1. Genesis
A few thousand years ago, there were no nations or national boundaries. The concept of a nation and national boundary was of western origin within the last two thousand years. The advent of Muslims before Christians implanted this idea in the Indian mind. To combat their onslaught and contain Buddhism, Hinduism was invented. We are talking of a period long before that. There were some 400+ superhuman beings, 25 of them were women.
We will now try to see why they were super humans. In this connection you should categorize people into four broad classes. There is the mechanical class who just drag on life without a sense of direction or purpose. Second there is a class of people who do have a sense of direction. They are constantly striving to improve their lot not worrying so much about others and society at large. They are the opportunists. Then there is the third category of people who have a sense of direction and while trying to improve their lot serve the society and try to improve the social environment. Most of us fall in this category. Lastly, there are a category of people who are above society since whatever they do is for the good of society. They cannot make mistakes in this sense. They are super human.
In this context it is necessary to understand what is society? Society is a collection of like minded people. There is a convergence of their thought process. They operate within this safe ambit. Consider, if you want to regulate the working of any mechanism, you should be outside the ambit of its operation isn't it? Similarly, to do good to society the benevolent person has to be outside the convergent thought process. Such were the 400+ super humans. What did they achieve? And is there such a person in the recent memory?
Let us examine how these super humans bestow their benevolence on the society.
To know this aspect we have to take the help of modern physics. Lee Smolin is a recognized name in modern scientific community in US. In his book “The Trouble with
Physics” while discussing “String theory” says Edward Witten created a revolution in our
understanding certain aspects of unification related to string theory in the year 1995.
This understanding involved imagining ten other dimensions other than one we know in space-time. We know length, breadth and width as three dimensions and the fourth as time. That is conventional. Now science says there are ten other dimensions which we cannot visualize but are a theoretical reality.
What is real in the three dimensional space need not be true when seen with more number
of dimensions. A distortion in limited dimensions will have to be corrected to give a comprehensive picture by the person who is able to see in the other ten dimensions also. On the other hand majority of people who have a limited vision in three dimensions, like us, will be perplexed by description and action of a person having access to other dimensions. Obviously, to have a balanced view means giving regard to all dimensions.
While modern science is still debating this matter, a few thousand years ago it was an established fact! The 400+ super humans had transcended these ten additional
dimensions. They had visions of reality that they recorded in melodious poetry of the highest order in a language which was grammatically well structured. Many households have Gayatri Devi’s picture in their houses. You will find that she has 10 hands each of which represents a dimension! The pictorial representation is conveying the eternal reality for our limited three dimensional, so called normal, vision. Gayatri Devi herself is a mystic portrayal of the great reality one confronts in the journey towards Truth.
What these 400+ super humans composed was Rig Veda. The super humans were called Rishis or Seers in English. The Rishis were Mantra-Drashtas. The language they used was Sanskrit. The other Vedas such as Yajur, Sama and Athrvana were none existent. It is claimed that the Veda is “Apaurusha” and “Ananta”. This needs some explanation. Apaurusha means not of human origin. This was not agreeable to Westerners and western educated Indians. Superficially, it also does not seem to appeal to logic. But it is a
profound and now scientific Truth.
The Shastras postulate that there is Purusha and Prakriti. In English you can loosely translate it as ‘I’ and the World at large (Nature). This is the first thought. When a child is born, it has no thinking faculty which it develops only in the next few months. Accordingly, it has no ‘I’ thought. As the brain develops, the parents, near and dear relations make the child self-conscious. The child imbibes I- consciousness, which is the first thought. With the I-consciousness comes the duality that the world around it is something other than itself. It shadows the person for rest of his life. That is our lot. This is also the root cause of all suffering. Incidentally, we also experience this first thought daily when we wake up from sleep. This is the bondage under space-time dimension. When the ‘I’ thought is dissolved into world identification, a person is said to overcome the duality and is also released from space-time constraint in his visualization and is able to witness the broad and eternal Truth which is the contents of Rig Veda. He becomes the Veda Purusha or Veda. What he witnesses is the breathe of the Veda. As it is an eternal Truth it is Ananta also. What has no beginning cannot also have an ending.
You may wonder whether there is any such person in the modern world who has seen beyond the thought process and dissolved ‘I’ consciousness into world identification.
Yes, there was such a person but unfortunately he passed away in 1987 at the ripe old age of 94 years. I had the good opportunity to see him in person at least 20 times. For 65 years he lectured on these two subjects at various venues of the world including some very reputed US universities and fielded searching and critical questions on the subject
even from eminent scientists. He lived what he preached. I am talking of
late J. Krishnamurti. He was born in Madanapalle in AP; had his private education
in UK, under the tutelage of Dr. Annie Besant. However, he migrated to California in 1922 and stayed there for rest of his life, till his death in 1987.
2. Bodings of 19th Century.
Rig Veda was indisputably the oldest literature of the world. It is not only the oldest but intellectually challenging and grammatically a great wonder the world over. According to modern logic the civilization progresses by the passage of time. To a great extent this thinking hinges on the Charles Darwin theory as mentioned in “Origin of the species”. So
the existence of a book so old in such a superior form and contents was in itself a negation of linear progress theory. Modern Science had not yet taken over from the religious bigots in western society.
The more harmful and irreparable damage was done by Jewry and Christian missionary with active help from diehard Christian Scholars. The troubles began after the battle of Plessey in India. The British rule was established beyond doubt. With it many scholars had access to Indian scriptures directly. They even visited Benaras and learnt Sanskrit and other highly refined elements of Vedanga. The Benaras pandits were impressed with so much interest taken by western scholars. Sad to say, they did not verify the motives of these apparently respectable western scholars. Their motive was to vilify the Indian culture and use Sanskrit language for propagating Christianity which according to them was the superior religion. All other eastern religions needed to be suppressed or destroyed.
The Christian Scholars almost succeeded in their plans but not quite. The effect is evident even today. If you sound an average educated Indian, whether in the country or abroad, he will say our ancient scriptures are museum pieces devoid of merit and least applicable to the modern way of living as compared to western civilization which is so attractive and suited to healthy and comfortable living. It will be clear that the modern Indians go by external trappings and hardly can visualize the turmoil in the mind of their western counterparts. But if you look at many of the reputed scientists of west you find them having a new found reverence to ancient Indian scriptures because the more they break new grounds in theoretical science the more they realize that it is already stated in the Vedas compiled a few thousands of years ago. This has forced many Indian scholars to have a re-look at their own ancient literature and discover gems of scientific ideas, but the general public is oblivious of this development and still deride our scriptures. It takes time to turn the tide.
In early 19th century a Lieutenant-Colonel Boden evinced keen interest in the Sanskrit language in which Indian Scriptures were written. He bequeathed a large fund to promote the translation of Scriptures (Bible) into Sanskrit so as to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the native Indians into Christian Religion. On the death of Boden, his daughter used the fund to create a chair at Oxford University. The first person to grace this chair was Mr. H. H. Wilson the pioneering author who translated the
Rigveda Samhita into English. Many implications arise with reference to the caveat
attached to the bequest by Boden. In the first place, the native Indians needed to be converted into Christianity, presumably because the Indians were nature worshippers and uncivilized. Their religious books contained meaningless prattle. Moreover, the natives worshipped thousands of Gods which was incomprehensible in Westerners’ thinking. Western Missionaries firmly believed that Christianity was the only supreme religion and all others heresy. Science was still subordinate to religion at that point of time in the Western Hemisphere. The rapid development of Science had not yet begun in Europe.
At the forefront of this racial and biased scholarship was Fredrick Max Muller a German who lived in England and translated all the Vedas into English. He was ably abetted by Lord Macaulay who introduced western education system into India which effectively
fulfilled the nefarious objective. There were many others to vilify the ancient Indian culture like Eugene Burnouf, Rudolph Roth, Prof. Winternitz, Albert Weber, John Muir, W. D. Whitney, Richard Garbe and many others. Around this time, an Archbishop Usher of Ireland came up with evidence in biblical scriptures that creation of the world took place in 4004 BC on a Friday afternoon. The scholarship was bent on proving that the Vedas were written after this date. Max Muller set the date as 1200 BC. This was accepted as unquestionable authority thereafter by every one including western educated elite in India. This was so until recently.
Another event about this time worked in favor of the western scholarship. In 1924
An archeology team headed by Wheeler excavated the Indus valley civilization. This brought into currency the opinion meted out as fact that Aryans invaded India around 1200 BC. They were original residents of South Russia migrating east wards. One group settled in what is now Iran and the other group migrated to Indus Valley what is now known as Mohan Jo Daro and Harrappan sites. This is on the premise that the superior Aryan race invaded India peopled wholly of aborigine tribes who were totally
uncivilized and incapable of any intelligent literary work. After conquering part of North India, according to the scholarship, these Aryans set about preparing the Vedas. To this day many educated Indians believe this as a fact. Take the case of
Lokamanya B. G. Tilak. He not only accepted this distortion of history as true, he even
made his own astrological analysis and came to the conclusion that the Aryans were residents of the Arctic zone and not South Russia. Accordingly, his followers Rehalkar,
Mrs. Malathi Shedge and few others were staunch protagonists of Aryan Invasion.
Of course there is no mention of any invasion in the whole of Rig Veda consisting of
4, 32,000 words. In respect of one single word, Ralph Griffith mentioned Aryan Invasion in the footnote to his English translation of Rig Veda. That was enough fodder for the European scholarship to make their point. However, it is not that there were no sympathizers to the traditional Indian view of the scriptures.
During the peak of this vilification campaign, there were German sympathizers such as
Herr Wilhelm Friedrich Schelegel, Arthur Schopenhauer and few others whose voices were stifled. Then there were Americans such as Ingersoll, Henry Thoreau and Ralph
Waldo Emerson. All these people considered the Vedas as divine inspiration. But the damage was already done beyond repair. Only in the last 50 years or so the prejudice has been replaced with admiration for the might of intelligence in the ancient lore and
its roots traceable within the Indian sub-continent. No such Aryan invasion took place and the said Aryans were aborigines of India. On the contrary there was a migration towards the west from Indian sub-continent into Afghanistan, Iran and beyond! The credit must go to Dr. David Frawley, Prof. Michael Witzen of Harvard University, and Stephen Knapp all Americans scholars besides a few Indians such as Dayanand Saraswati founder of Arya Samaj , Sri Aurobindo of Pondichery and other lesser known India Scholars.
3. Internal Bickering
Even before this western intrusion into Indian culture there was another undercurrent within the pedantry in this country. There appears to have been two major clans (Parampara) of Rishis even before the advent of Rig Veda. The two clans were that of Angirasas and Brighus. Angirasas had the upper hand in the compilation of the hymns in Rig Veda. Brighus played a minor part that too in connection with a few Agni suktas and Soma suktas. A few rishis who were Brighu descendents but married into Angiras family find mention in the Rig Veda.
Brighu was a great rishi on his own right. He is credited with the ritual of Agni worship and slowly by passage of time his descendents introduced other homa rituals. There is no place for homa rituals in the Rig Veda. Perhaps that is why Brighu had no major part to play in Rig Veda. Rig Veda was a philosophical and scientific treatise which could not contain a ritualistic composition. In the list of 400+ Rishis, name of Arishta-nemi is included. He is credited with some hymns. He later seems to have branched off as he figures as twenty-second Thirthakar of Jainism. Jainism did not accept the authority of Vedas. In later ages, the philosophical contents of the Rig Veda were exploited in the best possible way and the Upanishads resulted. At that time religious orthodoxy on one hand and its counterpart Buddhism were both gaining popularity. But Vedanta founded on Upanishad arrested the respective trends so much so that Buddhism left the shores of the country only to spread in the Far East. After development of modern science we are now able to appreciate the full potential of the master piece of literature that Rig Veda is.
As we said, there was only Rig-Veda in the beginning. K. N. Krishnan Namboodri of Ramadevi Mandiram, Thrissur, Kerala says: The Rig Samahita (text) available to us is apparently only a very insignificant portion of the original Samahita. It is believed that there were a 1000 Sookthams, starting with a one-Rig Sooktham and increasing by one Rig each time. This would mean a total of 500,500 Rigs. Moreover, Rig Veda was not in the present form before Veda Vyasa’s time. Veda Vyasa was himself a votary of ritualistic tradition which we can make out from his compilation of Brahmanas, Puranas and other scriptures. He had four disciples and he directed one of them Sage Paila to rearrange the Rig Veda Samhita in a particular order. What is now available is only this redrafted version of Rig Veda.
Rig Veda does not directly advocate Yagnas or ritual sacrifices in any of its hymns. Wherever there is reference to Yagnas, there is a psychological connotation apparent. With the advent of Brahmanas, and other Vedas i.e., Yajur, Sama and Atharva, after the lapse of a few thousand years, there was a great shift in orientation in the thinking. The emphasis was mainly on rituals or sacrificial rights called Yajnas. In fact, the vast knowledge embedded in Rig Veda was relegated to a subordinate position. In Purva Mimamsa Sutras at 1, 2, 1 Jaimini states that Vedic (Rig Veda) corpus has its purpose only in sacrificial rites and whatever is in the corpus but does not serve this purpose has no meaning whatsoever. Accordingly, when Sayanacharya, a brilliant practitioner of Yajur Veda set about writing his commentaries on Rig Veda he could not avoid the bias mentioned above. Thereafter, all the western translations incorporated this distortion consciously or unconsciously. The secrets of the Veda remained hidden until in the 20th
century when Sri Aurobindo the great rishi that he was deciphered the concealed meaning in Rig Veda.
We mentioned earlier that some 400 visionaries composed the Rig Veda. The deep meaning of their composition was not easily understood by others in their own time and in subsequent generations for the simple reason that these others were not visionaries. Ever since then many lexicons known as Niruktas and Anukramanis have been compiled to decipher the meaning of the hymns. Until recently, the attempts had not produced completely satisfactory or consistent results. It was given to Saint Aurobindo in the early 20th century to unravel and reveal the true and consistent meaning of many key words and hymns, again by intuition.
There is a fundamental difference between Rig Veda and Yajur Veda and by extension Brahmanas. Rig Veda almost through out its contents deals with praise of various deities or luminaries. Yajur Veda prays to the deities or luminaries for their benediction. In praising deities there is no asking for favor from them. The sage-seers who had realized the truth had nothing to gain when they eulogized a deity or described it. Passages in Rig Veda are mostly of this nature. The question of ritualistic application does not arise. Hence, the ritualistic interpretation (adhi-yajna) of Rig Veda becomes even irrelevant. The ritualistic interpretation (adhi-yajna) of Rig Veda becomes valid or feasible only when a large number of passages in this Samhita have a ritualistic application known as Viniyoga in Sanskrit, which involves prayer and action directed towards the accomplishment of some objective. The objective of all rituals ultimately
are heaven or celestial pleasures; the expression Swarga and unsurpassed happiness, including all mundane benefits like long life, wealth, and children and so on. It is for these benefits that prayers are made. Furthermore, Brihaddevata of Saunaka makes another point. The passages of Rig Veda, due to the sage-seers who have perceived the Truth directly are of many kinds, on account of praises, majesty or preeminence, and the extraordinary power and glory of the deities or luminaries eulogized in the hymns. Moreover, the present interpretation (adhi-atma) focuses attention not on the different Deities associated with the hymns in Rig Veda but on the one Self, of which all the Deities are manifestations. This is also the view of Yaska (Nirukta, 7-4).
This aspect of prayer versus praise needs to be looked into from our common experience point of view. If you approach a friend and praise him he will be cordially inclined towards you. You bestow attention and you draw the attention of the friend. There is no superior or subordinate feeling in the action and there is also no hidden desire for a favor. On the other hand, in prayer you make a submission to a higher being for according a favor or fulfill a want or desire. Attention is the key to esoteric knowledge.
4. The Foundation.
Rig Veda deals with three Realities in its contents. The External Reality; the Man-made Reality and the Inner Reality. Down the ages all philosophical and religious treatises talk about this trilokhya anubhava, experience in the three worlds. Even in Shakta philosophy, Devi is addressed as Tripurasundari, meaning the beatitude of the three Puras. We thoroughly experience the man-made world and enjoy or suffer in that process. In fact we are all the while concerned with it. We partly enjoy the external Reality such as the flora and fauna around, the elemental movement such as winds, fire, rain and earth but not others such as the vast universe beyond the atmosphere. Some people follow the Inner Reality and many others are not even aware of its existence. To know what is really the truth behind all these experiences requires that one go beyond these experiences. This is what the rishis of yore achieved and narrated their experience in Rig Veda.
Thus it is that they averred that there is but one Self, but people talk of it as many. In fact this one Self manifests as many. Fundamentally, this Self takes three manifestations.
The manifestations are: Surya, Indra or Varuna and Agni. Indra is variously referred to as Mitra, Varuna, and Maruts and all other Devatas. In the Rig Veda. Indra is also called master of forms. It is thus that most of the hymns in the Rig Veda are addressed to these luminaries. We are told that there is a link between the luminaries and the three Realities. Surya represents the External Reality, Indra represents the Man-made Reality and Agni represents the Inner Reality. Aithareya Upanishad hints that Indra is in fact the lord of Indriyas. Indriyas are the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and touch by hands or legs. These are controlled by the mind, Indra. Agni is the fire of aspiration in man and the Surya is the vast nature we see around us.
Man cannot alter the nature around him in any way, though he can exploit it by activities such as digging or construction. These manmade creations are perishable by passage of time but nature is enduring. Manmade creations invariably arise out of man’s imagination and are bound by Space-Time limitations. The robots, the computer programs, computers, art creations, music compositions, music instruments, dance, drama,television, telephones, buildings, bridges, resorts, culinary delights etc., are all manmade reality. More important all relationship which man brings into being including relationship with money and property come into the category of Man-made Reality. The list is only indicative. Since this reality arises wholly based on man’s imagination it is alone Maya and the other two Realities are not so. This Maya depends on man’s temporal knowledge called Vidya. It is limited by Space-Time constraint. If you manage to escape the space-time constraint, you see the real nature of this man-made creation.
Imagination arises out of our thought. The first thought we have is ‘I am and rest of the world is other than me.’ After this all thinking process starts. This is a false premise. Rig Veda specifically says so also. Every other thought and the whole temporal Vidya is built on it. Incidentally, it is only now the scientific community has woken up to the fact that all their temporal knowledge is based on imagination even though it is independently verifiable by fellow scientists for the simple reason that they are also under preciously same delusion!
We can see another feature to this ‘I and the world.’ When we make this decision with it starts a stress. The stress is between ‘I’ and the world. This is called the initial stress. Since there is a stress, there is also vibration. This stress and vibration grow both in volume and strength as we grow in age and experience. We have not a moment of peace thereafter until death overtakes us. The stress and vibration cloud our understanding. We are constantly in search for a route of escape from this stress and vibration. The object of escape becomes very important to us.
Man has made another discovery. What he sees in the vast external nature is exactly replicated in his inner being. Even modern science concurs with this observation in particle physics. Carl Sagan in his book ‘Cosmos’ explained the possibility that if you traveled downwards into an electron, you might find that it contained a universe of its own. ‘Within it, organized into local equivalent of galaxies and smaller structures, are immense number of others, much tinier particles, which are themselves universes at the next level and so on for ever’. Our Rishis argued that man is no exception to this replication process as he is also constituted by atomic structure. The corollary to their argument was, what is not in man is no where in the universe!
Accordingly, the Rishis argued that observing the inner structure of man is experiencing the Third Reality. Thus this Third Reality engaged the attention of Vedanta or Upanishads. They stumbled on another great realization. At the base level this reality is sustained by Agni or Brihaspati or Bramanaspathi or Ganapathy. Once you are able to connect with Him, he takes over the reins as it were, and himself leads you to the ultimate Truth. You don’t have to do anything about it thereafter. He alone knows the pathway Truth. That is the reason Agni is so important in the Rig Veda and later in all other Vedas. Agni is fire of aspiration or choice less awareness.
Truth is different from Reality. Truth is. It is in the present. It is always in the present. Past and future have no relevance to the Truth. This Truth manifests the three Realities. It is outside the range of the three Realities. It is known as Para-Brahman in Sanskrit and in Gayatri mantra it is known as Savitur. This the ancient Rishis knew very well. In Yoga Shastra this Para-Brahman is twelve angulas above the Brahma Randra at the top of every person’s head. This position is indicated at all times by the tuft of a Brahmana! Astrophysics or Cosmology a branch of modern science has made a thorough investigation as to what the cosmos is constituted of. Thus, in his book ‘Cosmos ‘, at page 202, Carl Sagan asks: Where is the center of the Cosmos? Is there an edge to the universe? What lies beyond that? In a two-dimensional universe, curved through the third dimension, there is no center—at least not on the surface of the sphere. The centre of such a universe is not in that universe; it lies, inaccessible, in the third dimension, inside the sphere.
There is no doubt the great Rishis of the yore were face-to-face with the Truth. They had no need of modern sophisticated instruments. They developed the necessary faculties within each of them. Objective instruments were anyway inappropriate for the inner journey. While the modern science is still groping in this respect, they had reached the pinnacle so to say. Not only had they achieved the impossible, the benefactors that they were, they charted out the route for the journey which we could follow. This is what they expressed in The Gayatri Mantra. That they were able to pack such vast knowledge in a single mantra is itself a unique achievement, which was not achieved thereafter nor is likely to be achieved in future. For good reason therefore, The Gayatri mantra is considered the quintessence of Rig Veda. It is given the status of mother!
5. Exploration of Realities.
There is a prefix with reference to The Gayatri mantra. It is three pada Gayatri. One reading is that it has three lines in the slokha. The other meaning is that it has three letters in the word. But the lesser known meaning is that it indicates the three steps of Realities. Gayatri mantra is all about this three Realities.
Rishi Viswamitra was not satisfied with merely discovering the three Realities. He wanted to develop others in gaining this esoteric knowledge and thus guide the world in right living. Perhaps that is the reason he was given a title Vishwamitra meaning friend of the universe. He and his contemporary Rishis thus brought into being a class of people called ‘Brahmins’. So, to begin with, Brahman was not a caste! The intention was not to divide society along caste lines. Imagine, in the modern times if you want to make a trip to some other planet, you train a special person called Astronaut. He is given many kinds of training and all his wants are taken care of, so that he can devote his full attention to the assignment. Similarly, a Brahmin was prepared to make a journey to the farther most place in the cosmos and he had to be given much more rigorous training and reoriented with abilities to face living condition in other dimensions.. However, the journey of a Brahmin did not require expensive tools or vehicles. The journey was inwards. Earlier we saw that what is not in man is nowhere in the universe. In other words, whatever is to be found in the vast universe is inside the man. He is a replica of universe so to say. The Sanskrit operating word is ‘Vishwanara.’
To this class of Brahmins a code of conduct was prescribed. It included performing three Savanas. Now days this Savana is called Sandyavandanam. This ritual has to be performed once before sun rises; once after the sun reaches the peak, that is mid-noon and once in the evening before the day changes into night, that is at sun set. The more interesting part is the contents of this Savana. It is a meditation ritual not to the Luminaries but to Savitur, or Para-Brahman or Cosmic Core as modern science would like to call it. As Savitur is the Self in all and everything manifests from Him, he is the only God worthy of our prayer. Every aspect of the Savana ritual is directly or indirectly related to Savitur. Since everything else has manifested from Him man is no exception. He will attend to man’s aspirations.
We will not, of course, consider the whole of Savana here, but only the Gayatri mantra. It is the kernel. Interestingly, Gayatri mantra addresses all the three Realities in one and the same mantra. This facilitates the aspirant to meditate more conveniently. It is at once the highest form of meditation. We will examine how the three Realities have been included in the same mantra with its meaning.
Now for meditation on the first Reality, nature is around and above us. The Gayatri mantra begins with what is known as Vyahritis:
Aum Bhuh; Aum Bhuvaha; Aum Suvaha; Aum Mahaha; Aum Janaha; Aum Thapaha; Aum Satyam.
The Mantra:
Aum Thath Savithur Varenyam,
Bhargo Dhevasya Dheemahi,
Dheeyo Yonaha Prachodhaayat.
Ending:
Aum Apo Jyoti Raso Amritham Brahma Bhoorbhuvasuvarom;
Aum, Aum, Aum.
What does it mean? The word Aum we will consider last. Bhuh means this earth on which we stand, the material state; Bhuvaha means the intermediate atmosphere we enjoy- the sun, the moon, the rains, the winter, the fragrance, the fresh air, and the different sounds around us. Suvaha means the atmosphere above us that protects us from the cosmic rays; charged particles; ultraviolet rays and the like, which constantly bombard from outer space. Mahaha means the vast space beyond the atmosphere. Janaha means largely populated (by planetary and star systems). Tapaha means cauldron, the
vast space in the universe where the largest collision of stars and planets take place. Then there is much vaster space known as Satyam which is the dark matter, In Sanskrit it is
known as Hiranya Garba (the golden womb). This in short is our real world. All life forms and Divinities live here.
Beyond these is that Savitr, the Cosmic Reality. May we meditate on the Adorable Light of that Cosmic Reality; Generator that energizes our real world as above.
He is waters, light, chemicals and immortality and he is the creation.
He is denoted by Aum.
As you can see, there are the seven world mentioned one beyond the other.
Now let us see what modern science has come to recognize in Cosmology. We could do no better than understand what Late Carl Sagan has to say in this connection. He was a member of the Viking Lander Imaging Flight Team that was created by USA for exploration of planet Mars. Later he became a writer of the world famous book ‘Cosmos’ and thereafter associated with the vastly popular TV serial by the same title. He says: Earth is a place. Perhaps he includes atmosphere as part of the earth. So straight away he jumps to Mahaha in our Mantra. Earth is by no means the only place. It is not even a typical place. The only typical place is within the vast, cold, universal vacuum, the everlasting night of intergalactic space. From an intergalactic location we would see innumerable faint, twinkling of light. These are the galaxies. To have this panoramic view we would have to be in the realm of the nebulae, crores of light-years from Earth. A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars, some crores of them. There are some 10,000 crores galaxies, each with, an average of 10,000 crores stars. In all the galaxies there are as many planets as stars, more than one lakh crore crores! Then we have what is known as nova and supernova phenomenon. When two giant stars are involved in an explosion which is induced by a hydrogen powered fusion, the explosion is a nova explosion and when a single star explosion occurs powered by silicon fusion it is supernova. The suicide rate among galaxies is very high. Tens or hundreds of crores of light year away, are powerful sources of X-ray, infrared radiation and radio waves. These sources have extremely luminous cores and fluctuate in brightness for weeks at a time. These galaxies are blowing themselves up. Black holes ranging from a crore to several thousand crores, some times more massive than the Sun are suspected in the cores of giant elliptical galaxies such as NGC 6251 and M87. Where is the center of Cosmos? Is there an edge to universe? What lies beyond that? In a two-dimensional universe, curved through a third dimension, there is no center—at least not on the surface of the sphere.
The center of such a universe is not in that universe; it lies, inaccessible, in the third dimension, inside the sphere. As a footnote, Sagan acknowledges that the Hindus knew of
this classification of the universe.
Now, for the meditation on second reality, man-made structures. No man-made structure is possible without the involvement of some or all the five Indriyas (Senses)- eyes(vision); ears(sound); nose(smell); mouth(speech); and hands & legs or skin(touch).
These Indriyas are coordinated by the mind. Mind is also not an independent agent. It communicates any challenge to the brain and takes order for action. It operates the
reservoir of memory in conjunction with brain. All these actions are possible because of the Self giving the attention.
In early 20th Century there was a renowned British Scholar Sir John Woodroffe who took great pains to translate many important Tantras and Sakta philosophy into English language. In his book ‘The Garland of Letters’, he claims to have been given a manuscript by an admirer. This manuscript contained the following meaning of Gayatri Mantra.
The Gayatri mantra begins with the Pranava mantra OM and ends with it. This refers to the primeval cause of the threefold manifestation of realities. This as we saw is universal Self or Para-Brahman or the Cosmic Core. Here both the Cause and its manifestation are the object of meditation. Then follows the mention of Vyahritis or Lokas which we saw earlier. However, here the Lokas represent states of consciousness. Bhu Loka or Earth is the state of normal consciousness. The six Lokas above that are states of incremental supernormal consciousness. The first five Lokas, from and including Earth, are those of the five forms of sensible matter, the sixth is the Mind; and seventh is the causal state of both Mind and Matter. Earth is the gross body, the Lokas from Bhuvaha to Tapaha are subtle body and Satya Loka is the causal body of the great Purusha or Savitur, or Para-Brahman or Cosmic-Core.
In our ordinary condition of consciousness, the outer world is completely objective and stable and independent. It lies ‘over there’ in the outer space entirely external to us, having, apparently its existence in itself and of itself. This state of consciousness is indicated by the first Vyahrti ‘Bhuh’. This is our normal state. Our mind is here. But a little reflection reveals that these seemingly independent objects are for us bundles of certain qualities, which are so, only because they are sensed by the Senses which are constituted in a particular way. It is obvious that if our senses were not there, or if they were not seizing the object, there would be no sensation and no object. Moreover, if the senses were modified, the sense perception would also change. Consequently, the objects, which at first sight exist independently of our perception, would become something different from what they formerly were, as they would exhibit a different set of qualities.
Thus the objective world is really not independent as we first thought. The condition of mind in which this notion is held is the second of the seven divisions of the consciousness. All material-minded thinkers, who look upon the objective world as independent of a subjective perceiver, are in the Bhuvarloka. Modern scientists fall in this category, though in the last fifty years or so they have come round to accept the fact that they had hitherto ignored an important factor in their scientific observation, the Consciousness. At once the fixed and well defined laws of science have undergone a sea-change!
We then ask, what lies behind the senses, wherein to a great extent the appearance of the external world depends? We then perceive that the senses do not apprehend objects unless attention, in the form of Manas (Mind) is bestowed upon them. The whole world open at any moment to the senses, is impinging on them at every moment, but only that is perceived to which we pay attention. Attention must be directed and willed. Therefore the world (considered apart from what it may possibly be in itself) is dependent on both the senses and attentive mind of the Self behind them. The attainment and habit of this thought is the third ascending state of consciousness. We have thus attained a knowledge of the Self. We next reflect upon its nature. To the ordinary consciousness of the first two states, the self either did not appear important, or seemed to be limited to the body and restricted within its scope. But reflection has now shown that not only is it unconditioned by the senses, but actually conditions them, giving them effective operation through its power of attention. The Self thus appears uncontrolled by the physical body, self-luminous and overlapping the bounds of the physical senses. When this notion is reached the fourth stage of consciousness is attained.
The next question is—what is the relationship of the Self, the senses and the objects? Are they each independent in their origin, or is one cause of the other two? They cannot be independent of each other, for this would mean that either they had no relation to each other, or if there is any relation it is due to some fourth thing external to the others, which is the basis of their relation and apart from which they cannot be in relation. It is obvious that they are in relation to each other, and as such the ground of their relation must be either in, or outside, themselves. It is sufficient here to say that no fourth principle capable of holding them together and bringing them into relation is perceived. The relation can be grounded only in that element out of the three which is independent of the other two, for a dependent entity cannot have the ground of its relation to others within itself. The perceived objects are not independent. They require the senses to be perceived as objects of that character according to which we perceive them. The senses are not independent, for sense perception requires attention of the Self. On the other hand the Self does not cease to be the Self when it does not attentively perceive objects through the senses. Thus, the Self is independent of the other two and has within itself the ground
of the causal relation by which it evolves them. The firm and lasting consciousness which realizes this is the fifth step in the ascending consciousness.
What then is the nature of the relation between the cause (Self) producing the objective world and the effect (objective world) so produced? Is the cause, material in its nature, producing an effect external to itself, or an ideal cause working ideally upon itself to produce an effect? The cause cannot produce an effect which is really external to itself. Were it so, the dream-world of which we are creators would be external to the self which produces it. In that case it would not vanish with the state of consciousness which lies at the root of it. Gradually the notion that the objective world is produced by a cause external to it is rejected, and the notion is accepted that the cause has the effect lying ideally within it, which is projected and externalized in the course of cosmic evolution. What fully persists and is therefore fully ‘real’ is the Self. The firm experience of this experience is the sixth consciousness. Further, when the entire objective world is viewed
as necessarily lying within the cause, the seventh, or what we may call the Satya stage of consciousness is attained.
Man’s thus expanded consciousness brings forth the exclamation which is the Gayatri Mantra, in which homage is made to the Supreme Power, which manifests in this and all other forms of experience and is objects in Universe. The word by which this in dwelling Spirit is denoted is Savita-The Projector of the Universe from out of ‘Its’ own thought, without external aid or material. The devotee to whose mental gaze the indwelling Spirit reveals itself, bursts forth into the Mantra: ‘Let us meditate on the adorable darkness-dispelling Spirit of the self-luminous, all-producing Savita,’ with the prayer that It may illuminate our inward reason. It is through this illumination of the reason by the source of the Reason that the inner reason which is our inner being sees and understands the entire universe and its principles. We come to realize that we are the world! World and I are no two different things. That is the highest form of meditation.
We shall now understand the third reality, that of inward journey.
In fact Rig Veda opens with a declaration of this Reality. Traditionally there are three ways of understanding the Rig Veda: Adiyagya, Adidaiva and Adiatma. Adiyagya is an interpretation of the Veda with reference to Yagya or rituals. Adidaiva is an interpretation of the Veda with reference to the Luminaries (Devatas) mentioned in the Veda and invoking them during Yagyas. Adiatma refers to the psychological interpretation of the Veda. In the modern times, Sri Aurobindo effectively pointed out that the Adiatma
method of understanding Rig Veda was more meaningful and clearly reveals the inherent scientific truths embedded therein. After his death the mantle has fallen on the shoulders of Sri Aurobindo Kapali Sastry Institute of Vedic Culture, Bangalore. Under the Directorship of Shri R. L. Kashyap, the institute has brought out complete translation of Rig Veda Samhita in English. I refer to this translation of the first sooktam.
The Rig Veda opens with Hymns by Rishi Madhuchchhandasah, son of Vishwamitra. The first hymn contains eleven Sooktas addressed to Agni. Here the Rishi says Yagya is a journey, a pilgrimage. In this journey, Agni who is within us as the fire of aspiration is to be kindled so that he (Agni) leads us forward with the help of other luminaries towards
the ultimate Truth. In another context, this fire of aspiration is indicated as our own consciousness. It is a state of choice less awareness. When we choose to be aware, the choice is invariably based on ego. This is our usual practice through out our life, and we undergo suffering accordingly. However, here we are taking of a state of choice less awareness. It leads the way to Truth. That is true meditation.
For the Yagya or journey we need preparation. The preparation is the practice of Yoga.
This Yoga has been a widely discussed and debated subject in the last 4000 years. The foremost authority on the subject was Rishi Kapila. Then followed Samkya system.
Buddha followed the Samkya system which did not admit the existence of God. Then there were Jain texts on the subject. Perhaps borrowing from all these Patanjali wrote
Yoga Sutras in 400 BCE which is a masterpiece even today. The text is terse, precise, lucid and unambiguous.
As per the Yoga Sutras, the preparation for the journey consists of eight limbs. It is also called Raja Yoga. These steps slowly harmonize the mind and gradually induce more subtle perception.
1. Yama. This in turn has five sub-divisions.
a. Satya--truthfulness.
b. Ahimsa--feeling of non-violence to all things.
c. Asteya--honesty.
d. Brahmacharya—continence.
e. Aparigraha--non-possessiveness.
2. Niyama. This also has five sub-divisions.
a. Shaucha—cleanliness.
b. Santosha—contentment.
c, Tapah—austerity.
d. Swadhyaya—self-study
e. Ishwara pranidhana—surrender to the cosmic will.
3. Asana. It is defined by Patanjali as a steady and comfortable sitting position.
4. Pranayama. It is practiced to concentrate all the pranic forces of the human structure.
5. Pratyahara. The practice is concerned with checking and curbing the outgoing
tendencies of the mind so that awareness can be directed inwards.
6. Dharana. Concentration of mind.
7. Dhyana. Is merely an extension of Dharana. Eventually this leads to an elimination of
duality.
8. Samadhi. As Katha Upanishad says: When the five senses of perception together with
the mind are at rest, when even the intellect has ceased to function, that, say
the sages, is the supreme state.
All of these practices are crafted into the Sandya Vandana ritual done thrice a day by a brahmana. Therefore if the rite (Vidhi) is properly done in the prescribed manner, the progress is bound to follow as promised in the Veda.
It is interesting to note:
a) The early morning ritual is addressed to Surya, visible representative of Savitur.
b) The mid-noon ritual is addressed to water (Apas). At section 29 in Mahanarayanopanishad it is clearly stated that Apas represents all Devatas (luminaries) besides all other life forms. It therefore includes Varuna or Indra also.
c) The evening ritual is addressed to Agni in keeping with Rig Vedic format.
6. Summing-up
Really speaking, the three realities we have been considering so far are in fact the very basis of modern science. The same realities have been explored by science.
It is easier to follow this congruence with reference to Gayatri Mantra. We have already seen that what the beginning part referred to as Vyahritis is an over view of modern Cosmology. That was the first reality. Man lives in a network of involved relationships. It’s a labyrinth. The relationships can make or break a man. It could prove to be very unhealthy many times. Accordingly, a branch of science was developed in the west called Behavioral Sciences. Has it alleviated man’s problems? No, it has multiplied the related maladies. The ancients were not unaware of this aspect. They outlined the entire gamut of relationships in two grand epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. They crowned the Mahabharata epic with a master piece of advice in existence called The Bhagwat Geeta. They insisted there is only one solution to the everlasting human relations problem. It is focusing at all times on the great Truth which is the theme of main Gayatri Mantra. We have what is known as applied sciences. Applied science engenders wants and tries to fulfill those wants. Thus, behavioral science and applied science constitute the second reality. The third (ending) portion of Gayatri Mantra makes a statement: Water; Light; Chemicals are the manifestation of the endless Energy and they so manifest on earth; the surrounding atmosphere and the sky above only with His Grace (The unifying Force of modern physics). Apart from affirming the principle of equivalence and inter-connectedness in physics, the indication is with reference to the exploration of matter and energy in science (E=mc2). Thus all conceivable subjects in theoretical science are also the subject matter of the book of knowledge called Rig Veda. This is the third reality.
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