In memory of

SUNDARI,

the Beautiful One

 

 

 

‘It was as cool and quiet in the patio of don Juan’s house as in the cloister of a convent. There were a large number of fruit trees planted extremely close together, which seemed to regulate the temperature and absorb all noises. When I first came to his house, I made critical remarks about the illogical way the fruit trees had been planted. I would have given them more space. His answer was that those trees were not his property, they were free and independent warrior trees that had joined his party of warriors, and that my comments – which applied to regular trees – were not relevant.

‘His reply sounded metaphorical to me. What I didn’t know then was that don Juan meant everything he said literally.

 ‘Don Juan and I were sitting in cane armchairs facing the fruit trees now. The trees were all bearing fruit. I commented that it was not only a beautiful sight but an extremely intriguing one, for it was not the fruit season.

‘“There is an interesting story about it,” he admitted. “As you know, these trees are warriors of my party. They are bearing now because all the members of my party have been talking and expressing feelings about our definitive journey, here in front of them. And the trees know now that when we embark on our definitive journey they will accompany us.”

‘I looked at him, astonished.

‘“I can’t leave them behind,” he explained. “They are warriors too. They have thrown their lot in with the nagual’s party. And they know how I feel about them.”’

 

                                                            Carlos Castaneda

                                                            The Power of Silence

                                                            Simon & Schuster, 1987

 

 

 

 

Part 1 of this series appeared in the last VISHAAL, dated October 1988. In keeping with the non-speculative nature of this work and its applied cosmological framework, the Cow and the Horse, which were the symbols discussed in that article, have participated once again in the Yoga by lending their energies to that article at the very time of its appearance.

       Thus, on October 1^st there were two unexpected, unplanned births at Skambha: one was a female calf, born of our ‘Kamadhenu’, and the other was a filly foal. These two creatures were, as stated, entirely unexpected – in itself a rather unusual occurrence in our work, since the conceptions and births of these animals are always monitored carefully. But in this case, the mothers of the two new arrivals had become pregnant unbeknown to us. The cow, Deepa, escaped to a nearby estate and seems to have been covered by a bull there in late December 1987, while the Thoroughbred mare, given to me in January 1988, was found to have been in foal, unbeknown to the stud farm and all concerned. After a few months of her arrival her condition became evident; however, we could not know even the approximate date of foaling.

Therefore, by this uncommon combination there were two expectant mothers in our midst, and both were major ‘time-symbols’ in the work, as I shall explain further on. But the point I wish to make is that though the October 1^st calving and foaling were in no way planned affairs, they were indeed planned or ‘timed’ by another power: Mother Nature who has now lent her energies to the work by collaborating in the remarkable manner which I am describing in this series, – that is, through the power of Time.

Therefore, true to the participatory quality of these ‘symbols’ and as a sort of paean to the article I had written in their honour, as a form of confirmation of their precise roles in the Yoga of the Chamber, exactly on the day the first article appeared discussing these creatures and their relation to Consciousness-Force, first the calf was born, and later in the day, as if taking the cue from her mate on the other end of the Consciousness/Force pole, the mare delivered an exceptionally healthy filly. Together these two creatures in this felicitous manner played out the age-old axis of Cow/Horse or Consciousness-Force.

If this had been the only synchronisation of this order, to dwell on the happening would be unjustified. However, this was just one such incident in a long, long series of remarkable synchronisations between Cow and Horse in our Yoga, and other symbol-creatures as well. I shall discuss them all in the course of this series.

Time is the executive Power of the Supreme. Time is the key element in the new cosmology that provides the gnostic background for the Yoga. October 1^st was therefore not a meaningless ingredient in these unexpected happenings. Indeed, as I have pointed out in the previous article, the timing of conceptions, births and deaths of these cows and horses who have been these equal participants in our work, have served as a means to form a certain web of energy, a network of a new evolutionary blueprint.

Thus, apart from producing their offspring in this wonderful synchronisation to coincide with the appearance of my article, of which they were the central theme – October 1^st  is 9 months after January 1^st. This is an important point to bear in mind because this particular 9-month combination will surface again in the course of this detailed discussion of animals in the new creation. The first five days of the year – 1 January to 5 January – are perhaps the most important of all the 365 in our work, as the time of ‘seeding’. This then extends into the space of the year for 9 months, until the Seed is crystallised or rooted by the first days of October, 1^st to 5^th.

Death, nonetheless, continues to play its part in this Yoga, though the pattern has been altered significantly since the beginning of this special work with animals. Indeed, 9 days after the unexpected births mentioned above, on 10 October a precious mare, Sundari, had to be put down. To avoid trampling a dog in her gallop, she fell and broke a limb on 5 October. That is, at the exact 4.5 point of that special 9-day period, 1^st to 10^th October. By a ‘conspiracy of circumstances’ she could not be put down immediately, which was the only humane course in such a situation. The very earliest time was October 10^th. In this way, by a strange combination of events, her departure was connected to the 9-day cycle of the birth of the filly. But apart from 10 October being exactly 9 days after the unexpected arrival of the foal, it happened to be the very day the mare herself came to join the work four years earlier. The date of Sundari’s exit was therefore her fourth anniversary in the work, and amidst such unusual timings that one is tempted to see in her passing a sort of transference into the newborn filly, whose unexpected arrival therefore seemed to be a sort of compensation. In fact, this birth/death drama took place in the same stable which the two mares shared. These events transpiring in the exact harmony of gnostic time lends support to the hypothesis that this is a form of transference.

Be this as it may, even if we discard this hypothesis, we are still left with the wondrous phenomenon of the collaboration of Mother Nature in this Yoga in a manner which eliminates any speculation. And, like the events described above, I shall provide many other details of similar synchronisations regarding Cow and Horse in the Yoga of the Chamber, which will confirm the way these creatures have contributed their energies to the ‘construction’ of the Mother’s Chamber in one of its most important elements: the Ray falling upon the luminous Globe. This Ray, it must be pointed out, is the space measure (15.20m) which corresponds to the year of 365 days. Thus, in keeping with the ancient Vedic symbology, Cow and Horse have been faithful in our work to the essence they have embodied for seers throughout the ages and its connection with the measure of the year, – the divine Maya.

 

The ‘New Beginning’ of 1980

 

To provide a fuller understanding of this unusual Yoga of the Chamber, I must go back in time to the beginning of this cycle, 1980, when the process began. The Knowledge that was secured during the last cycle – 1971 to 1980 – served as the foundation for what was to transpire in the new one. These periods of 9 years, or enneads, especially those beginning with 1971, have added significant pieces to the establishment of the nucleus of a new supramental creation: each cycle has contributed a specific part, the characteristics of which have been determined by the nature of the influences operating in those cycles; for example, the number/planetary combine (see ‘The New Dawn of 1989’ in this issue for further details).

  However, in this discussion concerning animal participation, it is not necessary to enter into the minute description of those influences. Rather, I would simply like to reveal the role time has played in a most startling fashion, perhaps never before experienced and recorded in this manner; and thereby to show how these creatures have served as clear channels for the Supramental Shakti to ‘construct’ the Mother’s Chamber. The Mother’s original vision of her chamber has remained healthy and alive, even though on the denser plane distortions in that impeccable Vision were introduced and carried out in the building in Auroville. That altered product has produced its predicted results in the definitive take-over of the project by the Government of India in early September, 1988. [See, TVN, 3/2, June 1988.] Nonetheless, the true Vision has survived and it too has produced certain predictable results, the outcome of this unusual ‘construction’ process, or the Yoga of the Chamber, as it has come to be known.

True to the real requirements for establishing the new creation on Earth, this ‘construction’ was simply the lived experience of the Yoga, or the application of the cosmology which the Mother’s original plan held hidden in its sacred measurements and design.

The ennead beginning in 1980 was the time for that lived experience of an applied cosmology to begin. Insofar as it was the Chamber that held the key of knowledge to this process, the Yoga centred on this ‘structure’. Piece by piece was added through the practice of the Yoga until, by 1986, the most important part of the ‘construction’ was in place. This was the central shaft of the Ray of Light and the receiving Globe and upholding Pedestal. Supporting this is the Mother’s 12-petalled symbol Base. 1985 was the year in which that 12-part Base was to be incorporated; and it was precisely in 1985 that Skambha was found in its initial size of approximately 12 acres – the base of the Work, the support of the ‘centre’, the symbol of which in the Chamber is the Globe.

As can be appreciated, though the question is one of a yogic process, there is nonetheless a physical counterpart – in this case the Base upholding the realised Centre, which did indeed ‘materialise’ at the very time specified by the just harmony of the new supramental Yoga of the Chamber.

1980 was a year of 0 number-power: the Sun is its corresponding body in the System. The breakdown of that year’s numbers shows us the correspondence, unique in this decade. The total sum of the digits may indeed equal 9 (1+9+8+0=9), however, the 0 of the date (198/0), occurring at the very start of the ennead and decade, is what draws into play the influence of the Sun rather than the 9^th planet, Pluto. 0 and 9 are equal in this cosmology, as can be appreciated when one eliminates them both from an addition and the final sum remains the same. But in this case, the unique 1980 cycle bears the characteristic of a special synchronisation, a harmony between number, calendar year and planetary orbit which indicates that in each particular year we live the harmony of our solar system in its purest form, starting with the synchronisation of the first year of the cycle, 198/0, when Pluto, the 9^th and last planet in the System is the corresponding influence. Sun and Pluto, or 0 and 9, are like the Serpent biting its own Tail in the ancient alchemical symbol.

Consequently, given this unique harmony and unmixed, pure quality, the ennead of the 80s has been the prearranged period for this unusual ‘construction’ process, each year of which brought the inclusion of one of the number/planet constituents, each of which in turn corresponded to a part of the Mother’s Chamber – an architectural design of which she has said, ‘Everything is symbolic’.

 

I have stated in the first part of this series that this discussion would be an ‘esoteric’ one. I am fully aware of the fact that no place in occult tradition and the extant texts on spirituality, yoga, philosophy, sacred geometry and sacred architecture is there anything to be found which the student can use as a guide for comprehending what is written here. It needs to be emphasised again, as I have done on numerous occasions, that there is no previous model for this work. We are indeed in the process of building a new world. And ‘new’ must be stressed over and over again, since being new we must accept that there are no models to help us, to use as definitive authorities, confirmations, points of reference from the past. However, the very word ‘new’ holds the key to the only true ‘authority’ and reference point in this Yoga, when we understand that the root of the word is nine. In the Indo-European languages the root of new and nine is the same. And this indeed has been the master key of the new supramental Yoga.

Why, we may ask? Simply because the 9 is the measure of our solar system in this new Age of the Supermind; 9 is the number connected to the human gestation process and hence to form; 9 are the numbers of pulsations of the Sun in our day of 24 hours; 9 is the last numeral in our number system, which ought to be designated novemal rather than decimal. Consequently, this novemal system permits us to join the orbits of the planets to the years, months and days of the calendar. Finally and most importantly, our unique number system, which India bequeathed to the world, permits the reality we live to be measured in a scale that starts with 0 (Spirit) and ends with 9 (Matter); and that because of the singular properties of this system, through numbers we can demonstrate that the 0 and the 9 are equal. The 9 is simply the extension of the 0 in material creation. Spirit given Form. The 9 is that creation, that creative power. The 9 is the Supreme Shakti, the quintessence of all that moves. In a process that must bear upon the physical dimension, altering its ancient and rigid patterns, the collaboration of material Nature is essential. That collaboration is given through Time and the number 9 is Time’s master key.

Applying this to our subject, when we are faced with a timing such as the one involving the unexpected births (and death) of the animals participating in the process as symbol-powers, and that these events should accompany the appearance of the first presentation to the public of this material, it does not require any superior powers of perception to appreciate that those events are central to our work and that they fall, once again, within the ambit of the control of the Supramental Shakti for the establishment of the new creation. The 9, as shown, has once again been the key element. Along with this, the timing of the injury pointed to the Gnostic Circle correspondence since it occurred at the exact 4.5 ‘orbit’ of that particular 9-day cycle. But let us now integrate this latest experience into the larger process, by, as I have mentioned, regressing in time to the beginning of this ennead and that solar year, 1980.

 

‘When to those who chant thee, the luminous Wise Ones set free thy gift, O Fire [Agni], the wealth in whose front the Ray-Cow walks and its form is the Horse, thou leadest us on and leadest them to a world of greater riches. Strong with the strength of the heroes, may we voice the Vast in the coming of knowledge.’

                                                                                    Rig Veda, 84.16

 

 

Drawing Together the Nuclear Energies

 

1980 marked the exodus to Kodaikanal from Pondicherry; it meant a ‘gathering together’ of certain representative human energies required for the Yoga of the Chamber which was to span the entire ennead beginning in 1980. It must be pointed out, however, that the Yoga of the Chamber was unknown at the time of this exodus; it was the object of the path that needed to be hewn. By consequence, the roles the Cow and Horse were to play had not surfaced at all in the work prior to this period, in terms of the lived experience. It began in the next year, 1981.

   On 30^th July 1981, the first cow was given to us. She was a sort of Kamadhenu – the primordial Cow, mother of the entire bovine race, according to the Veda – but of a singularly different order. The special role she was to play in the Yoga manifested in a harmony of time in conjunction with the zodiac, beginning with the very day she entered our midst. But in 1981 still nothing of this could be appreciated. Six months exactly, to the day, had to transpire for the first clear glimpses of the equivalency to become understood. Thus, on 30^th January 1982, a horse was given to us – a thoroughly unexpected addition to the group work. Since there was no intentional human control over these unplanned and spontaneous selection of dates, it was evident from the beginning that the meaning they held was in the ‘control’ of the Supramental Shakti and that therefore we had to be attentive to the role these animals were meant to play, if any at all. And having already had a decade of experience with the workings of this ‘controlling Agent’, the exact six-months’ synchronisation of the arrival of Cow and Horse made me immediately understand that they were part of a process and that Time itself would unfold the rest. Indeed, this was the case.

At this point it is legitimate to ask what is so special in the synchronicity of their arrivals. It is not just the exact six months between the two. Rather, it is the position of these dates – 30 July and 30 January – in the zodiacal wheel, or the divine Measure of the Year; in particular the last date. January 30 stands opposite in the year-wheel to 30 July, and it corresponds to the 9^th degree of the sign Aquarius. This 9^th degree Aquarius, apart from being termed a ‘critical degree’ of the zodiac, together with the July/Leo date forms the axis Consciousness-Force in the new cosmology. The student may refer to my books published in the 1970s to review what I had written then about Aquarius and Leo in this context.

Thus, the Supramental Shakti had arranged events to produce this synchronisation and thereby to provide us with the living symbols of the ancient Veda, Cow and Horse, or Consciousness-Force, on the very days in the year which fall in the signs corresponding to this axis. In this manner, three of the most significant elements of the Rig Veda came into interconnected prominence; the Cow, the Horse, and the Year. There was no doubt then that this harmony was not simply a ‘coincidence’ but that it bore some deeper meaning and would no doubt form a part of the collective yoga which had entered a new phase in 1980, a ‘new beginning’.

By 1982, I was fully aware of the fact that the Yoga Shakti was guiding the individual and group work in a manner which carried it into a total harmony with the power of the planets predominant in each year of the ennead. I was aware that 1980 brought a sort of drawing together of the basic representative energies required for a nuclear work. That is, a work in which a ‘new cosmos’ would be formed. This meant the amassing of solar energies which would form the central organ of this cosmos. By early October 1980, all the required energies had been brought together under one roof, as it were; or, more precisely, under the umbrella formed by the boundaries of this new and emerging cosmos. The dimensions or boundaries of this cosmos are defined by the number-powers of the cycle and the corresponding enneateric solar system. Each year in that cycle, therefore, had to bring forth the lived experience of the Yoga which would be the method for the creation of that new Cosmos: each year the number/planet had to be incorporated so that the new cosmos would be a perfect replica on Earth of the solar system. This could only be accomplished through the allegiance of Time.

Thus the 0 year of the Sun – 1980 – saw the victorious gathering together of the human energies required for this process, completed exactly in accord with the power of gnostic Time. That is, the first stage of this process, which began in the first five days of January of 1980, was completed nine months later, in the first days of October, 1980.

This is not the place to discuss what went into that ‘gathering together’. Suffice to say that it was an immensely difficult, strenuous yogic effort, to say the least. My purpose in referring to that part of the process is simply to provide a necessary background for revealing what the role of the animal creation has been in the Yoga. The focus of this present series is exclusively on that animal participation and by consequence the ‘collaboration’ of material Nature in the work, in an especially more marked and ‘measurable’ degree as of 1971. The Mother, it must be recalled had foreseen as early as 1957 that this ‘collaboration’ would be given.

The collaboration of material Nature which the Mother promised was concrete. It bore measurable qualities. Thus, the initial axis of 30 January-30 July, or Aquarius and Leo, or Consciousness-Force, was the main key by which it was perceived that Cow and Horse were the symbols in our Yoga as well as the things symbolised. Before long the pattern was clear: the cows’ date of conceptions would be directly related to the date of arrivals of the horses. And all this was played out on the backdrop of the Gnostic Circle which provided the keys of knowledge to decipher the meaning. This synchronisation began with the first heat of our ‘Kamadhenu’, who, as stated, had arrived with her newly-born calf, Nandini, on 30 July 1981. This mother of a unique line (which produced an unbroken string of nine females), came in season again on 25 October, approximately three months after calving, well within the normal period for cows. It so happened that 25 October in 1981, apart from being a day of 9 number-power, was also Deepavali, the Festival of Light, according to the Hindu lunar calendar. This particular 9-power day was therefore to be the first insemination/conception experience in our work with animals.

Since the date of conception was this very auspicious Festival of Light – Deepavali – and in the Veda the Cow is indeed synonymous with the Light, or the ray of Light, I named the female calf born of that conception nine months later, Deepa, or Light in Sanskrit. But in 1981, at the time of this auspicious conception, I was unaware of the true role that date would thereafter play in the work. This became evident exactly one year later when, on 24 October 1982, a second horse arrived who was the materialised energy of that pure consciousness-light, the light organised into material form in our universe of 9, and embodying, as he did, that Energy in a very special way (‘…the wealth in whose front the Ray-Cow walks and its form is the Horse…’).

The shift in the timing by one day, from 25 October 1981 to 24 October 1982, was due to the power of the 9. By the mathematics of unity, 25.10.1981 equals 9. One year later to attain that same number-power, the date has to be diminished by one; thus, 24.10.1982 was a day of the same 9 power, exactly a year later. It was important that 9 should be the number-power of this combined contribution, since the affair bore the characteristics of a new and introductory process.

Again the date of arrival of this grey Thoroughbred gelding was not exactly a planned affair; however, with the arrival of this ‘white Horse’, supreme symbol of Agni and the victorious Energy in material creation, it was becoming clear that we were all a part of a very unusual process. But its lines were still not clear enough to know with precision what was transpiring – the precision demanded in a gnostic creation – and in what way this correspondence bore a relation to the Yoga at that time and what its purpose was. One thing was certain, however; these timings were so unusual and inexplicable according to common standards that it was evident we were instruments of ‘a new way’ of witnessing the collaboration of Material Nature in the work, in the world. That it was a question of her collaboration could not be doubted, given the fact that the entire play of synchronicity hinged exclusively on her mysterious power to arrange events over which no one can claim any control, – namely, the time when a cow goes in season, and the timings of the countless other elements which served to get the horse to us when he came, so as to fulfil this unique synchronicity with the cow’s day of conception a year earlier. It can be appreciated that a ‘collaboration’ of this order is not to be found recorded in any veterinary text, of this at least we are certain. Nor is it to be found among the sacred texts amassed throughout the ages. The only correspondence I have found is in the hymns of the Rig Veda, not with regard to the synchronicities we are analysing, as such, but in what concerns the essence of those sacred symbols with respect to the divine Maya, or the sacred Measure of the Year and the manner in which this collaboration of Material Nature was serving to give me the direct experience of the symbol being the very thing symbolised, therefore confirming the Vedic meaning by direct knowledge. This first conception/materialisation in exact harmony with the passage of the year, was just the beginning, however. Thereafter, that date, 24-25 October, surfaced in an even more spectacular manner when the white Horse helped to release the ‘energy in the cave’ of the Veda, two years later on this very day, in exact concordance with the role of the white Horse (Agni) in the Rig Veda.

 

‘The Gods kindle, most strong to slay the Python adversary, the supreme Fire (Agni), the Horse of swiftness by whom the Riches are brought and pierced the demon-keepers.’

Rig Veda, 284.48

 

Expressing the Inner Truth

 

The nature of the animal itself was a key to understanding something of the new creation in contrast to the old. Above all, the question of the inner truth of each thing, and, by consequence, the act of putting each thing in its place. As stated, this action was unveiled in the work through these animals in their conceptions and births, but equally by their deaths. And these happenings served to mark off turning points in the process, as I shall now describe. In order to make this clear, I shall have to discuss something of the nature of the animals in question who played these rather special roles.

For example, the first horse who came on 30^th January, served to display what was wrong with the present human creation. He was an entire, a stallion, but his spirit had been thoroughly undermined – pulverised, I would say – until very little of the true spirit of the Horse remained. He had obviously been whipped into submission in his early years. By the time he was handed over to me be was meek to the point of dullness. Ironically, he displayed more of the common attributes of the cow; docility, for one. Whereas, the original ‘Kamadhenu’ who appeared in our midst on 30^th July the year earlier, behaved more like a stallion. She was somewhat fierce, to say the least, and pondering over this I wondered if it might not have something to do with the fact that in the synchronisation she had come in the period of the Horse (Leo, or Force); while the horse had come in the period of the Cow on the wheel (Aquarius, or Consciousness). Their temperaments seemed to have been mutually reversed.

Be this as it may, this horse, who I named Jaya, or Victory, played as significant a role as the cow in our work – but a rather tragic one. It was in his death that his true participation surfaced in an unmistakable manner. The horse being the far more material symbol, provided more physically dramatic correspondences from the very beginning.

On 3 September 1982, while Jaya was grazing in a nearby field beyond the land we occupied, he was attacked by a swarm of hornets, stung mercilessly until finally he succumbed. But in witnessing this tragic event, I also witnessed a very unusual happening. The moment of death of this animal was the time when he was able to fulfil his dharma, his inner truth, and thus to realise the real spirit of the Horse.

There is no doubt that the inner truth or purpose of the Horse in creation is linked to the question of speed. The energy materialised that the Horse symbolises hinges entirely on this factor: it is consciousness in movement which is the essence of our material universe, and the Horse is the supreme symbol of this fantastic swiftness, this acceleration of consciousness by which means Form comes into being. Therefore, at the heart of the Horse’s dharma lies this question of speed, of forward thrust and impulsion, and of movement. To bring out this creature’s true spirit it is necessary therefore to see to it that in its early years no training is imparted which serves to squelch this go-forward thrust, upon which hinges the horse’s ability to fulfil his inherent truth of speed as the power to materialise Energy and shape it into forms.

Both Cow and Horse are combined symbols of this process, of the manifestation of the Absolute in material creation. In this the Horse lends the attribute of movement; and on this basis the ‘light’ of the Cow is utilised in the forming process. Hence, both are the supreme symbols of the Divine Maya, or the divine Measure – the formative power of the Absolute.

However, Jaya had had this spirit completely battered. He was lazy and loathed to be taken out, and by consequence he had nothing of the sure-footedness of the truly great horse, since he resented riding and carrying a mount; he was indrawn and appeared completely cut off from his environment, disinterested in the extreme. In contrast to the Centaur of The Magical Carousel, who epitomises that exuberant energy at its jovial Jupiterean frolicking best, Jaya was utterly bored. Indeed, in an apt parallel with the Sagittarian Centaur, Jaya had had his ‘arrows confiscated’, the element in the symbolism of this modern myth which draws one into the future by the irresistible drive of the engaged vital energy in pursuit of the attainment of the goal. Jaya was thus ‘purposeless’, and this condition manifested in his indifference to life.

There was another important indication of his stifled nature: he had no sense of his boundaries. Since there was no proper fencing in the 8-acre property I rented – and I ought to point out that the work done there was of the nature of the 8 in transition to the 9 – Jaya had to be tied while grazing; he could never be left free. It was this situation that pinned him down and left him vulnerable to the attack of the hornets, though even in flight it is unlikely that he would have escaped their hundreds of stings and his ultimate fate. No, it was clear that Jaya had to die the way he did, and that it was perfectly in keeping with his representation of the human race and the mental creation: the poison he took in was like the energy that ultimately ‘poisons’ the human being because it turns back upon itself, having no ‘extended boundaries’ within which to effect this release and avoid the auto-intoxication leading to inevitable decay and death.

But when he died Jaya fulfilled his dharma, certainly the only time in his sojourn on this planet. Thus, as I was observing him as he lay on the ground in his last moments of agony, suddenly his limp body took on a different appearance, as if a new spirit had entered him. But in actual fact, it was a release of spirit in him that was responsible for the free and ecstatic ‘flight’ of that horse in his final moments into the beyond. Thus, he ‘moved out’ of his physical sheath on the wings of this extraordinary free gallop. As he lay on the ground unconscious, his legs moved in this graceful, liberated gait, and one could ‘see’ him canter and then gallop out and away, into the wind and the clouds and the heavens in a free-flowing movement such as he had never known while living.

Having experienced the nature of this animal for the seven months he was with us prior to his death, I was painfully aware that in some unusual way his departure was a ‘symbol’ and it was a connected part of the process of our collective yoga, tragic as it was. It was then that I began to realise for the first time that certain energies were brought into the Yoga as sacrifices, and that these sacrifices were indispensable if the work was to be done. Clearly we were dealing with what over the ages has become perverted, as so many things have been perverted that do bear an essential truth. This was the question of animal sacrifice, but in this case the act was entirely in the hands of a higher power and the human being could not interfere in any way. To do so would constitute an aberration and defeat its very purpose. The human being could only be a witness, and the success of the ‘sacrifice’ lay primarily in the degree of conscious awareness which was the sole contribution permitted to the human participant.

I understood Jaya to be a representation of a major flaw in the human being and the reason why a superior race requires a very different ‘upbringing’ – and much more. It requires a completely different poise of the consciousness which results in an expression of the true spirit or truth of the inner being in creation, in our society, as the Divine has intended. However, together with this understanding, it has to be accepted that, as things now stand, there is no other ‘truth’ which the human being can express but this fatality. Being an incomplete manifestation, Death is indeed the sovereign of the human race. Only in death can there be any real ‘salvation’ and liberation. To ‘extend the boundaries’ of the human being means that ‘all is made new’. At that point there can be an expression of the inner truth. Until that time the human being can never know his or her truth. To pretend to do so in the strict terms of the experience, within the constricting pace of our mental instrument, is to reveal a lack of understanding of the nature of the manifestation and the goal of the evolutionary process on Earth. For the present, the important element to focus on is the creation of a ‘nucleus’ and a seed-creation which will bring in its trail the hitherto unexplored realms beyond Mind, the domain of the new supramental creation.

 

Jaya represented the old creation faithfully in our work, the mental being who is not conscious of his boundaries and lives in the illusion that ‘if only the fetter that binds me would be removed then I would be free!’ That is, the mental creation lives in the illusion that freedom is attainable outside oneself, or that the obstacles are an outer imposition. Consequently, one is not aware of one’s natural boundaries of consciousness-being, of the real limits in one’s condition; and therefore the human being has no understanding of the method to enlarge those limits, to extend those boundaries from within. Jaya never accepted his boundaries and this failure provided the ultimate circumstances of his death. Indeed, by this limitation of his consciousness, he set in motion that ‘conspiracy of circumstances’ which is the hallmark of any death experience.

However, the root of this condition lies in the pulverisation of Jaya’s spirit. He never realised his inner truth and thus all the circumstances of his life did indeed conspire to oblige him to have that experience only in death, not in life; for indeed the mental human being is always a ‘victim of circumstances’, of an external imposition over which he can never gain an upper hand because he has not learned the method of unveiling within himself the true centre which alone can exert a control over external circumstances. The true centre alone can create order out of chaos. And the life of the mental human being and his society is, lamentably, in a state of plain and simple chaos.

As Jaya moved out of his dead body, for the first and only time one saw his limbs move in the ecstasy of the gallop, of the swift movement of Dadhikravan, the majestic Vedic Horse. In this flight into the beyond his energy was redeemed.

The Horse is connected to the 4^th Power of the Solar Line and by consequence to the Fourth Principle, the Son. Jaya’s symbol death and sacrifice revealed the truth in the story of the crucified Son who resurrects after death and whose ‘glory’ comes through a crucified body. Again, this is an apt description of the mental human creation. Interestingly, it was in 1957, the very year that the Mother was to have her experiences with material Nature and the promise of that special collaboration, that the Mother gave this message for the New Year: ‘…It is not a crucified but a glorified body that will save the world.’

The events surrounding this horse-symbol in the early stages of the Yoga of the Chamber proved that the boundaries of the mental creation have to be extended, but that this can only come about by a new alignment of the conscious-being which arises out of an acceptance of these limits, implied in which is a thorough knowledge of the boundaries to be exceeded. Thus it is a conscious experience that is the first prerequisite. The new creation cannot come into being on the old foundation of Ignorance. It is the Ignorance, as the foundation of the old creation, which accounts for the illusion that have been the propelling agents of our world; the illusion of a boundaryless world, the illusion of freedom and freewill, and so forth. Thus to know the exact nature of creation is the first step in this new way to a future condition.

 

‘Not to be accepted even though blissful is the son of another womb, not to be thought of even by the mind, for he brings with him no delight, soon even he returns to his home, let rather the new Horse come to us, the all-conquering.’

Rig Veda, 298, 8

 

The Inner Freedom

 

Our experiences with this sort of symbol-representation were just the beginning. Up to that point what was clear was only that a control existed in the process to harmonise the experiences with the Vedic divine Measure of the Year (and by consequence with the zodiac); and that through the death of the horse the ‘truth’ of the old creation was displayed. Within a very short time of this unfortunate event, the ‘white Horse’ joined the work.

The timing of the arrival of this creature was, as stated, beyond our control. But occurring when it did, I realised that the interconnectedness of Cow and Horse in the process was an indisputable fact. I named the new horse Swati, since the root of the Sanskrit word is ‘white’. It is also a month in the Hindu calendar; and, as it turned out, that was the very month of Swati’s arrival. The legend is that when a drop of rain falling during this particular month enters an oyster, a pearl is formed. Thus, one of the Sanskrit names for the Milky Way is Swati Panth, or ‘Pearly Way’.

Of this creature one can only say that he was true to his cosmic representation from the first day he entered our midst, until the day he left, 24 July 1984, – or exactly 21 months later, a combination of 9 + 12. Nine are the time/planetary powers of the Gnostic Circle, and 12 are its zodiacal spaces. In his nature and his being Swati was this combined essence, his timings were impeccably harmonised with the Gnostic Circle and helped to reveal its deeper significance. As this is the blueprint of the gnostic being, Swati’s connection with this diagram revealed what Jaya could never express: the inner truth of each thing in its place.

 

To begin with, Swati, in contrast to Jaya, knew and accepted his boundaries from the very start. Not once was it necessary to tie him up while grazing in the open 8 acres. Interestingly, this act of instinctively keeping within these unmarked boundaries in no way created a sense of limitation or restriction. It was as if Swati never needed to roam beyond those limits because from within that impulse never arose. Thus there was no conflict in him over this fact. And this condition of his being created its own circumstances: he was never tied and therefore was never obliged to experience any outer constraints. But, I repeat, this was entirely determined by his inner condition. We simply followed the cues the gelding himself gave. When it was seen immediately upon arrival that he had no desire to roam beyond a certain point, he was left ‘free’.

As I wrote in the first part of this series, in working with these animals it was indispensable to remain extremely quiet, receptive and responsive, with all one’s perceptive faculties awake and eager to learn from them what the Divine Mother was intending in this special experience of collaboration. In this instance it would have been logical to assume that Swati was unfit to experience any freedom to roam around as he liked, insofar as he was a retired racehorse and had been stabled for the better part of his life. But from the first he gave me to understand that he needed no fetters of any sort. The spirit of this horse had clearly never been broken; his inner truth was alive and well. Therefore he bore no resentments, he participated in everything that transpired around him, he was ‘into people’ in the extreme. Whenever two or more people would gather for a conversation in the gardens, to which he had access, he would join the group, placing himself in the circle as a part of the exchange, as if he was aware of everything that was being discussed. Indeed, there were numerous instances which made me realise beyond any doubt that Swati ‘understood’, in ways which the human being does not, – a form of precognition based on his unusual teleaudience, and the ability to transmit what he was perceiving in rather uncanny ways. His only naughtiness was his love of flowers, especially white daisies, which he would devour whenever no one was around and he could make his way into the flower garden unseen.

Another prominent aspect of his nature was his go-forward thrust, his impulsion, his willingness at all times to press forward; and accompanying this was his delight in movement, his natural affinity with speed, in the true tradition of the racehorse. It was soon clear that this aspect of the inner truth (of the Vedic Dadhikravan) would best be expressed by the Thoroughbred, having been bred expressly for speed and for racing, an essential part of the training of which is to engender in the horse a desire to go forward in a victorious gallop.

To me it seemed that this breed, more than any other, was able to serve as the symbol being the thing symbolised – but this time in connection with the new supramental creation whose main characteristic is the expression of the inner truth and ‘each thing in its place’. This inner condition is what eliminates conflict in the being. Freedom is a condition of being entirely dependent on and resulting from an inner poise. One can be in jail and still be free, this is clear. But in actual fact, a creature who lives in this state of inner harmony and perfect alignment, sets in motion the circumstances in which he or she can live out this condition of freedom. This realisation obliges the periphery, the circumstantial play, to serve the purpose of the centre; in this case, the centre of the alignment in the gnostic being.

Swati expressed this condition in the group work. His special nature permitted him to lend his energies in a very unusual and central area of the work. As this symbol being the thing symbolised, he epitomised the Fourth Power, the cosmic principle of the Son, or the Vedic Fire God Agni, who, in the form of the White Horse, carries the divine Dawn, Usha, across the resplendent horizon of each new year or day. He ushers in the dawn, the day, the year – the light of the Sun, the rays of Truth. He releases the energy locked in the cave (of the dark before the dawn), the precious energy of the Rays/Cows which are stolen by the hostile hoarders and closed in the pit of dense matter. This cosmic/evolutionary experience is connected to the sign/month Scorpio. Hence the Temple’s Ray of Cow and Horse we are discussing was ‘constructed’ in and with the help of this sign/month, for the 24 October falls in the month of the Scorpion. This is the precious energy which the Scorpion ‘hoards’ and which turns back upon the creature in a poisonous infestation that, when released, transmutes the sign’s symbol to that of the Eagle. On the basis of this transmutation of the power, extension of the ‘boundaries’ is attained. The creature who represents or rather IS that energy, is the Horse. Hence in the Vedic hymn to Dadhikravan we find these lines:

 

‘When he runs, when he speeds in his passage, as the wing of the Bird is a wind that flows about him in his greed of the gallop; as the wing that beats about the breast of the rushing Eagle, so about the breast of Dahikravan when with the Force he carries us beyond…’

Rig Veda, IV, 40

 

Are we not justified in stating that only with the experience of the Yoga of the Chamber does the full truth of the Veda come forth? For what can the uninitiated really understand of these verses when he has not seen and accepted that this release of Energy/Force of the Horse ‘carries us beyond’? And that expansion, that extension, or swift invincible gallop is through the next sign/month in the year wheel, Sagittarius – precisely the sign of the Horse. It is the zodiacal connection with the Veda that makes it intelligible and relevant today as yesterday, because it is the zodiacal script that provides not only the meaning and the knowledge, but the cosmic relevancy or the time harmony as well. It is the latter that serves to ‘materialise the energy’. When this connection is made through the lived experience of this applied cosmology, then only do these passages come alive and their truth is made clear. Then we cannot fail to understand why the Rishi brought together in this one hymn the precise ‘symbols’ we have been made to use in our work with the Horse, which refer to the signs Scorpio and Sagittarius, respectively. (There is also a live Eagle who has participated in this Yoga, which I will discuss in a later part of this series.)

However, the Rishi not only makes these connections; he goes a step further. He sings of ‘the Force that carries us beyond’. For indeed it is the release of the energy from the cave of the Scorpion which is ‘the Force that carries us beyond’, which extends the boundaries to those higher realms of consciousness-being. And this is exactly the work to be accomplished in the sign/months of Scorpio and Sagittarius, the 8^th and 9^th signs of the zodiac. The hieroglyphs of the signs give us this precise connection:

 

                                                                 

Scorpio                                                               Sagittarius

 

 

The ‘tail’ of the Scorpion, when cut or released from the body of the hieroglyph (with all that this signifies in the transformation of the power), is that free-flowing Arrow of Sagittarius as its glyph conveys. To me these meanings, these connections are obvious, the evidence being abundant and, in cases like the hymns to Dadhikravan, overwhelming. Yet I am forced to confess that these obvious facts have been brushed aside consistently, or overlooked, even by disciples of Sri Aurobindo who make ‘authoritative’ statements to the effect that ‘astrology has nothing to do with Sri Aurobindo’s yoga’. It is this sort of ignorance that closes the doors of perception and blinds us to these subtle, these profound connections, and imprisons one’s consciousness in the dark and constricting cave of the Scorpion. The symbols of the masterful Rig Veda convey the experience that ‘carries us beyond’ and out of the cave of the ignorance, extending our boundaries into the luminous regions of Swar, the divine Truth-Consciousness.

 

‘For the abundance of his strength he carries his impeller beyond, a rein binds his neck, and a rein holds him about the chest and a rein in his mouth. Dadhikravan puts forth his energy according to the will in the mind and gallops along the turning of the path.’

Ibid.

 

The reins that Dadhikravan bears are not restrictions but elements to keep the power materialised and contained – that is, within the boundaries of the material universe and within the womb of Time. For the experience of speed, of ‘the greed of the gallop’ is only possible in the universal womb of the Divine Mother, the quintessence of all that moves, – in the heart of material creation. Dadhikravan expresses in his sublime flight that dizzying movement of the universe. In our Yoga he is that Energy on the wings of which we attain Swar, the realm beyond Mind, the kingdom of the Truth-Consciousness.

 

 

The Release and the Experience of the New Way

 

Swati released the Energy, the Light. He liberated it from the cave of the Scorpion – in life and not in death. Indeed, he used the circumstances of his death for this grand and final act. He was the embodiment of the Son of Force, Agni, and the circumstances which conspired to carry him to his death were the very ones that permitted him to release that Energy, to crash through the barriers which were blocking the release of the Light.

The ‘light’ in question was the first printed edition of The New Way. Students are aware of the difficulties the book experienced in the first attempt to have it printed in the Ashram in Pondicherry in the late 1970s. But few are aware of the fact that even after its successful printing outside India several years later, that edition too experienced hardships. Apart from an initial release of approximately 50 copies, the rest were held tightly and inexplicably ‘in the cave of the Scorpion’. Indeed, the person in question who played the role of ‘hoarder’ of this Vedic Light, was born precisely in the month of the Scorpion. Once again in our work the symbol was the very thing symbolised.

This successful printing exercise of The New Way took place in 1981. After the victorious gathering together of the nuclear energies for the new cosmos in 1980, the Yoga of the Chamber passed into the next ‘orbit’, and the number-power was 1. The planet was Mercury, the first from the Sun, – 198/1.

The element to be integrated in the Yoga of the Chamber of that year would thus have to do with Mercury and whatever it represents in the cosmic harmony in relation to this construction. In traditional astrology, among other things Mercury refers to language, transmission of the word, books, plans, blueprints, and so forth. The correspondence with all this was made more than clear when on 5 January 1981, precisely in the important seed-period of the year, a concrete offer was made to get The New Way printed. For the book itself is the blueprint of the Mother’s Temple and was an integral part of the Yoga of the Chamber that needed to form a part of the process in that 1-power year.

To be brief, the printing exercise ended approximately nine months later when those 50 copies reached Kodaikanal and the field of the Yoga. However, for entirely inexplicable reasons, to this day still unclear, no further copies were released. The next substantial release required three more years of yoga and the occult intervention of Swati. During this period continuous efforts of all sorts were made to rescue the remaining copies from the Scorpion’s cave, but to no avail. Finally time lent its power through the instrumentation of the Horse, to provide the ‘release of the Light’ in harmony with the demands of the Yoga of the Chamber and the parameters of gnostic time. Thus, on 24 July 1984, Swati’s death provided him with the circumstances in  which in life he could bring about the release. Or rather, in life he could crash through the barriers that were obstructing this release.

I was with him when this happened. We had gone out for an early morning ride which took us far from home. It was when we were returning and with 1½ kilometres to go that Swati began to have a heart attack. This was not immediately discernible; the only indication was his altered arrhythmic gait and his nervous haste to reach home as quickly as possible. For as soon as he did and as soon as I hurriedly dismounted, I realised what was transpiring. He had kept his condition under control until he returned me to the gate; so noble was his spirit that he would never have accepted to abandon his rider midway or fail to reach ‘the finishing line’, which in this case was the gate. But having done so, he then gave in to his attack which he had controlled as best he could for nearly two kilometres.

It was from this point onward that he began to reveal himself fully as the symbol being the very thing symbolised, particularly as the white Horse, Agni, or the Son of Force who crashes through the barriers obstructing the release of the Energy. For this is precisely what he did.

Once free of the burden of his mount, he proceeded to crash through every barrier he encountered, – a thick stone wall, a heavy wooden gate. Beating against them with his chest and at a fantastic speed, he cast down everything that would obstruct what can only be described as some mysterious ritual. On the wings of the swiftest gallop, he then ran down the road where he continued to throw down any obstacle he met with this incredible thrust of his chest, and then he leapt over a 6-foot wall. And in that leap he moved out of his body, which fell limp on the other side, as he moved off, into the wind and the clouds and the heavens…’Dadhikravan who is the Truth in his running – yea, he gallops and he flies – brings into being the impulsion, the abundant force, the heavenly light…’.

Swati’s death was in no way equal to Jaya’s. The latter died before finding release and never having fulfilled his purpose, before experiencing that ecstatic flight which is the inner truth of the Horse symbol. Whereas Swati, while yet living and in full control of himself, fulfilled his purpose and his symbol-role and contributed to the Work by smashing down the barriers, by occultly – though totally physically – easing the way for the Light to find release. And while yet living he flew out of his body, into the clouds and the heavens, his whiteness, the whiteness of his immaculate spirit merging with the elements after his sacred mission had been victoriously accomplished.

While I witnessed this extraordinary happening I could not fail to see the parallel between the two horses. I was acutely aware of the fact that I was witnessing a sacred act. Inwardly it was as if a mantra sounded repeatedly the Vedic words ‘…the Son of Force’.

There was an individual who was a channel for much of the great difficulties we experienced in the 1983 phase of the Yoga of the Chamber. By an odd combination of events, it was on his property that Jaya met his tragic death when grazing, and it was there that he was buried. On 24 July, 1984, at exactly the time of Swati’s heart attack, this individual also died of a heart attack. In the unique ritual of his own sacrifice, Swati seemed to be dissolving all obstructive energy, making clear ‘the path of the Sun’.

Some months had to pass before a clear, precise confirmation came of the broader range of Swati’s contribution. Beyond any doubt, I knew when I witnessed his passing that in some way his physical act of crashing through the barriers was connected to our work and the obstructions it was experiencing – a major one being the blocked edition of The New Way. I knew those obstructions were being dissolved by him, in that awesome last flight.

Indeed, as inexplicable as had been the ‘hoarding’ of the books in the Scorpion’s cave, equally inexplicable was the fact of their release. And this occurred amidst circumstances over which I had no control and at a long distance from the seat of our Yoga. Nor had the people who engineered this release any control over its final timing. But this occurred on 24 October 1984, – or the exact anniversary of Swati’s arrival in our midst to fulfil his mysterious Purpose. He came, like the other animals I have mentioned and those not yet mentioned, with a specific purpose, a special contribution to the work as a symbol equal in every way to the very things symbolised. Thus he physically cast down barriers and his energy served to ‘bring into being the heavenly light’. Consequently, on his anniversary and three months to the day of his passing in this extraordinary display of an incarnate Son of Force, The New Way inexplicably found its way out of the ‘cave’, and on a day which made this event one of the most remarkable synchronisations in the Yoga of the Chamber.

 

There are a number of reasons why this event had to take place when it did, in 1984; and there are so many more things to relate regarding Swati’s contribution to the work, his relation to the 4^th Power, to the alchemy of the Pedestal, and much more. This is only a small part. In this series I am only providing a brief overview of the role animals have played and continue to play in our collective Yoga. The greater details of their participation I must leave for another, more appropriate place, no doubt the third volume of The Tenth Day of Victory, which would cover the years 1980 to 1989. Suffice it to say that the focus of the Yoga of 1983, in which Swati played his part continuously and impeccably, made the ‘release’ not only possible but inevitable. The process I am describing is a connected one, stretching over the years of the decade as one interrelated harmony. Swati’s arrival on the scene in exact synchronisation with the conception of the cow, Deepa, was a timing that allowed him to represent along with her the Chamber’s Ray measuring 365 days – the very 365 days between their conception and arrival. For the element to be added to the ‘construction’ in 1982 was precisely the Ray (of 365 days), the divine Measure of the Year.

After that, in 1983, the luminous Globe had to be installed in the Chamber’s core to receive this sacred Ray. As can be appreciated, the Mother’s Temple is Vedic, its knowledge carrying us back thousands upon thousands of years, into a past now forgotten. But in this modern Vedic temple we find all the elements the Rishis of old sang praises to; and thus the globe is not merely a sphere of light. It is Usha, the divine Dawn. With the precision displayed in every other aspect of this unique ‘construction process’, the Globe too was set in place according to the harmony of gnostic time. Beyond a doubt this was the most difficult period in the Yoga, since the Globe is the structure’s most important element, around which and onto which the entire Chamber is centered. Throughout the 21 months of his collaboration, Swati participated in the necessary ‘realignment’, fulfilling his symbol-role to perfection as the one who ‘ushers in the Dawn’.

Thus, in 1984, when the Pedestal had to be installed to support the Globe (by then perfectly aligned and centered), Swati’s ‘finest hour’ came, for the white Horse as Agni is the power located in the Pedestal/Base, wherein the mysterious alchemy transpires to release the Energy which in the Globe has become contracted to a point, – the point that is the temple’s perfect centre. In the Pedestal, when this release is experienced as a process of Yoga, the entire movement, which until then is an intense contraction, is reversed. It is this reversal that is the principal characteristic of the Pedestal – from contraction to expansion. And the year in which this did occur in the Yoga of the Chamber was precisely the great Reversal of this century: 1984.

 

‘Dadhikravan is he of whom now we must do the work; may all the Dawns speed me on the path! For the waters and for the Dawn and the Sun and Brihaspati, he of the puissance, the Victor.

‘May this Power of being who seeks the full-bringing and seeks the Light and who abides in all activity turn into inspiration the impulsions of the Dawn, may he abide in their speed that carries us beyond…’

Ibid.

 

 

Supermind Creates its own Conditions

 

The superiorly-structured consciousness-being of the gnostic individual is symbolised in the Chamber by the perfectly aligned Core. But symbolic in what way? This is the question the earnest seeker is obliged to ask, for the New Way hinges on this distinction between the common treatment of symbols and the one I am describing in these pages – the symbol being equal to and one with the essence it embodies. The best means to demonstrate non-speculatively the difference between the two approaches has been this series concerning the animal contribution to the Work, since they do provide the most transparent, limpid means to convey this central truth.

Time and the divine Measure of the Year add the indispensable ingredient of objective truth to the process. The experiences are lived and analysed against the backdrop of the Gnostic Circle and the measure of time and space it offers. In this manner the subjective is blended with the objective. The year is the womb in which a subjective/objective harmonisation of this sort can transpire. It is the unity that embraces a detailed multiplicity. And the Mother’s Chamber with its special Yoga is that time-womb, the temple of an ‘immaculate Seeing’.

In an earlier portion of this series, I referred to the fact that a process was required which would correct or counteract the effects of the distortions introduced in the Mother’s original plan of the Temple by the architects in Auroville. We can understand what made this rectification process inevitable if we analyse in greater depth the contributions of the two horses in the Yoga, especially their deaths. The matter hinges on the question of an outer imposition and hence a total absence of freedom. In this analysis we come to understand something of the true nature of freedom and why it has been ever present in humankind’s quest for a higher consciousness, or even the lesser quests of entirely materialistic, mundane concerns.

Thus the distinction that has to be noted in the two death experiences is that in Jaya’s case he was clearly a victim of circumstances over which he had no control. Death for him was an unconscious, even tragic experience. Only when he had fallen into a complete coma and lost all connection with the physical plane was he able to know that part of his essence which he had never consciously experienced.

On the other hand, to witness Swati’s death was to have been given the privilege of seeing how ‘supermind creates its own conditions’. Swati, being a creature in perfect attunement with his inner truth, used the circumstances of his death to fulfil his essential truth, his mighty purpose. He was in control of those circumstances throughout, never a victim, never forced into unconsciousness. What was overwhelmingly evident from the start of his ‘finest hour’ was the aura of a conscious purpose that emanated from each pore of his body, and a complete mastery of the situation, an inexplicable understanding of exactly what was demanded of him. He proceeded to his death with a determined purpose, in some uncanny way knowing just what he had to do to fulfil this final act impeccably.

 

‘Become full of light, O gelded Horse, and become our protector, let not the assault of men pierce thee; thou art like a hero, a violent overthrower and a good Friend: lo, I have uttered the names of the Fire of the gelded Horse.’

Rig Veda, 408,5.

 

This explains the main difference between a creature of the old creation and one of the new. The former experiences live as impositions and restraints from outside, external to the inner being and over which no control can emerge. Fatality on all levels is inevitable. In this situation it is understandable that the human being is obsessed with the question of freedom and that in his cramped condition he has misinterpreted its meaning and place in creation. But the gnostic being, like Dadhikravan with the three reins – past, present and future – about his body, uses the manifestations of the universal time-harmony, of which he is an intrinsic part, as the very elements which are able to provide him with the field for the experience of his gallop of ecstasy, the purpose in fact of his very incarnation. In this Ecstasy he expresses his inner truth, the individualised truth of the soul.

Thus there is no conflict within such a being. There is harmony and a conscious movement within gnostic time, in harmony with the divine Will working in the world. The gnostic being knows that he is on Earth for a specific reason: to be the impeccable instrument for the expression of that Will in the universal manifestation.

This condition of the human being, this sense of restriction as an imprisonment and a limitation which has to be combated and somehow conquered by the creature of the old creation, is precisely what the architects in Auroville played out in their obstinate persual of disharmony in the name of ‘freedom’, and for which reason the Yoga of the Chamber became an inescapable necessity. That imposition from outside, which characterises the old consciousness in misalignment, is displayed in the wrongly aligned room they have built in the Mother’s name, whose outer walls do, in fact, press in and trespass upon a space not permitted to them, thereby imposing a wrong inner measurement on the room. A wrong alignment of this sort creates a wrong perception and hence a wrong experience of life. Their cry was Freedom. Yet true to the conditions wrong alignment sets in motion, no such freedom has been attained: one can only remain a ‘victim of circumstances’. And so, the township is now under the most deadening yoke of restraint. The circumstances they set in motion by this titanic effort to undo the divine Harmony and ‘be free’, by their refusal to accept and to be a part of and instruments of that Harmony, have had their predictable results in the final government take-over of Auroville, and the loss thereby of any question of a free and unchecked management of their own affairs.

The old and misaligned consciousness can only be a victim of circumstances because in the old way one can never see the connection between things, see the inner hidden elements which have been the causes for the outer imposition. One is never a master of one’s destiny. This is not a titanic imposition and obstinate struggle. The correct alignment between the inner and outer in the true divine expression of Harmony is a free and joyous acceptance of the terms of the Play, a sincere surrender to the Power which, through us, carries out this magnificent display of a purposeful evolution. In realising one’s soul one joins that Harmony and life in all its myriad expressions becomes the field in which we may serve the Divine Mother as instruments for the establishment on Earth of a more illumined life, as new and better poised individuals.

 

In the next and final part of this series, I shall describe what transpired from 1984, the year of the great Reversal, to the present, how the Work from that point onward experienced an up-swing and its boundaries were effectively extended, consonant with the influence of Jupiter, whose beneficent puissance was brought into the Yoga in 1985 (‘…and Brihaspati [Jupiter], he of the puissance, the Victor…’). The focus will continue to be on the role animals have played throughout this unique, unparalleled Yoga of the Mother’s Chamber.

 

‘Even the immortal gods proclaim thy greatness, O knower of all things born, O Fire of the gelded Horse. That which I sought by questioning, coming to the human peoples, thou has conquered by men who grow in thee.’

Rig Veda, 409,9.

 

 

Skambha, November of 1988