Victims of Kashmir – The Hindu Pandits

By Francois Gautier

(CHAKRA Blogs) I have fought for the Kashmir Pandits ever since I covered Kashmir in the nineties and saw them flee helpless and terrified. In 2005, I received the Natchiketa Award of Excellence in Journalism at the hand of the PM in Lok Sabha and with the prize money, I started a Foundation FACT (Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism) and my first exhibition was on the plight of the KP. You can see information and pictures on it here.

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was so touched by it, that He took it all over the world with Him. We showed it to the Polish Parliament, the Israeli parliament, the Scottish Parliament, in the Commonwealth Club in London and even to the US Congress in Washington, which led to a Resolution on the plight of the Kashmir Pandits.

But I have to tell you something, Hindus are still a huge majority in India, but it’s like a lion who thinks he is a mouse and does not know its strength. It’s pretty pathetic that out of 400.000 Hindus, (there were a million of them in the Valley of Kashmir in 1900), not a single one put up a fight and fired a shot in defense, when their brothers were killed, their wires raped, their children burnt in the Valley of Kashmir. Hindus pride themselves in their peace loving way. I really appreciate it myself, India a land of peace, where all the persecuted minorities of the world have found refuge, including lately the Tibetans. But isn’t it cowardice sometimes? The Gita tells us in the words of Lord Krishna that when your way of life is threatened, when Untruth is about to overcome Truth, when your borders are threatened, your wives raped, you children killed, it is rightful and dharmic to fight, by force if necessary.

Sri Aurobindo came to remind everybody that it was all right to throw out the British manu militari, to the point that his brother Barin, manufactured bombs in the basement of Sri Aurobindo’s house, but his voice was not heard. Today, Buddhism, Gandhism and Leftist intellectual thought have weakened India and She seems sometimes ready to let go of huge chunks of Her territory, whether the Valley of Kashmir, Assam to the Bangladeshis, Arunachal to the Chinese, without a fight. Wake-up O children of Bharat! Kashmir is a very ancient and sacred place not only for Hindus, but also for Buddhists.

Vedas – The oldest scriptures in Hinduism

The sections of the Vedas that deal with the various facets of the Supreme Consciousness is an articulation of the entire experience that the Vedic seers underwent, in their quest to realize that one supreme reality. What we are going to see below (in the Vedic hymns) is a symbolic and mystical explanation of what was experienced in the deepest of the penances by noble souls like Vishwamitra, Vamadeva, Madhuchandas, Agastya, Veda Vyas etc.

The Vedas make an extremely sincere effort to articulate the various aspects of the Supreme Brahman but they also accept the limitations of the human intellect in comprehending that one absolute reality. The Vedic seers grapple with the enormity of the exercise of attempting to understand the Supreme Consciousness and the myriad manifestations of the same.

Unlike other religious scriptures that position a named God upfront and build fables and a laundry list of dos and don’ts around that God, the Vedas try to understand the Vedic Brahman, attempt to pierce the realm of Brahman’s BEING and peep into its NON – BEING state. The seers also attempt to comprehend the passion of the one that made this universe manifest, established the ORDER that is immutable and identify it to be the ultimate TRUTH, the alpha and omega of everything.

Hymns of Creation (Nasadiya Sukta). Rig Veda 10/129/ 1 – 7

1. At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing.
There was not air nor yet sky beyond.
What was its wrapping? Where? In whose protection?
Was Water there, unfathomable and deep?

2. There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness;
Of night or day there was not any sign.
The One breathed without breath, by its own impulse.
Other than that was nothing else at all.

3. Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,
And all was Water indiscriminate.
Then that which was hidden by the Void, that One, emerging,
Stirring, through power of Ardor, came to be.

4. In the beginning Love arose,
which was the primal germ cell of the mind.
The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
Discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.

5. A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing.
What was described above it, what below?
Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,
Thrust from below and forward move above.

6. Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it?
Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation?
Even the Gods came after its emergence.
Then who can tell from whence it came to be?

7. That out of which creation has arisen,
Whether it held it firm or it did not,
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
He surely knows or maybe He does not!

The last two hymns seen above articulate a negative assertion that establishes the limitation of understanding and conceptually communicating what NON-BEING may have been.

The Vedic God emerges from NON-BEING into BEING. The Vedic God emerges out of the cosmic ardor/ passion (Tapas), establishes the order (Rita) and personifies the truth (Satya). And it is here that space and time get established.

Rig Veda 10/190/1 – 3

1. From blazing Ardor, Cosmic Order came and Truth;
From thence was born the obscure night;
From thence the Ocean with its billowing waves.

2. From Ocean with its waves was born the year
Which marshals the succession of nights and days,
Controlling everything that blinks the eye.

3. Then, as before, did the creator fashion
The Sun and Moon, the Heaven and the Earth,
The atmosphere and the domain of light.

The Vedic seers now are trying to comprehend as to “Who is this God?” and “Who should they offer their oblation to?”.

Hiranyagarbha (Golden Embryo) Rig Veda / 10/121/ 1 -10.

These hymns throw deep insight into the symbolism, mysticism and poetic nature of the Vedas. The golden embryo is where the Divine resides before coming into BEING. This is not about a logical evolution or a step in creation. By ardor, the Supreme one sacrifices to emerge from NON-BEING into BEING. The one that emerges TO BE is the Lord of Beings, Prajapati!

1. In the beginning arose the Golden Embryo:
He was, as soon as born, the Lord of Being,
Sustainer of the Earth and of this Heaven.
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

2. He who bestows life-force and hardy vigor,
Whose ordinances even the Gods obey,
Whose shadow is immortal life–and death–
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

3. Who by his grandeur has emerged sole sovereign
Of every living thing that breathes and slumbers,
He who is Lord of man and four-legged creatures
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

4. To him of right belong, by his own power,
The snow-clad mountains, the world-stream, and the sea.
His arms are the four quarters of the sky.
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

5. Who held secure the mighty Heavens and Earth,
Who established light and sky’s vast vault above,
Who measured out the ether in mid-spheres–
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

6. Toward him, trembling, the embattled forces,
Riveted by his glory, direct their gaze.
Through him the risen sun sheds forth its light.
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

7. When came the mighty Waters, bringing with them
The universal Germ, whence sprang the Fire,
Thence leapt the God’s One Spirit into being.
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

8. This One who in his might surveyed the Waters
Pregnant with vital forces, producing sacrifice,
He is the God of Gods and none beside him.
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

9. O Father of the Earth, by fixed laws ruling,
O Father of the Heavens, pray protect us,
O Father of the great and shining Waters!
What God shall we adore with our oblation?

10. O Lord of Creatures (Prajapati), Father of all beings,
You alone pervade all that has come to birth.
Grant us our heart’s desire for which we pray.
May we become the lords of many treasures!

It is important to note that these hymns (found above) are a favorite punching bag of those involved in human harvests. They use these hymns to claim that our forefathers never received any guidance, as; they seem not to know the God to whom oblations need to be offered. But the truth is the last hymn calls out the Lord to whom the Vedic seers adore their oblations as Prajapati.

And then the Vedic God sacrifices a one fourth of Self to create animate and inanimate things in this universe. This act is what is contained in the most famous Purusha Sukta, Rig Veda /10/90.

This sukta describes the act of Supreme Consciousness where, the Supreme one, called the Purusha here, sacrifices 1/4th of Self and the remaining 3/4th of the one, oversee and perform the sacrifice. There is a kind of a triple principle at play here. The Supreme Consciousness is the object of sacrifice, the sacrifice itself and one that is executing the sacrifice.

The 1/4th Purusha is the cosmic MAN. This sukta describes the MAN to be so large that HE encompasses the entire earth, possesses thousands of eyes and limbs and it is from this Purusha that all animate and inanimate things are born. This Purusha is the divine emanation.

1. A thousand-headed is the Man
With a.thousand eyes, a thousand feet;
Encompassing the Earth all sides,
He exceeded it by ten fingers’ breadth.

2. The Man, indeed, is this All,
What has been and what is to be
The Lord of the immortal spheres
Which he surpasses by consuming food.

3. Such is the measure of his might,
And greater still than this is Man.
All beings are a fourth of him,
Three fourths are the immortal in heaven.

4. Three fourths of Man ascended high,
One fourth took birth again down here.
From this he spread in all directions
Into animate and inanimate things.

5. From him the Shining one was born;
From this Shining one Man again took birth.
As soon as born, he extended himself all
Over the Earth both behind and before.

6. Using the Man as their oblation,
The Gods performed the sacrifice.
Spring served them for the clarified butter,
Summer for the fuel, and Autumn for the offering.

7. This evolved Man, then first born,
They besprinkled on the sacred grass.
With him the Gods performed the sacrifice,
As did also the heavenly beings and seers.

8. From this sacrifice, fully accomplished,
Was gathered curd mixed with butter.
Thence came the creatures of the air,
Beasts of the forest and those of the village.

9. From this sacrifice, fully accomplished,
Were born the hymns and the melodies;
From this were born the various meters;
From this were born the sacrificial formulas.

10. From this were horses born, all creatures
Such as have teeth in either jaw;
From this were born the breeds of cattle;
From this were born sheep and goats.

11. When they divided up the Man,
Into how many parts did they divide him?
What did his mouth become? What his arms?
What are his legs called? What his feet?

12. His mouth became the brahmin;
His arms became the kshatriyas,
His legs became the vysyas
And his feet became the sudras.

13. The Moon was born from his mind;
The Sun came into being from his eye;
From his mouth came Indra and Agni,
While from his breath the Wind was born.

14. From his navel issued the Air;
From his head unfurled the Sky,
The Earth from his feet, from his ear the four directions.
Thus have the worlds been organized.

15. Seven were the sticks of the enclosure,
Thrice seven the fuel sticks were made,
When the Gods, performing the sacrifice,
Bound the Man as the victim.

16. With the sacrifice the Gods sacrificed to the sacrifice.
Those were the first established rites.
These powers ascended up to heaven
Where dwell the ancient Gods and other beings.

Again, I must add that this sukta is used to debunk the Vedas by harvesters of souls. They point to the origin of casteism in hymn #12. But unlike those that believe in a redeemer to overcome the sin of having born in a particular lineage, this sukta establishes that men are born out of Supreme Purusha. The varna system established in the Vedas is based on vocations and there is nothing in the Vedas that espouses the dogmas that the prevailing caste system sticks to. Some of the cases in point: Yajur Veda 18:48 / 20:17/ 26:2, Atharvana Veda 19:32:8 / 19:62:1.

And this sukta evolves in the Upanishads and Satpatha Brahmanas in a couple of different ways. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (I/4/1-5) shows an evolved Purusha that is established in the self (consciousness of I) and then the fable goes on to state that the masculine Purusha created a feminine principle of Self by splitting into two. And this idea is extended to all animate things like cows, stallions, sheep etc to develop the idea of the Purusha Sukta. Again harvesters of human souls point to this Upanishad to claim that Prajapati did many asinine things!

Once the Vedic God enters the BEING mode, the Vedic seers go on to perceive the Supreme Consciousness as focal point of everything and as the cosmic pillar (Skhamba) that anchors everything in this universe, the SELF of the universe.

Atharvana Veda 10/7/ 1 – 40. I am furnishing only a few of the forty hymns to help us get a drift of the hymns.

1. In which of his limbs does Fervor dwell?
In which of his limbs is Order set?
In what part of him abides Constancy, Faith?
In which of his limbs is Truth established?

3. In which of his limbs does the earth abide?
In which of his limbs the atmosphere?
In which of his limbs is the sky affixed?
In which of his limbs the great Beyond?

8. That which of all forms the Lord of Life
Created–above, below, and in between–
With how much of himself penetrated the Support?
How long was the portion that did not enter?
[The part that did not enter, pertains to the 3/4th part of the transcendental ONE that sacrificed the 1/4th Purusha]

15. In whom, as Man, deathlessness and death combine,
To whom belong the surging ocean
And all the arteries that course within him;
Tell me of that Support–who may he be?

18. He whose head is Universal Fire,
Who has for his eyes the Angirases
And for his limbs the practitioners of sorcery–
Tell me of that Support–who may he be?

21. The branch of Nonbeing which is far-extending
Men take to be the highest one of all.
They reckon as inferior those who worship
Your other branch, the branch of Being.

22. In whom the Adityas, Rudras and Vasus,
Are held together, in whom are set firm
Worlds–that whch was and that which shall be–
Tell me of that Support–who may he be?

23. Whose treasure hoard the three and thirty Gods
Forever guard–today who knows its contents?
Tell me of that Support–who may he be?

Perhaps, the above hymn is where the Puranas draw the fable of 33 Million Devas in Indra loka, though this hymn only talks about 30 aspects/deities of the ONE.

25.Great are the Gods who were born from Nonbeing,
Yet men aver this Nonbeing to be
The single limb of the Support, the great Beyond.

Now that we have seen the way the Supreme Reality emerged from NON-BEING to BEING, the way the universe was manifested, the way life forms were created by the Supreme one, the way the Divine became the pillar of support, it becomes easier to decipher, this false belief that Vedas only espouse myriad Gods. In fact the Vedic mind, cognizant of the multifaceted nature of reality embraces the non-being and being, the manifest and unmanifest aspects of the Supreme Reality. Let us go through a few Vedic hymns.

He is one and only one, Sustains entire universe, Omnipresent, Formless, All-Powerful, Perfect, Omniscient, Unborn, Eternal and supports us always. He alone should be worshipped. Yajur Veda 40:8.

Truth is One; the wise call it by different names. Rig Veda 1:164:46

Power entered within him. He is the one, the onefold, the only one Atharvana Veda 13:4:12

All moments originated from the Purusha like lightning, no one has comprehended him, above, across, or in the center. Yajur Veda 32:2

Divine and formless is the Person; he is inside and outside, he is not begotten, is not breath or mind; utterly pure, farther than the farthest Imperishable. Mundaka Upanishad 2:1:2

However this one Supreme Reality in the Vedas is Brahman and not the ones in Abrahamic scriptures. I will deal in detail what the differences between Brahman and Jehovah and Allah are separately.

Sources:
Raimon Panikkar. The Vedic Experience
Sri Aurobindo (1956) The Secret Of The Veda

Lord Shiva

By Tina Sadhwani

“As rivers lose name and form when they disappear into the sea, the sage leaves behind all traces when he disappears into the light. Perceiving the truth, he becomes truth; he passes beyond all suffering, beyond death and all the knots of his heart are loosened” - Upanishads

When one looks at the immense sea of knowledge that has come down to us from the Vedic civilization one cannot help but feel overwhelmed at the timeless grandeur and depth of such wisdom. Wisdom that has not only cast its eternal light upon the earth but wisdom that has laid the primal foundations for all the world’s scientific and spiritual ethos. The Supreme Vedic Experience had unfolded within the rishis of antiquity the discoveries of the immutable Source, furnishing cosmological insights into the macrocosm while revealing the transcendental truths of Atma-Vidya, the inner science.

These Vedic rishis, the oldest and highest luminaries of sentient intelligence have been recognized as the primary ‘seers’ of such wisdom. The ‘seers’ of the Veda. It has often been reiterated that the Veda has been ‘revealed’ and not composed. That it is ‘apauru?eya’, not authored or created by man. One is however bound to question the basis of such knowledge that has been mysteriously perceived or ‘revealed’ as opposed to logically arrived at through intellectual endeavour or scientific investigation. How were the ancient rishis, so early in human history, made privy to information that enabled them to understand the intrinsic operations of the universe without the use of scientific technology, the kind that we are so proud of today? How have the immense structures of civilization, of thought, of language, of communication and of knowledge of the workings of the cosmos been grown from and built upon the foundation of faculties that are often considered the antithesis of reasoning, intellect and science?

Most of us often think that our own perception of the world and analysis of things is the only level of thinking that exists and the only standard of reality and normality. Furthermore, the modern mind tends to give more credence to rationalism today and considers any deviation from that norm as invalid, unacceptable or merely the work of an inferior mind. The higher truths cognized by the ancient seers are therefore often dismissed as the primitive compositions of an ignorant race or sensational glorifications reflecting mere religious sentiment.

What is not commonly known is that the fountainhead of ancient enquiry has often been governed by non-ordinary modes of information-processing such as intuition, spiritual cognition and revelation. These have been considered not just alternate operations of the mind but superior and extraordinary modes of experience that transcended the mind.
Moreover, the Vedic mind has always been aware of the multifaceted nature of reality that escapes even the most ingenious forms of speculation and intellectualism. Consequently, the Vedic truths arrived at have been the off-spring of such mystical and intuitive revelations that have occurred through transcendental modes of consciousness. Nevertheless they have still displayed an integrity of the highest intellectual vigour. The supramental consciousness that has been established by the ancient seers in the earth-life, in the world-order, and the power and knowledge that it has unleashed in the form of the Veda, the self-expression of Spirit, cannot be compared to or evaluated by the crudities of the modern rational mind.

Truth of the Veda

By delving into the immense Vedic literature one can easily observe the fact that the Vedas are not a set of books or scriptures, for Vedic knowledge is eternal. More accurately speaking, the Vedas can be understood as a cosmic matrix of fundamental knowledge, embedded in the very fabric of existence, echoing the scientific and spiritual laws of the universe that was first revealed to and cognized by the ancient Vedic rishis in their advanced states of consciousness.

Without an ‘advanced state of consciousness’ which could serve as a provisional key term here to comprehend the basis of such metaphysical insight and knowledge, one could only be considered looking at the infinite knowledge base of the Veda through merely a key hole.

Sri Aurobindo affirms “The perfect truth of the Veda, where it is now hidden, can only be recovered by the same means by which it was originally possessed. Revelation and experience are the doors of the Spirit. It cannot be attained either by logical reasoning or by scholastic investigation… ‘Not by explanation of texts nor by much learning’, ‘not by logic is this realisation attainable.’ Logical reasoning and scholastic research can only be aids useful for confirming to the intellect what has already been acquired by revelation and spiritual experience. This limitation, this necessity are the inexorable results of the very nature of Veda.”

The Upanishads (Mandukya) further confirms this fact by explaining the gross, subtle and causal conditions of manifested consciousness corresponding to which there are different levels of reality embedded in the very nature of our experiences. Apparent reality (hallucination, dreams, etc), empirical reality (experiences of the conscious, waking state) and higher spiritual reality (experiences of the superconscious state). Therefore the type of cognition and experience we have (apparent, empirical or supramental) differs depending on the state of consciousness we are in and ‘true cognition’ is said to be cognition at the ‘spiritual level’ of direct experience and revelation.

When our consciousness is identified with the physical body (sthula sharira) then we are said to experience the waking state (jagrat). When consciousness is identified with the subtle body (sukshma sharira) then we experience the dream state. When consciousness is identified with the causal body (karana sharira) then we experience the deep sleep state. The common aspect shared by these three states of being is the ‘absence of knowledge’ of the true nature of reality. It is emphasized that it is only in the super-conscious state (turiya) that consciousness breaks free from the limitations of all the bodies and takes cognizance of the Absolute Reality (Brahman).

So the ‘way’ or mode in which we tend to ‘know’ things seems to determine the validity and substantiality of the knowledge thus gained. According to the Yoga Sutras (Patanjali) there are different ways in which we arrive at knowledge, understand it and respond to the environment. These ways of ‘knowing’ are set in a hierarchical mode of information processing in which sensory perception (utilizing the five senses) is considered to be an inferior form of awareness, followed by the conceptual mode (rational, linguistic) and finally by the supramental mode which is intuitive in nature and which reveals to us the true nature of reality.

The Age of Intuition

Observation and sensory perception serve as suitable methods of processing information when it comes to the lower functions of consciousness such as thinking, emotions, volition, etc. However our senses are limited in their range of information processing and cannot always solve all problems, especially those of a metaphysical nature. Reasoning and logic take place through the agency of the intellect (buddhi) and hence serve as useful modes when we cannot rely on our senses to provide us with adequate information. However, the intellect has been found to have its limitations too.

The super-conscious experience on the other hand, moves beyond the faculty of the senses, the mind and the intellect. It enables one to have a ‘direct’ experience of reality without being influenced by the conditioned filters of the mind. It is found most useful in cognizing metaphysical phenomena, true nature of reality, nature of self, etc. The mind and intellect are then meant to serve as useful intermediaries to organize and communicate such esoteric knowledge.

One can clearly see how the age of pure intuition which defined the early Vedic and Upanishadic thinking was then followed by the age of reason which organized the Vedic insights into scriptural, metaphysical philosophies. This period saw the rise of many conflicting schools of thought, each of which founded itself on the Veda but used its text as a weapon of reason against the others. Today’s age on the other hand is defined more by pursuits of experimental science.

Early Vedic thinking has however been more holistic, with a tendency towards the synthesis and unity of all knowledge. So by establishing itself in the higher, supramental mode of being the Vedic experience has very early in history discovered the eternal and spiritual fundamental reality that lies beneath all the formation and movement which constitutes the apparent physical reality.

Considering the intuitive knowing and holistic vision of the Vedic mind, mathematician Pierre Simon Laplace explained it very precisely,

“An intellect which at a given instant knew all the forces acting in nature, and the position of all things of which the world consists… would embrace in the same formula the motions of the greatest bodies in the universe and those of the slightest atoms; nothing would be uncertain for it, and the future, like the past, would be present to its eyes.”

The Doors of Spirit

Given the timeless nature and depth of Vedic insights, it would be safe to assume that the ancient rishis were host to such transpersonal and supramental modes of experience that made them privy to information that is normally out of the range of common awareness. Generally, each and every mode of consciousness gives us access to a different view of some aspect of reality, but the supramental mode offers a more complete and god-like view of existence as one’s consciousness expands to become a super-conductor of information that cannot be otherwise known to us by mere observation or speculation. Hence one seems to then be able to access the universal database or global mainframe because in this state there is a ‘transcendence’ of time, space, personal self and culture. Information processing becomes ‘impersonal’ as there is no longer just a separated, individualized ‘self’ that is having experiences because consciousness expands to include the world and universe at large. In other words, one’s consciousness literally steps out of the conditioned system of the three dimensional reality and moves from being ‘ego-centric’ to ‘world-centric’.

This kind of experience tends to surpass ordinary sensing, perceiving, conceptualizing, reasoning or understanding and is unlike anything remembered or imagined. It is, the Hindu mystics say, pure intuition, pure consciousness, ‘sat-chit-ananda’ if you may. Yet, even this description of the Supreme Experience is simply akin to the finger pointing to the moon, which is not the moon. It can never be conceptualized or described as it is beyond all thought and imagination. It is nothing within the mind or outside it, nothing in the past, present or future for all these are merely conceptions in time and space.

In the context of the Vedas, ‘sravas’ literally means ‘hearing’. From this is derived ‘sravana, sruti, sruta’, meaning “revealed” or knowledge that comes through the opening of the mind’s channels. Drsti- direct perception of the truth and Sruti- direct hearing of the truth are hence the two chief powers and faculties of that advanced consciousness, which corresponds to the old Vedic idea of the Truth, the Ritam. Whoever is thus at this advanced level of consciousness, possesses and becomes invariably open to the faculties of drsti and sruti and is then considered the Rishi or the Kavi, sage or seer of Truth.

In the secret of the Veda, Aurobindo explains that “The Rishi was not the individual composer of the hymn, but the seer (drast¯a) of an eternal truth and an impersonal knowledge. The language of Veda itself is S’ruti, a rhythm not composed by the intellect but heard, a divine Word that came vibrating out of the Infinite to the inner audience of the man who had previously made himself fit for the impersonal knowledge.”

Furthermore, according to psychologist and philosopher James, an important quality of these non-ordinary states of consciousness is that they are noetic or knowledge-laden. “They are basically states of insight into the depths of truth, unhindered by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations and revelations about the universe at large, full of significance and importance… they carry with them a curious sense of authority for after-time.”

The Supreme Vedic Experience

Such has been the power and authority of the Supreme Vedic Experience that has left us the treasure of universal, eternal truths and insights. Such insights can only be decoded by the same process that led to its revelation. And it is for this same reason why everyone cannot be considered qualified to interpret the Vedas, unless their consciousness has expanded enough to transcend its own cultural conditionings.
Moreover, the symbols and terms used in Vedic verses when properly recognized and understood possess great value: they are ‘evocative’ and induce direct intuitive understanding. Hence they are meant to be meditated upon and not merely rationalized or intellectualized. He who takes the Vedic verses literally will not be able to move past them towards the higher realities that they point to. That is essentially why one requires the ability to synthesize all visions and perspectives expressed in the Vedas and comprehend it holistically, as an organic whole.

Interestingly, this is also the reason why in the ancient era ‘Brahmins’ were primarily entrusted with the responsibility of preserving and disseminating the Vedic knowledge, not because of some misconceived racial superiority but because they were considered the most advanced in their consciousness through intense yogic disciplines of meditation and tapasya.

The ancient Vedic seers have also been aware that no individual could claim to be the exclusive custodian of a direct link to the Divine which is why they never set up any hierarchy, dogma or religion to access or experience the Absolute Reality. With fullness of being, fullness of life and fullness of consciousness they have manifested on earth the sublime voice of Spirit and endowed with such Brahman-Vidya or Supreme Illumination they have ingeniously preserved and delivered to us these universal and sentient truths through the many changing cycles of time.

“Vast is That, divine, its form unthinkable; it shines out subtler than the subtle: very far and farther than farness, it is here close to us, for those who have the vision it is here even in this world; it is here, hidden in the secret heart” - Mandukya Upanishad III.1.6

References:
Sri Aurobindo (1956) The Secret Of The Veda
Sri Aurobindo (1940) The Life Divine
Swami Prabhavananda (2003) Patanjali Yoga Sutras. Ramakrishna Math. Chennai.
Mandukya Upanishad – http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand_0.html
http://www.swamij.com/mandukya-upanishad.htm
James William (1902) The varieties of religious experience. NY Modern Library.

Vedic Evolution of Consciousness and Enlightenment

In the Rig Veda there are 5 hymns constituting an important dialogue between Lord Indra and Sage Agastya that reflects the significance of traversing the evolutionary path of consciousness, that seems to serve as a crucial pre-requisite to understanding the true nature of the Supreme Absolute Reality (God).

The verses exemplify how sage Agastya, by the sheer force of his thoughts is breaking through the barriers of his mind, reaching the realm of God without first being developed as a fully functional being in all his levels of consciousness. The eagerness to experience God gets the better of sage Agastya and his senses and he refuses to progressively surrender to the stepping stone (which in this case refers to Lord Indra) in his quest for God. At this point, sage Agastya gets pushed back by Indra who does not allow him to proceed to the realm of God.
 
Indra says-that which is beyond time and space (God) cannot be known by that which is in time and space (Agastya and other mortals like us).
 
Indra goes on to explain that it is the progressive transcendence (of ego-consciousness) through divine activities that will take a mortal towards the immortal truth. Sage Agastya thenceforth realizes his folly, surrenders his will to Indra and goes on to execute his mandated activities through Indra.
 
Ego transcendence
 
One of the obvious implications that can be drawn from the verses is that the sense of “I” that we adorn and the identification with our ego-consciousness is often what prevents us from experiencing the Divine. That would also probably explain why meditation, yoga, etc. are delineated as paths in Hinduism to achieve that distance and ‘dis-identification’ from the ego-centric self. One could however, question the whole point or practical significance of transcending the ego-bound self, to which it can be reasoned that detachment (the kind that Lord Krishna expounds in the Gita) would actually entail a greater sense of involvement and participation in life’s experiences without being shaken or affected by them. It would imply a sense of free-experiencing that is unimpeded by our conditioned beliefs, emotions, memories, reactions, etc. enabling us to understand things from a larger frame of reference.
 
Modern psychology and cognitive science is only now exploring the frontiers of consciousness (exemplified in Vedanta) and its impact on human life and behaviour. Current researches (Joel Krueger) in the field also indicate that transcending of the personalized ego often leads to a unified mode of awareness and “That a scholar acquires a new insight, or a moralist a new motive, or an artist a new imagination, or a religious figure a new awakening, are all based upon a disclosure of this kind of unity in consciousness” which is only made possible by that ego transcendence.
 
Levels of Consciousness
 
Sri Aurobindo (scholar of the Vedas) was one of the first pioneers in the field of consciousness studies. His work was further compounded by researcher Ken Wilber who (based on Aurobindo’s Vedic insights and Piaget’s Cognitive Development) established the ‘ten levels of consciousness’ that humans had to develop through, re-affirming the fact that psychological and spiritual development go hand in hand; that we can’t have one without the other.
 
According to the Vedic template reflected in the Taittiriya Upanishad there are five sheaths of existence/being- 1) Anna-maya kosa (physical), 2) Prana-maya kosa (vital), 3) Mano-maya kosa (mental), 4) Vijnana-maya kosa (intellectual) and 5) Ananda-maya kosa (bliss).
 
The ten levels of consciousness derived from this template are:
 
1) The Sensoriphysical- reflecting the realm of matter, sensation and perception.
2) Phantasmic-Emotional- the emotional-sexual level (seat of libido and instincts)
3) Representational mind- level of concepts and symbols, fantasy, ego-centric thinking.
4) Rule/role mind- thinking in terms of concrete things and events. 
5) Formal-reflexive mind- the level of reflective, abstract thinking and introspection.
6) Vision-logic- the level of synthesis and integration.
The higher levels are 7) Psychic, 8 ) Subtle (level of soul), 9) Causal (level of spirit) and 10) Non-dual (Brahman-Atman)
 
Our centre of gravity is said to rest in a certain level on that spectrum and our thoughts and actions are defined by that level of functioning. Evolution of consciousness then requires a shift to higher levels. Wilber believes that the majority of humankind is still operating on the Mental, or Egoic, level, while only a few have attained higher spiritual consciousness.  Consequently it’s important to note that if an individual has spiritual experiences but his consciousness has only developed to the level of the ‘rep’ mind (level 3) for instance then he won’t be able to understand that spiritual experience in a broad way and won’t be able to integrate it. On the contrary he is more likely to distort the experience for people tend to interpret their religious/spiritual experience according to the level of mental development they are at. This does not imply that there are different levels of God, but that there are different levels of interpretation. The person at the highest levels of consciousness will have a more integrated and holistic understanding of the Supreme Reality.
 
It’s also interesting to note that those who are at the ‘earlier stages of development’ often tend to think that “their truth is the only truth” as they lack the ability to integrate alternate perspectives. To explain the tangible effects of this phenomenon, Swami Vivekananda once said “Whenever a prophet got into the super-conscious state by heightening his emotional nature, he brought away from it not only some truths, but some fanaticism also, some superstition which injured the world as much as the greatness of the teaching helped.”
 
Eminent author Ram Swarup also explains that even though a person has spiritual experiences, if he has not transcended his ego then his connection with the Divine will be distorted and filtered through his immature mind and his resulting beliefs and actions will prove to be very destructive, as can be witnessed from the history of imperial movements and regimes. He claims that this happens “because they mix spiritual truth and ego together, which is a very dangerous and volatile combination… as nectar mixed with poison becomes poison”.
 
The prevalent culture also stands as testimony to this phenomenon that is now witnessing the spread of myriad psuedo visionaries with the messiah complex. 
 It stands to reason then that without the anchor of integrated development a person can be in danger of falling prey to the lower nature of his self which perpetuates various forms of dysfunctions from a simple lack of objectivity to extreme fanaticism.
 
Researcher Prem Sabhlok also asserts “The ancient, medieval and modern history of India as well as of the world has confirmed that with material knowledge based on sense experiences and intellectual reasons and arguments alone, any search for God had always led to fanaticism, fundamentalism, communal tension, destruction of the temples, gurudwaras, churches, etc. of the same God and even has been cause of wars between the nations. With material knowledge, the same God appears different to various sections of the people.”
 
This suggests that it is often imperative for a super-conscious spiritual experience to be supported by a corresponding heightened psychological development. More importantly, it indicates that material knowledge without spiritual growth can be counterproductive as there is something crucial missing in human awareness that causes us to fall victim to all sorts of delusions and distortions. Vedas refers to this as ‘avidya’-ignorance and goes on to explain how we need to reach a certain stage in consciousness for this avidya to dissolve.
 
Evolution of Consciousness and Enlightenment
 

As we progress to higher levels of development on that scale our consciousnesses expands.  “So the more narrow, fragmented and restricted our mode of consciousness,” says Wilber, “the more prone we will be to experiencing psychological disorders or distortions. And the more expanded and heightened our level of consciousness, the more scope we will have for self-actualization and enlightenment. Therefore… enlightenment in this context implies an expansion of consciousness from the isolated, alienated individual to a kind of global cosmic consciousness.”  It then overall alludes to a progressive expansion from parts of the psyche (persona) to the psyche (ego) to the environment (ecological) and finally to the universe-manifest and unmanifest (Brahman).
 
While it is often reiterated that there is only one indivisible, all-pervading and immanent reality (Brahman), Vedic metaphysics makes it clear that it is only at the stage of “Turiya” (highest level of superconsciousness) that a person experientially discerns and understands this One Supreme Reality (God) in all its magnitude and the vehement effect of Maya -the cosmic illusion then dissolves.
 
So contrary to Darwin’s theory of evolution and according to Vedic scriptures, one form of species does not evolve into another, rather it is the soul that evolves through the various levels of consciousness and this transition is not so much biological as much as it is spiritual.

Aurobindo declares, “Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth’s evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and the logic of Nature’s process.”

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1. Indra: It is not now, nor is It tomorrow; who knoweth that which is Supreme and Wonderful? It has motion and action in the consciousness of another, but when It is approached by the thought, It vanishes.
 
2. Agastya: Why dost thou seek to smite us, O Indra? The Maruts are thy brothers. By them accomplish perfection; slay us not in our struggle.
 
3. Indra: Why, O my brother Agastya, art thou my friend, yet settest thy thought beyond me? For well do I know how to us thou willest not to give thy mind.
 
4. Indra: Let them make ready the altar, let them set Agni in blaze in front. It is there, the awakening of the consciousness to Immortality. Let us two extend for thee thy effective sacrifice.
 
5. Agastya: O Lord of substance over all substances of being, thou art the master in force! O Lord of Love over the powers of love, thou art the strongest to hold in status! Do thou, O lndra, agree with the Maruts, then enjoy the offerings in the ordered method of the Truth.
 
 
References:
 
-Rig Veda – Book 1 – Verse 170 – Hymns CLXX (1 – 5)
-Taittriya Upanishad-Sri Aurobindo (1956) The Secret of the Veda
-Ram Swarup (1980) The word as revelation: Names of Gods.
-Vivekananda: Complete Works, Vol.1, Raja Yoga, Ch.7: “Dhyana and Samadhi”
-Ken Wilber (1977) Spectrum of Consciousness
-Prem Sabhlok- Glimpses of Vedic Metaphysics
-Joel Krueger (2007) The Varieties of Pure Experience: William James and Kitaro Nishida on Consciousness and Embodiment
-hinduism.co.za/kosas.htm
-Jean Piaget- Cognitive Development