What we learn here is something that we all badly need to learn. Fundamentally our 'light' bodies are the containers of our consciousness and are vastly more significant than we have intellectually and emotionally been prepared to accept. This same light body manages the entirety of our interaction with the physical while we delude ourselves into either thinking that that is all that is, or dismiss it somehow as insignificant.
We are better to consider the body as the shell we animate in order to experience this world and to do work here.
The idea of Gods, then becomes irrelevant. We are all potentially as much. Yet we must grow into this potential and that may take many lifetimes to achieve.
This puts the ancient teachings into proper perspective.
We are better to consider the body as the shell we animate in order to experience this world and to do work here.
The idea of Gods, then becomes irrelevant. We are all potentially as much. Yet we must grow into this potential and that may take many lifetimes to achieve.
This puts the ancient teachings into proper perspective.
V. Susan Ferguson, Contributor
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/06/15/gods-packets-light-energy/
The ancient Sanskrit text, the Rig Veda is said to be the one source
of all other sacred Sanskrit texts. The Rig Veda was transmitted orally
for thousands of centuries. Indian scholars say that from ancient days
through modern times all the efforts to lift the veil of mystery from
the word Veda only served to thicken the mist: “To this day there is no
internally consistent and coherent interpretation of the Vedas” [B.G
Sidharth, Indian physicist]. Western scholars wrongly translated the Rig
Veda words in their ‘literal’ sense and completely obscured missed the
layers of subtle metaphysical and other meanings hidden in the older
Vedic Sanskrit.
The Rishis who composed the hymns in the Rig Veda were not
worshipping external deities in any form, astral or otherwise. The
ancient Rishis were great beings, man and women who had retained, held
on to and owned the power of vision. They were Seers, which is what the
Sanskrit word Rishi means.
There were around 400 of these Rishis, such as Angiras, Agastya,
Vasistha, Vishvamitra, Bhrigu, Brihaspati, Dirghatamas, and at least 27
of them were women, for example Vagambhrini and Dakshina Prajapatya.
These Seers carried within them the innate powers to manifest form in
this universe from the infinite multitude of potencies within the
formless. This ability was not unique or ‘special’ in the first cycle of
time, the Satya Yuga. We all were able to do this, which is how the
manifested realms were brought into being and became form — rûpa in
Sanskrit.
“While the god [deva] is a presence in the mantra, he is neither visible nor palpable in any other way. …the mantra…facilitates the god’s presence, form and functions. There can be no god apart from the mantra.” – S.K. Ramachandra Rao, Yaska’s Nirukta
“…neo-spiritualism resembles…materialism extended beyond the limits of the corporeal world, this being clearly exemplified by the crude representations of the subtle world, wrongly called spiritual…consisting almost entirely of images borrowed from the corporeal domain..” – Rene Guenon, The Reign of Quantity
As we moved from the first cycle of time, the Satya Yuga, down into
the denser second cycle of time, the Tretâ Yuga, the majority lost the
natural gift of pulling, plucking, gathering coagulations, packets of
light-energies through an intensely concentrated willed focus from the
Mind of God, the Oneness. Previously we all had a shared access to the
Mind of God, because the One dwells within us all. Therefore like the
Rishis, we were able to transpose those packets of light-energy into
manifestation both as form and ideas, seeds to build upon much as we
envision fractals today endlessly building. The Kashmir Shaivite Swami
Lakshmanjoo has said that this is why each of us feels that we can do
anything, even though experience tells us otherwise. We remember.
‘Div’ = to Shine!
The word for god in Sanskrit is ‘deva’ — and its root derivation
‘div’ means to shine. The Rishis were invoking, creating, generating
these packets of light-energy pulsations, which were shinning in the
sense that they were intensely compacted encoded source energies from
the Mind of God that could be used to create and bring form into this
world. This knowledge was lost. The knowledge was most certainly lost by
the time the ritualist Sayana (who died in 1387 A.D.) wrote his
interpretations of the Rig Veda and thus led subsequent scholars astray
into a distorted understanding, especially the western world of scholars
who first translated the Rig Veda as the work of idol worshipping
primitives.
The idea that “while the god is a presence in the mantra, he is
neither visible nor palpable in any other way,” thus so brilliantly
expressed by S.K. Ramachandra Rao, is further enhanced by Rene Guenon’s
statement that what today often passes for traditional wisdom, what
Guenon calls neo-spiritualism, is stuck in its conceptions of familiar
corporeal form. Guenon: “…neo-spiritualism resembles…materialism
extended beyond the limits of the corporeal world, this being clearly
exemplified by the crude representations of the subtle world, wrongly
called spiritual…consisting almost entirely of images borrowed from the
corporeal domain.”
We are very far removed from our Origin and the states of
consciousness, actually God-consciousness, that were innate and natural
to us in the early yugas. In our present day state, trapped in and
limited to five-sense perception, we cannot easily think in what might
be termed formless or the abstract. However that formless unmanifest is
what we emerge from and what we will inevitably return to — when we are
weary of this sukha-duhhka, pleasure-pain polarity world.
We are not progressing towards anything except another cyclical
Dissolution, perhaps brought about by the release of millions of tons of
methane clathrates that have been hidden deep in our oceans, the
release being a reaction to cyclical solar emissions of radiation. We
are not evolving. We already are perfect as the One, our Source and
Being. We are simply ‘playing’ here in Veils of Delusion, the plane of
Forgetting. Therefore the need to justify spirituality and metaphysical
principles by being, as Guenon says, “constantly preoccupied in adapting
these ancient ideas, or what are imagined to be such, to modern
science” is absurd and a waste of time. Plus because all scientific
theories change with soul grinding rapidity, we are forced to alter our
adaptations continually!
The Personification of Metaphysical Principles
The Rishis didn’t require pantheons of gods and goddesses. These
realms of astral visions are of our own making and formed as the cycles
of time devolved into density, meaning the Solidification of our world,
during which this temporal illusory hologram, our creation, closed and
descended further into our own projected belief systems, delusions and
illusions.
The Rishis were chanting their mantras, which they composed as the Rig Veda,
to create. This wasn’t ritual magic in the modern sense — it was purely
the Seers plucking shining packets of light-energy ‘div’ from the Mind
of God, the imperishable immutable One, and using these pulsating
packets for manifestation. Even in the Tretâ Yuga, the Rishis still had
the power to connect to Source and make everything happen! Because most
of us down though time continued to lose our creative abilities, we were
dependent on the Rishis, just as today we depend on the creativity and
genius of the few.
S.K. Ramachandra Rao on the Rig Veda: “The seer is merely an
instrument for the revelation of the mantra, and the poetic form is
mechanically assumed by revelation. It is the god (devata) for whom the
mantra is meant that is significant. The mantra is in fact distinguished
by the god whose nature, power, peculiarities, and relevance for the
seer is enshrined in the mantra. While the god is a presence in the
mantra, he is neither visible nor palpable in any other way. He does not
exist apart from the mantra. It is only through the mantra that he is
visualized.”
What is useful in one phase of the expansion of our personal
spiritual Wisdom-Knowledge or the larger group expansion, often becomes a
trap in another phase. Thus we may understand how the Truth of one yuga
is devolved into the lens of multiplicity and confusion in another. As
an artist, I love the inspiring depictions of gods and goddess in stone,
bronze, wood, and the colourful graceful paintings. I often touch the
feet of my statue of Krishna playing the flute in my home. I do this to
remind myself that the One dwells in my Heart — and simultaneously in
the Hearts of All. I am particularly fond of Indian art because it
symbolizes timeless primordial traditional metaphysical principles.
Thank you, India!
Equilibrium Between Two Opposites
Alain Danielou in his ‘Gods of India’ offers a deeper insight on the
metaphysical meaning of the gods and explains Brahma not as an old man
perpetually seated in a pink lotus, but rather as the Space-Time or
Revolving Principle:
“The possibility of a form, of a perceptible reality, depends on the
existence of a ‘place’ where it can appear and expand, that is, on the
existence of an oriented medium (in our world space-time) which is the
result of an equilibrium between two opposites, between the centripetal
and the centrifugal principles. It is a balance between concentration
and dispersion, between a tendency toward existence and a tendency
toward annihilation, between light and darkness, between Vishnu and
Shiva.”
The Rig Veda deities are not the more familiar ones that emerged
later. For example, there is Indra, Agni, Ushas, Surya, Soma, Mitra.
Even though it may be somewhat entertaining, I shall not even begin to
tell you the many explanations of what or who Indra might be. One
scholar says, “Rishi Angirasa is credited with the invention of Agni
(S.S. Gupta).” Most agree that Agni is some kind of fire, but exactly
what kind is debated.
The Name Brahma is Not Found in the Vedas
Consider that the name Brahma is not found in the Vedas. Vishnu has
only three complete mantras dedicated to him. The name Vishnu is derived
from the root ‘Vis’ which means to enter or pervade. His identity in
the Rig Veda is considered by some scholars to be the Sun, while others
view the three mantras dedicated to Vishnu as corresponding to the three
spaces of the universe. Shyam Ghosh opines that Vishnu “indicates the
act of instilling knowledge into human beings.”
The
etymology of the Sanskrit word shiva is ‘auspicious’ and was used in
the Vedas as an epithet of Rudra. Scholars agree that Rudra in the Rig
Veda later became Shiva. Rudra is more of a destructive force than the
beloved wandering sage, garlanded with snakes and drinking from a human
skull. Dr. Raja R.M. Roy says that Rudra represents the radiation
produced when matter and anti-matter annihilate each other: “Rudra means
what makes one cry, which refers to penetrating brightness of
radiation.” On a recorded teaching, the Kashmir Shaivite Swami
Lakshmanjoo joked with his disciples saying, “Shiva is a great god
residing on Mount Kailas in the Himalayas!”…pause…”Rubbish!”
I am reminded of a passage in the Bible that I now feel was speaking
of spiritual maturity when it said: “When I was a child, I spoke like a
child, I thought like a child, reasoned like a child. When I became a
man, I put aside childish ways.” [1st Corinthians 13:11]
Danielou states that “the source of the manifest world is neither
Vishnu nor Shiva, neither concentration nor dispersion, but the result
of their opposition, their equilibrium.” The gods symbolize physics in
the sense of forces interacting; but as these forces are the underlying
source of all manifestation, the term is more properly metaphysics.
Brahma is rajasic, Vishnu is considered sattvic, and Shiva tamasic.
According to Danielou, the rajas which has become personified by
Brahma “manifests itself as a revolving, space-creating, and time
creating power. …Brahma is the balance of forces from which measurable
extension originates. He is the nature of all form, of all perceptible
existence, all of the spheres and their movements, of all the rhythms
that create the divisions of relative time. …(Brahma) represents the
boundless waste in which space and time originate.”
Space-Time
Guenon elucidates Time-Space: “Space cannot possibly extend beyond
the world in order to contain it…because emptiness cannot contain
anything. On the contrary, it is space that is in the world, that is to
say, manifestation…space is coextensive with this world, because it is
one of its conditions.” Thus Guenon makes it clear that we are wrongly
attempting to define the universe with our limited five-sense perception
criteria and standards. Space is one of the conditions for this world.
Time is also a condition in which this world is founded. Therefore
neither time, nor space and most especially not this world are infinite.
Guenon: “…this world is no more infinite than is space itself, for
like space, it does not contain every possibility, but only represents a
certain particular order of possibilities…time began in the world…the
[manifest] world is not therefore eternal.” The ancient Rishis would
have known these eternal Truths. Knowledge of the Cycles of Time was no
mere theory to them. They knew that Wisdom-Knowledge would descend into
absurdity and left us the enigmatic Rig Veda as a reminder of our
earlier states of consciousness. We can easily comprehend why no one can
translate these mantras. I must say that my meagre attempts were
without a doubt the most arduous efforts of focus and concentration I
have ever experienced. Receiving multiple layers of meaning from other
realms requires uncharted discipline. I hope to return to them one day,
to honour them, and I sincerely hope others will do the same.
As we moved deeper into the Kali Yuga,
the later Seers who composed the Upanishads knew that the real meaning
of the Rig Veda was being lost. Therefore they tried to rescue the
meaning in the wonderful amazing Upanishads. “By the time of the
Brahmanas people started being skeptical about the authenticity of the
meaning (of the Rig Veda) as well as the utility of the Veda.” Yâska,
the 6th century BC Sanskrit grammarian said in the Nirukta: “Seers had
direct intuitive insight…by oral instruction, [they] handed down hymns
to later generations who were destitute of direct intuitive knowledge.”
[The Rigveda, Mandala III, Shukla & Shukla]
Gentle Compassion
I would imagine that our Rishis would shake their heads in a gentle,
perhaps humorous compassion at our current human obsession with
worshipping anything external to our own being, when what we seek waits
within our own Heart. Western religions have cooked up their own array
of up-on-the-pedestal beings that are worshipped daily by supplicants
around the planet. India is not alone in this by any means. And let us
not forget the new ‘gods’ of consumption and mall-world, which the
multinational corporations are eulogizing, turning out endless
propaganda, advertising promises of material bliss in a brave new
corporatocracy world — that turns out to be more of the same old
familiar tyranny in a designer suit!
In the Kali Yuga ‘kings are thieves and thieves are kings’. In the
past tyrants have spilled only blood on the earth. Now technology allows
these who crave world domination, to poison the planet they seek to
possess and bring us ever closer to the final moments in this cycle of
time.
About the Author
V. Susan Ferguson is the author of Inanna Returns, Inanna Hyper-Luminal; her own commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and the Shiva Sutras; and Colony Earth & the Rig Veda. Her website is Metaphysical Musing.
Sources:
RGVEDA DARSHANA – Volume Sixteen, Yaska’s Nirukta, by S.K. Ramachandra Rao; Kalpatharu Research Academy, Bangalore, 2005.
The Reign of Quantity & the Signs of the Times, by Rene Guenon; Sophia Perennis, Hillsdale, NY, 1945, 2001.
Risikas of the Rigveda, by Swami Atmaprajnananda Saraswati; D.K. Printword, New Delhi, 2013.
The Gods of India, Hindu Polytheism, by Alain Danielou, 1964; Inner Traditions International Ltd., NYC, 1985.
RGVEDA for the Layman, A Critical Survey of One Hundred Hymns of the
Rigveda, with Samhita-patha, Pada-patha and word meaning and English
translation, by Shyam Ghosh; Munishiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,
New Delhi, 2002, Nandi, Indira.
Vedic Physics, Scientific Origin of Hinduism, by Raja Ram Mohan Roy,
Ph.D., foreword by Professor Subhash Kak; Golden Egg Publishing,
Toronto, 1999.
VEDIC PHYSICS, Towards Unification of Quantum Mechanics & General
Relativity, by Keshav Dev Verma; Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi,
1991, 2008.
A Study of Deities of the RIG VEDA, With the help of Science, by S.S. Gupta; Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, 2006.
The Celestial Key to the Vedas by B.G. Sidharth; Inner Traditions, 1999.
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