The Earthquake in Christchurch on September 4 brought the message of the fragile nature of our lives too close for comfort. Fortunately, we did not lose any lives, although the cost of damage is expected to run in the billions. The majority of people only want one thing in the aftermath of the Earthquake – get back to their normal lives as quickly as possible.
One message that the Earthquake again failed to impress on our minds is the reality of how we as a species are inter-related, that we live in the interconnected world of nature and are as open to the vagaries of nature as anyone in any part of the world.
However, much and which ever way we protect our borders and our way of life, natural disasters don’t recognise these demarcations. Nor does something like global warming or climate change or any other global event like El Nino or La Nina.
While the Earth has been divided up in countries and regions, oceans and stratosphere and other spheres, it remains for all intents and purpose a ‘single operating system’ – connected in so many ways that we only starting to understand. It is rightly said that the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in Wales will eventually lead to a storm in the Amazon, that is how interconnected we are.
Why the Earth is continually changing
The Earth has been around for some time now and in that time it has experienced change that is not only mind-boggling but beyond our scope (science or otherwise) to truly understand.
Several ice ages, dinosaurs, mass extinctions, different species of humans and hominids, secrets deep in the ground, under the seas, pole reversals, and other climatic ‘disasters’ – the planet is in a state of continuous change, all the time.
It is the nature of things, or, if you will, the nature of the Earth to do these things to maintain its balance. After all, it is but a satellite of the sun, and has to keep up pace and decorum with the others in the grand design of things.
Forget the universe, the Earth is a very tiny entity in the galaxy itself. In the solar system, it has to play a role in the general balance of things, spinning at great speed around the sun while itself spinning at head-snapping speeds on its axis. On top of it, it is wobbly and slanted in its circuit around the sun.
Every planet circulating the sun exerts its own force on every other planet in some way, influencing their movement one way or another. Imagine the solar system as a three dimensional freeway, with lanes marked out for each planet and traffic management and traffic lights in place. Then imagine an acrobat whirling a number of dinner plates on sticks, getting the balance just right and ensuring the rotating plates do not collide as he moves the sticks around on his hands and forehead. Put the acrobatics and freeway image together and you can get an idea of how the solar system operates.
When Sir Isaac Newton was talking of gravity, it was this balance, poise and movement of the planets that he was talking about. (And we have taken this great man’s computations of the planets and shoved it in the inane illustration of an apple falling on his head to illustrate what gravity is.)
As the Earth continues its relentless, yet varying, march around the sun with the other planets, and the sun spins around in the galaxy around some other pivotal point (many agree it is the galactic centre), and the galaxy itself travels in its relation to the other billions of galaxies in the universe, this gravitational pull, working in so many different ways, keeps a tight rein in the movement of planets, solar system and galaxies.
All this while, what happens on its surface has to be noted and attended to by the Earth. In the past millions of years, the Earth survived the dinosaurs, and it survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. It is still here, 65 million years after the dinosaurs, sustaining us. It has seen several races of people live and become extinct, seen civilizations start, dominate and fade away from memory, has spawned several species of flora and fauna, lost them, had more species come up to replace those lost.
At different stages of its journey in the cosmos, the Earth is a different thing at different times. What it is now is near-perfect for the life forms on it. What it will be next (whenever this happens) may not be as good for us (or it could be better, who knows?). We, the human race, may just be a passing phase for the Earth however much we want to believe that we are the rulers of Earth.
So, who is in charge?
The Earth, apparently, is in charge here. If we believe that we, as a species, have dominated the Earth and wrought our changes on its face, we are sorely mistaken. The day we control the weather or stop dead a natural disaster is the day we can claim to have a semblance of control over the Earth.
Until that day comes, we can only say we have been given leave to live on this planet, that we are here at the tolerance of Mother Earth. What we really do is exist within the bounds of the conditions that have been established by the Earth.
And she is a marvellous host, giving us the bounty of her land and seas, allowing us to go forth and multiply, and multiply, and multiply. As a species, we have ‘conquered’ almost all kinds of obstacles and made a good life for ourselves amid conditions detrimental to our existence including the heat or the cold, the dry or the wet.
But at all times we remain but a subset of the entity we call the Earth. There is little or no chance of this species surviving outside of the Earth, however much we may want to live on the moon.
Just another disaster?
Disasters on Earth is always a given – from our point of view. For the huge entity that is Earth, it is only a matter of maintaining its poise and balance. It has a habit of reversing its poles to balance its magnetic fields – the Earth has reversed its poles 200 times in the past 178 million year, the last one being 730-750,000 years ago. After all, the Earth is also a dynamo, with its solid inner core using solar magnetic energy to throw up a deflecting field against the solar winds that could burn the Earth to a crisp.
But there are disasters that even the Earth may not be able to take in its stride.
Now science is telling us that the solar system is careening towards the centre of the galaxy, where, it is believed, awaits it a supermassive blackhole. So say scientists who have been keeping a extremely close eye on the workings of the galaxy. They also say that this supermassive blackhole could be benign – meaning it is well-meaning and perhaps may not swallow up the Earth, or the solar system.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed in 2000 what was long-suspected - a black hole does exist at the centre of the galaxy. Instead of the highly active monster that most other galaxies have, our blackhole is less active. Apparently a supernova exploded close to it sometime back and masked its pulling capabilities with enough dust to make it a starving blackhole.
Nevertheless it can still eat up a comet or two if they come close enough, as was shown in 2001 when the blackhole swallowed a comet and released enough x-rays to brighten a nearby star by 45 times its normal brightness. So its devouring capabilities are largely intact. By the way, blackholes cannot be seen and so are only discerned by the x-rays they emit.
On the face of it, careening headlong towards a blackhole is a mother of a disaster. Maybe not. The galactic centre is a massive area – a radio signal associated with the centre and called Sagittarius A emanates from an area with a diameter of 44 million kilometres.
There are a thousand stars and systems already very near the galactic centre, including a ‘sun’ that is seven times as big and 15 times as heavy as our sun, called the S2. It is so close to the centre that it only takes 15.2 years to orbit it (our sun does it in 50,000 plus years). In fact there are some 100 new stars, ‘born’ and evolved near the centre and scientists are baffled as to why this happened if a blackhole exists near to them.
No-one is absolutely sure how far away the centre of the galaxy is away from us presently. In the great scheme of things it could be trillions of kilometres away or ‘just around the corner’. For all we know, it could take the solar system a twinkling of time to cover the enormous distance, or it will not never happen in our lifetime. So far, so good as far as science is concerned
The creation of our galaxy
Now, our ancients had a good idea of what’s happening in the galaxy. Let’s look at our so-called mythology and see what these ancients have been trying to tell us.
Our galaxy is called the Milky Way, because of the dusting of the white that accompanies its spiral formation. And Lord Vishnu, the all-pervading, lies in the ocean of milk (Ksheer Sagar) on the endless coils of the serpent Anantha/Shesha Naag. The allegory is so right: the Ocean of Milk for the Milky Way, the coils of the serpent to indicate the spiralling nature of the galaxy. And Vishnu (the name means that which pervades all) right in the middle of it all, or forming the basis of it.
Vishnu in his preserver role, is either non-active or active, depending on whether creation (shristi) is in progress, or is in abeyance. When creation is in abeyance, Vishnu rests and the serpent lies coiled. Come creation, the serpent uncoils and everything starts happening, including the spinning off of solar/star systems and galaxies.
To start creation, a lotus pops out of Vishnu’s navel on which is borne Brahma, the creator. This is called Vishnu Naabhi and correlates to the centre of the galaxy (the seat of Brahma). And planets, suns, star and systems are spawned out of this centre. It is all a matter of expansion, for creation is expansion. As the systems evolve, they start their elliptical journey from the centre in an outward direction, growing, spawning and ‘living’.
For our solar system, this journey takes some 26,000 years before it comes back to the periapsis or pericentre( the point of closest approach to the centre) and it will take a similar timeframe to do the circuit in the opposite direction. Many of our astrologers are saying the elliptical journey for the sun is halfway done now and it is approaching the centre, where the solar system will be the closest to the Naabhi in the past 26,000 years.
Now all this galaxy creation is a microcosm of the greater role of creation, where Vishnu pervades the universe and Brahma starts creation of the galaxies and systems (or lokas). The process of creation is passed down intact to the lowest level so that any small creation is similar to the ultimate creation and vice versa. What is above is below and what is inside is outside. Or is our galaxy really the centre of the universe if it actually has the Vishni Naabhi at its centre?
The end of creation
And with creation comes dissolution, as it should be. The Naabhi started the creation and its here where dissolution must take place. As stars and systems spawned out of the centre, so must they come to the centre to be ‘consumed’.
The blackhole can be said to be the destroyer of the trinity, Shiva. The tandav dance of Shiva is the crackling, electrifying, super heavy, all-swallowing, x-ray emitting processes of a blackhole. It is the ultimate dissolution and destruction. Nothing escapes Shiva when he sets out to destroy something, not even light.
But dissolution is an ongoing business, not a one-time event only. Of course, for a planet about to be destroyed, it is a one-off thing but there are myriad of planets and each will eventually be destroyed. And each destruction will be termed a pralaya (dissolution).
Alternatively, followers of Shiva believe it differently. Shiva is the creator, preserver and destroyer all rolled in one, as represented by Natraja. The Tandav is itself the ongoing story of creation, preservation and destruction; a creation ringed by fire, keeping rhythm to the Anahat Sound, represented by Shiva’s damaru (drum).
Each of Natraja’s four arms symbolises the four aspect of divinity: beating the rhythm of the universe with the damaru; blessing us and telling us not to fear anything (abhayahasta); holding fire to show the destruction of both the universe and the ego; and, most importantly, pointing to the demon pinned under his foot that is not upraised in dance. The demon Apasmera represents ignorance, especially ignorance that is an offshoot of dualism. Others call the dwarf demon, Mara (illusion) or Maya (illusion).
Whichever way one will have it, the ancient knew a thing or two and tried their best to pass it on to us. Wrapped in allegory, metaphor and downright-in-your-face imagery, the workings of the universe was told to us. Yet, we failed to understand them.
Now, as science counts down the headlong rush of planet Earth to the centre of the galaxy, it is an apt time to look to our mythology and see what happened in such situations, and find counters to it, if we can. And to ask questions that we have dared not ask before.
Are we heading right into the jaws of this suppermassive blackhole? Is it Earth’s time to experience pralaya?
According to our scriptures, NO. The benign blackhole will certainly exert a force, a tremendous force but not enough to break the sun’s orbit of the centre. There is a great chance of survival for the Earth. But for the people and the other species that reside on Earth, it may be another thing.
Like I said, from the point of view of Earth, the adjustments to the planet may be minor indeed. But the trickle down effect on things living on it may be enormous. What awaits mankind as we speed ahead to this tryst?
The things that have been predicted could happen to us:
Cataclysms – major upheavals, including monster volcano eruptions (there is talk of the nine mountain gods erupting in several mythologies), Earthquakes, tsunamis of giant proportions. A vast majority of humanity will suffer and the planet will reface itself (resurfacing).
Cleansing - a virtual wiping out of many species without much damage to the planet itself. This includes solar winds that pass through the Earth’s protective magnetic shield and change the very molecular structure of things on the planet. It may also just burn every thing up, leaving no chance of cultivation on the surface, and thus little chance of civilisation surviving for very long. Electrical storms would disrupt communications and cut off everyone from everyone.
Consciousness – several cultures and several noteworthy scholars believe the closer we come to the centre of the galaxy the more in tune we become to the pervading consciousness of the universe (God, Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, etc). This rise in consciousness will, of course, come at a price. We will need to give up our body awareness (maybe even our bodies?) – either voluntarily or be forced to do so.
Our ancients have been calling for a new way of living for millennia, in which we are to go beyond body consciousness into the unified field consciousness. Our body is only a vehicle and we have to realise our real self to understand the part we must play in understanding the workings of the universe.
Has the time arrived for major upheavals to take place in our lives, in our very existence? If yes, are we ready for it? Most probably, no. The unrelenting sequels of natural disasters taking place on Earth should teach us something but we are too enamoured by life to see the deadly destruction. It is Yuddhistar who said (when asked by Yama) what was the most astounding thing on Earth: “Thousands are dying everyday but people believe that they will go on living forever. This is the most astounding thing”.
It is the killing of ignorance, especially of the duality of this world, that Shiva’s tandav is teaching us. Maybe it is time to actually look at what we really need to do and see how we can actually live while we still have a body and a mind to understand things.
Asato maa, Sad gamaya
Tamaso maa, Jyotir gamaya
Mrityo maa, Amritam gamaya
NOTES
Black holes
The intense gravity of the black hole prevents any light from escaping it, and it is therefore invisible. Its vicinity, however, contains a fairly high density of stars, including one big star--about 15 times the mass of the Sun and 7 times its radius--which was recently found to go around the centre with an orbital period of only 15.2 years. That star, designated S2 by astronomers, follows an ellipse which at its closest comes within about 124 astronomical units (1 AU=mean Sun-Earth distance) of the centre of the galaxy. At that time it speeds up to about 5000 km/sec--close to 2% of the velocity of light! Its side facing the black hole is somewhat closer to the black hole than the side facing away, and is therefore pulled more strongly; on a very close approach, such a difference could tear a star apart, but S2 would have to get some 70 times closer before that would happen, at a distance comparable to the orbital radius of Mars.
Galactic Centre of Milky Way
The central parsec around Sagittarius A* contains thousands of stars. Although most of them are old red main sequence stars, the Galactic Center is also rich in massive stars. More than 100 OB and Wolf-Rayet stars have been identified there so far. They seem to have all been formed in a single star formation event a few million years ago. The existence of these relatively young (though evolved) stars was a surprise to experts, who expected the tidal forces from the central black-hole to prevent their formation. This paradox of youth is even more remarkable for stars that are on very tight orbits around Sagittarius A*, such as S2.
A world-ending prophesy
Pope Leo IX (Pope from 1513-1522) wrote in 1514 of what is coming: "I will not see the end of the world, nor will you my brethren, for its time is long in the future, 500 years hence." 500 years hence would be 2014, just two years after the Mayan Prophecy End Date, and as Leo was obviously rounding the date to a full sum, it is very possible he is even referring to the year 2012.
Mayan Calendar and yuga separation of the Hindus
The now famous date December 21, 2012 is the date that the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by the preColumbian Maya civilization, and known by them and by the Aztecs as the Fifth Sun, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns. This means that since the last creation date on August 11 3114. or 13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count calculation, the "clock hand" will have reached 13.0.0.0.0 again for the first time, marking the completion of this cycle.
Yet this period, lasting c. 5125 years, is just one last (fifth) part of an even longer cycle that turns out to be the same as the Great Year. Knowledge of the Great Year is found in other ancient astrological-astronomical records (i.e. in India) and so with further study the Mayan 2012 calendar end finds roots in other cultures too. With the ending of the last part of this age, the Mesoamerican cycle of five ages also completes. Herewith a large time period of five x 5,125 (c. 25,625 years) is also drawing to a close.
The second coming?
Mention of nine godlike figures is found in many ancient cultures - Maya, Egyptian, Chinese and Tibetan and if you do enough reading of the ancient texts it is quite clear that these nine were volcanic mountains.
They were connected to a very ancient plan that has been copied and kept alive in different areas of the world (you can begin to recognize the connection by reading on Nine Tibetan Mountain Gods). The Return is, then, of fallen or lost mountains, which might cause a certain amount of Earthquakes, tsunamis and eruptions. Moreover they were connected in the plan to one central volcanic mountain that marked the centre of the whole Earth, a mountain that has completely disappeared, sunk below the seas and into our own subconscious
Thursday, December 23, 2010
2012 – the year of reckoning?
As 2012 draws near, a growing number of people are proclaiming massive changes that will be taking place on Earth. Much of the speculation is due to the Mayan (large) calendar which ends on December 21, 2012 (according to its relation with our modern calendar, of course). The movie 2012 has some information about this, and the web is full of it.
Type “2012” into a search engine and you will get 332,000,000 results. The web is buzzing with the ‘end of days’ sites, with much greater emphasis than the Y2K bug could ever have generated. All kinds of outcomes are offered, from a meteorite hitting the planet, to utter collapse of civilisation due to greed, to the third world war.
All religions are being tapped into for “clear signs” of the catastrophe, as well as prophets and science. Pseudo-scientists have either the Planet X (also Nibiru, or sometimes as having Nibiru, with its Planet X) crashing into earth in or around that date. Other “prophets” say the people of planet Nibiru (or Planet X) will arrive to earth to see what their “creation” (the Human race) is up to.
Others still talk of comets or other heavenly bodies striking the planet, causing a climatic change of such proportions that only a half billion people will be able to survive. They imagine a “nuclear” winter that will either send the earth into another ice age, or turn large parts of it into searing deserts. The list of catastrophes is endless on the web.
December 2012 is an important time in many calendars and prophesies, including the Hindu calendar, the Hopi prophesies and, interestingly, Maori lore. In Maori lore December 2012 or thereabouts is when the curtain is lifted. Or is dissolved or comes down – depending on the various translations of the phrase in old Maori - "ka hinga te arai".
This speaks of the reunification of “Rangi” (the Sky) and “Papa” (the Earth). The creation legend goes thus – in the beginning Rangi and Papa were partners and were closely clasped together. They had a number of children, who lived in between these two parents, squashed and without light. One day these children (who were all Gods - God of the Wind, God of the Sea, God of War etc) decided to push their parents apart so they could have room to move. They all tried and failed, till one of the Gods, Tane, pushed them apart, separated them, and there was light.
Ka hinga te arai then could mean the Earth and Sky becoming one (what would be consequence of such a move, or does it mean something other than coming together?); it could mean the blotting out of the sun due to some kind of covering (whether from an explosion that send dust and debris into the atmosphere to block out the Sun’s rays) or (my favourite) it could mean an opening of the dimensions through an upsurge of the human consciousness so things previously unknown to us becomes apparent.
One meaning of the phrase is the removal (dissolving) of the planes separator - basically the merging of the physical and spiritual planes. Some translate this as a time when the unknowables become known through a shift in perception that is forced onto mankind. This, for once, is one of the saner interpretations of what could happen in 2012.
In the Hopi Indian prophesies 2012, or thereabouts, is seen as the return of the Pahana (the White Brother from the skies) with whose coming will come the dawn of the
Fifth World. We are presently at the end of the fourth world, according to Hopi Indians. Out in South America it is the Sons of Light returning to Earth to help mankind onto the next step in their evolution.
There are many people around the world who believe in something close to this understanding of what will happen in 2012 – humanity will undergo a change of sorts to their consciousness in that time, with or without help from others. Some web pages are dedicated to this approach, with a number talking of the galactic centring where our sun, for the first time in thousands of years, will hit the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
This alignment to the galaxy will have profound impact in the way we use our senses, our brain and our consciousness. Gravitation forces and other cosmic forces (including the cosmic background radiation) will work together in ways that will change us, and everything else, associated with our planet. This includes some major changes to the alignment of the planet, it is said.
“But our old ways of thinking, including our biology will change as the Sun, Earth and Pleides line up in space. This will cause an increase in discharge of photons from the sun which is bound to cause changes in our brain pattern,” – astrologer and modern day guru Dattatreya Siva Baba.
Others still are saying that around December 2012, several wormholes will open at the centre of our galaxy, allowing “others” from around the universe to finally contact use. Various ideas and descriptions have been given of these others, including the Sons of Light, and a host of “aliens” who are not aliens but our friends from far across the universe.
In Hinduism, the field of speculation is vast as far as 2012 is concerned. Several people are putting forth the idea that Kali Yuga will end in 2012, and Satya (Krita) Yuga begins. Other are saying the Kali Yuga has a few thousand years to go, some say 5000 years, others 427,000 years.
Some modern “thinkers” believe that the yuga calculations are all wrong and, yes, the Satya Yuaga (the Golden Age) is about to begin. But with a proviso – there will be calamities, natural and otherwise – like financial problems, wars and global warming.
These thinkers take the likes of Sri Aurobindo and use his proclamations like "India of the ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples" to show the changes the end of the next two years will bring for the Earth.
India has long been touted as the guru of the world by the many modern sages and thinkers and innovators of the spirit. They, including Swami Vivekananda, have said that India will rise as the teacher of the world when the rest of the world is surfeit of its childishness and is willing to learn the way of wisdom from India.
Keeping such prophesies in mind, it is no wonder that the younger generation in India and the Indian Disapora is leaning towards a consciousness shift rather than catastrophe in 2012. But as long as we, the Indians of today, continue aping the West, this guru aspect of India will remain in abeyance (but that is another story).
All and good, as this writer also believes in something positive and even good happening in 2012. After snuffling through the thousands of ideas surrounding the year 2012, one thing was very clear – mankind is desperately looking at ways to stop the wounding of its psyche and the planet.
The escalation of the war against the planet and its people has reached a peak that even WWII could not achieve. When children start dying at the rate one every six minute (due to disease, abuse and lack of clean water and food) then it is time to re-look at the way we have been doing things.
As it is said: the solution of a problem that exists today cannot be found in the methods of problem solving that we were using yesterday. So we must look to the extraordinary and as yet “unthought” of solutions to our present problems.
Every idea of governance that we have seen has its pitfalls, some more than others as shown by the collapse of “communism” in the recent past. The so-called collapse of “capitalism” in the recent years has also shown us what happens when greed and rampant consumerism is let loose upon the people.
The so-called liberations and revolutions have, in fact, not liberated people, just made us more like the people who had held us off from that world of power for so long. Children appear to be more abused worldwide than maybe ever before – with child slavery on the rise, and child prostitution even being condoned by parents in the less developed sections of the world, where a father can sell a daughter to pimps for less than $100.
Food production is the highest it has ever been and so much of it is wasted, yet a third of the population find it hard to put together three square meals each day for the family. Water, the most abundant element on earth, is getting expensive to have as more waterways are poisoned and fewer places of clean water become available to the world’s population.
And nature is taking its toll (or its revenge) on every sphere of the globe. Mankind, it appears, is finding harder to adjust to the new ways that the Earth is reacting to its perilous situation.
These are the problems that have been besetting mankind for a very long time now. And we still haven’t any answer to them. Is the “end of days” phenomenon (this attitude to the years 2012) a subliminal cry of help from the collective psyche of mankind? Why is it that so many from several parts of the planets are concerned so much over a little date?
I, for one, don’t believe the Earth will be destroyed. Yet, I can’t help feeling something will happen in 2012. I think it will be a bit of almost everything – some calamity will hit us at a pace and proportion that will force our hands into living a better life. Whether this is a global catastrophe or an event of such proportion that mankind finally says “enough is enough”, I don’t know.
One of the prophesies I abide by is that there will be “minor adjustments” to the planet, with minor adjustments seen from the point of view of the planet and not us. This is already happening. Few of us know that the magnetic poles has already shift by several degrees southward over Europe. Some say it is as much as 15 degrees (?). This would explain why Spain and Portugal are presently experiencing snowfall in areas where it was previously sunny at this time of the year.
Could it get worse? Yes, it has been steadily getting worse. The nature and scope of natural disasters in the past few years has been unprecedented. Earthquakes and tsunamis are getting more frequent, global warming (whether man-made or natural) is a fact, and the weather patterns around the world is throwing up surprises almost every day.
The level of human suffering will have to peak before “realisation” of the evils of greed, selfishness, partisan leanings and racism takes place for humans. It has to get worse before it gets better. Maybe it is up to us to ride out this ‘worse’ phase before we can get to the golden age.
The way of wisdom as shown by our ancient seers is to hold everything in trust – there is no ownership of anything, including the resources of the earth. Just as a school headmaster will look after the property of the school with diligence and with faith, so should every human being look to the things he or she owns, individually and as a collective.
But just as when the headmaster is transferred and he give up the ‘ownership’ of the school properties without a fuss, so should human being be ready to give up anything they ‘own’ – their family, their property, their very life. This is the way of detachment that our ancients showed.
Notes:
Golden Age Could Begin in 2012
The ancient Hindus mainly used lunar calendars but also used solar calendars. If an average lunar year equals 354.36 days, then this would be about 5270 lunar years from the time when the Kali Yuga started until 21 Dec 2012. This is the same year that the Mayans predict rebirth of our planet. It is also about 5113 solar years of 365.24 days per year, and is day number 1,867,817 into the Kali Yuga. By either solar or lunar years, we are over 5000 years into the Kali Yuga and it is time for Lord Krishna's prophecy to happen according to the ancient Hindu scriptures. Lord Krishna's Golden Age could easily begin in 2012.
Ka hinga te arai (from the internet)
Basically the other more secretive legend that follows on from this (Creation mythology) says that there will come a time when the children of Tane (that's you and me) are so busy, so distracted with fighting, with greed, with lust etc, so separated from our original parents (Rangi and Papa - so that kinda means we have lost our links with the natural order of things) that Rangi and Papa will take that opportunity - while no one is looking - to quickly come back together...destroying everything in the process. There has been much meditation done on this event and yep...2012 seems to be the year the old people are coming up with.
What the more grounded among the Indian astrologers says - The widely accepted belief of Hindus is that Kali Yuga will see total annihilation. Creation will once again begin after total destruction. This will be Satya Yuga.
So connecting 2012 to Hinduism and Vedic astrology is done by those people who want to create fear and optimism at the same time among people – and earn a living by predictions and writing books.
Hinduism teaches that all animate and inanimate is Brahman. Doomsday predictions and 2012 are products of ego or ignorance, which hampers self realisation. To the realised there is no beginning and end.
So – No, the world will not end in 2012. Many such predictions had come and gone and this too will go as will the many such doomsday predictions that will come in future.
It is widely believed that Kali Yuga began in 3102 BC.
Now there are several people quoting Puranas to indicate that Lord Krishna had predicted an end the Kali Yuga after 5000 years and the beginning of the Golden Era.
But traditional scriptures do not agree to this as Kali Yuga will last for 432,000 years.
Now those who are stating that Kali Yuga will end after 5000 years are indicating the beginning of Golden Age in 2012. They are scrupulously using a mix of solar and lunar calendars used by Hindus to suggest that Kali Yuga will end in 2012.
In the “Brahma-Vaivarta Purana”, Lord Krishna tells Ganga Devi that a Golden Age will come in the Kali Yuga - one of the four stages of development that the world goes through as part of the cycle of eras, as described in Hindu scriptures. Lord Krishna predicted that this Golden Age will start 5000 years after the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and will last for 10,000 years.
Type “2012” into a search engine and you will get 332,000,000 results. The web is buzzing with the ‘end of days’ sites, with much greater emphasis than the Y2K bug could ever have generated. All kinds of outcomes are offered, from a meteorite hitting the planet, to utter collapse of civilisation due to greed, to the third world war.
All religions are being tapped into for “clear signs” of the catastrophe, as well as prophets and science. Pseudo-scientists have either the Planet X (also Nibiru, or sometimes as having Nibiru, with its Planet X) crashing into earth in or around that date. Other “prophets” say the people of planet Nibiru (or Planet X) will arrive to earth to see what their “creation” (the Human race) is up to.
Others still talk of comets or other heavenly bodies striking the planet, causing a climatic change of such proportions that only a half billion people will be able to survive. They imagine a “nuclear” winter that will either send the earth into another ice age, or turn large parts of it into searing deserts. The list of catastrophes is endless on the web.
December 2012 is an important time in many calendars and prophesies, including the Hindu calendar, the Hopi prophesies and, interestingly, Maori lore. In Maori lore December 2012 or thereabouts is when the curtain is lifted. Or is dissolved or comes down – depending on the various translations of the phrase in old Maori - "ka hinga te arai".
This speaks of the reunification of “Rangi” (the Sky) and “Papa” (the Earth). The creation legend goes thus – in the beginning Rangi and Papa were partners and were closely clasped together. They had a number of children, who lived in between these two parents, squashed and without light. One day these children (who were all Gods - God of the Wind, God of the Sea, God of War etc) decided to push their parents apart so they could have room to move. They all tried and failed, till one of the Gods, Tane, pushed them apart, separated them, and there was light.
Ka hinga te arai then could mean the Earth and Sky becoming one (what would be consequence of such a move, or does it mean something other than coming together?); it could mean the blotting out of the sun due to some kind of covering (whether from an explosion that send dust and debris into the atmosphere to block out the Sun’s rays) or (my favourite) it could mean an opening of the dimensions through an upsurge of the human consciousness so things previously unknown to us becomes apparent.
One meaning of the phrase is the removal (dissolving) of the planes separator - basically the merging of the physical and spiritual planes. Some translate this as a time when the unknowables become known through a shift in perception that is forced onto mankind. This, for once, is one of the saner interpretations of what could happen in 2012.
In the Hopi Indian prophesies 2012, or thereabouts, is seen as the return of the Pahana (the White Brother from the skies) with whose coming will come the dawn of the
Fifth World. We are presently at the end of the fourth world, according to Hopi Indians. Out in South America it is the Sons of Light returning to Earth to help mankind onto the next step in their evolution.
There are many people around the world who believe in something close to this understanding of what will happen in 2012 – humanity will undergo a change of sorts to their consciousness in that time, with or without help from others. Some web pages are dedicated to this approach, with a number talking of the galactic centring where our sun, for the first time in thousands of years, will hit the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
This alignment to the galaxy will have profound impact in the way we use our senses, our brain and our consciousness. Gravitation forces and other cosmic forces (including the cosmic background radiation) will work together in ways that will change us, and everything else, associated with our planet. This includes some major changes to the alignment of the planet, it is said.
“But our old ways of thinking, including our biology will change as the Sun, Earth and Pleides line up in space. This will cause an increase in discharge of photons from the sun which is bound to cause changes in our brain pattern,” – astrologer and modern day guru Dattatreya Siva Baba.
Others still are saying that around December 2012, several wormholes will open at the centre of our galaxy, allowing “others” from around the universe to finally contact use. Various ideas and descriptions have been given of these others, including the Sons of Light, and a host of “aliens” who are not aliens but our friends from far across the universe.
In Hinduism, the field of speculation is vast as far as 2012 is concerned. Several people are putting forth the idea that Kali Yuga will end in 2012, and Satya (Krita) Yuga begins. Other are saying the Kali Yuga has a few thousand years to go, some say 5000 years, others 427,000 years.
Some modern “thinkers” believe that the yuga calculations are all wrong and, yes, the Satya Yuaga (the Golden Age) is about to begin. But with a proviso – there will be calamities, natural and otherwise – like financial problems, wars and global warming.
These thinkers take the likes of Sri Aurobindo and use his proclamations like "India of the ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples" to show the changes the end of the next two years will bring for the Earth.
India has long been touted as the guru of the world by the many modern sages and thinkers and innovators of the spirit. They, including Swami Vivekananda, have said that India will rise as the teacher of the world when the rest of the world is surfeit of its childishness and is willing to learn the way of wisdom from India.
Keeping such prophesies in mind, it is no wonder that the younger generation in India and the Indian Disapora is leaning towards a consciousness shift rather than catastrophe in 2012. But as long as we, the Indians of today, continue aping the West, this guru aspect of India will remain in abeyance (but that is another story).
All and good, as this writer also believes in something positive and even good happening in 2012. After snuffling through the thousands of ideas surrounding the year 2012, one thing was very clear – mankind is desperately looking at ways to stop the wounding of its psyche and the planet.
The escalation of the war against the planet and its people has reached a peak that even WWII could not achieve. When children start dying at the rate one every six minute (due to disease, abuse and lack of clean water and food) then it is time to re-look at the way we have been doing things.
As it is said: the solution of a problem that exists today cannot be found in the methods of problem solving that we were using yesterday. So we must look to the extraordinary and as yet “unthought” of solutions to our present problems.
Every idea of governance that we have seen has its pitfalls, some more than others as shown by the collapse of “communism” in the recent past. The so-called collapse of “capitalism” in the recent years has also shown us what happens when greed and rampant consumerism is let loose upon the people.
The so-called liberations and revolutions have, in fact, not liberated people, just made us more like the people who had held us off from that world of power for so long. Children appear to be more abused worldwide than maybe ever before – with child slavery on the rise, and child prostitution even being condoned by parents in the less developed sections of the world, where a father can sell a daughter to pimps for less than $100.
Food production is the highest it has ever been and so much of it is wasted, yet a third of the population find it hard to put together three square meals each day for the family. Water, the most abundant element on earth, is getting expensive to have as more waterways are poisoned and fewer places of clean water become available to the world’s population.
And nature is taking its toll (or its revenge) on every sphere of the globe. Mankind, it appears, is finding harder to adjust to the new ways that the Earth is reacting to its perilous situation.
These are the problems that have been besetting mankind for a very long time now. And we still haven’t any answer to them. Is the “end of days” phenomenon (this attitude to the years 2012) a subliminal cry of help from the collective psyche of mankind? Why is it that so many from several parts of the planets are concerned so much over a little date?
I, for one, don’t believe the Earth will be destroyed. Yet, I can’t help feeling something will happen in 2012. I think it will be a bit of almost everything – some calamity will hit us at a pace and proportion that will force our hands into living a better life. Whether this is a global catastrophe or an event of such proportion that mankind finally says “enough is enough”, I don’t know.
One of the prophesies I abide by is that there will be “minor adjustments” to the planet, with minor adjustments seen from the point of view of the planet and not us. This is already happening. Few of us know that the magnetic poles has already shift by several degrees southward over Europe. Some say it is as much as 15 degrees (?). This would explain why Spain and Portugal are presently experiencing snowfall in areas where it was previously sunny at this time of the year.
Could it get worse? Yes, it has been steadily getting worse. The nature and scope of natural disasters in the past few years has been unprecedented. Earthquakes and tsunamis are getting more frequent, global warming (whether man-made or natural) is a fact, and the weather patterns around the world is throwing up surprises almost every day.
The level of human suffering will have to peak before “realisation” of the evils of greed, selfishness, partisan leanings and racism takes place for humans. It has to get worse before it gets better. Maybe it is up to us to ride out this ‘worse’ phase before we can get to the golden age.
The way of wisdom as shown by our ancient seers is to hold everything in trust – there is no ownership of anything, including the resources of the earth. Just as a school headmaster will look after the property of the school with diligence and with faith, so should every human being look to the things he or she owns, individually and as a collective.
But just as when the headmaster is transferred and he give up the ‘ownership’ of the school properties without a fuss, so should human being be ready to give up anything they ‘own’ – their family, their property, their very life. This is the way of detachment that our ancients showed.
Notes:
Golden Age Could Begin in 2012
The ancient Hindus mainly used lunar calendars but also used solar calendars. If an average lunar year equals 354.36 days, then this would be about 5270 lunar years from the time when the Kali Yuga started until 21 Dec 2012. This is the same year that the Mayans predict rebirth of our planet. It is also about 5113 solar years of 365.24 days per year, and is day number 1,867,817 into the Kali Yuga. By either solar or lunar years, we are over 5000 years into the Kali Yuga and it is time for Lord Krishna's prophecy to happen according to the ancient Hindu scriptures. Lord Krishna's Golden Age could easily begin in 2012.
Ka hinga te arai (from the internet)
Basically the other more secretive legend that follows on from this (Creation mythology) says that there will come a time when the children of Tane (that's you and me) are so busy, so distracted with fighting, with greed, with lust etc, so separated from our original parents (Rangi and Papa - so that kinda means we have lost our links with the natural order of things) that Rangi and Papa will take that opportunity - while no one is looking - to quickly come back together...destroying everything in the process. There has been much meditation done on this event and yep...2012 seems to be the year the old people are coming up with.
What the more grounded among the Indian astrologers says - The widely accepted belief of Hindus is that Kali Yuga will see total annihilation. Creation will once again begin after total destruction. This will be Satya Yuga.
So connecting 2012 to Hinduism and Vedic astrology is done by those people who want to create fear and optimism at the same time among people – and earn a living by predictions and writing books.
Hinduism teaches that all animate and inanimate is Brahman. Doomsday predictions and 2012 are products of ego or ignorance, which hampers self realisation. To the realised there is no beginning and end.
So – No, the world will not end in 2012. Many such predictions had come and gone and this too will go as will the many such doomsday predictions that will come in future.
It is widely believed that Kali Yuga began in 3102 BC.
Now there are several people quoting Puranas to indicate that Lord Krishna had predicted an end the Kali Yuga after 5000 years and the beginning of the Golden Era.
But traditional scriptures do not agree to this as Kali Yuga will last for 432,000 years.
Now those who are stating that Kali Yuga will end after 5000 years are indicating the beginning of Golden Age in 2012. They are scrupulously using a mix of solar and lunar calendars used by Hindus to suggest that Kali Yuga will end in 2012.
In the “Brahma-Vaivarta Purana”, Lord Krishna tells Ganga Devi that a Golden Age will come in the Kali Yuga - one of the four stages of development that the world goes through as part of the cycle of eras, as described in Hindu scriptures. Lord Krishna predicted that this Golden Age will start 5000 years after the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and will last for 10,000 years.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Sai Baba and Human Values
Followers from some 85 countries around the world, the President and Prime Minister of India and various Chief Ministers, some of India’s top industrialists, and many noted personalities attended Sathya Sai Baba’s week-long 85th birthday celebrations earlier this month. Click here to see the Indian Weekender photogallery.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was deeply impressed by the free educational institutes that Sai Baba runs and said he was going back with some good ideas that he would like to see implemented into the national system. Sai Baba offers education through free universities, colleges and schools throughout India but with the added dimension of human values as an integral aspect of the curriculum.
The President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, chief guest at the Women’s Day function at Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of Sai Baba, called on women-related issues to the forefront. Governors E.S.L. Narasimhan (Andhra Pradesh) and Shivraj Patil (Punjab) and State Minister for Information and Public Relations J. Geetha Reddy were present for the Women’s Day celebration which is part of the birthday celebrations.
Sai Baba is not a religious movement, cult or sect. His organisation is based on a few very simple affirmations – Help Ever, Hurt Never; Love all, Serve all, and God is Love and Love is God. While apparently simplistic in the first instance, Sai Baba has spent the past few decades honing the understanding and practice of such axioms for his followers the world over. That is why he is regarded as a Satguru (a teacher of truth), a world teacher (jagat guru) and an avatar in line with Krishna, Rama, Buddha and Jesus.
His teachings have reverberated every teaching of every scripture, his followers are from every religion: Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, followers of Judaism, Shintoism, - the list is endless.
He has always said all religions have the same basis of attesting to truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence. These human values make up the foundation of his service organisations in more than 167 countries around the world.
The adherents of his philosophy of divinity in all number over 100 million, many of them registered to the organisations in their country, including New Zealand.
Every religion is celebrated at Prashanti Nilayam – with annual celebrations of Eid, Christmas, Hindu festivals and many more. Sai Baba does not tolerate any differences in the practitioners of any religion – every follower of the Sai philosophy is asked to treat everyone else as himself/herself, without an iota of otherness.
It is a philosophy that has held true for the past 60 years. While initially people are drawn to Sai Baba because of his miracles, the past few decade has seen a massive growth in followers based on the social commitment Sai Baba has to humanity. He says his life is an example of service to humanity and his followers need to follow that.
His services include free super speciality hospitals that undertake heart surgeries and other high-level surgeries, his water projects that bring potable water to millions of villagers in several states in India and offering free education up to university level. His overseas branches are geared to assisting local issues as and when they rise, as well as starting free schools and medical facilities in their own countries.
Sai service organisations operate on a simple maxim - help fellow man without any conditions whatsoever. While no money or subscription is every asked for in the organisation, these national and regional bodies have been carrying out successful relief work for years in their areas.
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Sai Baba – Man of Miracles
The Western world was introduced to the godman, Sathya Sai Baba in a book by an Australian journalist Howard Murphet. While since that book – Sai Baba Man of Miracles - several hundred other books on Sai Baba have been written, the simple beauty and deliverance of that book remains a must-read for all followers.
Murphet spent years in India in the 1960s in search of ancient knowledge, and then dedicated himself to Sai Baba after finding in him everything he wanted as guru. A practising Christian, he freely acknowledges Sai Baba as an avatar, as god walking on Earth.
Books on Sai Baba have been written in many languages. While many dwell on the miracles that he has been doing for the past six decades, there are dozens of books about the his mission, his accomplishments and his methods. Many more exist of the personal experiences of people who have stayed with him, tested him and accepted him as an avatar of the age.
Sai Baba says he has come to clear the path to spirituality that has been overgrown with the five diseases of humanity: anger, greed, attachment, pride and lust.
Sai Baba does not advocate one religion over another, saying that each is a pathway to god and each provides a particular way for people to reach that goal. He asks that his followers become better in the religion they have been born in: a Hindu to become a better Hindu, a Muslim to become a better Muslim, A Christian to become a better Christian.
In all, he says one thing – everyone has to become a better human being to attain anything in life. Humanism is the basis of all religion and with the appropriate reasoning and intellectual discrimination, one can understand what it is to be a true human being. It is this message of Sai Baba that appeals to all, no matter what state their minds may be in.
International Sai Organisation website - http://www.sathyasai.org/
Sai organisation – India - http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was deeply impressed by the free educational institutes that Sai Baba runs and said he was going back with some good ideas that he would like to see implemented into the national system. Sai Baba offers education through free universities, colleges and schools throughout India but with the added dimension of human values as an integral aspect of the curriculum.
The President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, chief guest at the Women’s Day function at Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of Sai Baba, called on women-related issues to the forefront. Governors E.S.L. Narasimhan (Andhra Pradesh) and Shivraj Patil (Punjab) and State Minister for Information and Public Relations J. Geetha Reddy were present for the Women’s Day celebration which is part of the birthday celebrations.
Sai Baba is not a religious movement, cult or sect. His organisation is based on a few very simple affirmations – Help Ever, Hurt Never; Love all, Serve all, and God is Love and Love is God. While apparently simplistic in the first instance, Sai Baba has spent the past few decades honing the understanding and practice of such axioms for his followers the world over. That is why he is regarded as a Satguru (a teacher of truth), a world teacher (jagat guru) and an avatar in line with Krishna, Rama, Buddha and Jesus.
His teachings have reverberated every teaching of every scripture, his followers are from every religion: Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, followers of Judaism, Shintoism, - the list is endless.
He has always said all religions have the same basis of attesting to truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence. These human values make up the foundation of his service organisations in more than 167 countries around the world.
The adherents of his philosophy of divinity in all number over 100 million, many of them registered to the organisations in their country, including New Zealand.
Every religion is celebrated at Prashanti Nilayam – with annual celebrations of Eid, Christmas, Hindu festivals and many more. Sai Baba does not tolerate any differences in the practitioners of any religion – every follower of the Sai philosophy is asked to treat everyone else as himself/herself, without an iota of otherness.
It is a philosophy that has held true for the past 60 years. While initially people are drawn to Sai Baba because of his miracles, the past few decade has seen a massive growth in followers based on the social commitment Sai Baba has to humanity. He says his life is an example of service to humanity and his followers need to follow that.
His services include free super speciality hospitals that undertake heart surgeries and other high-level surgeries, his water projects that bring potable water to millions of villagers in several states in India and offering free education up to university level. His overseas branches are geared to assisting local issues as and when they rise, as well as starting free schools and medical facilities in their own countries.
Sai service organisations operate on a simple maxim - help fellow man without any conditions whatsoever. While no money or subscription is every asked for in the organisation, these national and regional bodies have been carrying out successful relief work for years in their areas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sai Baba – Man of Miracles
The Western world was introduced to the godman, Sathya Sai Baba in a book by an Australian journalist Howard Murphet. While since that book – Sai Baba Man of Miracles - several hundred other books on Sai Baba have been written, the simple beauty and deliverance of that book remains a must-read for all followers.
Murphet spent years in India in the 1960s in search of ancient knowledge, and then dedicated himself to Sai Baba after finding in him everything he wanted as guru. A practising Christian, he freely acknowledges Sai Baba as an avatar, as god walking on Earth.
Books on Sai Baba have been written in many languages. While many dwell on the miracles that he has been doing for the past six decades, there are dozens of books about the his mission, his accomplishments and his methods. Many more exist of the personal experiences of people who have stayed with him, tested him and accepted him as an avatar of the age.
Sai Baba says he has come to clear the path to spirituality that has been overgrown with the five diseases of humanity: anger, greed, attachment, pride and lust.
Sai Baba does not advocate one religion over another, saying that each is a pathway to god and each provides a particular way for people to reach that goal. He asks that his followers become better in the religion they have been born in: a Hindu to become a better Hindu, a Muslim to become a better Muslim, A Christian to become a better Christian.
In all, he says one thing – everyone has to become a better human being to attain anything in life. Humanism is the basis of all religion and with the appropriate reasoning and intellectual discrimination, one can understand what it is to be a true human being. It is this message of Sai Baba that appeals to all, no matter what state their minds may be in.
International Sai Organisation website - http://www.sathyasai.org/
Sai organisation – India - http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/
Manas, the Hindu perspective of the mind
In Hinduism, the mind is a double-edged sword. It is the centre of all we consider either good or evil. In contrast to philosophies that separate us from God, where good or evil is attributed to external agents, in Vedanta the mind is, in reality, the creator of everything.
This is the one concept of Hinduism that is hardest to get one’s head around – that the world as we know is unreal in actuality, and that all we experience is only true to a certain extent and no more. It is this one concept of Maya and the subterfuge of the mind that finally stops us from truly realising our true self. In most cases, it is much easier to just think of God as someone or something external and attribute characteristics to him/her/it and get on with life.
The unreality of the universe is not outright unreal. It is relatively unreal, that is, unreal compared to the reality of the foundation or the basis of the universe. Thus it is called mithya – unreal real. It is this concept of the unreality of our reality that people from time immemorial have butted their heads against, some with success and others with despair.
All schools of philosophies in Hinduism, from dualism (dwaitham) to non-dualism (adwaitham) to special approaches to adwaitham (Vishist Adwaitham) agree on the universe being unreal. Only the approach they adopt in illustrating this unreality differs or only the method they offer in overcoming this unreality differs.
Thousands of years ago, our ancients broke down how the mind works, and what it can do for us (or against us) depending on the control we have over it.
In life, we humans go through our ‘reality’ based on our reaction to stimuli from our environment. The stimuli is sorted out by our senses and our brains and presented to the mind for decision-making, for storage as memory and for stitching together the mosaic of our lives.
This sorting out is initiated by the senses (sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell) which send electrical impulses to the brain for collating into either a visual picture, a memory or an action response which ‘we’ as the mind/personality/ego decide to act on. In general, this process is supposed to follow the basic input, process, output method of dealing with everyday things.
But not quite, since the information has to be fed into a background and shot off in the appropriate zone to find a collaborative piece for it to make any sense. That means we already have a field of information that we need to relate new stimuli for it to work at all. New material without a corresponding fill-in in our brain puts us in a panicky state and this is clearly seen in babies, who need to be introduced to new things gradually.
The ancients went a bit further than most when delving into the workings of the mind. They started with ten senses, five of action and five of mental understanding. The five senses of action – the karmendriyas (Karma/Indriyas ) – are the five elements that make us act – eliminating, reproducing, moving, grasping and speaking. The five sense of understanding (sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell) are called the jnanendriyas (jnana/Indriyas).
In all philosophies of Hinduism, the senses are deemed as unreliable. What you sense is not the truth or reality. It is only the sum of what we receive through our senses and this will vary according to what our minds are attuned to.
So, right from the start, we are duped by the senses because they are designed only to take in/receive information to the limits of their function and can do no more than what is demarcated as their boundaries. They do not present the world/universe as it really is, only as what they perceive the world to be. And they can be defective (see note below on synaesthesia).
And it doesn’t get any better. The mind, that elusive thing called manas in Sanskrit, has its own agenda. In the first instance, the manas is ruled by one or the other of the trigunas - Tamas, Rajas and Satthwa. It is this triple strand of attributes or qualities that determine how we respond to any given situation. The trigunas are tamas (indolence/dullness), rajasic (fieriness or active) and satthwa (balanced or pure) gunas.
The closest English translations we have of this gunas is ‘attributes’ or ‘qualities’ but it does not explain everything. In lay terms the gunas tinge our minds, and either ‘force’ or ‘allow’ it to make decisions based on a preset ranges of habits or behaviour. ‘Forced’ in that the conditioning is so great that the individual has no chance of making a decision other than what is stored up. This can be called a character trait or tendency. Or that overpowering impulse that you have to give in to.
‘Allowed’ in the sense that when one has worked at making the conditionings more malleable, one can make a decision that can go against our instinctual behaviour (against that reaction of our mind that is so conditioned so as to appear as our innate nature). This is achieved by rational analysis of one’s own self – one of the hardest endeavour ever taken by man.
It is our mind, then, which decides based on how we are tinged in our personality.
Tamas, Rajas and Satthwa. Modern day researchers talk of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, with the latter seen as being same as the unconscious mind by some and as a separate entity from the unconscious mind by others.
The mind, according to the ancients, is made up of our unconscious mind, the subconscious mind and the conscious mind. What we in daily lives say is the conscious mind is actually the subconscious mind that the ancients talk of.
For example, we can be unconsciously swayed in the way we act or make a decision based on an external factor. Rather than our instincts coming in play or we being aware of what we are doing, external factors continually prime us in making a decision in which a judgement is passed without any analysis on our part. This comes from our subconscious mind which operates when we are awake and in action mode but of which we are not aware of.
New studies by psychologists at Yale, based on experiments to alter people’s judgments, have found that people tidy up more thoroughly when there’s a faint tang of cleaning liquid in the air; they become more competitive if there’s a briefcase in sight, or more cooperative if they glimpse words like “dependable” and “support” — all without being aware of the change, or what prompted it.
These reactions have been analysed to the nth degree and are most apparent in how marketing ‘helps’ us in making choice – through advertising and other marketing tactics. These subliminal tactics are part of our everyday lives, employed by our own selves in reacting to both overt and subtle stimuli.
The autopilot mode takes care of a very large percentage of our waking lives. While there are many things our lives that need concentration – from shaving to crossing the road to eating - many of these activities, because of their repetitive nature, are shunted off to the subconscious. How many of us can recall how we crossed the road, or how we ate this morning? Or how we hold the razor when we shaved? How do sportspeople continually keep making those amazing shots, or the perfect dive? How do people have a gut feeling that is spot on? Or never forget how to ride a bike or drive a car? The list is endless. And all are forms of our subconscious mind.
On the other hand, the conscious mind as demarcated by the ancients is one of concentration and awareness. This is called being mindful.
The conscious mind comes into play when there is a need to concentrate, to bring about a situation where all our abilities are required. This means we are very much aware of what we are doing and how we are doing and we are storing away this experience as something new and unique, or important to us.
In creating our reality, the mind uses all three states of consciousness, but with more emphasis on the unconscious minds.
Some researchers say the human unconscious mind resides along the spine and the nub of the brain, which is also called the reptilian brain (reptilian complex/R-complex). This part of the brain is enclosed by the mammalian brain (the paleomammalian complex (limbic system)) and both of these are covered by the human brain (neomammalian complex (neocortex). Please note that presently this theory of brain triune is accepted as true only by a smaller section of the scientific community.
And it is this lower brain that is the dominant power of our minds and which lends us our animal ways. It probably is the basis of the self-deluding, self-indulgent power that the ancients said was a mix of moha and maya; a power that leads to ego-preening, fault-shifting, making allowances for ourselves and those important to us, of hidden subjectivity that one can’t acknowledge and rejecting that which will not fit into our framework of references.
This deluding power is a mixture of both individual and cultural conditioning, a nurturing of ideals, creeds, traditions that aims to do one thing and one thing only – protect the ego, namely the mind and its waves of thoughts. This is the mind baggage that our ancients targeted through the spiritual efforts of sadhana, meditation to raise our awareness from the base level to a level where we could develop our intellect through vivek (discrimination) and vichar (analysis).
The mind, then, creates our personal reality, and each personal reality is based on a ‘background’ reality that is shared by others in the vicinity, or from knowledge factored into that reality through becoming aware of more information.
But none of these reality can be the same. Similar, but never the same as it is all invented inside of individual heads. It has no basis in the external, if an ‘external’ exists.
Science states is this way:
If we look at the nervous system there are basically two functions. One is sensory—the ability to respond to the outside world—and the other is the ability to do something about it, the ability to modify the world. As the nervous system gets more complex in higher animals there's another totally astounding property, which is the ability of the nervous system to invent things inside the head, which it can then make into reality.
- Neuroscientist Rodolfo R. Llinás, Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience and Chairman of the department of Physiology & Neuroscience at the NYU School of Medicine.
Now this property/aspect of the mind to invent things inside the head and then making it our reality is what the ancients concentrated on. What this means is that we have a field of awareness inside of us, based on information we have stored up in the years we have experienced and we see this as the field of operations. Like the operating system in a computer, it is the RAM in the background that can make computing possible.
The triune, the trinity, the trimurti is an ongoing element of Hinduism and the ancients were spot-on in determining the brain/mind function according this tri-sectioning. The tamas or conditioned element is said to be found in the instinctive reptilian mind, the active element or rajasic bhava (attitude) is played out in daily life in the subconscious mind while man finds the truth of things/purpose of life only through the balanced approach of the satthwic attitude. The satthwic attitude comes about when the mind or manas is motivated by the buddhi or intellect and is in a state of mindfulness.
A higher stage of this conscious mind is called Constant Integrated Awareness (Prajnanam) - when one is mindful of everything in creation. In fact it is said that one achieving this state is God himself or herself, as stated in the mahavakya Prajnanam Brahman (Consciousness is God).
We call this the super-conscious mind – that which is aligned to the divine/cosmic awareness. This is where the reality of the world is known, where the cosmos and you become the same, in which your true identity is discovered.
Swami Vivekananda “criticises most popular religious ideas to the extent that they are based on faith and belief alone (which is mind-based), rather than direct personal experience (which goes beyond the mind)”. In his search of God, the Swami tested gurus by asking if they had a direct experience of god. Ramakrishna Paramhansa said he had, and Vivekananda accepted it as true based on the conviction with which it was stated.
This direct perception is what the ancients urge people towards – to know the divine, the truth or the reality through realisation. Call it enlightenment or anything, the direct perception is the final step in all religions. Because it goes beyond the limits of the mind, it is accepted as the true way of discovering that “which by knowing, everything else is known”.
It is not easy, this discovering of the self. Through meditation and control of sense, it can come about. The ancients gave some ideas of how this can be done.
Laya, Vikshepa, Kashaya and Rasasvada are the other four obstacles to getting this direct experience. Laya is sleepiness, when the mind in a state of quietude brings on sleepiness to counter the prolonged inactivity it is subjected to.
Vikshepa is excessive tossing of mind from one object to another object, the making of castles in the air or holding conversations with one’s own self. This is the excessive monkey-nature of the mind.
Kashaya is Goodha Vasana (hidden subtle desires) which one never thought were there and the unconscious ambitions within the mind. They can take endless shapes.
Finally, Rasasvada is the bliss of Savikalpa Samadhi (lower Samadhi). This itself is an obstacle so long as it prevents you from enjoying the Highest Nirvikalpa Bliss. Vichara (analysis), viveka (discrimination), Pranayama, further earnestness and struggle in meditation will remove the above four obstacles.
Notes
A person bound by objective desires will try in various ways to fulfil them. He becomes a slave to his senses and their pursuits. But if he withdraws the senses from the world and gets control over their master, the mind, and engages that mind in thapas (penance), then he can establish Swa-rajya or Self-mastery or independence over himself. Allowing the senses to attach themselves to objects is what causes bondage. When the mind that flows through the senses towards the outer world is turned inwards and is made to contemplate on the Atma, it attains liberation or Moksha. – Satya Sai Baba
Synaesthesia - Sensory connections can even be crossed: One of the ways that it is easy for us to understand the unreliability of the senses is by considering the neurological disorder called synaesthesia. With this disorder, a person's brain connections are different from the typical. When, for example, light comes in the eyes (normally used for sight), the neurological connections might be to the smelling centers of the brain. Thus, one might experience smell when looking at certain objects, or may hear some particular color. How very different would be our descriptions of external reality if all human brains operated this way. (It is estimated that approximately 1 in 25,000 people naturally experience synaesthesia.)
The triune brain consists of the reptilian complex, the paleomammalian complex (limbic system), and the neomammalian complex (neocortex), viewed as structures sequentially added to the forebrain in the course of evolution. The triune brain hypothesis became familiar to a broad popular audience through Carl Sagan's Pulitzer prize winning 1977 book The Dragons of Eden. Though embraced by some psychiatrists and at least one leading affective neuroscience researcher, the model never won wide acceptance among comparative neurobiologists.
Dr. Paul MacLean, Chief of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behaviour at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. says there are essentially three brains, each of which developed during a particular stage of evolutionary history. The earlier part of the brain, found in reptiles, could be called the reptilian brain, or R-complex. In mammals another structure appeared: the paleomammalian brain, with a new range of particularly mammalian behavior--care of the young, affection, mutual grooming, etc. This is the home of the limbic system and the capacity for feeling and emotion, for the sense of smell and sexuality. With the development of human beings came the most recent evolutionary structure, the neomammalian brain -- with a hugely expanded neocortex in the prefrontal lobes. The neomammalian or "thinking" brain brought with it the capacity for language, visualization, and symbolic skills unique to human beings.
As Vivekananda said: Imagine if you had an additional sense, an electric one – how would you see the world then? How indeed? Many people attest to seeing auras, that electrical or magnetic emanation that comes from every living thing. Many see halos and various other things. These people either have developed their senses to a higher level or are in possession of a ‘sense’ in addition to the ones all regular people have.
This is the one concept of Hinduism that is hardest to get one’s head around – that the world as we know is unreal in actuality, and that all we experience is only true to a certain extent and no more. It is this one concept of Maya and the subterfuge of the mind that finally stops us from truly realising our true self. In most cases, it is much easier to just think of God as someone or something external and attribute characteristics to him/her/it and get on with life.
The unreality of the universe is not outright unreal. It is relatively unreal, that is, unreal compared to the reality of the foundation or the basis of the universe. Thus it is called mithya – unreal real. It is this concept of the unreality of our reality that people from time immemorial have butted their heads against, some with success and others with despair.
All schools of philosophies in Hinduism, from dualism (dwaitham) to non-dualism (adwaitham) to special approaches to adwaitham (Vishist Adwaitham) agree on the universe being unreal. Only the approach they adopt in illustrating this unreality differs or only the method they offer in overcoming this unreality differs.
Thousands of years ago, our ancients broke down how the mind works, and what it can do for us (or against us) depending on the control we have over it.
In life, we humans go through our ‘reality’ based on our reaction to stimuli from our environment. The stimuli is sorted out by our senses and our brains and presented to the mind for decision-making, for storage as memory and for stitching together the mosaic of our lives.
This sorting out is initiated by the senses (sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell) which send electrical impulses to the brain for collating into either a visual picture, a memory or an action response which ‘we’ as the mind/personality/ego decide to act on. In general, this process is supposed to follow the basic input, process, output method of dealing with everyday things.
But not quite, since the information has to be fed into a background and shot off in the appropriate zone to find a collaborative piece for it to make any sense. That means we already have a field of information that we need to relate new stimuli for it to work at all. New material without a corresponding fill-in in our brain puts us in a panicky state and this is clearly seen in babies, who need to be introduced to new things gradually.
The ancients went a bit further than most when delving into the workings of the mind. They started with ten senses, five of action and five of mental understanding. The five senses of action – the karmendriyas (Karma/Indriyas ) – are the five elements that make us act – eliminating, reproducing, moving, grasping and speaking. The five sense of understanding (sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell) are called the jnanendriyas (jnana/Indriyas).
In all philosophies of Hinduism, the senses are deemed as unreliable. What you sense is not the truth or reality. It is only the sum of what we receive through our senses and this will vary according to what our minds are attuned to.
So, right from the start, we are duped by the senses because they are designed only to take in/receive information to the limits of their function and can do no more than what is demarcated as their boundaries. They do not present the world/universe as it really is, only as what they perceive the world to be. And they can be defective (see note below on synaesthesia).
And it doesn’t get any better. The mind, that elusive thing called manas in Sanskrit, has its own agenda. In the first instance, the manas is ruled by one or the other of the trigunas - Tamas, Rajas and Satthwa. It is this triple strand of attributes or qualities that determine how we respond to any given situation. The trigunas are tamas (indolence/dullness), rajasic (fieriness or active) and satthwa (balanced or pure) gunas.
The closest English translations we have of this gunas is ‘attributes’ or ‘qualities’ but it does not explain everything. In lay terms the gunas tinge our minds, and either ‘force’ or ‘allow’ it to make decisions based on a preset ranges of habits or behaviour. ‘Forced’ in that the conditioning is so great that the individual has no chance of making a decision other than what is stored up. This can be called a character trait or tendency. Or that overpowering impulse that you have to give in to.
‘Allowed’ in the sense that when one has worked at making the conditionings more malleable, one can make a decision that can go against our instinctual behaviour (against that reaction of our mind that is so conditioned so as to appear as our innate nature). This is achieved by rational analysis of one’s own self – one of the hardest endeavour ever taken by man.
It is our mind, then, which decides based on how we are tinged in our personality.
Tamas, Rajas and Satthwa. Modern day researchers talk of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, with the latter seen as being same as the unconscious mind by some and as a separate entity from the unconscious mind by others.
The mind, according to the ancients, is made up of our unconscious mind, the subconscious mind and the conscious mind. What we in daily lives say is the conscious mind is actually the subconscious mind that the ancients talk of.
For example, we can be unconsciously swayed in the way we act or make a decision based on an external factor. Rather than our instincts coming in play or we being aware of what we are doing, external factors continually prime us in making a decision in which a judgement is passed without any analysis on our part. This comes from our subconscious mind which operates when we are awake and in action mode but of which we are not aware of.
New studies by psychologists at Yale, based on experiments to alter people’s judgments, have found that people tidy up more thoroughly when there’s a faint tang of cleaning liquid in the air; they become more competitive if there’s a briefcase in sight, or more cooperative if they glimpse words like “dependable” and “support” — all without being aware of the change, or what prompted it.
These reactions have been analysed to the nth degree and are most apparent in how marketing ‘helps’ us in making choice – through advertising and other marketing tactics. These subliminal tactics are part of our everyday lives, employed by our own selves in reacting to both overt and subtle stimuli.
The autopilot mode takes care of a very large percentage of our waking lives. While there are many things our lives that need concentration – from shaving to crossing the road to eating - many of these activities, because of their repetitive nature, are shunted off to the subconscious. How many of us can recall how we crossed the road, or how we ate this morning? Or how we hold the razor when we shaved? How do sportspeople continually keep making those amazing shots, or the perfect dive? How do people have a gut feeling that is spot on? Or never forget how to ride a bike or drive a car? The list is endless. And all are forms of our subconscious mind.
On the other hand, the conscious mind as demarcated by the ancients is one of concentration and awareness. This is called being mindful.
The conscious mind comes into play when there is a need to concentrate, to bring about a situation where all our abilities are required. This means we are very much aware of what we are doing and how we are doing and we are storing away this experience as something new and unique, or important to us.
In creating our reality, the mind uses all three states of consciousness, but with more emphasis on the unconscious minds.
Some researchers say the human unconscious mind resides along the spine and the nub of the brain, which is also called the reptilian brain (reptilian complex/R-complex). This part of the brain is enclosed by the mammalian brain (the paleomammalian complex (limbic system)) and both of these are covered by the human brain (neomammalian complex (neocortex). Please note that presently this theory of brain triune is accepted as true only by a smaller section of the scientific community.
And it is this lower brain that is the dominant power of our minds and which lends us our animal ways. It probably is the basis of the self-deluding, self-indulgent power that the ancients said was a mix of moha and maya; a power that leads to ego-preening, fault-shifting, making allowances for ourselves and those important to us, of hidden subjectivity that one can’t acknowledge and rejecting that which will not fit into our framework of references.
This deluding power is a mixture of both individual and cultural conditioning, a nurturing of ideals, creeds, traditions that aims to do one thing and one thing only – protect the ego, namely the mind and its waves of thoughts. This is the mind baggage that our ancients targeted through the spiritual efforts of sadhana, meditation to raise our awareness from the base level to a level where we could develop our intellect through vivek (discrimination) and vichar (analysis).
The mind, then, creates our personal reality, and each personal reality is based on a ‘background’ reality that is shared by others in the vicinity, or from knowledge factored into that reality through becoming aware of more information.
But none of these reality can be the same. Similar, but never the same as it is all invented inside of individual heads. It has no basis in the external, if an ‘external’ exists.
Science states is this way:
If we look at the nervous system there are basically two functions. One is sensory—the ability to respond to the outside world—and the other is the ability to do something about it, the ability to modify the world. As the nervous system gets more complex in higher animals there's another totally astounding property, which is the ability of the nervous system to invent things inside the head, which it can then make into reality.
- Neuroscientist Rodolfo R. Llinás, Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience and Chairman of the department of Physiology & Neuroscience at the NYU School of Medicine.
Now this property/aspect of the mind to invent things inside the head and then making it our reality is what the ancients concentrated on. What this means is that we have a field of awareness inside of us, based on information we have stored up in the years we have experienced and we see this as the field of operations. Like the operating system in a computer, it is the RAM in the background that can make computing possible.
The triune, the trinity, the trimurti is an ongoing element of Hinduism and the ancients were spot-on in determining the brain/mind function according this tri-sectioning. The tamas or conditioned element is said to be found in the instinctive reptilian mind, the active element or rajasic bhava (attitude) is played out in daily life in the subconscious mind while man finds the truth of things/purpose of life only through the balanced approach of the satthwic attitude. The satthwic attitude comes about when the mind or manas is motivated by the buddhi or intellect and is in a state of mindfulness.
A higher stage of this conscious mind is called Constant Integrated Awareness (Prajnanam) - when one is mindful of everything in creation. In fact it is said that one achieving this state is God himself or herself, as stated in the mahavakya Prajnanam Brahman (Consciousness is God).
We call this the super-conscious mind – that which is aligned to the divine/cosmic awareness. This is where the reality of the world is known, where the cosmos and you become the same, in which your true identity is discovered.
Swami Vivekananda “criticises most popular religious ideas to the extent that they are based on faith and belief alone (which is mind-based), rather than direct personal experience (which goes beyond the mind)”. In his search of God, the Swami tested gurus by asking if they had a direct experience of god. Ramakrishna Paramhansa said he had, and Vivekananda accepted it as true based on the conviction with which it was stated.
This direct perception is what the ancients urge people towards – to know the divine, the truth or the reality through realisation. Call it enlightenment or anything, the direct perception is the final step in all religions. Because it goes beyond the limits of the mind, it is accepted as the true way of discovering that “which by knowing, everything else is known”.
It is not easy, this discovering of the self. Through meditation and control of sense, it can come about. The ancients gave some ideas of how this can be done.
Laya, Vikshepa, Kashaya and Rasasvada are the other four obstacles to getting this direct experience. Laya is sleepiness, when the mind in a state of quietude brings on sleepiness to counter the prolonged inactivity it is subjected to.
Vikshepa is excessive tossing of mind from one object to another object, the making of castles in the air or holding conversations with one’s own self. This is the excessive monkey-nature of the mind.
Kashaya is Goodha Vasana (hidden subtle desires) which one never thought were there and the unconscious ambitions within the mind. They can take endless shapes.
Finally, Rasasvada is the bliss of Savikalpa Samadhi (lower Samadhi). This itself is an obstacle so long as it prevents you from enjoying the Highest Nirvikalpa Bliss. Vichara (analysis), viveka (discrimination), Pranayama, further earnestness and struggle in meditation will remove the above four obstacles.
Notes
A person bound by objective desires will try in various ways to fulfil them. He becomes a slave to his senses and their pursuits. But if he withdraws the senses from the world and gets control over their master, the mind, and engages that mind in thapas (penance), then he can establish Swa-rajya or Self-mastery or independence over himself. Allowing the senses to attach themselves to objects is what causes bondage. When the mind that flows through the senses towards the outer world is turned inwards and is made to contemplate on the Atma, it attains liberation or Moksha. – Satya Sai Baba
Synaesthesia - Sensory connections can even be crossed: One of the ways that it is easy for us to understand the unreliability of the senses is by considering the neurological disorder called synaesthesia. With this disorder, a person's brain connections are different from the typical. When, for example, light comes in the eyes (normally used for sight), the neurological connections might be to the smelling centers of the brain. Thus, one might experience smell when looking at certain objects, or may hear some particular color. How very different would be our descriptions of external reality if all human brains operated this way. (It is estimated that approximately 1 in 25,000 people naturally experience synaesthesia.)
The triune brain consists of the reptilian complex, the paleomammalian complex (limbic system), and the neomammalian complex (neocortex), viewed as structures sequentially added to the forebrain in the course of evolution. The triune brain hypothesis became familiar to a broad popular audience through Carl Sagan's Pulitzer prize winning 1977 book The Dragons of Eden. Though embraced by some psychiatrists and at least one leading affective neuroscience researcher, the model never won wide acceptance among comparative neurobiologists.
Dr. Paul MacLean, Chief of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behaviour at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. says there are essentially three brains, each of which developed during a particular stage of evolutionary history. The earlier part of the brain, found in reptiles, could be called the reptilian brain, or R-complex. In mammals another structure appeared: the paleomammalian brain, with a new range of particularly mammalian behavior--care of the young, affection, mutual grooming, etc. This is the home of the limbic system and the capacity for feeling and emotion, for the sense of smell and sexuality. With the development of human beings came the most recent evolutionary structure, the neomammalian brain -- with a hugely expanded neocortex in the prefrontal lobes. The neomammalian or "thinking" brain brought with it the capacity for language, visualization, and symbolic skills unique to human beings.
As Vivekananda said: Imagine if you had an additional sense, an electric one – how would you see the world then? How indeed? Many people attest to seeing auras, that electrical or magnetic emanation that comes from every living thing. Many see halos and various other things. These people either have developed their senses to a higher level or are in possession of a ‘sense’ in addition to the ones all regular people have.
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