In a letter dated 5.2.1989, a pupil wrote to Thea about his understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga: ‘First there must be a call or a need, then a preparation or purification of the nature. Depending on the strong will of man to reject the vibration of the lower nature, his ability to open and to give himself to the Divine and the help of the Yoga Shakti and in  ‘God’s own time’, there will be progress. The preparation and purification consist of silencing the mind and making the vital calm. With this man can easily reject the wrong vibration and open himself to the psychic being and the Divine. The psychic leads more and more, first the inner being, then the outer. After this he can open upwards to the Self, the static and dynamic Brahman. Then he can open upwards to mental regions and the overmental, and so on.

            ‘This is the global line of development in the integral yoga. I am aware there are different lines possible according to the different natures and to a man’s ‘mission’. There are also side paths, etc. Now, the Gnostic Circle and The New Way are there. Is this cycle what Sri Aurobindo meant with ‘God’s own time’? The 4.5 Orbit is the point of undoing of the old consciousness and descent of the new power. After this there is the time of growth in the new cycle (consciousness?) and assimilation till the next 4.5. This growth or assimilation and widening of consciousness is the whole of the yoga, to prepare for the utmost benefit till the next 4.5 point?’

 

Thea replies: [Regarding] your presentation of the Yoga and your questions about the Gnostic Circle, I think things are becoming more and more clear with the exposition you have given. But I hope I can briefly summarise the situation, because the theme is a vast one and cannot really be dealt with in one letter. It is, after all, the entire scope of the work. At that same time, it draws the discussion to this question of the new element that I have brought to the Yoga. I have gone into this matter deeply in the 3^rd Volume [of The New Way].

   When I read your description of the Yoga I have a strange feeling that it is something rather foreign to what I know. The words seem to be right, but there is something not right. Pondering over this I realise the problem lies in the DIRECTION you describe; and this confirms the impression I have formed of your yoga and one of the causes for the strain you feel. You see, reading your description the Yoga seems to take a very linear direction. And that is summed up as an ascent up and out and beyond. This impression comes across very clearly in what you write. The psychic realisation becomes then simply a basis for this action, a tool to be used for the transformation of the nature so that this upward and outward direction can be attained without the impurities of the being interfering in this other attainment in any way.

Now, I am fully aware that many people have this notion, and it is perhaps legitimate to believe this insofar as Sri Aurobindo himself may convey this impression in his writings. But the point is that Sri Aurobindo wrote from a transcendent poise. That is, the work he had to do resided in a transformation of THAT PLANE. What I mean to say is that if we are to bring down the light of those planes, it is necessary to prepare those dimensions for this descent as well as this material plane. Someone had to do that, just as someone had to prepare the Cosmic plane, and just as someone has to prepare this Individual Earth-plane. In dealing with the Transcendent, it is clear that Sri Aurobindo was poised THERE. This is what makes his writing so appealing and free from certain demands put upon the consciousness in, for example, my writings. But when we reach the Cosmic and Individual, these demands begin to increase and often they create unsurmountable obstacles for people who want to ‘lose themselves’ in that Peace, that Vastness, that uncluttered space beyond.

With the Mother’s work we come to that eternal Knot – Matter and Form. This introduces a series of difficulties Sri Aurobindo did not have to deal with, in that incarnation. Those difficulties increase as we move on down the line, especially when we come to the Individual, in close touch with the Earth-plane.

You know, I experienced this situation very vividly when I was approaching New York by plane last September. I don’t know if you have ever been to New York, but anyone who has is forced to admit that the city is not the prettiest in the world. There are slums, dirt, congestion; and for one who is used to country living, an unbearable lack of SKY and AIR.

But, as the plane descended and circled near and over the city, I noted how extraordinarily beautiful it was, constructed as it is by the Hudson River and with its amazing display of man-made wonders such as the famous skyline of Manhattan. The layout of the city was exquisite from that height. It was sunset when we approached, and the red-pink glow added to the beauty and charm of the vision. I could not fail to see a parallel with this work and the difficulties we face. All other yogas have dealt with the human condition from those heights, and the question has been to draw the seeker UP TO THOSE PLANES. Because, you see, when one sees New York from that height, one does not see its filth, its congestion, its squalor, its lack of sun and air, and all the rest. Nor does one see the misery of many of its residents, caught in a mire that is the outcome of just such a stressful and congested living. One sees only the city’s beauty and general outlines. One does not see THE DETAIL.

 

Now, it is this question of DETAIL that describes the main focus of my work, and to a certain extent the Mother’s. She began to look at details; she began to DESCEND into material creation with her yogic thrust; she began to deal with matter and with form, – which is where the question of detail begins to surface. Sri Aurobindo did not do this, by his own admission. Therefore ‘Savitri’, also by his own admission, is largely a creation of the Overmental plane. This is made evident by the fact that in Savitri that perfection of form and detail is not present, and by consequence that Order that the new creation demands, the creation of a cosmos out of the chaos, to put it succinctly. The prophetic aspect of ‘Savitri’ makes this clear: it is all rather helter-skelter, figures and events of the prophetic vision overlap or pop up here and there with no proper sequence, no clear time-frame for which that Order is indispensable. One is forced to leap around from page to page in order to form a clear vision with ‘each thing in its place’.

But in composing his epic, Sri Aurobindo was dealing with those planes, opening up the Overmind to the higher light and infusing it with this new and hitherto withheld element – in overt manifestation, that is, not hidden and working from behind the veils. In a sense we could say that with Sri Aurobindo’s work, in particular the creation of ‘Savitri’, the Overmind consented to this transformation and to cede the reigning position it has held for so long to the Supermind. Sri Aurobindo was clear about this. He stated quite emphatically that ‘Savitri’ was an overmental creation for the most part. But the reason for this is what I am here describing: ‘Savitri’ was Sri Aurobindo’s tool for the Descent.

The Mother’s tool was something quite different and far more material, we may say. It was the creation of the physical ashram but with the culminating experience of the Temple and the City. It is with her vision of the Temple, and above all with the detailed plan she gave, bearing precise measurements, that we observe this Light penetrating more and more deeply into matter and material creation. At the same time we see the murkiness which had not really surfaced in Sri Aurobindo’s time in this new creation. We see types like X coming to the fore, and all the rest. We see the mire of Auroville and all of that. But it is like the city of New York: when viewed from above the creation is magnificent. Descending into that magnificence, however, one begins to see details that from the heights were unperceived. This, in a nutshell, is the work of the second and third members of the Solar Line. And then there is the Fourth.

You see, the point of Sri Aurobindo’s incarnation is that vision from above, the transcendence, as well as that immanence. It is HIS IMMANENCE as the Fourth, as the Point, as the Seed, that puts the seal on the Descent and allows for the creation of a new Cosmos. And this is what is conveyed in the Gnostic Circle. Sri Aurobindo’s position in that Circle is the 9. That point on the Sacred Triangle describes his work in that incarnation – the Transcendent. But as the Fourth it is the opposite to that 9 Point: it is the 4.5…the ‘Masked Transcendent’. This hidden, masked condition is beautifully conveyed in the Gnostic Circle by the fact that there is no Orbit marked out there by any of the enneagram’s lines, neither the Sacred Triangle’s nor the other lines forming the diagram. Yet the entire diagram focusses on that hidden orbit; all its lines point to that Orbit. Visually, this is evident, and it is something the Gurdjieff school missed entirely: the focus on that mysterious Orbit.

That is the Immanent, that is the ‘gold’ hidden in matter, the Hiranyaretas or the Golden Seed. That is what permits a cosmos to be formed, an ordering to be undertaken. It is the infinitesimal point in the core of the Sun that holds a cosmos together. The 4.5 Orbit is therefore the redemption of the Buddhist and Mayavadist ‘void’. This is what Sri Aurobindo meant when he stated that ‘Kalki would come to correct the error of the Buddha’. At the same time, he referred to the experience of Nirvana as the entry into ‘the higher hemisphere’ from the lower and the beginning of the work, not the culmination. And this too perfectly tallies with the image conveyed in the Gnostic Circle because the 4.5 is indeed the half-way point in the wheel and is the threshold to the higher hemisphere. This is corroborated even in the traditional understanding of the zodiac with relation to Libra, the sign of the 4.5 Orbit.

What I perceive in your description is only half the picture, and I feel this may be the basic cause for the strain you experience. I do not perceive any roundness, which is the key to an INTEGRAL work on oneself. Pursuing the direction you describe does not guarantee an integration and harmonisation of the consciousness-being. This can only come about when in your consciousness you create that cosmos, when you establish that Point which is the new base of life that Sri Aurobindo described. For that an entirely new dimension of the psychic realisation has to come into being. And that is the focus of my work. You see, until 1971 nothing was really known of all this. But let us look at the facts: in 1970 the Mother completed her work in terms of dealing with DETAILS within the parameters prescribed for her Incarnation. The original plan of the Temple was the proof that this first ordering had taken place and that her Yoga had made that possible. The City is the physical representation of that Cosmos, which is ‘held together’ by the Temple, which, in turn, is that central Point, the core-point of the cosmos that ‘holds it together’. In this light you can understand quite easily why the actual shape of Auroville was designed by the original architect as a galaxy, and how perfectly accurate that was. The only problem with the physical reality that is the Auroville we know is that there is no central Point that is capable of ‘holding the city-consciousness together’. Hence there is only chaos there as a result. But this was no fault of the Mother, insofar as she did give the key to the true foundation of the City. And here we have used that key in our work, with accurate and measurable results.

A further point is that the Matrimandir was described as ‘the soul’ of the City. And this provides another clue to the process I am describing. You see, as stated, when you are dealing with matter this question of DETAIL comes to the fore. At the same time, when dealing with matter the question of the soul’s role is immediately introduced, because the soul is the nexus of being in material creation.

Now with this you can perhaps begin to draw certain important correlations: the soul, the Individual Divine, the Third member of the Solar Line, the Temple, the question of ‘perfection in detail’. All of this begins to make very logical and coherent sense. We understand fully why the Descent was arranged the way it has been and why, at this stage, we are faced with the question of Measure in the first place, why the Mother insisted on ‘accurate measurements’ and that she wanted ‘only an engineer’ and not an architect because accuracy was of the utmost importance. And we also realise why this was so hotly combated in Auroville: we are dealing with the ‘mire of detail’ in this issue. It is like the city of New York: from above it is clean and pristine and an exquisite creation of man; but when we descend we see the other side, and we may be appalled. The same applies to the City and the Temple. In the plan stage these were impeccable creations; the Mother’s original plan of the Chamber is unparalleled, it is a perfect cosmos and a replica of the Soul in Matter as the binding nexus of a material creation.

But when in the process of bringing that perfect Vision into the material plane – that is, in EXECUTING the plans the Mother left – then we are confronted with those unpleasant facts which we would rather ignore: the murkiness of the detail, with all the knots that have come into being in this material plane because Supermind has not been the overt ruling Principle in creation. This can explain why the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and our present contribution is always so entangled, so difficult, so obstructed. We are working through those knots in the course of our collective endeavour. There is no ‘sunlit path’ here; there is only one direction. And that is through the entire wheel and all its various ‘points’. Precisely because we are dealing with an INTEGRAL REALISATION.

 

It is this ‘roundness’, if it may be so called, which I find lacking in your brief presentation of the Yoga. Everything is right, the words are accurate, but something is missing. And I feel that this is the root of the strain you feel. As I have written in the past, you are – no doubt very unconsciously – pursuing a wrong direction. You are not allowing the Sun-Core to bring order into your realisations and draw them together here on this material plane for the creation of a new cosmos out of the chaos of your consciousness-being. Perhaps unwittingly, the direction you are pursuing is ‘otherworldly’. This, as I have written you before, is because of your past attainments, what you have brought over from your past incarnations.

There is a lot of material in this letter to assimilate. I do not expect you to understand all of what I write since I realise this may seem to be in conflict with what you have studied of this Yoga in the past. But, to help you out of the impasse, all you need to do is to observe the ACTUAL and REAL course Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and work have taken. You will clearly have to admit, if you are honest, that what I write is borne out by the real facts of our work and the course it has taken. You see, if you ignore this, then the stagnation in the Ashram and the chaos in Auroville and the split between those two bodies of their work would not make sense at all. But when you do see those ‘disasters’ on the background of this larger vision and fuller knowledge, then it is perfectly clear and ‘all is as it should be’. However, that does not eliminate the need to struggle with those confounding ‘details’ of a material creation What does happen when we accept WHAT IS, is that we engage in these struggles with a trust and a certainty that others lack.

The trust and certainty I write of are quite different from the blind faith displayed by most of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s disciples; or else the fallacious interpretation we have witnessed in Auroville: the Mother is in control of everything so therefore there can be no mistake in Matrimandir! (My reply to that has always been: since the Mother is in control of everything, then why bother about nuclear weapons and all the rest, since she is also behind that creation!) No, the trust and certainty I write of is something entirely different. It is a poise derived from Knowledge, from knowing and not from believing, or even from blind devotion. The world has had enough of that. What is required now is an acceptance of WHAT IS, primarily of WHAT IS in the Mother’s work. That means, accepting this new direction with all that that implies. This means seeking fervently and sincerely to understand WHY there is this direction at all, what its implications are for the Yoga and the world, what the real meaning of the Temple is in the context of this new direction and its relation to ‘perfection in detail’. Remember, Sri Aurobindo stated that this was the reigning Goddess [Mahasaraswati] of our Age. And nowhere is that better corroborated than in the Mother’s final bequeathal to humanity: the plan of her Chamber, the world’s most impeccable blueprint of ‘perfection in detail’.

 

What I was particularly wanting to speak to you about this time was the change we see, the big shift… Yes, I think that is what everybody is interested in right now. There are remarkable things happening in the world.

          But I found a change in America… Apparently one would say it is for the worse, I felt it in California – an increase in violence in the air. I hadn’t felt it anywhere near that degree in ’86; and in fact now there are all sorts of gang fights going on, gang WARS, virtually. It is becoming quite despairing on that end of the world.

          In general people are in despair in many ways. But what I would like to convey today is…or at least provide some examples in a way that we can see… I will have to call it a POSITIVE ELEMENT in what is happening. I think people are in this state of despair because really people just see the collapse and cannot see where it is going, or really whether it has any purpose, and how far it is going to go; what is going to be left of all this.

         So, if we can go into that today…and I will provide you with some elements of this work – this ‘new way’… I hope I can give you an overall idea of the type of work we are all involved in.

           I would say that in terms of this work what is happening is a shift from what I have come to call a BINARY SYSTEM to a UNITARY SYSTEM. And this shift affects all levels of the being. It affects the spiritual level, the mental level, the vital-emotional level, and it comes all the way down to the physical. In other words it is a total change; and being a total change the world appears to be…as if it is being broken up right now. In fact, I think people are not aware of the real extent of the change. I mean, I don’t think that people have really grasped the fact that, as the Mother has stated so beautifully in one of her talks, ‘a new world is being born’ that bears very little relation to the other. It does in the sense that this must grow out of that, but that it is really a major shift to something entirely new and that people therefore have really very little…I mean, they have no model to follow for this. And, as I say, the shift is so total that people are simply caught in a bind, not knowing how to deal with it. And of course, at this point it appears that all is just being broken down.

         But in fact something else is coming up. And that ‘thing’ that is coming up is responsible for this collapse around. That is, it is BECAUSE this new thing is coming up that it is ACCELERATING this collapse of everything.  And this new thing that is being born, forged and consolidated in our very times is what people do not see because in effect it is nothing more than ‘a seed’. Let us call it a Seed. But the fact that it exists and has never really existed before is what is able to sustain us in this passage now to something entirely new. In fact, the crux of this work, you could say, is the birth or the coming down, the bringing down, or the unveiling – however you wish to call it – of this ‘seed’ that fills the void. That this is something entirely new now; and, in effect, the lack of this element that SUPPORTS, that SUSTAINS, that FILLS that central void of civilisation, of the human being, of whatever, is what has permitted this process always to be a destructive one, always a caving in, a collapsing. Nothing is there to support this.

         Now, this would be very difficult for you to perceive because none of the spiritual paths that people follow, that we know today, are able to explain this…because they are not dealing with this issue at all. In fact, that the spiritual paths do not deal with it is what has consolidated this void so tremendously over the last several thousand years.

            What it boils down to is that everybody is moving AWAY from creation. And, as I have stated time and again – and Sri Aurobindo has stated even more than I have in the past – it is a pulling away from creation, really; and it is a realisation exclusively in a transcendental plane. And this has left the Earth purposeless, apparently; and it has left material creation in a sense… Well, cut off. This is the binary system that has become consolidated.

            So, you have these poles: you have Spirit and Matter. And this is the binary condition. In other words, we have a higher self and we have a lower self, and it appears that what humanity needs is a shift to a higher self and a poising there. But, in effect, this is not possible. What I mean to say is that this is not the answer because it is just jumping from one end of the pole to the other.

            So, it is a THIRD THING, entirely different and new, which is born; and that is the shift to the unitary system I am talking about, which then puts these other elements in their place. It is no longer a binary system which exists on the basis of tension and struggle and which then produces this central void and therefore it always ends in collapse, but it is something else that is born and supports this… And here is the diagram of this unitary system [points to the Gnostic Circle].

            Now, a way to give you a concrete example that I think you all of you will be able to relate to quite easily is if we use traditional astrology. Everybody has an idea of what an astrological chart is and how you erect a chart. But the main thing is that the astrology we know today, which we have inherited from ancient times, is really a representation of the binary system. In other words, the Earth, and by consequence the Moon, is central. You construct a horoscope from that basis. Of course that was a reason why astrology nowadays has been criticised by scientists, because they say. Well, this is wrong: the Earth is NOT central and the Sun is NOT revolving around the Earth…

            That is not the point at all. The point is that the horoscope as we construct it represents the evolution of consciousness as it has reached us today; that this represents the binary system. This is the Old Creation. These are the two centres. The play is supported by a binary structure. Which means TENSION. You eliminate that tension, polarity, whatever you want to call it…You eliminate that and the system collapses.

            So, it was a perfect representation of the condition of humanity. This condition was introduced when Mind began to develop in the evolutionary process. Because mind is this. Mind, as the highest principle, is dualistic; and therefore if you end a creation at that highest instrument – being mind – you end up with the world as we know it today. And you end up in only one way: a world that destroys itself. Because if you follow these things deeply you will see that there can be no other way, that existing in this duality implies that there is not this centre that supports, that ‘holds’, and therefore there is always this constant caving in. And that is the process we know: Something is built up, it must be torn down. And it goes on like that.

            So, the essence of the message of this work and Sri Aurobindo’s work when he began it in the beginning of this century, is that Mind IS NOT the highest principle and that the big shift we are making is now to the unfolding of this highest principle which he called the Supermind, the Truth-Consciousness… That completes the fourfold basis, the fourfold structure of humanity, and that becomes the reigning principle – this Fourth Principle.

            And it is the birth of this ‘thing’ that is changing the equation of absolutely everything; and it is simply displacing Mind. I wouldn’t even say displacing. That isn’t really the correct… It is simply putting Mind in its proper position.

            Another aspect of this work is the question of putting everything where it belongs. So, again we can take the old astrology as an example, and there you have the Earth placed central in the system. And of course the Earth is not central. Yet this explains everything. Now, this has nothing to do with astronomy. We are not concerned with that. We are concerned with a blueprint, something that represents the evolution of consciousness.

            And then you have what has now been born in these times. You have the Gnostic Circle, you see, which simply puts everything in its place, where you have the Sun central and then you have all the planets from the first position, the second, and so on, going all the way around, the 9 planets. So the Sun would be the 0 and the 9 planets are there.

            Now, this is the shift to a unitary system and this is not just an abstract design, but, as you know, astrology is applicable in your life, though some may believe in it, some may not. But the point of astrology is that it is not an abstract. I mean, it does describe your own life, your destiny, your character, whatever. And it can possibly make predictions about the future, describe your past. So, through Time astrology has a relevance and a connection immediately. And the Gnostic Circle the same thing. The very same thing. The only difference is that this is a unitary system; this is not a binary structure. The fact is that it is very simple: the structure of our solar system, that’s all. Each thing in its correct place.

            So, the Earth is in its correct place, at its third position, the Earth and the Moon; you have all the planets in there. And then this diagram goes beyond that, of course. It describes this transformation that we are living today, in very accurate details, and how we are evolving to a higher poise, and the difficult points along the way, the ‘traps’, shall we say, because it contains everything – in the sense that whatever we have realised in the past is also there.

            What I would like to say, therefore, is that what is happening is simply the logical consequence of the course evolution has taken and that we must go through this, and that we are living a transition which is very difficult; because when you are in the midst of transition it is of course very hard to see where you are going, especially if you are living so-called ‘out in the world’, where you have drugs, where you have everything. It becomes very difficult. But it becomes even more important then to have something which allows you to focus on THAT REAL THING that is being born. Because everything else that is collapsing at this point is UNREAL, because it is no longer in its correct place. So, all of that will go.

            Now, what we may perhaps discuss too is the way that this will go. I mean, what is it, this change? How far is it going to go, what will be left, what will…You understand that of course this is something very important in terms of what looms before us. We have now the power that can destroy us entirely. So, this creates a completely different atmosphere in which to be discussing any sort of transformation, yoga, or whatever you wish to call it. It creates a…yes, a ‘field’, a tension that we have never faced before as a civilisation, over thousands of years.

            So, that in itself, the fact that we stand at a crossroads now, when we can either destroy ourselves completely, or survive…I mean, it is not even a question of survival. It is a question of…either we find the RIGHT WAY or we find no way at all. Because no solution on this level of mind is working. We go round and round; things seem to open up and then they close up. These things are on that level of mind. They are not the solution. And we have a lot of examples around the world today.

            Again this brings us to the point that there is really only one way to get out of this, and this is that a group of individuals, whatever, will be consolidating this ‘seed’ of a new creation, and that this will gradually unfold and before long displace the other. But displace it in the sense of ‘putting each thing in its place’. At that point what remains of what we know of life today…well, that will be decided as we go along. But obviously the things that resist this very much will probably go under.

            But the important point to know is that the process is minutely controlled. And this is what people cannot see; and that is why it is so important to have certain keys of Knowledge which allow you to see this control. Because this is the element that is most despairing: things are happening and nobody seems to have a control or a voice or an ability to stop what is happening. Especially in the States. You have that feeling: Something is there. You see it all collaborating for ‘something’. But you see there is no control…and therefore – What can I do?

            So, we go back…in the spiritual path they say, Well, you have to be concerned only with your inner development, with your own realisation and that that will have an effect. That is true. But it is not sufficient because your inner development – yes – but disconnected from what is going on around, it is not sufficient any more, that you must have a key to the work on yourself which at the same time is dealing with all of this. That is, INTEGRATING ALL LEVELS always, and that is really giving a sense to your inner work in the larger work. This again [the Gnostic Circle] helps you with that because it is dealing with every level of society, with everything that can be monitored in the Gnostic Circle.

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Where does one keep one’s sense of compassion and responsibility to society on that unitary level?

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I understand the problem, because you say… Well, if that is going to go and there is no hope for it, then why deal with it. Well, the point is, you have a work to do in the world, everybody does. Or you do not have a work; but that is also in itself… It is your destiny. You must find out what that is. But then, in doing that, the whole point is if you have to deal with these situations, you can deal with them, there is no question of losing compassion on that level, but it is immensely important to realise what the function of this terrible situation is.

            We can take the two major problems in the USA today…drugs and AIDS. These two things are there in everybody’s consciousness; and these are the elements that seem to be carrying the USA to some terrible…I mean, which nobody can control. And they grow and they grow and they grow, and there are all kinds of ideas: we will legalise drugs, we are NOT going to legalise drugs, we are going to do this. Nothing seems to work.

            Okay, but then you have to go deeply into that. WHY did these things come about? WHAT is their purpose? And then it really does not matter if it is up to you to have to deal with these situations, with these people who are suffering from these things. Yes, fine, but then you must also bear in mind what the purpose of this thing is because then you just get carried away in the hopelessness of the situation.

            Now, AIDS is a perfect example of an illness… Remember, we talked about this the last time; we were talking about the guilt involved.

            But you know, there is much more to the subject because this is really such a conscious virus. Just the fact that it mutates, that they cannot isolate it. And now this will carry us into certain examples that I want to bring up, because you have three decades carrying us to the big shift in the millennium. We could start with the ‘60s, but let’s say the ‘70s, the ‘80s and then the ‘90s…and then there is the big shift. The ‘80s happen to be under the rule of Neptune, and there is simply no illness that could have been devised which could explain better the AIDS virus. Mainly the elusiveness of it.

            So, anybody who has studied astrology knows what is said about Neptune, the elusive planet, the illusion, and you can’t put your finger on it…all of these things. And there it is.

            Now, something especially of this decade is the factor of this whirlpool that is going around: you are in it and you can’t stop it. Nobody can stop it. You know that inevitably it is just going to keep going down (apparently), that you are caught in it and nobody has any control over it. And it pops up here, there and everywhere. So, this, you could say, is the virus of the decade; like drugs emanated from the ‘70s – the ‘60s and the ‘70s; and they are also very beautifully explained in this cosmology. Because the ‘60s in the Gnostic Circle were going through this point. This is the 6 Point. It was going through Sagittarius, and this is the expansion of consciousness, the extension of the boundaries. So, you see the role then that drugs were playing in this, and carried over into the ‘70s. The role that drugs were playing was precisely that: suddenly the ‘doors of perception’ were opened forcibly, and this revolutionised many things. On a mass level. We are talking about things that are affecting on a mass level and conditioning the world that we live in.

            So, you have these things that appear, and they are negative. And they are negative for a particular reason. Also, into this we can bring the United States. Why is all this happening HERE? This madness, you know, this…I mean, it is the United States that is setting the pace, in a way, for this collapse that we see. Mainly these things started here, the whole drug thing took root here. Other parts of the world are affected, have even benefitted, in a sense, – the ones that are selling drugs – but the real problem took root here.

            Why? What role does America play in this? You will see that there is a particular mechanism functioning in all this. It is that we are always dealing with ENERGY. And we are dealing as a civilisation, as individuals, with this question of energy. And speed of consciousness, let us say, which manifests in the evolution of consciousness on Earth and the progression through history, through time…So, what it is is that in this binary structure the consciousness-being of the individual – and by this I mean also the society that we create – has what I call certain ‘appendages’. And these are like ‘encumbrances’ which hold back the speed. I give you this image because you can understand that if there is this movement going on and then you attach certain things to it in order to keep it within the boundaries that is possible to contain…Let us say physically: your bodies are all structured binarily. Which means that you can only do so much with that, you know, and that physically if you want to sustain the new energies that are coming, you have to make a major shift. And this major shift to a unitary system individually will also produce a new physical structure. And that is why also in America there is so much emphasis on the physical; because people perceive this. We simply cannot sustain any more what is happening – physically.

            But the point is that you must make a NEW ALIGNMENT. This is the problem. And then all your involvement with the physical changes its perspective entirely. Because certain things that we waste time with right now will be changed automatically when we make this shift.

            So, there is a major SHIFT that is taking place on all levels. What this means then is that evolution…Let’s look at it physically, linearly…evolution is moving on and is being held back by these encumbrances and kept within certain boundaries.

            Then you come to the ‘60s and you come to this Sagittarius Point. Everybody knows in astrology…I mean, the Centaur, the Horse, the Gallop, the Arrows we are following and following. All of these images are extremely beautiful because they describe the ‘60s, the movement, the things that happened then. And also the ‘innocent joy’ that was there, that is so characteristic of Sagittarius and which now seems GONE. You look back at the ‘60s and it was like…Well, idyllic in a way, it was so innocent what was happening then. No, now we have really gone much deeper into things….

            So, then what happened? This is a release of energy. Okay, in order to get rid of these encumbrances you have to have an excess of energy. I mean, there is a release, and this is done, we could say, forcibly or violently. In the case of drugs it is really a violence done to the consciousness because nobody was ready for that kind of perception, and to integrate it into anything. But you had all of this release of energy. Or, in the case of AIDS, it was preceded by this tremendous promiscuity. Suddenly everybody was ‘free’, and that’s it! You could indulge as much as you like, there was no more problem…

            Now, what is the encumbrance there? The encumbrance is usually the positive encumbrance; because this is the shift we are making, because when we make a shift to a unitary system, we are also stepping out of the old framework of Good and Evil. That split. That was a part of the old structure, and this held us all together for many thousands of years. When you go to a unitary system this cannot hold any longer. It is impossible to live within a world…because that represents the duality. And this is also equivalent to Spirit and Matter: everything that pertained to matter was evil, everything that was spiritual was good. Indiscriminately. But then there was also a problem, because what is good for one man is evil for another; and then the division of religion… All of that is going because what this means too is that we are stepping out and going beyond a religious consciousness. A religious consciousness functions on the basis of a moralistic ethos and the Good and Evil syndrome.

 

            Could you describe the fourth state a little more?

 

That is exactly what we are getting into. I hope to give some insights into that also. But this is also a part of the description of the fourth state, because, you see, when we get beyond that… Well, we’ll go into that, because there are difficulties also.

            Alright, so these are the encumbrances. You have ‘positive’ encumbrances in the sense that your moralistic ethos is holding things back at this point. And that is keeping you within the boundaries that are legitimate and relevant in the binary system. And your body is a part of that as well as your emotional structure, as well as your responses on any level. As well as the spirituality that came out of that world.

            So, when we are ready to make a shift we have somehow to get rid of these encumbrances. This is then a question of release of energy. This energy is then just left liberated…the AIDS, and there they were, all the homosexuals came out of the closet, and everybody…Accompanying this was this indulgence, this free indulgence. That is all you heard: the answer to life was in sex and to get rid of your guilt, and all these kinds of things.

            So, obviously nobody really knew what was going on and neither did the homosexual, in the sense that he had no idea all of his guilt was coming out too, but that this was a very important encumbrance. This was very deep-rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition – this guilt. Starting from Adam and Eve, you understand. In some way you have to break things down.

            In the beginning you have to have this release, you have to liberate energies because it is a question of utilising that. But then since it was not within the higher perspective of things, at a certain point there comes the clamp-down, and then you have to make conscious use of that.

            Now, what happened then was simply that there was no CONSCIOUS use of this new energy that was liberated, as with so many things. You can apply this to many aspects of life in present-day society. Yes, civil rights, everything, everybody wants this liberation, they want to be free, they want to have this total possibility at their disposal. But at the same time, when they get it, the instruments they are, are really not capable of using this increase that has come. And then you have a negative manifestation that comes with it. And what is it causing? It is very interesting, what it is causing: simply a greater awareness, a conscious acceptance of one’s responsibilities. And dealing with this issue I don’t think there is a better theme, or a better example than AIDS, because this is really affecting one of the most…solid aspects of the binary system, which is right at your sex centre and your atavism. This is what must eventually go in the fourth level, let’s say, when we finally integrate all these levels: our whole sexual expression must change radically, you see.

            In other words, right now, in a binary structure, the PURPOSE of evolution, the purpose of the human being is centred in the sex centre; it is reproduction in this manner. So, this is one of the fundamental issues that have to be dealt with.

            But how do you deal with it? Of course you have to gradually bring the human being to the point where he realises by a lived experience, not intellectually, or by suppression, by saying, as religions have, it’s bad, it’s evil. Or in spiritual paths that you cannot indulge. It has to be a lived experience that simply…There is a shift physically taking place, and in that shift what we consider so important and necessary is really not so important. And gradually…it is a shift in what you place central in your life. That’s all. But it will have a very fundamental effect on society. In fact, it is one of the things that is going to change everything radically.

            Now, don’t get worried! I am not dealing here with the aspects that accompany sex, you know, ‘love’…sometimes, sometimes not even – usually not! That kind of ‘bliss’ or ‘joy’, or whatever it is that you experience. There is also another possibility on the physical level of an experience of bliss or joy in the body which is NOT rooted in this, you see. At this point we could go into speculations and there is no point in that. What we must discuss right now is simply the immediacy of this shift. This shift, and by that I mean the immediacy of being CONSCIOUS of what is happening. Because it is THAT that changes everything.

            Now we move to a point in evolution where you can describe it as a conscious process, whereas before it was necessary to be ignorant. It was necessary because you couldn’t remain, you couldn’t keep… That was another encumbrance, you understand. You could not contain it within the boundaries of this physical structure if you had a certain conscious participation. The mind would be interfering because there wasn’t that higher principle, you see. And then again, you are back in the same trap.

            But at this point, when this ‘other thing’ is unfolding, the key aspect is a conscious participation. It is no longer just being drawn. So, that is why we are here today to discuss these issues because, you see, the solution cannot come by simply ‘letting it happen’. No, the ones that…I won’t say ‘survive’, because that is not the point. It is not a question of individuals, individual survival now. It is a question of a new creation, – whether we participate in it or not when it comes. But at this point, in order to consolidate that, there have to be individuals who KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING. And who know the mechanism. This is very important. And who work consciously with that. And to work consciously with that you have to have certain keys of Knowledge; and Time is a fundamental element in this construction.

 

Do you think it is necessary for the restraints to have been lifted in order for consciousness to have developed, or could we have developed consciousness and then lifted…?

 

No, you see, because it had to be this release of energy, because that is the whole point. It is like the Chaos. A beautiful cosmic image…this Chaos.

            But what does it mean? It means that everything is thrown in there, you know. And then, within that this Power manifests that starts arranging everything. And it arranges everything like that, by obliging you to become conscious, by obliging you to control your actions in this specific case that we are discussing.

 

            That’s on a mass scale. Is it the same on an individual scale?

 

Oh, absolutely. And often in your life you will see that things start happening over which you have no control. You are thrust into…I call it ‘the periphery’. You know, you are central to this periphery which is the circumstances of your life. They seem chaotic…and then suddenly a certain awareness comes and then these shifts take place. But you have to have that teeming…

            Well, it depends. It depends, of course, on the path that you are following. But that’s the whole point. There are paths that say: Forget all that, all of that is irrelevant, illusion, and it has no importance. And then therefore you cannot have this experience.

What is the place of the Asura, or Titan, in the new unitary system? It seems to me that they were a part of the binary system, good and evil. Maybe not as we have understood, but sill they were anti-Divine. How does that fit in today?

Well, this is the point. You see, again this is a question of energy. What did that represent? The Titan or the Asura in Indian tradition was the one who had the power. And that power was related to material creation. But you see, then the Deva, the God, kept going farther and farther away from that; the binary polarity became complete. Where then you have the total split and you have the West representing that, the materialistic society IMPOSING its way on the rest of the world because that has been so cut off from the so-called ‘light’. I am saying ‘so-called’ because this is where all the shifts are taking place, you understand, and these terms that we have been using for thousands of years…the light and the dark. Again, this is all coming out of the binary structure.

            So, what is the problem? It is not a question of eliminating that so-called dark…It is that that DISTINCTION of dark and light disappears when this becomes an INTEGRATED system. When you are no longer cutting off half of your being.

 

So that means that the individual somehow integrates some of the titanic qualities, and therefore the actual Asura is transformed?

                                    

Well, the necessity for that kind of polarity disappears. I mean, we are talking precisely about an integral realisation.

 

            And that is where we are now… Beginning.

 

We are in transition to that. And all of these aspects, what we are seeing, these COLLAPSES in society, are precisely the impossibility of dealing with that power. One being the sexual expression, you see. Because…I don’t like to call it a ‘lower’ manifestation, but in a sense it is when it is the be-all-and-end-all, when it is the pivot of the race. I mean, the human race PHYSICALLY. And then of course this conditions your whole psychology. That is the centre of your existence in so many ways.

            Now all of that IS being broken down. You can see it in so many ways. It is extremely interesting what is happening now. This is forcing first of all an acceptance of your responsibilities, where really you cannot simply increase the energy out-put. You have to transform the instrument to be able to utilise that, you see. So, these are now the restraints that are coming and that are obliging now a conscious acceptance, a conscious working with these new energies.

            You know, that is the problem in a lot of therapies. Just release everything, let it all go. Or, you know, you open up your ‘full potential’, and all of that. Again it is a question of energy, but unless you really are able to deal with it properly, unless you are realigning your consciousness, you will invariably fall back to this; those will become the reasons for a greater collapse.

            Now, this is what appears to be happening with something like AIDS. We say, Well, this is going to destroy the whole human race. I don’t think that is possible anymore. I would say, to be more specific, as of 1984 I don’t think anything like that is possible. I think that what is happening is far too controlled, that this element is far too solid, that there will never be a total collapse and that rather things will be more and more controlled.

            I will give you an example. In the last two years several things have happened to give you an example of a control within the context of this cosmology. You know, the number 9 plays a specific role in this cosmology and there are particular days in the month which have this ‘9 power’. It is interesting, for example, that the ‘mini-crash’ in the stock market on October 19 was a ‘9’ day. There was another: Chernobyl, another 9 day. And Bhopal, another 9 day. [Also the recent earthquake in Armenia.] So, you look back at these three and you see the impact they had on the world. Bhopal…obviously opened people’s eyes to what could happen and what WAS happening with this kind of production of chemicals in this way, and everything that went with it. Then you see the same…Chernobyl was probably the beginning of the big change in the Soviet Union. And then, of course, the Crash. You see? Now, these were all on 9-power days. When you are in this work you soon begin to recognise…because you see that things that are happening in harmony with time and utilised by the Shakti will take place on those days. And when you see that they take place then, you know that they must follow a complete cycle. From the 0/9 (points to the Gnostic Circle) they must go on and that they must be a part of a total process.

 

            But that’s on a spiral, a spiral as well as a circle.

 

Yes, of course. But this precisely describes the difference. It is very easy to say, a spiral. Yes it is a spiral. However, when you are dealing with a universe or a system, let’s say based on destruction, on things being TORN DOWN – which is really what we are headed for if we rely totally on the mental principle – then it is total destruction because it is waste to the extent that it cannot be utilised in the future. Whereas, the spiral implies that you grow from that… Definitely we are doing that, we ARE spiralling in our growth. But to all practical purposes, when you are monitoring your passage through this wheel, the whole point is to be BUILDING UP, touching the four levels as you go on in your life, always building up. But there are cases in which, no, you fall back.

            What happens is really this collapse of energy. The way I describe it is that this [points to the final third segment of the Gnostic Circle, beyond the sign Scorpio] is a void. It becomes a void from this point. And as you progress, you want to reach this point of integration and unity [points to the final three signs of the Circle] and you cannot. So, what I call ‘whole time’ is usually not realised by the human being. And what happens is that beyond that he cannot have a conscious experience anymore. This then becomes ‘heaven’. This becomes something that you experience only in trance.

            Now, the very interesting thing is that this is the 8^th sign, Scorpio. And this is the sign of Death, as everybody in astrology knows. And it falls at this level – the 8^th. Then you come to the 6 Point [at the end of Scorpio in the Gnostic Circle] and Saturn, and you come to the expansion.

            From this [6^th] Point on this whole third segment is the question that we are unveiling today. The possibility of living this WHOLE WHEEL consciously. So, what it means then is that if you are conscious in this particular way, those energies are not collapsing. In other words, you are able to LIVE THIS PASSAGE. Because you are going through time anyway….

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