A study of the sex energy

By Hari Warrier

Let’s talk about sex.

Sex is connected with love. Obviously.The sex chakra is directly connected with the heart chakra, and when the heart chakra expands, some energy travels to sex, and that chakra too gets activated.

But that is not the only way in which the sex chakra gets activated. Or the heart chakra, for that matter. A person engaged in doing charity, good work, may find that suddenly, their sex chakra is screaming for attention. Or, someone who has just risen from meditation finds an urgent need for sex (for some people, the urgent need is for food…) Or, even more maddeningly/confusingly, such people find that they have, unwittingly, caused arousal in others.

It is important to understand the sex energy, rather than blush furiously and look away when confronted by it. The sex energy has the capacity to cause floods and shake the earth, according to the classical definition of the Deva of the chakra, Varuna (in the Indian culture) or Neptune (Roman) and Poseidon (Greek). 

A visual representation of the ocean god, Varuna,

seated on his vehicle, the crocodile. In esoteric 

terms, the crocodile represents the sex energy

Sex is the chakra of procreation, and as such is connected to the plane of Creation, of the 3rd Logos (Brahma, in the Indian tradition) directly. In the current earth cycle, the energies of the 3rd Logos and the 2nd Logos are supposed to be fused and working together. On the level of the Solar Logos, this is true, but on the human level this is yet to manifest.

What this means is that sex energy is supposed to be used to manifest the creative will of the Solar Logos (which in turn is manifesting the will of the Supreme God, which we know as the Divine Plan). 

However we are not aware of this, and we use our sex energy for a little bit of fun, or allow the energy itself to dictate the means and direction in which it will be used.

The Deva of the sex energy is powerful, second only to Zeus in the Greek tradition and Indra in the Indian tradition), and his energy, just like the Kundalini, cannot be “directed” or controlled once it is awakened. Hence, the path for its travel needs to be clearly created BEFORE it is awakened or activated; the channel needs to be cleared of silt and weeds before the dam is opened and water is let out.

Otherwise, it will simply fuel the strongest desires of the person concerned — emotions and desires also being essentially fluid in nature and symbolised by water — and the water rises above the head, meaning the ajna is no longer in control. In the Greek tradition, Zeus and Poseidon are shown as mostly at odds with each other.

Zeus, Indra and the ajna all represent the will of the higher soul…

CONDITIONS APPLY

Centuries of conditioning means that humanity no longer associates sex with survival of the species. It is instead associated with the individual — or, in tribal terms, perpetuating one’s own tribe, ethnicity etc. Sadly — but naturally — this same sentiment also leads to sex being wielded as a weapon. 

Since sex has the capacity to fuel desire, it can also stoke revenge, sadism, pride, mistaken nationalism, vendetta, cupidity or greed… any emotion. And having done the deed, the person/s then blame the victim for provoking his or her own misbehaviour. Sometimes, rarely, the attacker is emotionally shattered and does violence against themselves.

All of this and much more happens essentially because we have a very hazy idea about the PURPOSE of sex (as, in fact, is the case with our idea about the purpose of life in general).

Life is not just about making a lot of money, swigging beer, having a good time and then just dying [NOTE: desires]. It is not even about being a nice person, raising a family, retiring and gently fading into the sunset.

Life has a real purpose: aligning one’s desires to the will of the higher soul, and living the life that the soul wants us to. In effect, this means sacrificing our (material) desires at the altar of the soul [NOTE: real significance of the word ‘sacrifice’].

Taking this, for the moment, broadly as true, it means that sex, and sex energy, have a purpose, and that is NOT pleasure or desire (or revenge etc). In fact, we must be honest and acknowledge that what we call love is also just a desire for each other, if not physically, emotionally; it is a desire for each other’s company and the emotion that it generates in us, and (subconsciously) the energy and the chemicals that this company and the emotions generate within us (NOTE: hence the phrase: chemistry between two people].

So long as the desires keep directing us outwards, they are leading us away from ourselves, preventing us finding ourselves, our real Selves.

THE SACREDNESS OF SEX

So what is the real purpose of sex energy?

It is directly connected to higher creativity, to Brahma or the 3rd Logos. The second Logos or the Vishnu aspect is supposed to be fused with the 3rd Logos. “Let the plan of love and light work out” as it is put in the Great Invocation.

If the sex energy is unplugged from desire, and if it is governed by love [NOTE: higher love, from the heart; not personal love from the solar plexus] then the sex energy gets a chance to rise in a natural way to the heart centre, rather than to the head. In the Greek tradition, for instance, this is symbolised by Aphrodite, the goddess of love, rising from the foams of the Ocean. The same is the case of the Roman version: Venus rising from the ocean waters on a seashell is immortalised by the artist Botticelli.

Botticelli's Venus

In the Indian tradition, Lakshmi, the goddess of love and wellbeing, rises from the ocean during the churning for the Amrit or divine nectar. She is immediately married to Lord Vishnu, the Second Logos (imagine, the momentous event of the churning of the ocean is paused for this wedding! and resumed after the event; Lakshmi and Vishnu live in the heart centre).

From the activated heart, the energy is able to rise to the blue pearl and the crown, which facilitate the raising of the kundalini as well.

Note that in the process of raising the Kundalini, the energy gets stuck at the first obstacle that it encounters, which is usually the sex chakra — because most of us have highly colourful ideas of sex and no control at all over the energy.

Note, also, that if sex is NOT unplugged from desire, it is strong enough to dominate the heart, working with the energy of the solar plexus, flooding the ajna and leading to a “shipwreck”, in a manner of speaking, in which the person acts without rhyme or reason. 

If the sex energy dos rise properly to the heart, a portion of it goes to the throat, manifesting as creativity and concrete intelligence. In the Indian tradition, Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom and the arts, is shown seated on a lotus, flanked by a swan and a peacock.

Goddess Saraswati

The peacock indicates flying in the inner world through the peacock-coloured blue pearl, while the swan, mythically speaking, has the capacity to “separate milk from water”. This is also one of the qualities of the Arhat, called “parama hansa” or ultimate swan in the Indian spiritual tradition: the milk symbolises mental energy, and water, emotional energy. 

[NOTE: When the solar plexus is highly activated, it produces hundreds of thought forms, which contain both mental and emotional energies. The technique of separating milk from water represents discernment or the ability to filter out emotion from a thought form.]

The seat of Saraswati is shown as located on a stream (there is a mythical subterranean river named Saraswati), and not the ocean — only some of the sex energy rises to the throat, not all of it.

Note that if, as is often the case with artists, the sex chakra is highly activated without the accompanying checks and balances of a highly activated heart chakra and a strong foundation in the virtues, the sex drive can overpower the energy of the throat in the same way as it does the heart, and can cause the person to become a slave to his or her desires, leading to a fall — and not just spiritually, but even materially [NOTE: the devi Saraswati is portrayed as a celibate].

For the spiritual person, thus, the sex chakra has to be conserved. If it is not, if it is spent without discrimination, then there is no more energy to rise to the heart, throat and the crown.

In the spiritual scheme of things, it is advisable for a couple to have sex without releasing, and the man should ideally release only during the safe period of the woman. During the remaining days, they must cultivate the energy, nurture it with the aim of raising it to the appropriate chakras. Without the help of the woman, the man cannot do this (it is not in his nature to refrain from release, and beyond a point, it is even beyond his capacity).

It is not a simple matter of being wilful, it is an entire science in which the woman plays the primary role because the female form is built with the natural capacity to raise the kundalini and the sex energy. This is the science of Tantra, which socially has been painted as a dark art.

This perhaps is the fundamental reason behind male chauvinism towards the female body: jealousy and insecurity. However, the soul has no gender, and experiences both genders over and over again lifetime after lifetime.

To sum up, sex energy is a spiritual resource, but it must be nurtured with love and raised to the crown without the involvement of the will. It must not get a chance to run riot in the aura, and it must be respected. Sex is sacred, and both words come from the root sacrum. 

A healthy, proper attitude towards sex is crucial, and an appreciation of the energy behind sex is of paramount importance. So it is critical to purify the mind and the emotional body of ancient pent up energies of improper attitude towards sex, past sexual crime, violence, vengeance, hurt and pain — all of which are lodged in various parts of the body and the aura. The sex organs, the urinary system and the two solar plexus chakras are particularly vulnerable, as is the spleen.

If we “fall in love”, it means the lower nature has triumphed. That love is self-centred. Desire rules.

Onam: remembering the demon king

While revering the erstwhile ruler of the land, we may be missing the message concealed in the festival

Maveli nadu vanidum kaalam

Manushyarellarum onnu poley…

(When Maveli ruled the land, all the people were [treated] as one)

This little ditty is one’s childhood memory of the festival of Onam, the mainstay of the south Indian state of Kerala. The week-long festival would see the people doing their best to convey an impression that all is well in the world, as this is the time, as legend has it, that Mahabali, the grandson of Prahlada and Asura king who ruled the three worlds equitably, would return to earth to see that his erstwhile subjects were living well.

The story goes that Mahabali conquered the three worlds — Deva Loka, Bhumi or Bhuloka, and Paatala, the last being his "native" kingdom. Having ejected the devas, he ruled the three worlds with a firm but just hand. The devas approached Lord Vishnu, who, in the form of a Brahmin boy Vamana, inveigles Mahabali into giving away the empire as a pious gift, in the process enraging his own guru, Shukracharya, by defying his advice.

Sociologists and anthropologists see in this the tyrannical oppression of lower classes by the Brahminical classes, and social inequality, and whatnot. This is one way of looking at it, and not wrong altogether, but we must look beyond the obvious, and latch on to the spiritual, the mystical message in the story.

THE NARRATIVE

Mahabali is the grandson of Prahlada, who was the sun of Asura king Hiranyakashipu, who also ruled the three worlds. And his was truly an oppressive and regressive regime, in which the Devas hid in terror, saints and rishis were forced into worshipping the king, and humans suffered wanton slaughter.

After his emancipation (by death) at the hands of Vishnu in the form of Narasimha, Prahlada ruled the three worlds. Over the ages, he gives up his kingdom and eventually serves as a vassal to other asura kings, the last being his own grandson, Bali, whom he also nurtures and mentors.

The story of Bali is not dissimilar to that of other Asura kings who ruled the three worlds, but there was none of the cruelty or wanton killing the was the feature of the regimes of, say, Hiranyakashipu, or later, Ravana.

The main flaw of Bali was pride/arrogance, which eventually leads him to scoff about Vishnu to Prahlada, enraging the latter, who was a staunch worshipper of Vishnu.

The lord, as Vamana, describes Bali’s conquest of the three worlds as driven by greed, snatching the possessions of another, and seeking a position or station beyond his due — ahead of the appropriate time.

Bali’s treatment at the hand of Lord Vishnu, too, is substantially different from the fate of Ravana and Hiranyakashipu. Though Bali fails to recognise the Vishnu in Vamana, he does stick to his own codes and principles, and cedes his all to the little Brahmin boy in fulfilment of a vow, of which he still had room to wriggle out. He ends up giving up the Deva Loka and Bhumi Loka, and when pressed, presents his head to Vamana. The gesture pleases Lord Vishnu, who names him emperor of the Sutala Loka, with suzerainty over the entire nether world, called Paatala, which has seven kingdoms including Sutala. Moreover, he stations himself as the guardian god of Sutala, and promises Bali the stature of Indra in a future earthly cycle.

Prahlada himself ascends to Vaikuntha, the abode of Lord Vishnu.

Paatala is said to be  beauteous beyond description, filled with jewels and wealth and luxuries of every kind — and why not, since it is built by such creators of illusion as Maya and Vishwakarma. The Puranas call the seven realms of Paatala “lower heavens”, more opulent than any other region of the universe, with a life of luxury and no disease, ageing or disease.

Paatala is not to be confused with Naraka — hell — which lies even below it.

This whole narrative, while apparently appearing to be celestial, refers to the visible physical world — because it is the perspective from which  we are looking at it.

Now, if we were to elevate our own point of view…

CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVE 

The three worlds are the three lines of the celestial triangle in a human body, with each triangle bearing a triad in its own right.

The upper triad is Deva Loka, the middle, Bhuloka and the nethermost, Paatala Loka.

The Asuras are supposed to reign in the Paatala, and devas in Deva Loka, and humans are supposed to worship the Devas and shun Asuras.

But the humans, nestled in between these two powerful beings, actually swing between the upper and lower worlds.

The ego that seeks to rise and conquer the three worlds through brute force, to reach a station for which it is not yet ready spiritually, brings with it the instrument of its fall — pride and arrogance. The main symptom of this is an inability to perceive God when He stands before the person — the absence of discernment, or the absence of reason from its throne.

The one that takes shelter in God, bows his head and accepts the will of God regardless of what he himself wants, such a person gains access to the higher world, beyond the Deva Loka — Vaikuntha, the seat of Lord Vishnu or, in mystical terms, the Second Logos.

The life-purpose of the asura is to get enlightened at the hands of Vishnu (in the current era and earth scheme) and ascend to the Deva Loka.

BEHIND THE SYMBOLISM

Simply put, a negative entity is transmuted by the heart centre and rises to the higher chakras. Without the transmutation, if the energy of the lower chakras rise to the head chakras, it causes the disciple/ego to fall due to pride and arrogance.

The constant contest between the upper and the lower chakras for the control of the ego, is what is symbolised by the Samudra Manthan, or the churning of the ocean (the ocean is none other than the astral plane or the individual’s solar plexus centre).

Every time, Vishnu comes to the aid of the world. In each instant, the lower beings take recourse to power to conquer the Deva Loka, and have to be humbled, their pride broken. Interestingly, the ego never sees this coming, despite the previous instances of this same drama playing out. Consistently, the ego refuses to learn from the lessons of another ego. It has to be a personal lesson, nothing less will do.

FALL FROM GRACE

Where this whole thing wobbles in the so-called Varna system of Hinduism, is the assumption that a person’s spiritual attainment is reflected in his so-called caste, his birth status. And along with this, the society takes away from those it deems “asuras” — the lower classes and castes — the dignity to life, any facility that may allow them to rise in terms of standard of living, nutrition, education, medical care … even funereal rights.

And this tells us the state of the human race: Overall, we are very much an Asura society, bereft of the light of god, uncontrollably attracted to things of physical, emotional and mental beauty — in other words, the glamour of consumerism.

HARSH LESSON, IGNORED

Summing up, man, rather than choose to yoke himself to the light of God, chooses to chain himself to glamour in a dark, grey world, mistaking it for reality.

Onam is a stark reminder of this grim reality. Ironical, then, that we celebrate it every year with contrived gaiety and large-scale consumerism. Missing the woods for the trees. But that is precisely the nature of glamour.

GANESHA CHATURTHI: Some Underlying Spiritual Teachings

Hari Warrier

Ganesha Chaturthi is observed as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed god with the engaging smile and a potbelly. 

. 

The story is a familiar one.

Parvathi, the wife of Shiva, was upset that her husband would keep popping up whenever she took a bath. She tried to get people to guard the door, but who would dare stop the lord of the realm? At her wit’s end, Parvathi decided that what she needed was someone who owed his existence and allegiance to her and her alone.

So from the sweat and dirt on her body, she fashioned the mud figurine of a boy, and breathed life into him. This boy she assigned the task of guarding the door while she bathed.

The essence of the story is that Shiva sauntered in as usual, was soundly repelled by the boy, and retreated nonplussed. No matter whom he sent to chase the boy away, everyone returned, thoroughly beaten up.

The skirmish develops into a war, and eventually the boy is slain. The mother is incensed, and releases her anger to destroy the world. Brahma brokers a truce, and Parvathi spells out her conditions: Restore my son’s life, give him a position in the divine pantheon, decree that he shall be worshipped before all other devas. The conditions are accepted, but the boy’s head cannot be found. He is bestowed the head of an elephant, and given the name Ganesha, and the leadership of the hordes of Shiva called Bhoota Gana. All is well that ends well.

This is highly satisfactory as a story, but bears reflection for the esoteric student.

Why, for instance, would Parvathi, the embodiment of Shakti, a celestial being, need a BATH? What on earth made her so dirty that she could actually fashion a statue out of her sweat and grime? If she had the power to threaten destruction to the entire creation, why on earth could she not keep her husband out of her bathroom? And how do celestial beings be man and wife — they are disembodied beings. And lastly, how can an elephant head sit on the neck of a little boy?

Good questions, right?

So obviously there is more to this story than what we are told.

To start with, Shiva is the will or power aspect of the Trinity, and represents the yang or Purusha principle in this narrative. Parvathi or Shakti represents the yin, the Prakriti. Purusha signifies the Spirit, and Prakriti, matter. 

On another level, Shiva is known as the Adi Guru or the first guru, and Parvathi the disciple, renowned for her bhakti towards Shiva and receiving teachings from Shiva. The yin bhakti of the disciple unerringly draws the yang of the Teacher, the Guru, towards her. The “bath” of Parvathi denotes the divine downpour as she is blissfully engrossed in meditation. 

In this narrative, as the Shiva energy descends down the sushumna, it encounters the ego — what we call Jivatma or the Incarnate Soul — and the disciple, lost in meditation, is unaware of this encounter. 

The ego, completely in the grip of Maya, knows itself as the spawn of the mother aspect, and is ignorant of his own true nature and the identity of his father. Naturally, he gets into a showdown with the interloper Shiva. After all, a sheath cannot contain two swords.

The Devas combine to help Shiva vanquish the boy. At this point, the boy does not even have a name. It is to be noted that the full Trinity participates in this battle. The ego is slain. 

Shorn of Hindu symbolism, the energy descending down the sushumna is the father aspect — the energy of the divine spark passing through the higher soul. The chakras signify the devas, who enter the aura laterally from various divine planes.

The story thus far signifies the improper awakening of the Kundalini energy, which threatens destruction of the entire creation — the bodies of the disciple. (For proper awakening, the ‘child’ must have the blessings of the father, and permit, so to say, Shiva calling on Parvati.)

With the intervention of Brahma (discernment, divine intelligence), a rapprochement is brought about between Shiva and Parvati, and the ‘child’ is restored to life — but now in a spiritually ‘elevated’ form.

The child’s elephant head signifies an awakened Kundalini (elephant symbolises the basic chakra. the boy having the head of an elephant signifies the energy of the basic travelling to the crown - awakened kundalini. The walk of an elephant symbolises the manner in which the kundalini energy travels up the spine, with a swaying motion, that is also similar to the slithering of a serpent). 

Now, the child and his Father are one. Before any deva, he is worshipped — that is, his real Self. Remember, the body is the temple of the soul. The soul worships god (divine spark) using the body.

The “hordes of Shiva” are called the Bhoota Ganas, hordes of the past/dead — this signifies the disciple’s past conditioning, the accumulated thought forms, the vasanas (tendencies), the prarabdhas (obligations) and the karmas. Isha, the soul/father aspect, takes charge of the “past hordes”, and becomes Ganesha (Gana + Isha) or Ganapati, who is worshipped ahead of the other Devas. This has reference to the chronology of linking chakras, which cannot be discussed in detail here.

The qualities of the reinstated Ganesha embody the proper awakening of the Kundalini — the elephant head symbolising the awakened Kundalini, the snake around the stomach the technique of synthesising and storing golden prune, his complexion and smiling demeanour signifying a pleasant disposition, or loving energy.

The battle of the boy Ganesha with the Devas is also reflected in the story of the battle of Luv-Kush with the army of Rama. However, since this tale is connected to the Love aspect of god - Vishnu - there is no blood and gore, and the boys become aware of their father, and their own true nature, relatively peacefully.

Jesus got crucified by the Romans and rose back up from the dead. “I and my father are one,” he said. The story is one of great suffering and piety, and no war of weapons.

The essence of the Ganesha story is that Shiva is the power aspect of the Trinity, hence the story is laden with the metaphor of destruction, which is not so much to be seen in the story of Luv-Kush, brought up by their mother sans any idea of who their father is.

The slaying of the ego is also symbolised in stories such as the killing of Vali and Ravana by Rama, the vanquishing of Mahabali by Vamana, and the destruction of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu by Varaha and Narasimha respectively. 

POSTSCRIPT: What about the Chaturthi in Ganesha Chaturthi?

Chaturthi means “the fourth”. In esoteric parlance this refers to the fourth chakra — the heart centre. The son is “born” in the fourth chakra — one chakra above the one it was ruling hitherto. 

Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami

 With the blessings of the Guru

Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami

By Hari Warrier

The eighth day of the month of Shravana, a new moon day, is celebrated as the day of the birth of Krishna.

To understand the festival, we must first understand Krishna.

What we know of Indian tradition tells us, among other things, that Krishna was the eighth avatar of Vishnu, the Preserver or the second aspect of the Trinity. That the primary purpose of his incarnation was the elimination of two leading villains of the period, Kansa (his maternal uncle) and Sisupala, a cousin. That his father Vasudeva took him to the house of Nanda and Yeshoda in the middle of the night soon after he was born, and that is where he grew up. That Krishna preserved the Pandavas and helped in the downfall of the Kauravas and several leading demons during his time on earth. That his dalliance with Radha in Vrindavan was an epic romance. That he was a fully awakened avatar, conscious of his divinity right from birth — unlike Rama of Ayodhya, who lived out his life like a gentleman. And that he died at the appointed time, wounded by an arrowhead made of a cursed shard of metal.

This is one level of truth, the commonly held belief.

Another way of looking at it is that Krishna was a fully enlightened soul, born with a certain purpose and fully aware of that purpose, rather than one who becomes enlightened during his lifetime. 

The destruction of villains, a common theme in most avatars of Vishnu, is rather curious when you consider that he is the deity of preservation.

It allows us to infer that preservation can be selective, that everything need not be preserved just because it is a creation of God — and that destruction is possible even by love. This is an important lesson, the lesson of the Sudarshan Chakra (the chakra that gives the ‘good sight’), which is the weapon of Vishnu that Krishna wielded openly in his life while at the same time remaining nonchalantly human — attacked, derided, disrespected, criticised, famously running away from battle —  and of course, dying of a minor wound.

Quite paradoxically, as a human, once he even takes Arjuna to Vaikuntha, the abode of Vishnu, where the lord is in eternal slumber upon the coils of the celestial serpent.

Since all of this appear OBVIOUSLY ridiculous to a logical mind, we must approach this narrative, the life and times of Krishna, with more awareness and greater discernment. The arhatic approach. Let us see what the Teacher reveals to us.

Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami

Sree = Light

Krishna = Darkness, black

Janma = Birth

Ashtami = The eighth

“The birth of the light black on the eighth.”

This is what the literal translation of the phrase reads. If we recast the sentence grammatically, it becomes 

“The birth of the black light on the eighth.”

Let us walk backward on this.

Ashtami or the Eighth. It is commonly held that this refers to the eighth day of the month, the day on which the avatar’s birthday is celebrated. But the word “day” is not explicitly mentioned anywhere. So if we take the festival away from the phrase, we can rethink the meaning of the word eighth.

Esoterically, we know that the ancient spiritual system revolved around a seven-chakra system, the highest being the Sahasrara or the Crown Chakra.

In the Arhatic school, with its 11-chakra system. the Crown is the 11th chakra.

Interpolating from this, it appears that “eighth” refers to the equivalent of the 12th in the Arhatic scheme — which is the 12th chakra or the seat of the soul.

Let us hold this thought, for the moment, as a temporary truth.

Next is Janma or Birth.

Birth is an act given by a mother, after a nine-month pregnancy and the expense of labour. And there is the little matter of conception, as well.

From the use of the word birth, we must interpolate that all the accompanying procedure, too, must have happened previously — before the event of the birth.

What is born, then?

The black light. 

As meditation practitioners, we are aware of the extraordinary significance of the blue pearl. We are aware that in meditation, it often appears an iridescent dark blue, at times even black, and is located energetically in the middle of the head, in the area associated with the pineal gland.

We are told by the Teacher that it is the gateway to heaven. We are told that through the blue pearl, through the eye of the peacock, the meditator’s consciousness can pass out of the crown, and become one with his soul. In other words, the consciousness can reach the 12th chakra, or in the ancient tradition, the eighth chakra. 

Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami, thus, refers to the consciousness becoming one with the Soul — or soul realisation.

Krishna, born fully soul-realised, lives his life with awareness as a soul, slays his inner enemies, does his duty, abstains from violence except when it is required by his Dharma, practices celibacy and sacred sex — having only one son — and preaches the Dharma to Arjuna. 

Krishna, playing the role of the Guru of his friend Arjuna. In the Bhagavad Gita sermon, Arjuna plays the role of the Ego, who hands over the reins of his vehicle — the chariot drawn by five horses that signify the senses — to Krishna, his higher soul.

The slaying of Sisupala and Dantavakra by Krishna using the weapon Sudarshan Chakra (not all of Krishna’s enemies are slain by the chakra) is significant. These two are supposed to be incarnations of two celestial beings, Jaya and Vijaya, cursed to be born on earth and released from their curse by getting slain three times at the hands of Vishnu. Sudarshan or the “good sight” signifies “a glimpse of the Lord” or the slaying of the ego by the higher soul. 

Kansa, for instance, is killed by an eight-year-old Krishna in a wrestling bout. Not for him the emancipation that Sisupala gets when he is slain.

The death of Krishna himself, then, signifies the departure of a soul with no return — merging into the Logos.

It is interesting, perhaps even significant, that when we work backward from Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami, exactly nine months previously is Deepawali, the festival of lights, which celebrates the victory of good over evil and the return of Rama, the previous (seventh) avatar of Vishnu, to Ayodhya, the home of his father, from exile. In Biblical terms, the return of the Prodigal Son, in esoteric terms the return of the Son the soul to the home of his Father the Spirit — or God realisation.

Some coincidence, if we reflect on the word “janma”.

With gratitude to the teacher, offered for His blessings.

LOVE: God's Superglue

We have learnt that the Soul, the child of God, has three aspects - Light, Love and Power, represented by three devas: BrahmA, VishnU and Maheshwara, or A…U…M… AUM, the sacred sound.

Om, written in the Indian Devanagiri
script. The word is constructed
as a compound of three
sounds: Aah, Ooh and Mmm.

The word GOD itself is described as an acronym - generator, operator, destroyer.

The three aspects are thus three kinds of energy that the soul uses to manifest its world. To build its life, literally.

For building something, you need a plan. This is the Light aspect.

You need building blocks and something to cement things together. This is the Love energy.

And you need something to reshape, modify, cut, break and refashion your building blocks. This is Power. Think power tools.

The basic building blocks are what are called “deva matter” - tiny sparks of light that form the individual cells.

The energy that holds them together, the glue or the cement, is the Love energy. The energy that takes them apart is called Power. And the pattern that they follow, the life plan, is called Light.

The life plan has already been created - proof, we are alive. All that the consciousness now does is to navigate through this plan. Since the plan is already in place, there is a (mistaken) notion that the light aspect of god is no longer relevant. This is likely to be the basis, for instance, on which Lord Brahma is not worshipped in Hinduism. However, a plan is often referred to, and is modified as well, hence the light aspect is still relevant. Light is very much needed to take correct decisions while navigating life, otherwise one falls into traps and takes wrong decisions.

A painting that portrays Lord Vishnu reclining on the serpent

Anantha amid the Ksheera Sagara, with Lord Brahma seated 

on a lotus arising from his navel

The Great Invocation, as revealed by Holy Master DK through Alice Bailey, has a line that is important in this connection: “May the plan of light and love work out, and may it seal the door where evil dwells.”

According to the teacher, the energies of love and light have already been synthesised. In Hindu pictography, this is represented by Lord Brahma seated on a lotus that is arising from the navel of Lord Vishnu, who is reclining on the celestial serpent Anantha floating on the Ksheera Sagara, the ocean of milk.

Ergo, we no longer chant Aum, we now chant Om. 

Essentially, any decision we make that is based on love, is bound to be correct. Sadly, that is precisely where most of humanity is going off the rails.Power, the preoccupation of mankind, has the capacity to overrun everything, so a person on a seat of power gets completely corrupted — unless there is a balancing “powerful” presence of love within the person. Examples of such corruption can be seen all around us.

The next task for humanity is the synthesis of Power and Love, so that "Light, Love and Power can restore the plan on earth" (Great Invocation). Man must learn to yoke Power and Love and work with them as a team to plough the earth. This is symbolised, for instance, by Lord Ayyappa, the deity of the Sabarimala temple.

So (some of) our challenges or tasks as human beings, in present and coming times, may be something like this: 

1. Find our humanity. This is the key. This is a challenge because we are highly emotional creatures at present, which clouds our vision and we are yet to comprehend that we are still in the process of becoming human.
2. Differentiate between love and attachment. Love is the energy of god that passes through us. Attachment is something into which we transform this energy. This happens because the Ego is running the show in the personality - not the soul.
   The Ego looks at everything in relation to itself, and thus develops a relationship with the world in this light - like/dislike, attachment/detachment, love/hate, need/indifference and so on… To rise above this, the individual has to achieve the blessing of Vishnu and slay the lower nature.
   This is the power aspect of love (Krishna slaying Kansa and Shishupala, for instance).
3. Experience, rather than understand. The heart is the key, but it will not switch on by itself. Just knowing that the heart is the key is not sufficient. The student has to turn the key in the keyhole - by practising. The person has to keep doing it again and again till the key turns in the (rusty) lock, and it opens, This is what changes the person from a student into a disciple, a vidyarthi into a shishya. 
   When the person experiences the heart and the concept of being centred - that is when s/he becomes an actual human being.
4. Combining love and power. The love energy has a power aspect, and vice versa. Love has the capacity to dissolve obstacles, slay inner demons, move mountains if needed (Hanuman carrying the Dronagiri, Lord Krishna lifting the Govardhan… mythology is replete with examples). These are acts of destruction in a way, but this destruction results in the emancipation of the destroyed.
5. Power has the capacity to reshape things. Bring new things into existence. This is its love aspect. There is no black or white, just grey areas.

Lord Krishna expounding
the Bhagavad Gita to
Arjuna on the battlefield
of Kurukshetra

Made in the image of god, Man has to discover the God within himself. This is the single most important thing in his life, virtually the purpose of his existence. 

Love is one aspect of this pilgrimage. But it not just any aspect, but is the key, the one that will serve as his vehicle as he navigates the ocean of existence, the samsara sagara or the lower counterpoint of the ksheera sagara. 

Love is the aspect of God that played charioteer to Arjuna (who symbolises the Ego or the personality - the you and I - and revealed the laws of the Universe to his friend and disciple in the Bhagavad Gita. 

Love is the aspect of god that the scriptures say will incarnate as Kalki and slay all evil in the current age, the Kali Yuga — when the evil is no longer external, but abides within the heart of Man.

Love is Samsara (life, manifestation, existence). Power is Samhara (death, dissolution, destruction).

And none of this really exists. Everything is an illusion.

(The images are from the Internet.)

Navaratris and Vijayadashami: Good and evil, war and worship, and that sort of stuff

By ShotgunMavericks - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62881400

The Navaratris have begun. The auspicious nine-day pujas kickstart the festival season in north India that will culminate in Diwali, with Dussehra as a marker in between. Restaurants offer “fast” food in deference to devotees, while newspapers billow out with advertisements and shopping centres load up with attractive discounts. This is, literally, the month that the Indian economy counts on to see it through till the next year.

Fasting and shopping apart, what is the significance of the Navaratri festival and its modalities? Let us try to look beyond the traditions as explained to us normally. Read on with an open mind. You are most welcome to disagree.

Navratri consists of the worship of Durga in myriad forms. Durga is believed to represent the feminine aspect of the Divine, the absolute supreme god. Nine forms of Durga are worshipped in the Navaratris - Shailaputri (Parvati), Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda (symbolising Lakshmi), Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Sidhidatri (Saraswati).

According to traditions in some southern states, three forms of the primary goddess are worshipped for three nights each - Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati.

Two sets of Navaratris are popularly celebrated - one in March-April, the Spring, and one in September-October, the Autumn. The first is tailored around the birth of Sri Rama, while the post-monsoon festival is around Rama’s victory over Ravana. It is interesting to note that these dates can be somewhat correlated to the equinoxes that fell on March 20 and September 23 this year. 

Interestingly, too, the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, or Yom Teruah, falls on the first day of the post-monsoon Navaratris. It is the first of the Ten High Holy Days in Judaism, known as the Yamim Noraim. There are more parallels, but let us just acknowledge them and move on.

According to Indian spiritual tradition, a human being is the lowest manifestation of the divine being we describe as Soul, who arises from the absolute supreme god or Paramatma. The child of god, called Atma, manifests itself as a being through what is described as Jivatma, the soul incarnate. The purpose of the human life is to gather experiences and then unite with the Jivatma, and then to the Atma.

This is easier said than done, for the agent of the Soul Incarnate, the personality, which resides in the body, falls in love with all the aspects of incarnation, broadly called Maya. It forgets the original plan of reporting back to its Master (something like what has happened to the Vikram Lander!).

Spiritual practice, regardless of the school of thought, is broadly tied to reuniting the human being with the soul and eventually, to God. The techniques, broadly, are twofold: purification and meditation.

Religion as laid down in the ancient texts tries to do this on the scale of the masses, subtly, without letting on that the masses are being shepherded towards god.

So, several times during the year, in the observance of festivals, they are made to undertake precisely the same techniques - purification through fasting, and meditation in the form of puja, during which a lot of shlokas are chanted by well-meaning and properly detached pujari. The effect? Read on…

The earnest devotee among the masses, not entangled with worldly affairs and generally worshipful, would get the full benefit of the occasion, and experience what the saints call celestial marriage, the uniting of the ego with the Soul. This is symbolised variously as the marriage of Shiva with Parvathi, Rama with Sita et al. Let us try to  keep the religious tradition separate from the underlying spiritual teachings. Shiva the god and Shiva the tattva (form of energy) are distinctly different.

The ardent devotee, during the Navaratris, practises purification by proper fasting. The casual devotee goes easy on heavy food and sticks to the prescribed food such as fruits and nuts. Such people, too, would benefit from the high energy of the occasion, albeit to a lesser degree. 

Then of course, there is the rebel, who has a blast stuffing themselves in proud defiance of traditions and horrified elders. Interestingly enough, they too get a bit of the energetic prasad. Not as much as the others, but nobody gets left out.

At the end of each of the nine days, there is puja. The Devi is worshipped. The custom has come to embrace loud public broadcasts of the puja in each locality. So regardless of whether one is devout or disinterested, one receives a dollop of divinity, by the earful.

The result is, to say the least, interesting. The Devout experiences something akin to inner peace and silence amid the raucous service. The casual devotee has a picnic, while the rebel is subject to nine nights of cacophonic nightmare. Just points of view.

The tenth day is Vijayadashami. The day celebrates the victory of Durga over the demon Mahishasura, as well as the victory of Rama over Ravana. Overall, truth slays evil. Something like that.

Herein lies another hidden gem: the significance of nine plus one. Rama, it may be recalled, travelled all the way beyond the country, crossed the ocean to take on the mighty Ravana.

Nine symbolises the energy centres of the body, the chakras, that the soul, represented by Rama, has to cross to get to the imprisoned Sita. When the dots are connected, the nine chakras describe the path through which the energy travels south.

On the tenth day, he defeats Ravana, a mighty triumph, and reunites with his beloved Sita.

Rama then establishes the rule of Dharma in the kingdom of Lanka, installs Ravana’s brother Vibheeshana as king, and returns to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshmana. This return is celebrated as the festival Diwali, with lamps and fireworks, and burning the effigies of Ravana et al. 

Sadly, this is not a one-time operation, and we have to repeat every year ad infinitum. As the dark protagonist played by Arjun Rampal in Shahrukh Khan's Ra One observes, "Tum har saal Ravana ko is liye maarte ho, kyun ki tum jaante ho ki woh kabhi nahi marta (you kill Ravana every year, because you KNOW that he never dies)." 

The lamps and fireworks signify the inner explosion that takes place when “reason returns to her throne”, in a manner of speaking (reason having been kidnapped by glamour and held hostage by Power), or when “the lights are all on upstairs” as the English idiom puts it - the experience of spiritual illumination of a devotee or of a spiritual practitioner/yogi/sadhaka/disciple.

As you wend your way through myriad Pujo Pandals, remember, there is much happening behind the scenes.

Have a great festive season.