. Some schools, most in fact in present-day India, reject them entirely by stating that one must rise above the gunas which describe the movement or flow of energy and hence are pillars of the creative process. Rejecting material creation as an equal partner with the Spirit, necessarily the gunas came to be looked upon as the filaments of a web of illusion, hardening into an inexorable chain imprisoning the individual in the cycle of death and rebirth endlessly. As a sort of compromise the second of the gunas, Sattva, became exalted among the three and was shifted to the first position, thereby dismantling the harmony of the cosmic process.

If we seek to transform this material base that is our home and establish a species on the planet ‘in God’s image’ as it were, we can no longer mutely accept this distortion in so essential an area of existence, a function which lies at the root of that very material creation we seek to enlarge and enhance. When Sri Aurobindo once wrote of ‘a new base of life’, poised on the pillar of Immortality, clearly it was a clarion call to transform the gunas; or, we may say, to engage them in a creative process of a new order.

Thus, I realised that the Horse Saga was to be a part of this singular achievement. The gunas are repeated four times in the course of the 12 month-sign year. Each month is an expression of one of the three energy flows, and this triadic play is repeated four times, each quarter thus becoming associated with the four seasons we experience on Earth. They are therefore very deeply engrained in our cosmic/biological clocks.

F1, born in Libra (1^st October), came under the Rajas mode, or Cardinal; F2, born in Pisces (2^nd March), was born under Tamas, or Mutable; F3, born in Aquarius (23 January), was born under Sattva, or Fixed.

Inasmuch as we are intent on establishing the zero-base of the enterprise, it is clear that, as stated earlier, the trinity is a key feature of that zero. Similar to OM of the Hindu tradition, the first sound out of which all further vibrations emanate in the creative process, and which is also known to be triadic in its structure, the Gnostic Circle’s zero bears the same intrinsic stamp. In the Zero before the ‘reversal’, this trinity is expressed as 9, 6, 3 – pure number-power. These powers are compressed in the Zero. With the reversal or crossing of the critical threshold, the three powers are clothed in a body, as it were. The essential Powers are organised by the three modes for the purpose of establishing a creation in matter. The gunas deal with density and organisation. Being modes after the reversal, the 12-part division of the wheel becomes integrated with the 9-part on the basis of this triadic interplay repeated four times. In this manner the Zero has acquired a ‘body’, or a vehicle for the crossing, a channel by which it is able to densify and occupy a ‘space’ in this dimension, and by which means it can give rise to a ceaseless play of energy which is the support of the universe.

It is on this basis that the integration of the two circles (and directions, vertical and horizontal) comes to pass in the Gnostic Circle. The Gnostic Circle is therefore the most accurate key to the true process of creation at our disposal today. It faithfully describes that process as well as offering a sound method to enhance consciousness for the new future we are moving into and which demands a more conscious participation. It ought to serve as a consolation, amid the current turmoil and confusion, to know that the Gnostic Circle having been revealed at this time, the indication is a race  poised for a very important and critical breakthrough.

The present documentation offers the seeker a factual proof of the momentous point we have reached; as well, it is a first example of the process all higher expressions must follow in order to be a part of the new world that is arising in our midst. The Zero holds the key. Its triadic structure is the foundation of everything that has emanated from that original OM sounded at the ‘first time’. In other words, our material creation, from its most subtle sheath to its densest, is simply the extension of that triadic compression. In no other civilisation on Earth do we find, as we do in the Hindu tradition, such an accurate, elegant and sophisticated description of the process of creation founded on the sacred syllable OM. In addition, via the tradition of vahanas or carriers of the Gods (cosmic powers), we understand that this essential, foundational OM, once the critical threshold is reached, acquires a body, or bodies, – meaning, the gunas organised in a different manner so as to ‘carry forward’ that power or powers in a creative play of balanced energy.

The Gnostic Circle combines all of these processes of creation, foremost of which is the Transcendent, the 9, driven into compression by the 6, or the Cosmic Divine, and then becoming established as the soul in the 3, or the Individual; and out of that 3 is born the Point, the One, or the immanent Transcendent. This, briefly, is the story of creation as we experience it, see it in the material universe of 9 that we inhabit, the last and densest vibration originating in the 0.

The two directions are contained in the Gnostic Circle: vertical is the 9/6/3 compression in the 0. The reversal, which in the Circle is indicated by the 4.5 Orbit, snaps around, as it were, or wraps around itself, thus giving rise to that Skambha, or sacred pillar. In the terminology of this work, it is the axis arising out of the Point. It is the One. It is the Horse, vahana supreme of the divine Dawn, Usha, of the Goddess Earth.

The 12 circle is integrated with the 9 circle in this manner, as the horizontal direction or plane born of the 0 of the vertical. For it is then, in the 12-part wheel, also known as the zodiac, that the gunas arise. This is based on an energy interplay or flow, a rhythm and a harmony. Speed is thus a key feature since the description of that critical threshold is really the movement of consciousness at a speed the exceeding of which creates the new direction and emergence of a creation in matter.

With this understanding becoming consolidated via the lived experience, with each passing day I was becoming increasingly more anxious over the fact that F1, first of the ‘gunas’, in her action of ‘lasso’ to draw in those required energies for the zero-base-centre, might not make it back, thereby dismantling the harmony and consolidation of the three gunas at the outset and thus aborting the process. Thus, on 11 March 1994, I began expressing this anxiety in my journal in a series of entries, but together with significant reflections on what such an agitated condition might inflict on our endeavour:

 

      ‘If I could only let go of this anxiety? If I could only REMEMBER that a meticulous CONTROL exists in my affairs. And this includes above all the racing experience because it is the focus of the Yoga in this decade. This being the case, why this anxiety? All things will be arranged in this matter to forward the Yoga, and only the Yoga. Wins, losses, promotions, jockey and race details – all these things are under the umbrella of that controlling Power to do the Yoga and to get very precise results.

‘If only I could LET GO and truly leave it to Her. In any case, it IS left to Her. But there is this anxiety always…

‘What does this produce in a work of this sort? Surely it means that POLE is shaking. It means the immobile Centre is not at all immobile but in a state of agitation. If there is that agitation then the Power suffers. In what way? This is the question. In what way does my agitation affect the process?

‘Let us say that F1 is not meant to be based in Bangalore but must come home. I am anxious. I push, expend energy, agitate things. Whatever, she is going to come home. Period. Thus, it is all useless, wasted energy. But what does it do to the alchemy? Where does that influx in agitation go? Clearly it goes to fortifying opposition and antagonistic forces.

‘Perhaps it happens precisely because of WASTE. That is, ENERGIES WITHOUT A PURPOSE. This means energies not held in orbit of a centre and axis. Only those can be considered waste. So, when I am agitated and I cast those energies in a state of agitation into the alchemy, they must go to the periphery which opposes, they must feed that quarter. That is, there are knots (opposition) and these are parasites that thrive on waste. That is the only way they can survive: waste, spin off. It means that a correct balance of energies is of foremost importance, because this is CONTAINMENT which precludes waste. A balance of the ‘gunas’ indicates NO WASTE, and hence no energies usurped by the asuric knots.

‘…This is the importance of Sattva/Preservation. But what was missed was the balance. Preservation alone goes nowhere. It then hardens and collapses, opts out. There has to be a balance of energies whereby there is movement for rejuvenation and proper utilisation.

‘…This is key. This is the way. There is no waste. No usurpation. Whatever comes into the orbit of such a system is itself drained. This is how we work out the knots.

‘I must also keep reminding myself that I am doing this for the Yoga. That is the RESULT – not winning this race, that promotion, and so forth. For the Yoga apparent setbacks may be necessary. As long as there is the CONTROL. And I SEE this, then all is well and as it should be.

‘I am coming to the realisation that this question of a balance of the gunas is perhaps the most important aspect of the supramental yoga; and the map-symbol is a very fundamental key.

‘Always the Temple holds the key. By it I know, I have the guidance. The THREE circles which go to constituting the Shalagrama (see, The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 11) are those energies in balance, held together by the central axis – this is like the Earth and the axis and the Van Allen Belt. The important part is the axis because without that energies are not held in orbit. Thus, for the sadhak it is the same: without that perfectly aligned axis WHICH IMPLIES CENTRALITY there can be no holding power.

‘HOLDING POWER: it implies an immobile axis. All held around the Core.

‘Applying this, in the racing experience my job is simply TO HOLD. Not to extend directly but rather through instruments. They ACT, I HOLD. This is the way.

‘What happens then? If I ‘hold’ then we can draw those knotted energies into our orbit, our control. The last time I did this EVERYTHING SHIFTED. Perhaps it is what is needed now to help those shifted energies to find their place. Perhaps now it means that Eve and F1 have to be integrated at the Centre. This requires a strong holding so that the negations, the knots do not succeed in BLOCKING. Their effort now is to render ineffective our ‘cosmos’. But as I see it, they are doomed to failure. The cosmos is too solid.

‘So, one HOLDS and thereby allows FREE action which then puts each thing in its place. One then permits those energies the freedom to draw and drain. When one agitates there are counter-currents which interfere. This diminishes the effectiveness of the Power. Agitation means setting currents into the system which weaken the holding power.  Then delays and all sorts of ‘unexpecteds’,

‘…In one’s individual sadhana this same action is imperative: an axis, holding power so that the energies in one’s being are not in a state of AGITATION producing counter-currents that lessen the power (of CONCENTRATION). Concentration thus means immobility. It is a poise which contains power and the immobility is what produces HOLDING POWER.

‘All of this comes about by a balance of the triune energies. This is clearly not meditation – at all. Meditation does not necessarily engender power because it is not concerned with a concentration and balance of energy. Usually one withdraws if energies are stirred. One steps out (of the body) and disengages oneself. But this does not produce holding capacity. Nor does it generate POWER. Indeed, when I concentrate in this way, I feel the concentration of power. I feel an immobility of contained power. This is the experience.

‘When I ceased extending and agitating (see TVN 9/4) it allowed the Force to work and bring an instant shift. This is what the inner Voice meant by “in a day”, because then it can do its job. Its own energies are released and allowed to concentrate on the task at hand. That is, the holding, the attracting Power is not interfered with. Some of its force is not needed or deviated from the task at hand to counteract the agitation.

‘If I were to succeed in that poise, right now, the result would be that all those antagonistic energies would INSTANTLY be brought into alignment. They would have to serve the One. Right now. The instant action is the result of my letting those energies do their job. Thus there is a RELEASE of energy and this influx into the system accelerates and makes things blocked become immediately unblocked. Then everything moves very fast.

            ‘The key to this work is Energy: allocation and organisation (balance) and transmutation. In this transitional phase the cosmos we are forming has to work within the field of the Old. That means we have to deal with those knots. We have to force them to release their energies. Otherwise, where is the increase to come from?

‘Is there a NEW influx? In a sense, yes; but then NO. This is because the newness resides not in an added influx. It is an ORGANISATION. A new arrangement or method of working with the energies at hand. Then in the human being there are ALL the energies we need to attain the supramental state. We have to find the way to get those energies RELEASED.

‘I had seen it already long ago. The Water element is where the energy is blocked or locked or hoarded away. This involves Cancer and Scorpio. Mars is in its “fall” in Cancer. It is exalted in Capricorn. It is ‘at home’ in Scorpio. In “detriment” in Taurus. Most important. We have TWO AXES here: Capricorn/Cancer, Taurus/Scorpio. Cardinal and Fixed. The Mutable is Pisces/Virgo…Surely this is the record of the Process.

‘…And so, the new creation is not really a matter of a DESCENT of Power. We speak of it like that but it is not really that. The LIGHT manifests or “descends” – but what really happens is that the Ray stands for a new axis, plain and simple. That means the capacity to bring about a new organisation: TO PUT EACH THING IN ITS PLACE. In so doing, a new organisation comes about of the existing energies. In order to attain the condition of Immortality we must RELEASE energy already contained in the system. The human body is one system. In the Water element the energy is locked. To transform the physical one has to release that energy. And to do that one has to bring what is there into that new organisation which compels those hoarded energies to SLOW DOWN the system. What happens when there is a release is an increase indeed, but of SPEED, – hence the symbol of the Horse. It is not increase of energy as a new influx from outside. It is an influx due to releasing energy in the system which then accelerates, speeds up. It is when a particular speed is reached that collapse no longer occurs. This is the magical threshold which when crossed prevents collapse. Where are we with relation to that? Where am I? Perhaps 1956 was the threshold for the Earth. 1962 for the Yoga. 1971 for the Individual. Who knows. But whatever, there is a threshold. There is a balance: Libra. The steady state. Then there is no more collapse and knotting up. That steady state is the balance of triune energies. It is all in the zodiac, hence the importance to preserve it across the ages.’

                                    

Dissecting the Ego

                                                

The necessity of the ego has been to serve as a motivating, driving apparatus by which or through which we can accomplish a certain cosmic and evolutionary function on this planet. The ego – and by this I mean the element which serves as a nexus of consciousness whereby the human being realises himself to be an individualised entity – cannot be eliminated in the evolutionary scheme without a replacement. It is this superior element, serving a ‘higher cause’ as it were, that we are intent on describing as deeply as permissible given the limited experiences available of this new functioning. In addition, this documentation deals with only a portion of the full action in that it describes the transitional period. In the future the supramental manifestation will be experienced differently given the present work of transition and initial transformation. Indeed, the Horse, as the Rigvedic myth described, carries us across the threshold, through the transitional phase and into the full supramental manifestation.

By this it can be appreciated that as a transitional species we are burdened with the ego mechanism but must somehow, in spite of this limitation, complete the crossing to a higher status. It is important therefore to locate the limiting component of ego-centredness so that we may come to a better understanding of the areas which need special attention and just what it is that must be transformed in the human consciousness.

To begin, and perhaps this is the sole item of importance, the ego functions through the principle of division, or separation. When I write of the binary status of the human creature, what is meant is precisely this question of division in the being: a higher and lower hemisphere, each with their separate foci. Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga by its very name indicates that somehow in the midst of the divisive atmosphere we create for ourselves, there has to be an integration of these different hemispheres with their respective segments of consciousness-being.

Broadly speaking, these are divided into four parts: spiritual, mental, vital-emotional, and physical. The physical is, as it were, the densest material vessel that houses the other parts which in turn have ‘bodies’, – i.e., subtle sheaths laid into or upon the physical. It is entirely possible to ‘step out’ of the physical, placing one’s consciousness in any one of the other subtle sheaths and move about this physical dimension and the other natural habitats of those more rarefied dimensions. In the experience of the yoga described above, we have an example of just such an activity by the Mother. But she was treading ‘new terrain’, as her narration indicates. Indeed, she was opening the path for a very different structure to eventually replace the old. The distinguishing feature of this new structure is a shift from the binary status wherein the ego is the mechanism that drives the evolution forward, to a unitary system centred on a newly manifested principle. This principle is the Soul.

Of course the soul is not a new principle or evolutionary device. But it has never been the mechanism utilised for evolutionary purposes directly, as the driving power of the species. This is because the soul is a higher mechanism which presupposes an integrated structure. In a word, the soul stands as the centre of a circular or spherical ‘mass’, holding in orbit the various parts of an integrated being, much the same as the Sun stands central in our solar system and holds all the planets and their satellites in orbit of itself. This, indeed, is the figure we may keep before our inner vision as a model to be realised through the process of yoga, individually and collectively.

Thus, it can be noted that integration has to take place. Hence the need for an integral yoga which the Mother and Sri Aurobindo provided. With that accomplished, with that first foundation laid, the present phase is to make of that integrated being the vessel for this new poise to be established.

It is important to emphasise that we are not discussing an individual attainment in these pages. The purpose of this documentation is to provide an illustration of the complete process involving a collective experience so that an example is provided of the manner in which the transition to a ‘new consciousness’ will be made which can serve as a nuclear ‘holding point’ by which larger and larger segments of collective living may be drawn into this new cosmos we are in the process of establishing.

The soul has of course always been a key element in the evolution of consciousness. But the difference now is that its true and full function in creation is being unveiled for the first time. I hold that until this 9^th Manifestation only a fraction of the soul’s creative function and purpose has been experienced. However, we do have clues to not only its deepest purpose, but also to its method of unveiling as well. These have been handed down from age to age, from generation to generation across the globe in the form of Myth. Indeed, myth is the language of the ‘body’ of the soul.

Of all the nations on Earth, India has the purest collection of myths which most closely convey the cosmic purpose and process. The reason is that only India has an unbroken line of development which is the indispensable ingredient in this cosmic apotheosis. Significantly, the Mother once stated ‘The victory belongs to those who can endure.’ Indeed, the victory of the soul’s affirmation, as the new principle or pivot of the species in evolution, can come to pass only if its full gestation, labour and birth are accomplished in an unbroken line. Thus in all my works I have indefatigably described a series of such uninterrupted fulfilments. But though the areas were seemingly different wherein these accomplishments occurred, the pattern or process was always the same: Birth of the One, the divine Son.

It is therefore that in the world’s store of Myth we find preserved this mysterious secret of Secrets: Birth of the One. For this is the soul’s purpose and no other in the evolution of consciousness. The soul, or in the language of the new cosmology, the Third, is the channel of birth. More than that, the Third is the power of birth. The Third therefore carries out the labour, – which means, she accomplishes the transition and sets the One on its way as the new axis, as Skambha, pillar or upholder of the worlds.

It does not require much ingenuity to understand that the cycle of 9 is the tool of the Third, being as it is the term of human gestation. It is more than that. It is the key to the creative process at the root of existence in this material universe, for which reason the highest species in evolution – the human – reproduces this cosmic formula through birth in the fulfilment of the aphorism, As above, so below.

In most ancient times India enjoyed the civilisation centred on that divine Principle – the Third Power. Hence the figure of the Divine Daughter is as prominent in its mythic tradition as the Son. The story of Durga is most significant in this regard, the consort of Shiva in one of her most appealing albeit demanding aspects, she who was sent by the divine Brahma to conquer and transform in order to save the Earth, she who is the very embodiment of that Soul.

This is the newness of our Age: the lived myth; or the mythic prophecy played out on the Earth’s stage in all its glorious and terrible details. In this Horse Saga we shall present a nuclear example of that mythic accomplishment with its culmination taking place at the feet of that very Durga whom we adore.

 

Before the importance of this achievement can be appreciated, we must return to the mechanisms, old and new, which have been the focus of the transformation so that the full extent of the achievement can be appreciated. As stated, the ego’s foremost ‘purpose’ is separation. On this basis, and this alone, it is able to function. The innards of its functioning merit a deeper investigation. If the One is the foundational principle of all creation, this implies that with its ‘birth’ is born that central divine Purpose. Thus, ‘man in our image’, to use the biblical term would mean a species displaying this divine element in every aspect of life and society, down to the physical. Needless to say, this has not been in evidence, at least during our historical period.

But the One implies centrality, integration and harmony. These, then have to form the foundational basis of a new society and a new world order. These principles must describe the ‘new consciousness’ we aspire to.

Herein lies the problem. The binary creature who functions on the basis of the ego-mechanism, cannot possibly recognise, much less accept, a displacement whereby his or her self-centred interests are made to orbit that divine Purpose. Resistance to the pressure for this shift lies at the root of contemporary unrest. If we delve deeply into our collective and individual poise of consciousness, we will come upon this one recalcitrant ‘knot’, master of all the rest: the human ego-centred being refuses to allow the divine Purpose to occupy, or be unveiled, as the true pivot of a new species and civilisation.

Our Horse Saga documents a process whereby all the protagonists of this contemporary myth were made to carry out that shift or displacement. Each one clung to his or her ego-centredness. Yet each had to forego the binary condition in favour of a higher poise. No resistance could withstand the promptings and tactics of the Supramental Shakti when she set upon its way the Design she had arranged for this saga. Rather, masterful strategist that she is, the ego-interests themselves were used to fulfil that divine Purpose. But for this to be successful prerequisites had to be fulfilled. Foremost was the existence and continuous presence of a ‘centre’ at the heart of the process. Without that nothing could be achieved since, as I reported in past treatments of this subject, the Supramental Shakti had to have a centre and axis through which she could intervene in a controlled and orderly fashion. Therefore, the Durga myth explains that the Goddess herself was sent to Earth in order to conquer the hostile power, inasmuch as she herself is that centred mechanism, the soul. Through this centrally aligned mechanism the other divine Powers collaborate with the Goddess and the victory is achieved. This may be ‘symbolic’ language. But it is ‘symbol’ of a new definition, as the student will appreciate anon. If the Horse is the symbol, being the thing symbolised, so too the Goddess descends to embody the Symbol and carry the Earth across the threshold of the new age.

 

The Imperatives for serving a Higher Cause

 

To return to the minutiae, the question of egocentric interests presented the single greatest obstacle to the successful attainment of the goal. While Eve clung to her resistances and ‘independence’, there was now Adam as well to contend with. The plan was that he would enter F1 in a race in Bangalore at the very end of the season there, and himself saddle her after having applied for a secondary licence to do so. The race was scheduled for March 19^th. The idea was that since he was supposed to move to Bangalore before long, rather than entrust her to the Bangalore based trainer, saddling her himself seemed to be a good opportunity to start the process of gradual penetration. Indeed, it was desirous that he should do so for the purpose of consolidation of forces, among other demands of the process we were carrying out. But there was the ego to contend with. The Supramental Shakti had dealt with Eve in the way in which she would ‘respond’ to the call, – that is, by dangling before her the irresistible enticements which would remove her resistances in one sweep. It was now the turn of Adam. He ‘agreed’ to be a part of this team strategy, but his heart was not in it. The reason being that he wanted to enter the Bangalore scene on the basis of the same condition set by Eve: his own terms, which translated into the clear language of this new cosmology meant his isolated interests disconnected from those of the ‘team’, though each one extolled ceaselessly the glories and the necessity of this ‘team’. None, however, realised the true definition of the word in the context of the process that was taking shape, precisely because none were at all aware that such a process was in force, much less that there was anything like the existence of a Power arranging minutely the details of the operation with the sole purpose of gathering this ‘team’ together at centre-stage, but always on the basis of adherence to that ‘higher cause’ and its divine Purpose. In other words, the means would have to harmonise with the end in some way.

In a word, the ego-interests had to be used to drive the mechanism of these individualised egos, but on no account could those self-interests infiltrate the ‘new cosmos’ and become established at its heart, thus contaminating the operation from the outset and thereby defeating its purpose. Rather, the ego was used to inch the operation along and at certain decisive turning points those artificial devices or crutches had to be ruthlessly removed, as indeed they were.

Thus, Adam ‘agreed’ to saddle F1 in her re-entry race in Bangalore, in order to make his first appearance on the scene and from there to gradually establish himself as a trainer with a new method and a ‘new purpose’. Above all, by that time it was clear that unless the three elements were working together – i.e., owner, trainer and jockey – we could never succeed. With ‘gaps’, as I called them, adverse forces could penetrate and bring our endeavour to grief. That is, all three had to concentrate on a single goal if these hostile forces were to be kept at bay. And only in so doing could the full potential of the fillies be revealed. It was therefore indispensable that Adam saddle F1 and that Eve ride her in the race, otherwise I feared a repetition of past experiences. Indeed, not only was there a repetition of the disasters the filly had already known, this race proved to be the proverbial ‘last straw’.

To be brief, Adam sent F1 to Bangalore and manoeuvred so that he would not have to saddle her and run her under his name, as we had planned. He devised that the new trainer should do so, pointing out that this would please him and therefore we would be assured of this cooperation thereafter. But the truth was different. Adam had a top class horse in his stable and being his only horse of a certain calibre, he centred all his hopes and ambitions on this animal to help establish his reputation. Thus, his real intention seemed to be to storm Bangalore with this horse in a sweepstakes race in early June, three months ahead in the new summer season. For that he would secure a secondary licence which would permit him to saddle his favourite horse in that special race. He was convinced that the gelding stood a good chance of winning and thus his reputation as a good trainer of top class horses would be established, opening the way for his eventual move to Bangalore. This objective played a significant role in the turn events took further on.

On the other hand, F1 was not the horse he felt he cold make his mark with, difficult and temperamental as she was. Hence he manoeuvred to extricate himself from the plan and remain in the background; moreover, she had contracted a skin disease in the dreadful conditions of the Madras stables; thus her appearance, usually spectacular, was far from appealing. In addition, she was yet to recover from the famous bolting madness. Therefore, in his view, it was unlikely that she would score a win. On my part, I believed firmly that she could win, or at least place and give a good showing of herself,

Yet all this played upon Adam’s decision, all the while feigning concern for the feelings of the new trainer in our midst, who, in effect, was disinterested in the matter, having his own plans for that very race. F1 was deprived of the services of Eve by a similar manipulation, but this time it was by certain powers-that-be who had arranged for a large betting operation on another horse in that same race, in fact, belonging to the new trainer.

The point I wish to make is that with this ‘gap’ left by Adam’s lack of commitment and solidarity, we were unable to fend off the other more serious problem: there was then no one to ride F1 who understood her character and temperament and could thus help her to at least enjoy herself in a race once again. Eve still bore the restriction of a limitation to a field of ten horses. It was therefore a simple matter to assure that there would be eleven in the race and thus keep her off the filly. An apprentice rider was put on in her place as a part of the plot to assure the success of the horse on whom heavy bets had been placed. It had been seen as a sure win, except for the last minute appearance of F1. But she was known to be adverse to the whip. Thus though the apprentice jockey was instructed not to use the whip at all by me in the paddock just before the race, when instructions are given to the riders, and seconded by the trainer who was saddling her, this crucial instruction was ignored. Not merely ignored, but it was clear that the jockey deliberately used the whip as a means to drive the filly out of the race by turning her sour. In addition, he put her at the rails in the middle of the bunch and kept her boxed in throughout, all the time whipping her like a maniac though she had no place to go even if she had wanted to respond. He lashed her savagely twenty-two times. It seemed clear that Eve’s months of hard labour to restore the filly’s mental balance and acceptance of the jockey was rendered useless.

I lodged a complaint with the stewards after the race, and thus began an open confrontation with the authorities of the turf who are supposed to enforce the rules and uncover illegal and corrupt practices. But the circumstances of this disastrous experience convinced me that unless the atmosphere of the field itself was cleansed to a degree where we could function as a team, with, as I put it, a small space in which SPORT could be practised without illegal drugs and free from the dreadful practices heavy betting seems to demand, there would be little point in pursuing the matter further. I started a campaign with the stewards to secure this ‘special space’ as it were, by an open confrontation and an all-out ‘war’. I was determined to have Eve’s restriction lifted and that the stewards would protect the interests of the few honest participants in the sport. Some of the details of this confrontation are memorable and deserve to be narrated, but they belong to another story and another time. Suffice to say that pari passu with my efforts to draw the two elements of the triangular nucleus into the central arena, a meticulous work was done to establish a certain boundary within which we would find shelter and be able to function as a single body in a more or less cleansed field.

This painful experience of seeing F1 savagely beaten for unhealthy gain served to draw from within a greater determination and clarity regarding the individual inputs of each of the components of the nuclear trinity. It was clear that all were concentrated on their own self-interests. Help was needed to dismantle these isolating barriers, and it did not take long for assistance of a higher order to surface.

Adam, in Madras, and spurred on by Eve’s departure to hasten his own move, began to organise matters by disposing of the horses in his stable, all of which belonged to his brother. Some were placed with other trainers, others were sold. But on the 26^th March, toward the end of the Madras season, coincidentally the anniversary of Eve’s first race a year earlier, he lost two horses through accidents that day though in different races. One was so bizarre that it left me with the impression that he was a solitary planet orbiting a void in space in the farthest reaches of the system. The horses jumped out of the starting gate, among which was one of Adam’s. But while they all set out in the usual clockwise direction around the course, heading for the winning post, one horse spun around, dislodged his jockey, and sped off in the opposite direction. He broke through the cordons and continued at a furious pace until he finally met the on-coming horses from the other direction who had reached the final stretch by that time. Leading the pack was Adam’s. The crazed horse continued its furious pace and crashed head on into Adam’s horse just before the winning post, throwing the rider off, while the two horses who collided had to be put down because of irreparable injuries.

In the next race another of Adam’s horses had an accident and similarly had to be put down on the track itself. This was the first time Adam had experienced the loss of a horse on the track. Needless to say, coming on the heels of Eve’s departure, along with F1’s, it seemed as if a protective connection had somehow been severed. On my part I felt that this was reinforced by the isolation ego-centredness seemed to have engendered, making it appear as a far off, distant ‘system’ in orbit of a void. In view of this I began to insist even more emphatically that he should dismantle his operations there as soon as possible to avoid further catastrophes. Indeed, I had already written after Eve’s last race there that it was time to leave the scene since catastrophes might be imminent. But Adam continued to move at his pace, according to his ‘time’.

 

In the meantime, while the stage was being set in Bangalore for certain dramatic twists to our story, I was planning a trip abroad. Racing came to an end with F1’s whipping orgy and I decided to take the two fillies home for rest and rehabilitation. F3 could not accompany her sisters since she had just commenced training in mid-February. F2 I felt was particularly in need of rest and special attention. F1 had ‘returned to the source’ early in her career (see TVN, 7/5) which had done her immense good. I felt the same would happen to F2. And indeed it did. Something very deep shifted in her when she came into contact with the nourishing spring of energy at Skambha. It was an almost immediate transformation. Thereafter, every effort was made to rehabilitate her physically within the brief month and a half that she and her sister were able to remain at the farm where they were born. When she was returned to the track in the second week of May, it was a psychologically transformed horse that entered the stables of the newly contracted trainer.

But on April 6^th, before departing for my trip, I met with students residing at Skambha and continued the discussion begun in early February (see TVN, 9/4) on various aspects of this process which were not on the surface to be easily perceived. The following are extracts from that discussion:

 

…This is a kind of continuation of ‘The Contract’ (see TVN, 9/4, October 1994) with a lot of other interesting details…some very clear perceptions about this yoga, about the supramental yoga, about the difference with the integral yoga, about what shape it is taking, what shape it took from 1971, and how it is expanding and how that beginning in 1971 is really playing itself out again and again, on different levels involving different people…

Last night I didn’t sleep at all because something happened to me similar to when Eve took off from here by bus the last time, not too long ago. It was when she took a bus at night and I was then awake the whole night feeling this rumbling of the bus. In fact, last night I had this vibration throughout the night, coming through my feet, just like when I drive. I took it as a coincidence. But last night it was a little more exact because I felt this vibration going through my legs like I feel when I have been driving the whole day. Then it takes an entire night to work it out. So, I was awake the whole night as if travelling on this bus. But some very interesting experiences started, to the point where I did not mind at all not sleeping. One was this incredible feeling of Skambha, the atmosphere of protection here which expanded out really like a cocoon. I realised how much more has gotten done now. How solid the atmosphere of this place is, and how protective – that was the main thing: this protection of all things here and going out from here and everything that happens, regardless of appearances, is so carefully protected and controlled. It was like cotton wool, you know, like being in an embrace. It was so magnificent.

(Eve) called me the day before leaving and she said she understood then fully what I meant by getting people to Bangalore for this work in a certain time frame; because if not, accidents happen. All kinds of gaps were there that allow these things. Of course the tragic accident of (Adam’s) horses she saw immediately as a case in point. And I felt it too. He was just left vulnerable, sort of dangling out there, and this extraordinary thing happened… I think all of this has left her quite pensive.

Then I was thinking about these concentric circles and the Mother’s plan of the temple, and how absolutely perfect they are. And how it describes this supramental yoga very accurately. You have the outer circle, and then you have the middle one defined by the pillars, and then you have the central one; and then there is the point in the centre of the Core. And you have all this held together by this extraordinary Core in the middle. But you have variations. You have an outer circle that is in the dark – virtually no light; and yet it is a part of the Chamber. Then you have the next one which has those pillars and which do support the Light – I have always seen that circle as a support. And then you have the inner circle.

So, I could see very clearly: Here you have a person who is in the outer circle, and it is darkness there, meaning unconsciousness. But out of one’s choice…And then you have the inner circle which is of course Skambha, here, and then you have the Point, centre of the whole affair. And progressively you get closer and closer to the Light. This is the whole point.

So, you can see how no violence is done to anybody in any situation here, – of the participants in this extraordinary drama, where you have people who choose to be where they are and they would not want it any other way. I will give you an example now, going back to 1971 and how two situations in this yoga were almost identical, but where the inner truth of the person determines what happens.

In 1971 I was totally manipulated to come to India, just like Eve felt she was manipulated to get to Bangalore; how it was really a manipulation. I saw it as being a manipulation (by this ‘contract’). As I said, What is (Eve’s) price? A horse. A car? It reminded me of what happened to me in Rome in ’71 where I had that initiation described in The Tenth Day of Victory. I was manipulated in absolutely the same manner. I was literally dragged here and everything was cut off there. Within 9 months…within 3 months of when it became really active and out in the open, I was here. I had no possibility of ever getting here. I had no money. I had nothing. Very much like (Eve’s) situation, but maybe even worse. Virtually nothing. And no connection here. There was this occult force. But (in this case) at least there were physical people you were dealing with; there, there was nothing. You had to rely on that inner guidance which was quite loony a lot of the time – the situations it created.

But what was interesting was this same kind of manipulation of the total environment. Everything conspired. All were like little puppets that were arranged to do this. Well, one had a particular ‘price’. That is, manipulation could come about because one was in the ego, so you have to manipulate then. It is not a conscious act. This is the important thing. These are two situations of unconsciousness. But yet, as I was always told, You have to be there by a certain time…And that was fulfilled.

But in my case the enticement was obviously Knowledge. They kept feeding me with this as an enticement; and of course this tremendous bhakti, because it was the Mother. Without that, I would not have budged. There was no question of the Ashram, I couldn’t have cared less, I wasn’t involved. I didn’t know anything, I didn’t even know who she was. But it was that inner Divine, who was also outside. So therefore I just had to get there…

So, there was this manipulation. I was really manipulated because she kept telling me, ‘You know, I am not going to leave, so when you come we will have a great time together!’

(Laughter)

Otherwise, if I had known she was going (to leave her body), I probably wouldn’t have…I don’t know what I would have done, but that might have influenced things. It was really a wicked manipulation. And very shortly, when I got to Pondicherry, I realised it, because then I found myself in the thick of it. It was like being on that race track. Dangers at every step, and that things were going to be very different from what I Imagined! I mean, you were really just thrown in the thick of the battle. But at the same time there was this Knowledge…

What was interesting was that the aspiration then was this union with the Divine. That never wavered. And it was because of that, or on the basis of that, that this manipulation was possible. It was that aspiration to have the total Union. That started before this occult process actually came out into the open. It was there. And I was thinking, now you have a similar situation and a similar manipulation, which we all saw, where I let the thing go, that Force took it up and just wrapped up everything and everybody was moved all over the place in no time. But you had a totally different condition. You had somebody who had to be enticed by separation, you understand, by being able to keep SEPARATE.

Now, this is what I am describing about the outer circle in the darkness, where there is no aspiration to be at the Centre, in the Light, or to have that total union, because that was offered at any time. It was a manipulation to keep out there, to keep out. But in my case everything was done to bring about that union as fast as possible. Here, everything was done to accommodate this non-union, to accommodate this placement on the outside. But interesting that in both cases you had a very similar set of circumstances, where people were moved all around and all the conspiring circumstances to do this by a Power, clearly, but never doing violence to that inner – I won’t say inner purpose, but to the poise of the individual at that given moment. In other words, one is fed what one really wants. But nonetheless one participates and one has to fulfil that (timing) because that is the overall plan.

So, I saw that there is really no lie. You either make your choice, you choose that divine life, or you don’t. If you haven’t done it then you have the different circles where, yes, you can participate, everybody participates. But they are in different positions. Whereas, clearly Skambha is this inner circle, meaning closer to the Light. So it means also that Union is much more possible; or whether you make a great effort or not, there is somebody right next to you who is ‘seeing’, who is keeping this atmosphere of Light here. Whereas the farther out you go the more difficult it becomes. Then you have to rely on your inner resources…

We may believe that we are doing a yoga very sincerely and that we are aspiring to inner communion with the Divine. That’s fine. But what can one expect in a circumstance like that? How can the union come about? This requires a total upheaval inside – a complete reversal inside. Everything turned on its head to have that vibrant, living, lasting union with the Divine – everything virtually turned on its head. You do not turn it on its head like this. I mean, you get nowhere. Or you get what you get, that’s all. You cannot expect anything more because you will get only what you put into it. And if you are only willing to go so far, you cannot get anything more out of it…

But what does this indicate? It indicates an egocentrism. That is all. What does it indicate in (Eve’s) situation? An egocentrism, which I have discussed with her and she has heard these tapes. It is there. There is nothing you can do about it. That is why it is so important to pray to God Almighty that the fire burns inside, because if it doesn’t you get nowhere. You have to have that burning flame inside that wants only that. Otherwise you end up out there in the darkness, and you stay there. You can keep fooling yourself that you are aspiring, that you are making this inner union. But you are not really doing anything but using that to feel comfortable where you are. That is all.

Again, no judgement. And this is what is very interesting. There is no violence done. There is no imposition of anything. You are left totally free to make your choice. Where do you want to be? What do you want to do? But that doesn’t mean that the work is not going to get done. Again, it is only a question of conscious awareness. So, are you going to do the work in ignorance, in darkness, or are you going to do it participating in the light.

Now, that was the difference with me in Rome, where notwithstanding everything that was happening there, which was very consciously carried out with the inner Divine, there was still total unconsciousness. I mean, I had to be brought here under false pretences. It wasn’t false pretences of…my God, I don’t know…being set up as a ‘guru’ or…That wasn’t it. The false pretences were that the Mother was never going to leave. That was the thing. Otherwise I would never have come. So, obviously this whole thing had to be built up that she was going to transform this, she was going to do that, she would be here…And of course that intense bhakti. Without that I would not have budged. But it was unconscious. It was not a CONSCIOUS participation. That came when I got thrust in the ‘school’ down there and then you started really realising…Wait a minute, this is something else now!

Then it began and very shortly after it became…Certainly by the time the Mother left…You really occupied the ‘centre’. You knew then what it was and there was no question of carrots dangling, or anything. It was then an inner impulse all the time, otherwise you couldn’t occupy that position.

But this question of ‘manipulation’ is very interesting because I am sure everybody has felt it in one form or another in the course of involvement with this work…But we need that. We need that kind of thing. Now, the interesting thing is to be more CONSCIOUS of what is driving you…

So, the interesting part of this supramental yoga is…Really the lines of it are very clear now, really very, very clear, where you have these ‘locations’ everything in its place. And you have ‘a centre that holds’, and you have everything held together by that ONE POINT – be it conscious elements, be it in the dark, be it negative, – whatever: they are going to serve the purposes of the One. Period. No matter how it gets done.

Now, that is the transformation of society. When that can take shape, and when that can grow – consciously grow, consciously take place on a wider and wider scale…Because that is the most important thing. In other words, when that central Light expands and expands so that pretty soon you have nothing but a luminous Glow.

This is the way you harmonise the One and the Many, the multiplicity and the unity. This is the way you do it. You HOLD each thing. Each one participates, no matter how far out in the periphery, provided there is that CENTRE that is conscious of what is going on. That is what ‘holding power’ is. Without that there is no cosmos. There is no ‘sun’ at the centre, there is no ‘glow’ in the centre of the Chamber – that POWER THAT HOLDS.

And what is that Power? It is nothing but this question of seeing – meaning, that awareness, that consciousness.

So, I found these developments very interesting this week. But sad in a way, this constant self-deception where you see something, ‘Oh yes, it’s clear and how stupid I was before!’ But you see it only at the point when it is convenient to see it or to accept it, because it continues to fortify what you want to do anyway. That is kind of pathetic. I mean, that is really moving backwards rather than forwards because then you use the yoga to fortify all the wrong things. At the same time, that is everybody’s choice. There is nothing you can do about it. You can only get the work done.

And this experience during the night, like actually being on that ‘bus ride’. It got me thinking about all of this. You know, I was having all those experiences in Rome and I would write them in my diary; and then I would read the Mother’s Agenda later, of the same dates, and she would be describing these same things. I quoted some in The Tenth Day of Victory because they were really quite remarkable. Well, now I understand them perfectly because this is the way, where literally, physically, you ARE experiencing what that person is experiencing. You are there. With me it would happen, as in this case with Eve, without wanting it, without sort of turning the tap on. With the Mother at her stage it was turning it on and off. It used to happen very, very regularly. Then when I was in the Ashram and she was there, that sense of having these ‘eyes’ looking through me and going out and participating in things through me. This was very, very clear and really very, very conscious; and I can see now how it would have been done…

So I wonder now where this next phase is going to lead us. I mean with all these energies gathered together, still not half of them conscious, except the horses (about the only conscious ones in this whole affair!) Everybody else is still there for their own purposes, really for their own purposes, each one. As united and as close as we may be on a certain level, which would be the level of sport – we want to get this done in a particular way, we want a particular training, we want a particular honest set up. But this is the very external level of it all. Clearly, what is going on over there is something much, much deeper, which (Eve) would have some insights into because of our discussions, and (Adam) none at all…and everybody else even less. These are all elements essentially in that farther circle and maybe even farther, farther out than that. So, it is going to be interesting to see what happens with this situation and gathering together of a group of people centred on one experience but many of them not at all aware of the deeper levels. How is this to be carried out?

But I think we should all realise that there are these circles and that it is everybody’s choice to be where they want to be, period. And that you really determine your destiny by your choice. And choice does not mean your choice to be in Bangalore or Madras. It means serving the One consciously or unconsciously. That is all it is, You want to be a conscious participant, or you want to mouth it, go along with it like that, but be manipulated.

You see, I told you I had destroyed all those diaries and communications that I had with the ‘Divine Mother’ (in Rome) and that was largely the reason. Because I knew very clearly that if I hung on to those things, if I kept them, that was the period of manipulation. That wasn’t the period of conscious awareness. I would be stuck with that. Like so many people who get stuck at that point when you must move on to another sphere. It may not, in certain aspects, be as pleasant as the other. You may have felt this tremendous bhakti that was carrying you, but it was…I would never go back to that. Regardless of the extraordinary experiences that one had, I would never go back to it because you really feel that it would be going back to unconsciousness. Therefore, that whole period represented…manipulation, because the ego was still there, because the knowledge was not solid. It takes a while before you can really, really…not obstruct. And maybe there would be a long period too where the most you can aspire for is at least not to interfere with the Divine Will and what has to be done. And then at a certain point, as is happening more frequently now, you really COLLABORATE, you really are an ally. A real ‘stalker’, in other words. And that is getting more and more polished as time goes by. But there are these different phases. Occupying the central point of anything, any endeavour, anything that is at the Centre means that that thing is aligned perfectly and no shadows fall. That is what it means. The centre, centre, centred in the Divine Purpose where nothing else can possibly interfere.

…Well, what I started out by saying was that all of these circles are fluid. That is what yoga is all about. Yoga means that ultimately you will end up with that perfect union with the Divine – that poise. That is the transformation that the whole Earth is moving toward, hopefully. But look at the difficulty, just look. Here you are dealing with a group of very sincere people, good people. People who really want this and yet really do not SEE.

Look, to do this, making that crucial choice…It is not easy, and yet when that happens it does make everything much easier because everything gets quite clear then. When you go along on that basis, things adjust and sort themselves out accordingly. But without that CENTRAL ASPIRATION, without that CENTRAL SURRENDER, it is very, very difficult.

And you see, a case like (Eve) where staying out in the darker circle means for her freedom. Being manipulated like that to keep separate is for her freedom, yet for me it means slavery. Now, this is what I mean by this total reversal that has to come because you have a person who is a total slave but who thinks she is free. So, somebody, something is topsy-turvy. You are either free or you are not. But to me this is slavery. It is like being a total slave of your lower nature, meaning your ego. And that the only freedom is, as I have said, in the Divine. Right there at the centre.

…My God, last night I felt something really so dark trying to get at the heart of this situation and destroy it, make it impossible (to realise). And (Adam) is playing a role in this right now. Now this is the one who has to get his head straight or this will never succeed…There will be one obstruction…it is a channel to allow these forces to come in.

The difficulty is what I said in the beginning: You are dealing with people who are not doing yoga, not conscious, not pretending to be conscious, and at the most want to do a job well. That is all… But there is something really very, very dark that wants to get in there. It is clear, because now we are beginning to really consolidate. Now you would have what I have always wanted: right at Bangalore would have the trainer, the jockey, and the owner, all of one mind. Now, that is extraordinary. It rarely happens anywhere, where you have the three. And when you do, you really make an impact. That is when you start.

So, it is obvious that this next month and a half is going to be crucial because they are going to try to block this (coming together). And then there is this other interesting aspect of the three energies, the fillies themselves being Raja, Sattva, and Tamas, in that order. Very interesting. And these two are out now and there is that Sattva/Preservation holding firm over there…It seemed very interesting to me that they should all be there at the same time, at least for one year.

I don’t know if we are going to be allowed to do this. I was just looking at those time cycles; and then (Adam) right now coming up to his 4.5, but I cannot see working with him like this, unless he makes a shift. It is not that. In his mind he is fine. He thinks everything is wonderful. He thinks everything is going smoothly. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know what is happening. It is a bit like The Lord of the Rings, that force would come in and work and they wouldn’t realise it. Bilbo didn’t even realise what the ring was doing to him. It gradually corrodes and then it allows for all kinds of things…And that accident (to Adam’s horses on the track) was one of the signs of something very, very tremendous out there to really stop all of this, as a sign of where that could come (in).

…In a certain sense it is going very well, but in another sense you come to this critical passage…where something has to get established. But it is like a tumour there, a tumour. In other words, it is like a separate system disconnected from the whole. And that is the problem. It is something off on its own that drains energies away at that 4.5 Orbit. It just drains them away and you cannot consolidate so that you can make it through the full round, up and up. And that is exactly what is happening now in this little planetary system of Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve do not know anything. I mean, they are like innocents in the Garden of Eden. They haven’t a clue as to what they are actually doing. And that is very hard then.

So, how do you bring people to understand something that they really…It would be like a brick falling on their heads. They wouldn’t understand that there is this danger and what it means. Very few people would. It is difficult for people involved in this work to really understand. But I can tell you that this is what is happening. This is what is very, very dark, because if it comes into (the centre), we do not stand a chance out there. They are really petty tyrants with unlimited power. They’ll really finish us off on every level, absolutely every level. So, either we go in there with some other kind of – I won’t say just protection, but something else working for us so that we can really function in the middle of this, or we won’t be able to. It will be totally impossible.

…Now, I don’t know how it is going to go at this point. We have certainly come a long way, but we also have a longer way to go yet. We have really that whole upward swing and the really solid, solid stuff then. So, you can see why I was so concerned about him getting there and getting this consolidation done. Because this is the time cycle, whether we like it or not, that is what is being done. It is a work that has got to get done within these 9 years, and very important 9 years: the last of the millennium. The last ennead.

So, I really do not know how it is going to go. I think that we will have a very clear idea from (F1). If she cannot get back there, that is a very clear indication that it is not going to work.

 

Within a week of this discussion I left for a five-week trip abroad, filled with uncertainty about the shape our racing experience would take. It was not clear yet whether F1 would be allowed to return to the track since though she had been given permission, obstacles were put in her way making that return uncertain. It would have to be left to the Power. For one thing was more certain than ever: This experience was meant to continue. Indeed, we seemed to be nearing a most important turning point.

For Adam the move was true to the 4.5 Orbit passage which he was right then approaching according to his age. In the first week of May he would be 31.5 years old, or passing over the 4.5 Orbit in the Gnostic Circle, the orbit of the Asteroid Belt. As he edged closer to that point it seemed that everything was being inexorably shattered and stripped away. The loss of his two horses in one day provided an example. His whole life seemed to have been taken over by a force with its own time plan, its own compunctions and goals, different, or at least more accelerated, than Adam’s. He too had carrots dangling before him which served to keep his attention focussed on the need to put all this energies into the move to Bangalore. Already in February, in Madras, I could perceive that though he seemed to be fully intent on implementing the best training programme for his horses, his true being was elsewhere. He was already ‘gone’. But I doubt that he himself realised this.

On my part, I felt that the longer Adam delayed the more difficult would the move become for reasons external to our team equation. There was, as well, much inner work to get done within a certain time span. Nothing of this would be possible unless he disconnected himself from this former engagement entirely and took up residence in Bangalore as a part of the nucleus in formation.

Indeed, this was the focus during the months to come: the triadic nucleus at the heart of the endeavour had to become established, consolidated, functional. But there were certain prerequisites. Namely, the dissolving of all egocentric priorities and the unification of our energies around a common and central purpose. Ostensibly, this would be the training programme and the care of the horses with the objective of introducing clean and competent racing in a considerably polluted environment. But the ‘purpose’ I knew to be central went much deeper and covered a much wider dimension of life. It concerned the establishment of an uncontaminated nucleus of energy, – a triadic base whose purity would introduce a new functioning in the collective experience of life. The question of contamination was of paramount concern, since being an organic, evolutionary model, whatever is contained in the ‘seed’ inevitably manifests in the subsequent course of growth from that seed.

It is conceivable that an uncontaminated nucleus can come into being with conscious participation in a controlled environment. But even this presents certain difficulties. The contamination in question is elusive for the most part, insofar as the ego is adept at camouflaging its operations and hold over the individual. But on the basis of an integral approach to yoga, there is certainty of success. In this case, at least two of the protagonists were unaware of what the real ‘gathering together’ signified, nor in what way they might be obstructing that achievement. Moreover, each one had established priorities which could not be harmonised with the overall plan as I had come to perceive it. How, then, was this to be worked out?

These self-centred priorities from the ordinary perspective were legitimate. For example, by the time of my departure, Eve was thoroughly immersed in her new occupation as main jockey of Gog’s stables. How could it be otherwise? The ‘contract’ was with him and it was binding. She would be guilty of professional improprieties if she did not fulfil her commitment. And consisting of 30 or more horses, many of whom Eve had to exercise every day, work at his stables left little time for anything else, though she tried her best to honour the commitment given to my fillies.

The problem, however, lay more in attitude than schedule. By the time I arrived in Bangalore on my way out of the country, I found Eve entirely wrapped up in this new job, with no ‘space’, mentally or emotionally, for anything else. It was clear that this situation had gotten us no closer to the consolidation of the nucleus than before. We were, in my assessment, farther apart than ever, though closer physically. And there seemed to be no solution in sight.

There was another logistical complication. We were intent on implementing a new system of equine exercise physiology, never before practised in India. This highly refined programme, based on the experiments and discoveries of interval training of human athletes, combined with discoveries in equine nutritional science, demanded an increased period of exercise. Each horse would require at least a half an hour workout daily, if not more. And the participation of an intelligent, competent and willing jockey was essential for success. Eve’s commitment to Gog’s horses would never allow her to be a full and integrated part of that new phase we were trying to enter as a consolidated team. She had, it seemed, succeeded in fulfilling her desire to remain ‘separate’, – nearby, but not too close. Indeed, Gog’s stables happened to be situated next door to the stables where the fillies were lodged. Her ‘independence’ from the new cosmos in formation was established; but the price, as far as I could determine, was high and heavy: the atmosphere in Gog’s stables was anything but enlightened and inspiring. This pollution was increasingly becoming a part of Eve’s own atmosphere. She had taken on in full the burden of Gog’s own problems with this trainer, and everything else had  become secondary. It was clear that something would have to happen to ensure that this pollution would not infiltrate the new cosmos in formation.

Thus, with my departure I was forced once again to leave these details to the Supramental Shakti to handle, to arrange, to order. This isolated planetary system of Adam and Eve, like the Earth with its moon, had to be drawn into the greater harmony, on its own terms, according to the pulsation of the central Sun. It would not be possible while the binary structure remained intact. Eve’s occupation with Gog’s stables seemed to be reinforcing that separate system. But there was little I could do. The Supramental Shakti, on the other hand, had a meticulous plan arranged. It began unfolding in the first half of May while I was still abroad, as soon as the three fillies – Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas – were gathered together in one place at the centre of our endeavour in Bangalore; and with both trainer and jockey there as well, the drama began to unfold almost immediately.

Eve had been assiduously working Gog’s horses in preparation for the summer racing season which was to begin in mid May. While I was still abroad she was exercising my horses as a secondary engagement, also in preparation for the new season in which they too would be participating. But her attention, as well as that of her colleagues and the public, was on the start of the season as Gog’s main jockey. All eyes were focussed on her performance; and there was, as could be expected, considerable jealousy toward her on the part of the other more senior jockeys, many of whom had coveted the position she was holding.

The day approached for her first ride on one of Gog’s more promising 3-year old fillies. It was the debut for both jockey and horse on the first day of the new season.

Eve had requested that she be led into the starting gate last, since the filly was nervous and fractious. This request went unheeded. Eve was led in first. The filly was so charged and unruly that the handler had to hold her by the ear to distract her and keep her under control, while Eve awaited the opening of the gates and the start of the race. As fortune would have it, he let go of the filly’s ear a fraction before the gates opened. Nervous as she was and true to Eve’s reading of the situation, the filly plunged UNDER the still closed gate with Eve astride, colliding with its metal bars. The filly had to be withdrawn from the face, while Eve sustained a broken arm. It would require two months to heal. She would thus be out of racing for the whole of the summer season. The inexorable march of events had begun.

 

 

 

December 1994

Aeon Centre of Cosmology

at Skambha

 

 

 

 

Sri Aurobindo

 

‘The Mother’

Chapter V

 

 

If you want to be a true doer of divine works, your first aim must be to be totally free from all desire and self-regarding ego. All your life must be an offering and a sacrifice to the Supreme; your only object in action shall be to serve, to receive, to fulfil, to become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her works. You must grow in the divine consciousness till there is no difference between your will and hers, no motive except her impulsion in you, no action that is not her conscious action in you and through you.

Until you are capable of this complete dynamic identification, you have to regard yourself as a soul and a body created for her service, one who does all for her sake. Even if the idea of a separate worker is strong in you and you feel that it is you who do the act, yet it must be done for her. All stress of egoistic choice, all hankering after personal profit, all stipulation of self-regarding desire must be extirpated from the nature. There must be no demand for fruit and no seeking for reward; the only fruit for you is the pleasure of the Divine Mother and the fulfilment of her work, your only reward a constant progression in divine consciousness and calm and strength and bliss. The joy of service and the joy of inner growth through works is the sufficient recompense of the selfless worker.

But a time will come when you will feel more and more that you are the instrument and not the worker. For first by the force of your devotion your contact with the Divine Mother will become so intimate that at all times you will have only to concentrate and to put everything into her hands to have her present guidance, her direct command or impulse, the sure indication of the thing to be done and the way to do it and the result. And afterwards you will realise that the divine Shakti not only inspires and guides, but initiates and carries out your works; all your movements are originated by her, all your powers are hers, mind, life and body are conscious and joyful instruments of her action, means for her play, moulds for her manifestation in the physical universe. There can be no more happy condition than this union and dependence; for this step carries you back beyond the border-line from the life of stress and suffering in the ignorance into the truth of your spiritual being, into its deep peace and its intense Ananda.

While this transformation is being done it is more than ever necessary to keep yourself free from all taint of the perversions of the ego. Let no demand or insistence creep in to stain the purity or the self-giving and the sacrifice. There must be no attachment to the work or the result, no laying down of conditions, no claim to possess the Power that should possess you, no pride of the instrument, no vanity or arrogance. Nothing in the mind or in the vital or physical parts should be suffered to distort to its own use or seize for its own personal and separate satisfaction the greatness of the forces that are acting through you. Let your faith, your sincerity, your purity of aspiration be absolute and pervasive of all the planes and layers of the being; then every disturbing element and distorting influence will progressively fall away from your nature.

The last stage of this perfection will come when you are completely identified with the Divine Mother and feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, instrument, servant or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of her consciousness and force. Always she will be in you and you in her; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from her and are hers. You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, Ananda of her Ananda. When this condition is entire and her supramental energies can freely move you, then you will be perfect in divine works; knowledge, will, action will be sure, simple, luminous, spontaneous, flawless, an outflow from the Supreme, a divine movement of the Eternal.

 

 

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                               Continued from TVN 9/1                                                  

 

If we wish to formulate a succinct albeit unorthodox definition of a cosmos, or the cosmic manifestation, it is surely the act of putting boundaries on the Infinite. A cosmos comes into being by virtue of this action of setting up boundaries, limits, confines. Within that, once the Boundless is closed within boundaries, the energies thus enclosed experience a process of ordering. Cosmos, order, and subsequent harmony cannot come into being without a specific structure. It is similar to the raga of Indian classical music. There is a theme, a specific scale and tone and tempo. This would be cosmos for the musical experience. These are the music’s (the Infinite’s) boundaries. On this basis the raga organises the flow, the inspiration, the activity. Each of the 72 major ragas, we could say, is a cosmos in itself. Indian music is entirely cosmic in nature because it is the fruit of a yogic experience in which the sage or seer identified with that Supreme Consciousness in its bounded form and experienced a similar ‘establishment of boundaries’ by virtue of which the Infinite is made manifest, – i.e., given a body.

 Thus a cosmos is a body. Likewise, each form in the universe is a cosmos within a cosmos. But more especially, the human being is a microcosm equal to the macrocosm in that he or she houses a soul, or a centre which holds this cluster of energies together. The body is thus a precious vessel that serves to set boundaries within which this amalgam of energy may find a field appropriate for the act of harmonisation, or ordering. Hence, the unveiling of that soul-centre is undoubtedly the single most important attainment in the lifetime of a human incarnation.

The boundary comes into being through the correct balance of two cosmic directions: expansion and contraction. It is as if from a point something on the order of a ‘big bang’ – but not quite – were to occur. But instead of experiencing an endless and unregulated expansion of the energy released from that centre, the simultaneous condition of contraction and expansion, and the balance reached between the two, allows for the emergence of a boundary, a cosmos; in Sanskrit it is called adhara, vessel or container. This is another way of saying that a cosmos is the perfect harmonisation of space and time, or the energy ration contained therein. The horizontal direction, equated with expansion, is joined by the vertical which in turn is equated with contraction.

But the quality of that ‘centre’ or ‘point’ is important to scrutinise, insofar as without a centre nothing could be ‘held together’ and the emergence of a cosmos would be impossible. However, to comprehend the true nature of this elusive Point, one has to step beyond that border, that ‘event horizon’ of contemporary theoretical physics, because what expands from the Point is actually what had been contracted beyond that ‘event horizon’. It is as if the Supreme Consciousness were turning Itself inside-out.

In this way the human being can experience that vast, that Supreme Consciousness by similarly plunging into his or her innermost depths and experiencing the same reversal. The experience of the microcosm is the same as the macro, provided one has access to the dimension of Essence, of essential Energy.

The zodiac, inasmuch as it is a formulation of this creative process, describes in its arcane hieroglyphics this very activity of the Supreme Consciousness. Thus there is the symbol of the first sign Aries,, designed to express that original emergence or release of (compressed) energy from the Point. Thereafter, from that initial burst, the two ‘horns’ are seen to rise and separate; the symbol provides us with the key to the movement of expansion from the (compressed) Point.

After six signs or stages there is the sign opposite to Aries, Libra. Its symbol, , clearly conveys the question of balance. What was thrust out at the Origin is now brought into a balance of energy. Astrology has very accurately preserved this knowledge of the essentials of the creative process by incorporating the planets into the scheme by way of relationships to the signs, their ‘exaltations’, or ‘falls’ or ‘detriments’, and so forth.

In the case of Libra, it is important to note that this sign is considered Saturn’s exaltation. We know from the Gnostic Circle and the new cosmology that Saturn is the planet representing the Cosmic Divine, or the process of ordering by way of setting boundaries or limits. Hence its exaltation, Libra, suggests that a key feature of the creative process which produces a cosmos is balance of energies. Saturn is also indicative of contraction; by its exaltation in the sign opposite to Aries of the great release, or first thrust, we understand that our material universe is thus balanced on these two cosmic directions, expansion (Aries) and contraction (Libra), given the pre-eminent status of Saturn in the sign.

This is only one of the poles which form the basic structure of the 12-part wheel, the zodiac of 12 signs. It is the horizontal pole of masculine signs, comprised of the elements Fire and Air. The second cross-sectioning pole is formed of Water and Earth, or Cancer and Capricorn, both feminine. This additional pole indicates another aspect more particularly related to our own planet within this solar system. It refers to the existence of a soul-centre by virtue of which the species in evolution on the planet can indeed experience that original act of creation in full consciousness. Properly speaking, the Cancer/Capricorn pole is the direction of contraction – the feminine, receptive Water and Earth signs which draw within, into the innermost depths. The Aries/Libra pole is the direction of expansion, masculine, out-going, releasing, inspirational, as the Fire and Air signs are known to be.

However we analyse the zodiac as a map of evolution, we understand that a cosmos of whatever magnitude comes into being by virtue of these two simultaneous, interacting directions, expansion and contraction. But this describes only part of the process. The zodiacal script, inasmuch as it is based on the measure of 12 and thus corresponds to the horizontal poise, is concerned only with process on this side of the event horizon. Aries is the emergence of Agni of the Veda, first of the Gods, leader of all the rest. And indeed his vahana, or carrier, tradition tells us is the Ram. He is the God of Fire, indicated by his very name, even as Aries is the first of the Fire signs. He is the supreme Voyager or Traveller on the path to the mountain-top, the apex where the full realisation occurs. Sri Aurobindo describes this symbolism in his Hymns to the Mystic Fire (Agni):

 

‘…The image of this sacrifice is sometimes that of a journey or voyage; for it travels, it ascends; it has a goal – the vastness, the true existence, the light, the felicity – and it is called upon to discover and keep the good, the straight and the happy path to the goal, the arduous, yet joyful road of the Truth. It has to climb, led by the flaming strength of the divine Will, from plateau to plateau as of a mountain, it has to cross as in a ship the waters of existence, traverse its rivers, overcome their deep pits and rapid currents; its aim is to arrive at the far-off ocean of light and infinity.’  (CE, Vol. 11, page 28.)                                                                     

 

It is in the sign of the Mountain, Capricorn, the 10^th in the scale of 12, that the experience is offered to the Traveller which can carry him or her beyond that ‘event horizon’.

In The Magical Carousel this experience in the womb or the zero, symbolised as the innermost recesses of the Mountain, is described in the 10^th chapter of the sign Capricorn. The Centaur of the 9^th, Sagittarius, carries the story’s ‘little travellers’, Val and Pom-Pom, beyond that horizon, or the ‘border’:

 

            

They gallop off at great speed, crossing the violet and fuchsia coloured land, for the Centaur makes every effort to fulfil his mission properly and to bring the children to their destination on time. He travels so swiftly they seem to go even faster than sound and light, and at a certain moment the very space around them disappears, they are almost unaware of moving at all and seem to have entered a point right within themselves…

            

The result of this plunge within on the basis of acceleration and speed, for which reason the Horse is the symbol, is made evident in the beginning lines of the next chapter when the children, after this reversal in direction, find themselves in ‘Capricornland’…

 

An enormous steep mountain rises before them, a majestic sight that juts up from the plains and stretches to the heavens…

 

Thereafter, having scaled the Mountain with the aid of the Goat, the children reach its mid-point and can go no further. There they are encouraged to enter the Mountain, to penetrate into the depths of this mass…

 

                    ‘But this isn’t the top! they exclaim.

            ‘Oh, you cannot reach it by the outside. It is only through the inside that you may come to the peak, and this you must do alone’…

 

Thus it is a movement into the depths of oneself, into one’s innermost recesses which permits the human being to reach the dimension of the origin of Being. What we find there, in this densest  zone symbolised in the compactness of the mountain-mass, is the seed of compressed Time – the three times, past, present and future, simultaneous, unextended, unevolved, spheric  and not linear:

 

Lying there in complete stillness they become aware of a hole in the middle of the room, which seems to have been there all the while. The children crawl up to it, peer over the rim and down below they see an old, old man with flowing beard and long white hair, seated at a table with a huge book open before him. Behind him stands a great clock, unusual and unique for there are only three symbols drawn on its face: a minus to the left, a plus to the right and a circle in the middle. But there are no hands pointing anywhere as one would normally expect. The ticking is loud now for it comes from this very clock…

 

The important feature of this modern myth is that it describes the essence of that across-the-border condition. Or the very essence of Being: compressed energy which when thrust beyond the Border, over the event horizon, becomes time as we know it, measurable essence of the Infinite. Time then, from the point of its contracted Self, delineates space whose essential nature and purpose is to provide a field to expand that compression of Being.

Myth satisfies the emotional, visualising part of one’s being, the ‘picture’ drawn from the soul. On the other hand, we have the Gnostic Circle which plays its part in the integral knowledge by providing us with ‘a new measure’ that involves or integrates the higher mental centres of one’s being. Its important feature is that it incorporates in one diagram the two dimensions: this side of the Border, and that which lies beyond the event horizon. Thus the Gnostic Circle can be described as the new key to a knowledge which only recently has been made available to the human creation because it is only in our present Age of Aquarius that the ‘heaven beyond’ is brought down to Earth – or better, unveiled as the inner Summit attainable by all humans provided they are willing to experience the reversal demanded for such an experience.

The ‘beyond’, or the seed of compressed Time, is depicted in the Gnostic Circle in the Sacred Triangle consisting of the number-powers 9, 6, 3. These are the Transcendent (9), the Cosmic (6), and the Individual (3); or God, Nature and the human being. As time-energy, they are future (9), past (6), and present (3). The meeting point, it is clear, is the 3, or the present.

The Gnostic Circle thus offers the seeker a formidable tool both for the collective and the individual expression in the course of evolution of the essence of that innermost ‘seed’. This we identify as the Divine Purpose. In terms of number-power it is the 1, but as the first numeral emerging from the fulness of the Zero. This process describes the birth that fills the void. We see it in terms of individuals; we realise it in terms of nations or collective expressions of consciousness. But whatever, it is always a question of Fulness, of the evolution of the sacred contents of that compressed seed of Time. This is the upholder of destiny. This is Skambha, sacred support of the worlds.

 

Unextended, unbound, facing downwards, facing upwards
how does he not sink? By what self-law does he go on
his journey? Who has seen when he joins heaven and is its
pillar (Skambha) and guards the firmament?

Mandala 4, Sukta 13,5
Hymns to the Mystic Fire
CE, Vol. 11, page 194

 

The abdication of Spirituality, and the conquest of the Underworld

 

The precise explanation of the present great labour humanity is experiencing in its transition to a higher level is the hitherto irredeemable emptiness central to the consciousness-structure of the species. As individuals we have sought to fill the central emptiness in ever so many ways. But society is realising the painful truth that nothing we can devise with our mental prowess and vital distractions proves adequate and capable of filling that emptiness. The problem lies in the fact that we seek to do so with designs and strategies which bear no relation to the problem. Indeed, we are faced with a central void. And yet, oblivious of the real nature of centrality, disregarding the fact that it is central to everything, we seek to fill this special zone with elements pertinent and natural to the periphery. In other words, a centre unveils from within itself its sacred Occupant. It can never be occupied by an outside element.

Thus throughout the ages and particularly accentuated in our times, we have witnessed usurpation, mis-location, disturbances in the true harmonious condition of being. It has been a futile struggle because until our Age the introduction of the highest Principle expressible by the human being, there was no possibility of this act of centering. By consequence, spirituality fell into a Black Hole. It was forced to devise a means to escape the confines of cosmic manifestation because within that boundary it was incapable of offering the seeker the experience which could give birth to the One that fills the void.

We see this in clear graphics in the Gnostic Circle where the 4.5 Orbit discloses the area of ‘escape’, or the extinction of the consciousness by means of a wrong direction. Thus while the true direction is inward and the poise is centred on the innermost Point, the pressures pushing in on the human consciousness could not be sustained by this incomplete structure and collapse of consciousness was the result, with the obliteration of the nexus of awareness as the goal.

Death has been a well-designed and superior instrument in this cosmic structure. In the scheme of existence in this cosmic manifestation, Death is the lord of a mortal creation which has not known the full gamut or range of experience available to this evolving species. I have explained the conundrum as being a quarter of the Gnostic Circle closed to the experience on Earth, posited ‘in heaven’, or experienced in trance, disconnected from our time and space on this planet; but never in the full and connected waking consciousness. The summit for this mortal creation lies beyond that Borderline which until now has been the demarcation forced upon us due to an incomplete base that cannot sustain the full range of experience which is our true birth right and which we must reclaim.

Therefore we have required Death to provide us with an entry into that Beyond. Sri Aurobindo described this condition and the redemption in his epic poem, Savitri. He has done so in the sublime verses he left us, but also in the structure of the poem in its final version. We find it to coincide with the cosmic formula and script because the death of that One, Satyavan, transpires in the 8^th Book of the epic which coincides with the 8^th sign of death of the Zodiac, Scorpio. Thereafter, the Goddess Savitri follows Death into his domain in the 9^th Book, again corresponding to the zodiac where the 9^th sign represents that passage to the ‘beyond’. But the victory of the Goddess in the 10^th Book, corresponding to the 10^th sign of the Divine Mother’s victory, Capricorn, is precisely the conquering of Death as lord of the Beyond, and the great reversal which brings this experience of ‘heaven’ within the panorama of the Earth’s evolving consciousness of the species. Savitri is Sri Aurobindo’s masterful exposition of the new future that awaits humanity – no longer mortal, no longer requiring death to provide entry into a dimension which was reserved for the Beyond.

And yet, in her victory over Death and the retrieval of Satyavan’s soul which she later carries back to Earth, the Goddess utters these memorable lines, …Live, Death, awhile, be still my instrument.

It is more than clear that the 9^th sign/stage of the zodiac is a critical zone. Being the ninth it is of course related to birth as the human species experiences in its nine months of gestation. What is ‘seeded’ in the first sign, Aries, is thus ‘born’ in the 9^th. However, this is the sign following Scorpio, the sign of death. Therefore we understand that the ‘birth’ of Sagittarius can be this passage ‘beyond’, death here to be reborn elsewhere, or else reversal. That is, the birth that fills the void and thus allows for that ‘beyond’ to become established here and to be realised on this planet in the full waking consciousness, with no disconnection or rupture of one’s time.

Because of this Sri Aurobindo’s return took place precisely in the zodiacal sign of Sagittarius, that crucial ninth. His own passing and rebirth reversed the direction and drew the link between the Beyond and this Earth by taking birth in an unbroken line of time, having moved into and through Death’s hitherto unchallenged territory of oblivion where that link had to be forged by means of a conscious ‘death’ and rebirth.

 

Energies that nurture and fulfil

 

Indeed, we are in a transitional period of great moment which may last a number of centuries but which is characterised by a knowledgeable instrumentation where Death, and even the Ignorance, become allies in the transformation, fully in orbit of the One and fulfilling its divine Purpose in the world.

When we set out to transform an element of the material universe, an individualised body, we are obliged to deal with certain ‘laws’ to which that particular body is linked, to which it owes its life and mechanism of continuity or reproduction. If, then, we propose to alter these laws or set a different mechanism in motion, we must discover a higher system by which that lower structure can be refined and raised in its level of expression and instrumentation.

We are dealing with energy in the Zero. This means that if a true centre comes into being it indicates that there is a perfect balance of energies. In the ancient Vedic tradition these are the gunas, Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas. The order must be correct so that each thing is in its place because this is what constitutes harmony and balance. In the zodiac through the sequence of twelve signs we have a repetition of these triune energies in their correct order, rajas, sattva, tamas, or cardinal, fixed and mutable according to astrological nomenclature. The order and positioning is of vital importance. Any disturbance means a disruption in the flow and the transmutation of energy fails, becomes overpowering of  one of the poises, or is insufficient to fuel the system so that the full gamut or stages are experienced in the rise to the summit of Being.

Thus, in the Solar Line we do indeed find a balanced play. The 9, Sri Aurobindo, was born in Leo of Fixed or Sattva guna; the 6, the Mother, was Mutable or Tamas; while the Third is Cardinal or Rajas. In this arrangement we see that the 9 stands between the two, as in the sacred triangle, and depends upon that base for its manifestation. In terms of energy transmutation this means that Sattva, the middle guna of Preservation/Fixed quality, cannot fulfil itself unless it is fed by the flanking energies. Hence Sri Aurobindo stated that his mission was incomplete without the Mother, or that he could not manifest without her. But that was only half the story; the full picture emerges with the appearance of the triune powers, each corresponding to a guna or energy flow.

For this reason, given the fact that this perfect allocation, positioning and balancing is indispensable if we wish to bring about the transformation desired and its needed transmutation of energies, I have constantly drawn attention to the fact that the clearest indication of the decline of the Vedic Dharma is found in this mis-arrangement of these gunas, placing Sattva first and the others thereafter. When this was done the knowledge suffered tremendous damage. It became obscured inasmuch as the correct process of transformation for any yoga involving an embodied consciousness could no longer be carried out. For this time is indispensable as an ally, since the gunas are channelled or regulated by time. They are time’s limbs, as it were.

This mis-arrangement indicates a Peace (normally associated with Sattva) which is no longer dynamic but entirely static. The reasons are obvious and we shall analyse them by proceeding with this discussion through an application of the formula in contemporary times.

I have stated that Sattva ‘goes nowhere’, does not move unless it receives energy from the flanks, Rajas and Tamas. Because of this entirely passive poise, impelled to action or movement only when it is fed by the flanks, Sattva became equated with immobility, peace, inaction, and so on. Its connection with the spiritual realisation of Peace, dynamic and static, results from this inability to move if not fed by the flanks, – Rajas moving into, and Tamas turning back upon Sattva. The latter then balances or harmonises this play or input of energies. It easily became seen as the superior poise because this harmony was associated with Sattva exclusively, and with a certain detachment, uninvolvement; whereas Sattva merely allows each thing to find its rightful place and balance by not interfering, so to speak, due to its immobile poise. It cannot engender movement, otherwise the thrust into and turn back upon activities of Rajas and Tamas would be disturbed. Clearly we observe that a disassociation of any sort, for whatever reason, spells disaster due to the inevitable and attending collapse of energy. Sattva is then neither an upholder or a preserver but simply a void. That is, in its central and critical position the right poise is not encountered, on the order of a base into and onto which the energies of Rajas and Tamas can find the field for their intermingling and transmutation.

When the order was disturbed about 2000 years ago in India, wisemen had no choice but to withdraw. That is, the base on Earth became the void, a black hole into which the flanking energies collapsed. The base was transported to the Beyond, to Swar or heaven. The Earth was no longer the home for that transmutational process. All spirituality then focussed on the Sattvic realisation but disconnected from Rajas and Tamas, both energy expressions of which were looked down upon and even despised by the then and present realisers.

 

The Sattvic Escape

                                                

Let us observe how this played itself out centuries later in the physical body of Mother India, a geographical configuration constituted by precisely these very triune energy flows. The true Body consists of the complete Capricorn hieroglyph which delineates the total landmass that encompasses this sacred play of energy. But when this knowledge was lost approximately two millennia ago, the base was corroded and energies started collapsing, turning in on themselves rather than offering the Aryan warrior of the Vedic Age that precious fuel, outcome of the transmutation, indispensable for the rise to the victorious Capricorn summit of Being. The mountain symbol of Capricorn implies a base in matter, in this material creation. Whereas wisemen then sought the summit in an extra-terrestrial paradise, even extra-cosmic, somewhere beyond this dizzying movement which seemed to represent chaos rather than cosmos.

This removal of the consciousness, given the otherworldly direction of their quests, caused the base on Earth, namely India, to suffer the consequences which were immediate in coming. Invasions and conquests followed, leading up to this century and the actual physical dismembering of the sacred body of the Mother.

The argument is put forth that India was never a united whole as described by the Capricorn symbol/map. She always consisted of separate kingdoms and states which were continuously at war with each other. Furthermore, it was alleged that her very culture in its entirety was imported from beyond the borders which the Capricorn hieroglyph defines. Therefore, it should not surprise or confound us that partition of the subcontinent simply consolidated this age-old state of affairs.

This argument is fallacious. What held the symbol-map together was not a politically unifying force but a DHARMIC power based on the visions and realisations of the early Vedic Rishis.

However, and the point must be strongly emphasised, this is not to be confused with religion as we know it and which as an expression of the human spirit has arisen precisely during the decline of the Dharma over the past 2000 years or so. This spirit of the civilisation, still intact today in spite of its struggle for survival in our very times, consisted of all-inclusive, all-pervasive consciousness-being which extended over the entire area and was not at all affected by the divisions of kingdoms and states within those sacred boundaries provided by the Vedic Dharma. This consciousness-being was anterior to religion. It is therefore not surprising that in order to make inroads into that hieroglyphic Body, the tool would be a shadow of that Dharma. The result was that gaps were left in the physical energy-body, just as the withdrawal syndrome of the earlier wisemen in their quest left the Earth’s energy base void and unsupported.

 

This dramatic circumstance was then played out at the time of Partition, the final display of the effects of withdrawal. The two-nation formula, supposedly necessitated by the two religions occupying the body of the Mother, was the strategy implemented to deal the final and everlasting blow to the Dharma. We see this reflected in the map above, indicated by the X marks, where the two flanking energies, Rajas and Tamas, were cut into and thus debilitated to the point where the central portion, Sattva, cannot play its own righful role nor offer the central support-base the play demands. Rather, we find India today unable to stand as that sacred Pillar, that central support of the world. That is, India is not able to fulfil her destiny of soul and centre of this planet, which is the definition of that perfect centre, because she does not enjoy the balance of the triune energies in her physical base.

The dismembering of the hieroglyphic map on the basis of religion was the ultimate falsehood and the final blow to the Vedic Dharma in that it sought to equalise that which had never any connection or correlation. Hinduism even as it stands today is still a civilisational-cultural expression and not a formal religion by any definition. To divide the geography on the basis of a ‘two-nation, two-religion’ formula marked the ultimate in decline. The Dharma had reached its nadir when this came into effect.

Interestingly, during the very period that this ‘formula’ was being devised and implemented, another energy base was right then in the process of completing itself. By 1938 the triune powers of the Solar Line, demanded for the appearance of the 9^th Avatar of Vishnu, were all incarnated. That is, they had all taken their place in Earth time to fulfil the formula: Rajas-3, Sattva-9, and Tamas-6. With the addition of the 0 we have the radius of the Earth, 3960 miles according to the measure of 12. Indeed, as the radius, the measure of unity, itself signifies, with the fulfilment by 1938 the full destiny of the Earth could finally begin to reveal itself through the Line, foremost by embodying these triune energy-powers with which the crossing beyond the border, or ‘event horizon’, could be made.

However, just the fact of incarnating was not enough. The unveiling is part and parcel of the affirmation. Thus a longer period of darkness, perhaps increased in intensity due to the very appearance of the three as yet disconnected powers, ensued. In the 9^th year after 1938, on Sri Aurobindo’s very birthday, India attained independence in this dismembered form. This prompted Sri Aurobindo to make the following statement on the occasion of the assassination of Gandhi shortly after Independence,

…the Light which led us to freedom, though not yet to unity still burns and will burn on till it conquers. I believe firmly that a great and united future is the destiny of this nation and its people. The Power that brought us through so much struggle and suffering to freedom, will achieve also, through whatever strife and trouble, the aim which so poignantly occupied the thoughts of the fallen leader at the time of his tragic ending; as it brought us freedom, it will bring us unity. A free and united India will be there and the Mother will gather around her her sons and weld them into a single national strength in the life of a great and united people. (5.2.1948)

Thereafter, events set in motion by his own passing engendered a process of integration and harmonisation precisely involving those three gunas which found themselves severed by Partition; until 24 years later, in 1971, the new beginning was possible.

From that year till today the constant, uninterrupted effort or tapasya has been to fill the void left by the Sattvic escape, to integrate the energies left dangling by the mis-arrangement of the order, and to heal the wounds inflicted by the loss of the Knowledge and the damage resultant to the Vedic Dharma. The Solar Line in its own consciousness-being has lived out the harmony of the three.

We know that the Solar Line is the nucleus consisting of the three energies shaping the manifestation and mission of the 9^th Avatar of Vishnu in the Hindu line of Ten Avatars. This 9^th requires for his appearance and fulfilment the feminine powers, 6 and 3. If not, the 9/Sattva remains inert, unmoving, static. The Transcendent which he embodies remains ‘up there’ and cannot be brought down, rooted here for the fulfilment of the Earth’s destiny.

But when we say ‘the knowledge was lost’, we are only partially explaining the situation. It is more correct to state that the knowledge went underground. In earlier portions of this study (see TVN, 6/4, December 1991), I have referred to the special means adopted to preserve that knowledge precisely during the period of decline. This tool was Myth. Even today the knowledge can be found in India in its vibrant mythic culture. The Vedic Truth was hidden in the nation’s treasure chest of myths.

Thus we find the same truth of the balance of energies and the Sattvic demand for input in order to be ‘aroused’ in a very special myth. It is the tale of Vishnu reclining and asleep on the serpent Ananta (Unending Time); and then the birth of his shakti, or Energy, when the aroused Vishnu takes part in the Churning of the Ocean and movement is initiated by the aid of Ananta, who is used wrapped around the churning stick (Mt. Meru) and pulled by the Gods and Demons. From that churning of the primordial Ocean, one of the prized treasures that emerges is Sri or Lakshmi, Vishnu’s divine Consort. Creation is then released from the pralaya sleep or paralysis.

Vishnu, as we know, is the embodiment of the Sattva/Preservation guna. Thus, the Avatars of the Line of Ten, whose appearance can only take place on Earth during those particular gunas in the passage of the zodiacal ages (the Ages of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio/Eagle and Aquarius, or the four parts of the Sphinx), are known as emanations of Vishnu, the Preserver. But these myths reveal that Sattva is ‘churned’ by the aid of Time (Ananta); the Churning myth reveals the precise role of Sattva in the triangular balance of energy by describing Vishnu as both the Tortoise upholding the act, and at the same time his carrier, the Eagle, holds the stick in place from above. Around this ‘pole’ the Ocean of creation is churned.

By escaping, by focussing on an external cosmic goal and a static peace, realisers in India have been identifying with the sleeping Vishnu. Only half of the myth was  played out. When Vishnu in his 9^th appearance is aroused by the 6 and the 3, the new creation is upon us. Instead of bemoaning the condition of our planet and the scourge of birth in so infested a cosmic space, we ought to rejoice at the choice we are given: to be or not to be CONSCIOUS in this momentous crossing of an age.

 

Exaltations and transmutations

 

There is a story involving the ancient Sage of Tamil Nadu, Agastya, which reveals how the knowledge was preserved in the countless apparently quaint tales which abound in Indian myth and folklore. In this case, as in so many others, the knowledge is specifically zodiacal and refers to Aries, sign of the Ram, ruled by Mars, ‘exaltation’ of the Sun.

The story goes that Agastya married a most demanding woman. As a condition for producing a child she insisted on fine ornaments, garlands, and so forth. But Agastya was a poor sage who could not meet her demands. Thus he went to several benevolent and wealthy kings and asked each of them to come to his aid. However, the kings in turn pleaded their inability to help by producing their account books. There was no balance which could be handed over to the sage.

Agastya then, in the company of the kings, went to the abode of Ilvala, a rakshasa, or titan, who had amassed great wealth. Together with Ilvala lived his brother, Vatapi.

To be brief, the Titan brothers had an intense dislike for Brahmins, the caste traditionally appointed to preserve the knowledge. They devised a means to liquidate any Brahmin who ventured into their domain. Ilvala would turn Vatapi into a ram, prepare a sumptuous meal from the sacrificed animal and serve it to the Brahmin. But once ingested, Ilvala would call out to Vatapi. ‘Come out!’ At which point, Vatapi would burst forth from inside the Brahmin’s belly, and in this manner Ilvala killed many Brahmins.

Agastya being himself a Brahmin, and a sage at that, was also served a sumptuous meal of the sacrificed ram, together with the three kings who accompanied him to Ilvala’s abode. But when Ilvala, as was his custom, shouted, ‘Come out!’, Agastya forcefully and slowly spoke these words, ‘Be digested!’ Thus it was Vatapi who was done away with, and not the sage.

Some versions relate that Agastya then destroyed Ilvala by fire from his eyes, while others go on to state that upon realising that Vatapi was ‘digested’ by Agastya, Ilvala was awe-stricken and proceeded to shower wealth on Brahmins, and particularly on Agastya. In addition, he presented Agastya with a fine chariot pulled by two magnificent horses named Suraav and Viraav (or Suravan and Viravan).

Agatstya then returned to his wife with the wealth she had demanded in order to produce a son, and thereafter the child was born.

In some versions the animal of the metamorphosised Vatapi was a goat and not a ram. But the ram element is certainly revealing, for the names of the horses the Titan presented to Agastya are significantly connected to Aries, sign of the Ram; and it offers us another key to the importance given in India from very ancient times to the ‘exaltations’ in zodiacal tradition. For example, the horoscope traditionally attributed to Sri Ram, the 7^th Avatar, is simply one in which all the planets are in their signs of exaltation, – i.e., the Ideal Man.

The Sun is said to be ‘exalted’ in Aries; while the sign is ruled by Mars. We have therefore two celestial bodies involved prominently with Aries, – the Sun and Mars. Now, the two horses named Suraav and Viraav are representative of these two bodies, thus revealing that this quaint tale is a zodiacal or alchemical formula, the latter being suggested by the transmutation of the ingested material – i.e., Vatapi digested in the sacred vessel that was Agastya. Suraav is obviously linked to the Sun via his Sanskrit name which comes from the root word for the Sun, surya; while Viraav is connected to Mars through his name which is ‘hero’ (vir) in Sanskrit, traditionally Mars. That these two elements, Sun and Mars, and connected to the Ram (Aries) came to Agastya through a titan, points to the important factor which was not lost on the ancients: redemption or release of the energy (Ilvala’s wealth) hoarded by the asura/titan is indeed stored in the vital being, whose symbol is the Horse, and which must be released if the journey is to proceed and the seeker is to reach the Mountain-top of the 10^th victorious sign, Capricorn, sign of the Goat. Thus, Vatapi as either Goat or Ram represents that same element – the transmuted vital energy.

The ‘journey’ begins in Aries, ruled by Mars. The entire progression through the 12 signs can be explained as merely a saga (or formula) of the transmutation of that which Mars represents. Agastya the sage ingests this hoarder of energy and transmutes the energy (digests it), whereby it cannot continue to destroy (the Light, the Knowledge, symbolised in the Brahmin). Mars is transformed from the energy equation that brings death (hence Mars also rules Scorpio, the 8^th sign of death) to the fuel needed for the rise to the Summit by the attainment of a reversal which RELEASES ENERGY –  symbolised in the wealth Ilvala then releases so that Agastya can finally appease his demanding wife and be given a son by her. This finality of the saga points to the birth of the One, the Son, once again after a transmutation and reversal or release of the power hoarded by the ‘panis’ who steal the ‘rays/cows’ of the Sun; or else in this case by a similar hostile power, hoarder in equal measure of the precious wealth the seer/yogi needs to bring forth the One.

But perhaps the most important key in this myth for the seeker is the pregnant message we receive that the beneficent and ‘good’ kings whom Agastya approached initially were misers with the wealth/energy and would release nothing; or perhaps they had nothing ‘accumulated’. Whereas, it was finally from the Titan stronghold that the greatest power was extracted. This is indeed the story of our world, our civilisation, our species.

This very same knowledge can be found in our contemporary tool for preservation and transmission, the Gnostic Circle, reproduced here in a simplified form. We note that Aries is of course the initiator of the wheel, at the apex(0/9); but opposite to this point is the mysterious and hidden 4.5 Orbit, or the halfway point between precisely Mars and Jupiter.

 

Mars we have identified with that energy to be transmuted and released, while Jupiter is of course the sage Agastya. Jupiter is also known as ‘Guru’ in Sanskrit, and in all traditions it is the planet connected to sages and higher knowledge and wisdom, as is Sagittarius, the sign it rules in the zodiac.

The 4.5 is the point of reversal, precisely the ‘belly’ of the wheel, its nadir where that transmutation is set in motion. In the tale it is represented as the ‘belly’ of Agastya the Jupiterean sage, wherein indeed the titan (Mars) is obliged to transform himself and release the hoarded wealth/energy. This connection between wealth and energy is made evident in the gift of the two horses.

In this manner, through a comparison between this very ancient myth and our contemporary key, we again discover the alchemical/transformational aspects of the ancient knowledge contained in the zodiacal script, which in turn is taken from the cosmic harmony of our solar system. Agastya’s saga is the story of each human being set upon the journey of life; it is the story of the Earth’s own yoga and ‘journey’ and describes in detail the destiny of this planet which is itself that ‘cauldron-belly’ for the great transmutation of Mars. In addition, it is again revealed that the key to a real and profound understanding of India’s cultural, mystical and yogic heritage has to be found in a penetrating perception of that cosmic harmony whence this knowledge was taken.

 

The Gunas or the breath of the Divine Mother

                                    

Agni is equal to Skambha, the Point, the Pillar, the Support, who is described in great detail in some of the most magnificent and truly sacred verses ever bequeathed to the world, the so-called Creation Hymn of the Rigveda. Nowhere in the heritage of spiritual, mystical and philosophical literature do we find so accurate a description of the Origin as in these verses. I have included three translations of the Hymn in the February 1994 issue of VISHAAL (TVN 8/6, Appendix 2. In this issue I would like to dissect other portions of that masterpiece of ‘seeing’ in order to establish its transformational quality, as well as the example it provides of a yogic ‘probing’, if it may be so called, into the origins of our material universe. It is perhaps incorrect to write ‘origins’, insofar as the question of beginnings and endings does not arise in the true vision. Nonetheless, there is a 0 point in a process of this nature; and it is that initiation of the process that we refer to as the Origin. In other words, the moment when a certain threshold is reached in a cosmic process and ‘order’ comes into being. The most important and revealing line of the high quality of enlightenment we encounter in the Hymn is the final line,

 

                   …He who surveys it (the Origin) in the highest heaven,
                         He surely knows – or maybe He does not!

                                   

For indeed, what existed then to know? This is the question we must ask today, even as the Rishis of old did. And it is not an abstract and speculative questioning but bears relevance to our yoga of transformation today just as it did for those early wisemen of the Vedic Age. Once we have attained the correct poise of consciousness, or a balance of energies the outcome of a penetration into the depths of the embodied consciousness rather than the route of escape from the cosmic manifestation, we come upon this same question: What was then? Who or what became what now is?

The Veda makes a specific statement in this regard: The One breathed without breath by its self-law. Or, as Pannikar translates it; ‘by its own impulse’. Thereafter we find the significant line, Other than that was nothing else, nor aught beyond it…

And so, in this grand act of penetration we come upon nothing other than a POINT; or better, a pulsation. As an outcome of my own probings, in 1971, before any contact with the Veda, I described the Origin in verses which echo this same perception or experience:

 

A fiery Dancer awakens to the beat of a

rhythmic breath heaving through density of matter…

 

We have in this line 1) fire, 2) breath), 3) a pulse or beat; and of course the awakening or beginning of movement, hence the figure of a dancer, similar to the Shiva-Nataraj imagery, the Cosmic Dancer encircled by fire.

But what exactly is that ‘self-law’, for other than that there was nothing else. We learn through these verses that at the origin of things lies only this law. The Vedic concept of ‘law’ or ‘impulse’ is indeed something very far removed from religion, for example, usually translated as dharma. It is the essence of Skambha, the very first ‘thing’ to emerge: …Unextended, unbound, facing downwards, facing upwards how does he not sink? By what self-law does he go on his journey…And these pregnant words follow, Who has seen when he joins heaven and is its pillar and guards the firmament?

Again there is this question of self-law, in this instance connected to the journey, or movement (of a particular order and purpose). At the same time, it is Skambha that ‘joins heaven’, upholding it, guarding the firmament or universe. What is indicated here is on the order of an event horizon and the first emergence of the Point which is described as a ‘pillar’ in order to indicate its capacity to hold, or uphold. The earlier lines quoted are more specific, ’…Unextended (a point), unbound…’, for as yet that ‘body’ or boundary has not become established. A cosmos requires a boundary, and the Point at the origin is the first Cause of it all, that centre that holds. As a centre it is described as ‘facing downwards, facing upwards, how does it not sink?’

There can be no question but that these verses describe experiences and realisations which have formed the foundation of this New Way and the new cosmology it gave birth to. The Age of the Supermind, or the Truth-Consciousness, is ushered in by the supramental Descent of the triune powers which embody the Transcendent, the Cosmic, and the Individual Divine, or the soul in evolution. They have the numerical values 9, 6, and 3, respectively, and their appearance on Earth is measured in our calendar time by these numbers. But they also embody the three gunas as pointed out earlier, Rajas (3-Capricorn), Sattva (9-Leo), and Tamas (6-Pisces). The Zero or singularity, which is the compacted essence of 9, 6, and 3 beyond the event horizon, evolves in this material universe as the gunas. Likewise the supramental Descent which ushers in the New Age is also an embodiment of the same trinity.

A triune balance of energy is the essence of a creation in matter. The Descent simply imprints this pattern in the evolutionary matrix in a way never before accomplished due to the limitations imposed by the Spirit of Time.

In this portion of our study I propose to draw more connections between these earlier recorded perceptions of the human spirit and this contemporary body of higher knowledge which finds its corroboration in various fields of consciousness in evolution, – i.e., in the individual and his or her yogic quest for self-perfection, as well as in society and civilisation, particularly the Indian through the Capricorn symbol-map.

The basis for this correspondence is the play of the gunas. Just as we have divided the map of India into this trifold progression, we must also consider the gunas as the breath of the Divine Mother in its threefold character; inhalation, suspension, exhalation. The part most pertinent to our discussion of Agni, the One, the Son, the Point, involves a particularly recondite feature of the breath cycle: the ‘space’ between exhalation and inhalation. In terms of the new cosmology and the Gnostic Circle yardstick, this ‘space’ is the 4.5 Orbit directly opposite to the 9 apex, as the diagram below indicates.

While this diagram can be considered the breath of the Shakti, it is equally descriptive of the human breath cycle. We inhale, we suspend breath, we exhale, and then inhale, suspend, exhale. What we do not realise each time this automatic action transpires is that in breathing we live the act of creation. Hence the Veda states, ‘…When he is born he becomes one who voices the godhead: when as life he grows in the Mother he has been fashioned in the Mother he becomes a gallop of wind in his movement…’

The gunas are the Mother’s tri-part breathing experience, similar to our own. But in analysing this act of breathing we can appreciate the conundrum posed regarding this question of emptiness or fulness as the matrix-origin of creation. Our breathing itself provides the answer on the backdrop of the gunas, Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas. This diagram of the innermost triangle of the Gnostic Circle can be equated with inhalation/rajas, suspension/sattva, and exhalation/tamas. Note that Sattva/suspension falls at the apex.

 

It is clear that this is the point of Fulness. When we hold our breath after inhalation, we feel full. From that fulness we exhale, we release, we become  emptied.

This is the point to emphasise: the experience of emptying falls at the 4.5 Orbit in the diagram. The movement goes from 3 to 9 to 6, following the pattern established by the Solar Line, and then to the 3 again once we have been replenished of breath. But if our lungs are emptied where does that addition come from? From outside?

As a parallel with the act of creation it can be said that the whole, the all, is Fulness. That is, the Gnostic Circle describes in its entirety that ‘womb’ (…A mighty child in the womb he is called the son of the body…). Within that womb of fulness the movement of breath ensues, always drawing from the circumscribing womb for sustenance. The critical point is then the emptying process and the fact that we live in a separative consciousness which cannot perceive the eternal upholding substance of the Womb and becomes engrossed in the Becoming, or the movement of breath solely. This separative consciousness moves linearly through breathing and experiences fulness and emptiness as distinct qualities or conditions and not as a rising tide of the same substance/essence of the Womb. It is best expressed in Indian classical music whereby the background drone is the everlasting upholder of the music that rises out of the drone as if it were sound weaving itself from the substance of an upholding silence, while that silence continues throughout to be the background support of this play, untouched, unmoved, eternal.

The ancient Rishis understood this most fundamental concept of life, that creation is a product of fulness and not emptiness or nothingness. But when a separative consciousness began to dominate and determine the course of civilisation and the evolution of consciousness on Earth, this action of the gunas, which seems to represent a play of fulness to emptiness to fulness, and so on, appeared to be a pointless and distracting experience, describing as it seemed to do the very nature of creation itself: a pointless pursuit after impermanence and constant change. Sattva lay beyond it all. The apex of breath, or the mountain peak, was above and beyond and not enmeshed in this material creation. But the true experience indicates that this triadic play is indestructible, its trifold nature is self-supportive and an eternal expression of the Beyond brought into this material dimension.

The ‘error of the Buddha’, as Sri Aurobindo called it, is best understood through analysis of this diagram. The 4.5 Orbit indicates the Buddhist realisation of nirvana, or dissolution, as the word suggests; and indeed it is the ‘space’ of the Asteroid Belt in our solar system, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, populated by countless fragments which do indeed mirror the disintegration the experience of nirvana demands of the realiser. Once this disintegration of the point/nexus rooting the consciousness in this material creation takes place, escape to beyond the cosmic boundary appears to be realised. This is a great illusion, however, for the element dissolved in such an act is not that pillar/point but rather the peripheral ties that hold the totality of one’s consciousness-being to that Point. The connecting links, as it were. The result is a fortification of the separative consciousness insofar as the connection between things, between essence and form, is dissolved, duality takes the place of unity. But this the realiser ignores because for him the unity he believes he is experiencing is simply a positioning of the consciousness in the pole of unity disconnected from the multiplicity. It is not the total reality but only a partial expression, not unity as an outcome of integration.

This is the supreme act of undermining since it serves to corrode our base in life which, as individuals, is the body and its various centres and sheaths, subtle and dense – that is, our vehicle or vahana. It can no longer serve as our carrier on the journey to the Summit because it is depleted of the energy required to do so. These ‘escape’ the system and therefore that 4.5 Orbit is, as it were, an unplugged hole through which energy seeps out and is not concentrated, contained as in a closed vessel and which we can draw upon for replenishment. When a critical threshold is reached, this act of draining produces death. The idea of ‘something’ upholding, supporting, carrying us through the journey of life, is meant to instruct us that the hole has to be filled, – hence, the birth of the One.

The 4.5 is the shadow of the Sattva apex. The latter is fulness, the former emptiness. But herein lies the fallacy. Breath is not drawn from nothing, or from an empty vessel. Yet how do we experience increase and replenishment?

In the human breathing cycle we can understand the process better if at the end of exhalation one presses the breath into itself, so to speak. One presses down or into the cavity of the vessel rather than inhale immediately upon the termination of exhalation. In that ‘empty’ state the breath is pressed down – the action is felt forcefully in the navel centre – and then a greater expanse of breath is opened up after several such thrusts of the breath into itself. One has moved into the Titan’s domain, as it were, into the lower reaches beneath the horizon and released the power. (In medical terms this is the expiratory reserve volume, or ERV.)

The character of the 4.5 Orbit is described to a certain extent in the Agastya tale of Ilvala and Vatapi. The latter – that is, the power hoarded by the Ignorance in the densest depths of matter – is ‘digested’ by the sage in his belly. The belly is that lowest portion of the Gnostic Circle. (…He is full of joy and closes not his eyes from day to day, once he has been born from the belly of the Almighty One…) There is a compression identified with the yoga of the Gnostic Circle which requires an action of pressing in at this point in the wheel or development. There can be no dispersion or dissolution, escaping this compression. Rather, the act of pressing in fortifies or consolidates the element which serves as one’s anchor or ‘pillar’ throughout the remainder of the process or journey. It is this sacred Point that comes into being, symbolised by the birth of the son to Agastya. The important feature of this process is that it reverses the trend of the past Age of Pisces – i.e., dissolution of the seed of consciousness, a severance of any connection in time and space whereby a network is forged that roots the human being in creation, in the material dimension of this universal manifestation.

That the realisation of dissolution should have taken such a firm hold on the human spirit during the Age of Pisces is in keeping with the gnostic symbolism and significance of the signs/ages. Pisces being the last sign indicates a return to the Origin, a merging, a dissolution of the separative consciousness which creates barriers to the condition of Oneness. It is in Pisces that the ‘journey’ is completed and the circle and point, or the Becoming and the Being reveal their eternal oneness. The Magical Carousel provides a clear understanding of this condition of oneness through its mythic imagery when in the land of Pisces the children encounter Ayama, she who ‘breaks bubbles’, those veils which separate them from the totality, from the all. With this accomplished they return to Earth to bring the message of Oneness, of Love.

This rooting in creation is therefore of a very special order. It is the beginning of one of the most important realisations on the path to supermanhood. This is the realisation of the Immobile amidst the mobile. In the Vedic Age such a realisation was attributed to Agni. But in what more specific way is this different than the experiences offered in other spiritual paths?

When the direction of the quest is reversed, which means that dissolution is resisted and an inwardly penetrating movement is sustained during the act of compression, that compaction engenders a sort of combustion. It is the ‘fuel’ required to propel the seeker through the remainder of the wheel/journey, a quarter of which had been closed to our experience on Earth due to the inability of the human being to sustain that pressure and resist the temptation of escape from this cosmic womb by virtue of a dissolving of the lines that root us in our time and space.

The nature of this Point, or centre that holds, is such that it functions as a magnet of sorts. It can be ‘known’ only if we follow the same act of creation which brought a cosmic manifestation into being and continues to sustain this everlasting creative process. Indeed, BEING is the key issue. For we may safely describe the material universe of time and space as the field wherein the Supreme or Absolute knows itself. Being cannot know, it simply IS; unless there is movement, an action of drawing Being out from itself as a spider draws its web from a substance it carries within. Being can be known only if time and space lend their properties as power of movement in a horizontal field for this purpose. In other words, a certain separation is required. The simultaneity of the Zero must be extended in order for knowing to be made possible. The purpose of this material creation is thus to provide this field for the Supreme Consciousness to know itself. By consequence, to deny any ‘reality’ to this cosmic manifestation, as most schools of yoga and spirituality have done, and to seek to find escape from its inexorable contraction and expansion and release into a Beyond, freed from the play of the gunas with its attending uncertainties, is in effect to deny that Absolute the offering of the instruments that we are, devised precisely to serve the Mother in this exacting manner, for this sacred act of knowing. Hence, in keeping with Sri Aurobindo’s perception, to become is the purpose of our existence.

The formula 9/6/3/0-1 describes the bringing into being of the One. Similarly, it describes each individual’s coming into being as a conscious instrument by living that ‘descent’ and attending compression, by refusing to  opt for dissolution, and thereby to become instruments of conscious awareness, to serve as knowing channels for the Supreme Mother to know itself through her instruments.

The Vedic Rishis probed this material creation to its depths and heights. The Hymn of Creation is the most remarkable document of that unique penetration into the nature of existence. It is a document which, like no other, records the exact character of embodied consciousness in quest of its origins, as well as the quest for discovery of the nature of creation itself. These verses are records of cosmic discoveries of greater significance and value than anything our contemporary physicists and cosmologists have yet produced by their scientific methods. The yoga of those Rishis unveiled through the act of identification with that creative Power, that which science seeks to discover so determinedly – i.e., the origin of this material dimension and the nature of that which allows for its emergence beyond the ‘event horizon’. This quest of science is to culminate in a unified theory of all laws of nature.

We find these early discoveries admirably recorded in line after line of the Hymn. To begin, the sage states, there was neither Being nor non-Being, for indeed creation implies a coming into existence of that which lies beyond both. It is, as described further on in the Hymn, Water indiscriminate. Not nothingness, not a Void, but simply a consciousness (water) undifferentiated, vast, EVERYTHING, not nothing, or no-THING. Indeed, this is the difficulty we, as humans, experience in seeking to comprehend the act of creation, as well as these ancient records left by sages who had reached that superior state of comprehension: our consciousness and sphere of perception cannot encompass EVERYTHING simultaneously, which is the character of the Absolute. We could say the Transcendent Absolute is Everything simultaneously. It is BEING undifferentiated, the Totality, the All. Consequently, it has no channel of self-knowing. To bring into being that channel requires compression, or tapas.

The sages understood this through their yoga. The Rishi questions the nature of that Being and non-Being: What was its wrapping, the sage asks, or what enveloped it? And where? Indeed, he comes upon this same limitation of the human consciousness which cannot cope with EVERYTHING simultaneously, nothing ‘beyond’, where there is only ‘…darkness…all wrapped around by darkness and all was Water indiscriminate…’ This is the limit or border beyond which we cannot extend our perception. The Rishi faced the same limitation, which he expresses in the final verse,

 

                 That out of which creation has arisen,
                        whether it held it firm or it did not,
                        He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
                        He surely knows – or maybe He does not!

 

We can understand the coming into being of existence if we realise that a cosmos is precisely the act of putting boundaries on that ‘indiscriminate Water’, that All, that vast Transcendent, so that the differentiation through compression of its essence can occur which permits the Absolute to know Itself through that which evolves from an involved seed of Itself. The Boundary is thus of the same substance as the Boundless; the periphery is equal to the central point. The only difference between the two is ‘darkness’ and ‘light’. The former strives to become aware of its origin through the Becoming; the latter IS.

For that Point is the One who emerges from the act of compression, in the cosmic scale as well as in the human evolution. Madhusudan Reddy translates the next verse significantly, ‘…When that lay concealed by endless fragmentation, the One came to be by the power of its own infinite austerity (tapas)…’ Or we have Panikkar’s version, ‘…the One, emerging, stirring, through power of Ardour, came to be’. The ‘endless fragmentation’ has begun to be organised into cosmos from this primordial chaos. And for that TO BE, the One has to be ‘born’. But since Being was not even there, how did this One arise, emerge, come to be? The Rishi gives us the precise answer: The One breathed without breath by its own self-law (or impulse).

It is not difficult to understand this apparent contradiction of ‘breathing without breath’ if we cease to make divisions and separations. That which lies ‘beyond’ is the same essence as that which lies embedded in this ‘wrapping’. It is Being in the act of Becoming itself, with no divisions between the two. That is, the Immobile amidst the Mobile. Added to this is the question of support, upholding, for the seer, as earlier quoted from the hymns to Agni, the mystic fire, questions: How does he not sink? And then, ‘…by what self-law does he go on his journey? That is, how can movement be impelled without that which gives impulse when nothing but ‘self-law’ is?

In the indiscriminate Waters of the Absolute there is nothing measurable, – i.e., there is no movement distinguishable and hence no ‘journey’. But by tapas, combustion through compression, the One comes into being as a mere Point, or a cross-section of directions. It does not ‘sink’ because contraction and expansion provide that ‘support’ by which he ‘joins heaven and is its pillar’ or Skambha. The seer is here describing the event horizon and the connecting link between this plane and that beyond; transcendence and imminence.

None of this can be known, experienced, lived, in a state of conscious awareness in a condition of only Sat, or Being. Time and space, the ingredients of the compressed Seed, are required to provide movement and distance for knowledge to be. Thus, this experience of probing into the origin of things by those early Rishis was not an abstract exercise such as the contemporary cosmologist carries out. The need to discover the innermost truth of the cosmos was simply because it is the very same truth of one’s incarnate being, the truth of every human being engaged in the process of evolution on Earth. As above, so below, provided the Rishi with the key to existence. The sage probed the inner universe to discover the true nature of the cosmos because in so doing he or she understood the process of consolidation of the ‘seed’ by compression, and then the utilisation of that energy concentrated in this innermost space through Ardour, or tapas, this being the first step on the road to Immortality.

 

Science knocks at Vedic doors

 

On the basis of the Uncertainty Principle, contemporary physics states that the observer of a particle phenomenon disturbs or determines the trajectory of that particle through this observation. The Vedic Rishi would not disagree insofar as his own ‘observation’ can itself be described as an act of creation. The act of ‘seeing’ is akin to a probing into the world of the particle by the physicist in that it too brings an alteration in the observed phenomenon. Energy is released in such an act which alters the evolution of the element seen.

In his book, Parallel Universes, Paladin (Harper Collins Publishers, 1988), Fred Allen Wolf carries his reader through a voyage of discovery, or rather review, of the findings of contemporary physicists. Interestingly, the ‘singularity’ he reaches at the ‘start of things’ is remarkably similar to the Point discovered in the Vedic yogic process which forced the Rishi, in a similar quest or probing, to question why it does not sink, what ‘upholds’ it, what is its ‘self-law’ by which it engenders movement of itself, this ‘thing’ that is unextended and unbound. These are the ‘qualities’ descriptive of the singularity of contemporary physics but which the Rishi discovers through channels of the ancient yoga. In his chapter entitled, ‘Problems in Eden’, Wolf writes,

 

‘Here we are looking at the very beginning as far as the laws of physics can go. And here is where we need to reconsider the whole question of the start of things.

‘If we use our classically conditioned minds and just extrapolate back in time as I have been leading you, we find, of course, a single point with no diameter. Going back in time is like imagining a spherical balloon getting smaller and smaller each instant. As the balloon gets tinier, shrinking down to atomic size, down to nuclear size, and even tinier than that, its rounded surface curves more and more in on itself. We say that its curvature is ever-increasing as its radius is ever shrinking.

‘Finally when it reaches zero radius, it has infinite curvature. Such a region of space is called in mathematics a singularity.’’

 

Of this ‘singularity’ the physicist must ask the same question as the Rishi, ‘Why does it not sink though it is unextended, unbound and faces upwards and downwards?’ And further on Wolf approaches even closer to Vedic methodology as recorded in the Rigveda, in chapter 20, entitled, ‘Who saw what when’, in probing the origins of the universe. The Rishi similarly asked, ‘Who saw it, and when… ‘That out of which creation has arisen, whether it held it firm or it did not, He who surveys it in the highest heaven, He surely knows – or maybe He does not!’ To argue his theory about the existence of parallel dimensions or universes, quite a common and accepted part of Vedic knowledge, as well as the new cosmology, Wolf writes in his section entitled, ‘The measure of all things’,

 

     ‘Parallel universes contain information that must exist in order to produce all of the possibilities needed to create matter. These possibilities are measurable; some are more likely, rational, and meaningful than others. To remove all doubt consistent with uncertainty, these possibilities must have a numerical measure. Without the numerical measure of possibilities, and their ability to cohere, there would be no universe.

‘The uncertainty principle, with the connection it establishes between matter-energy and its location in time and space, shows that information has a rather special character – it is decisive and meaningful only if we consider probabilities with numerical values between zero and one.

‘Now this is not the case in a single universe of classical physics. There everything is or it is not. Probabilities are either zero or one – nothing in between. Of course, we do assign probabilities between zero and one to situations we don’t know about or can’t practically predict. However, these probabilities are only measures of our ignorance or laziness.’

 

Wolf realises that in order to come upon the true structure and condition of our material universe, we must probe areas which have been considered mythical or belonging to the realm of superstition.

The difference between a Rishi’s observations and a scientist schooled in our academic institutions today is that the former observes the cosmic order by a reverse process, not outward but rather an inward penetration, a scanning based on the yogic law of equivalency: as above, so below. What he sees is indeed altered, just as the uncertainty principle predicts the trajectory of a particle and the disturbances the observer introduces. The yogi similarly isolates a ‘particle’ in his or her consciousness. His knowledge tells him that through the Law of Equivalency what he sees is that ‘seed’ containing the all, compressed to form a singularity. In that tiny Point he encounters the transcendent Immanent. His tool of observation is something entirely lacking in the scientist. It is a consciousness of unity the outcome of a process of transformation and yoga which permits him to know the oneness and unity of all things. In other words, observation of that ‘particle’ is done through a ‘lens’ of a certain specific quality. The ‘eye’ of the yogi is focussed and unified. It covers those many dimensions which Wolf speculates must exist, and it integrates them into a unified field within which observation takes place. If the observer affects the particle under observation, as the uncertainty principle proclaims, then there is clearly a connection between the condition of the observing eye and the observed. The sage who observes from an integrated consciousness of unity must necessarily SEE unity in the observed, and at the same time influence the observed to manifest unity. Needless to say, the physicist of today does not enjoy such a consciousness, hence the unified theory so assiduously sought after by cosmologists will continue to elude them. Wolf hints at this by stating that people more evolved have a greater facility in ‘connecting’, that is, in bringing the future to the present and altering its substance via the theory of parallel universes in which all possibilities are postulated to exist simultaneously.

We may draw a similar parallel with Indologists and scholars who have sought for the past two centuries to ‘decipher’ the Rigveda without a background in the yoga that produced the text. What these scholars ‘saw’ in the verses was true to their own ‘lens’. They knew nothing of the origin of the cosmos, consequently they could not recognise the accurate description thereof in the text. They could ‘see’ in the lines nothing but paganism, idolatry, nature worship, ritualism; and of course a ‘history’ equally distorted by the imperatives of their colonial lens of perception. To ‘see’ the Veda is to be just what the word means: a person of Knowledge in this most profound sense of identification with That. Hence, to be the enjoyer of an integrated consciousness of unity.

For this reason it has become necessary to qualify the new cosmology as an applied study of the harmonies of the cosmos. One cannot understand this circumscribing space in a unified manner, which in turn will affect the quality of our world, unless one works on oneself pari passu with the act of observing or seeing. The harmony is unveiled as the consciousness observing is transformed, integrated, unified. Only then do the veils fall away and the true nature of creation, the act of creation and the ever recurring creative process are appreciated in their character of integrality, harmony and unity. The inner work, but of a special order, is the first step along the way to a newly manifested world of higher laws.

 

But this discovery cannot be made, much less be the channel for its manifestation on Earth, unless that essential reversal takes place and a new alignment of one’s consciousness-being comes to replace the binary structure of the former creation which has carried the evolution of the species on this planet to the impasse it presently faces and the breakdown of the old structures which were sufficient to sustain our civilisation through ages of darkness and half-light but which cannot support the evolution and manifestation of the supramental creation.

In an applied cosmology it is important to discuss the manner in which these truths of the cosmic process find expression in different fields of life and yoga. But to do so, we must eliminate speculation and provide concrete examples of the process, and through this analysis, understand the stage we are in and what difficulties may lie on our path to this integral realisation. Thus we can examine certain situations in the Mother’s work in this regard. That is, what happened to perceptions from the plane of truth when the right poise of consciousness was not attained by the perceiving instruments, obliging these perceptions to pass through unfocussed lens, as it were. The result was a mixture of truth and falsehood, and not a vision faithful and true to that highest reality which was seeking to secure a place in this material dimension. The discussion can only be non-speculative if we analyse the changes brought into the Mother’s original plan of her Temple. We are not dealing with abstracts which cannot be applied or corroborated in the cosmic process itself. We are dealing with an architectural plan which is that very harmony measured out in our dimension by the Mother whose consciousness did not suffer from the limitations experienced by the architects involved in the project with her. In other words, the temple she ‘saw’ and ‘measured’ in our space and time proves the dictum of the new cosmology: the symbol is the very thing symbolised.

Through the true cosmic experience we understand that at the origin of a cosmic manifestation there is a Point, or ‘singularity’. This is as if suspended, ‘…unextended, unbound, facing upwards, facing downwards, how does it not sink?’ The Vedic seer perceived the true character of that singularity with its capacity to uphold like a pillar though itself only a point, or centre. For indeed the yogic experience of spherical compression of the embodied consciousness to reproduce that original ‘birth that fills the void’ does indeed confirm modern speculations. Given the reality of this perception and its correspondence with the reality of the cosmic manifestation, it is clear that in a project which was immediately concerned with that cosmic truth, the atmosphere around the Mother was bound to be permeated with that very Truth; and those receptive to her inspirational force would pick up aspects of this truth and seek to incorporate these perceptions in their modifications of the Mother’s plan. The problem I repeat, is the mixture introduced due to a mis-alignment of consciousness on the part of the participants. The Mother herself described these introductions as ‘mixtures’, and worse. On the basis of the discoveries of this new cosmology and yoga, we are in a position to confirm the Mother’s views of those modifications which finally distorted the entire vision.

The Mother’s act of bringing down this cosmic truth in a new temple for this new Age was free from mixture and falsifying veils which could distort its purity. But that was not the condition of her instruments, all of whom overstepped the self-limits imposed upon them by their poise of consciousness and the hierarchical regulation of the Work in the presence of a divine incarnation such as the Mother. More specifically, being an embodiment of the Cosmic Divine in the descent of 9, 6, and 3, the Mother was particularly and uniquely suited to transmit this vision, or transport that Chamber from the plane of the Truth-Consciousness to our physical dimension without distortion.

To illustrate, the original architect in charge of the execution of the temple introduced a very significant alteration in the very early stages of the work. His inspiration bore something of the truth which was seeking to become consolidated as a key experience in the supramental yoga. He considered that the luminous, translucent globe the Mother devised for the centrepiece should be suspended over a void, rather than held by a pedestal. The three-metre central portion of the Chamber should, in his vision, be a void over which this globe was to be suspended by means of air jets, magnetic currents, or whatever. Given the unique relevance of the Point ‘which does not sink’ in the Vedic realisation as an essential feature of the Cosmic Truth, it can easily be appreciated that the architect was indeed tuning into something quite true; but as the inspiration  moved through his ‘filter’, that truth became distorted accordingly. The distortion concerns precisely the question of a central void. And indeed, this Globe/Point he intended to suspend over a void.

Insofar as the human being does indeed orbit a void given his binary structure, the architect received the inspiration of that truth on the backdrop of his own inner void. This ‘mixture’ was then projected onto the vision and resulted in a deformation of the original and true experience the Mother sought to have captured in the symbolism.

Likewise, the second architect, who edged out the first and took over complete control of the construction work, carried out a similar exercise of picking up something of the truth, the true realisation expressive of the cosmic harmony the Mother had captured in her design, but distorting it. In this case the distortion was equally as revealing of the human binary predicament as the first architect’s alternative. The second, under pressure from us to return to the original plan but refusing to do so, did concede to close the three-metre void the first architect introduced and reinstall the centrepiece on firm ground, so to speak. But, by his own admission he left a small central hole, proportionately the size of a ‘point’, in the middle of the filled in portion. For some reason not elaborated by him, he considered this empty point to be ‘symbolic’.

Given that the most important realisation of the supramental yoga, mother of all that is to follow, is precisely the birth of the Point that fills the Void, this central empty dot establishes the architect’s own ‘mixture’ in the symbolism. Not having done this ‘filling’ yogically, he could only execute the modified plan according to his poise of consciousness. And just as the Mother had warned, these changes would introduce mixtures which would necessitate beginning over ‘again and again and again’.

These important telltale examples indicate the period of transition we are experiencing in that the highest Truth has descended into the atmosphere but the instruments below are far from adequate to receive these inspirations in a way which would convey the correct position vis-à-vis the new supramental creation and its body of gnostic symbols. A descent of this order provokes and demands a refocusing of our lens of perception. This is achieved on the basis of a special yoga which is also conveyed in the Mother’s original plan, insofar as it is a cosmic process akin to the transformation and transmutation of energies operating in the cosmos. But there are not many who can or who desire to carry out this process and realign their consciousness-being. The first step is abdication of the ego – perhaps the hardest part inasmuch as the binary creation is ego-driven. A complete abdication is demanded nonetheless.

The simplest manner in which to progress in this apparently impossible endeavour which appears to be undermined from the outset, given that we are human beings in a human structure which is binary and contradicts the higher truth, is to posit at the core of one’s consciousness and being the divine Purpose. But this too may prove a colossal and impossible task given the difficulty we experience in recognising or distinguishing what exactly that might be. It is that ‘self-law’, that tapas, that ‘breathing without breath’ of the One. Succinctly, it is will. And inasmuch as Mars in the cosmic harmony holds the key to this recondite transmutation and unveiling of the divine Purpose and Will centremost in our beings, in the next issue we will discuss in depth this great mystery.*

 

These are all symbols expressing the higher or recondite innermost truth or reality, the symbols of the Veda no less than the astrological symbols, or the geometric representations we find in Tantra or the Hindu temple. Throughout the ages these symbols have been handed down from generation to generation, guru to disciple, on and on down the line into the present. But when the Age of the Supermind arrives these same symbols are in a sense transformed, enhanced. Their original content, meaning, as well as purpose, is expanded, for it is only in this Age that the symbol ‘becomes the thing symbolised’, matter is now destined to fully reveal its divine Inhabitant. This means that where the Veda uses the Horse to describe the cosmic manifestation by virtue of its quality of speed, or the Cow as ‘symbol’ of the Light, it is possible now to make use of these symbols in a more integrated form. They participate not by becoming humanoid, humanlike, by acquiring human qualities, capacities, functions. On the contrary, they become more themselves, their consciousness is enhanced within their essential being and the instruments that they are. I have documented a certain aspect of this enhancement in the series which appeared in VISHAAL, ‘Animals in the Emerging Cosmos’, as well as in the more recent ‘Vedic Symbol of the Universe’.

The purpose of a creation in matter is to give a ‘body’ to the Absolute. Each of us is a cell or atom of that Body. As the material substance of this Body becomes more and more luminous, as it increasingly sheds its veils and reveals its sacred essence, the symbol can begin to be that thing symbolised in this material creation.

 

PN-B

 

July of 1994

Aeon Centre of Cosmology

at Skambha

 

[ Editor’s note: * Thea originally planned on writing more for this series but did not.  Instead she turned her attention to the Vedic Cosmology series, the Puranic Cosmology Updated blog, the publication of The New Way Vol. 3, and eventually The Future Realisation exhibits.]

 

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‘States upon states are born, the coverer of the coverer awakens to knowledge: in the lap of the Mother he wholly sees. They have called to him, getting a wide knowledge, they guard sleeplessly the strength, they have entered into the strong city. The peoples born on earth increase the luminous (force) of the son of the White Mother; he has gold on his back, he is large of speech, he is as if by (the power of) this honey wine a seeker of plenty. He is like pleasant and desirable milk, he is a thing uncompanioned and is with the two who are companions and is as a heat that is the belly of plenty and is invincible and an overcomer of many. Play, O Ray, and become towards us.’

 

Rig Veda V. 19

Sri Aurobindo’s translation

                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this issue we reproduce a transcript of the audio tape of the study circle organzised by Aeon Group/USA in Rosendale, New York.  This was the final session, 18 April 1994.  It was conducted by PNB (Thea) who was on tour in North and South America during April and May of 1994.

 

***

 

In this paper which we read earlier, you talk about conscious collaboration in this process, this process of shift. My curiosity is about the role people like me play in that. I am interested in what your role is, but I am also interested in my role. From your perspective, how that conscious participation needs to take place?

 

Well, that’s probably the biggest question you can ask, because that’s the question most difficult to answer, in the sense that unless you are involved in it, it’s very difficult to perceive. Like the moments when you are faced with a conscious choice. And that does happen in the course of our working together, as anybody would be able to tell you. But on a wider scale, I mean, like for people out there, how would that present itself?

The whole objective of this work, and I would say of Sri Aurobindo’s work, is really that connection with the inner Divine, which establishes a particular contact which then operates through that individual; and then that individual becomes in the world a sort of nexus for forces, either attracted or repelled. And that is connected to a larger whole. So what we are working on right now – and we are really in the beginning stages of this process – is the formation of a very small nucleus. It is very small, I have to say it is not a very big connection. But the important thing at this stage is to make sure that what we are doing is the real thing and not contaminated, or diluted, or polluted, or… By that I don’t mean dogmatically, but I mean a certain alchemy of forces has to be the right one in order to be able to do this thing.

So what happens is you form this nucleus and then from there connections are made. Which would for example be this type of a group, and from there connections are made. But it’s a slow process. It’s not something that we can just open up and say, ‘Everybody come in and join.’ Because I know it doesn’t happen that way and I would be misleading people if I did say, ‘Well, it’s open for all’. I know it isn’t. And it’s not elitist, but it is something that has to be consciously experienced. It’s not a path of devotion as such, though that is an element in it. So it’s not something that you can just worship and then you are there. It doesn’t happen like this. This is knowing very carefully and meticulously what we are going toward, and what the whole world is going toward. This shift is something involving the whole world.

So, right now we are at the point of a nucleus and that has…I mean, if I am here now, or even if I had come earlier, it was because enough of that was already established which allowed this contact outside. Whereas previously it wasn’t permitted, it wasn’t possible and it made no sense. So it didn’t happen. Now this situation is taking shape with the formation of the Centre, the actual physical centre in India, and that is permitting this. Now from there, from that point then, people are becoming involved and of course their involvement is also a work on themselves. But at the same time it is a process of seeing this change in the world, not only in yourself, but in the world, seeing this consciousness operating and your conscious participation is partly that seeing, and partly your own collaboration with that and not any resistance to that. That will begin to present itself in your life in many, many ways, I can assure you. And unless you are, I can’t say instructed, but unless you are aware of what to look for, it will pass you by. But as you grow in seeing, as your capacity grows in that, it will be very clear the way it is working in your own life, the way it is connecting other things. And gradually this nucleus has to grow, and it has to…

Now, I don’t know if you have gone into the question of the Mother’s plan (of the Temple). You see these concentric circles here (points to temple’s floor plan). In the Mother’s plan of the chamber, you have these three circles, three concentric circles. That plan, that floor plan, sort of gives you an impression of the way this work is organised in the world today where you have a point, a centre, then you have a circle, and then you have a farther circle, and then you have a larger circle. Each one has a different degree of proximity to the light, let us say, but actually that ‘light’ means this central axis which casts no shadows really, which is perfectly aligned. And then progressively as you go out, you go out to the farther circle and there it is in the dark, but it is yet within this cosmos, this particular cosmos.

So, you could say, people who are out there belong to that. Or you have a group like Aeon Group which would be more or less the middle circle, the support system and also the relay. Like this, all connected in one work. Then of course you have an inner circle which is very close to the Centre, and in proximity. Now you cannot say that anyone of those is better advantaged than any other, because there could be somebody, for example, in this group who is actually in the other circle outside. Similarly in the centre, in the central group you may have somebody there; but usually it doesn’t happen like that because people find their places. But that is the point. You have different degrees, but nonetheless people involved, people that are consciously…When I say this plan of the room, I mean that is a conscious involvement. People who know what is happening on a certain level are able to participate.

So, I cannot give you an exact formula and say, ‘Look, if you repeat this mantra ten times a day…’ That isn’t the way it is. This is a work in the world. This is something that has to present itself within the circumstances of your life. The only thing is that inevitably you will be connected to this larger process, because otherwise it could be done like that and then there would be no point of me being here, or this work as it has been established. There has to be this beginning, this seed planted and then from there like an organic growth…It must be like that. So another thing is that when there is this nucleus, when there is that centre holding the process together, then the circumstances of your life and the world in general are able to organise themselves so that they are in harmony with that. Now, these can also be…they can be negative, they can be positive; and right now at our present stage, they are largely negative. But nonetheless, they serve that purpose, they serve this. So the advantage here is that the circumstances of life are able to participate in this; and this is where your conscious awareness comes in, where you can see that the negative also is very actively working for this. And this is the sense of making a nucleus where it attracts and draws these things, but always for the furtherance of this purpose.

It starts small and then it grows and then it has a larger connection, and actually this is the way the whole of the earth is going to be transformed ultimately. An interesting question that people usually have is, How is this change going to come about? Which in a sense would be connected to what you have asked: How is the change going to come about, because we see that it is quite appalling, I mean what is around us, and we realise that the mass of humanity certainly is neither searching for, nor interested in, nor capable even of any kind of progress. Well, as this grows and grows it simply pushes out, you know. And that is really the way it is going to come about where it pushes out and other things fall away almost by their irrelevancy. But for that there has to be some very solid foundations laid in order for it to really take place.

Right now we have a new world order so to speak, which is really not new at all. At the moment it’s only different forces scrambling to try to maintain their hold on what is really collapsing and has collapsed. And so there are these forces trying to, each one, maintain their hold and supremacy, whereas in actual fact that is dead and dying, but the new has not really manifested yet. So we call it a new world order, but it’s really the collapse of the old still.

So gradually of course this has to grow and it has to grow and then present an alternative which right now apparently does not exist. Now, there are different levels where this is happening. You have a level, you have the physical or the vital; you have various planes. The point is that now we are still very much dealing with a plane of a more subtle consciousness also. We are not exactly – I mean, we are manifesting this in the physical, but the work is largely occult to anybody who would be perceiving from the outside. Still my work in India, I mean, where I am  nobody knows what I am doing. Around me, where I have my Centre, they haven’t a clue because it seems all so ordinary. It seems that we are just leading an ordinary life; doing the things that everybody does, more or less; nobody can see, and yet there’s an extraordinary process going on of transformation and a foundation of something that never has been done before, I can assure you, never. And yet to appearances…And why? Because we are using certain channels, which are the channels of the material manifestation such as time, for example. So the things that are done are done within a particular harmony of time, therefore they are able to make an imprint on this evolutionary process and not otherwise.

And so to all appearances it seems like we are just doing rather ordinary things. Of course, it’s not like that at all. So your conscious awareness begins to grow in that respect, where you begin to perceive this, you see this process going on. But apparently no one else does, you know, and then of course the effect on your life is a tremendous widening of your consciousness. Almost immediately. The moment you really penetrate this, some very big shifts begin to take place and no longer can you be satisfied with anything that closes you in and isolates you. At a certain point I could predict what would happen, where even the question of my own personal realisation, yoga, begins to fall away and doesn’t have any sense anymore because you see this thing happening through you more or less. You see it there and it doesn’t really make much sense to aspire for a personal realisation. All of that becomes very old. It just seems like an old consciousness. These questions – you know, ‘What about me’, – just fall away. But then of course they have to fall away naturally because you cannot pretend to be there if you are not. But most often it happens without you being aware of it. You’re not aware that this no longer is a question for you anymore, because you are seeing this happening where you are carried along in it; and that is the only thing that matters, that you are aware that you are a part of this. There is this control. This is going on, and that in itself begins to be your own personal realisation. I don’t know if this has answered (your question) – you realise there is a difficulty in answering because as far as I know there has never been anything like this done before, so for me to explain certain things …They would make no sense. You would try to relate to certain paths or schools that you have studied, and really it would be impossible. You won’t find it there. So I am going to try to give you an idea, and I am sure you have in these classes already come to some idea of what it is.

 

Are you basically an active force working on the inner planes, or much more a receptive force. This language may not even be appropriate…

 

Well, let’s see. We’ll try to find the language.

 

Or functioning more in a transmitting of these shifts and energies, of the time energy. I just wonder when you talk about functioning – these concentric circles with you being a force at the centre, I am wondering how you affect all that’s happening and how that relates to all the other groups and forces who are speaking a parallel language and seemingly parallel work?

 

Well I don’t know what other people are doing. I know that I don’t find anybody who’s doing this. Because I really find that the quests, you know, most of the conventional paths, – I’m speaking about the good ones, not the falsifiers, and the frauds, they abound, but the true ones, the really highly realised souls, you know, like Ramana Maharshi, that type, the really serious people…That’s not satisfying because it doesn’t answer the questions here, it doesn’t resolve the problems. Not ‘answer the questions’, it doesn’t resolve the problems¸ we have.

So the point is that all of spirituality, I can tell you for a fact, until now, has been really pulling you away. I mean this is… However you look at it, they may camouflage it, they will tell you your life becomes more harmonious, you’ll live in harmony with this, you’ll do that. But the ultimate goal of every path has been to pull away from this; and finally not to attain birth anymore, that this is really… Like in the Christian tradition, a fall. And however they colour it, it will always come down to that. And if you confront people on these paths with this they will deny it, you know, they will say, No, this is to make your life more meaningful. But the meaning of it is always to remove yourself from it, whether it is to go to heaven, or whether you have Nirvana to the point where finally your consciousness is dissolved to the extent that there is nothing connecting you here anymore. That’s really the point in Buddhism.

So, here you have something very different. You have a complete reversal where you have to realise that HERE. Now this is the radical change and it is very radical. The only thing that comes close to this type of seeking, of course, is when you turn to psychology; but there you are developing the ego in order to fit into… This is something entirely different. This doesn’t resolve the problem we are talking about, it just accommodates. It accommodates, it’s not an integral total. So in terms of what we call spirituality, there is nothing. There has not been. And if there was, it was in very ancient times, during the times when the Rig Veda was composed and that means at least 2000 years ago. It may have been 5000 years, maybe much, much more.

So we are talking about something that is very new. Now, how do you go about that? You see, this is the point. Somebody may aspire to do this, but they don’t know the mechanism. They don’t know what happened. Why? Why did spirituality take this turn? What was it in the evolution itself, in the structure of the human consciousness that left this possibility? That made this really the only solution. So this is what you have to find out. When you find that out, then you can begin to look for the solution there. And then it becomes a very mathematical process.

Now my part in this, was to…,and I will tell you exactly because it was exactly that way. The simple thing that I did was to find this central problem. To discover this central problem and to proceed to resolve it. And so what that was was really this question of the central Void. Throughout my works you will see that I have it in for the void and I am always after that, trying to ‘fill the void’. Now this is where the feminine power comes in. You will see that about the time this shift took place and spirituality veered away, let’s give it about 2000 years, more or less, when it became definitive and the pattern, the ingrained pattern was the imprint. Well that was also when the worship of the Goddess of course began to decline, idol worship at the same time, because that is connected with the Goddess – irrevocably. You cannot have a worship of the Goddess without the idol, because it is form, you see, form, measure, these things. So, this all happened about the same time. It started consolidating itself in this manner. So what you had then is that by necessity then there was no other solution but to seek this kind of withdrawal and dissolution; and then, of course, this left everything on this plane quite in the hands of forces that are very destructive. And when you had that central void then you had the possibility of anything filling it up. You had usurpers, you had all sorts of things. So the point was then precisely the point, precisely to fill that yogically, to come to the position of ‘plugging up’ this thing.

How this translates itself is the very structure of our physical consciousness which is a vessel in which we work and which is very…which our consciousness is, you could say, very much conditioned, or vice-versa, our bodies are conditioned by this poise of consciousness. But the fact is that we have a tremendous limitation by our physical beings and that only so much is allowed, because if more did take place we would collapse and die. We could not sustain that kind of power. So what has to happen is that this realignment has to allow for a total transformation. Well, even your physical is insufficient then; so you cannot begin to talk about a change of that nature unless you talk about it INTEGRALLY. You cannot do it on one end, do it here, or even the vital. It finally resolves itself into a total process where the whole of it, and especially, finally, ultimately the very bodies that we inhabit must be structured differently. And they are being structured differently. I mean, they are gradually moulding to something else.

Now, you can find outer signs of this all over. In science, in medicine, everywhere, everybody is striving…Especially the work on the cells, biochemistry, molecular science… very interesting things that they are doing today. But they are only indications that other possibilities, many other possibilities are being made available now. So my work in this was just a very simple thing. I can tell you, it was yogically to understand what was the key problem and to begin to correct that. When I did that, and this had to be done in harmony with time because, you see, this is when it is not restricted to an individual and isolated. It is when you have that network, you have a means of imprinting on the totality; and for that you have to have a particular understanding, and you work with time. Now, this, at the same time, cannot be a mental idea. Well, I am going to choose a date and I am going to…You have to be a part of a whole process which time is really carrying forward. All right, having done that, then this operation set in motion, made a shift totally, and set in motion a completely different action.

I can describe this very accurately. I have done so in the VISHAALS; in the third volume of The New Way, which will be printed at some point. I am constantly describing it in the VISHAALS that I am writing now. What actually I did, – and it’s very mathematical, there is nothing, you know, fuzzy, or otherworldly. It’s something very, very mathematical. What it was, of course, was this realignment, this new alignment, this centering where no longer it’s a binary structure, which means tension and which means a central void, which is our normal condition. It means a centering and it means then a unitary system. And this is the big key. Once you have that, you have the possibility of a spheric action which means then you have the possibility of being a centre that holds, which means you are holding in harmony a series of circumstances which are all furthering that. They cannot not further it because they are held by that, you understand. Now, you can imagine that each person who would do that would become a luminous cosmos in himself, you see; and ultimately that is the idea of a new race, of a new consciousness. (It) would be these luminous consciousnesses that are operating in this way.

Now, in the beginning at our stage, to all practical purposes it looks very ordinary. It looks like…Well, these are ordinary people just… And yet you are the centre of something tremendous that is happening, but as I say, in the beginning this is not apparent. But you are connected to a series, to a play of circumstances which would not be possible if there was not that centre, and that point. So practically my work is that being that, having realised that, having done that I am able to perceive these things which nobody else can because perception from the centre is very different than from the periphery. In a nutshell, that is really what I’ve done, that’s all I’ve done. I mean, nothing so fantastic, but that.

HOWEVER! However, I am simplifying the matter. I mean; to get to that, first of all you had to live through a process that was virtually a death, and you had to remain in the physical dimension and not be pushed out into another. That is why it’s not anybody who can do this because you would simply die. You wouldn’t be able to have your consciousness contracted to a point, remaining here and not…Which is what death is, where you are pushed out. (That’s why they have experiences of going through tunnels and all, when they have these near death experiences.) So, remaining here and consciously sustaining that until that element, that realignment happens and the birth of that centre is there, is what is very difficult. People cannot…you of course have to have a contact with a higher power that takes care of that, or that you’re structured in such a way that you can. I realise not may people are; I mean, I don’t know of anybody else who is. There may be, I don’t know. But I only know that this is a very mathematical process. It’s nothing fuzzy, it’s nothing that cannot be explained very mathematically. By ‘mathematically’ I mean by a language that can withstand a certain kind of scrutiny within the parameters of this very work. It has to be, naturally. But it can be scrutinized like that. It’s not something that I can say, ‘I have done this’, and then you believe or you don’t believe. No, there are ways that it can be proven and constantly in my work and my writings I am giving (this proof). So I show you in terms of an individual, I show you in terms of nations, using India for example. There are phenomenal things that I have been able to show about India and the course of its history, all in the harmony of this same process. All following this same formula, you see. So my work has been to do that.

Now, in the context of Sri Aurobindo’s work and the Mother’s work, they dealt with particular levels, each one has dealt with particular levels. Then finally this comes to the Third Power, the individual, meaning the individual soul. From there you have to make the bridge. You have to connect this to the physical plane. This third plane is really located, let’s say it has affinity to, if you want to explain it, with the vital plane. And from there you must make this bridge, because this is then the bridge to the material. This connecting bridge. You can transform here, down here, but you have to construct this bridge then; and this is what I have done. So all of my work, all of this explaining, all of this is constructing that bridge which is linking those planes so that that power has a channel to be able to work in conscious instruments.

Now, consciousness of this is very important. It’s very important because otherwise the work would have been done long ago and the individual would be irrelevant if it wasn’t so. The individual instrument is the nexus of the whole thing. Without that individual conscious awareness you could not do this work, otherwise it wouldn’t have been necessary to go through this long, laborious process of evolution. So when we come to this level then we are really dealing with the individual, at which point we deal with these details of the process, at which point we deal with constructing this bridge; and then the process can begin to really take shape in the world. First is the centre, the point. Once that is established as it has been and as it is taking shape, then you can start this other. So my work has been to do this and it represents that Soul, it is the third power and therefore mythology has been such a central element because it is virtually the language of the soul and therefore it has played a tremendous role in this. I am sure you must have gone over a lot of this already.

 

In the diagram (the Gnostic Circle), I’d like to know why the bottom part of the inner triangle is not connected.

 

The 4.5.

 

That’s not connected?

 

Well, not the cross, between 4 and 5.

 

Oh, yes, that is fundamental. That’s the Void. This is the escape (laughter) and that’s very important! That’s a very important observation because all people who have dealt with the enneagram…There have been a number of schools…you know, the Gurdjieff school, and there are some others; I mentioned to you that Arica chap. He is using it and I don’t know how may other people now. They use the enneagram. None of them have connected it to time and if you do not see the relation with time, if you do not apply it to time and the connection with the calendar, the enneagram is useless, I’m telling you. This is what it is.

Now, none of these schools, from Gurdjieff all the way down, saw this. The moment that you do, you see a connected process. Now, they don’t. If you look at that you see that everything is emphasising this, everything is going…Now, once I point it out, it’s very obvious, isn’t it? Yet the whole diagram is pointing to that. Now, you can look at it in terms of the birth, the birth channel, so the fact that this is left in this particular way, with no connection, is the indication of the critical nature of this point. And that all spirituality, for example Buddhism…this is the point of Buddhism. Where it is really nirvana and the escape. They won’t look at it like that, for them it’s a liberation, but in actual fact then this is the way out of the material universe, let’s put it like that. So that experience I was describing where this contraction, contraction, contraction to a point…if you are not anchored there (at the 4.5), then that’s death, and you are gone.

In fact in astrology then you have the sign of death here, (indicates the third quarter of the wheel) you see. This whole quarter is very critical, this mental quarter. This is all the critical portion, starting from here (the 4.5). So that is why this is the reversal. If the right anchor, if you are anchored, if you have the right thing, then the energy release, – because there is energy that is released at this point, – if that energy is released, this carries you up and up and up. Otherwise you get up here and you succumb to death, and you fall back. You get up here (the end of the third quarter) and the process finally ends in physical death, which is the eighth sign of the zodiac, Scorpio.

Now the eighth sign, Scorpio, is not the full wheel. So people must have asked themselves at this point why there are four more signs. What does it mean? Death is the eighth, but there are four more signs. Where is that experience? But of course if you don’t see the zodiac as being one connected process, like this, then it doesn’t matter, the eighth could be the first, could be anywhere. But if you see that it’s a progression and you are going from one, to two, to three, to four, to five, and there is an actual yoga, a process of transformation described here, then you look at that and you say, ‘Well, the eighth – where is the ninth then?’ I mean, if the eighth is death, what happens in the ninth? Where is all this taking place? And of course, this is a key feature because if your consciousness is dissolved at this point, then you never make it up here. On the contrary, you have to accumulate energy, you have to gather energy, you have to know the process to be able to do this. Otherwise in effect you cannot make it up, you cannot experience that unity and the rest (of the signs/stages).

So this not being connected is very, very important because it is that way out, or it is the dissolution of whatever impedes you from making this journey; and it is that release of energy which gives you the impulse from there on. Otherwise in normal terms this describes the evolution as it is where spirituality until now has always left this way out. We either go to heaven or to hell. In other words, what it is doing is impeding the concentration of power here in the physical to permit you to continue on this Earth the journey. It is allowing you a possibility of dissolving a very critical mass that you need in order to be able to continue.

So now you look at that, you look at the Enneagram and you see right away the message. You see that it is indicating this, all the lines are going like that, you know. Very important. Anybody then will tell you. Everybody will be able to tell you about the 4.5. Incredible! You know, your fourth and a half (years). So what is it then, but in terms of the larger process this is what it is, you see. It’s not connected because it is a void. It is either filled by that centre, by that point that holds, or it becomes the void because your consciousness chooses the path of dissolution (you know the word nirvan means dissolution), – chooses either that or it is held together and the birth of the Point takes place. And here then this would be equivalent to the One, the Son, that male Child, you know, in mythology – where he is born, you see. And this would be his critical point. And this is really like the birth channel. These labour pains, you know, and out from there comes this. And if it doesn’t happen there, it doesn’t happen anywhere. I mean this is…you cannot…at some point you have to deal with what that signifies.

Now all of this I think must be still very abstract for you. That is, in the beginning, because you are just now being flooded with a lot of knowledge that has been the result of lived experiences, this is coming at you just now as abstract knowledge. But it isn’t like that. I mean, this can be applied to your own life. And even if you go back, as you gather more knowledge about this, you go back and you look at your own lives and then you will be able to locate things happening according to this process. And it would be very interesting to look at yourselves in your 13^th ½ year, 22^nd ½, 31^st ½ and so on, 40^th ½, 49^th ½, and just see what the condition of your life was like. You will often find this sense of shattering, of dissolution going on, a process of disintegration, you know.

Now, when you have a contact with a centre, because if you are not centred, let’s say, how do you get by? That is the point of a work like I do. I mean, being in contact with that is the anchor. That’s precisely it. Now in practical terms, how do I provide that? I provide that by not allowing people these escapes, these deviations, and keeping them anchored within this, you know. How that takes shape – for each one differently, so I cannot tell you in what way it would because for each one it depends on the circumstances of their lives. But that is very important, you have the contact; and you see therefore the third point is here, before you reach this (the 4.5 Orbit). So this is where the contact is made with that. You can within your own…with the inner Divine within, but of course for most people it’s very difficult to make that contact to the degree that it would actually function in a full fledged process like this. Often it is easier for people to have an outside support in those moments. But this is the explanation…So, why it isn’t connected is, of course, fundamental. It’s fundamental.

 

Is it also an entrance to the core, or is it only an exit?

 

Well, but the entrance, I don’t think that’s really the term that could be…no, I don’t think you could look at it like that.

No, because that isn’t the…I mean, in terms of entrance you begin at the zero point and your entrance is there. So I don’t think it is exactly that, I can’t imagine in any way where that would pertain. What it means is that consciousness, that conscious awareness, that nucleus experiences attacks for this process of disintegration, but really what you are getting rid of is a lot of useless baggage that does not allow you then the rise. And here it’s just very graphically given, but you must understand that you apply that to circumstances of your life. Or it’s not applied.. You see it in circumstances of your life, where…Right?

 

Right.

 

Where you cannot, this baggage must either be shed…but if you shed it by just simply that dissolution without anything holding you…You had that point. You had already a grasp of something when you last time went through that; then if you don’t have that of course this process just shakes you up and nothing comes of it basically. But having that then it’s something very different. Then that’s a conscious process where these things are shed, and the baggage and the weights – these are what I call encumbrances – the encumbrances which actually slow you down. And this is a very important element this speed of consciousness, because everything finally will revolve around this speed of consciousness. The 4.5 really attacks that, this getting rid of encumbrances. But if it is too much pressure, then we escape. Then we choose the beyond, the nirvanas, the heavens.

Now, you have to understand the human consciousness, how it’s a question of your goal, you see. And how this works is if you posit the finality of your quest in a heaven, let’s say, and this colours your participation in life, inevitably, therefore this energy that I am talking about either becomes accumulated or concentrated in a particular way, or it doesn’t. It is channelled differently, so it will colour everything, and it will also colour the whole process that you are involved in. The intensity of the process, the whole thing will be diluted. So if a yogi’s goal is to reach a trance state…and pull away and away, that will affect this play of circumstance of which his consciousness is the central point on earth. It will affect that by this diminishing of the power of concentration which you need in the physical in order to attain a transformation here.

So therefore it is very important where you’re pointing to, you see, because that will affect either the way you deal with all sorts of circumstances, or in more subtle terms this question of energy accumulation which is really what is going on here.

I mean, we are really always talking about energy. But it is very difficult for people to understand that and so we call it the consciousness, the new consciousness, but really you are dealing with an alchemy, with a play of energies and how to arrange, shift, do whatever, and extract more, release more, because ultimately to attain that transformation you have to have more energy at your disposal which you do not have right now. And you do not have it also because you cannot contain it. So the process is really very integral for each person, very spheric. You have to go gradually. All the parts have to be worked on in order for this to be able to take place. You cannot suddenly give…I mean, I cannot zap you with something. That would be useless. You would feel good, you would have a great experience, but it would do nothing and, on the contrary, may harm you rather. So that is not what happens here. That’s why this gradual seeing is always working on that. Is making the very instrument that you are develop in such a way that you are able…You are never surprised here, you know. In the sense that…impacted with something that you cannot contain, because really it is a flowering from within. So, as this grows it is allowing you to make these shifts in you. So in terms of paths, for example, there is no path safer than this is. You are never done violence to from some outer imposition of somebody else’s realisation. It’s always actually…the actual thing is just a drawing from within; and this is a very important element because that is the channel and that is the human soul.

You see, the soul is really the bridge that I am talking about. So when I say ‘constructing the bridge’, what I mean is that I am just opening, making this available, this transiting from one source to this. So that is really what’s going on. Now, I can also say that in terms of an evolutionary imprint here, an evolutionary mechanism, we know very little about the way the soul operates. Most spiritual paths are not dealing with that at all because the soul’s purpose is really this question of a creation in matter. So, for a spiritual realisation you don’t have to be bothered about all of it…It is only when this happens and when this connection is made and you are dealing with matter, – therefore the feminine principle, you see, therefore the myths, therefore all of this. Then the soul is the channel for that. Without that, in the spiritual planes you really ignore it, because in effect the soul outside the body is pointless. It is that mechanism that as an individual you are given to make this connection.

So, most schools…Really, even though we use that word all the time, soul, the psyche and all, very little is really known because it has really, until now, not been able to operate freely. And especially over the last 2000 years it has been really squashed, you know. Veiled over, especially with the rise of organized religions. I mean that was the last blow, you know, to THAT.

So, in the mythic age of course that was very much alive, though not fully operative, if you know what I mean. It’s only now that we have…Then this brings us to another point, you see, you have three, so you have the Transcendent, the Cosmic and the Individual. Now, when you isolate any one of these their own power is diminished in terms of manifestation. It’s only when you finally get the integral that each one of these can show what it…show its stuff, you know. You cannot otherwise. So now, when we come to the third point, after this has been worked out and this has been worked out and this, then you see a dimension of the soul operating in the universe in a way that was never seen before, never possible before. And it is now through this channel then that the transformation on Earth (is done).

Now, remember that the Earth is the third planet, so the Earth is the natural home for this process. So we are really very privileged to be here for this reason: that we can participate in this conscious process. I don’t want to speculate and say what people are doing in other solar systems, I can only say about this one very definitely that this planet we are on is especially harmoniously placed to house a creation that is able to consciously be an expression of this Power. Meaning the spark of the Divine in creation, in material creation.

And then this is where time comes in because time is really the channel from the soul to make this web. So time…you cannot separate the two. Now in spiritual paths that say, you know, time is irrelevant, and of course we must go beyond time, they are saying the same thing, that the soul is irrelevant. But most of them don’t know that. They don’t know it because they don’t know these mechanisms. But this is a fact. That is why we use this question of time, this question of measure.

All of this converges on the feminine power, all of this, and the mother principle, the Goddess, however you want to term it. But it is the feminine power, the Shakti, as we would call it in India. The Shakti. But even there there are many levels of understanding, you know, many levels. But when you come to a material creation, you come to form, the form of things, then of course the feminine power is operative. And for form you need time, therefore. You see, for the gestation of form it is time really that evolves form. So all of these are connected to the soul in manifestation. But it is not fully operative unless the other two have incarnated, those powers that are able to draw the…like Sri Aurobindo with the Transcendent, you understand. And he worked very definitely on that plane; and then the Mother in the Cosmic. And of course the result of it was she gave us this plan of a temple. It was the Cosmic Temple which gave us the whole key of the cosmic manifestation. Now there too she did this very quietly. She wasn’t proclaiming it. Only somebody who came along and understood it, was able to say, ‘Oh, but this is perfectly in harmony with her role’.

Now, you will see that most people in the Ashram haven’t a clue of this; and when they were there with the Mother they probably didn’t need it because in any case the whole thing wasn’t complete so you weren’t able to really see it unless you had all the pieces, unless this thing was whole, and these pieces…But nonetheless, whether they knew it or not, the Mother did what she had to do. And her final gift to humanity was that plan which said, ‘This is my legacy and the totality of my yoga, everything I have done is in that blueprint.’ So if you had the knowledge you could understand it, if you didn’t, you didn’t. But it was given. She fulfilled her role as the cosmic principle to perfection, absolutely to perfection; and then the other comes.

Now, the same thing. But none of this could have been known until all the pieces had finally come together, so it’s understandable that nobody did know. I mean, how could they, you know? You go over what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have said and you will see that they are constantly indicating this. They were indicating. They were giving hints all the time, the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, but even they were playing it out, you know. So it needed time, quite frankly, because everything had to be measured in time, had to be in harmony with time. And that is what happened.

 

From what you were saying about time and that connection to the void…I was wondering what the measurement of time is. Because aren’t there different measurements of time? Different chakras experience time differently? If you are having a good time, it’s like time speeds by. Your experiences of time are so different from the mystics. What struck me was when you said ‘the void’, because my understanding has been that when they said there was no time or space or distance, it was that they were going beyond the 3-D reality but not necessarily to escape. Maybe I am misunderstanding something.

 

Yes, I realise that…that, you know, you go into a certain… Just take the dream, the ordinary dream state: you dream and then in a second you have had a whole dream that seems to have taken a minute or two or whatever. No I’m not concerned with anything like that because that depends on what density you are dealing with. You go into a subtle plane and you have these experiences. What I am talking about is the finality, the final material manifestation and what connects us all. What is it that regulates our lives so that we are a collective society here and not everybody off on their own. I mean, it’s clearly the time element. It’s clearly (that) we are functioning within time as a civilisation, as a society. So it is within that context that this thing is playing itself out. It’s not somewhere else up there. You don’t have to remove your consciousness and go into a trance and then experience ‘another time’. That’s not relevant right now. The important thing is that…Well, I can give you very specific examples where the year, the day. Exactly, you know, and within your own lives. Now you may experience an acceleration of time, you may experience on another plane something. But in what way is that affecting your life here? In no way at all.

So, what you want is the experience that is pertinent to the body you are inhabiting, where you are inhabiting it, the society in which…Now, in order for this nexus to operate and connect, this is the way it does it. Something that regulates us and in which we are all involved, like it or not. We are born into this planet, we have these time phases, we have…And this is really a very, very simple method which brings us all into a certain type of harmony. Like it or not, you know. We are obliged to function in this; and this is where the manifestation, the transformation is seen. It really doesn’t…I mean, I am aware of this sort of thing…Every night you dream, you are experiencing a different time. What is experiencing that though? You see, the moment you make the connection with the physical you reenact that within this time frame, you see, whatever it is that you have experienced on another plane. Nonetheless, when you translate that, it comes within that instrument, again it is brought within this same harmony.

So, they have to show me then that this experience of time, timelessness, accelerated time, or no time, has some bearing here. Actually it doesn’t. It doesn’t really change anything here. And in fact, none of them have been able to give a method by which those experiences could change something. And when you go into these paths and you go into what they are doing, actually you will inevitably find that the finality of it is no birth, I can tell you. Work out your samskaras, work out your karma, work out all this to come to the point of no birth again. Ultimately that is what they are doing.

No, that’s not what we are talking about here. This is something that…Therefore it can look very banal. It can look like you’re not doing anything, because in effect you are dealing with this plane. You are not going off. You’re not spinning off. You can do that too, you can have that too, but you will find ultimately that it doesn’t enhance in any way your capacity of seeing. It has no relation to it. If you have read my works, for example, you will see that there is probably an accumulation of knowledge there that I doubt anyone else has done in such a short span. The quality of the knowledge, everything…And never, never, never at any time did I lose consciousness, did I go into a trance, did I experience another time dimension. Every single thing that came, came right here, right here. And this is what is important. This is where we have to do it. It’s with this instrument.  Remember your instrument is very important. It’s colouring all of that, you know. The structure of your consciousness is what is allowing you to experience certain things. So the more there is this pulling away by whatever means, the more you are diminishing your capacity to deal on this plane.

You take India, for example. India is a perfect example of what happens when you lose that connection, which they lost some 1500-2000 years ago, more or less, and the country just went down and down and down on the physical plane. So, I mean as a country, because this pertains…it’s individual, it’s in terms of nations also, you see what happened. So now you have many sages there. Wonderful. They are experiencing fantastic planes of consciousness, but it had no effective power on the physical any more. And that is where we are living, playing it out. And so look what happened. Absolute chaos and anarchy on the physical. Overtaken by forces that are very destructive, destructive of the planet itself, you see.

Yes, this is fine. Individually some people were experiencing some very interesting things, but it had no…So it brings us to the point of this particular work. I can affirm that if a person is not interested in this direction of things, they will not be interested in this path because it is oriented toward that. Sri Aurobindo said it umpteen times, you know, a million times that his work is different. It’s a different goal. It’s a different direction. It’s to bring the Life Divine here. And he went on and on and on. The only thing is that he never got into the nitty-gritty. You can say that, but what does it mean? How? How do you do this? So, their’s were the first stages of that, the integral yoga, preparing the individual consciousness so that it could participate in this. And always this question of integrality, integrality. The integral approach was very important. And then the Mother comes and she begins to organise – to gather, I would say – those forces together on the cosmic plane, in such a way that they could be manipulated then to cooperate with this. And then finally you have a plan. Organising a cosmos. This question of a new axis…And when she was saying that this was the future realisation, this is what she meant. She described it, this new axis, new alignment. But all right here. And the key in the temple to time is our time here. It’s not an experience of another time, which I am telling you you’re doing all the time. You are having that constantly, you know. And it is not a question of your experience, – like if you’re happy time flies. That is when we are in the dimension of the relative, you know. Yes, that is relative and it may be important, but we are talking about something absolute.

So, you look at it in that way. India as a nation presents that activity of the spiritual elite of the country. And it was sizeable. India on that level is tremendous. I mean, the quantity of sages and…you know it is so prolific in that respect. Really that is what makes the country tick, beyond a doubt. But the fact that they took that direction a couple of thousand years ago is what has left the nation where it is now. There’s that split on the material plane, you see it, the impossibility to cope. Because it could only cope (by means of) that force, you understand, mainly because that is the kernel of India’s destiny. We have to call it ‘spiritual’ for a lack of another word. But really what it is, is what Sri Aurobindo calls the supramental power, really quite different from the spiritual. This is something else now. This is something that is operating in matter and cannot be disconnected from it.

So these questions become again irrelevant when you start dealing with the real newness of this work. They become irrelevant because…they are just irrelevant. They’re not wrong; they’re not…they just don’t pertain any more because your direction is different. You are moving toward something very different. Therefore I say you can have that, or you cannot, it doesn’t matter. Other things become important and need to be focussed on.

And all of these sages, all of these mystics, – nothing has of course changed anything here. Rather, it seems to have been getting worse all along. So the work of this particular group, of the people that work with me is something else. It is to bring about this change, and not in fantasy, you know, because every Indian godman or woman walking around is telling you that they’ve got the key, the answer. They are going to change the world, you know. You follow me and you’ll see. It will all change. But they have been walking around for an awfully long time and nothing really is happening, nor are they really able to explain in depth the whole process of what’s going on. And I know them, I’ve seen them, and I’ve had contact in the course of my work, and I can tell you that there are a lot of claims made, but very little has been done. Now, I don’t know, I’m sure all of you have had contact with these things so I don’t need to tell you.

 

I’m thinking about the soul as a bridge and when the body dies the soul continues to be a bridge again.

 

In a rebirth?

 

Yes, yes.

 

Sure.

 

It comes, it returns with what it had accomplished or…become in a former life. Comes back to be reworked again?

 

Now, this is something that I have different ideas about, (…you could expect that). But I really feel that a lot of what people say, what has been done…There is a lot of fantasy there. And there are very many reasons why there is fantasy, but the crux of it is yes, yes, we are dealing with the immortal element in the human being. However, there too it is totally irrelevant because you don’t remember a thing of what happened before. And there’s no way that you can be certain that if you do remember that memory is yours or is not plucked from some cosmic memory bank which exists there and you can tap those things. And most people do who are having these experiences. They are picking up something that is really imprinted out there. I mean, all of this is very complex to explain. The fact is that we know nothing about the instruments that we are, the receptive instruments that we are. How we can function. So all that we know is that when you die you forget, and you carry no memory with you. So what happens then is that you come back again and you have to virtually start from scratch. Whatever, however you want to fantasise it, however you want to justify, however you want to…you are faced with a number of years in which you are a perfect fool. And whatever you did in the past seems to not be able to help you one iota here.

Now this is the condition of the mortal human race. That death that is a sleep. That puts you to sleep and puts all these layers to sleep. Yes, yes, you do have in that contraction process that is death, all of this, let’s say. You are going through an intense 4.5 where everything is…all of that is being shed and you come to this compression and this of course lives on and is indestructible and immortal. But you have no way of knowing this. You die, you forget, because all those layers of your consciousness that could remember, where memory is stored, are dissolved and you have just this distillation process. That’s it. Now, while this is going on we are a race in Ignorance, capital ‘I’, cosmic Ignorance. While we are subjected to this process we cannot say that we are supramental beings or anything of the sort, because we must succumb to this process of death, which is a sleep and which puts you into this state of oblivion, where…I mean, mercifully so the way things are right now. You wouldn’t be able to bear it. But the fact is that, yes, your soul…it lives on, it reincarnates, it gathers again around itself the elements for a vital, mental, physical, – all these sheaths, let’s say, it gathers, and then you take birth. As it goes through these planes in its descent it does gather the elements; but, you see, what you really want some day is to immortalise all of that. You want to be able to leave this plane consciously, like Sri Aurobindo did, for example, where it was a conscious process, conscious.

Now, we are moving toward that in the sense that we are gradually acquiring abilities to be able to be more conscious in these transitions that we have. But right now it doesn’t matter one iota what you did in the past, or who you were or what…because it serves no purpose. So I never dwell on that. I mean, while it is not a conscious memory, while it is not something that you can really deal with, the important thing is, deal with this that is right now and that will make all the difference in what is to be and what has been in the past.

So believe me, there is no memory of that yet. Yes, there are some psychic memories but those are very, very, very rare when they do come up, you know. And of course what you have mostly is something like an intuition, a feeling. Something the soul is then…some kind of remembrance on that level which is in a sense guiding you, or better yet, attracting to you what you need. Really it’s like magnetism, a process of magnetism which attracts. That’s really how it operates, where in this lifetime you are the nexus of this operation. But this is all unconscious, you understand, and that’s the problem. This unconsciousness, this sleep. Most of your energies are asleep.

So, how to awaken that within the instruments that we are? How to awaken that? We can philosophise no end about the nature of the soul, and that it is immortal and that there is reincarnation, but in effect it’s quite useless for us because…And therefore, why is it that we are put to sleep like that, because in any case we are not in a condition to be able to deal with total consciousness yet. The whole…It has to be transformed before or together with the whole of the conditions on Earth, your field. You do a yoga in a particular field and that whole field has to be congenial to the experience. This is why it is necessary that the whole, this is why at this stage of evolution it is no longer possible for one individual to do this. There has to be a process that is changing everything at the same time. You have to have a field in which…So when I talked about that nucleus I was talking about a reduced field which was made congenial for that experience. And that was very important to do, you know.

 

Through readings and personal work I have been doing for 29 years through a number of different paths, several paths, more traditional paths, I am particularly interested in your focus on what is happening in the body, the return to the embodiment; also the relationship to time. The idea of being in the presence of a Divine Being, what does that mean?

 

We give it these names because we don’t…We have to use these terms because how to distinguish somebody who’s obviously operating on a different…within a different context. And it’s like that. But I think I explained some of what this difference is when you asked the question before. It is necessary to have that though. And of course I realise how necessary it is because there were certain things that could not get done unless you came with a particular consciousness already. You would not have been able to sustain, for example, that initial experience that I was telling you about. Nobody would have been able to sustain that, so you had to come already with a consciousness…Thereafter it’s different. I mean, thereafter that possibility is open then. But to open that, to do that first filling of that Point, I realise that it would not have been possible if I was operating with the ordinary powers, you know, open to a person. I don’t think so. I think that requires a particular type of embodiment for the initial stages.

In other words, there had to be an embodiment of each of these powers, these three, which is the explanation of reality, of the creation, of the universal manifestation. It is this trinity. This sacred triangle. It’s really this Transcendent, Cosmic and Individual. This is it. So you had to have these embodiments, and I can tell you also that you didn’t have that in any other Age, at least I don’t think up to this point, in a period of maybe 50,000 years. This has never happened because we have not reached the stage where this was necessary, this kind of triune powers coming, because they were each to represent…What does that ‘represent’ mean? It means dealing with the forces of those dimensions, and this then…being able to carry out this work. It really is the descent, quite literally. So, yes, it is necessary for that; I mean, without that it cannot take place. And then we go on from there. But that doesn’t diminish everybody else’s work, you know. That only facilitates…Clearly all the knowledge that has come…it’s not possible unless you are centred, seeing from the centre. I know it’s not possible for others to do that.

But it goes very fast. You know, once that is done you see that you are just removing veils, so then everybody is in a position to see quite a lot more clearly. And then once you have been, let’s say, initiated into that, you can’t go back again…I mean, then everything else becomes very shallow, or partial, fragmented. Once you have had an opening to this, I have noticed that people rarely are able to then close it out and say, I don’t want anything to do with it. No, it’s something that has been removed and you can no longer look at anything around you in the same way. It is impossible.

 

Would you tell them a little bit about the dynamic aspect of it. You just touched upon that a bit…once you get involved with this work everything else has a dead quality to it. You know it’s finished. It’s a path but that there is nothing dynamic or active about it. I have told you a little about the experience of seeing all the time, particularly from Patrizia’s experience of time and seeing things occur on certain dates that just leave no doubt at all that you are involved in this, and participating.

 

Well, I find it tremendously exciting. I mean, at Skambha in India there is never a dull moment. Because things are happening so fast and what that is is simply that you are in a position to appreciate the dynamic aspect of creation and how it is a part, an integral part of everything with no separation any more. So therefore you have that sense of dynamism, simply because that’s the whole point. You have that sense of everything then being dull thereafter.

The becoming is the big key in this work and therefore Sri Aurobindo said that the becoming was the most important aspect of our incarnation, because he understood that all spirituality of course had dealt with Being. The becoming, movement, the Shakti, all were set aside and of course then you had the poise of that peace, but it wasn’t a dynamic peace. It was peace somewhere there, disconnected. Then you had that same peace meaning the immobile amidst the mobile, meaning you are in that, but that peace is brought down here and it is experienced within dynamism, within the dynamics of it. So if you don’t have this kind of key that helps you to perceive, it means nothing. You are constantly cutting it out. It’s interfering with your realisation. But whereas here it’s just the contrary.

Now, the whole purpose of The Tenth Day of Victory was really to show this process where I was simply thrust, you know, in the middle of this; and this was in Rome. I hadn’t a clue about anything and the Mother just grabbed me. That was it. But what was it showing me, all the time? I was never allowed to pull away. Always made to see that power working, the 9, the 6, the 3, always, always, always, constantly reminded, never allowed…So therefore it became a power in everything, it was in everything, it was in everything. I mean, therefore everything became so dynamic…Where were you going to go? Why were you going to go somewhere else when you could see it right there. Not only right within yourself, but the whole of creation was carried by this Force. There are certain portions of that biography where I am describing how it was working through the Mother, how the letters, if you remember, all those 9’s…Something like that happens and you are changed forever, you just cannot ignore this any more. You cannot cut it off anymore. I will tell you, you get to a point where you are feeling rather impotent. And there were certain realisations that I had when I was in Pondicherry. I remember plunging deep, deep, deep, down, down, down, because there was all that trouble over the Matrimandir, those architects, and all that. And I thought, where do they get their power? I mean, how can they really obstruct the Divine Mother? How is it? So this plunge yogically within, within, going into that darkest…into the core of matter. Going down and there, at the heart of the darkness really, there was that luminous seed. That was the first real seeing of the mechanism of the Supermind, that golden seed in the deepest depths of everything, that centre, that point and this was how time operated, how time could have this control…

But then I remember, coming out…and there was Persephone connected to that. I remember really living this chariot and the chariot was, you know, this drive of the chariot…This wasn’t a vision, this was a lived experience. It wasn’t vision. But anyway, whatever, the horses there were this Ignorance; and they were blind, you see, but all the power was there. They had the power, but blinded and carried by that. So what happened? The upshot was that when this was over, well, for days I just couldn’t look at things around…I mean, I would burst out laughing. Everybody looked like little puppets, you know, they were all moved… And of course the self-importance of the human being is phenomenal. He thinks he’s doing it all and he’s of course just a little puppet. He’s doing nothing. But you know I was in a very funny state then because I would suddenly burst out laughing. You know, it was really rather embarrassing.

What I mean to say by this is that I was always driven to see this power right here, like this, in the world, everywhere, and never allowed anything else. So, what was this? This is the Becoming. This is it. So then that Becoming, every movement of it, every second of time was carrying it further, and further, and further, you see. And then it was realising what Sri Aurobindo had said, ‘The becoming is the purpose of our existence.’ This is what we have to realise. The whole focus of our quest is there.

Now he never went on to elaborate on how that was going to be done, you know, but he stated, ‘This is it.’ So dynamics, you want dynamics, this is the meaning, that’s what it’s all about. And this is the way it’s done. Then of course everything else becomes a bit insipid. You can sit in meditation, you can have, you know, experiences and all, but when you come out, what? What?

 

It separates you, but this seems to bring you right into it, simultaneous experiences of seeing it.

 

Yes, that’s the goal. That’s it. The lived experience, you know. These are just words, they are words but they are tremendously pregnant words. I mean, if you really get to dissecting…It’s like a scientist, you know. In spirituality you have to be like that too. Indians are like that. The Indians have had the capacity to dissect every path minutely. Everything is worked out almost mathematically and it’s unlike any other people I have ever known. And even today they are so good in science because traditionally they have had this.

 

I find this whole concept of the Gnostic Circle as exciting as when I was first exposed to chemistry. The atomic theory…shell, after shell, after shell and so many electrons in each shell and the last shell – what spaces were available for other atoms, electrons to come in and how it affected everything.

 

Yes, that network.

 

It was a structure that was just built into everything around us, our body, the metal. Why is it shiny? There’s a reason, because of the number of electrons in the outer shell. So many things like that. It seems to be as graphic, as grounded. But it’s all structured and everything all falls into place.

 

That’s right, that’s right.

 

(After a break)

 

(0n the contact with the Mother.) Well, physically in India when I got there…But before,…she drew me there, guided me there from Rome by a process of yoga which is described in this book (The Tenth Day of Victory), and I think it’s going to be published now…

 

Do you still have a connection with her at that level?

 

Always.

 

Always?

 

Oh, yes. That was something that was established, or unveiled, as we say. But it continues, it’s not something I have to think about. It is a fact. It just never changed. In fact it was such that going to (the Ashram)…You see, I had this idea, because I was very stupid then, going there…I was going to be physically (close to her), you know. And of course that was nonsense, because that was totally irrelevant. And it really changed nothing. So therefore when she left her body it changed nothing, you know what I mean. It was already established in such a way that there was no shift at all, you know, at all, at all. But of course at that time I wasn’t aware of all of these things, but I was aware to the extent that I knew that it had changed nothing for me at all. The whole process was arranged in such a way that I would not have that problem, you know, of having lost the Mother, so to speak. It wasn’t like that because I had that whole experience of preparation in Rome where she was there in that way.

But you do go through phases like these. You don’t remain in these kind of ecstatic states. You don’t because you needed that for a particular purpose. Then you go on. Then of course it went into the phase of the knowledge, of receiving knowledge. By receiving I mean not transmitted, like channeling, not that: planting a seed and then that seed took shape in my own consciousness of the 3, you see. Therefore I was able to contribute my thing, but it was all coming from her. This was clear. She was planting the seeds in my consciousness and I was then evolving them. Then I would wake up in the middle of the night with this experience and then go on writing. But I was always aware that she was planting those seeds in those last 2½ years when she was passing all of this on, in the last portion, those 2½ years, when I was literally dragged there and put through all of this, you see. Obviously she was getting ready to leave and she had a lot of work to do before then and so I was working like crazy, and did it. But, you know, we had to respect this sort of time schedule. It was very important.

When she was in the physical it wasn’t transmitted like that. It would have been impossible then. And the conditions in the Ashram were such that it wasn’t…And that isn’t the way it’s done, because I am telling you it is a question of putting a force and then that has to take shape, otherwise it would be a denial of the individual instrument, you know, and again a violence. It’s not that, and in this I speak for everybody hereinafter. That is the way it works. This channelling, all of that is nonsense. It is planting of seeds, or force of inspiration, or whatever. And the individual has to give a body to that. Then that is the beauty of the individual soul, in individual incarnation. That is the sense of the multiplicity, that everybody contributes their own, you know. And this tremendously prolific creation of so many, so many expressions. But it’s like that. And when you work on your consciousness, when you attain a certain degree, of course then it becomes very interesting and important to observe the purity of it. How she plants a seed and that comes back to her with a body, with a given shape and how pure the transmission of it, you know. That there’s no defacing in the actual manifestation of that, or the actual growth of whatever it is from the inspiration. So, the better aligned your consciousness is, the more….

Now, a typical example is the architects of the Matrimandir. She gave out the thing and it was completely deformed in the whole process of execution. And that is the state of the human being. He is unable to receive it from a plane of truth and express it on this plane. There are these gaps in between; and that is what the descent of the three Powers is meant to do. It’s clearing up all those layers so that from one plane, of truth, let’s say, to this plane you have no deformation. Right now we are deforming everything. Everything we set out to do. We start out with that, we end up with this, and there is often no connection between that original…

 

What interests me is that you don’t focus much on meditation, or creating empty space in which one might have more likelihood to hear, or connect, or open up, or come into relationship with that inner voice. Because it seems a system like the mind would be very limited on being able to make that connection.

 

Yes, yes. You are right, and if you read The Tenth Day of Victory, you will see that there was a long period where I was made to just listen to that voice and that was really silencing the mind and focussing and concentration, where I could follow this one thread. As it is now, everything is a jumble in everyone’s head. Now, the important thing is that kind of silence of the mind. These things are very important. However you come by it. If you are able to do that in meditation, in quiet, fine, but there are other ways of doing it. But there are certain basics and that in fact forms a part of the integral yoga, these certain basic things. The quieting of not only the mind, – the vital, all of these have to be dealt with. But each person deals with it in his own way. Often it comes about just by a general development, you know, into the Divine Consciousness, shall we say. This possession by the Divine, more and more opening; and then you realise that the mind is not the same instrument it was before, the vital is not…Each of these are feeling…

So there are many ways of doing it. But very important that silence of the mind, the quieting of the vital so that it doesn’t interfere. These are basic elements that have to be dealt with, you know, but according to each individual…Now, it is very interesting that at the end the Mother specifically made the point about the chamber: this wasn’t for meditation. It wasn’t meditation.

 

Concentration

 

And this is the key, because it is the key to this concentration of power and what she meant by that, you know. She left. She just threw that out and that’s it. She didn’t explain the rest of it. And she specifically said this is not meditation, this is concentration. So…

 

Can you share what your understanding of what that is?

 

Yes. Well, to me this was fundamental because just what I was talking to you about, about this concentration of power, that we are not in a position to sustain this. We crack under it. So this consciousness, this new alignment is for the purpose of being really able to contain this, to contain this force and therefore complete the journey and not collapse at some point. We are constantly experiencing collapses, you know. We cannot…our energies really break down. So I could understand it immediately when I read that. I said, Of course, that’s it. But other people might not.

 

What we are talking about is energy. You talked about that earlier and the accumulation of energy and the quieting of the vital allows that energy to build and to be accumulated rather than being wasted. And the quieting of the mind presumably does the same thing. How does the accumulation of energy work as it gets to a certain point? I know you have written that it widens the consciousness, does it also open up other planes?

 

It’s like fuel, you know. And you know, it’s like a fuel that then does not allow this kind of collapse that I am talking about, usually a falling back. And so this is really like a fuel that when you need it most it’s this impulsion.

Now, I know it doesn’t make much sense. But really speaking that’s what happens. If you don’t have that, you get to this point (indicates the fourth quarter of the Gnostic Circle) and you fall back. So this concentration is necessary in order to be able to…Which means this section which has been left void, – because this would have been the beyond, heaven, – this is now experienced in conscious awareness. So you need that accumulation to be able to experience a whole section of the wheel, which in terms of the experience of the human race did not exist. That’s why you had all the solutions which meant heaven beyond. This was the point of that Beyond, this 0˚ Capricorn. Then you went to heaven, then you sent…like they translate the Vedic term, Swar; they translate it as heaven. But is it really that? It’s the plane of Truth. Why up there? That’s our projection, that’s ours.

When you have that, you need that because you cannot experience this without that because you simply have not enough energy. So, to bring that down here, this dynamic aspect in life, the Divine here, to bring that here you need more of what is closed within, like releasing from an atom. And so this is quite literally like that. You cannot make that, you cannot experience what these points would signify unless you do have this addition. To get that you have to go through the rest of the process. You have to do the right thing.

Now I don’t want to make this too mental, because in effect it isn’t mental when you are living it. These are the lived experiences. They are not mental, they are a fact, you know. They are happening. So all of this is your poise. This is your relation with the Divine. Now, there are many aspects to this, you see. When we talk about centering, when we talk about a unitary creation, what are we talking about? We are talking about something else that we have positioned at the centre of our lives, of our consciousness. And this the ordinary human being does not do. You have an ego and you are a binary creation; and the Divine centre, that’s the void. Now, when this centering happens, of course it’s the Divine then that becomes that Point that holds, that organises, and everything converges on that then in your being. Now most people will not accept this. I can tell you quite frankly that if you give them the choice, they will say ‘no’. I want me, my own choices, my own da da da, me, myself and I.

And it is very hard to even recognise this, because your mind may be telling you that you want that. Yes, you want it more than anything else, but then your vital is pulling in a different direction entirely. And you are unconscious of what is happening. You have not been taught or trained to see these problems, you know…You cannot recognise it, therefore of course an outside help that you can trust in that is very important. But there are very few who are going to go the whole hog on this because most of the people don’t…Even the guides that are around, first of all they are not aware of what is happening. They are not aware, let’s say, of the almost physical impossibility for you to do this. Your structure…you come into this world sexually. You are born through a sex act and now they are discovering what I have been writing all along, about this programming of the cells. They are discovering in cellular biology something extremely interesting, – that your cells are programmed to die and that it is signals from other cells which tell them not to. Otherwise all cells are programmed and they would just die, and collapse. So, I have been saying the cells have a stamp of death. The way that we are born into this creation, through the sex act as it is now…and I have written this from The Gnostic Circle  on, all the way. You have the stamp of death. You come into the world, in a particular (way)…And what does this mean, this kind of unconsciousness where it is a totally unconscious act? Our births, our process of birth is unconscious. Nobody is really going to be in a position to tell you then what happens. What happens is you are a binary creature. You have a sex centre and you have maybe a higher mental centre. You are a binary creature, but that psychic centre, that soul centre is the void. And so all the myths will tell you this Kore, this Divine Daughter, gives birth to the Son. That is the description of what happens when the void is filled, that Son is born. The Divine Son is that Point and the myths have been saying that, but what does it mean?

Now, for a civilisation it works, for an individual it works. So you are structured in this way. You don’t know. You have never really experienced what it means to centre your life on that. And it is very difficult. It’s not easy, because you are used to ‘choosing’, to your ‘freedom’. All of that is nothing. It’s a total illusion that you live in. The only freedom is in the Divine, really. Otherwise you are really like these little puppets that I was seeing. Everybody is like that. There’s no exception. In the Rig Veda they call this creation of ours, this human creation, Martanda; children of Martanda, the eighth son of the Divine, Aditi. The 8^th. And that martanda means the ‘dead egg’. Isn’t that interesting in biology now, with these cells, with death imprinted in them, death programmed in the cells? And thousands of years ago they were calling this creation the ‘dead egg creation’, the dead egg humanity. That’s the name they gave it. And look at it, it’s exact.

So, clearly what has to happen in this process, is we’ve got to re-programme things. We’ve got to get to that steady state, not where these are collapsing, and then they are eaten up, gobbled up by the living cell, so to speak. In other words, they are looking at cancer in a very different way. You don’t look at it as this uncontrollable growth. You look at it very differently. Those cells that are supposed to function to keep a balance in the system, to eat up, die and fall off, that is not working. It’s not that the other is exaggerated and growing. It’s that the other is not working. So obviously you get very excited, you think, we isolate the gene, we plant it in there and we set the process going again, and that’s it.

So it’s just a different way of looking at it. But then what does it mean? It means that at a certain point of course everything dies off, so you want to get to the point of this steady state, where this doesn’t happen; and this is quite feasible in the transformation of the physical.

But the point I wanted to make was that putting the Divine at the centre is not a simple matter. And yet this unity, this unitary creation in contrast to the binary, this is the key. And it’s very difficult. Most people…and yet, you know, the fears they have of doing this, – it’s all in the mind. I mean, it’s all an illusion. Because it’s not that you lose anything. You gain everything. You have the fear that, oh, if I hand myself over to the Divine, I’m no longer me, I’m no longer free, I’m no longer…and all kinds of cockeyed ideas. And in fact this is really an illusion. It’s nothing of the sort. But people do have these kind of fears.

So it’s not a simple matter. When we talk about it, yes, I can describe it and say it means a unitary creation. A centre, what is that centre? And then that’s where the process of integral yoga, the surrender that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother go on about (comes in). This is gradually to create this Divine Space, let’s say, where you’re consciously in tune with that; consciously being carried along by that Divine power and light. But it does make a big shift in your life when it happens. I mean, then certain things become irrelevant, unimportant, do not call forth your attention as much. And you gradually…I mean, naturally it does happen that other people are not experiencing the same state or interested in the same things and so you do for a while, until you find an adjustment…And of course a lot of people can’t bear that, you know. Can’t go through that sort of thing.

 

Then you find you have nothing in common with other people around.

 

Sure, that’s bound to happen. And like that there are many shifts that do take place. But the fears that people experience, especially when they feel themselves on the border of a shift like that, then a lot of people recoil and are quite panicked by this condition. And yet that is the condition of Fulness really. That’s the beginning of that flowering from within.

 

To still be able to make contact and to be there and to be becoming while you are still feeling that pull away is very difficult. Because I think you doubt the validity of your pull away because you keep thinking you’ve got to be drawn in and be present and connected and reacting to things.

 

Yes, it is also, I think, a stage that one goes through were there’s this sort of conflict in that regard. I think one of the most difficult aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga to implement is this question of action in non-action. When to act, when to…This is probably one of the most difficult balances to achieve, you know, and it’s pointless to say it isn’t. It is difficult. I know what it’s like. For example, when I was seeing this Power in everything, especially in the initial stages – or in very, very powerful experiences of this – of course there comes that reaction where you don’t want to disturb anything, so you don’t want to move. You don’t want to because everything is a perfection, you see how it’s a perfection and you think, my God, how could I have done anything. That’s absurd, how could you DO anything, everything is DONE. And that is a very powerful experience. But yet you have to act, particularly in this work because there are things to be done. So you’re confronted with that and it is a sense of impotency in a way. Then you have to put it aside and you say, yes, but my participation is also necessary; and then you go on. So as you get more and more involved in this, of course you act always with that understanding that you are not denying the Divine your instrumentation which is very important. Which is what most of the spiritual people have done. They are really withholding that instrumentation and then of course, look at the world. I mean, it reflects that. So the real realisation, the finality is really that: where you are a conscious instrument. You’re not an instrument in ignorance and you are acting in the world on the basis of that.

But to get to that point, you understand, you need a certain grounding in knowledge. Because you can fool yourself very easily, you can say I’m acting…I mean, people go completely overboard and they become Divine Incarnations, they become all sorts of things. So I am not saying that this is easy. It’s not. But it is very helpful when you have already something so formidable in terms of…like a philosopher’s stone. You can touch base every now and then and really keep in tune.

That’s why all of this…Otherwise we would just sit here in silence and do nothing and give out blessings. Why all of this? Why did Sri Aurobindo and the Mother labour so much to explain, to write. How much Sri Aurobindo wrote and wrote and wrote, how many letters. The Mother, – how many talks, how many talks recorded, speaking all the time, you know. Why? Precisely for that. To create this body of knowledge where…I mean, it is a very big change in humanity that has to come about and it required this. I always feel I am clearing up the cobwebs, you know. I am doing that in India, I am clearing the cobwebs, constantly, constantly beginning with astrology, and then from there, you know, constantly clearing away the cobwebs. So they were doing that too. They just didn’t sit back and give out blessings. They laboured to explain, so that you would be able to have a guidance like that, very concrete. And you know, this thing that…, ‘it cannot be put into words’. They certainly found words. Sri Aurobindo never had a difficulty; and I, on the contrary, I love it. I know that it’s enhanced because I have a language. So for me that giving of the word is the final Body. I have never experienced a split. I have never experienced something that cannot then find its transcription. And if it doesn’t, you know it’s not the full thing. You know there’s a gap still. But of course this language is there. Without that of course I couldn’t have done it. It would have been impossible. That’s why the Mother couldn’t explain the plan of the Temple. She did say this is time, these are the months. She gave those keys. But she couldn’t go into the nitty-gritty of it because in effect the language hadn’t been formulated. It was thanks to what she did there that it was able to be done.

Then there’s no gap. You can really…The words, as I say, of it become an enhancement, a richness, a richness like an Indian temple with all those extraordinary sculptures on the outside, that are connected to this simplicity, this simple form of the deity on the inside; barren, you know, just the idol you see.

There are so may levels of this, you know. The human being has created a kind of accommodation in his life, but they’re such relative ways of seeing. I will give you an example of what we do and how we live as human beings and accommodate our inadequacies. You are driving along and there is a situation, a dog runs out in the street. A street like [this one?] here, two lanes, from the other lane he comes diagonally right smack at you. You cannot fail to hit him, there’s no way, and you kill the dog.

Now, you can interpret that in many different ways. I mean, you can look at it as – this was a symbol. I am going to a particular place, that crazy dog running right at me means I have to confront the situation I am going to face head on and deal with it like that. Or you can interpret it that, you know, something terrible you’ve done and you’re responsible for this and therefore what horrible thing is to await me where I am going, you know. There are many different interpretations.

Finally you come down to the fact that you killed the dog. So, a judge, a human judge would review the case and say, ‘It’s not your fault, you’re exonerated because you couldn’t…there’s no way you could not have killed that dog. He ran at you, he wanted to die obviously.’ And then you’re appeased, and you feel comfortable with that. You say, Well, I’m exonerated. Yes, it wasn’t my fault. But you come back to the point: you killed that dog. I mean, that animal chose to leave this plane by you killing him. So, your responsibility is still there. You did it.

Now our human justice accommodates this by making you feel relieved. And you have to prove your case, you had no choice, you couldn’t stop, the dog died like that…So therefore you are free. But, in a higher creation this does not happen. Accidents do not happen like this. Now this seems totally inconceivable, but it is a fact that you should anticipate. That situation would never arise because your consciousness would be such that you would never be the instrument for a destructive act. I am just trying to give you the example of a shift that is inevitable and will come. You understand? That set of circumstances, once something shifts, does not occur because you have a particular alignment in which all of these things…So you’re like…going like this, (indicates different dimensions passing through each other) you understand. You’re on a different dimension. Destructive acts are passing by you, you see.

So this is the situation that we are in as a human race. We have accommodated our whole justice system, everything, to the fact that we are not in that condition. We cannot control the elements in our lives. We are in this network in which there is no alignment or a centre. So therefore in a situation like that you judge. But you come always back to the fact of the act. It happened. Somebody killed someone. He’s coming at you, it was self defence, you kill him. Well, you say it wasn’t my fault, but somewhere inside you are thinking, But I still did it. This person left this plane at my hands. This was the channel. So, that can be looked at as a blessing or a bane. I mean, the point is then destructive acts, accidents do not happen in a higher creation. When this comes about, like I wrote in the VISHAAL in the Horse episode, there are no accidents when that Shakti is…What is an accident, what is not an accident? It is part of that play. So there are no accidents anymore.

Now it is very hard for us to conceive that such a thing would be possible. It is possible only when you accept the being and the becoming; and the being and the becoming as equally connected to and in the control of this power. Meaning you are in a dimension…you are right here, but you are in another dimension, really. I am sitting right here, but I am not in your dimension. I am not – I can’t say influenced by that dimension – I am not susceptible to this…and this I have proven in certain situations there in India. Very destructive situations in which…They were…it was just going by like this. You were in the middle of it and everything was happening, but they had no power to destroy. You were literally in another dimension. So these are the factual…These are things that are happening, that are moving on toward…you just bear in mind though that it may not be like this today, our human race…But it is moving toward that. And these are the initial stages. These are the first steps. The first foundations to achieve that.

Therefore it is a creation of harmony, you understand, and not violence. Non-violence does not mean not killing somebody, or turning the other cheek. That’s not what it means. It means no imposition of something. No forces from OUTSIDE creating a condition on any particular situation like that. It means being in harmony. So, at one moment you may have to kill, at another moment that is inappropriate, you know. But it is always being in tune with that and being that instrument, like the Gita says…

 

There’s no morality as we know it. The justice system we have…

 

That’s the point. Well, you see how it is collapsing. You see how everybody moans that…Our morals, where are they? But of course they have to collapse. We are talking about something new. So support is being withdrawn from that mental creation, which is the level on which…You know, up until now it has been the mind. The mind has been the highest. So it has determined all of this. And so morality was necessary, a certain code, a certain ethic, a certain…That’s the way we function, like I was giving you in the example of the dog. The judge agrees it wasn’t my fault, it was his fault. But that still doesn’t leave me very happy over the fact that, you know, nothing can change that. My responsibility, my connection with that dog. Why was I the one, then? What’s the deeper sense in that? How do you reconcile all of this? You cannot on the basis of our moral codes. Because something else has already manifested, albeit not known, support is being withdrawn from all of it. Therefore you are seeing a collapse all around.

 

The penal system.

 

Oh, the penal system. Now this is the point. Everybody knows that for all these people in jail, society bears a collective burden. I mean, we all know that in a part of ourselves. We say, those deprived kids they had no choice, you could predict where they were going to end up. And who is responsible for that? It is clear that…But at the same time, you must judge the acts of these people; so you cannot, it’s useless to say, Well, look, we’re all responsible so let them all go free. Obviously we cannot. We are at that stage of this impossible situation where everything is collapsing and the new way has not come about yet.

 

Juries now can’t come to any decisions. There’s just case after case of being deadlocked.

 

And this is going to happen more and more.

 

We’re at that stage where everything is collapsing…

 

Yes, now the question is that birth, that centre. All of that is there and what is happening? The very fact that that exists means that support is being withdrawn from the mental plane. It’s something else that’s there. This is not visible, as I mentioned before, the new world order, Yes, yes, rah, rah. Where is it? Definitely it’s not there. And yet everybody says, But wait a minute, the binary system…Now look at how interesting this work is. I was describing this as a binary system and did a whole yoga in the 80s. And right on time Gorbachov came in, right on time, I mean, extraordinary. Everything was going like clockwork, the whole collapse of the Soviet Union, right on time, everything. Perfect. By ‘89 the work was done and we started a new ennead and everything was done, exactly in accordance with this. Exactly. Fantastic.

I am working on a yoga that is dealing with the binary system. I gave birth to this thing, 1983-84, exactly. Recorded. I have written it even in the VISHAALS. I have had my journals full of it. And I am describing, like a scientist, what this means. Then on the world stage within months the whole thing starts; and then you have somebody like a Gorbachov who comes in and starts the dismantling of one pole and the whole thing collapses. And then you’ve got what? One super power. But everybody knows that the U.S. is not a super power. I mean, that that doesn’t pertain anymore. It doesn’t hold anymore. And so, the irony of it is you have somebody like a Clinton come in who, of all the presidents and leaders in the world, is the least likely to be able to play a role of carrying the whole world. I mean, he’s…whatever our opinion, I mean, he’s very young, he’s inexperienced. He’s all sorts of things. He’s not the likely candidate to be leading the USA in this momentous time where it’s supposed to lead the world. This is a phenomenal thing that is happening. But obviously. Because it’s not meant to be like that and it’s not going to be like that. So he will never succeed in playing that role. And he was obviously allowed (to come in power) precisely for that reason. That this isn’t the point now. That is part of the whole collapse. The whole thing has collapsed. We have not seen yet what kind of a system is going to emerge. We have seen it in the dimension of yoga and this work. But on the world stage, we are experiencing right now that transition when nobody knows what they’re doing.

Now, that centre being there, the supports are being withdrawn. So you have a penal system that goes nowhere. I mean, right now you don’t know how to deal with these things. And you see, people are being touched by this. So they are asking questions like, – Is it correct to pass judgments like that? Is it correct? That’s why juries are being deadlocked. Because finally you are analyzing in such a way, they are going to such depths in these questions that they don’t have the answers. Because on the moral/ethical level there are no answers. You have to go to a higher level. And therefore, when you…In India that’s why…They knew this. They knew. And the sage was above all of that, he was beyond all of that. But he was in a state, if you could call it, of a Divine Anarchy. He was in the Divine Consciousness. So the Brahmin, for example, was the highest there. The obligations, the duties of the Brahmin and what was allowed to him was much more rigorous than the lowest on the scale, the Shudras. They could possess things, they could do everything the Brahmin wasn’t allowed to do. (He) wasn’t allowed to have possessions, wasn’t allowed to…He could even make babies only at certain times of the year and under certain (planetary) configurations. He wasn’t apparently free, at all, had any choice. Whereas, the ones lower down had total freedom to do whatever they liked, as they liked within the parameters of their own caste. The higher you got and the freer you apparently were, you were beyond that moral thing but you had that inner – and this is what we are approaching: where each individual is going to be his own judge, let’s say, have his own conscience there, with that power to, you know…Ultimately this is what we are headed for. Now of course this is still in the stage of just breakdown.

 

Do you have any sense of when the new will begin to take hold?

 

Well the new is already taking hold in the sense that that’s why you see these collapses, and you see it happening very fast. Because that support is withdrawn and something else is taking its place. So it will go very fast, but I would say that during this Age of Aquarius, these 2000 years, or so, of course that’s when this whole thing is going to be established.

Now, that’s a long time, but at the same time, if you look and see what has been done in just these three decades, from ’71 until now, then you realise how fast we are going. I know that during my lifetime certain things have to get done. And these are pretty formidable things. I mean they can make an enormous difference in the world, and certain stages have already been reached and passed successfully, as I was just mentioning of the ‘80s, everything that had to happen then.

So, I believe that before the end of this ennead in 1998, several other things have to be established. Then what you have is a foundation, and from there you go building on that. And it can go very fast for certain people. It can be a slow and a terrible process for others. But for those who seek, it can be really the sunlit path. I mean, really consciously involved in this work of a total transformation of the Earth. And it will touch so many different spheres. Your politics, your arts, your culture, everything, everything, everything. As the Mother said, ‘It is a new world that is born, a new world.’

So you can imagine what that means. It’s not the old. It’s a completely new thing. And we haven’t…So to describe it becomes a bit useless. You can give an idea, because you can say, as the example I gave (the dog episode), in the new creation such things do not happen. But if they happen there is no judgment possible, because everything is in its place, you understand. You killed the dog because that was the channel by which he had to leave.

Now, you understand, in our world today, we cannot speak like that because everybody is going to say, I killed that man because I knew that he had to leave…Then you really get, you know, you go off the deep end! So you cannot. We have to go gradually to that point where these things happen without any trumpeting. They’re just happening. You cannot announce: this is what’s going to happen. You cannot do that. It has to just happen, you understand, because otherwise you would fall into these kinds of traps, and people misusing…

This condition of the world today, if you look at it, it is very hopeful in the sense that the collapse is what has to be. We have to get rid of these old forms of things. The energy has to be withdrawn from all of that, those supports.

 

A planned dissolution,

 

That’s right. That’s exactly it. Even physically, even your earthquakes, even your this and that. These are controlled actions of release of energy. Controlled so you don’t have one great big boom, you know.

 

And when you are living in that experience, yourself, then there is a hopefulness also.

 

Of course, I’ve never been happier. I look around and I think, boy, everything is really going fine. You know, you would be worried if these things were being propped up more. But provided…

 

What about religions? What about religions too?

 

Well there you have it too. And all the fundamentalist reactions, of Islam and all, that’s simply because they are feeling that withdrawal. And so they react. I mean, that we know. You know fundamentalism is always a reaction to this kind of dissolution process – and they come stronger. But usually, you see, those are the things then you don’t deal with head on. You just let them…They become irrelevant eventually.

 

These countries will cut each other up, it looks like.

 

And they will become irrelevant because the important thing is that this new creation must survive. This is the important thing. So, there are mechanisms to protect that. But even that…Now we could go on to something else: even the mechanism of protection is something very interesting. It itself has to provide its own mechanism, but that we leave for my next trip, because that gets a little bit too intricate here. But that is the whole point. The important thing is that the new creation survives. So the Mother was very much caught up with this fact. The protection of this. She knew very well…I mean, the destructive forces come at you, but because you were in another dimension…they were attacking you and they fell in the void because you weren’t there. Now this is actually the way it works. You were not there. This centering puts you…You are operating with different laws. They’re like formulas, you know, and they operate when you (are) centred. When you have that you are governed by different principles. So we are sitting here in the same room, but we may not be affected by the same play of forces. It’s a play of forces, you are not affected by the same thing. So, if you attack me in that state, in actual fact I am not there. I am not susceptible to the manipulation of forces that you can engender, you see.

 

Traditionally, if this is the language that has been used as being of a ‘higher and lower’, what’s the new language?

 

I don’t know, I often use that too. But higher and lower, then you have this sense of linear. It’s a spherical thing and then you have layers within layers. So it’s all played out on this physical plane. But we are talking about a play of energy always, remember. So these are laws that operate according to the poise of your consciousness. They come from that. You are aligned in that species, or you are in this one. If you are in this one, you are not susceptible to the play of forces of the lower. Let’s call it lower and higher. You are in another dimension. But you are right here. Why? How does this operate? Because that realisation permits a control in the circumstances, the play of circumstances. And this is why I say this work is unique. Because this has never been done. This has never been a conscious process, where consciously, you know, there is a play of circumstance, which being in here, you are at the centre, you are controlling this. That is, control – meaning those circumstances will always further the purpose of the soul point. That soul is the seat of the Divine Purpose in life. Your dharma, whatever you want to call it, the inner truth. Those circumstances then must serve that Purpose, whether they are negative or positive, they cannot escape serving that purpose. So you have an enemy, then he attacks you, that attack must serve that purpose, whatever. If you’re killed, that was the purpose. But of course you have to be certain of what you are doing, and this is possible. So this is what I mean. You are not susceptible to any lower…There are no accidents there. There are no other possibilities. When the Mother was saying, ‘Everything is determined, every single thing.’ What did she mean? That sounds terribly fatalistic, but this is what it means. In that operation there are not many, many possibilities. There’s only one. So therefore no choice. There’s only one, you know.

So that’s the meaning when I say ‘laws’. I mean susceptibility to a certain play of forces, some destructive, some…Nonetheless, the negative and the positive is still there because that is the condition of our world right now. Meaning, unconsciousness and consciousness. Meaning, some elements are used as conscious instruments, others unconscious. The negative is simply the unconscious. He’s not aware of that Divine Purpose at the centre. But he is still used. Like the Churning Myth.

 

You wrote about the Churning Myth

 

You see, that’s a beautiful example. You see how India…I mean, there’s no end to what India knew and knows. The Churning Myth. Perfect. Both tugging away…but there’s Vishnu above it all, who is the controlling power, the Divine. Above and below. He’s the tortoise, support of that axis, that churning stick. This says it all. This is one of the  most extraordinary myths describing the deepest essence of the material creation, and the Divine Manifestation in the material creation.

 

The forces of ignorance got overcome by fumes because they couldn’t see. They were susceptible to the ruse. And the Gods could see.

 

Blinded. But they did most of the labour because that’s where the power…

 

That’s interesting, they did all the work.

 

Because they thought they were in control.

 

Well, they were strong, they were strong, like ascetics.

 

Persephone, that chariot, those horses. Blind. But lead by the Divine; that was where all the power was. They drew the chariot. This is what I saw, and I said, Yes, of course. But that’s what has to be released. That is that extra energy that we need to become this higher creation. We need to have that release and you release it by conscious awareness. You release it by bringing all of that to the light, you see. Even within yourself when you say, I’m unconscious. What you really want to say with that…you want to release the energy that is locked there. When I say, your sleeping energies, this is what it is.

 

(Long silence)

 

I’m being impacted beyond my capacity.

 

I was just thinking that. I was thinking, (I’ve) gone a bit too far!

 

I’d like clarification. How would you perceive the dog story?

 

This happened to me. This happened to me just before coming here, so therefore I had a long trip to think it over and I had very heavy things at the end of that to do, when I reached my destination. So of course that’s why all of this was going on because…I mean, animals for me are like…I mean, this is the first time anything like that has happened. Of course it’s a miracle that it hadn’t happened, because Indian roads…If you ever come to India you will understand that the real miracle is that I have never done this before. That’s the real miracle. Now, beyond that, I mean there was really no escape for this mad creature. I was on this side…you know, we were two lanes and he just shot from the other side diagonally, straight at me. I mean, no way…and on the highway. Really no way. So I swerved around, hoping that he would continue fast, but he must have stopped and of course then I caught him with that wheel. Then I thought, Oh my God…You know, it was just too, too dreadful and everybody around just went AAAHHH also because you could see that there was no way to escape that fate.

But of course then going on and pondering over this, I said, well these things don’t happen to me like that. And of course then I understood what I had to do when I got to the other end and I was being really attacked. Not attacked, just certain situations coming at me like a mad dog. I mean, asking to be liquidated. It was really that situation. So, I thought about it and then I said, Well clearly this person, these two people that I have to confront…And this is really like the mad dog. There’s no way out. They are asking for it. I cannot avoid it.

And at the same time I thought, well isn’t this interesting, because we can say this is a symbol of what I have to do. O.K., and it clearly was. It definitely was because from what happened after I did go at it and liquidated this person; in terms of his obstructive powers, they were finished. I just went straight at it and dealt with it without even thinking about it. In fact I wasn’t intending to. But it did work out just like that. And there were two situations that had I not dealt with, then I would not have been able to come on this trip. In fact, I was setting out on this trip. So it was a very interesting circumstance. But at the same time I was thinking, isn’t this interesting. Because we can fool ourselves. I mean, the fact is that it’s inconceivable to me that I could have killed this animal like this. At the same time there was no escape. So I said of course, this is the situation. We can justify it by saying, Look, what are you concerned about? It was his fault, you know, he was asking for it. But I saw all the dimensions in this, and I saw really that this is just an accommodation. This kind of explanation – that it was his fault – is the lowest of the rungs. That is something I cannot accept. So I saw it in a different light. Of course it was a symbol, but even in that we can fool ourselves. But it was very definitely…The whole thing that I faced was exactly displayed in that situation. That force coming at me had to be dealt with like that. I had no choice, you know. Even if I would have wanted to, I had no choice.

But then I also saw…Okay Patrizia, you’re going along here…in another consciousness you anticipate, you know. Now, how? There was no way to anticipate that. I mean, the fellow just shot out suddenly, from a standstill position, just shot out. So there was no way to anticipate. But in the terms of what I’m talking about here, a force is working and either he goes this way…or something, but the whole thing…UNLESS, really, he has to leave this plane in that way. I mean unless you have to deal with that force in that way and there is no other.

But then you have to be very clear in your consciousness to judge these things. To observe these things in that way because you can fool yourself. You can delude yourself. You can say so many things. You can justify so many things; and that of course we’re not interested in doing. We are interested in seeing. We are interested in really…And we don’t recoil from things. If it was meant to be killed and I was supposed to do it, we must do it and we mustn’t recoil. Because in effect, I didn’t want to confront these two people. I knew that…Remember when I arrived I was saying, I’ve just been fighting all the say. I mean, it was…you had to…there was no way, you know. It had to be done like this. And in fact the moment that I did, it dissolved. I mean those obstacles just dissolved. The moment that I agreed and said O.K., you know, whatever, let’s go for it then. That was it.

So the point is, the moral of the story is that you have to be very honest with yourself. You have to be very honest about where you’re at. You cannot say I am above this moral thing and really this is something higher that I am doing. You cannot fool yourself. Since you are in that situation, all you have to do is just look without judgement and try to understand. So what I did then was I let the circumstances reveal the truth of that situation, which very soon, within three hours after that, they did.

So at that point then of course I did see it connected to a whole process that I had to do. But you cannot, you don’t judge. You know, you sit quietly and let the circumstances reveal the truth of that. What really was the meaning of this? Really.

Now, at that point then you could say, – and this has happened at Skambha, – you could say then that that dog was fated to die, clear. I mean our deaths are really probably the surest thing, the moment, the time, all of this is the surest thing. So that dog was fated to die and therefore he was used in this way so that I would get the message and go to…Because it was a very conscious thing. By the time I got where I was going, I had a good three hours more of the journey to ponder over all of this and say, Wait, this is a very unusual situation that I am in now. Let me see. Let’s go along with it, let’s…You know, and therefore I had that as a possibility.

So in a higher vision of that, you can say then that the dog had to die. Now, that he was used in that way by me can mean that I am very unconscious and that I am not doing what I have to do, that I have to have an impact like that to get me to do what I won’t. But in any case the dog was fated to die. The fact that he went out in that way was my ignorance. Needing that message in that way. It probably boils down to that: he was going in any case and that he, in actual fact, did a good deed. Because he helped me to see what I had to do.

But in order to do that you have to be pretty sure that you’re not fooling yourself, that you’re not…And that’s where a lot of people get off. Because they delude themselves, you know, and justify, don’t want to look, too painful to look. You know, you accept an easy answer. But if you really go down into it then, and, as I say, if, you let the circumstances reveal the situation, that’s what the answer to that was.

Along the way of that it was clear that the moral explanations are not sufficient. I would in no way have found peace just by thinking, well, it wasn’t my fault. That meant nothing, nothing at all. And that’s where our penal systems and everything lie. Who’s at fault? Prove. You did this. What does that mean? He’s dead, you know. He went out in this way. So why did he go out in this way? Why not somebody else? Why not the next car? Why not this? Why not that?

And then, as I say, then you watch, you let the circumstances, the play of circumstance reveal the truth of that incident. And it did very clearly because I went right at the mad dogs, two of them. Inevitable. I didn’t want to. There they were. I had to do it and all the time I was thinking of this. I was saying, Well, the tone’s set and there…you know, it really was…That was the episode of the dead dog. You see how one little thing like that can open up a whole series of seeings.