Colony Earth - Part XII: In the Labyrinth of Endurance
The Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan teaches that the purpose of life is to attain
mastery. In his words, the spirit of limitation is the hindrance to realizing
the spirit of mastery. “The process of going from limitation to perfection is
called mysticism. Mysticism means developing from limitation to perfection.”
Kashmir Shaivism states that we are always the Oneness, but we have chosen to
Veil our consciousness in differentiated perception through the limitation of
the five senses. We literally are ‘tricking’ ourselves into the illusion that we
are separate from the Oneness for the purpose of our
'play' in Time and Space. This ‘trick’ is often called the Veil, for it
is an intentional Veil of our forgetting who we are. Worlds are created and
destroyed — and nothing has happened. We are, were, and never will be anything
but the One.
“No diversity is the real Truth”
The Kashmiri sage and saint, Abhinavagupta writes in the Paramarthasara that all
“theories are merely some dialectical speculations useful in discussions and
debates. None among such entities has a real existence, as all these are mere
suppositions and imaginary concepts of thinkers… No diversity is the real
truth.” In other words there is only the Oneness, and all schools of religion
and metaphysics with their varying theories of descriptions and explanations of
manifested reality, are useful as guides up to and until we have moved our
consciousness beyond them - and the temporal illusory hologram.
Abhinavagupta: “The flow of momentary consciousness, the single self working in
all minds, the power of animation, the universal soul shining as the whole
phenomenon, the gross and subtle forms, the generalities or species and lastly
the individual being, all these consist of mere dialectical conception and do
not exist at all in reality.” Why? Because as Abhinavagupta says — “No diversity
is the real truth.” And when you come to realize this truth, “No other aim in
life remains to be accomplished.” You are Home!
In the Tibetan Buddhist Jamgon Kongtrul’s Myriad Worlds, we learn that the
process of self-mastery eliminates the idea of a personal self and cultivates
the understanding that “all the infinite worlds and all the beings who inhabit
them are empty of intrinsic existence, nothing more than the magical play of
relativity and emptiness.” The Tibetan Buddhist cosmology enumerates these
infinite worlds in grand detail. “To fathom the magnitude of infinite numbers of
world systems being born and destroyed every moment requires a broader vision in
one’s spiritual view.”
In the Tibetan Buddhist cosmology, the Bodhisattvas are beings that “actually
contribute to the creation of new worlds in which they may fulfil their heroic
vows to liberate all beings.” In
the translator’s introduction we read, “infinite world-systems arise as phantom
appearances based on interdependent connections, and these worlds serve the
purposes of enlightened beings, who act as spiritual guides, realizing that
these realms have no ultimate reality.” These realms have no ultimate reality.
The Labyrinth
We are the Oneness, that which pervades and permeates everything. As this
ubiquitous unlimited undefinable ‘Thatness’ we have created a labyrinth in Time
& Space for us to play in. The labyrinth is a temporal illusion, a woven fabric
of birth and death, wars and peace, endless layers of temporal polarities for us
to experience, to test ourselves, to learn from. And yet beneath the play,
beneath the curtain of each atom – we are That, we are the One Soul setting all
of it in motion, a multitude of realms that are only appearances and have no
ultimate reality.
The labyrinth appears and disappears, is created, sustained, and dissolved, via
three metaphysical principles. In the Indian Sanskrit these three are
personified as Brahma the Creator, Vishnu who sustains the universe, and Shiva
the Destroyer. The gods and the bodhisattvas are temporal, time based, and no
more real or unreal than we are. They are merely different states of
consciousness, ‘stations’ in the play, which we by our own effort may become.
The myriad worlds are always there. They interact with us; they play a role in
our creation, our evolution, and our destruction. They are a part of the Play.
They also come and go according to their allotted time. At the end of the Kalpa,
everything is dissolved and the Oneness rests in what is called the Night of
Brahma, the polarity of the Day made of many Manvantaras and yugas, the names
given to the various phases of the endless Cycles of Time, world without end.
The Rig Veda
It is my understanding that in the Satya Yuga, the first cycle of time, we have
not yet lost our connection to the God-within each of us. We knew all of this
and therefore our relationship with other dimensional beings was also known. As
we moved down into the ensuing cycles we lost the Knowledge of our true natures,
meaning who we really are. As the Kashmiri sage and saint Swami Lakshmanjoo
says, we play a trick on ourselves. He says smiling in bliss, “It is just
trick!”
As we lost the knowledge of our true Being, we set on a course of externalizing
everything, all our wisdom and power; and we began to worship that which we are
as personifications of our lost powers. We began to ritualize acts that had once
been simple practical useful means to everyday life, for example fire. We
externalized our power and imprisoned ourselves in the temporal illusory
hologram.
We
did this, meaning we allowed it to happen. Those of us who were more fearful
than others followed the path of mastering tyranny, and became the means and
instruments of our delusion. But we agreed, on some level we accepted the loss
for the sake of play.
“Herds in the Skies”
Reading the Rig Veda from this point of view and in a state of consciousness
that includes knowledge of the Myriad Worlds reveals a completely different
meaning. For example the word ‘go’ in Sanskrit has many different meanings. It
is most often translated as ‘cow’, but another meaning is ‘star’ – the poets who
composed the verses saw the stars as herds circling the skies above. There are
endless examples of multiple meanings of Sanskrit words possible; and yet all
the definitions which could point to our earthly interactions with a
technologically advance civilization, one that might have ‘seeded’ us, are
ignored because they don’t fit into traditional religion.
A few verses I have translated will give you quite another version. Again I
freely admit in sincere humility that I have studied Sanskrit for only fours
years now, and my knowledge of early Vedic grammar is very limited, so I do not
expect anyone to accept my translations. However I do feel that based on the
available choices of possible definitions alone, there is considerable reason to
read these verses in light of a wider understanding of the universe we live in.
These three are from a very well known and famous hymn by the Rishi Dirghatamas.
Rig Veda I.164
Verse 16.
The wheel of burning stars,
is perceived as a sacrifice offered.
Those light-strewers, like birds
cry out to me, making a blind man
in darkwaters, conscious.
That intelligent son, the wise sage,
here, now intent upon knowing, observes
those ancestors, the progenitors of mankind,
enlightened Seers who inhabit the Bhuvas,
the regions of the Air, and orbit the Moon,
as Regents of the Nakshatras Magha & Mula.
The stars in the heavens are seen and described as a wheel turning. Their light
is compared to a sacrifice that the Creator has made and offered to us so that
we may be inspired and learn from their light. Who has not been left in total
awe in the magnificent presence of these heavenly lights. The sage who is now
intent upon knowing and remembering, who wants to connect with the ‘fathers’
observes the stars in the heavens. The intelligent are aware of the ancestors
that inhabit the regions between heaven and earth, who are even said to orbit
the Moon and have guard over specific sectors of the Nakshatras, which are
sections of our sky - and perhaps by implication also sectors of the galaxies.
17.
what has become of the abode, the station,
remote in space far beyond, impelling leading driving,
perhaps it is like the stars, those herds of the sky,
inconstant, transient, impermanent,
coming and going far away,
bearing, carrying its future offspring,
indeed producing one part of two, suffering desire, giving,
by no means, not at all the boundary limit of the host multitude.
Here the sage is asking where is the orbiting satellite airship, the space
station that comes and goes up in the skies. It carries ‘future offspring’
perhaps in laboratories of genetic banks, which are by no means the limits, but
rather only a small portion of the multitude of beings, giving an expanded
meaning to the idea of a heavenly host.
18.
who, intelligence restrained regulated,
thus below here in this world,
before speaking to that shinning in the sky
above, beyond, from whom the mind is born
that which abiding abode now known
promoting the favour of the ancestor
[pitri],
the father of sky heaven, far distant remote in space.
The sage has restrained and regulated his or her intelligence, meaning has
gained self-mastery and is no longer a prisoner to the compulsions that rule and
dominate most of us humans, and in Sanskrit are termed the gunas, sattva, tamas,
and rajas. Such self-mastery allows the sage to communicate with the beings that
are orbiting our planet high in the skies above, our ancestors from remote
space, the ‘father’ and progenitors of our race on earth.
The Sanskrit word PITRI is usually translated as ‘father’ or ‘ancestor’ and are
the sons of heaven, existing between heaven and earth. They have luminous
bodies, are connected to the sun and rays. The Moon is sometimes said to be
their abode, their light. The Angirasas are a group of the Pitris. Both are
thought to be the original light-gods and the human fathers. The Angirasas and
the Pitris are “the apotheosis [elevation to divine status] of the rays of some
light phenomena.” [Vedic Etymology-Prof. Fatah Singh]
Sanskrit scholars who have translated these three verses admit to their obscure
riddle-like mystery. The translation of H.H. Wilson says that verse 16 is a
“piece of grammatical mysticism” because a ray of the sun is personified as a
female.
H.H. Wilson: 16. They have called these, my virtuous females, males: he who has
eyes beholds; the blind man sees not: he who is a sage son understands this, and
he who discriminates is the father of the father.
The translation of verse 17 is even more perplexing, bizarre, and verging on
comical. In a comment Wilson himself admits, “This is rather obscure: according
to the Scholiast, the cow is the burnt offering and the calf is Agni, and the
positions of the two indicate the station of the offerer with respect to the
sun: or the cow may typify the solar rays collectively and the calf the
worshipper.” What?
H.H. Wilson: 17. The cow, holding her calf underneath with her fore-feet, and
then above with her hind-feet, has risen up: whither is she gone; to whom has
she turned back when half-way; where does she bear young: it is not amidst the
herd.
R.L. Kashyap says that in his translation 'the Ray-cow has stood up': “the
Ray-cow is the same as the heavenly mind
(devam manah)… [and] Looking at the limitations of our ordinary world, one
wonders where this heavenly mind has gone.” Yes indeed, one does wonder where
the heavenly mind has gone! Sweet Jesus! As one scholar puts it,
"To this day there is no internally consistent and coherent interpretation of
the Vedas. Meaning, however, has been forced out of the hymns..." [B.G.
Sidharth].
These translations have been forced, and in my view forced to fit the prevailing
religious ideas as accepted by an elite of priests and scholars. To be fair, the
translations of R.L. Kashyap and Shyam Ghosh are the most accessible. Still
their verses have little in common. It might be said that Shyam Ghosh has
created his own Rig Veda, which is rather wonderful, inspiring, and at least
makes some sense.
The Rig Veda has long been thought of as the source of all Indian metaphysics
and liberating spiritual wisdom. When I began my meagre amateur translations of
this sacred ancient text my only thought was — at last I shall touch the source
of the elevating subtle ideas found in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita,
which is a compilation of the best and essence of the Upanishads. I never
thought to find evidence of ancient astronauts and earth as a colony. I came in
complete reverence, but I could not deny the definitions I found in the M.
Monier-Williams Sanskrit to English Dictionaries.
One of the Sanskrit words in verse 18 of Dirgatamas hymn 164 is YAMA. I had read
in Shyam Ghosh that in the early Vedic texts there is no mention of hell worlds,
which appear to be an invention of the Middle Ages not only in European
Catholicism, but also in India. The M. Monier-Williams dictionary defines the
word YAMA thus: “a rein, curb, bridle; a driver, charioteer; the act of checking
or curbing, suppression, restraint; self-control, forbearance; [the definitions
continue with the very interesting] the name of the god who presides over the
PITRIS [the ancestors] and rules the spirits of the dead; he is called ‘the
gatherer of men’ and rules over the departed fathers in heaven, the road to
which is guarded by two broad-nosed, four-eyed, spotted dogs…; [only later] in
Post-Vedic mythology he is appointed Judge and ‘Restrainer’ or ‘Punisher’ of the
dead; in later mythology, he is always represented as a terrible deity
inflicting tortures on departed spirits.”
Therefore we may conclude that the stories of hells, and in fact perhaps hells
as temporal holograms, grew in abundance as lurid and terrifying descriptions of
their heinous punishments were utilized by generations of tyrants, who saw how
effective they were in keeping human consciousness controlled in fear. As I have
said before, our every act and thought accumulates as energies that form as a
consequence in our individual spirit body, and which we carry from one life to
the next. Our own acts, our behaviour and misbehaviour, are quite sufficient to
eventually and inevitably bring us to the wisdom of self-mastery.
I suppose if some want hells worlds, the universe is generously prepared to
offer such experiences to satisfy our every desire. The Tibetan Buddhist texts
and the Hindu Puranas are loaded with descriptions of these places. In my view
these terrifying hell worlds are all the product of our descent through the Kali
Yuga and the rather muddled density of consciousness in the Middle Ages. Much of
the more complicated and elaborate Buddhist cosmology also seems to have
developed later. Even the famous Mount Sumeru, which is at the very center of
the Buddhist universe, is said to have first emerged in the Mahabharata, where
it is called Meru [Akira Sadakata]. The exact dates of the Mahabharata are
unknown, but the great epic poem was composed much later than the Rig Veda.
We are the Oneness, Veiled, enjoying the ‘trick’ as Lakshmanjoo puts it, and we
are projecting creating our own temporal illusory holograms in every lifetime.
We are not slaves, not victims. We make it all — everything we experience.
“There is only ONE. There is not ever in any sense many, or even two. All
perception of distinction and separation, of duality, and therefore what is
known as physical reality, is a mind-created illusion, the nature of a dream.
What you think you are, a separate individual entity, is part of this illusion.
You are not the doer of any action or the thinker of any thought. Events happen,
but there is no doer. All there is, is Consciousness. That is what you truly
are.” [David Carse]
And as the Kashmiri Abhinavagupta and Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita both say –
after you have realized this, nothing remains to be done!
Bhagavad Gita XV.20:
Thus this most secret doctrine has been taught... having realized this knowledge
a man becomes wise and accomplishes everything that is to be accomplished.
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Publications, Boston & London, 1999.
PARAMARTHASARA of Abhinavagupta, with English translation & notes by Dr. B.N.
Pandit, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers; 1991, New Delhi
The Celestial Key to the Vedas, by B.G. Sidharth; Inner Traditions, 1999.
The RGVEDA, Mandala III, A Critical Study of the Sayana Bhasya and Other
Interpretations of the Rgveda (3.1.1 to 3.7.3), by Dr. Siddh Nath Shukla;
Sharada Publishing House, Delhi, 2001.
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Translation and Notes), by R.L. Kashyap; Saksi, Published in collaboration with
ASR, Melkote; Sri Aurobindo Kapali Sastry Institute of Vedic Culture, Bangalore,
India, 2009.
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According to the Translation of H.H. Wilson and Bhasya of Sayanacarya; Edited
and revised with an exhaustive introduction and notes by Ravi Prakash Arya &
K.L. Joshi; Indica Books, Parimal Publications, Delhi, 2002.
Buddhist Cosmology, Philospohy and Origins, by Akira Sadakata; Kosei Publishing
Co., Tokyo, 1997, 2009.
Dirghatamas, Life and Vision of Vedic Seers, by Professor Satya Prakash Singh;
Standard Publishers, New Delhi, 2006.
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Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai, India, 2003.
The Origin of Buddhist Meditation, by Alexander Wynne; Routledge, Taylor &
Francis Group, London & New York, 2007.
Perfect Brilliant Stillness, Beyond the Individual Self, by David Carse;
Paragaté Publishing, Shelburne, VT, 2006.
VEDIC ETYMOLOGY, A Critical evaluation of the Science of Etymology as found in
Vedic Literature; by Prof. Fatah Singh, M.A., B.T., D.Litt.; Chaukhamba
Surbharti Prakashan, Varanasi, 1952, 2008.
Sanskrit-English Dictionary, M. Monier-Williams; Two volumes, Recomposed and
improved edition; Indica Books and Parimal Publications, New Delhi, 2008.
Abhinavagupta’s Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita
GITARTHA SAMGRAHA,
Translated from Sanskrit with Introduction & Notes by Boris Marjanovic;
Indica Books; 2004, Varanasi India
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