The Arcane Symbolism in Sri Aurobindo´s Work, I Part

This article is a bit complex, but it's the only open door I know to something Sri Aurobindo considered so relevant to justify the Revelatory Vision.
It is indispensable you get first on my post https://sriorobindo.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/the-vision-of-savitri-i-part.html of which the following is an explicative work.

Please follow it and excuse me in advance for not being able to explain it in simpler words, they are concepts totally new even for myself.
But as I understand, it is of fundamental importance for any student of the Integral Yoga, or even better of an Integral Truth, and it would certainly elevate our understanding of the Supermental Realization.
I offer it to you as a service to the Masters and your beloved hearts.

As you will see, in the mentioned post of the Vision, we have a cube surmounted by pyramids on all its sides with Savitri entering in it.

fig.0 this image is only indicative.



So this article is not a speculation of my own, as it results far evident that the Master was representing his own symbol but in a three-dimensional shape.
Why this?
To explain it is the aim of this post.

fig.1

There is only one place in the extensive  work of Sri Aurobindo where his wisdom was laid down without the use of a single word. (fig.1)

When we observe the emblem of Sri Aurobindo: an open lotus floating in a pond enclosed within a square, and the square within an ascending and a descending triangle, we have no doubts it conveys a subliminal, spiritual meaning.

We probably think of the ascent of the human being or of Matter itself, and the descent of the Supramental Consciousness, and the blossoming of the inner Self centered as the lotus in the pond.
All of this sounds reasonably true and probably is, and yet, there´s the possibility that something else remains concealed in the symbol.

It would be sufficient only with a superficial look to be persuaded of the similarity of the Sri Aurobindo´s emblem with that of the kabbalistic tradition, (fig.2)

                                                                              fig.2

though we found it as a recurrent symbol, carrying almost an identical meaning, in the context of different arcane cultures, as for instance the vedic. (fig.3)

                                                                             fig.3

                                                                  a vedic yantra

We positively know that the substantial difference between the star of David and that of Sri Aurobindo is the direction of the triangles: while in the Star of David the ascending triangle is the Spirit and the descending represent Matter, in that of Sri Aurobindo it is the reverse.

So that there can be hardly any doubt that Sri Aurobindo purposefully represented the sense of his work connected with the ancient traditions by using their very symbols and meaning the same principles.
And if we admit such a cultural/spiritual link for the triangles, there is no reason why the square would represent the exception here, as, every single element of the emblem has its own explication. On the contrary,the square had stupendous reasons to be there, describing so to say a pan-cultural trajectory, a comprehensiveness of traditions, a mystical circle around them all.

And it was not for any geometrical or aesthetic solution to contain the lotus and the pond that the square appear, as for that purpose, even a circle would suffice or nothing at all.
Instead, we have the introduction of an additional emblem. The Square. (fig.4)

                                                                                fig.4


And the Square takes us directly to another ancient tradition, that of the sacred geometry.

We can truly say that if it was not for the square in the middle of the triangles, there would be little or no distinction from the kabbalistic symbol. Though it has nothing of casual, the square ought to be there too.

But after all, what was contained in the humble square to be adopted not only as a graphical sign but as the device for, as we will see, a new dispensation of His Work and a farther discover for ourselves?

There were a number of good reasons why the star of David was implemented with a square.

Since the most ancient times the Arcane Symbolism  utilized four lines parallel and convergent (the square), to symbolize the Four Elements of the Chaos Naturae.(fig.5).

The square was considered the proper symbol of the interrelation of the four elements and each of them had in the square its own corresponding place and movement: fig5

fig.5 representation of the Chaos of Nature ( 4 Elements ) as an ordered movement: Ascending Fire, Descending Water, Upper Air, Lower Earth.

It is but evident for anyone that the four elements develop their activity within a three-dimensional world, not in a two dimensional one, so that the true representation of the works of Nature is

fig.6


the Cube, and the Square a devise, a symbol of it.

We can truly say that the Cube is the inner soul of the square, to which the square silently points.
And truly was so in the ciphered language of the ancient Initiate.

There should be hardly any dissension about it, because we know the cubic stone was carved by the ancients with the name of the divinity and ceremonially placed as cornerstone of the sacred buildings. (The foundational stone in public buildings in our modern era is a remnant of that ancient tradition).

fig.7 the kan (the Square) ancient Egyptian instrument of masonry

With his Kan the Egyptian Mason gave measure and dimension to the formless and irregular stone ( which was to him the chaos of nature) taking order out of disorder (by giving shape to its secret soul, the cube), rendering it apt for the edification of the Temple.

We reach a first human attempt of reducing to an ordered movement the otherwise unresting and uncontrolled forces of Nature, and we reach a first emblemization of the Work. (emblemization: symbolical representation of an esoteric-spiritual work or of a concept).

As well, the synchronization of the 4 Elements, produces and sustains Life. So that in first instance the square is a dynamic and not a static symbol, and in second instance, the elements act into three dimensional space, so that the true representation of matter and life becomes intimately connected with or rather shifts from the exoteric square to the esoteric cube.
It is the cube which explains life, not the square.
(In the Vision, the Water ascends and forms a cube which Savitri enters, and is Savitri which justify the cube, not the reverse. So to say, is the last element that enters which explains all the others. In Evolution, it would be the involved spirit finally deploying itself in matter, as for Sri Aurobindo's vision of Evolution).

While the square is the representation of the sum of the works of Nature, the cube is its inner sense.

And it is the square and not any other symbol, because in the square there is the symbolic representation of the four elements by means of lines comprehensive of the whole manifestation and activity of Nature operated from their respective directions and locations: fig 8

To the eyes of the ancient Initiate the Square or the Cube were not empty.

When we unite the lines appears the square

fig.9

with the fifth element delimited by it and delimiting it, its secret Matrix, the Lac Virginis of the Alchemist, the invisible Etheric Light support and container of all the existing, the Prana of the Rishi.

So that in last terms is the Cube and not the square what really symbolizes the activity of the four Elements.
So we can see that if we allow such a treatment to the square, and if the square and the triangles were meant to mean something, the whole emblem of Sri Aurobindo would synthesize within a few lines the core of the relevant traditions both of the East and the West.

....end I part
.

The Fields of God, a prophecy

2 MAY 2010

I have seen:

Huge Golden Fields of Wheat
                               under the Blue Sky of the Spirit
In a stupendous Hour
                             Yelding gravid of seeds
                              under the Blows of the Immortal Breeze.

And I understood:

The Time for the Harvest Has Come

The Prophecy and the blue sky after death

A blue mental world and beings to which Mother often referred, and "the blue sky after death" of Dharma Sangha have more then one reason to be similar.
Let´s briefly consider that D.S. didn´t need to die to talk of a blue sky after death, he is talking of something perceivable while in life.

What is sure, it is that within the context of prophecy and symbolic language, a distinction is made -and has to be kept in account- between "inner skies" and "outer skies".
Many prophecies, but I wish to consider here only one, the Apocalypse of John, are referring to events which a great deal happen in inner spaces and inner sky.

Were we expecting to read in the Revelation of John events to happen only or predominantly in outer sky, we would lose at least half the message.
We cannot reasonably expect to see a Dragon flying in the sky in the days of Revelation, but the Dragon could be a constellation or a symbolic element, a force, a concept, within our inner sky. It could be even...ourselves, or a darker part of each of us.
The fact remains, that inner blue sky is a reality.

Recently, a dear friend of mine which has sometimes premonitory dreams and visions told me of a recent one in which she saw clouds in the sky opening and a white horse appearing while the circle of clouds showed an intense blue sky.
The horse approached earth as flying in the sky (my friend is a fervent christian, so while she was seeing that overwhelming vision her mind remembered the words of the Bible: -And everybody will see Him-.
Then, the white horse while approaching earth and growing bigger plunged in a great lake of crystal clear waters.

She felt it was an objective vision, one which is meant as a general revelation instead of a more personal one,  the appearance of the white horse had a general value.
An objective presence.
The symbolic language of a vision is universal, the Kalki avatar appears in the sky on a white horse as much does it the Buddha Maitreya,  or the Christ of the Revelation.
It is real in the inner sky, unreal in the outer.
Unreal not as a fact, as a symbol.
We cannot transpose symbolic language into outer events, so in reading the Revelation, much is probably outer events, as the references to earthquakes, fire
in the sky and on earth, water rising or humans dying, are too many to refer -always and only- to inner events, but a great deal of it is to happen "within" our inner world and sky.
In fact, there is something which cannot be denied: everyone which reads the Revelation of John may not understand it, but none has a feeling it´s untrue.
Everybody feels it "has to be true" in a way he she cannot understand, but the language itself is over and far exceeding the level of doubts.
It is "true in itself".

We considered the possibility that John  was actually seeing events related with the same light Sri Aurobindo spoke of, the Supermental Light, a reason enough to require a deep transformation of human conditions of living and perceiving reality.

We have been even considering if the boy of the Vision of Mother and the apocalyptic times described in the very vision of Mother could be related events.

We perfectly know  the very first discourse of D.S. after years of silence, where words of warning for this world.

We should not expect to be continually warned, because once the vision has spoken, what remains is the time left to be accomplished whether we know it or not,  because a true vision will always accomplish itself.

Dharma Sangha and Sri Aurobindo: compared Teachings

I had to render myself to the evidence that none was going to write what I liked to read:
a compared study of the teaching of both Masters, because I found myself in the need of understanding how they are related, in the conviction that the teen-age Palden Dorje in strict tapasia in a jungle of Nepal could eventually develop into Dharma Sangha, empowered with the vision of the One Truth, and by necessity, related with another Great Master and Visionary: Sri Aurobindo, empowered by that same Truth, which described how soon it would spread into the human consciousness, justifying with these words the eventual appearance of farther expressions of the supermental realization.

I knew the "Six Visions" of Mother (see), and beside all the above, at least in a couple of them there where stunning resemblances with the circumstances in the life of the young and later D.S.
And Mother had left it overly clear she was deeply moved by the vision of the boy, and no doubt can rise she linked her Work with the boy of the Vision, soon to came on earth.
There is no pretence here of a very detailed work, I should present a few correspondence I found, which could be used for a farther development.
****

Sri Aurobindo: It [the overmind liberation] can't be supreme if there is something beyond it - but there is a liberation even in higher Mind.

Dharma Sangha: There are several levels of enlightened consciousness and sambodhi is the level, where all levels disappear (equal).

Comment: There is hardly any necessity to comment, it is evident that the overmind liberation and Sambodhi are one same experience of reaching a supreme liberation beyond any level, a point where all levels disappear. Levels here are of "identification" we should suppose, where the Purushottama (see below) would be the last, giving birth to what Sri A. called gnostic being, which possibly is the correspondent word for Sambodhi.

*************************
Sri Aurobindo: The Supermind in its supreme status is the truth-consciousness of the Infinite, the inherent light and power of self-knowledge and all-knowledge of the Supreme who is the self of all, the living eternal truth of all that is
and of whom all objects and beings, all the universe and motion of things and happenings in time is a partial continually proceeding manifestation.

Dharma Sangha: Bodhi Shravan means to have the knowledge of the Tattva (Essence), of Satya (Truth) and Guru [3], to recognize the Astitvik Tattva (Existential Element), and to be endowed with all knowledge.

Comment: ( There is yet no consensus on accuracy of translations of D.S. teaching, as in the first part of this sentence, where I believe the -means to have- should be replaced by -is-, so the first part of the sentence would read: Bodhi Shravan is the knowledge etc..
The justification for this change is in the fact that -means to have- refers to a personal condition of having something (knowledge), which suppose a personality, here the Person is the Divine Being which is himself the essence of the knowledge and do not need to have or possess it. Moreover the general message of D.S. is rather impersonal, much as in Sri.A. impersonal sentence where "The supermind... IS..the truth-consciousness of the Infinite etc.
It is symmetrical:
BODHI SHRAVAN IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF TATTVA(ESSENCE), SATYA(TRUTH) AND GURU.

THE SUPERMIND IS THE TRUTH-CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE INFINITE LIGHT AND POWER OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND ALL-KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUPREME.

Here both Masters are evidently describing the essence of their discovery, a Truth universal in its mode and meanings, we see the difference of a no-doctrinal meant sentence as that of Sri A. and universal in its application, and the other which possibly
is meant to vivify doctrinal tradition by rendering it universal in its application, yet within the very language and words of the tradition, as providing them of a new light and understanding. D.S. himself, which uses current buddhist words has clearly stated he is not buddhist.
****************

SRI A.:The kshara purusha is the soul in Nature... the akshara purusha is the soul above Nature. But there is One..lord of all that is: the Purushottama.
(and continues):These three Purushas are described in the fifteenth chapter of the Gita.

"There are two Purushas in the world, the akshara and the kshara,--the kshara is all creatures, the akshara is called kutastha, the one on the summit. There is another Purusha, the highest (uttama), called also the Paramatma or Supreme Spirit, who enters into the three worlds, (the worlds of sushupti, svapna, jagrat, otherwise the causal, mental and physical planes of existence), and sustains them as their imperishable lord."

(from: The three Purusha)
http://intyoga.online.fr/k-3purus.htm

DD.SS.: There is direct manifestation of the Truthful Being (purush), the Great Being (maha purush) and the Buddha Being (buddha purush).

Comment: Sri A. and D.S. conforms to the words of the Gita which reveal the works of the Three Purusha, they do not introduce in this point any difference among them nor with the Gita but for minor phonetic/cultural differences.
What should be considered here is the correspondence Buddha Being/Purushottama,
Great Being/Akshara Purusha, Truthful Being/Kshara Purusha, as this will be the pretext for a next post.

Healing and Death

The experience I´ve described in the post with the same title, give us an idea of what generally happen soon after death.
It would not happen exactly the same for everybody, as, a few more experiences of the  kind, shed some light which confirmed it.
Dharma Sangha indirectly confirmed one  such experience of mine when talking of "the blue sky after death".
(Please note, that death is only of the personality, even in life one may "resurrect" in that "blue-sky-after-death"). The physical death is a necessity because it lacks qualities of subtlety as to enter Inner Spaces, but during Yoga a new body is builded which has been called -Body of Light- and that is the counterpart of our physical body in that Realm).
 Much earlier then his words, even before his birth, I indipendently had some  experience  which confirmed this "blue-sky-after-death", leading me to understand there were such after-death possibility of melting the consciousness in a blue-spiritual- space of Peace. (Where this achieved in life, death would be meaningless, and it can be achieved, it is what a Supermental Transformation is meant for).

Colours we direct towards after death depends on personal development, this seems to be the general rule, at that moment there is not anymore the "surface personality" but
what we may call the essential being, the true being, so there is not any possibility of mistake.

After death, we have seen how the souls enter in touch with subtle guides and interdimensional ships, ships which travels in layers of (Divine) Consciousness, taking the soul safely to their corresponding place within the ascensional parameters.
There are very little possibility for physical space-ships to cross the years-light space width necessary to be here from other stars and galaxies, but, interdimensional ships are real and can be seen even with physical eyes, and are confounded with physical ones.

What I call the <personality of surface> is the instrumental ego which develop in life, that personal psychic structure which grow in our constant relation with the ambiance.

The essential being is ever there behind, but the interchange among both is normally severed in one direction, in the way of <surface personality toward essential being>, but not in the other way or not that much, as the essential being(soul) may always enter in touch with the other, via dreams, visions, inner voice, premonitions.

Death always occur anytime this personality of surface is not fused with the soul, after that is done, there is no death anymore. It actually change all the perspective of what  life and death really are, as one discovers that do not exist death as such but life in different dimensions, of which "physical life" is but one of them.

That fusion with the soul, is a "soul-achievement", not a "surface-achievement".
The personality has no means of directing such process, and there is nothing which justify any effort in that direction because the mechanisms of that fusions rely "on the other being"(soul) and...the Will of the Supreme...
What is possible, is a conscious mental-emotional acceptance of the presence of the essential being even if unperceived at first, and a conscious will to open to its inner guidance.
There is nothing to discard, struggle with, fight against, deny and abolish in our nature as we have not knowledge of what has to be abolished or will be transmuted in the fusion, and all that struggle is only the initial gracious expression of a personality already answering to the inner suggestion to get closer, a tentative to answer to that call, but is not the mode anymore afterward.

The Healing process, the Integration, is exactly this we are talking: the reintegration of the surface personality with his essential being. During the process of Integration the personality opens progressively on inner wider spaces of soul-existence and Self-existence.
At the beginning of this process, when soul is unperceived, the process has to lean itself on <faith>.
 But that faith is a personal faith, not a religious, say exterior one.
It is a faith which lean on our belief of the existence of <our own Essential Being> not that of anybody else, is a personal process which is intended as the final manifestation not only of our own soul, but of the Gnostic Being ( Sri Aurobindo), and the Sambhodi ( Dharma Sangha), and the "Corps d´ Êtreté" ( some recent teaching).
All those words indicates one same essence: the Spirit, the Purushottama, the Oversoul.
Sequentially, we have a line as:
Surface Personality---Soul---Spirit.
The Higher Yoga starts between the points Soul---Spirit.
Evidently, if there is not a fusion between the segment Surface Personality---Soul, there can´t be the other fusion which is the other segment: Soul--Spirit.
In effect, all is about fusion, the completeness of  this Fusion gives birth to the Phoenix that You Are, Gnostic Being, Sambhodi, Corps d´ Êtreté.