JAPU JI:THE ULTIMATE REVELATION
The revealed Word is Japu Ji
charting Ascent Divine,
Guru’s elixir of Grace,
ambrosia for human race.
Inspired word it is
from the One Formless Supreme,
blazing way to the Eternal Truth,
the Abode where He dwells.
A chosen prayer is Japu Ji,
to be recited at an early morn
when everyone is attuned
to the Divine Harmony.
Ultimate Revelation it is
of Nirgun Nirankar Par Brahm,
Mystic Ladder to Truth’s Realm,
The pathway to Home of Om.
Japu Ji enshrines Essence Sublime,
Visible Form of Light Divine
from the Home of Eternal Calm,
Nad Brahm beyond name and form.
It’s the True Arc of Grace,
the Beacon Star for human race,
the Sole Saviour That never fails
in the darkest hour of the soul.
Of its Thirty Eight Steps of Eternal Light
each step guides the soul’s flight ,
spurred by yearning and devotion
the soul ascends to Lord’s Mansion.
Mool Mantra has the Seed
of Truth’s Revelation,
Light- Bliss-Consciousness,
the Garland of God’s Attributes.
Mool Mantra is a vibrant string,
each word or phrase a swirling sling,
Nad-Shabad vibrating Order Supreme
within the Earth, Heaven and Space in-between.
Standing at the head of Jap
Eternal Truth crowns the top,
recited it is at initiation time,
on each auspicious time.
None but He is Absolute True,
Eternal, Source of Light
In every form Imageless,
Self-Existing , self-Effulgent too.
No sage, no scripture can His glory fathom,
Author is He of grand illusion,
Far above Wheel of Time
far above Timeless Chime.
To awake He shakes a soul
but reveals not His face.
Inscrutable mystique is Divine Grace,
Himself knowing how fetters break.
Path to Divine Grace is arduous long,
but if He Willeth, it becomes a song,
the fruit of everything is in Divine Hand,
upto Him, who shall perish, or who shall land.
Guru’s Word is His Visible Form,
Its meaning dawns through His Naam,
Way to God realization is Word,
that unveils all illusions.
If you seek the Guru’s Sight
bow before the Book for Light,
dwell on its Text with pious heart
and commune with Guru’s Thought.
“The Word is the Guru’ and you the disciple
hearing best”, so say the text.
As the Word is revealed,
World’s wounds are healed.
Seeker soars on sound-light wings
to Heaven-of-Truth’s eternal spring,
Unstruck Melody guides his flight
blazed by Word, informed by Light.
Naam is the Ultimate Reality,
Naam is the Highest Truth,
Naam is the Almighty,
Naam is the Formless First.
Freed from world–wheel of shame,
steeped in Harmony of Holy Name,
the spirit soars to its Original Home
where God abides as Formless Om.
Shabad pervades Lord’s creation infinite,
Shabad monitors manifestation of Light,
through Shabad universe comes into being,
through Shabad it would vanish.
Shabad is vesture that Creator wears,
the Mystic Sound is what seeker hears,
Shabad is Light of Truth That unveils
the Meaning of Meaning Eternal.
While Communing with Word Divine
Your other channels lose,
and you return to the origin
from where the journey was begun.
Man’s destiny is cast not in erratic fashion,
inexorable is law of Karmic retribution,
Karma is seed we sow for the preferred harvest to reap,
all choice is ours, of bed of roses or of thorns to sleep.
To law of Karma every one is bound,
no one is immune from worldly rounds ,
each one reaps what he sows,
and to hell or heaven he goes.
In Guru’s Law of Karma is the solid base,
devotion being prelude to Divine Grace,
if Karma is highway for a pilgrim to ply
Grace is skyway for His soul to fly.
Though law of karma inexorably operates
Divine Grace, still remains great,
predestination or free will, what is true state?
why are some liberated ,others on Wheel gyrate?
No one can translate or transcreate
the Word which is Immaculate,
its rhythm intricate, its poetry sublime,
no one can recreate its mystique divine.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
ZEN SUTRA
ZEN SUTRA
Fleeting shadows,
endless chase,
nothing lost,nothing found.
Only a plunge within
can let you drink
of the celestial fount.
Enlightenment is but a state
of awekening to one’s own self,
it simply happens.
Wake up to full consciousness
lotussed in the centre
of your existence.
No ‘I'amness’
no duality,
a sovereign.
A full-blown lotus
light all-pervading
in silence enveloped.
Deeper into your being
you behold:
lotus turn into a lamp.
No more seeking,
no more craving,
in bliss crowned.
Only in no-mind
can spring blossom,
all cravings fulfilled.
On a full-moon night
a dreamless sleep
under the Bo-tree.
Only a witness,
a Buddha
seated in pure conciousness.
Ultimate in truth,
freedom incarnate,
light of bliss.
No wait,
suddenly it comes
the light of Zen.
Fleeting shadows,
endless chase,
nothing lost,nothing found.
Only a plunge within
can let you drink
of the celestial fount.
Enlightenment is but a state
of awekening to one’s own self,
it simply happens.
Wake up to full consciousness
lotussed in the centre
of your existence.
No ‘I'amness’
no duality,
a sovereign.
A full-blown lotus
light all-pervading
in silence enveloped.
Deeper into your being
you behold:
lotus turn into a lamp.
No more seeking,
no more craving,
in bliss crowned.
Only in no-mind
can spring blossom,
all cravings fulfilled.
On a full-moon night
a dreamless sleep
under the Bo-tree.
Only a witness,
a Buddha
seated in pure conciousness.
Ultimate in truth,
freedom incarnate,
light of bliss.
No wait,
suddenly it comes
the light of Zen.
GAYATRI,THE MOTHER OF ALL MANTRAS
GAYATRI,THE MOTHER OF ALL MANTRAS
Om,
what precedes everything under the Sun,
what sustains varied orders of creation,
what guides us to Truth’s Sacred Mansion.
Om,
the origin of all speech,
the first emanation of Nad Brahm
that shall last till the end of time.
Om,
the ultimate Power Supreme,
manifest in myriad orders sublime
encompassing every order of creation.
Om,
whence all mantras are born,
what spans three planes of existence,
the earth, heaven, the space in-between.
Om,
the three powers of Great Being:
creation, preservation , dissolution,
the beginning, the middle, the end.
Gayatri,
the hymn to Savitur, the Sun,
the Light of Universal Intelligence
pervading every form of being and thing.
Gayatri,
the Mantra of Mantra,
the essence of all Revelation,
the key to God-realization.
Gayatri,
capsuled in Gayatri Chhand,
the vedic metre of twenty four syllables
what to sage Vishwamitra was revealed.
Gayatri,
the original revelation,
personification of perfection,
the golden egg that contains all isness.
Gayatri,
the primal chant
consecrated to the splendorous Sun,
emanating from the realm of Savitri.
Gayatri, the mother
whose gentle foot is this cosmos,
her chariot is the Sun,
the source of all hymns.
Gayatri,
the celestial harmony
blowing upon all men
hymning creations upon creations.
Gayatri, the primordial power
the supreme felicity and light,
of all that is, has been, shall be.
Gayatri ,
the all-creating intelligence,
the dawn of Self’s illumination
irradiated by Truth’s Sun.
Gayatri,
the Creator’s hymn to the Sun,
the primordial waters,
the Beginningless Being.
Gayatri,
the primal offering to cosmic fires
that feed fires of oblation,
make whole creation an endless sacrifice.
Gayatri!
the perennial Vedic hymn,
the ultimate in speech,
ineffable harmony.
Cosmic Resonance is your Song,
as the Nad Udgeet
in every particle it reverberates.
Your meter and diction
flow from some invisible source
in all-pervading silence.
Your every syllable stirs celestial waters
musicalising every speck and sphere
with Brhaspati’s sonorous voice.
Gayatri!
The five-faced one, the goddess
seated on the lotus throne,
with crown on each of her five heads.
The four heads are the four Vedas,
the fifth one is the Lord Himself
Whose loved symbols her ten hands adorn.
Nine gems she wears in her crown
irradiating Light Divine
beckoning all to her golden throne.
O Gayatri!
You oversee the cosmos with your ten eyes
keep track of revolving spheres and skies
the countless star-systems in spangled heaven.
O Gayatri ,
the primal prayer to Savitur
pervading every speck and sphere
as the Light of Pure Intelligence.
When Agni bellows
but pierces not the wood,
half-burnt are oblations,
it’s time to invoke
the four-footed Gayatri,
the Shakti beind the Sun.
Ice sits on foot of hills,
all rivers are frozen,
not a blade of grass,
oceans cry for water,
louder grows their wails,
muted is the nature’s chant.
When ice melts
frozen treasures flow down
the belly of clouds cut open
by lightning thunder
in torrential rain
with your blessings you come.
Awaken the fiery Tapas
melt all piles of frozen hopes
burst forth in merciful showers
to the delight of clamouring oceans.
Release the impetuous chant
from captivity of Promethean Chains,
lend fire to my speech
touching my tongue with nectar flame.
When iceman sits on oblations
fire dies down,
all possibilities frozen,
When sterility strikes
every creative spring,
vision is locked up,
inspiration is imprisoned,
then on wings of fire you come
from the middle of the Sun
with breath of life.
To revive the dead
to set free
all visions and revelations,
all waters of inspiration.
To receive the offering
to bless the sacrifice,
to bring good cheer to the world.
O Mother !
by your gravitational pull impelled
in shining costumes they all come
stars and galaxies on the run.
By tapas they in cyclic orders move
on invisible tracks of ether
in celestial waters of space.
O Mother!
Your Cosmic Resonance
summoning fires from the Sun,
bestows heaven’s choicest boons.
O Mother!
Your breath leads to the Origin,
the abode where Self abides
in ecstasy of primeval harmony.
Gayatri, the crown of all mantric chants,
the invocation to Cosmic Intelligence,
bestows Bliss, Knowledge and Intuition.
Gayatri, the dawn effulging after midnight,
the soulful chant to the God of Light,
of All-pervading Beauty and Order in existence.
Constant repetition of Gayatri Chant
builds a stairway to heaven,
blazes the way to Lord’s Mansion.
Gayatri burns away all our karmic remains
Letting us see radiant Self in all beings,
the soul’s equipoise as a windless flame.
O the four-footed Gayatri!
Your one foot encompasses the Earth,
Your other three feet have their seat
above dark peaks on the Sun.
Obeisance to you, O Devi
you are the Shakti!
the manifest creation your one foot
invisible the other three.
Agni, Savitri, Soma in you merge
to become the eternal chant
of supreme ecstasy.
O mother! lift this chant
to clouds in dark skies
descend with dripping grace
on my life’s desert.
Obeisance to you.
O Shakti!
obeisance to you.
Word-in-flesh
of joyous Grace.
Bless.
Om,
what precedes everything under the Sun,
what sustains varied orders of creation,
what guides us to Truth’s Sacred Mansion.
Om,
the origin of all speech,
the first emanation of Nad Brahm
that shall last till the end of time.
Om,
the ultimate Power Supreme,
manifest in myriad orders sublime
encompassing every order of creation.
Om,
whence all mantras are born,
what spans three planes of existence,
the earth, heaven, the space in-between.
Om,
the three powers of Great Being:
creation, preservation , dissolution,
the beginning, the middle, the end.
Gayatri,
the hymn to Savitur, the Sun,
the Light of Universal Intelligence
pervading every form of being and thing.
Gayatri,
the Mantra of Mantra,
the essence of all Revelation,
the key to God-realization.
Gayatri,
capsuled in Gayatri Chhand,
the vedic metre of twenty four syllables
what to sage Vishwamitra was revealed.
Gayatri,
the original revelation,
personification of perfection,
the golden egg that contains all isness.
Gayatri,
the primal chant
consecrated to the splendorous Sun,
emanating from the realm of Savitri.
Gayatri, the mother
whose gentle foot is this cosmos,
her chariot is the Sun,
the source of all hymns.
Gayatri,
the celestial harmony
blowing upon all men
hymning creations upon creations.
Gayatri, the primordial power
the supreme felicity and light,
of all that is, has been, shall be.
Gayatri ,
the all-creating intelligence,
the dawn of Self’s illumination
irradiated by Truth’s Sun.
Gayatri,
the Creator’s hymn to the Sun,
the primordial waters,
the Beginningless Being.
Gayatri,
the primal offering to cosmic fires
that feed fires of oblation,
make whole creation an endless sacrifice.
Gayatri!
the perennial Vedic hymn,
the ultimate in speech,
ineffable harmony.
Cosmic Resonance is your Song,
as the Nad Udgeet
in every particle it reverberates.
Your meter and diction
flow from some invisible source
in all-pervading silence.
Your every syllable stirs celestial waters
musicalising every speck and sphere
with Brhaspati’s sonorous voice.
Gayatri!
The five-faced one, the goddess
seated on the lotus throne,
with crown on each of her five heads.
The four heads are the four Vedas,
the fifth one is the Lord Himself
Whose loved symbols her ten hands adorn.
Nine gems she wears in her crown
irradiating Light Divine
beckoning all to her golden throne.
O Gayatri!
You oversee the cosmos with your ten eyes
keep track of revolving spheres and skies
the countless star-systems in spangled heaven.
O Gayatri ,
the primal prayer to Savitur
pervading every speck and sphere
as the Light of Pure Intelligence.
When Agni bellows
but pierces not the wood,
half-burnt are oblations,
it’s time to invoke
the four-footed Gayatri,
the Shakti beind the Sun.
Ice sits on foot of hills,
all rivers are frozen,
not a blade of grass,
oceans cry for water,
louder grows their wails,
muted is the nature’s chant.
When ice melts
frozen treasures flow down
the belly of clouds cut open
by lightning thunder
in torrential rain
with your blessings you come.
Awaken the fiery Tapas
melt all piles of frozen hopes
burst forth in merciful showers
to the delight of clamouring oceans.
Release the impetuous chant
from captivity of Promethean Chains,
lend fire to my speech
touching my tongue with nectar flame.
When iceman sits on oblations
fire dies down,
all possibilities frozen,
When sterility strikes
every creative spring,
vision is locked up,
inspiration is imprisoned,
then on wings of fire you come
from the middle of the Sun
with breath of life.
To revive the dead
to set free
all visions and revelations,
all waters of inspiration.
To receive the offering
to bless the sacrifice,
to bring good cheer to the world.
O Mother !
by your gravitational pull impelled
in shining costumes they all come
stars and galaxies on the run.
By tapas they in cyclic orders move
on invisible tracks of ether
in celestial waters of space.
O Mother!
Your Cosmic Resonance
summoning fires from the Sun,
bestows heaven’s choicest boons.
O Mother!
Your breath leads to the Origin,
the abode where Self abides
in ecstasy of primeval harmony.
Gayatri, the crown of all mantric chants,
the invocation to Cosmic Intelligence,
bestows Bliss, Knowledge and Intuition.
Gayatri, the dawn effulging after midnight,
the soulful chant to the God of Light,
of All-pervading Beauty and Order in existence.
Constant repetition of Gayatri Chant
builds a stairway to heaven,
blazes the way to Lord’s Mansion.
Gayatri burns away all our karmic remains
Letting us see radiant Self in all beings,
the soul’s equipoise as a windless flame.
O the four-footed Gayatri!
Your one foot encompasses the Earth,
Your other three feet have their seat
above dark peaks on the Sun.
Obeisance to you, O Devi
you are the Shakti!
the manifest creation your one foot
invisible the other three.
Agni, Savitri, Soma in you merge
to become the eternal chant
of supreme ecstasy.
O mother! lift this chant
to clouds in dark skies
descend with dripping grace
on my life’s desert.
Obeisance to you.
O Shakti!
obeisance to you.
Word-in-flesh
of joyous Grace.
Bless.
Friday, February 06, 2009
ZARATHUSTRA:THE MYSTICAL PROPHET
Zarathustra – The Mystical Prophet
As terms like consciousness, spirit, soul and similar cannot be defined in precise terms, so is mysticism. In wider sense, we could reckon for mystical any philosophy that brings into the focus faith in preference to science and rationalistic way of thinking. Nevertheless, there have been many philosophers whose teaching included both.
Mysticism in philosophy and in religion quite often is indistinguishable from the poetic mysticism, because many mystical philosophers have been at the same time writers and poets, especially those from Eastern philosophies and religions. For all that, mystical philosophy speaks about the union of man with the divinity, in a mystical trance or ecstasy.
Mysticism as religious experience par exellance, has been a subject of study of American psychologist and philosopher William James. He views personal religious experiences at the center of mystical states of consciousness. In defining the term 'mysticism' James refers to four basic distinctions which include – unutterableness, noetic quality, transience and passiveness. The first connotes the fact that the quality of mystical experience must be experienced personally and in a direct way, and it cannot be communicated to others. The distinction of noetic quality enables a deep intuitive insight in these states, sometimes called enlightenment, revelation and the like. The third characteristic concerns these states of consciousness, i.e. transience. This does not seem to be universal, because in case of some mystics these states can last for a long period of time, and by some they can even turn into a continuous state, without returning into everyday, normal state of consciousness. The fourth characteristic is passiveness. James views that concentration exercises or physical exercises (he meant probably yoga) help entering into a mystical state of consciousness. So passiveness can be regarded as essential characteristic just conditionally. The passiveness in fact originates when one has already transcended the normal waking state of consciousness, and then he experiences the feeling of being taken by some 'higher force'.
James omitted one very essential characteristic, that is love and desire for the union with the absolute, the striving to reach the very origin of the being, as says French theologian Louis Gardet. However, he makes difference between oriental religions, where the path to the absolute leads through the immanence of the mystics of one's own self, and monotheistic religions, where this path leads through the union and access to depths of 'God of faith'.
The first beginnings of mystical philosophy could be attached to the names of great philosophers and founders of religions-- Zarathustra, Hermes and Moses.
Zarathustra – The Mystical Prophet
The name of Zarathustra is mentioned for the first time in Plato's work Alcibiades, where he calls him the son of Ormuz. The teachings of Plato and Platonists were under the direct influence of Zarathustra, especially Plato's teaching about the ideas. In Proclus' commentary of 'Parmenides', this philosopher cites Zarathustra's work, where are mentioned ideas.
Legend tells us that at the age of 30, Zoroaster had a heavenly vision in which an angel brought him to the deity Ahura Mazda, who instructed him to found a new religion .The visions continued over a 10-year period. He rejected many of the ritual practices of the Aryan-derived religion, especially the sacrificial slaughter of cattle and the drinking of intoxicating haoma.
The basic element of his belief system is the duality between good and evil which is the result of a choice initiated by Ahura Mazda, the world's creator. One of the twin spirits engendered by Ahura Mazda, named Spenta Mainyu ("Beneficent Spirit") chose good and life, while the other, Angra Mainyu ("Destroying Spirit," or Ahriman), chose evil and death. As a result, humans must make the same choice, since they will be judged accordingly upon their death. The just will be rewarded with entrance into paradise, or the "House of Song," and the wicked condemned to the "House of Evil."
In an ancient hymn, Zoroaster declares:
Truly, there are two primal Spirits, twins renowned to be better and the bad. And those who act well have chosen rightly between these two, not so the evildoers. (Yasna 30:3).
Besides this, Zarathustra is also the predecessor of monism in philosophy. The first principle of all things he called monad. Under this term he understood that, which in itself contains all, and which at the same time is not contained by anything.
This monism is seemingly in contradiction with the duality of two supreme principles in Zarathustra's religion – the creator Ormuz and destructive spirit Ahriman. But the fact is, there is no real contradiction, because these contrasts find resolution and reconciliation in one highest unity.
In Zoroastrism, Ahriman is not considered as born of God, not even as the 'fallen angel'.This is because by that, God would become responsible for evil alone. Ahriman is seen as entirely independent evil spirit, who wants to destroy the perfection of God's creation. In spite of this seeming dualism, we could consider Zoroastrism as monotheistic religion. For Ormuz is the supreme divinity. He is the creator of heaven, earth and man, as well as of divine beings, that can be compared with archangels and angels. This God is the principle of truth and good. Beside him there are no other gods.
Prophet Zarathustra regards this world as good in its essence, but the attacks of Ahriman do corrupt him. People have their personal responsability to choose between good and evil. According to their free will in choice they make, they will be judged on the other world. Zarathustra speaks of the cosmic battle between good and evil, which will last for three thousand years, according to the prophecy. After that, the evil will be destroyed, Ahriman disabled, and then will take place the renewal of the creation. The earth and heaven will be merged then, to create what is best in both worlds. That, in short, is Zarathustra's teaching. It, in fact, has its roots in the ancient religion of Indo-Iranian (or Aryans), i.e, people that settled in India and Persia, about 3000 BC. We can get only the approximate picture, by comparison with Vedas. While there are numerous resemblances with Hindu religion, there are differences too.. As just one example, the word 'do-eva', in sacred script of Zoroastrism 'Avesta' denotes evil spirits, while in Hindu religion 'devas' mean divine spirits,or spirits of light.
Zarathustra's religion passed from generation to generation, by oral tradition. The first attempts of systematic collection of old tradition took place during the Parthian dynasty, which ruled over Persia from the 2nd century BC to 3rd century AD. So it was made up 'Avesta', the sacred book. Here in the book prophet Zarathustra is represented in a mythical manner, as a man endowed by supernatural powers. However a part of the book includes his eulogies, gatha. They seem authentic Zarathustra's words. Distinct from this, in the rest of 'Avesta', the words are only ascribed to the prophet. In the eulogies gatha, Zarathustra points at divine mystical tradition. He yearns for acquisition of the divine knowledge. He teaches that achievement of wholeness and immortality leads to enlightenment, where one can attain the knowledge of God alone.
The relation between man and God, to Zarathustra, is based upon love. To achieve the pure love of God, it is necessary to live Zarathustra's words: ‘I yearn for your figure and union with you, come to me alone and grow inside me”. From these quotes, of the sacred book, one can see the importance of mysticism for this religion. The purpose of man is union with God. According to the Prophet, that man, by good thought, fairness and piety, and through the perfection of his being can unite himself with God.
As terms like consciousness, spirit, soul and similar cannot be defined in precise terms, so is mysticism. In wider sense, we could reckon for mystical any philosophy that brings into the focus faith in preference to science and rationalistic way of thinking. Nevertheless, there have been many philosophers whose teaching included both.
Mysticism in philosophy and in religion quite often is indistinguishable from the poetic mysticism, because many mystical philosophers have been at the same time writers and poets, especially those from Eastern philosophies and religions. For all that, mystical philosophy speaks about the union of man with the divinity, in a mystical trance or ecstasy.
Mysticism as religious experience par exellance, has been a subject of study of American psychologist and philosopher William James. He views personal religious experiences at the center of mystical states of consciousness. In defining the term 'mysticism' James refers to four basic distinctions which include – unutterableness, noetic quality, transience and passiveness. The first connotes the fact that the quality of mystical experience must be experienced personally and in a direct way, and it cannot be communicated to others. The distinction of noetic quality enables a deep intuitive insight in these states, sometimes called enlightenment, revelation and the like. The third characteristic concerns these states of consciousness, i.e. transience. This does not seem to be universal, because in case of some mystics these states can last for a long period of time, and by some they can even turn into a continuous state, without returning into everyday, normal state of consciousness. The fourth characteristic is passiveness. James views that concentration exercises or physical exercises (he meant probably yoga) help entering into a mystical state of consciousness. So passiveness can be regarded as essential characteristic just conditionally. The passiveness in fact originates when one has already transcended the normal waking state of consciousness, and then he experiences the feeling of being taken by some 'higher force'.
James omitted one very essential characteristic, that is love and desire for the union with the absolute, the striving to reach the very origin of the being, as says French theologian Louis Gardet. However, he makes difference between oriental religions, where the path to the absolute leads through the immanence of the mystics of one's own self, and monotheistic religions, where this path leads through the union and access to depths of 'God of faith'.
The first beginnings of mystical philosophy could be attached to the names of great philosophers and founders of religions-- Zarathustra, Hermes and Moses.
Zarathustra – The Mystical Prophet
The name of Zarathustra is mentioned for the first time in Plato's work Alcibiades, where he calls him the son of Ormuz. The teachings of Plato and Platonists were under the direct influence of Zarathustra, especially Plato's teaching about the ideas. In Proclus' commentary of 'Parmenides', this philosopher cites Zarathustra's work, where are mentioned ideas.
Legend tells us that at the age of 30, Zoroaster had a heavenly vision in which an angel brought him to the deity Ahura Mazda, who instructed him to found a new religion .The visions continued over a 10-year period. He rejected many of the ritual practices of the Aryan-derived religion, especially the sacrificial slaughter of cattle and the drinking of intoxicating haoma.
The basic element of his belief system is the duality between good and evil which is the result of a choice initiated by Ahura Mazda, the world's creator. One of the twin spirits engendered by Ahura Mazda, named Spenta Mainyu ("Beneficent Spirit") chose good and life, while the other, Angra Mainyu ("Destroying Spirit," or Ahriman), chose evil and death. As a result, humans must make the same choice, since they will be judged accordingly upon their death. The just will be rewarded with entrance into paradise, or the "House of Song," and the wicked condemned to the "House of Evil."
In an ancient hymn, Zoroaster declares:
Truly, there are two primal Spirits, twins renowned to be better and the bad. And those who act well have chosen rightly between these two, not so the evildoers. (Yasna 30:3).
Besides this, Zarathustra is also the predecessor of monism in philosophy. The first principle of all things he called monad. Under this term he understood that, which in itself contains all, and which at the same time is not contained by anything.
This monism is seemingly in contradiction with the duality of two supreme principles in Zarathustra's religion – the creator Ormuz and destructive spirit Ahriman. But the fact is, there is no real contradiction, because these contrasts find resolution and reconciliation in one highest unity.
In Zoroastrism, Ahriman is not considered as born of God, not even as the 'fallen angel'.This is because by that, God would become responsible for evil alone. Ahriman is seen as entirely independent evil spirit, who wants to destroy the perfection of God's creation. In spite of this seeming dualism, we could consider Zoroastrism as monotheistic religion. For Ormuz is the supreme divinity. He is the creator of heaven, earth and man, as well as of divine beings, that can be compared with archangels and angels. This God is the principle of truth and good. Beside him there are no other gods.
Prophet Zarathustra regards this world as good in its essence, but the attacks of Ahriman do corrupt him. People have their personal responsability to choose between good and evil. According to their free will in choice they make, they will be judged on the other world. Zarathustra speaks of the cosmic battle between good and evil, which will last for three thousand years, according to the prophecy. After that, the evil will be destroyed, Ahriman disabled, and then will take place the renewal of the creation. The earth and heaven will be merged then, to create what is best in both worlds. That, in short, is Zarathustra's teaching. It, in fact, has its roots in the ancient religion of Indo-Iranian (or Aryans), i.e, people that settled in India and Persia, about 3000 BC. We can get only the approximate picture, by comparison with Vedas. While there are numerous resemblances with Hindu religion, there are differences too.. As just one example, the word 'do-eva', in sacred script of Zoroastrism 'Avesta' denotes evil spirits, while in Hindu religion 'devas' mean divine spirits,or spirits of light.
Zarathustra's religion passed from generation to generation, by oral tradition. The first attempts of systematic collection of old tradition took place during the Parthian dynasty, which ruled over Persia from the 2nd century BC to 3rd century AD. So it was made up 'Avesta', the sacred book. Here in the book prophet Zarathustra is represented in a mythical manner, as a man endowed by supernatural powers. However a part of the book includes his eulogies, gatha. They seem authentic Zarathustra's words. Distinct from this, in the rest of 'Avesta', the words are only ascribed to the prophet. In the eulogies gatha, Zarathustra points at divine mystical tradition. He yearns for acquisition of the divine knowledge. He teaches that achievement of wholeness and immortality leads to enlightenment, where one can attain the knowledge of God alone.
The relation between man and God, to Zarathustra, is based upon love. To achieve the pure love of God, it is necessary to live Zarathustra's words: ‘I yearn for your figure and union with you, come to me alone and grow inside me”. From these quotes, of the sacred book, one can see the importance of mysticism for this religion. The purpose of man is union with God. According to the Prophet, that man, by good thought, fairness and piety, and through the perfection of his being can unite himself with God.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
HYMN TO AGNI
HYMN TO AGNI
O luminous word!
In you the origin
of every Tantric symbol,
of every Bija sound
of every mystic sign.
O luminous word!
My inspiration,
my priest,
take me to your realm
robed in flames.
O the flame-tongued!
Luminous your utterance,
the poet par excellence,
with a flowing pen you write
in letterings of fire.
Every sign you simulate
hides a hidden meaning,
the grand design
in which the world is wrought.
O son to Sun,
From your throne descend,
come in your one-wheeled chariot
with gifts laden
of milk, honey, fruits and flowers.
O Sun-bird!
You shuttle between earth and heaven,
sky-wide are your wings
the darling of the shining ones,
your final destination is the Sun.
O the Sun-bird!
You have created a ladder
from the earth to heaven
to bring Soma from the Sun,
just a drop of this makes one immortal.
O Sun-bird!
On your one-wheeled chariot come
from the land of the Sun
bring from the highest heaven
the drink of gods.
O the Sun-bird!
You spread your wings
to warm the cooled of spaces,
the golden egg to fertilize
wombing a glowing chirping creation.
O bounteous giver !
By you is there god’s plenty,
pastures green, flowers and fruits,
by you is there the warmth and rain,
the autumn and spring.
O plenitude incarnate!
Come in your blazing costume
from the middle of celestial waters
rain on us the choicest boons
from your endless treasury.
O Agni!
You are the first three sticks
at the base of every sacrifice,
the little and big sparks that rise
to the glory of the highest flame.
O Agni!
I offer this oblation
of the fiery drink
of priests and of all those men
who rise to the splendor of the Sun.
O Agni !
This sacrifice unto you,
grant me the boon of shining speech,
replenish the parched roots,
turn the whole earth green.
O luminous word!
In you the origin
of every Tantric symbol,
of every Bija sound
of every mystic sign.
O luminous word!
My inspiration,
my priest,
take me to your realm
robed in flames.
O the flame-tongued!
Luminous your utterance,
the poet par excellence,
with a flowing pen you write
in letterings of fire.
Every sign you simulate
hides a hidden meaning,
the grand design
in which the world is wrought.
O son to Sun,
From your throne descend,
come in your one-wheeled chariot
with gifts laden
of milk, honey, fruits and flowers.
O Sun-bird!
You shuttle between earth and heaven,
sky-wide are your wings
the darling of the shining ones,
your final destination is the Sun.
O the Sun-bird!
You have created a ladder
from the earth to heaven
to bring Soma from the Sun,
just a drop of this makes one immortal.
O Sun-bird!
On your one-wheeled chariot come
from the land of the Sun
bring from the highest heaven
the drink of gods.
O the Sun-bird!
You spread your wings
to warm the cooled of spaces,
the golden egg to fertilize
wombing a glowing chirping creation.
O bounteous giver !
By you is there god’s plenty,
pastures green, flowers and fruits,
by you is there the warmth and rain,
the autumn and spring.
O plenitude incarnate!
Come in your blazing costume
from the middle of celestial waters
rain on us the choicest boons
from your endless treasury.
O Agni!
You are the first three sticks
at the base of every sacrifice,
the little and big sparks that rise
to the glory of the highest flame.
O Agni!
I offer this oblation
of the fiery drink
of priests and of all those men
who rise to the splendor of the Sun.
O Agni !
This sacrifice unto you,
grant me the boon of shining speech,
replenish the parched roots,
turn the whole earth green.
MYSTICISM
MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY
In the early centuries of Christianity, as we know from the writings of many of the Fathers, and more surely by the Occult Records, there existed in the bosom of the Christian Church the venerable institution of the Mysteries, in which the purified met superhuman Instructors, and learned from the lips of the Holy Ones the secrets of the 'Kingdom of Heaven'. After the Christ had thrown off His physical body, He taught His disciples for many years, coming to them in His glorified subtle body, until those who knew Him in the flesh had passed away. So long as the Christian Mysteries endured, Jesus appeared at them from time to time, and His chief disciples were constantly present at them. So long as this state of things continued, the exoteric and the esoteric teachings of Christianity ran side by side in perfect accord, and the mysteries supplied to the high places in the Church men who were true teachers for the mass of believers, being themselves deeply instructed in the "hidden things of God", and able to speak with the authority which comes from direct knowledge They, like their Master, "taught as having authority and not as the scribes".
But after the disappearance of the Mysteries, the state of affairs slowly altered for the worse, and a divergence between the exoteric and esoteric teachings showed itself ever increasingly until a wide gulf yawned between them and the mass of the faithful, standing on the exoteric side, lost sight of the esoteric wisdom. More and more did the letter take the place of the spirit, the form of the life, and there began the strife between the Priest and the Mystic that has ever since been waged in the Christian Church.
The Priest is ever the guardian of the exoteric, the recipient of the faith once delivered to the saints, the officiant of the sacraments, the custodian of the outer order, the transmitter of the traditions, becoming more authoritative from age to age. His to repeat accurately the sacred formulæ; his to watch over a changeless orthodoxy; his to be the articulate voice of the Church; his to hand on the unaltered record. Great and noble is his task, and invaluable his services to the evolving masses of the populace. It is he who consecrates their birth, sanctions their marriage,hallows their death; he consoles them in their sorrows and purifies their joys; he stands by the bedside of the sick and the dying, and gilds the clouds of mortality with the sun of an immortal hope. He brings into sordid lives the one gleam of poetry and of colour that they known; he enlarges their narrow horizon with the vistas of a radiant future; he gladdens the mother with the vision of the Immortal Babe; he saves the desperate youth with the tenderness of the celestial Mother; he raises before the eyes of the sorrowful the crucifix that tells of a sorrow that embraces and consoles their grief; he breathes into the ear of the dying the pledge of the Easter resurrection. How could Humanity tread the earlier stages of its journey without the Priesthood that directs, rebukes, and comforts ? The universality of the office tells of the universality of the need.
Far other is the Mystic, the lonely dweller on the mountain-side, climbing in advance of his race, without help from the outer world, listening ever for the faint whisper of the God within. Humblest of men as he faces the depths of Divinity around and the unsounded abysses of the Divinity within, he seems arrogant as he withstands the edits of external authority, and rebel as he bows not his neck to the yoke of ecclesiastical order. With his visions and his dreams and his ecstasies,with his gropings in the dark and his flashes from a light supernal that dazzles more than it illuminates, with his sudden irrational exaltations and his equally sudden and unreasoning depressions, what has he to oppose to the clear-cut doctrines and the imperial authority of the exoteric creed? Only an unalterable conviction which he can neither justify nor explain; a certainty which leaves him stuttering when he seeks to expound it, but remains unfaltering in face of all rebuke and al reprobation. What can the Priest do with this rebel, who places his visions above all scriptures, and asserts an inalienable liberty in the face of the demand for obedience? He has no use for him, no place for him; he disturbs with his curb less fantasies the settled order of the household of faith. Hence a continued struggle, in which the Priest for a while seems to conquer, but form which the Mystic emerges victor in the end.
The combat seems an unequal one, since the Priest has behind him the strength of a splendid tradition, of a centuried history, of a changeless authority, and the Mystic stands alone, unfriended. But it is not so unequal as it seems; for the Mystic draws his strength from That which gives birth to all religions, and he bathes in the waters that regenerate, in the flood of Eternity. So in the ever-recurring conflict, the Priest conquers in the world material, and is defeated in the world spiritual; and the Mystic, rebuked, persecuted, crushed, while dwelling in the body;, becomes the Saint after the body has dropped from him, and becomes a voice of the Church that silenced him, a stone in the walls that imprisoned.
In the Roman Catholic Church this combat has been waged century after century, with the same result continually repeated. Teresa, rebuked and humbled by her confessor, arises as S. Teresa for unborn generations. Many a man and many a women, regarded askance, treated with scorn by their contemporaries, become the cynosures of countless millions of eyes, eyes of the faithful, descendants of the faithful who decried. And on the whole it is as well that it should be so, until the stern training of old is re-established; else would every dreamer be taken as a Mystic, and every hysteric as a Revealer. Only the true Mystic can walk unblenching through the fire of rebuke, "even in hell can whisper, 'I have known'".
Moreover the Roman Catholic Church alone has preserved a systematic training within the 'religious life', a real preparation for the occult life, ever recognized in theory even if challenged and suspected in practice. Hence has she so many Saints, and such grace and tenderness of spiritual beauty, that one is fain to pardon her the cruelties of her Priesthood for the sake of the rich streams of spiritual life poured by her Mystics over the arid deserts of the outer world. And one can understand, while reprobating, the fierceness with which she guarded the ground that made such growths of saintliness possible, and made her deem the superstition and bigotry of the masses but a small price to pay for the keeping sacred from profane touch the inner seeds which flowered out into the world as the Saints.
In Protestantism there has been no systematic training, and hence no soil in which the rare flower might readily root itself and grow. Few and far between are the Mystics in the Protestant community, though Jacob Boehme rises, splendid, gigantic, as though to show that even the absence of all training cannot stifle the Divinity of the Spirit which is Man. More than any other phase of Christianity does Protestantism need the presence of Mystics in its midst, the touch of the living Spirit to save it from the arid letter. But this is a subject that needs separate treatment, which elsewhere I hope to give.
Theosophy is the reassertion of Mysticism within the bosom of very living religion, the affirmation of the reality of the mystic state of consciousness and of the value of its products. In the midst of a scholarly and critical generation, it reproclaims the superiority of the knowledge which is
drawn from the direct experience of the spiritual world, and, facing undaunted the splendour of the accumulated results of research, historical and scientific, facing undaunted the new and menacing Priesthood of Science and of Criticism, it affirms he greater splendour of the open vision, and the royalty of the Kingdom into which may pass 'the little child' alone. The primary experience of Mysticism is direct communion with the unseen, the recognition of the odds without by the God within, the touching of invisible realities, the passing with opened eyes into the worlds beyond the veil. It substitutes experience for authority, knowledge for faith, and it finds its guarantee in the 'common-sense' of all Mystics, the identity of the experiences of all who traverse the grounds untrodden by the profane.
The results of mystic experiences show themselves in a method of interpretation applied to all doctrines and to all scriptures, a method which justifies itself by the light it throws on obscurities rather than by reasoned arguments. It is, in all ages, the method of the Illuminati.
An example will show the method better than efforts at explanation. Let us take the doctrine of the Atonement. The Mystic sees in this Christian doctrine one of the ways in which is told the ancient but ever new story of the unfolding of the human Spirit into self-conscious union with God. He sees the Atonement wrought by the unfolding of the Christ in man as the reflection in the human consciousness of the second Aspect in the Divine Consciousness, gradually shining out into clearness and beauty. As the Christ in man matures so is the atonement wrought, and it is completed when the Son, rising above separation, knows himself as one with Humanity and one with God, and in that knowledge becomes a veritable Saviour, a true Mediator between God and Man, uniting both in His own person, and thus making them one. The Mystic cares not to argue about the dead-letter meaning of any dogma; he sees the heart of it by the light of his own experience, and to him its true value lies in its inner content, not in its outer history.
So also with Scripture. It may, or may not, have an outer accuracy as history; its value lies in its exposition of the facts of the spiritual world. Whether a physical Israel did or did not wander through a physical desert seems to him to be of infinitesimal importance; many nations have wandered through many deserts. But the spiritual Israel wanders ever through spiritual deserts in its search for the Promised Land, and this is ever fresh, ever true, and he reads the story in the spiritual light and finds in it much that consoles, much that illuminates. He sees a Moses in every Prophet of humanity, pillars of fire and of cloud in every guidance of a nation. Nor is the Mystic without justification in thus reading the Scriptures; for S.Paul in Galatians iv. has thus dealt with the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael; and all the early Fathers of the Church sought the inner meanings and care little for the outer words.
For the educated Christian of today, who would not cut himself wholly off from the old moorings, this method of interpretation is vital, and only by the direct knowledge gained in the mystic state of consciousness can he preserve his religion amid the changes brought about by modern research. The Higher Criticism is undermining all his authorities; subtly, but in deadly fashion, its burrowing's have taken the ground away beneath their feet; and only a thin crust remains, which at any moment may give way, and let the whole structure crash down into irretrievable ruin. The Church can no longer be built on historical authority; it must build itself on the rock of experience, if it would survive the tempest which roars around it. Mysticism can give it the surest certainty in all the world, the certainty of mystic experience continually renewed.
The Christ within is the only guarantee of the Christ without - but no further guarantee is needed. Because the Christ lives undeveloped in every human Spirit, the Christ developed is a historical fact; and those in whom the mystic Christ is developing can look across the gulf of centuries and recognize the historical Christ; nay, can transcend the limitations of the physical, and know Him in His living reality as surely, and more fully, than His disciples knew Him when He walked by the lake of Gennesaret.
by Annie Besant
In the early centuries of Christianity, as we know from the writings of many of the Fathers, and more surely by the Occult Records, there existed in the bosom of the Christian Church the venerable institution of the Mysteries, in which the purified met superhuman Instructors, and learned from the lips of the Holy Ones the secrets of the 'Kingdom of Heaven'. After the Christ had thrown off His physical body, He taught His disciples for many years, coming to them in His glorified subtle body, until those who knew Him in the flesh had passed away. So long as the Christian Mysteries endured, Jesus appeared at them from time to time, and His chief disciples were constantly present at them. So long as this state of things continued, the exoteric and the esoteric teachings of Christianity ran side by side in perfect accord, and the mysteries supplied to the high places in the Church men who were true teachers for the mass of believers, being themselves deeply instructed in the "hidden things of God", and able to speak with the authority which comes from direct knowledge They, like their Master, "taught as having authority and not as the scribes".
But after the disappearance of the Mysteries, the state of affairs slowly altered for the worse, and a divergence between the exoteric and esoteric teachings showed itself ever increasingly until a wide gulf yawned between them and the mass of the faithful, standing on the exoteric side, lost sight of the esoteric wisdom. More and more did the letter take the place of the spirit, the form of the life, and there began the strife between the Priest and the Mystic that has ever since been waged in the Christian Church.
The Priest is ever the guardian of the exoteric, the recipient of the faith once delivered to the saints, the officiant of the sacraments, the custodian of the outer order, the transmitter of the traditions, becoming more authoritative from age to age. His to repeat accurately the sacred formulæ; his to watch over a changeless orthodoxy; his to be the articulate voice of the Church; his to hand on the unaltered record. Great and noble is his task, and invaluable his services to the evolving masses of the populace. It is he who consecrates their birth, sanctions their marriage,hallows their death; he consoles them in their sorrows and purifies their joys; he stands by the bedside of the sick and the dying, and gilds the clouds of mortality with the sun of an immortal hope. He brings into sordid lives the one gleam of poetry and of colour that they known; he enlarges their narrow horizon with the vistas of a radiant future; he gladdens the mother with the vision of the Immortal Babe; he saves the desperate youth with the tenderness of the celestial Mother; he raises before the eyes of the sorrowful the crucifix that tells of a sorrow that embraces and consoles their grief; he breathes into the ear of the dying the pledge of the Easter resurrection. How could Humanity tread the earlier stages of its journey without the Priesthood that directs, rebukes, and comforts ? The universality of the office tells of the universality of the need.
Far other is the Mystic, the lonely dweller on the mountain-side, climbing in advance of his race, without help from the outer world, listening ever for the faint whisper of the God within. Humblest of men as he faces the depths of Divinity around and the unsounded abysses of the Divinity within, he seems arrogant as he withstands the edits of external authority, and rebel as he bows not his neck to the yoke of ecclesiastical order. With his visions and his dreams and his ecstasies,with his gropings in the dark and his flashes from a light supernal that dazzles more than it illuminates, with his sudden irrational exaltations and his equally sudden and unreasoning depressions, what has he to oppose to the clear-cut doctrines and the imperial authority of the exoteric creed? Only an unalterable conviction which he can neither justify nor explain; a certainty which leaves him stuttering when he seeks to expound it, but remains unfaltering in face of all rebuke and al reprobation. What can the Priest do with this rebel, who places his visions above all scriptures, and asserts an inalienable liberty in the face of the demand for obedience? He has no use for him, no place for him; he disturbs with his curb less fantasies the settled order of the household of faith. Hence a continued struggle, in which the Priest for a while seems to conquer, but form which the Mystic emerges victor in the end.
The combat seems an unequal one, since the Priest has behind him the strength of a splendid tradition, of a centuried history, of a changeless authority, and the Mystic stands alone, unfriended. But it is not so unequal as it seems; for the Mystic draws his strength from That which gives birth to all religions, and he bathes in the waters that regenerate, in the flood of Eternity. So in the ever-recurring conflict, the Priest conquers in the world material, and is defeated in the world spiritual; and the Mystic, rebuked, persecuted, crushed, while dwelling in the body;, becomes the Saint after the body has dropped from him, and becomes a voice of the Church that silenced him, a stone in the walls that imprisoned.
In the Roman Catholic Church this combat has been waged century after century, with the same result continually repeated. Teresa, rebuked and humbled by her confessor, arises as S. Teresa for unborn generations. Many a man and many a women, regarded askance, treated with scorn by their contemporaries, become the cynosures of countless millions of eyes, eyes of the faithful, descendants of the faithful who decried. And on the whole it is as well that it should be so, until the stern training of old is re-established; else would every dreamer be taken as a Mystic, and every hysteric as a Revealer. Only the true Mystic can walk unblenching through the fire of rebuke, "even in hell can whisper, 'I have known'".
Moreover the Roman Catholic Church alone has preserved a systematic training within the 'religious life', a real preparation for the occult life, ever recognized in theory even if challenged and suspected in practice. Hence has she so many Saints, and such grace and tenderness of spiritual beauty, that one is fain to pardon her the cruelties of her Priesthood for the sake of the rich streams of spiritual life poured by her Mystics over the arid deserts of the outer world. And one can understand, while reprobating, the fierceness with which she guarded the ground that made such growths of saintliness possible, and made her deem the superstition and bigotry of the masses but a small price to pay for the keeping sacred from profane touch the inner seeds which flowered out into the world as the Saints.
In Protestantism there has been no systematic training, and hence no soil in which the rare flower might readily root itself and grow. Few and far between are the Mystics in the Protestant community, though Jacob Boehme rises, splendid, gigantic, as though to show that even the absence of all training cannot stifle the Divinity of the Spirit which is Man. More than any other phase of Christianity does Protestantism need the presence of Mystics in its midst, the touch of the living Spirit to save it from the arid letter. But this is a subject that needs separate treatment, which elsewhere I hope to give.
Theosophy is the reassertion of Mysticism within the bosom of very living religion, the affirmation of the reality of the mystic state of consciousness and of the value of its products. In the midst of a scholarly and critical generation, it reproclaims the superiority of the knowledge which is
drawn from the direct experience of the spiritual world, and, facing undaunted the splendour of the accumulated results of research, historical and scientific, facing undaunted the new and menacing Priesthood of Science and of Criticism, it affirms he greater splendour of the open vision, and the royalty of the Kingdom into which may pass 'the little child' alone. The primary experience of Mysticism is direct communion with the unseen, the recognition of the odds without by the God within, the touching of invisible realities, the passing with opened eyes into the worlds beyond the veil. It substitutes experience for authority, knowledge for faith, and it finds its guarantee in the 'common-sense' of all Mystics, the identity of the experiences of all who traverse the grounds untrodden by the profane.
The results of mystic experiences show themselves in a method of interpretation applied to all doctrines and to all scriptures, a method which justifies itself by the light it throws on obscurities rather than by reasoned arguments. It is, in all ages, the method of the Illuminati.
An example will show the method better than efforts at explanation. Let us take the doctrine of the Atonement. The Mystic sees in this Christian doctrine one of the ways in which is told the ancient but ever new story of the unfolding of the human Spirit into self-conscious union with God. He sees the Atonement wrought by the unfolding of the Christ in man as the reflection in the human consciousness of the second Aspect in the Divine Consciousness, gradually shining out into clearness and beauty. As the Christ in man matures so is the atonement wrought, and it is completed when the Son, rising above separation, knows himself as one with Humanity and one with God, and in that knowledge becomes a veritable Saviour, a true Mediator between God and Man, uniting both in His own person, and thus making them one. The Mystic cares not to argue about the dead-letter meaning of any dogma; he sees the heart of it by the light of his own experience, and to him its true value lies in its inner content, not in its outer history.
So also with Scripture. It may, or may not, have an outer accuracy as history; its value lies in its exposition of the facts of the spiritual world. Whether a physical Israel did or did not wander through a physical desert seems to him to be of infinitesimal importance; many nations have wandered through many deserts. But the spiritual Israel wanders ever through spiritual deserts in its search for the Promised Land, and this is ever fresh, ever true, and he reads the story in the spiritual light and finds in it much that consoles, much that illuminates. He sees a Moses in every Prophet of humanity, pillars of fire and of cloud in every guidance of a nation. Nor is the Mystic without justification in thus reading the Scriptures; for S.Paul in Galatians iv. has thus dealt with the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael; and all the early Fathers of the Church sought the inner meanings and care little for the outer words.
For the educated Christian of today, who would not cut himself wholly off from the old moorings, this method of interpretation is vital, and only by the direct knowledge gained in the mystic state of consciousness can he preserve his religion amid the changes brought about by modern research. The Higher Criticism is undermining all his authorities; subtly, but in deadly fashion, its burrowing's have taken the ground away beneath their feet; and only a thin crust remains, which at any moment may give way, and let the whole structure crash down into irretrievable ruin. The Church can no longer be built on historical authority; it must build itself on the rock of experience, if it would survive the tempest which roars around it. Mysticism can give it the surest certainty in all the world, the certainty of mystic experience continually renewed.
The Christ within is the only guarantee of the Christ without - but no further guarantee is needed. Because the Christ lives undeveloped in every human Spirit, the Christ developed is a historical fact; and those in whom the mystic Christ is developing can look across the gulf of centuries and recognize the historical Christ; nay, can transcend the limitations of the physical, and know Him in His living reality as surely, and more fully, than His disciples knew Him when He walked by the lake of Gennesaret.
by Annie Besant
Monday, January 26, 2009
YOGA: THE MASTER SCIENCE
YOGA: THE MASTER SCIENCE
Yoga is the technology of consciousness transformation par excellence. It struggles to achieve a metamorphosis of the ordinary consciousness and attempts to achieve this by way of centralizing and unifying the consciousness process. This is more or less true of all forms and varieties of yoga. Each one of them aims to realize the core of all existence. The transcendent awareness of the self outside and beyond the transient world is the supreme felicity of yogic quest.
The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj meaning to bind, join, attach or yoke. It also means union or communion, merger or dissolution. It signifies the yoking of all the powers of the body, mind and soul to god. It involves the disciplining of the intellect, the mind and the will. The yoga praxis is a means to attain the poise of the soul, the spirit of equanimity.
Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. It was collated, formulated and systematized by Sage Patanjali in his classical work, the Yoga Sutras. It consists of four sections containing two hundred aphorisms, divided thus: 51, 55, 56, and 38. There is a slight variation in number of aphorisms in its many editions. Some present one hundred and ninety-five aphorisms.
The first chapter of the Yoga Sutras deals with the nature and goal of Samadhi. The second chapter elucidates Kriya Yoga pointing to the means of attaining Samadhi. The third chapter gives an account of supernatural powers which are acquired through yoga practice and Samadhi. The fourth chapter deals with psychological analysis and the nature of liberation through Samadhi.
Little is known about place and time of the birth of Sage Patanjali. His authoritative works widely known among Sanskrit scholars are:
1. Patanjali Bhashye, authoritative commentary on Panini grammar.
2. Charak, a work on medicine.
3. Yoga Sutras, the authoritative work on yoga.
Sage Patanjali is widely known as a physician of the body, mind and psysche. He purifies the body medically; mind and speech through insightful study on Panini grammar; and soul through yoga. His integral yoga leads to a perfectly-integrated individual who is sound of body, sound of speech, sound of mind. The secrets of anatomy, physiology, psychology , philosophy, semantics and grammar are revealed to a yogi.
This profound discovery of yoga is an essential insight of all genuine mysticism. Yoga Sutras ( 1.2-3 ) presents possibly the most concise formulation of the process of emptying of all mentations followed by the manifestation of Transcendental Awareness: “Yoga is the restriction of the activity of consciousness- (when consciousness is appeased), then the seer ( i.e. the Self) abides ( in his ) own form”.
Yoga is the way to the creative void. It is the pause between breaths. It holds the key to man’s ultimate salvation. Selfhood or hard boiled egocentricity is the reason why man is case into the whirling wheel of Becoming. It distorts the One of Being into the transience of the space-time continuum.
Yoga has been from the beginning a secret doctrine. It is transmitted from an adept to a suitable aspirant when the latter shows the required qualities of determination, courage, endurance and physical and mental fitness. The former confirms his readiness to instruct either formally or by silent consent, by diksha, samskara or actual initiation .
Only the teacher knows the path for having walked it successfully. He is a knowledgeable person fit to be a guide. After instructed onto the path, the initiate travels towards his destination. The guru is teacher and confidante, guardian and judge in one person and worthy or unconditioned devotion. He is a constant monitor of the supreme ideal, of the renunciation of the ego.
The eight-fold path of classical yoga has been given out in the Yoga Sutrasof Patanjali which comprise the following members: (1) Yama, restraint (2) Niyama, discipline (3) Asana, posture (4) Pranayama, breath control (5) pratyahara, sense withdrawal (6) dharana, concentration (7) dhyana, absorption (8) Samadhi, entasy.
The highly dynamic nature of yogic operation is emphasized by the author of the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad (III.14b-15) :
“As the flame, dormant in the wood, cannot flare up without friction, so also the torch of gnosis (cannot shine) without the yoga of the practice ( of unification ).”
The tendency towards unification and totalisation is a feature of all yogic techniques as manifest on all levels of yoga. The yogi orients his every thought and wish towards the One surpassing all opposites remodeling it in himself. By restraining his greed for life, the yogi frees himself from the coerction of the instincts. By adopting a kindly attitude towards all beings, the yogi outside of life. But he does not stop halfway-death is followed by an initiatory rebirth.”
The Yoga Sutras (II.30) mention five components of Yama, although later texts refer to ten : (1) Ahimsa, non-hurting (2) Satya, Truthfulness (3) Asteya, nopn-stealing (4) Brahmacharya, brahmanic conduct i.e. chastity (5) Aprigraha, greedlessness.
Yamas are called the ‘great vows meant to be practiced regardless of place time, circumstances, and one’s particular position in life. They have universal validity. They aim to uproot the most powerful human urges, that of sexuality and domination. If they are not effaced, they will cause a lot of psychomental confusion and disintegration. When the yogi acquires supernormal powers of siddhis in the process of yogic Sadhana, there is a danger of their belong grossly abused, to the detriment of others, and ultimately oneself.
The yogi seeks to realize the One in the Many. He then seeks to go beyond the Many. He finds his good in almost hermitic solitude, at the same time making his relationship with other beings as harmonious as possible.
To the Indian way of life, the rules comprised by Yama are reflections of the cosmic order ( dharma, rita). Without their preservation in the individual’s life, man can never attain emancipation.
The virtue of Ahimsa is more than a negative command not to hurt; in its wider positive meaning it means love. In this sense, it embraces all creation. To hurt a being is an insult to the Maker.
The yogi opposes the evil in the wrong-doer, but not the person of the wrong-doer. By this he appeals to the heart and works out the magical conversion. It is by loving a person while fighting the evil in him that one hopes to win the battle. He acts like a mother to an erring child.
Along with Ahimsa go abhaya (freedom from fear) and akrodha (freedom from anger). Freedom from fear comes only to those who lead a pure life. The yogi fears none and none need fear him. For a yogi is purified by self-study and company of the saints.
Satya or truth is the highest rule of conduct. ‘Truth is God, God is truth’. If the mind thinks of truth, the tongue ulters words of truth. If the whole life is based on truth, then a man is truly fit for union with the supreme Being. Reality, in its essence, is love and truth. It expresses itself through these two aspects. That is why Ahimsa, which is based on love, is enjoined by sacred texts. Untruthfulness puts the Sadhaka out of harmony with the underlying primary law of truth.
One who is established in truth, whatever he really needs comes to him on his own. God, the souce of all truth, supplies all his needs. One who prays with a pure heart, has no need to run after worldly things.
Asteya or non-stealing includes not taking what belongs to another without his consent, not using to other ends not intended by the owner. It means avoidance of misappropriation, breach of trust, misuse and mismanagement . The yogi reduces his physical needs to the minimum. He believes if he gathers more than what he really needs, he is a thief. Freedom from craving enables one to ward off temptations that disturb his tranquility or rob away his peace of mind. He who follows the commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal’, becomes a trusted repository of all treasures. Brahmacharya signifies the life of celibacy, religious study and self-restraint . the loss of semen paves the way to death and its retention to life. By the preservation of semen, the yogi’s body exudes a sweet smell. He has no fear of death. According to Sankracharya, a brahmachari (one who observes brahmacharya) is a man who is engrossed in the study of the sacred Vedic lore. He constantly moves in Brahman. He knows that everything abides in Brahman. In other words, he who sees divinity in all things is a true Brahmachari.
Patanjali, however, emphasises the importance of the continence of the body, speech and mind. It matters little whether one is a bachelor or a married one living the life of a householder. What is important is that he has made Brahmacharya a part and parcel of his day-to-day life. All the sruitis (codes of law) recommend marriage. Almost all the yogi and sages of old in India were married men having families of their own, they fulfilled their domestic and social duties and responsibilities. Thus marriage and parenthood are no bar to the knowledge of divine love, happiness or union with the Supreme Soul.
When one is established in brahmachara, one develops enormous vitality and energy. He gains a courageous mind and powerful intellect. He acquires the strength to fight against any type of injustice. The brahmachari uses the forces he generates wisely: he utilizes the physical powers for doing the work of the hand, the mental ones for the spread of culture and the intellectual ones for the growth of spiritual life.
The five percepts of yama are designed to purify the mind. They are a means of effectively blocking the three gates to hell, namely, sensual desire, anger and greed. They represent the first step towards the transformation of man by putting an end to heedlessness and neurotic compulsive nets.
To be free from hoarding or greedlessness is aparigraha. It is another version of asteya or non-stealing. By observance of aparigraha or non-hoarding, the yogi lives a simple life.
The five components of self discipline (Niyama) are: (1) Saucha, purity (2) Samtosha, contentment (3) tapas, asceticism (4) Savadhayaya, self-study (5) Ivara-pranidhana, devotion to the Lord.
The yogi is content with what he receives from life. The more he eradicates his ahamkara, abhimana (selfhood and pride), the more tranquillity he experiences. So much the less are his attachments to earthly joys and pleasures. As compared to the bliss of the Self, the pleasures of the world are vain. Equanimity, the all-embracing vision of sameness (sama-darshana) discloses to the yogi the One wherever he sees: “He whose self is yoked in Yoga (and who) everywhere beholds the same, sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self.”
The third component of self-discipline (Niyama) is tapas (austerity). The word tapas literally means ‘heat, glow’. It is believed that the world has emerged from a Primeval Being who cause all creation through an act of self-heating (tapas). Likewise the yogi by austerities melts his individual cosmos. He thereby reverses the original act of creation. Thus what flows out of the One through tapas, is called back again through tapas.
Sacrifice and asceticism (tapas) are closely related. Tapas is the appropriation and utilisation of the powers inherent in the created universe. By this the yogi of tapasvin (ascetic) can attain to autonomy of the primordial creator. He thus gains supremacy over all beings and things. He can, like shiva, destroy or save, curse or bless. Or he can abandon his physical existence altogether. He can transcend the universe to seek identification with the indivisible Absolute, the supra-mundane One.
Tapas is the conscious effort to achieve ultimate union with the Supreme Being. It connotes a process to burn up all desires which stand in the way of this goal. It is necessary to make one’s life illumined, pure and divine.
Tapas is of three types : Kayika, relating to the body, vachika, to speech, manasika, or to mind. Continence (brahmacharya) and non-violence (ahimsa) are tapas of the body. Using words which do not offend, reciting the glory of God, speaking the truth without regard for the consequences to oneself and not speaking ill of others are tapas of speech. Developing a mental attitude whereby one remains tranquil and balanced in joy and sorrow and retains self-control are tapas of the mind.
This three-fold asceticism practiced with supreme faith by men (who are) yoked and not longing for the fruit (of their deeds) is designated as Sattva-natured.
(That) asceticism which is performed for the sake of (gaining) good treatment (from others), honour and reverence and with ostentation-that is called here ( in this world) rajas-natured. (It is) fickle and unsteady.
(That) asceticism which is performed (on account) of foolish conceptions (with the aim) of torturing oneself of (which has) the purpose of ruining another (person)-that is called tamas-natured.
Tapas must on no account degenerate into self-torture which only weaken body and mind. On the contrary, it ought to strengthen these and make them operational:
“Through asceticism clarity (Sattva) is attained, through clarity the mind –essence (manas) is attained, through the mind essence, the Self is attained ; he who has attained the Self does not return.”
Svadhaya must not be confused with intellectual learning. It is rather the meditative recitation of, and absorption into, the ancient wisdom. It is the immersion into the vibration of the chanted words to which a special power is attributed. By recitation the power of sound is unlocked. The mind of the Japin (recitant) is, as it were, transported into the centre of the sacred words. He thus becomes aware of their deep inner meaning.
Reflecting on the various aphoristic statements of Patanjali, God of the Yoga Sutrasappears as a ‘particular transcendent self-monad or purusha’. He is eternally undefiled by the cause of suffering , by action and its fruit and even by the deposits (as’aya) in the depth consciousness, i.e. the ‘activators’ (samskaras).
Patanjali clings to clear-cut dualism between Awareness monads and unconscious nature also thought to comprise the psychic and mental process together with the strict pluralism which implies that each living being has its own transcendental Awareness unit.
Indeed devotion to the Lord in classical yoga is not a submission to God but an attitude of loving adoration, only a means to “attain singleness of intent.” Nevertheless it is erroneous to suggest that one could very well cut out the sutras relating to the Lord, without even leaving a trace of excision.” Nor is it tenable to reduce god to a mere archetype of the yogi, as for example, M Eliade suggests. Instead Patanjali’s firm adherence to theism could well have its roots in the actual inner experience of the yogis.
Although God is formally different form countless Self-monads, essentially he fully coincides with them. In other words, there is only a numerical multiplicity. Qualitatively, God and Self-monads are one : for all Selves are omnipresent and hence intersect in eternity.
As a hawk tried to a rope can be brought back again when it has flown away, so consciousness (Jiva) bound to the primary constituents (guna) is pulled along the prana and apana.
The mind is not brought under control by many considerations. The only means for its control is nothing else but the vital force. It is by the invention of special breathing practices and the discovery of the mutual dependence of consciousness and vital force that it is possible to the influence the mind. The ordinary irregular flow of the vital force can be changed by bringing it under conscious control.
Yoga is the technology of consciousness transformation par excellence. It struggles to achieve a metamorphosis of the ordinary consciousness and attempts to achieve this by way of centralizing and unifying the consciousness process. This is more or less true of all forms and varieties of yoga. Each one of them aims to realize the core of all existence. The transcendent awareness of the self outside and beyond the transient world is the supreme felicity of yogic quest.
The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj meaning to bind, join, attach or yoke. It also means union or communion, merger or dissolution. It signifies the yoking of all the powers of the body, mind and soul to god. It involves the disciplining of the intellect, the mind and the will. The yoga praxis is a means to attain the poise of the soul, the spirit of equanimity.
Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. It was collated, formulated and systematized by Sage Patanjali in his classical work, the Yoga Sutras. It consists of four sections containing two hundred aphorisms, divided thus: 51, 55, 56, and 38. There is a slight variation in number of aphorisms in its many editions. Some present one hundred and ninety-five aphorisms.
The first chapter of the Yoga Sutras deals with the nature and goal of Samadhi. The second chapter elucidates Kriya Yoga pointing to the means of attaining Samadhi. The third chapter gives an account of supernatural powers which are acquired through yoga practice and Samadhi. The fourth chapter deals with psychological analysis and the nature of liberation through Samadhi.
Little is known about place and time of the birth of Sage Patanjali. His authoritative works widely known among Sanskrit scholars are:
1. Patanjali Bhashye, authoritative commentary on Panini grammar.
2. Charak, a work on medicine.
3. Yoga Sutras, the authoritative work on yoga.
Sage Patanjali is widely known as a physician of the body, mind and psysche. He purifies the body medically; mind and speech through insightful study on Panini grammar; and soul through yoga. His integral yoga leads to a perfectly-integrated individual who is sound of body, sound of speech, sound of mind. The secrets of anatomy, physiology, psychology , philosophy, semantics and grammar are revealed to a yogi.
This profound discovery of yoga is an essential insight of all genuine mysticism. Yoga Sutras ( 1.2-3 ) presents possibly the most concise formulation of the process of emptying of all mentations followed by the manifestation of Transcendental Awareness: “Yoga is the restriction of the activity of consciousness- (when consciousness is appeased), then the seer ( i.e. the Self) abides ( in his ) own form”.
Yoga is the way to the creative void. It is the pause between breaths. It holds the key to man’s ultimate salvation. Selfhood or hard boiled egocentricity is the reason why man is case into the whirling wheel of Becoming. It distorts the One of Being into the transience of the space-time continuum.
Yoga has been from the beginning a secret doctrine. It is transmitted from an adept to a suitable aspirant when the latter shows the required qualities of determination, courage, endurance and physical and mental fitness. The former confirms his readiness to instruct either formally or by silent consent, by diksha, samskara or actual initiation .
Only the teacher knows the path for having walked it successfully. He is a knowledgeable person fit to be a guide. After instructed onto the path, the initiate travels towards his destination. The guru is teacher and confidante, guardian and judge in one person and worthy or unconditioned devotion. He is a constant monitor of the supreme ideal, of the renunciation of the ego.
The eight-fold path of classical yoga has been given out in the Yoga Sutrasof Patanjali which comprise the following members: (1) Yama, restraint (2) Niyama, discipline (3) Asana, posture (4) Pranayama, breath control (5) pratyahara, sense withdrawal (6) dharana, concentration (7) dhyana, absorption (8) Samadhi, entasy.
The highly dynamic nature of yogic operation is emphasized by the author of the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad (III.14b-15) :
“As the flame, dormant in the wood, cannot flare up without friction, so also the torch of gnosis (cannot shine) without the yoga of the practice ( of unification ).”
The tendency towards unification and totalisation is a feature of all yogic techniques as manifest on all levels of yoga. The yogi orients his every thought and wish towards the One surpassing all opposites remodeling it in himself. By restraining his greed for life, the yogi frees himself from the coerction of the instincts. By adopting a kindly attitude towards all beings, the yogi outside of life. But he does not stop halfway-death is followed by an initiatory rebirth.”
The Yoga Sutras (II.30) mention five components of Yama, although later texts refer to ten : (1) Ahimsa, non-hurting (2) Satya, Truthfulness (3) Asteya, nopn-stealing (4) Brahmacharya, brahmanic conduct i.e. chastity (5) Aprigraha, greedlessness.
Yamas are called the ‘great vows meant to be practiced regardless of place time, circumstances, and one’s particular position in life. They have universal validity. They aim to uproot the most powerful human urges, that of sexuality and domination. If they are not effaced, they will cause a lot of psychomental confusion and disintegration. When the yogi acquires supernormal powers of siddhis in the process of yogic Sadhana, there is a danger of their belong grossly abused, to the detriment of others, and ultimately oneself.
The yogi seeks to realize the One in the Many. He then seeks to go beyond the Many. He finds his good in almost hermitic solitude, at the same time making his relationship with other beings as harmonious as possible.
To the Indian way of life, the rules comprised by Yama are reflections of the cosmic order ( dharma, rita). Without their preservation in the individual’s life, man can never attain emancipation.
The virtue of Ahimsa is more than a negative command not to hurt; in its wider positive meaning it means love. In this sense, it embraces all creation. To hurt a being is an insult to the Maker.
The yogi opposes the evil in the wrong-doer, but not the person of the wrong-doer. By this he appeals to the heart and works out the magical conversion. It is by loving a person while fighting the evil in him that one hopes to win the battle. He acts like a mother to an erring child.
Along with Ahimsa go abhaya (freedom from fear) and akrodha (freedom from anger). Freedom from fear comes only to those who lead a pure life. The yogi fears none and none need fear him. For a yogi is purified by self-study and company of the saints.
Satya or truth is the highest rule of conduct. ‘Truth is God, God is truth’. If the mind thinks of truth, the tongue ulters words of truth. If the whole life is based on truth, then a man is truly fit for union with the supreme Being. Reality, in its essence, is love and truth. It expresses itself through these two aspects. That is why Ahimsa, which is based on love, is enjoined by sacred texts. Untruthfulness puts the Sadhaka out of harmony with the underlying primary law of truth.
One who is established in truth, whatever he really needs comes to him on his own. God, the souce of all truth, supplies all his needs. One who prays with a pure heart, has no need to run after worldly things.
Asteya or non-stealing includes not taking what belongs to another without his consent, not using to other ends not intended by the owner. It means avoidance of misappropriation, breach of trust, misuse and mismanagement . The yogi reduces his physical needs to the minimum. He believes if he gathers more than what he really needs, he is a thief. Freedom from craving enables one to ward off temptations that disturb his tranquility or rob away his peace of mind. He who follows the commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal’, becomes a trusted repository of all treasures. Brahmacharya signifies the life of celibacy, religious study and self-restraint . the loss of semen paves the way to death and its retention to life. By the preservation of semen, the yogi’s body exudes a sweet smell. He has no fear of death. According to Sankracharya, a brahmachari (one who observes brahmacharya) is a man who is engrossed in the study of the sacred Vedic lore. He constantly moves in Brahman. He knows that everything abides in Brahman. In other words, he who sees divinity in all things is a true Brahmachari.
Patanjali, however, emphasises the importance of the continence of the body, speech and mind. It matters little whether one is a bachelor or a married one living the life of a householder. What is important is that he has made Brahmacharya a part and parcel of his day-to-day life. All the sruitis (codes of law) recommend marriage. Almost all the yogi and sages of old in India were married men having families of their own, they fulfilled their domestic and social duties and responsibilities. Thus marriage and parenthood are no bar to the knowledge of divine love, happiness or union with the Supreme Soul.
When one is established in brahmachara, one develops enormous vitality and energy. He gains a courageous mind and powerful intellect. He acquires the strength to fight against any type of injustice. The brahmachari uses the forces he generates wisely: he utilizes the physical powers for doing the work of the hand, the mental ones for the spread of culture and the intellectual ones for the growth of spiritual life.
The five percepts of yama are designed to purify the mind. They are a means of effectively blocking the three gates to hell, namely, sensual desire, anger and greed. They represent the first step towards the transformation of man by putting an end to heedlessness and neurotic compulsive nets.
To be free from hoarding or greedlessness is aparigraha. It is another version of asteya or non-stealing. By observance of aparigraha or non-hoarding, the yogi lives a simple life.
The five components of self discipline (Niyama) are: (1) Saucha, purity (2) Samtosha, contentment (3) tapas, asceticism (4) Savadhayaya, self-study (5) Ivara-pranidhana, devotion to the Lord.
The yogi is content with what he receives from life. The more he eradicates his ahamkara, abhimana (selfhood and pride), the more tranquillity he experiences. So much the less are his attachments to earthly joys and pleasures. As compared to the bliss of the Self, the pleasures of the world are vain. Equanimity, the all-embracing vision of sameness (sama-darshana) discloses to the yogi the One wherever he sees: “He whose self is yoked in Yoga (and who) everywhere beholds the same, sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self.”
The third component of self-discipline (Niyama) is tapas (austerity). The word tapas literally means ‘heat, glow’. It is believed that the world has emerged from a Primeval Being who cause all creation through an act of self-heating (tapas). Likewise the yogi by austerities melts his individual cosmos. He thereby reverses the original act of creation. Thus what flows out of the One through tapas, is called back again through tapas.
Sacrifice and asceticism (tapas) are closely related. Tapas is the appropriation and utilisation of the powers inherent in the created universe. By this the yogi of tapasvin (ascetic) can attain to autonomy of the primordial creator. He thus gains supremacy over all beings and things. He can, like shiva, destroy or save, curse or bless. Or he can abandon his physical existence altogether. He can transcend the universe to seek identification with the indivisible Absolute, the supra-mundane One.
Tapas is the conscious effort to achieve ultimate union with the Supreme Being. It connotes a process to burn up all desires which stand in the way of this goal. It is necessary to make one’s life illumined, pure and divine.
Tapas is of three types : Kayika, relating to the body, vachika, to speech, manasika, or to mind. Continence (brahmacharya) and non-violence (ahimsa) are tapas of the body. Using words which do not offend, reciting the glory of God, speaking the truth without regard for the consequences to oneself and not speaking ill of others are tapas of speech. Developing a mental attitude whereby one remains tranquil and balanced in joy and sorrow and retains self-control are tapas of the mind.
This three-fold asceticism practiced with supreme faith by men (who are) yoked and not longing for the fruit (of their deeds) is designated as Sattva-natured.
(That) asceticism which is performed for the sake of (gaining) good treatment (from others), honour and reverence and with ostentation-that is called here ( in this world) rajas-natured. (It is) fickle and unsteady.
(That) asceticism which is performed (on account) of foolish conceptions (with the aim) of torturing oneself of (which has) the purpose of ruining another (person)-that is called tamas-natured.
Tapas must on no account degenerate into self-torture which only weaken body and mind. On the contrary, it ought to strengthen these and make them operational:
“Through asceticism clarity (Sattva) is attained, through clarity the mind –essence (manas) is attained, through the mind essence, the Self is attained ; he who has attained the Self does not return.”
Svadhaya must not be confused with intellectual learning. It is rather the meditative recitation of, and absorption into, the ancient wisdom. It is the immersion into the vibration of the chanted words to which a special power is attributed. By recitation the power of sound is unlocked. The mind of the Japin (recitant) is, as it were, transported into the centre of the sacred words. He thus becomes aware of their deep inner meaning.
Reflecting on the various aphoristic statements of Patanjali, God of the Yoga Sutrasappears as a ‘particular transcendent self-monad or purusha’. He is eternally undefiled by the cause of suffering , by action and its fruit and even by the deposits (as’aya) in the depth consciousness, i.e. the ‘activators’ (samskaras).
Patanjali clings to clear-cut dualism between Awareness monads and unconscious nature also thought to comprise the psychic and mental process together with the strict pluralism which implies that each living being has its own transcendental Awareness unit.
Indeed devotion to the Lord in classical yoga is not a submission to God but an attitude of loving adoration, only a means to “attain singleness of intent.” Nevertheless it is erroneous to suggest that one could very well cut out the sutras relating to the Lord, without even leaving a trace of excision.” Nor is it tenable to reduce god to a mere archetype of the yogi, as for example, M Eliade suggests. Instead Patanjali’s firm adherence to theism could well have its roots in the actual inner experience of the yogis.
Although God is formally different form countless Self-monads, essentially he fully coincides with them. In other words, there is only a numerical multiplicity. Qualitatively, God and Self-monads are one : for all Selves are omnipresent and hence intersect in eternity.
As a hawk tried to a rope can be brought back again when it has flown away, so consciousness (Jiva) bound to the primary constituents (guna) is pulled along the prana and apana.
The mind is not brought under control by many considerations. The only means for its control is nothing else but the vital force. It is by the invention of special breathing practices and the discovery of the mutual dependence of consciousness and vital force that it is possible to the influence the mind. The ordinary irregular flow of the vital force can be changed by bringing it under conscious control.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
THE GAYATRI MANTRA:THE MANTRA OF MANTRA
THE GAYATRI MANTRA:THE MANTRA OF MANTRA
The gayatri mantra is the most popular Vedic hymn. It is tenth mantra in the 62nd sutra of the third mandal in Rig Veda. Gayatri Chhand is a poetic metre consisting of 24 syllables (letters), three lines of eight syllables each. Any hymn composed in this meter is called gayatri. The meter though originally contained in Rig-Veda is also found in other Vedas.(cf. Yajurveda-22/9, 30/2,36/3;Samveda 1462). The Gayatri Mantra has four feet: The first foot consists of the earth, sky and Heaven, the second foot, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Sama Veda and the third foot, prana, apana and vyana. The fourth foot consists of the Sun, the solar being. The Gayatri Mantra was first revealed to the Rishi Vishwamitra who was the very embodiment of all tapas and cosmo-ascetic forces and his mantras are endowed withthe power of light, energy,life, and transformation.
Most important and sacred duty of man is to remember God for all the bounties he has bestowed on all beings. Vedic prayers are hymns and are known as mantras. Apart from being a prayer-mantra the Gayatri Mantra is a beej mantra or seed syllable, derived from ancient primeval sounds.
All Vedic prayers have emerged from Om, which is synonymous with Brahma, and have ‘Om’ as prefix. ‘‘Om is a primeval sound. Exhaustive exposition of this mystic word has been given in the Mandukya Upanishad. ‘‘The word Om is this, that was in the past and all that would be in future. that which is beyond all this is also AUM’’. Om represents all physical and astral bodies, both manifested and unmanifested, from the external-most physical to the internal-most spiritual on four cosmic planes’’.
The mantra ,originally conceived is the worship of lord hari, of aditya or the sun and also pure nirguna worship of brahma, the all-creating principle. Japa or chanting of this mantra with concentration and understanding, bestows inexplicable inner peace, calm of mind and solace from triple affliction.It destroys the birth and death cycle and all the sins. Japa of this Mantra has the potential to unite the soul with the Supreme Being. it has miraculous powers which can infuse us with courage and strength to whether any storm and brave any adversity in life.
Lord krishna says in the bhagavad gita, ‘‘amongst the Mantras I am Gayatri’’. As Savitri or Sun Mantra, it is addressed to the divine power in the sun. The svetasvatara upanishad says, ‘‘the one affluent divinity is hidden in all beings. He is all- pervading and is the inner-self of all creatures. He presides over all actions and all beings reside in him. He is the inner-witness. He endows all with consciousness and He is Nirguna or free from the three Gunas’’.
However, the Rig Veda has defined this Mantra from a different angle. ‘‘The illumined sages like surayah constantly see that infinite all-pervading supreme reality vishnu without any obstruction as though their vast intuitive eye or vision was spread over the spiritual sky’’.
Gayatri is a spiritual Power which protects one who chants it, and blesses him with brilliant light of the highest spiritual illumination. Japa of the gayatri mantra ushers in the realisation of the divinity of the self.
Meaning of Gayatri
The word gayatri is drived from gaya, that which is sung, given in praise, and trayate that which preserves/protects/ gives deliverance/grants liberation. The word gaya also stands for vital energies. Thus, gayatri connotes a prayer of praise that awakens the vital energies in man and grants liberation. The mantra is said to have been revealed to sage Vishwamitra. The Vedic name of this Mantra is Savitri, as the hymn is addressed to Savitur (the sun) and that the word gayatri is nowhere mentioned in the body of the mantra.
Savitur stands for bright, luminous, sun like illumining inner power that leads to self-realization. Thus, through Savitur the prayer is addressed to the Light of lights which resides in the inner most sheath of golden hue (hiranmaye pare ko`se virajam brahma nishkalam, tachubhram jyotisam jyotih -tad yadatma- vido viduh - Mundak-II-2-9).
Three Aspects
The mantra has three aspects: praise, meditation, and prayer. The mantra hails the bestower of happiness, knowledge and light. It contemplates upon the glory of the lord who is the remover of darkness, of ignorance, pains, and of sorrows. It finally prays to the lord of light, the most adorable One,to shine forth its resplendent light and stimulate our intellect, illuminate our inner self and dispel our ignorance.
The first line of the Gayatri Mantra (Aum Bhur Bhuvah Swah) is an invocation.
AUM , the Supreme name of God.
BHUR BHUVAH SWAH. The three words collectively are known as the "Mahavyahriti". They express the nature of God, and highlight His inherent qualities.
Word to Word Meaning
The word to word meaning of the Gayatri Mantra is as follows: Tat=That;
Savitur=Bright, effulgent,luminous like sun;
Varenyam=The choicest, the most adorable One, worthy to be worshipped and sought, the most venerable Being;
Bhargo= Destroyer of sins and afflictions, or gloried radiance, effulgence, splendour (that Light which bestows and sharpens intelligence);
Devasya= Of the shining divinity ;
Dheemahi=Meditate upon,on Whom we fix our whole attention;
Dheeyo=Intellect, intuition, power of inseeing,understanding of reality ;
Yo=He who,or the one who;
Na=Our, of us;
Prachodayat =May inspire, stimulate, sharpen, energise, direct, guide, reveal, unfold His Divine and Glorious Light.
Thus the literal meaning of the Mantra is: " We meditate upon (dheemahi) the splendour or the glory (bhargo) of the most adorable or acceptable One (varenyam) Supreme-Divine- Being (devasya) from which Savitur (the centre of light) is born, Who (yo) may stimulate or sharpen (prachdayat) our (na) intellect or illumine our inner self (dheeyo)"
A basic enunciation of the mantra can be given as under:
Oh God, the Lord Protector,the Self-emanating Effulgence, the basis of all life, Who is self-existent Light of Light, Whose contact frees the soul from all sorrows and afflictions, Whose power all-creating pervades and sustains all beings and things, Who is the Energizer-Supreme of the whole Universe, the Giver of life and happiness, Who is worthy of acceptance and worship, the most excellent Sovereign Divine Being , Who is Pure and the Purifier of all, let us adore and embrace that very God,so that He may direct our mental faculties in the right direction and guide us out of the mazes of the world into the tranquility and peace of God Himself, the source-supreme of all Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss.
The Four Parts of the Gayatri Mantra
Aum Bhur Bhuvah Swah
AUM
The Supreme name of God. AUM is the naad Brahman (primeval sound) emanating from the Creator Supreme at the time of creation.
BHUR BHUVAH SWAH
These three words Bhur, Bhuvah Suvah collectively are known as the "Mahavyahriti". They express the nature of God, and demonstrate his inherent qualities.
They represent the earth (matter), atmosphere and the space as symbols of gross, subtle and casual or sat, chit, annanda (truth, beauty bliss ). In the context of human body, from feet to the navel center is bhur (the earth), from navel to throat centre is bhuva (the atmosphere), and from above the throat to mind (braham randhra) is svaha (the space).
Enveloped by aakaas (the space),Rishis have envisioned seven realms (lokas) of existence viz:
(1) bhu=earth, the physical realm, the realm of being or food (matter);
(2 )bhuvah=atmosphere, the vital plane, the realm of becoming or prana (breath);
(3) suvah= space or heaven, the mental plane, the realm of light or illumination;
(4) maha=cosmic mind, the realm of dharma;
(5) janah=bliss, the realm of creation and creativity;
(6) tapah=force or penance, the realm of consciousness;and (7) satyam=truth, the realm of absolute reality.
1. BHUR
The word Bhur implies God is self-existent and independent of all. He is eternal and unchanging. He is without beginning and without end, the word Bhur can also mean the Earth as mother, on which we are born and who sustains all.
Bhur also means God is the provider and protector of all, by His divine will we all are blessed with all means to maintain us through our lives.
Bhur also signifies Prana, or life (literally, breath).It implies God is the life giver. He is the One Who maintains us throughout our lives. God alone has the power to take away our life, when He so chooses. He is the only permanent enduring entity, all others are subject to His Will.
2. BHUVAH
Bhuvah describes the absolute Consciousness of God, the Power all-controlling That govern the Universe.
Also, the word Bhuvah denotes God's greatness - greater than the sky and space, indeed everything in the celestial and temporal world. God is boundless and unlimited.
Bhuvah also points to God's role as the remover of all pain and sufferings (Apaana), what man is heir to and what surrounds him. We can be freed from that pain and hardship by God Who Himself is devoid of any pain. It is our own ignorance that makes us susceptible to the effects of Maya, or illusion, which is the root cause of all affliction and pain. Only true devotion to God frees us from the clutches of Maya, and thus rids us of all
pain and sorrow.
3. SWAH
The word Swah indicates God is omnipresent and pervades the entire Universe.Without Form Himself, He is able to manifest Himself in in the entire creation.He sustains the Universe created by Him, and thus ensures its smooth and proper running and functioning.
Also, Swah symbolizes God's bliss.He is above all pain, suffering and troubles. While happiness as experienced by humans is temporary and a transient state of mental satisfaction, which soon dissolves back into the mire of worldly afflictions, God alone experiences true bliss, permanent and unaffected by worldly woes. True happiness falls to the lot of those who establish oneness with that Supreme Divinity.
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
4. TAT
Literally, this word(TAT) means"that". Sri Krishna uses it to imply the selfless nature of Yajna or charity being used as r worship, in the form of action, implying that all action should be preformed without regard to its fruits, but simply out of devotion and sense of duty, or Dharma.
Tat then is used here in the Mantra to indicate that the praise being offered to God in the prayer is purely directed towards Him, without any thought of personal gain from that praise.
5. SA-VI-TUR
Savita, from which Savitur is derived, is another name of God, this being the reason that the Gayatri Mantra is often known as the Savitri Mantra. The implication of Savita is of God's status as the fountain, the source of all things. It is through His Divine Grace that the Universe exists.So this word sums up the Mahavyahriti, by describing God's ability to create the Universe and sustain it, as well as, at the right time, bring about its dissolution.
Savita is also indicative of God's gift to mankind in the form of power, or shakti, of savita which acts as an impetus in humans to do something or to constantly search and strive for something to do, what is commonly called the "creative urge" in man.
It is through this shakti that mankind has created art, and literature, and also made scientific advances .
Savita also gives creatures the ability of procreation. Hence, Savita can be thought of as denoting Father (or Mother) also.
Finally, it is the discerning power of Savita that enables mankind to distinguish right from wrong, and virtue from vice. Thus, Savita imparts to us a certain self-guiding ability to uplift ourselves and help ourselves to be our highest selves.
6. VA-RE-NY-AM
Varenyam signifies our acceptance of God as the Highest reality, and it is to Him that we dedicate our efforts rather than to material worldly pursuits.
Varenyam can also be interpreted to mean as the one
who is the most eligible or fit to be our Leader and our Guide. We surrender ourselves to Him out of sheer devotion regardless of anything else. We place no conditions on this acceptance.
BHARGO DEVASYA DHIMAHI
These three words are a further description of the attributes and qualities of God. They indicate His functional and instrumental qualities, and through those qualities, His relationship to us.
7. BHAR-GO
Bhargo connotes the light (devasya) of the divine being, dheemahi on whom we should meditate as the available form of light onto light of suns, to discover the formless Creator (God).
Bhargo also refers to That Glorious Light embodied in God's love and power. It signifies His complete purity and by virtue of His power to purify, and to destroy all sins and afflictions. By realizing His Divine Form and experience of unity and oneness with Him, we can cleanse ourselves of all stains of sin and be made pure by His Grace. This way we can regain our lost divinity, our soul’s lost radiance and luster. By removing the veil of Maya, we can cleanse our soul, and realize our true Divine self.
8. DE-VAS-YA
The word Deva, from which this word is derived, means "quality" or "attribute", and can denote another word for "Guna". Thus, the various forms of God are given this name, as each of those forms points to a specific quality and function (for example, Brahma has the quality of Creation, Shiva the quality of dissolution, Kamadeva has the quality of carnal love, etc.). Deva is thus anyone who is considered to possess a special quality or guna.
Deva can also be taken as describing the fundamental unity of God, describing in one word all the functions, roles and different attributes of God, and thus symbolizing his absolutely essential nature ,that is, without God, nothing can exist. He is all-creating Power.
9. DHI-MA-HI
Means to meditate and fix our mind on God. Meditation on God implies that we concentrate, and direct our mental energies towards the cherished object of all human quest, that is,
communion with God.
DHI-YO-NA-PRA-CHO-DA-YAT
Prayer is primarily aimed at:
praising and glorifying God;
thanksgiving to God;
asking forgiveness from God;
or asking a boon from God.
Having offered praise to God on His greatness, thanking Him for His generosity in Creation and maintaining all the created forms and asking forgiveness for our impurity and sins, which we have realized can and must be cleansed through our communion with God, we now proceed to beseech His guidance to show us the way. Since our soul is the Light of Life within us, of course inherently pure, being itself Divine in nature, through these four words we ask God to help us to refine and sharpen our intellect, and guide it towards what is right.
10. DHI
Sanskrit word stands for “intellect”. It is by use of this intellect that we are able to cultivate all other qualities (power, wealth, success in life, physical fitness, personal and collective wellbeing etc. Thus, intellect is the key to all else in life. We ask God to invest us with the highest intellect, and show us the way to use that intellect in the best possible manner both for personal and collective wellbeing and prosperity.
Material prosperity has little meaning for the person who is truly devoted to God. Pain and suffering can touch him not, since he is imbued with God’s own Divine Bliss. Thus, ones intellect must remain focussed on communing with and serving God.
11. YO
Means “Who” or “That”.
Yo points to the fact that we direct these prayers, but to God alone. Only God is worthy of the highest adoration andworship. God alone is perfect and free from all taints. It is That all-loving God, the Light all-pervading, to Whom we offer these prayers.
12. NAH
Means “Ours”.
Nah signifies the selflessness of the request, that is, we offer this prayer not simply for ourselves, but for the whole mankind. We wish for the wellbeing of the whole human family, true to the Hindu ideal of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” - “The whole world is one big family”. Thus, our prayer embraces not only ourselves, but one and all inhabiting the universe.
13.Prachodayat
The word Prachodayat rounds off the whole mantra. Here we invoke God for His Guidance, and Inspiration. We beseech Him to show us His Divine and Glorious Light (cf. BHARGO).We ask Him to remove the darkness of Maya from our paths ,to let us see the way .We crave that He guide us through the mazes of this world, to the haven of tranquility and peace, where dwells God Himself, the root of all Happiness, and the source of true Bliss.
Significance of the mantra
The Gayatri Mantra invokes the Sun, which in turn invokes the Self, the Atman, the Light of Life within. The Atman is the illuminator of reason, intelligence, perceptions, emotions, thoughts and purposes, just as the Sun is the illuminator of the entire world.
The Gayatri Mantra is an appeal by the seeker to the divine Sun inhering within everyone’s being to emerge out of the cloud of sensate desires and shine forth its resplendent light. The greatness of the Gayatri Mantra lies in its power of prayer and mantric power. It offers a guide to the unfoldment of the spiritual potentialities as well as man’s ultimate transformation.
The Gayatri mantra occupies a hallowed place in ancient Indian culture. Its importance is quite evident in branches like Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda and Vedic Astrology. In Yoga, it helps awaken the Kundalini force. In Vedanta, it grants the light of Self-knowledge and knowledge of the solar Self. In Ayurveda, it enlivens the power of the cosmic prana whose source is the sun. In Jyotir Vigian (Vedic astrology), it provides knowledge of the movements of all the heavenly bodies ruled by the sun.
Thus the Gayatri Mantra ,the mother of all the mantras, is a boon to the sincere seeker and it confers upon him the Light of the Infinite, the Bliss of the Eternal and the Life of the Immortals.
The gayatri mantra is the most popular Vedic hymn. It is tenth mantra in the 62nd sutra of the third mandal in Rig Veda. Gayatri Chhand is a poetic metre consisting of 24 syllables (letters), three lines of eight syllables each. Any hymn composed in this meter is called gayatri. The meter though originally contained in Rig-Veda is also found in other Vedas.(cf. Yajurveda-22/9, 30/2,36/3;Samveda 1462). The Gayatri Mantra has four feet: The first foot consists of the earth, sky and Heaven, the second foot, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Sama Veda and the third foot, prana, apana and vyana. The fourth foot consists of the Sun, the solar being. The Gayatri Mantra was first revealed to the Rishi Vishwamitra who was the very embodiment of all tapas and cosmo-ascetic forces and his mantras are endowed withthe power of light, energy,life, and transformation.
Most important and sacred duty of man is to remember God for all the bounties he has bestowed on all beings. Vedic prayers are hymns and are known as mantras. Apart from being a prayer-mantra the Gayatri Mantra is a beej mantra or seed syllable, derived from ancient primeval sounds.
All Vedic prayers have emerged from Om, which is synonymous with Brahma, and have ‘Om’ as prefix. ‘‘Om is a primeval sound. Exhaustive exposition of this mystic word has been given in the Mandukya Upanishad. ‘‘The word Om is this, that was in the past and all that would be in future. that which is beyond all this is also AUM’’. Om represents all physical and astral bodies, both manifested and unmanifested, from the external-most physical to the internal-most spiritual on four cosmic planes’’.
The mantra ,originally conceived is the worship of lord hari, of aditya or the sun and also pure nirguna worship of brahma, the all-creating principle. Japa or chanting of this mantra with concentration and understanding, bestows inexplicable inner peace, calm of mind and solace from triple affliction.It destroys the birth and death cycle and all the sins. Japa of this Mantra has the potential to unite the soul with the Supreme Being. it has miraculous powers which can infuse us with courage and strength to whether any storm and brave any adversity in life.
Lord krishna says in the bhagavad gita, ‘‘amongst the Mantras I am Gayatri’’. As Savitri or Sun Mantra, it is addressed to the divine power in the sun. The svetasvatara upanishad says, ‘‘the one affluent divinity is hidden in all beings. He is all- pervading and is the inner-self of all creatures. He presides over all actions and all beings reside in him. He is the inner-witness. He endows all with consciousness and He is Nirguna or free from the three Gunas’’.
However, the Rig Veda has defined this Mantra from a different angle. ‘‘The illumined sages like surayah constantly see that infinite all-pervading supreme reality vishnu without any obstruction as though their vast intuitive eye or vision was spread over the spiritual sky’’.
Gayatri is a spiritual Power which protects one who chants it, and blesses him with brilliant light of the highest spiritual illumination. Japa of the gayatri mantra ushers in the realisation of the divinity of the self.
Meaning of Gayatri
The word gayatri is drived from gaya, that which is sung, given in praise, and trayate that which preserves/protects/ gives deliverance/grants liberation. The word gaya also stands for vital energies. Thus, gayatri connotes a prayer of praise that awakens the vital energies in man and grants liberation. The mantra is said to have been revealed to sage Vishwamitra. The Vedic name of this Mantra is Savitri, as the hymn is addressed to Savitur (the sun) and that the word gayatri is nowhere mentioned in the body of the mantra.
Savitur stands for bright, luminous, sun like illumining inner power that leads to self-realization. Thus, through Savitur the prayer is addressed to the Light of lights which resides in the inner most sheath of golden hue (hiranmaye pare ko`se virajam brahma nishkalam, tachubhram jyotisam jyotih -tad yadatma- vido viduh - Mundak-II-2-9).
Three Aspects
The mantra has three aspects: praise, meditation, and prayer. The mantra hails the bestower of happiness, knowledge and light. It contemplates upon the glory of the lord who is the remover of darkness, of ignorance, pains, and of sorrows. It finally prays to the lord of light, the most adorable One,to shine forth its resplendent light and stimulate our intellect, illuminate our inner self and dispel our ignorance.
The first line of the Gayatri Mantra (Aum Bhur Bhuvah Swah) is an invocation.
AUM , the Supreme name of God.
BHUR BHUVAH SWAH. The three words collectively are known as the "Mahavyahriti". They express the nature of God, and highlight His inherent qualities.
Word to Word Meaning
The word to word meaning of the Gayatri Mantra is as follows: Tat=That;
Savitur=Bright, effulgent,luminous like sun;
Varenyam=The choicest, the most adorable One, worthy to be worshipped and sought, the most venerable Being;
Bhargo= Destroyer of sins and afflictions, or gloried radiance, effulgence, splendour (that Light which bestows and sharpens intelligence);
Devasya= Of the shining divinity ;
Dheemahi=Meditate upon,on Whom we fix our whole attention;
Dheeyo=Intellect, intuition, power of inseeing,understanding of reality ;
Yo=He who,or the one who;
Na=Our, of us;
Prachodayat =May inspire, stimulate, sharpen, energise, direct, guide, reveal, unfold His Divine and Glorious Light.
Thus the literal meaning of the Mantra is: " We meditate upon (dheemahi) the splendour or the glory (bhargo) of the most adorable or acceptable One (varenyam) Supreme-Divine- Being (devasya) from which Savitur (the centre of light) is born, Who (yo) may stimulate or sharpen (prachdayat) our (na) intellect or illumine our inner self (dheeyo)"
A basic enunciation of the mantra can be given as under:
Oh God, the Lord Protector,the Self-emanating Effulgence, the basis of all life, Who is self-existent Light of Light, Whose contact frees the soul from all sorrows and afflictions, Whose power all-creating pervades and sustains all beings and things, Who is the Energizer-Supreme of the whole Universe, the Giver of life and happiness, Who is worthy of acceptance and worship, the most excellent Sovereign Divine Being , Who is Pure and the Purifier of all, let us adore and embrace that very God,so that He may direct our mental faculties in the right direction and guide us out of the mazes of the world into the tranquility and peace of God Himself, the source-supreme of all Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss.
The Four Parts of the Gayatri Mantra
Aum Bhur Bhuvah Swah
AUM
The Supreme name of God. AUM is the naad Brahman (primeval sound) emanating from the Creator Supreme at the time of creation.
BHUR BHUVAH SWAH
These three words Bhur, Bhuvah Suvah collectively are known as the "Mahavyahriti". They express the nature of God, and demonstrate his inherent qualities.
They represent the earth (matter), atmosphere and the space as symbols of gross, subtle and casual or sat, chit, annanda (truth, beauty bliss ). In the context of human body, from feet to the navel center is bhur (the earth), from navel to throat centre is bhuva (the atmosphere), and from above the throat to mind (braham randhra) is svaha (the space).
Enveloped by aakaas (the space),Rishis have envisioned seven realms (lokas) of existence viz:
(1) bhu=earth, the physical realm, the realm of being or food (matter);
(2 )bhuvah=atmosphere, the vital plane, the realm of becoming or prana (breath);
(3) suvah= space or heaven, the mental plane, the realm of light or illumination;
(4) maha=cosmic mind, the realm of dharma;
(5) janah=bliss, the realm of creation and creativity;
(6) tapah=force or penance, the realm of consciousness;and (7) satyam=truth, the realm of absolute reality.
1. BHUR
The word Bhur implies God is self-existent and independent of all. He is eternal and unchanging. He is without beginning and without end, the word Bhur can also mean the Earth as mother, on which we are born and who sustains all.
Bhur also means God is the provider and protector of all, by His divine will we all are blessed with all means to maintain us through our lives.
Bhur also signifies Prana, or life (literally, breath).It implies God is the life giver. He is the One Who maintains us throughout our lives. God alone has the power to take away our life, when He so chooses. He is the only permanent enduring entity, all others are subject to His Will.
2. BHUVAH
Bhuvah describes the absolute Consciousness of God, the Power all-controlling That govern the Universe.
Also, the word Bhuvah denotes God's greatness - greater than the sky and space, indeed everything in the celestial and temporal world. God is boundless and unlimited.
Bhuvah also points to God's role as the remover of all pain and sufferings (Apaana), what man is heir to and what surrounds him. We can be freed from that pain and hardship by God Who Himself is devoid of any pain. It is our own ignorance that makes us susceptible to the effects of Maya, or illusion, which is the root cause of all affliction and pain. Only true devotion to God frees us from the clutches of Maya, and thus rids us of all
pain and sorrow.
3. SWAH
The word Swah indicates God is omnipresent and pervades the entire Universe.Without Form Himself, He is able to manifest Himself in in the entire creation.He sustains the Universe created by Him, and thus ensures its smooth and proper running and functioning.
Also, Swah symbolizes God's bliss.He is above all pain, suffering and troubles. While happiness as experienced by humans is temporary and a transient state of mental satisfaction, which soon dissolves back into the mire of worldly afflictions, God alone experiences true bliss, permanent and unaffected by worldly woes. True happiness falls to the lot of those who establish oneness with that Supreme Divinity.
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
4. TAT
Literally, this word(TAT) means"that". Sri Krishna uses it to imply the selfless nature of Yajna or charity being used as r worship, in the form of action, implying that all action should be preformed without regard to its fruits, but simply out of devotion and sense of duty, or Dharma.
Tat then is used here in the Mantra to indicate that the praise being offered to God in the prayer is purely directed towards Him, without any thought of personal gain from that praise.
5. SA-VI-TUR
Savita, from which Savitur is derived, is another name of God, this being the reason that the Gayatri Mantra is often known as the Savitri Mantra. The implication of Savita is of God's status as the fountain, the source of all things. It is through His Divine Grace that the Universe exists.So this word sums up the Mahavyahriti, by describing God's ability to create the Universe and sustain it, as well as, at the right time, bring about its dissolution.
Savita is also indicative of God's gift to mankind in the form of power, or shakti, of savita which acts as an impetus in humans to do something or to constantly search and strive for something to do, what is commonly called the "creative urge" in man.
It is through this shakti that mankind has created art, and literature, and also made scientific advances .
Savita also gives creatures the ability of procreation. Hence, Savita can be thought of as denoting Father (or Mother) also.
Finally, it is the discerning power of Savita that enables mankind to distinguish right from wrong, and virtue from vice. Thus, Savita imparts to us a certain self-guiding ability to uplift ourselves and help ourselves to be our highest selves.
6. VA-RE-NY-AM
Varenyam signifies our acceptance of God as the Highest reality, and it is to Him that we dedicate our efforts rather than to material worldly pursuits.
Varenyam can also be interpreted to mean as the one
who is the most eligible or fit to be our Leader and our Guide. We surrender ourselves to Him out of sheer devotion regardless of anything else. We place no conditions on this acceptance.
BHARGO DEVASYA DHIMAHI
These three words are a further description of the attributes and qualities of God. They indicate His functional and instrumental qualities, and through those qualities, His relationship to us.
7. BHAR-GO
Bhargo connotes the light (devasya) of the divine being, dheemahi on whom we should meditate as the available form of light onto light of suns, to discover the formless Creator (God).
Bhargo also refers to That Glorious Light embodied in God's love and power. It signifies His complete purity and by virtue of His power to purify, and to destroy all sins and afflictions. By realizing His Divine Form and experience of unity and oneness with Him, we can cleanse ourselves of all stains of sin and be made pure by His Grace. This way we can regain our lost divinity, our soul’s lost radiance and luster. By removing the veil of Maya, we can cleanse our soul, and realize our true Divine self.
8. DE-VAS-YA
The word Deva, from which this word is derived, means "quality" or "attribute", and can denote another word for "Guna". Thus, the various forms of God are given this name, as each of those forms points to a specific quality and function (for example, Brahma has the quality of Creation, Shiva the quality of dissolution, Kamadeva has the quality of carnal love, etc.). Deva is thus anyone who is considered to possess a special quality or guna.
Deva can also be taken as describing the fundamental unity of God, describing in one word all the functions, roles and different attributes of God, and thus symbolizing his absolutely essential nature ,that is, without God, nothing can exist. He is all-creating Power.
9. DHI-MA-HI
Means to meditate and fix our mind on God. Meditation on God implies that we concentrate, and direct our mental energies towards the cherished object of all human quest, that is,
communion with God.
DHI-YO-NA-PRA-CHO-DA-YAT
Prayer is primarily aimed at:
praising and glorifying God;
thanksgiving to God;
asking forgiveness from God;
or asking a boon from God.
Having offered praise to God on His greatness, thanking Him for His generosity in Creation and maintaining all the created forms and asking forgiveness for our impurity and sins, which we have realized can and must be cleansed through our communion with God, we now proceed to beseech His guidance to show us the way. Since our soul is the Light of Life within us, of course inherently pure, being itself Divine in nature, through these four words we ask God to help us to refine and sharpen our intellect, and guide it towards what is right.
10. DHI
Sanskrit word stands for “intellect”. It is by use of this intellect that we are able to cultivate all other qualities (power, wealth, success in life, physical fitness, personal and collective wellbeing etc. Thus, intellect is the key to all else in life. We ask God to invest us with the highest intellect, and show us the way to use that intellect in the best possible manner both for personal and collective wellbeing and prosperity.
Material prosperity has little meaning for the person who is truly devoted to God. Pain and suffering can touch him not, since he is imbued with God’s own Divine Bliss. Thus, ones intellect must remain focussed on communing with and serving God.
11. YO
Means “Who” or “That”.
Yo points to the fact that we direct these prayers, but to God alone. Only God is worthy of the highest adoration andworship. God alone is perfect and free from all taints. It is That all-loving God, the Light all-pervading, to Whom we offer these prayers.
12. NAH
Means “Ours”.
Nah signifies the selflessness of the request, that is, we offer this prayer not simply for ourselves, but for the whole mankind. We wish for the wellbeing of the whole human family, true to the Hindu ideal of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” - “The whole world is one big family”. Thus, our prayer embraces not only ourselves, but one and all inhabiting the universe.
13.Prachodayat
The word Prachodayat rounds off the whole mantra. Here we invoke God for His Guidance, and Inspiration. We beseech Him to show us His Divine and Glorious Light (cf. BHARGO).We ask Him to remove the darkness of Maya from our paths ,to let us see the way .We crave that He guide us through the mazes of this world, to the haven of tranquility and peace, where dwells God Himself, the root of all Happiness, and the source of true Bliss.
Significance of the mantra
The Gayatri Mantra invokes the Sun, which in turn invokes the Self, the Atman, the Light of Life within. The Atman is the illuminator of reason, intelligence, perceptions, emotions, thoughts and purposes, just as the Sun is the illuminator of the entire world.
The Gayatri Mantra is an appeal by the seeker to the divine Sun inhering within everyone’s being to emerge out of the cloud of sensate desires and shine forth its resplendent light. The greatness of the Gayatri Mantra lies in its power of prayer and mantric power. It offers a guide to the unfoldment of the spiritual potentialities as well as man’s ultimate transformation.
The Gayatri mantra occupies a hallowed place in ancient Indian culture. Its importance is quite evident in branches like Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda and Vedic Astrology. In Yoga, it helps awaken the Kundalini force. In Vedanta, it grants the light of Self-knowledge and knowledge of the solar Self. In Ayurveda, it enlivens the power of the cosmic prana whose source is the sun. In Jyotir Vigian (Vedic astrology), it provides knowledge of the movements of all the heavenly bodies ruled by the sun.
Thus the Gayatri Mantra ,the mother of all the mantras, is a boon to the sincere seeker and it confers upon him the Light of the Infinite, the Bliss of the Eternal and the Life of the Immortals.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
MYSTIC SIGNS
Inseeing
(i)
Come with me, I shall reveal
the secret of divining
our ancestors knew.
I shall take you to the hallowed spots
where stand pyramids and astrofields
to show you the rim of the cosmic orb
where existed an observatory for all space.
These hieroglyphs tell of a lost civilization
of those who could commune through signs,
masters of geometric anagrams and schemes.
No thinking pigmies
like the jet-set, computer-brained, robots,
no automatons sans feeling or emotion,
who worship only the machine.
The aborigines possess to this day
the knowledge of invisible paths;
locked in their secret science
the treasury of ancient wisdom.
No unfeeling savages
but visionary beings
who knew where to build
the great pyramids.
Who knew the unified field
of quadrangles and triangles
that form the invisible grid
encircling the globe.
Who knew well the movements
of prevailing winds,
of cosmo-oceanic currents,
of hidden forces of the cosmos.
knew the spots of magnetic power
to locate the precise spots
for the countless megalithic structures
to predict the rising and setting of the sun;
made the magnetic field retain the sunstones
in the ordained positions.
Who had the ability to commune
with beings from far-off constellations
we are still struggling to find.
Many a mysterious sign on the ground
be it a bridge over the sea
or an airfield
or the markings of Nasca-
tell of the intelligence
behind the perfect architectural plan
of astroports
for visitors from outer space
to land to consummate
an unknown mission.
The mystery of Ande lines too
points to the invisible hand
of the unknown denizens
from far-aff galaxies.
(ii)
Ancient men possessed
the unerring inruition
to locate the spots
for their minarets and pagodas,
their circles and parabolas.
They had the innate ability
to catch supranatural frequencies
a power modern man has lost.
Sensate values have taken a toll
a sure sign of man's fall.
They were also masters
of the art of dream-divination.
Knew that from coarse erotica
to archetypal myths,
from racial memory-roots of aborigines
to the consciousness of superman,
dreams span the legendary lore.
We sleep to dream,
we dream to sleep
till we are shaken
by a knock at the door.
We shuttle from bliss to horror
breaking the sequence of space-time,
hourly undergo a sea change.
We leave the corporeal frame
to travel by the astral pathways.
After a spell of relaxation,
go to sleep again.
Many a time have I dreamt
in a wakeful state,
seen and thought three-dimensionally,
oblivious of my fourth dimension
the basis of all creativity
that guides the artist's insight,
lets him see the hidden beauty
in the darkest night.
Sleep is a relaxation
a state of receptive passivity,
for paranormal communication,
for entering a trance.
I climb the chestnut,
become the tree,
stand with my peers,
proud of my ancestry.
Oblivious of the hallowed past
that gave meaning to my thoughts,
beneath the banyan I lie.
My roots go back in time,
I recollect each one
who stood there.
I become the wood,
bound to every one ,
stretching my arms in every direction.
I understand the heart
of cyclones and storms,
of creativity and creation,
in my soul's calm.
Travel from trunk downards
far away in space-time,
in my crystal costume
I become all that I see.
Breathe the air of new skies
hopping from sphere to sphere.
Buffeted by electromagnetic weves,
I cross
many a sound barrier,
many a starlit dame,
winging from the earthly roof
to my celestial home.
there I meet my father,
my father's father
and onto the Father.
In His lap I rest a while
to take my place with the pole-star
to guide the stranded.
Go back home
to know the source
I strayed from
to live my mortal destiny.
(v)
In my trances,
in mine circles of the moon/
I unrolled the scroll
of my previous lives.
I relived the crucial roles
of my previous births,
having a bearing on my present,
as if I were acting in a film.
Till my thirties I was a witness
to my thirties I was a witness
from disjointed episodes
from my previous lives
reflected on a screen.
Suddenly, in early thirties,
a strange dispassion entered my being.
I started shunning all men
retreating to lonely spots
for meditations deep and long
till I was summoned to shirdi
by a celestial call.
There I met a realized soul
who transferred the yogic powers
to create and uncreate at will,
to see beyond space-time,
to commune with spirits divine,
to hear the first sermons
of ancient saints and divines
in their original tongues.
My precognition in that state
was marked by precision,
my prophecies were fulfilled,
I was the star of the great
I heard Christ's golden sermon
in his own sonorous voice
in a language alien to my ear;
its music haunts
I was roused
from the sleep of ignorance
to tread the seeker's path
played in my previous births.
Golak and shirdi
Gurcharan and Sat Sai,
wrapped in effulgence,
entered my inmost being;
I was filled with translucent light
They awakened me to my mission,
conferred the mystic sight
to bear the godly light,
to carry the cross of human woes.
From the meshes of worldliness freed,
longing to walk by His light
making it burn into a steady slame,
in my dark cavern I dwell.
Hear the call
to join my voice
to the choir of God.
I sing of the faith,
of the earth as one family,
of unity permeating all,
of service as love made visible:
the destination of every man,
of soul's deliverance,
of its merger with the One,
the source supreme.
(vi)
Ecstasy is a gateway to eternal
from the void of oblivion
to eternities of memory.
It is an invitation
to life divine.
The sages of yore
who sing philosophies to redeem,
prophet, poet and philosopher, rolled in one,
to them I look for inspiration.
Science has to be a hymn to the Creator,
no more a preserve of godless men
or it will become a device
heaping untold miseries upon men.
Reason and spirit interacting mould
the force of personality
that ordains the route mankind will take
when the spirit is caught in a fix.
" To be or not be" is not a question
confined to a mythical person
but the haunting obsession of every epoch
in search of a breakthrough.
No forecast is possible in reverse,
neither about the past nor the future.
History is a graveyard of all prophecies,
of all " ifs" and " buts".
Spirituality is the last retreat
for science and religion to meet;
when clash of creeds alarms,
realization has to drawn.
The savage and the scientist share
the same substratum of intelligence,
the same gene,
yet in the chain of natural progression
savage remains the archetypal man.
Psychokinesis and clairvoyance
belong to every man
in psychic reservoir locked.
What you need is the right intelligence
to attune yourself
to the unified field
of human awareness,
encircling the universe,
hissing for recognition.
I travelled to distant lands,
unknown to my physical mind,
in contemplation firm-fixed
yet moving faster than light
A mental falcon following,
retaining the memory of things I see,
of the sights and sounds
that Lapped around me;
reviving the ability or remote -seeing,
natural to every one.
I have experienced levitation,
materialized out of thin air
sultanas and sacred ash.
Also, solid balls out of nothing,
and let them fall to the ground
without bouncing or making a sound.
Twisted metal spans and knives,
made eerie signs.
Pulled out fires from the walls,
saw flowerpots hanging in midair,
automatic writing on a clean slate,
a shadowy presence in the room.
(vii)
What we do in this life
determines what we gain
in the next.
Good or evil we do
forsakes us not
on our journey to the unknown,
neither in the course of flight
nor on reaching the destination.
What we are, we shall be,
all determined by our deeds.
The universe is not a game of dice
but a mathematical paradigm.
but a mathematical paradigm.
Each and every step of the design
squares well with the pattern of the theorem.
Everything depends on our actions.
Karma and reincarnations
monitor the cosmic mechanism.
Cryptompesia explains
the truth of transmigration,
our turning away from the sun,
our striving for salvation,
an integral aspects of total organism
that inheres in the cosmic unconscious:
the extension of microcosmic self.
We cannot explain
the totality of the human person
by physio-neurology alone,
the truth lies in prenatal existence.
Many a time
meeting a person,
passing through a situation,
or reading some piece,
the sensation of " already seen"
haunts us
as if our double had been to the place
and had met the person.
(viii)
Stuck by weithtlessness
I levitate in space in a state of trance.
In my upward glide swil,
turning in air itself,
into the tunnel,
cross the little hill,
to arrive where my father sleeps.
I too shall sleep there
after I shuffle off my worn-out coil,
cut the umbilical cord that joins
the causal to the mental-physical sheath,
all over the globe to fly.
I follow the music,
cross the astral paths,
the sun and the moon,
cross the river of mortality
needling my way through invisible tunnels,
through inaccessible mountain passes
dotted by sunspots and black shadows,
well-marked by ethereal poles.
Out-of-the-body experience is not the same
as the fact of being out of the body
but an altered state of consciousness.
(ix)
The spirit never dies,
in various incarnations it survives
drinking the bliss sip by sip
till we attain nirvana.
I know reincarnation to be a fact
fro sage Bhrigu unfolds the scroll
of my previous births
spanning many aeons.
In one birth I was King Yayati,
the ancestor of the solar race.
I carry with me Brighu's curse
for my infidelity
to Devayani,
daughter of the mighty sage.
She cried
for restoration of her conjugal rights,
for her son's succession to the throne,
brought upon my head
decrepitude too soon
and a straw bed.
Twenty-nine births from the present one
I was the sage Madan
and lived
in the Hemkund mountains
absorbed in Sat Chit Anand.
In my last birth
was I a scholar-saint
honoured by courts and kings.
In this life reborn to the one
who was no God-man
but true man of God,
free from the taint of worldliness.
The Jiwan Mukta, by Brighu proclaimed,
the liberated while living
and not to be born again.
Father bade me stop
the out-of-body journeys
to confine myself
to ordained duties and affections,
to quicken the liberation of man,
to imbibe earth consciousness,
to make earth-citizens,
to relive the religion of man.
Father touched me by chance,
instantly I went into a trance:
neither a sleep nor a dream was it
but the light of bliss.
Through many a secret pathway
I travelled to unreachable realms
shortening distances
of many million light years.
Suddenly I see something flicker
with a pair of eye-glasses
in a far-off gloom,
my sense of discernment returns.
I retrace my steps ;
a black dog,
tucking at my knees,
coaxes me home.
(i)
Come with me, I shall reveal
the secret of divining
our ancestors knew.
I shall take you to the hallowed spots
where stand pyramids and astrofields
to show you the rim of the cosmic orb
where existed an observatory for all space.
These hieroglyphs tell of a lost civilization
of those who could commune through signs,
masters of geometric anagrams and schemes.
No thinking pigmies
like the jet-set, computer-brained, robots,
no automatons sans feeling or emotion,
who worship only the machine.
The aborigines possess to this day
the knowledge of invisible paths;
locked in their secret science
the treasury of ancient wisdom.
No unfeeling savages
but visionary beings
who knew where to build
the great pyramids.
Who knew the unified field
of quadrangles and triangles
that form the invisible grid
encircling the globe.
Who knew well the movements
of prevailing winds,
of cosmo-oceanic currents,
of hidden forces of the cosmos.
knew the spots of magnetic power
to locate the precise spots
for the countless megalithic structures
to predict the rising and setting of the sun;
made the magnetic field retain the sunstones
in the ordained positions.
Who had the ability to commune
with beings from far-off constellations
we are still struggling to find.
Many a mysterious sign on the ground
be it a bridge over the sea
or an airfield
or the markings of Nasca-
tell of the intelligence
behind the perfect architectural plan
of astroports
for visitors from outer space
to land to consummate
an unknown mission.
The mystery of Ande lines too
points to the invisible hand
of the unknown denizens
from far-aff galaxies.
(ii)
Ancient men possessed
the unerring inruition
to locate the spots
for their minarets and pagodas,
their circles and parabolas.
They had the innate ability
to catch supranatural frequencies
a power modern man has lost.
Sensate values have taken a toll
a sure sign of man's fall.
They were also masters
of the art of dream-divination.
Knew that from coarse erotica
to archetypal myths,
from racial memory-roots of aborigines
to the consciousness of superman,
dreams span the legendary lore.
We sleep to dream,
we dream to sleep
till we are shaken
by a knock at the door.
We shuttle from bliss to horror
breaking the sequence of space-time,
hourly undergo a sea change.
We leave the corporeal frame
to travel by the astral pathways.
After a spell of relaxation,
go to sleep again.
Many a time have I dreamt
in a wakeful state,
seen and thought three-dimensionally,
oblivious of my fourth dimension
the basis of all creativity
that guides the artist's insight,
lets him see the hidden beauty
in the darkest night.
Sleep is a relaxation
a state of receptive passivity,
for paranormal communication,
for entering a trance.
I climb the chestnut,
become the tree,
stand with my peers,
proud of my ancestry.
Oblivious of the hallowed past
that gave meaning to my thoughts,
beneath the banyan I lie.
My roots go back in time,
I recollect each one
who stood there.
I become the wood,
bound to every one ,
stretching my arms in every direction.
I understand the heart
of cyclones and storms,
of creativity and creation,
in my soul's calm.
Travel from trunk downards
far away in space-time,
in my crystal costume
I become all that I see.
Breathe the air of new skies
hopping from sphere to sphere.
Buffeted by electromagnetic weves,
I cross
many a sound barrier,
many a starlit dame,
winging from the earthly roof
to my celestial home.
there I meet my father,
my father's father
and onto the Father.
In His lap I rest a while
to take my place with the pole-star
to guide the stranded.
Go back home
to know the source
I strayed from
to live my mortal destiny.
(v)
In my trances,
in mine circles of the moon/
I unrolled the scroll
of my previous lives.
I relived the crucial roles
of my previous births,
having a bearing on my present,
as if I were acting in a film.
Till my thirties I was a witness
to my thirties I was a witness
from disjointed episodes
from my previous lives
reflected on a screen.
Suddenly, in early thirties,
a strange dispassion entered my being.
I started shunning all men
retreating to lonely spots
for meditations deep and long
till I was summoned to shirdi
by a celestial call.
There I met a realized soul
who transferred the yogic powers
to create and uncreate at will,
to see beyond space-time,
to commune with spirits divine,
to hear the first sermons
of ancient saints and divines
in their original tongues.
My precognition in that state
was marked by precision,
my prophecies were fulfilled,
I was the star of the great
I heard Christ's golden sermon
in his own sonorous voice
in a language alien to my ear;
its music haunts
I was roused
from the sleep of ignorance
to tread the seeker's path
played in my previous births.
Golak and shirdi
Gurcharan and Sat Sai,
wrapped in effulgence,
entered my inmost being;
I was filled with translucent light
They awakened me to my mission,
conferred the mystic sight
to bear the godly light,
to carry the cross of human woes.
From the meshes of worldliness freed,
longing to walk by His light
making it burn into a steady slame,
in my dark cavern I dwell.
Hear the call
to join my voice
to the choir of God.
I sing of the faith,
of the earth as one family,
of unity permeating all,
of service as love made visible:
the destination of every man,
of soul's deliverance,
of its merger with the One,
the source supreme.
(vi)
Ecstasy is a gateway to eternal
from the void of oblivion
to eternities of memory.
It is an invitation
to life divine.
The sages of yore
who sing philosophies to redeem,
prophet, poet and philosopher, rolled in one,
to them I look for inspiration.
Science has to be a hymn to the Creator,
no more a preserve of godless men
or it will become a device
heaping untold miseries upon men.
Reason and spirit interacting mould
the force of personality
that ordains the route mankind will take
when the spirit is caught in a fix.
" To be or not be" is not a question
confined to a mythical person
but the haunting obsession of every epoch
in search of a breakthrough.
No forecast is possible in reverse,
neither about the past nor the future.
History is a graveyard of all prophecies,
of all " ifs" and " buts".
Spirituality is the last retreat
for science and religion to meet;
when clash of creeds alarms,
realization has to drawn.
The savage and the scientist share
the same substratum of intelligence,
the same gene,
yet in the chain of natural progression
savage remains the archetypal man.
Psychokinesis and clairvoyance
belong to every man
in psychic reservoir locked.
What you need is the right intelligence
to attune yourself
to the unified field
of human awareness,
encircling the universe,
hissing for recognition.
I travelled to distant lands,
unknown to my physical mind,
in contemplation firm-fixed
yet moving faster than light
A mental falcon following,
retaining the memory of things I see,
of the sights and sounds
that Lapped around me;
reviving the ability or remote -seeing,
natural to every one.
I have experienced levitation,
materialized out of thin air
sultanas and sacred ash.
Also, solid balls out of nothing,
and let them fall to the ground
without bouncing or making a sound.
Twisted metal spans and knives,
made eerie signs.
Pulled out fires from the walls,
saw flowerpots hanging in midair,
automatic writing on a clean slate,
a shadowy presence in the room.
(vii)
What we do in this life
determines what we gain
in the next.
Good or evil we do
forsakes us not
on our journey to the unknown,
neither in the course of flight
nor on reaching the destination.
What we are, we shall be,
all determined by our deeds.
The universe is not a game of dice
but a mathematical paradigm.
but a mathematical paradigm.
Each and every step of the design
squares well with the pattern of the theorem.
Everything depends on our actions.
Karma and reincarnations
monitor the cosmic mechanism.
Cryptompesia explains
the truth of transmigration,
our turning away from the sun,
our striving for salvation,
an integral aspects of total organism
that inheres in the cosmic unconscious:
the extension of microcosmic self.
We cannot explain
the totality of the human person
by physio-neurology alone,
the truth lies in prenatal existence.
Many a time
meeting a person,
passing through a situation,
or reading some piece,
the sensation of " already seen"
haunts us
as if our double had been to the place
and had met the person.
(viii)
Stuck by weithtlessness
I levitate in space in a state of trance.
In my upward glide swil,
turning in air itself,
into the tunnel,
cross the little hill,
to arrive where my father sleeps.
I too shall sleep there
after I shuffle off my worn-out coil,
cut the umbilical cord that joins
the causal to the mental-physical sheath,
all over the globe to fly.
I follow the music,
cross the astral paths,
the sun and the moon,
cross the river of mortality
needling my way through invisible tunnels,
through inaccessible mountain passes
dotted by sunspots and black shadows,
well-marked by ethereal poles.
Out-of-the-body experience is not the same
as the fact of being out of the body
but an altered state of consciousness.
(ix)
The spirit never dies,
in various incarnations it survives
drinking the bliss sip by sip
till we attain nirvana.
I know reincarnation to be a fact
fro sage Bhrigu unfolds the scroll
of my previous births
spanning many aeons.
In one birth I was King Yayati,
the ancestor of the solar race.
I carry with me Brighu's curse
for my infidelity
to Devayani,
daughter of the mighty sage.
She cried
for restoration of her conjugal rights,
for her son's succession to the throne,
brought upon my head
decrepitude too soon
and a straw bed.
Twenty-nine births from the present one
I was the sage Madan
and lived
in the Hemkund mountains
absorbed in Sat Chit Anand.
In my last birth
was I a scholar-saint
honoured by courts and kings.
In this life reborn to the one
who was no God-man
but true man of God,
free from the taint of worldliness.
The Jiwan Mukta, by Brighu proclaimed,
the liberated while living
and not to be born again.
Father bade me stop
the out-of-body journeys
to confine myself
to ordained duties and affections,
to quicken the liberation of man,
to imbibe earth consciousness,
to make earth-citizens,
to relive the religion of man.
Father touched me by chance,
instantly I went into a trance:
neither a sleep nor a dream was it
but the light of bliss.
Through many a secret pathway
I travelled to unreachable realms
shortening distances
of many million light years.
Suddenly I see something flicker
with a pair of eye-glasses
in a far-off gloom,
my sense of discernment returns.
I retrace my steps ;
a black dog,
tucking at my knees,
coaxes me home.
Monday, December 29, 2008
ZEN GITA
ZEN SUTRA
The road to truth runs straight,
the twists and turns,
only prolong the quest.
Every fish breathes the needed air,
in low or high tide,
oblivious of ocean wide.
The wheeling universes
always on the run,
longing for soulful union.
Tired with turning beads
the realized know only one word,
love.
Love’s flame
shall open the secret door,
one step more shall make you free.
Fling these piles of books
in passions’ raging fire
to be the Zen.
Continence
the root restraint
on the path of ascent.
Calm of mind,
a heart that craves not,
makes you free, the living Zen.
Where you get to know who you are,
all your questionings cease,
fixed are you in your Buddha nature.
Futile this search
if it fails to give you equipoise,
the peace of Nirvana.
To obey the inner call,
to pass into life immortal,
death-in-Zen, the way.
No danger to go astray
on the path of Zen,
only caution, no vacillation.
Only intense love makes you see
Life’s hidden mystery,
lets you enter the deathless realm.
Zen will bestow the sight,
the ear to hear the unheard melody,
the joy of living creatively.
Not by ritual purification
but searching within,
the gates of illumination open.
Darkness lets us see
our true essence,
our Buddha nature.
A ceaseless yearning
to be out of the tunnel,
to see the Light.
Prayer is bathing
in pure waters of Zen
to wash the soul clean.
What you lose by excess,
recoup it by restraint,
zest once gone cannot return.
A prayer awakens in you
the hidden melody of existence,
flowers a whole spring within.
What holds the worlds together,
keeps the cosmic balance,
none but love.
Between man and man
the earth and heaven,
only love is.
Love the guide,
love the voyager,
love the destination.
Birth, death, love, time,
points in a unitive scale
to orchestrate life’s harmony.
Each speck in the macrocosm
has an appointed role,
no luminous sun without a black hole.
Life’s lustre lies
in living courageously
from moment to moment.
To the one in love
the whole world wears
the look of a royal feast.
Each one has to step
on one’s dead self,
to rise on to higher planes.
Dig up this fort of lower self
from the very roots,
to dig in the foundation of the higher self.
Smite with Zazen
all chords of your self
to let them emit sweet melodies.
The cross is not
what once shone in Bethelham,
but what shines in every soul.
Where no sense of separateness
there truth shines resplendent,
that's the moment for enlightment.
Light the pyre
to recover the immortal self,
to be filled and fulfilled.
Now and now alone,
descent ends, ascent begins,
the realisation dawns.
Who yearns for the whole
being flooded,
becomes the whole.
Heaven and hell within,
in-between an infinitesmal hair,
now the one, now the other.
Once on the vulture peak
you know the bliss of ordinariness,
your new found majesty.
No quivering restlessness,
no greed,
when dispassion sets in.
The sage enlightner
sets ablaze the fire divine,
burns away the karmic chains.
Close to the creator
in one plunge
touch the roof in one kick.
Renunciation,
of all acquisitiveness,
the way to Zen.
The way to deliverance
within every being,
only if he dives deep.
Your whole being a temple
effulging with loving devotion
the ladder to the ultimate.
The realm,
where forever flows the song,
where the eternal lights a million lamps.
Who tastes truth but once
he savours
its flavoured essence in every sip.
Every order, human or divine,
revolves round love’s nave,
it’s the very logos of life.
Love’s alchemy turns
every base metal into gold,
makes a new man.
The soul’s paradise
only for those who tread
on the razor-edge of life.
Past the flowing stream,
feel the light of bliss,
in all-enveloping darkness.
A million-eyed lotus
in every soul blooms
a thousand miracles in every wink.
Life acquires meaning
passing through love’s crucible
even death becomes divine.
Every moment a star of surprize
the questing soul’s choicest prize
a glow on the face .
The easiest way, the golden mean,
the avoidance of all extremes,
the key to all realisation.
The road to truth runs straight,
the twists and turns,
only prolong the quest.
Every fish breathes the needed air,
in low or high tide,
oblivious of ocean wide.
The wheeling universes
always on the run,
longing for soulful union.
Tired with turning beads
the realized know only one word,
love.
Love’s flame
shall open the secret door,
one step more shall make you free.
Fling these piles of books
in passions’ raging fire
to be the Zen.
Continence
the root restraint
on the path of ascent.
Calm of mind,
a heart that craves not,
makes you free, the living Zen.
Where you get to know who you are,
all your questionings cease,
fixed are you in your Buddha nature.
Futile this search
if it fails to give you equipoise,
the peace of Nirvana.
To obey the inner call,
to pass into life immortal,
death-in-Zen, the way.
No danger to go astray
on the path of Zen,
only caution, no vacillation.
Only intense love makes you see
Life’s hidden mystery,
lets you enter the deathless realm.
Zen will bestow the sight,
the ear to hear the unheard melody,
the joy of living creatively.
Not by ritual purification
but searching within,
the gates of illumination open.
Darkness lets us see
our true essence,
our Buddha nature.
A ceaseless yearning
to be out of the tunnel,
to see the Light.
Prayer is bathing
in pure waters of Zen
to wash the soul clean.
What you lose by excess,
recoup it by restraint,
zest once gone cannot return.
A prayer awakens in you
the hidden melody of existence,
flowers a whole spring within.
What holds the worlds together,
keeps the cosmic balance,
none but love.
Between man and man
the earth and heaven,
only love is.
Love the guide,
love the voyager,
love the destination.
Birth, death, love, time,
points in a unitive scale
to orchestrate life’s harmony.
Each speck in the macrocosm
has an appointed role,
no luminous sun without a black hole.
Life’s lustre lies
in living courageously
from moment to moment.
To the one in love
the whole world wears
the look of a royal feast.
Each one has to step
on one’s dead self,
to rise on to higher planes.
Dig up this fort of lower self
from the very roots,
to dig in the foundation of the higher self.
Smite with Zazen
all chords of your self
to let them emit sweet melodies.
The cross is not
what once shone in Bethelham,
but what shines in every soul.
Where no sense of separateness
there truth shines resplendent,
that's the moment for enlightment.
Light the pyre
to recover the immortal self,
to be filled and fulfilled.
Now and now alone,
descent ends, ascent begins,
the realisation dawns.
Who yearns for the whole
being flooded,
becomes the whole.
Heaven and hell within,
in-between an infinitesmal hair,
now the one, now the other.
Once on the vulture peak
you know the bliss of ordinariness,
your new found majesty.
No quivering restlessness,
no greed,
when dispassion sets in.
The sage enlightner
sets ablaze the fire divine,
burns away the karmic chains.
Close to the creator
in one plunge
touch the roof in one kick.
Renunciation,
of all acquisitiveness,
the way to Zen.
The way to deliverance
within every being,
only if he dives deep.
Your whole being a temple
effulging with loving devotion
the ladder to the ultimate.
The realm,
where forever flows the song,
where the eternal lights a million lamps.
Who tastes truth but once
he savours
its flavoured essence in every sip.
Every order, human or divine,
revolves round love’s nave,
it’s the very logos of life.
Love’s alchemy turns
every base metal into gold,
makes a new man.
The soul’s paradise
only for those who tread
on the razor-edge of life.
Past the flowing stream,
feel the light of bliss,
in all-enveloping darkness.
A million-eyed lotus
in every soul blooms
a thousand miracles in every wink.
Life acquires meaning
passing through love’s crucible
even death becomes divine.
Every moment a star of surprize
the questing soul’s choicest prize
a glow on the face .
The easiest way, the golden mean,
the avoidance of all extremes,
the key to all realisation.
Friday, December 26, 2008
CHIRISTIAN MYSTICISM
There is an insightful write up entitled "Can mysticism lead to God?"
by Richard Bennett (former Catholic priest)which offers a new light on orthodox Christianity.
Mysticism is an attempt to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind. The strong influence of Catholic mysticism has helped immensely to transform the New Age Movement from being merely a counter-culture sub-culture to becoming a new source of spiritual vision for the world. Catholic mysticism has very effectively and subtly invaded many facets of life without being recognized or critically examined.
This has been actively promoted through self-help medical, educational and psychological programs employing methods such as meditation, philosophical programming, and self-hypnotic contemplation.
In melding Eastern subjective spirituality with Western self-assurance, Catholic mysticism has done much to effectively hijack public and private religious life and to invert core beliefs and values of the West. Mystical God consciousness is an attempt to replace Christ's redemption and salvation.
Catholicism, Pagan Religions and Pantheism
For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has assimilated to herself the mystery elements of pagan religions. Subjective religious experience, or mysticism, continues to be the meeting point of pagan religions and Catholicism, particularly so since Vatican Council II, when Rome changed her major strategy in an attempt to bring Protestants back under the papal fold.
The marriage between Romanism and paganism is documented in official statements from Rome. For example, in Vatican Council II documents she states,
"…In Hinduism men explore the divine mystery and express it both in the limitless riches of myth and the accurately defined insights of philosophy. They seek release from the trials of the present life by ascetical practices, profound meditation and recourse to God in confidence and love. Buddhism in its various forms testifies to the essential inadequacy of this changing world. It proposes a way of life by which man can, with confidence and trust, attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination either through their own efforts or by the aid of divine help. …The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions." [1]
Jesuit priest William Johnston explains how it happened,
"Then came the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Overnight the Catholic Church which had been a Western institution exporting its wares to the East became a world community. Asian and African bishops and theologians assembled in Rome and, with their European and American confreres, acknowledged that the Spirit of God is at work in all peoples and in all religions. Since then, most theologians recognize non-Christian religions as 'valid ways'." [2]
It is on such a quagmire that Catholicism stands hand-in-hand with Buddhism and Hinduism, and out of which well-known Catholic mystics such as William Johnston and Thomas Keating have emerged. For example, Johnston describes the effect of enlightenment,
"Self-realization lies at the very heart of BuddhismIn self-realization I become one with God just as the object is one with the mirror and just as Jesus is one with his Father." [3]
The famous mystical monk, Thomas Merton, developed this pantheistic identification with God, as does his present day devotee, William Shannon. Merton states,
"now I realize what we all are. And if only everyone could realize this! I suddenly saw all the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could or see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other." [4]
[See: What is Monism and Pantheistic Monism?]
Shannon endorses the idolatrous self-identification with God and cites his mentor, Merton,
"A person of true faith travels, not without difficulty, towards the heart of mystery. Such a person, as Merton puts it, 'works his way through the darkness of his own mystery until he discovers that his own mystery and the mystery of God merge into one reality, which is the only reality.' DQ 180." [5]
These quotations are standard descriptions of the pantheistic myth that we are all in God. In their own minds, Merton and Shannon have literally transmuted God Himself into their own image, having exchanged Him for human beings as an object of worship. Have they not, in the words of Romans 1:23,
"changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man"?
Leading Buddhists acknowledge Soul Unity with Catholicism
Leading Buddhists recognizes the marriage of Rome and paganism. Thich Nhat Hanh, states,
"Buddhists and Christians know the nirvana, or the Kingdom of God, is within their hearts [sic]. The Gospels speak of the Kingdom of God as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness [sic]. Buddhist sutras speak of Buddha nature as the seed of enlightenment that is already in every one's consciousness. The practices of prayer and meditation help us touch the most valuable seeds that are within us, and they put us in contact with the ground of our being." [6]
The Buddhist leader Dalai Lama on visiting the grave of Thomas Merton at Gethsemane Abbey prayed, "Now our spirits are one." [7] It is an appalling blasphemy to affirm of the thrice-Holy God that the Kingdom of God is "as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness" and that "meditation help[s] us touch the most valuable seeds that are in us" and that it "put[s] us in contact with the ground of our being."
Listen to the razor-sharp words of the Redeemer,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." [8]
The Holy Spirit's unique office is to lead true believers into all truth by convicting us of "sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." [9] It is not by the darkness of meditation on "the ground of our being" that leads us to the kingdom of Christ; rather in the words of Scripture, it is the Father "which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." [10]
“Evangelical” Endorsement of Pantheism
A leading Evangelical, Richard Foster, lauds this pantheistic identification with God. Foster states,
"Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism!Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence." [11]
Foster asks rhetorically, "What is the goal of Contemplative Prayer?" And he answers,
"To this question the old writers answer with one voice: union with God. Bonaventure, a follower of Saint Francis, says that our final goal is 'union with God,' which is a pure relationship where we see 'nothing.'" [12]
Seeing "nothing" and the "wordless baptism" are just an Evangelical rehashing of Catholic irrational superstitious myth. Rather, as II Corinthians 4:3 states,
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
The Catholic priest Thomas Keating agrees with Foster as he writes,
"Contemplative Prayer is the opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions." [13]
Thus Keating depersonalized God to the nameless "Ultimate Mystery" in mythology. This impersonal, "Ultimate Mystery" is a non-speaking, non-judgmental, "god." Is Keating in the twenty-first century any better off than the men on Mars Hill to whom Paul spoke regarding their "altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship"? [14] Nor is any morality derived from Keating's "Ultimate Mystery".
Thus Keating Merton and Shannon with their pantheistic identification with God have attempted destroy God's self-sufficiency as Creator, and the Lord God Almighty. They have endeavored to clone God into the image of humans. According to Romans 1:25, have they not…
"changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever"?
No wonder Merton admits,
"If only they could or see themselves as they really are… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other."
In the place of the true worship of God, they have set about to establish pantheistic idolatry.
The Pope's Approval
In an official "Apostolic Letter" the Pope has endorsed Rome's own mystical tradition and the "great mystical tradition of the Church both East and West." His official teaching is,
"we are greatly helped not only by theological investigation but also by that great heritage which is the 'lived theology' of the saints. The saints offer us precious insightsthrough their personal experience of those terrible states of trial which the mystical tradition describes as the 'dark night'. Not infrequently the saints have undergone something akin to Jesus' experience on the Cross in the paradoxical blending of bliss and pain. In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, God the Father shows Catherine of Siena how joy and suffering can be present together in holy souls:
'Thus the soul is blissful and afflicted: afflicted on account of the sins of its neighbour, blissful on account of the union and the affection of charity which it has inwardly received. These souls imitate the spotless Lamb, my Only-begotten Son, who on the Cross was both blissful and afflicted'.
What an illuminating testimony!Is it not one of the 'signs of the times' that in today's world, despite widespread secularization, there is a widespread demand for spirituality, a demand which expresses itself in large part as a renewed need for prayer? Other religions, which are now widely present in ancient Christian lands, offer their own responses to this need, and sometimes they do so in appealing ways.The great mystical tradition of the Church of both East and West has much to say in this regard. It shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" [15]
This is a brilliant piece of political bridge building on the Pope's part. By citing experiences of "saints", he attempts to make these experiences universal standards of deep and authentic spirituality. Then he grants approval to other religions by stating that they meet the "renewed need for prayer" in ways which are "appealing", affirming the idea that the process of prayer can become so consuming that it "render[s] the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved."
High thoughts, vain imaginations, and carnal reasonings about the greatness of human efforts have always exalted themselves against the knowledge of God. If "a progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" were true, there would have been no need of salvation by the Redeemer. Scripture declares the reality and truth, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." [16]
In 1986, Pope John Paul II seized the inter-faith initiative by gathering 160 of the world's religious leaders for a prayer summit at Assisi, Italy. They flew in from around the globe, Islamic Mullahs from nine nations, the Dalai Lama, (traditionally regarded by Buddhists as a living deity), native American Shamans and Indian cultists, African animists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Catholics and, of course, Protestants. "We will stand side by side asking God to give us peace," declared the Pope.[41]
The grand encore to this initial dramatization of Luciferian unity occurred in January 2002, as Pope John Paul II led 200 leaders of different religions once again at Assisi, Italy. By public demonstration, by official sanction, in countless books and seminars, as well as Web pages with broad ecumenical support, Popedom has set a mystical agenda, which the world loves and accepts. Any believer or confessing fellowship group that remains silent in the face of such bald-faced blasphemy inevitably lends credence to the Pope's deceit. For Rome still assumes her ancient legal principle to stand, "He who is silent is understood to consent."[42]
Truth Contrasted to Crafted Mythology
True Christianity is unique among the religions of the world in that it is a rational-historical faith. For the Christian, salvation is based on something entirely outside of man. Salvation is found in the faithfulness and perfect sacrifice of the Christ of history. Catholic and Eastern mystics claim to discover God in the depths of their being. The true Christian looks away from himself to the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
Before God, Christ's satisfaction for sin is a reality that is all-sufficient. It does not need to be supplemented by any other reality. God's verdict of justification is not grounded on any state of being within the believing sinner, rather it is established on Christ Jesus alone. The principle that man can save himself by his experience and by his own life has been the foundation of every pagan religion, as it is of Catholicism. What is so sinister about the present communion of Rome with paganism is that it is contaminating our entire society.
The deadly deceptions of mysticism arrogantly advertise a way of direct access to the All Holy God and thereby repudiate any need of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Mediator between God and men. The believer's worship and approach to God is in the Lord's own words to be with "all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." [17]
In the words of the Apostle Paul,
"I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." [18]
The same Apostle warned believers,
"Let no man beguile you of your reward intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." [19]
The censure of the Lord God remains on those who have issued lies,
"Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!" [20]
Because of this debasement of Christ and His Gospel we again outline the essentials of historical faith.
Objective Salvation in the Lord of Glory
As Mediator, Christ Jesus is the only means of union between God and man,
"that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; in him." [21]
Christ Jesus is exalted to "the right hand of the Majesty on high" [22] as the One Savior. He and His Gospel are objective and real! This Gospel is not an idle tale, nor a piece of incomprehensible mysticism; rather it is the proclamation of the awesome historical work of redemption accomplished by God Himself.
The Father appointed Christ Jesus as the guarantee of real salvation. Christ Jesus was glorified in finishing the Father's mightiest work. In Christ's own words, "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." [23] He had fulfilled all the Father's will and so gloriously honored the Father. As Savior He is exalted high above "all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." [24]
He alone, and not some mystic charm of Rome or Buddha, has been given all authority in heaven and in earth. He has been given power over all flesh that He should in His own words, " give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." [25] He alone has been given a name, which is above every name, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." [26] It is God's commandment that we trust on Christ, "This is His command, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." [27]
True faith involves a repudiation of the self-deceit of experiential mystical means of reaching God, "for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." [28] The Lord Jesus stands ready to receive every sinner who will throw away his rebellion and pride and trust in Him alone for salvation!
Preaching the real historical Christ and His Gospel is the answer to the mindless adumbrations of Rome and the ecumenical mystics. Thus alone can the true Church, God's People "go forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." [29] The Gospel is a mighty deliverance from the groveling religious subjectivism of Rome and her pagan mistresses. To know God is life itself to a Christian, in the words of the Lord Himself, "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." [30]
Knowledge of God, and faith in Him, are the means whereby all spiritual supports and comforts are conveyed to the true believers.
"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." [31]
The Fulfillment of the New Age Aspiration?
The goal of the New Age Movement has consistently been to bring in the Age of Aquarius when all will recognize "the God with themselves". A major step towards this in the words of the New Age prophetess Alice Bailey, is "the regeneration of the churches." [32] Her vision was that…
"The Christian church in its many branches can serve as a St. John the Baptist, as a voice crying in the wilderness, and as a nucleus through which world illumination may be accomplished." [33]
In a word, she desired the time when the "Christian churches" would embrace the New Age concepts of illumination and self-realization. The New Age plan to bring in world peace cannot fully establish the Golden Age of Aquarius until Biblical Christianity is outlawed or destroyed.
Now that the Church of Rome has entered into liaison with paganism, she has again concocted another successful work of syncretism. As Catholicism has become the religion of the European Union,[34] the desires of New Age leaders appear to be coming true. Even at the local parish level according to William Shannon "contemplative spirituality" has now widely replaced old-style Catholicism.[35]
With New Age convictions being voiced by leading Catholics and Evangelicals, it appears that the desired goal is closer to being achieved. The New Age aspiration to establish a one-world order lead by "a Christ Leader" is being met by the Pope and his Church. All of this ought not to surprise any believer, for the Bible has persistently warned believers of the enormity, growth and prevalence of the apostate church system and her mistresses.
The ruin of the Antichrist's kingdom is declared by the Apostle Paul,
"Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."[36]
Conclusion
What has been shown here regarding Catholic mysticism's outright invasion of Evangelicalism and its commandeering of New Age verbiage and paraphernalia, should cause serious individuals to examine carefully the foundation upon which his or her hopes are built. A mere "I hope I am saved" is not enough, nothing short of the full assurance of faith on the solid Rock, the Lord Christ Jesus, will suffice. It is in God's light, and in it only, that "we see light."[37]
True Christians interpret all religious experience by the normative revelation of God recorded for them in the Holy Bible. The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light! Mystics have not scrupled openly to equate the true God with "the god" within. They have thought to divest themselves of God Himself by turning to inward self-realization and enlightenment. Rather, the values that they set are based on personal inner feelings that are often incapable of reasoned explanation.
The Gospel is the exact opposite, the historical message of the Cross of Christ for a lost world. The Gospel proclaims Christ Himself, and the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who in His love gave His Son to die for sinners. There is no valid excuse for true believers to be deceived by "false apostles," who transform themselves into the "apostles of Christ," "for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."[38]
There are many false prophets gone out into the world, if we study diligently these things, which God has recorded for our safeguard against the subtle deceptions of Satan, we will not mislead nor be misled. True believers in Christ must take to heart solemn warnings of the Apostle Paul,
"Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."[39]
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."[40]
Footnotes and References
1. Vatican Council II Documents, No. 56, Nostra Aetate, "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,", 28 Oct. 1965, Vol. I, Para. 2, p. 739.
2. William Johnston, The Mirror Mind (New York: Fordham University Press, 1990) p. 7.
3. Ibid., p. 33, 39.
4. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Image edition Dec. 1989 (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1966) pp. 157, 158. This book has official Roman Catholic approval.
5. William Shannon, Seeds of Peace Contemplation and Non-Violence (New York: Crossroad Publ. Co, 1996) p. 73.
6. Thich Nhat Hanh, Introduction to Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton, Image Book edition (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1996) p. 5.
7. http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jan1997/feature1.asp 10/8/2002 The website also states that Merton died in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1968, apparently electrocuted by a faulty room fan.
8. John 3:3
9. John 16:8
10. Colossians 1:12-13
11. Foster, Richard J., Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (San Francisco: Harper, 1992) p. 155.
12. Ibid., p 159.
13. Thomas Keating, "The Method of Centering Prayer" http://www.thecentering.org/centering 10/22/02.
14. Acts 17:23
15. OFFICIAL APOSTOLIC LETTER OF POPE JOHN PAUL II "NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE" www.vatican.va/holy_fa ther/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-mill ennio-ineunte_en.html+Novo+Millennio+Ineunte - Para 27, 33 Bolding in any quotation indicates emphasis added in this paper.
16. Titus 3:5
17. Matthew 22:37
18. I Corinthians 14:15
19. Colossians 2:18
20. Ezekiel 13:3
21. Ephesians 1:10
22. Hebrews 1:3
23. John 17:4
24. Ephesians 1:21
25. John 17:2
26. Philippians 2:10-11
27. I John 3:23
28. I Timothy 2:5
29. Song of Solomon 6:10
30. John 17:3
31. II Peter 1:3
32. Alice Bailey, Problems of Humanity (New York, NY: Lucis Publ. Co., 1964) p. 152.
33. Alice Bailey, The Externalization of the Hierarchy (New York, NY: Lucis Pub. Co., 1957) p. 510.
34. This fact of syncretism in the EU we wish to deal with in our next newsletter.
35. Shannon, Seeds of Peace, p 25.
36. II Thessalonians 2:10b-12
37. Psalm 36:9
38. II Corinthians 11:13-14
39. II Corinthians 6:14,15,17
40. Ephesians 5:11
41. L'Osservatore Romano, English version of the official Vatican newspaper, Oct. 27, 1986, p. 1.
42. "Qui tacet consentire videtur."
43. Ephesians 2:3
44. 2 Corinthians 10:5
45. Malachi 3:18
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/mysticism-bennett.html
by Richard Bennett (former Catholic priest)which offers a new light on orthodox Christianity.
Mysticism is an attempt to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind. The strong influence of Catholic mysticism has helped immensely to transform the New Age Movement from being merely a counter-culture sub-culture to becoming a new source of spiritual vision for the world. Catholic mysticism has very effectively and subtly invaded many facets of life without being recognized or critically examined.
This has been actively promoted through self-help medical, educational and psychological programs employing methods such as meditation, philosophical programming, and self-hypnotic contemplation.
In melding Eastern subjective spirituality with Western self-assurance, Catholic mysticism has done much to effectively hijack public and private religious life and to invert core beliefs and values of the West. Mystical God consciousness is an attempt to replace Christ's redemption and salvation.
Catholicism, Pagan Religions and Pantheism
For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has assimilated to herself the mystery elements of pagan religions. Subjective religious experience, or mysticism, continues to be the meeting point of pagan religions and Catholicism, particularly so since Vatican Council II, when Rome changed her major strategy in an attempt to bring Protestants back under the papal fold.
The marriage between Romanism and paganism is documented in official statements from Rome. For example, in Vatican Council II documents she states,
"…In Hinduism men explore the divine mystery and express it both in the limitless riches of myth and the accurately defined insights of philosophy. They seek release from the trials of the present life by ascetical practices, profound meditation and recourse to God in confidence and love. Buddhism in its various forms testifies to the essential inadequacy of this changing world. It proposes a way of life by which man can, with confidence and trust, attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination either through their own efforts or by the aid of divine help. …The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions." [1]
Jesuit priest William Johnston explains how it happened,
"Then came the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Overnight the Catholic Church which had been a Western institution exporting its wares to the East became a world community. Asian and African bishops and theologians assembled in Rome and, with their European and American confreres, acknowledged that the Spirit of God is at work in all peoples and in all religions. Since then, most theologians recognize non-Christian religions as 'valid ways'." [2]
It is on such a quagmire that Catholicism stands hand-in-hand with Buddhism and Hinduism, and out of which well-known Catholic mystics such as William Johnston and Thomas Keating have emerged. For example, Johnston describes the effect of enlightenment,
"Self-realization lies at the very heart of BuddhismIn self-realization I become one with God just as the object is one with the mirror and just as Jesus is one with his Father." [3]
The famous mystical monk, Thomas Merton, developed this pantheistic identification with God, as does his present day devotee, William Shannon. Merton states,
"now I realize what we all are. And if only everyone could realize this! I suddenly saw all the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could or see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other." [4]
[See: What is Monism and Pantheistic Monism?]
Shannon endorses the idolatrous self-identification with God and cites his mentor, Merton,
"A person of true faith travels, not without difficulty, towards the heart of mystery. Such a person, as Merton puts it, 'works his way through the darkness of his own mystery until he discovers that his own mystery and the mystery of God merge into one reality, which is the only reality.' DQ 180." [5]
These quotations are standard descriptions of the pantheistic myth that we are all in God. In their own minds, Merton and Shannon have literally transmuted God Himself into their own image, having exchanged Him for human beings as an object of worship. Have they not, in the words of Romans 1:23,
"changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man"?
Leading Buddhists acknowledge Soul Unity with Catholicism
Leading Buddhists recognizes the marriage of Rome and paganism. Thich Nhat Hanh, states,
"Buddhists and Christians know the nirvana, or the Kingdom of God, is within their hearts [sic]. The Gospels speak of the Kingdom of God as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness [sic]. Buddhist sutras speak of Buddha nature as the seed of enlightenment that is already in every one's consciousness. The practices of prayer and meditation help us touch the most valuable seeds that are within us, and they put us in contact with the ground of our being." [6]
The Buddhist leader Dalai Lama on visiting the grave of Thomas Merton at Gethsemane Abbey prayed, "Now our spirits are one." [7] It is an appalling blasphemy to affirm of the thrice-Holy God that the Kingdom of God is "as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness" and that "meditation help[s] us touch the most valuable seeds that are in us" and that it "put[s] us in contact with the ground of our being."
Listen to the razor-sharp words of the Redeemer,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." [8]
The Holy Spirit's unique office is to lead true believers into all truth by convicting us of "sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." [9] It is not by the darkness of meditation on "the ground of our being" that leads us to the kingdom of Christ; rather in the words of Scripture, it is the Father "which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." [10]
“Evangelical” Endorsement of Pantheism
A leading Evangelical, Richard Foster, lauds this pantheistic identification with God. Foster states,
"Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism!Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence." [11]
Foster asks rhetorically, "What is the goal of Contemplative Prayer?" And he answers,
"To this question the old writers answer with one voice: union with God. Bonaventure, a follower of Saint Francis, says that our final goal is 'union with God,' which is a pure relationship where we see 'nothing.'" [12]
Seeing "nothing" and the "wordless baptism" are just an Evangelical rehashing of Catholic irrational superstitious myth. Rather, as II Corinthians 4:3 states,
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
The Catholic priest Thomas Keating agrees with Foster as he writes,
"Contemplative Prayer is the opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions." [13]
Thus Keating depersonalized God to the nameless "Ultimate Mystery" in mythology. This impersonal, "Ultimate Mystery" is a non-speaking, non-judgmental, "god." Is Keating in the twenty-first century any better off than the men on Mars Hill to whom Paul spoke regarding their "altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship"? [14] Nor is any morality derived from Keating's "Ultimate Mystery".
Thus Keating Merton and Shannon with their pantheistic identification with God have attempted destroy God's self-sufficiency as Creator, and the Lord God Almighty. They have endeavored to clone God into the image of humans. According to Romans 1:25, have they not…
"changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever"?
No wonder Merton admits,
"If only they could or see themselves as they really are… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other."
In the place of the true worship of God, they have set about to establish pantheistic idolatry.
The Pope's Approval
In an official "Apostolic Letter" the Pope has endorsed Rome's own mystical tradition and the "great mystical tradition of the Church both East and West." His official teaching is,
"we are greatly helped not only by theological investigation but also by that great heritage which is the 'lived theology' of the saints. The saints offer us precious insightsthrough their personal experience of those terrible states of trial which the mystical tradition describes as the 'dark night'. Not infrequently the saints have undergone something akin to Jesus' experience on the Cross in the paradoxical blending of bliss and pain. In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, God the Father shows Catherine of Siena how joy and suffering can be present together in holy souls:
'Thus the soul is blissful and afflicted: afflicted on account of the sins of its neighbour, blissful on account of the union and the affection of charity which it has inwardly received. These souls imitate the spotless Lamb, my Only-begotten Son, who on the Cross was both blissful and afflicted'.
What an illuminating testimony!Is it not one of the 'signs of the times' that in today's world, despite widespread secularization, there is a widespread demand for spirituality, a demand which expresses itself in large part as a renewed need for prayer? Other religions, which are now widely present in ancient Christian lands, offer their own responses to this need, and sometimes they do so in appealing ways.The great mystical tradition of the Church of both East and West has much to say in this regard. It shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" [15]
This is a brilliant piece of political bridge building on the Pope's part. By citing experiences of "saints", he attempts to make these experiences universal standards of deep and authentic spirituality. Then he grants approval to other religions by stating that they meet the "renewed need for prayer" in ways which are "appealing", affirming the idea that the process of prayer can become so consuming that it "render[s] the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved."
High thoughts, vain imaginations, and carnal reasonings about the greatness of human efforts have always exalted themselves against the knowledge of God. If "a progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" were true, there would have been no need of salvation by the Redeemer. Scripture declares the reality and truth, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." [16]
In 1986, Pope John Paul II seized the inter-faith initiative by gathering 160 of the world's religious leaders for a prayer summit at Assisi, Italy. They flew in from around the globe, Islamic Mullahs from nine nations, the Dalai Lama, (traditionally regarded by Buddhists as a living deity), native American Shamans and Indian cultists, African animists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Catholics and, of course, Protestants. "We will stand side by side asking God to give us peace," declared the Pope.[41]
The grand encore to this initial dramatization of Luciferian unity occurred in January 2002, as Pope John Paul II led 200 leaders of different religions once again at Assisi, Italy. By public demonstration, by official sanction, in countless books and seminars, as well as Web pages with broad ecumenical support, Popedom has set a mystical agenda, which the world loves and accepts. Any believer or confessing fellowship group that remains silent in the face of such bald-faced blasphemy inevitably lends credence to the Pope's deceit. For Rome still assumes her ancient legal principle to stand, "He who is silent is understood to consent."[42]
Truth Contrasted to Crafted Mythology
True Christianity is unique among the religions of the world in that it is a rational-historical faith. For the Christian, salvation is based on something entirely outside of man. Salvation is found in the faithfulness and perfect sacrifice of the Christ of history. Catholic and Eastern mystics claim to discover God in the depths of their being. The true Christian looks away from himself to the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
Before God, Christ's satisfaction for sin is a reality that is all-sufficient. It does not need to be supplemented by any other reality. God's verdict of justification is not grounded on any state of being within the believing sinner, rather it is established on Christ Jesus alone. The principle that man can save himself by his experience and by his own life has been the foundation of every pagan religion, as it is of Catholicism. What is so sinister about the present communion of Rome with paganism is that it is contaminating our entire society.
The deadly deceptions of mysticism arrogantly advertise a way of direct access to the All Holy God and thereby repudiate any need of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Mediator between God and men. The believer's worship and approach to God is in the Lord's own words to be with "all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." [17]
In the words of the Apostle Paul,
"I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." [18]
The same Apostle warned believers,
"Let no man beguile you of your reward intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." [19]
The censure of the Lord God remains on those who have issued lies,
"Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!" [20]
Because of this debasement of Christ and His Gospel we again outline the essentials of historical faith.
Objective Salvation in the Lord of Glory
As Mediator, Christ Jesus is the only means of union between God and man,
"that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; in him." [21]
Christ Jesus is exalted to "the right hand of the Majesty on high" [22] as the One Savior. He and His Gospel are objective and real! This Gospel is not an idle tale, nor a piece of incomprehensible mysticism; rather it is the proclamation of the awesome historical work of redemption accomplished by God Himself.
The Father appointed Christ Jesus as the guarantee of real salvation. Christ Jesus was glorified in finishing the Father's mightiest work. In Christ's own words, "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." [23] He had fulfilled all the Father's will and so gloriously honored the Father. As Savior He is exalted high above "all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." [24]
He alone, and not some mystic charm of Rome or Buddha, has been given all authority in heaven and in earth. He has been given power over all flesh that He should in His own words, " give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." [25] He alone has been given a name, which is above every name, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." [26] It is God's commandment that we trust on Christ, "This is His command, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." [27]
True faith involves a repudiation of the self-deceit of experiential mystical means of reaching God, "for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." [28] The Lord Jesus stands ready to receive every sinner who will throw away his rebellion and pride and trust in Him alone for salvation!
Preaching the real historical Christ and His Gospel is the answer to the mindless adumbrations of Rome and the ecumenical mystics. Thus alone can the true Church, God's People "go forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." [29] The Gospel is a mighty deliverance from the groveling religious subjectivism of Rome and her pagan mistresses. To know God is life itself to a Christian, in the words of the Lord Himself, "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." [30]
Knowledge of God, and faith in Him, are the means whereby all spiritual supports and comforts are conveyed to the true believers.
"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." [31]
The Fulfillment of the New Age Aspiration?
The goal of the New Age Movement has consistently been to bring in the Age of Aquarius when all will recognize "the God with themselves". A major step towards this in the words of the New Age prophetess Alice Bailey, is "the regeneration of the churches." [32] Her vision was that…
"The Christian church in its many branches can serve as a St. John the Baptist, as a voice crying in the wilderness, and as a nucleus through which world illumination may be accomplished." [33]
In a word, she desired the time when the "Christian churches" would embrace the New Age concepts of illumination and self-realization. The New Age plan to bring in world peace cannot fully establish the Golden Age of Aquarius until Biblical Christianity is outlawed or destroyed.
Now that the Church of Rome has entered into liaison with paganism, she has again concocted another successful work of syncretism. As Catholicism has become the religion of the European Union,[34] the desires of New Age leaders appear to be coming true. Even at the local parish level according to William Shannon "contemplative spirituality" has now widely replaced old-style Catholicism.[35]
With New Age convictions being voiced by leading Catholics and Evangelicals, it appears that the desired goal is closer to being achieved. The New Age aspiration to establish a one-world order lead by "a Christ Leader" is being met by the Pope and his Church. All of this ought not to surprise any believer, for the Bible has persistently warned believers of the enormity, growth and prevalence of the apostate church system and her mistresses.
The ruin of the Antichrist's kingdom is declared by the Apostle Paul,
"Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."[36]
Conclusion
What has been shown here regarding Catholic mysticism's outright invasion of Evangelicalism and its commandeering of New Age verbiage and paraphernalia, should cause serious individuals to examine carefully the foundation upon which his or her hopes are built. A mere "I hope I am saved" is not enough, nothing short of the full assurance of faith on the solid Rock, the Lord Christ Jesus, will suffice. It is in God's light, and in it only, that "we see light."[37]
True Christians interpret all religious experience by the normative revelation of God recorded for them in the Holy Bible. The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light! Mystics have not scrupled openly to equate the true God with "the god" within. They have thought to divest themselves of God Himself by turning to inward self-realization and enlightenment. Rather, the values that they set are based on personal inner feelings that are often incapable of reasoned explanation.
The Gospel is the exact opposite, the historical message of the Cross of Christ for a lost world. The Gospel proclaims Christ Himself, and the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who in His love gave His Son to die for sinners. There is no valid excuse for true believers to be deceived by "false apostles," who transform themselves into the "apostles of Christ," "for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."[38]
There are many false prophets gone out into the world, if we study diligently these things, which God has recorded for our safeguard against the subtle deceptions of Satan, we will not mislead nor be misled. True believers in Christ must take to heart solemn warnings of the Apostle Paul,
"Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."[39]
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."[40]
Footnotes and References
1. Vatican Council II Documents, No. 56, Nostra Aetate, "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,", 28 Oct. 1965, Vol. I, Para. 2, p. 739.
2. William Johnston, The Mirror Mind (New York: Fordham University Press, 1990) p. 7.
3. Ibid., p. 33, 39.
4. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Image edition Dec. 1989 (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1966) pp. 157, 158. This book has official Roman Catholic approval.
5. William Shannon, Seeds of Peace Contemplation and Non-Violence (New York: Crossroad Publ. Co, 1996) p. 73.
6. Thich Nhat Hanh, Introduction to Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton, Image Book edition (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1996) p. 5.
7. http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jan1997/feature1.asp 10/8/2002 The website also states that Merton died in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1968, apparently electrocuted by a faulty room fan.
8. John 3:3
9. John 16:8
10. Colossians 1:12-13
11. Foster, Richard J., Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (San Francisco: Harper, 1992) p. 155.
12. Ibid., p 159.
13. Thomas Keating, "The Method of Centering Prayer" http://www.thecentering.org/centering 10/22/02.
14. Acts 17:23
15. OFFICIAL APOSTOLIC LETTER OF POPE JOHN PAUL II "NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE" www.vatican.va/holy_fa ther/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-mill ennio-ineunte_en.html+Novo+Millennio+Ineunte - Para 27, 33 Bolding in any quotation indicates emphasis added in this paper.
16. Titus 3:5
17. Matthew 22:37
18. I Corinthians 14:15
19. Colossians 2:18
20. Ezekiel 13:3
21. Ephesians 1:10
22. Hebrews 1:3
23. John 17:4
24. Ephesians 1:21
25. John 17:2
26. Philippians 2:10-11
27. I John 3:23
28. I Timothy 2:5
29. Song of Solomon 6:10
30. John 17:3
31. II Peter 1:3
32. Alice Bailey, Problems of Humanity (New York, NY: Lucis Publ. Co., 1964) p. 152.
33. Alice Bailey, The Externalization of the Hierarchy (New York, NY: Lucis Pub. Co., 1957) p. 510.
34. This fact of syncretism in the EU we wish to deal with in our next newsletter.
35. Shannon, Seeds of Peace, p 25.
36. II Thessalonians 2:10b-12
37. Psalm 36:9
38. II Corinthians 11:13-14
39. II Corinthians 6:14,15,17
40. Ephesians 5:11
41. L'Osservatore Romano, English version of the official Vatican newspaper, Oct. 27, 1986, p. 1.
42. "Qui tacet consentire videtur."
43. Ephesians 2:3
44. 2 Corinthians 10:5
45. Malachi 3:18
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/mysticism-bennett.html
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